by Lucy Lambert
He devoured me. Teasing at first, his kisses and his tongue grazing me. Then harder, more insistent.
Heat rushed up and down my body, so hot I thought it might burn both of us up. I reached down and grabbed onto his wrists, holding on for dear life while he coaxed and urged incredible pleasures out of me.
My whole body shook and trembled, going rigid with my climax. He guided me through it, taking me higher and higher. He was right; no man had ever made me feel this good, no man had ever been so attentive to my needs and my pleasure.
“Vaughn!” I screamed, his name ripping from my lungs.
Time lost meaning in that moment. It felt like forever and no time at all before my body relaxed and he let my hips sink back down to the bed. My eyes felt wet, and a heavy, languorous lassitude threatened to overtake me. I gulped down air, never seeming to get enough.
Vaughn slid his body up along mine, easily supporting his weight over me with those strong arms of his. He kissed and nuzzled at my neck before moving his lips up to my ear.
“Are you ready for more?” he whispered.
“There’s more?” I replied. I thought I’d been satisfied. I was wrong. An aching ball of desire formed deep inside me. “Yes.”
He smiled, leaning back to finally strip his shirt all the way off. He didn’t stop there, either. I’d had the idea that I wanted to tear all his clothes off with my teeth, but watching him strip down slowly was even better.
“Do you still want me to be gentle?” he asked. He grabbed some protection from the nightstand and I watched hungrily as he rolled it on.
“I want you. Hard, gentle, however I can have you,” I said.
And then he rolled back on top of me. We kissed again, his curious tongue pushing my lips open and exploring my mouth.
His kiss deepened. His hardness pressed against me, then slipped inside. I grabbed his shoulder blades and dug my nails in, my snug grip around him making the both of us groan.
Again, he started off gently, pushing deeper, letting our bodies sink together, letting me get used to his size and his hardness.
And the heat, oh God, the heat, I kept thinking. How could he feel so hot inside me like that?
He continued kissing me. He kissed my mouth, my cheeks, my neck and shoulders, his lips worshiping my body.
The more I let myself fall into the experience, the better it became. I tried letting go of everything. I let go of all my earlier reservations about him. I let go of caring for nothing but work.
I let go of it all until the only thing that remained was our two bodies entwined together on his bed. I breathed in the clean smell of the perspiration he worked up. I lifted my head up so that I could kiss his jaw and feel his stubble prickle me.
I ran my hands along the planes his muscles made in his back, then traced my fingers down the tendons and veins standing out in his arms. I brought my hands back up, my fingertips bumping over his ribs.
Then I slid my hands so that I cupped that fantastic ass of his. There was something incredibly arousing about feeling those muscles flex and relax in rhythm with his strokes.
I squeezed him and he grinned at me. Then I grabbed his ass harder and pulled him forward, both of us gasping when he sank all the way into me.
“This feels so good…” I said, closing my eyes and letting my head sink back against the mattress, exposing my neck.
Unable to resist, Vaughn kissed my throat against. He grabbed each of my hands in his, threading our fingers together, and we made them into fists. I wanted to feel him squeeze me, and I liked the weight of him pushing me down from above.
“It’s even better than I’d fantasized,” Vaughn said. He looked so good with the little beads of sweat on his cheeks.
“You fantasized about me?” I said, quivering around him. How could someone as hot as he was fantasize about someone like me?
“Every night,” he said, “I thought about how badly I wanted to kiss you. How I wanted to run my mouth over every inch of you. I thought about how sexy you’d be with your hair spread around your head like this…” He put his face closer to mine, grazing his lips along my cheek until I could feel them against my earlobe. “And I definitely couldn’t help thinking about how tightly you’d grip me.”
“Vaughn…” I groaned again. I couldn’t believe how he brought out the woman in me. The deeply sexual, in-tune-with-her-desires woman I normally kept locked up so tightly.
“I like it when you say my name that way,” he said.
“Vaughn,” I said again, my voice sounding light but actually laden with desire and need.
