by Cherry Adair
"I'm standing here naked, aren't I?" She reached out and hooked her fingers into his belt loops, jerking his hips toward hers. "One of us is overdressed for this party." Her fingers went for his fly. She was going to have a tough time getting his zipper down over his erection, but he let her fight it for a while.
She was trying damn hard, but he was harder. He pushed her hand aside. "I'll do it."
He was primed as a pistol, and so ready for her, her desire to have fast-and-dirty sex might become a reality.
When she reached for him again, he kicked off his jeans and shorts and sat down naked on the rumpled bed. He reached out and pulled her between his spread knees before she could back away. She gave a startled yelp as he held her in place, implacable hands bracketing her hips, thighs clamping around hers.
"There's fast," he murmured, leaning forward to place his open mouth on her smooth belly. "And then there's mm-mm good."
Twelve
Mm-mm good? Lily thought vaguely. She'd gone from simmer to boil before she'd taken her top off.
Oh, God. Don't seduce me. Don't make this perfect, she thought desperately, fisting her hands in Derek's hair as his mouth, warm and firm, glided across her stomach on a slow path designed to swamp her defenses. She squeezed her eyes shut. Don't make me feel as though this could be forever when I know, for you, there's no such thing.
Wham bam, thank you, ma'am would scratch both their itches, and allow her to emerge unscathed. But Derek wasn't letting her have her way in this. He seemed determined to take his sweet time tormenting her.
No fair! This was her party. She should be allowed to dictate which sensations received invitations.
But, as always, Derek had his own agenda.
She shifted, and his hard fingers tightened implacably around her naked hips. Did he think she was going to call uncle now? Her head felt unbearably heavy as he held her against his mouth, as though she were a particularly juicy ear of corn he wanted to savor.
The analogy was spot-on accurate as she felt herself melt like butter under the slow, hot onslaught of his mouth. Her head fell back and she gave a little moan.
"I love the feel of your skin," he said, lifting his head as his thumbs brushed her hips. "Just as I imagined. Smooth and silky as it looks. And Christ. Soft. So soft." He trailed burning kisses across her belly button, then made her body tighten when she felt the hot lave of his tongue on her skin.
Lily's knees buckled; only his strong hands held her upright. "Derek—"
"I'm not doing this the way you think you want it, sweetheart," he murmured thickly as his hands curved over her hips to stroke her bottom. "I've waited a goddamned eternity for this moment. Nobody's going to rush me. Not even you." He brushed a heated kiss across her left breast, then took her nipple into the hot cavern of his mouth.
Lily's bones melted. His strong arms held her upright. Every nerve and cell in her body felt alive and alert. Head back, eyes tightly shut, she felt each silken strand of his hair between her fisted fingers. She felt the hairy rasp of his legs against the smooth skin of her thighs as he clamped her between his knees to keep her where he wanted her.
His hands were lightly callused, erotically so, as he skimmed them slowly up her back, tracing the indentation of her spine. "Once," he said with a dry chuckle, "I lived for months on one sighting of your bare feet."
"Bare feet?" Lily asked vaguely. There were no words to describe the sensation of him suckling her nipple. It felt… sharp… sweet… frustrating… blissful as he curled his agile tongue around and around in a maddening caress that left Lily jumpy and aching for more.
"When we went to the movies. You wore high-heeled sandals. Your feet were bare. You always wear work boots. It was the first time in my life I realized I had a thing for feet. Your feet."
Lily felt a bubble of amusement fill her chest. Silly man. She ran her hands down his skull, feeling his hard head cushioned beneath the silky weight of his hair. He needed a haircut, she thought, as she cradled the back of his head and at the same time exerted enough pressure for him to suckle her nipple harder.
Laughter, lust, some other L word bubbled up in her chest as she said weakly, "My feet are bare now, too."
"Hard to imagine," he said, voice muffled, "but I found something I like even better." He kissed the side of her breast. "But hold that thought."
