One Night with Prince Charming

by Anna DePalo

James laughed close behind her. “What a question to ask, considering we’ve just been to a bar.”

  In truth, she felt light-headed herself. It must have been that last cocktail she’d had at the bar while trying to converse with the real estate office manager.

  “Pia,” James said quietly, laying his hands on her shoulders.

  She froze at the contact, her nipples tightening.

  “Relax,” he murmured close to her ear.

  Oh.

  He removed his hands…but moments later, she felt his fingertips trail up her arms as he nuzzled the hair near her ear.

  She shivered. “Really, I—”

  He nipped her earlobe.

  She gulped, and then forced herself to say, “D-don’t you want to get to know each other better?”

  “Much better,” he agreed on a soft laugh.

  His body brushed hers from behind, sending delicious shivers through her.

  Slowly, he turned her to face him, and then searched her eyes. “I’ve been wanting to do this—” he bent and tasted her lips “—ever since we left the bar.”

  “Oh,” she breathed.

  This was her fantasy. He was here now.

  He cupped her shoulders, his thumbs tracing a soothing circular pattern. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to do.”

  “Th-that’s what I’m afraid of.”

  He smiled. “Ah, Pia. You really are special.” Then his expression turned more intent and amorous. “Let me show you how much.”

  He cupped her cheek, laid his lips against hers and tasted her.

  She sighed and gripped his shirt, fisting her hand into the material, as little shock waves of pleasure jolted her.

  She felt his arousal grow between them as his mouth stroked hers. Within moments, they had fitted their bodies together, giving in to the desire that had been kindled in the bar and stoked on the cab ride to her apartment.

  He cupped her face with both hands, his fingers delving into her hair as he sipped from her mouth.

  She relaxed her grip on his shirt and flattened her hands against his chest, where she could feel the steady beat of his heart.

  Around them, the sweet notes of string instruments sounded, the tune low and soulful.

  Pia felt herself relax even as every inch of her skin tingled with awareness. She sighed against James’s mouth, wanting the kiss to go on and on as his hunger matched her own.

  Giving in to the urge to shed attire, she kicked off her sandals. In the next moment, she lowered a couple of inches, enough to break the contact of her lips with James’s.

  “My bed isn’t very big.” They were the first words to pop out of her mouth, her tone apologetic, and she flushed.

  James looked indulgent, and then dimpled as he nodded beside them. “You’ve never made love on a love seat before?”

  She’d never made love period. But she was afraid if she told him, he’d flee out the door. She knew he must be used to more experienced women.

  She shrugged one shoulder. “Why bother when a bed is available?”

  “Mmm,” he said, and then bent and nuzzled her ear.

  Oh. She gripped his upper arms for support, her fingers digging into his biceps, as his action did funny things to her insides.

  She felt his hand go to the zipper at the back of her dress.

  “Would it be okay if I did this?” he murmured.

  “Yes, please,” she breathed.

  She heard the rasp of the zipper and felt her dress slither downward, exposing to his gaze that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  James stepped back and looked at her with a hooded, rapt expression.

  “Ah, Pia, you’re so beautiful.” He raised his hands to cup and caress her. “You’re just as pretty as I thought when my imagination was running rampant in the bar.”

  “Kiss me,” she whispered.

  He sat on the arm of the love seat beside them and, pulling her toward him, fastened his mouth over one pert breast.

  Pia was lost. Her heart beat wildly, and she tangled her fingers in his hair.

  He pushed the rest of the dress off her, and then peeled her panties away without lifting his mouth from her.

  Pia moaned.

  He shifted his focus to her other breast, but then paused, his lips hovering over her taut flesh, his breath fanning her erect nipple.

  “And would it be okay if I kissed you here?” he said hoarsely.

  Pia had never been so close to begging and pleading.

  But instead of answering, she guided his head to her breast, her eyes fluttering shut on a sigh as his lips closed over her.

  He soothed and aroused her with his tongue, fanning the fire of their desire.

  Before she knew it, she was on his lap on the love seat, and they were kissing passionately but yet like longtime lovers who had all the time in the world. His arousal pressed against her flesh, and his hand caressed up and down her thigh.

  When they finally broke away, he groaned softly. “Have mercy, Pia.”

  In response, she snuggled closer. He nuzzled her temple and his breath rasped in her ear. She shivered and rubbed against him.

  She let her hand go to the buttons of his shirt, undoing one and then another. The strong, corded line of his neck came into view.

  “Pia,” he said from somewhere above her head, “please say you don’t want to stop.”

  “Who said anything about stopping?” This was her fantasy, and she found that she wanted to see it through to its conclusion. Her last drink at the bar had given her a delicious, unbound feeling, and James’s seduction had lowered her inhibitions even more.

  “Ah, Pia.” He slipped his hand between her thighs and pressed, giving her a heady sensation. “I just want to assure you that I’m clean.”

  “I am, too,” she answered, understanding what he was alluding to. “I’ve never had unprotected sex.”

  It was literally true, though it hid the truth—that she’d never had sex at all.

  He kissed her neck. “Are you…? If not, I have something with me. Not that I walked in here with any expectations, of course, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to you from the first moment I spotted you.”