Her fingers trailed down the back of his strong neck and then she had to spread her hands on top of his broad shoulders as he moved with exquisite care across the hill and valley from one breast to the other.
This so wasn't what she'd had in mind, Lily thought with one of her few remaining brain cells. But then, how could she have imagined anything like this? Her experiences with men were pitifully few, and Sean… she wasn't sure Sean even counted as an experience.
Oh, Derek Wright was in a league all his own.
And oh boy.
"Are we thinking—ah—of taking this to a flat surface soon? Or are we doing it where we stand?"
He peppered the dip between her breasts with kisses. "No hurry."
"This from a man whose—" erection was so hard and enormous Lily felt it move impatiently against her thigh as if it were alive and knocking for entrance. Saliva dried up in her mouth; her heart pounded painfully against her ribs. She felt both hazy and preternaturally alert. Her skin felt too sensitive, all the pleasure nerves exposed. Her breasts felt hot and tender; her skin buzzed as if electrically charged.
His hand came up to stroke her breast, sending hot shivers all the way down to her toes. "Whose?" he asked huskily, breath hot and damp against her skin, dark head still bent over her breast. Hands still on his shoulders, Lily dropped onto the bed, her knees on either side of his hips. She brought her hands up to cup his face, then tilted it up so she could see his eyes. Clear. Steady. Hot blue.
A part of her wanted to push him away. Making love with him would bring her more unhappiness in the long run than she'd ever known.
Run. Now. Don't look back!
But, God, how could something that felt so right be wrong? Hadn't she dreamed of this—even on her wedding night? Hadn't she imagined her husband's arms to be those of the man she'd fled because she'd been too afraid of the strength and power of her attraction to him?
Yes, she thought. She had. She'd wanted Derek even then and the time for running was long past. That was then. This was now. And now, she wanted to sink down on him, take his entire length inside her and ride him hard and wild. Her body shuddered with longing, with the primal urge to mate with this man. To stake her claim. "Please tell me you brought condoms?" she said, a desperate hitch in her voice.
This was just sex, she reminded herself. Just. Sex.
It helped matters that her body was having a damn good time in the process, that her brain was on vacation and her lips had gone numb.
But it was just sex.
"I did, sweetheart, and I'll certainly use one if that's what you want. But I haven't had sex in six years, and got a clean bill of health at my last annual ph—"
She stared at him, eyes wide. "Six years?"
"Yeah."
"How could a man like you not have sex in six years?"
He raised a dark brow. "A man like me?"
Speechless, Lily waved a hand to encompass him from head to toe.
His eyes crinkled. "Maybe I was waiting for my Princess Charming?"
"Do you want mayo with that baloney?" Lily asked sweetly. "The rubber isn't for me anyway. It's to protect you."
"You've never slept with anyone but Sean."
True. "And everyone he slept with. Please?"
"You did know."
"Yes."
"How long?"
She didn't misunderstand him. "We didn't have sex after the first night of our honeymoon."
He did a double take. "Never?"
"Never."
Stunned, he looked at her. "You're practically a virgin."
Her lips twitched. "I don't think practically would count if I
wanted to become a nun."
He touched her warm cheek with his fingertips. "I'm thinking you don't."
"Not right this very moment. No."
"Fortunate."
"Isn't it?"
He shifted her body as easily as if she weighed nothing at all, and grabbed up his duffel from the floor. He reached inside and pulled out a handful of foil packets.
"I'm not worried, Lily. It's been years for both of us. But I'll wear the rubber—unless you'd like us to make a baby tonight."
God, she'd forgotten. How stupid was that? She'd been so worried about possibly contaminating Derek with whatever Sean might have left in her, she'd never considered the possibility of pregnancy. But a baby… Her heart hurt at the temptation.
"No," she said achingly. "I don't."
He nodded, glanced at her and asked politely, "Two or three? Or do you only have time for one quickie?" Pretending not to be horny enough to gnaw off his own hand was stretching his willpower paper thin.
"One should do it." She gave him an uncertain look as she casually pulled the pillow onto her lap to cover herself. "Shouldn't it?"
The white cotton pillow looked like coarse hemp against the creamy silk of her breasts. Her nipples were still hard little points of the palest pink, and just tempting him into another taste.
"Do what?" Derek asked, tossing the handful of rubbers onto the tray on the table between the beds.
"Get all this sexual tension out of your system."
"Mine?"
Her face flushed hot. "Ours, then."
"One definitely won't do it, sweetheart. But it's a start."
He saw the flicker of apprehension cross her face, which she quickly hid with a flutter of her lashes. Then she tilted up her chin and met his eyes steadily. "Let's do it." The telltale throbbing pulse at the base of her throat showed how hard she was trying to be nonchalant about sitting on the bed naked with him standing over her.
Good. He didn't feel the least bit nonchalant. He'd waited for this moment for six years. And God only knew, he was more than ready. But he was damned if he'd be rushed.
"Come on," she shot a little taunt in her words, "let's see what you've got."
Derek watched her face. What was she up to? Why was she in such a damn hurry? Why now? Was sex for Lily merely scratching an itch, as she was trying so damn hard to convince him?
Hell no, it wasn't.
She'd loved Sean, and had made him wait for their honeymoon before she'd allowed him to make love to her. God, he thought, trying not to beat his chest and yell from the rooftops. She was, for all intents and purposes, still a virgin. A mere technicality.
He let his gaze drift down to her bee-stung lips, up to her heavy-lidded, feverish eyes. No. She'd been startled when he'd kissed her. He'd felt the electrical buzz of her skin as he touched her, and the way her heart pounded beneath her creamy skin. Lily wasn't impervious to his lovemaking.
Then it dawned on him: she thought sex would be yet another barrier between him and her heart. She believed, bless her misguided and flawed logic, the mechanics of quick, medicinal sex would put him off the hunt and sidetrack him.
He grabbed the shielding pillow from her lap and tossed it on the other bed, his eyes on her face. "Any preference?" he asked graciously.
Her pupils were enormous as she watched him. "N-no."
"No problem." He gave her bare shoulder a gentle shove and had her flat on her back. "I have plenty."
"Plenty of what?"
"Preferences. I'll teach you every one. Then you can teach me yours." He stroked a path from thigh to belly, entranced with the way her skin flushed at his merest touch. "No, never mind. Maybe I'll just try and figure out what yours are. Yeah. I like that idea better. For now."
He sat down beside her and splayed a hand on her stomach, then lowered his head to brush a kiss across her hipbone. Satisfaction blossomed when her muscles contracted beneath his lips. "I like this spot right here." He trailed a string of open-mouthed kisses between the edge of his hand and her silky hair.
"Your skin's as smooth as satin right here." He inhaled the fragrance of her arousal as he let his mouth travel from hipbone to hipbone and resisted going into dangerous territory—by a breath. Lily moved restively beneath the onslaught of his mouth.
He braced one arm on the bed beside her hip for better balance, and trailed the fingers of the other hand up the inside of her right knee. "Let me know if I'm doing anything you don't like," he told her, tasting her skin with the tip of his tongue. Her entire body shuddered, and he smiled a tiger smile against her quivering stomach. "Well?"
"Y-you're doing just fine."
"Need a book?"
"A bo—What?"
"Apparently you're unfazed by the foreplay part of our program. I wondered if you'd like to read while I do this?"
Lily started laughing. "Very funny." She propped herself up on her elbows. "If I liked it any more I'd be nothing more than a puddle on the sheets."
"Hmm. Is that so?" He trailed his tongue through the silky hair at the apex of her thighs, and followed with his hand. Her skin fluttered, and she dropped back against the mattress and combed her fingers through his hair and held on. He dipped his tongue in for a taste.
She was wet, slick and swollen. His heart tripped and hammered with desire. This was like nothing he'd known before. He'd wanted other women, but not like this. Christ, not like this. The disparity of what he'd had with other women and this here, now, with Lily, made those experiences pale in comparison. They didn't even come close.