  “Mmm…when did you first notice me? Are you saying our encounter in the bar wasn’t by chance?”

  “I saw you minutes before you tried to order a drink,” he admitted. “When I spotted a damsel in distress, though, I saw my opening. I took a chance that Cinderella was looking for a Prince Charming to come rescue her, and that she’d mistake me for him if I tried to do her a favor.”

  Pia’s heart gave a little squeeze. It was as if he knew her well already. Did he suspect that she was a romantic at heart? Did he know that she’d thrilled to stories of true love, though a part of her knew better?

  She pulled his head down for a kiss as the music reached a low crescendo around them.

  They kissed deeply, their mouths clinging, unable to get enough of each other.

  When he finally broke their kiss, he stood up with her in his arms. “What’s your preference, Cinderella?”

  She glanced down at the love seat—next time.

  “Bed,” she said.

  “My sentiments exactly,” he said, and then strode with her around the partition to where the bed was. “See, we have a lot in common.”

  “Besides riding and fishing?”

  He paused in the act of placing her on the bed. “Oh, Pia, sweetheart,” he said huskily, a wicked glimmer in his eye, “isn’t that what tonight is all about—fishing and riding?”

  Pia felt a full-body flush sweep over her. As she came down on the mattress, she propped herself up on her elbows to stop from lying completely on her back.

  She swallowed, unable to say anything.

  Holding her eyes, James undid the remaining buttons on his shirt and cuffs, and then pulled fabric from his waistband, stripping off his shirt and undershirt.

  Pia soaked up the sight of him. Taut muscle rippled underneath the planes of s
mooth and lightly tanned skin.

  She hadn’t been mistaken. He was fit and in top shape.

  He made short work of the rest of his clothes, working methodically until he was naked.

  His arousal stood in imposing relief against his toned frame.

  Pia sucked in a breath. “You’re very beautiful.”

  James gave her a lopsided smile. “Isn’t that my line?”

  It occurred to her that while she’d viewed pictures of naked men, this was the first time she’d seen one in the flesh. And again, James was beyond her expectations. He was impressive—tall and built as well as fit. The flat planes of his abdomen tapered down to…a definite sign that he wanted to couple with her. Right now.

  A tingle went through her, a tightening of anticipation.

  As if in response, he pulled her toward him on the bed and began kissing his way down her body.

  Pia looked up at the white plaster ceiling, her hands tangling in his hair, and thought she’d die of pleasure.

  James kissed the jut of her hip and then worked his way down the soft skin of her inner thigh to the sensitive spot behind her knee. He lifted her other leg and turned his head to nip and brush the pliant flesh of her other thigh.

  With one finger, he traced down the cleft at the juncture of her thighs, and she moaned, her head twisting until she pressed her face into the coverlet beside her.

  James muttered sweet encouragement as he lowered her leg and caressed his hand down her thigh.

  Then he bent, picked up his pants from the floor and fished out a packet of protection. He donned the sheath with economical moves. Stretching out beside her on the bed, he gathered her to him and soothed her with his lips and hands as he muttered soft endearments under his breath.

  Pia was lost to the sensation and emotion sweeping her. She was petite and felt surrounded by him.

  When James shifted over her, parting her thighs and settling against her, she worried about being able to accept him. But within seconds she was again consumed by the desire flaring between them.

  “Touch me, Pia,” he said hoarsely.

  He sipped and feasted on her lips, his hands readying her with a gentle kneading. Pia responded in kind, meeting his mouth and trailing her fingertips over the corded muscles of his back.

  This was the moment she’d waited a lifetime for. He was the man she’d waited for.

  James nudged her, and Pia concentrated on relaxing as he sucked on her lower lip.

  Lifting his head, he muttered, “Wrap your legs around me.”

  Oh, sweet heaven. She’d never been plastered, open and exposed, to an aroused male before.

  She concentrated on what she’d imagined countless times in her fantasies, where her partner’s features had always been indistinct but he’d carried an aura so very much like James’s.

  She did as he instructed, and James grasped her hips in his hands.

  He looked deeply into her eyes and then gave her a quick, gentle kiss.

  “Let me take you, Pia,” he said throatily. “Let me bring you pleasure.”

  She arched toward him, and in response, he buried his head in her neck and penetrated her.

  Pia gasped, and then bit down hard on her lip.

  James froze.

  Moments passed and they held still. The thumping of his heart sounded against hers.

  He lifted his head, his expression puzzled, and also shocked and doubtful.

  “You’re a virgin.”

  He stated it with surprise.

  She wet her lips. “W-was. I think past tense is appropriate.”

  She felt full and stretched, almost to the point of the unbearable, where pleasure met pain. It was a strange sensation that she tried to get used to.

  “Why?”

  She swallowed, and then whispered, “I wanted you. Is that so bad?”

  James closed his eyes, his muscles remaining full of tension as he rested his forehead against hers and then muttered a self-deprecation. “You’re so unbelievably tight and hot. Sweet like I’ve never experienced… Pia, I can’t—”

  Afraid he’d pull out, she clamped her legs around him. “D-don’t.”

  After a moment, some of the tension eased out of him—almost as if he was reluctantly admitting defeat.

  “I’ll try to make it good for you from now on,” he muttered, as if the words were torn from him.

  “Yes.”

  He moved slowly then, his hands pressing the right spots and easing the tension in her body.

  Pia focused on relaxing and concentrated on the sensation of his movements.

  Slowly, slowly, she felt a small spark, and then a faint tingle. She was awakening, her body coming to life under his sure ministrations.

  Eventually, as she relaxed further, tension built. She felt herself reaching for a release that she’d never experienced with a man before.

  James stroked between their bodies, his fingers pressing on her most sensitive spot.

  Within moments, she cried out with pleasure and then crested before she knew it. She was carried on a wave of sensation as feeling after feeling swamped her.

  Her body undulated around James of its own accord, massaging him into his own frenzy of need.

  “Have mercy, Pia,” he groaned.

  It was too late, however. With a hoarse oath, he grasped her hips and pumped into her.

  She came for him again. And then with a final thrust, he took his own release.

  As James slumped against her, Pia hugged him and suddenly became aware of tears in her eyes.

  He’d taken her across the final barrier to realizing herself sexually as a woman. Their joining and her first time couldn’t have been more wonderful.

  Pia closed her eyes, and of their own accord, exhaustion and sleep claimed her.

  The next time she blinked up at her ceiling, he was gone.

  In a moment, Pia was brought back to the present. She realized she wasn’t staring at her ceiling, but at her apartment wall.

  Different apartments, three years apart.

  Same man, though.

  Hawk.

  His presence was palpable still, and her body was awakened and aware as if they’d made love moments, not years, ago.

  Pia shook her head. No.

  She’d let him into her sanctuary—her apartment—again, but she resolved not to let him into her life one more time.

  The night after Hawk signed the contract at her apartment, Pia discovered they had a couple of the best theater seats in the house—no doubt thanks to Hawk’s personal connection.

  Hawk had appeared at her apartment at seven and driven them so they could make the eight o’clock curtain call for Lucy’s show, an off-Broadway production of the musical Oklahoma, in which Lucy had a supporting role.

  Pia made a show of studying her program as they waited for the lights to dim. Tonight, she reminded herself, was all about business. She’d dressed in a short-sleeved, apricot-colored dress that she’d worn to work-related parties before and that she hoped sent the appropriate message. She’d avoided those items in her wardrobe that she considered purely off-hours attire.

  She stole a quick sidelong glance at Hawk, who was looking at the stage. Even dressed casually in black pants and a light blue shirt, he managed to project an air of ducal self-possession.

  She just wished she wasn’t so aware of his thigh inches away from her own, and of his shoulder and arm within dangerously close brushing distance. If there was a petition right now for having individual armrests in places of public accommodations, she’d sign on the spot.

  Determinedly, she pulled herself in, making it clear that she’d cede the shared armrest to him.

  In the process, she absently tugged down the hem of her dress, and Hawk’s gaze was drawn to her actions.

  As Hawk surveyed her exposed thighs, his expression changing to one of alert but lazy amusement, Pia rued her involuntary action.

  Hawk’s eyes moved up to meet hers. “I have a proposition for you.�
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  “I-I’m not surprised,” she shot back, rallying and cursing her telltale stammer. “They do appear to be your forte.”

  He had the indecency to grin. “You bring out the best—” he waited a beat as her eyes widened “—urges in me.”

  She hated that he could bait her so successfully. “You give me too much credit. As far as I can tell, your urges don’t need any help in being called forth. They appear of their own volition.”

  Hawk chuckled. “Aren’t you at least curious about what I have to offer?”

  She frowned, but forced herself to adopt a saccharine-sweet voice. “You forget that I already know. Unless your offer involves business, I’m not interested.”

  Was his facility with sexual innuendo boundless?

  He shifted toward her, his leg brushing her own, and Pia tried to stifle her response of frozen awareness before he could discern it.

  Hawk looked too knowing. “As it happens, it does. Involve business, that is.”

  This time, Pia didn’t try to hide her reaction. “It does?”

  Hawk nodded. “A friend of mine, Victoria, needs help with a wedding.”

  “A female friend? Ready to give up on you, is she, and move on?”

  She couldn’t stop herself from needling him, it seemed.

  He flashed a grin. “We never dated. Her fiancé is an old classmate of mine. I introduced them to each other at a party last year.”

  “You do seem to know quite a few people who are getting married.” She raised her eyebrows. “Always the matchmaker, never the groom?”

  “Not yet,” he replied cryptically.

  She fell silent at his vague response.

  Once upon a time, he might have featured in her wedding fantasies, but they were well past that point, weren’t they? Instead of the well-trod path, they’d veered down a detour from which there was no turning back.

  “When is the wedding?” she heard herself ask.

  “Next week. Saturday.”

  “Next week?”

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly.

  Hawk nodded. “The wedding planner is quarantined abroad.”

  Pia raised her eyebrows.

  Hawk quirked his lips. “I’m not joking. She went on safari with her boyfriend, and they were both exposed to tuberculosis. She can’t get back to New York until after the wedding date.”