Starving, he controlled the raging hunger, taking only the smallest of licks. He ached, but he pushed away the clawing, craving beast of need to gentle her with his lips. He wanted her wild for him. Needed to feel her need as well as his own. Wanted to know she was as overwhelmed as he was.
There would never be another first time for them. This had to count.
He shifted her legs farther apart with his shoulders and Lily felt the hot spear of his tongue enter her slick heat. She was so ripe for him that every movement sent a million small electrical shocks ricocheting through her body. The feeling was sudden, and too intense. She fisted her hands in his hair. His mouth on her there was so intimate, so invasive and personal, she felt as though she had been hit by a tidal wave—
Her brain went white, and she was nothing more than sensation. She felt high on him. Giddy with want. Delirious with need as his mouth ravished her with a hunger that would have astonished her if she'd had any brain cells left. This was torture. Her head tossed from side to side. "I'll confess."
He pressed his thumb against the hard bud to hold his place as he mumbled, " 'Fess what?"
"Anything," Lily panted. "Anything. Everyt—Oh, God—" Her hips arched off the bed as he put his mouth back on her, holding her firmly as he ravished her with lips, teeth and tongue. And that magical thumb seemed to be everywhere at once.
There wasn't enough air in the room, she thought frantically as she tried to suck oxygen into her starving lungs. Her heart pounded deafeningly in her ears.
The roller coaster took her higher. Higher. Higher.
"Derek…" This couldn't be happening. How could she stand it another moment? How could she stand it if he stopped?
"Let go."
She shook her head, reached for him. "Come into me. Now!"
"Not yet." He tilted her hips, opening more of her to him. She thought she couldn't climb any higher.
He took her to the summit.
And pushed her over the edge.
It took several years of her life for Lily to come back into her body. She felt as limp as an overcooked Chinese noodle. She couldn't move a muscle if she tried.
"How was that for you?" Derek asked thickly, head on her thigh.
Lily tried to lift a hand to touch his face. She was paralyzed. Hmm. How interesting. "Pretty damn amazing, thank you." She sounded drunk.
"Yeah, I thought so." He lifted his head, and shifted his large body up between her thig
hs like Poseidon rising from the sea. He hovered over her. Big and sweaty, muscles and tendons gleaming, mile-wide shoulders limned by the light from the bathroom. A pagan god claiming his woman in a ritual as old as time.
She found a bit of much needed energy, hooked her ankles over the lean muscles of his butt and pulled him closer. The hard, silken length of his penis brushed her damp opening. Lily slid a hand between their bellies and wrapped her fingers around him, feeling the raw strength of him, hot and throbbing in her fingers. "Mm-mm good, indeed."
Derek chuckled.
"Come to me."
He reached over and grabbed one of the foil packs beside the bed, then tore into it with his teeth. Lily choked back a laugh at the speed with which he liberated the rubber. She snatched it out of his fingers with her free hand, then squeezed her hands between them to roll it down his impressive length.
He was a large man and, how fabulous for her, had the body parts to match.
She lingered over her assignment—this was a first for her and she wanted to get it juuuust right; he squeezed his eyes shut, and every muscle in his body tensed as he held his hips away from hers to give her access. The tendons in his neck stood out in sharp relief as he pushed words out of his mouth with apparent difficulty. "How's the fit?"
Lily slid her hands up his chest, loving the feel of his springy hair over solid muscle. "Snug." She started sliding one hand down the steps of his abs. "But I can always check again—"
He grabbed her hand and threaded his fingers through hers, then anchored it above her head. Eyes hot with anticipation, he lowered himself to his forearms and plunged inside her like a hot knife through butter.
And Lily, greedy for him, held on for the ride of her life.
Later, much, much later, Lily gave passing thought to starting a conversation. Speaking would require more strength than her body had managed to recover. Besides, any chitchat would belittle the experience. Words simply couldn't convey the breadth and depth of emotions still churning in her depleted cells. No, this was too special for a verbal play-by-play. It was too special to be merely special and that scared the hell out of her.