He sat back, still inside me, and then propped my legs against his shoulders. His thrusts took him deeper than before. So deep! I sucked in a breath.
The sudden an intense sensation of it made me grip handfuls of the duvet.
“Oh, God! Don’t stop! Please, don’t stop!” I said. The slippery heat inside me intensified. Every thrust brought me closer and closer to nirvana. He had me so close. If he stopped or slowed now I’d die. I’d just burn up into a pile of ash on his bed.
“Why stop when I can go faster?” Vaughn said.
He made good on his promise. Our bodies pressed together fast, so fast.
That tight ball of pleasure low in my stomach threatened to burst. I wanted it to explode. I wanted it so much.
My shoulders and back started lifting up off the bed. I needed him deeper, harder. And he fulfilled those needs. Oh, did he ever.
“Vaughn!” I called out again while I went over the tipping point. The tendons and muscles started standing out in his neck and shoulders, and I knew he could barely take it, either.
“Come with me. I want you to come with me,” I said, reaching up and grabbing his forearms.
“Quinn…” he groaned.
We climaxed together, every muscle in my body and his contracting and pulling almost to the breaking point. I could barely stand the sensation of him flexing inside of me, and the pulsing heat that followed.
That heat worked its way into my, riding in waves up and down my body again and again until I thought I might burn up with it.
When we both relaxed, he let my legs down off his shoulders and held himself over me again, letting his lips nuzzle against my neck and shoulder.
I felt like jelly all over, every single one of my muscles so relaxed I was surprised I didn’t turn into a puddle on his bed. How can he still hold himself up like that? I marveled at him.
“It should be illegal, how good you smell,” he said, his voice somewhat muffled with his mouth so close to me.
His breath tickled and I giggled. That surprised me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually giggled. Laughed, yes. Chuckled? Of course. Giggling? Since when?
“I can’t possibly,” I said, “You’ve got me all sweaty and hot.”
“So hot…” he agreed. He was still inside me, and I quivered around him. “Round two?”
“What? You couldn’t possibly be ready that quickly!” I said, thinking he was teasing me. “Besides, I don’t even think I could stand up right now even if the house caught fire around us.” I wasn’t even starting to get sore yet. No one could go again that quickly. Especially not a guy. They always needed more time to recharge.
I luxuriated on his bed beneath him, stretching my arms out. He liked this, kissing down to my wrist and then back up, then over to the other arm.
“Who said anything about standing up? Besides, I know you like it when I surprise you.”
I looked in his eyes and saw that what we’d just done still hadn’t quenched the fire of desire in them. He’s serious! But how could he be?
“You’re just teasing me,” I said.
He shook his head, “I never tease about this sort of thing.”
And then he went to grab more protection from the nightstand.
He was right, there wasn’t any standing involved. There was a great deal of me crying out his name. And him calling out mine.
I completely lost track of time. Was it
dark out? Was it past midnight? Wasn’t it a work night? All questions I didn’t care about.
All I cared about was the weight of his arm draped over me, the two of us lying in his big bed in the afterglow of it all.
He spooned me so nicely, his body warm and firm and comforting against my back, that I went immediately into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Chapter 17
VAUGHN
It had been two days since Quinn came to my house and dragged that confession out of me.
Two wonderful days in which neither of us stepped out of said house. Everything we could possibly want or need I ordered in.
I couldn’t get enough of that body of hers. Sometimes we took it slow, going up to the bedroom and teasing each other until we couldn’t take it anymore.
Other times, neither of us could contain ourselves and I would push her down onto whatever flat surface was available, pulling her hips back against me.
And thank God it’s the weekend! I thought. Quinn had given into her desires, yes. But I don’t think anything short of a natural disaster could have stopped her from going into the office.
The thing was, the more I saw of her the more I wanted to see. It didn’t seem possible to tire of being around her.
Take this moment, for instance. I sat at the island in my kitchen. Quinn stood at the stove, trying to make what I believed to be scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.
She kept her hair down, and I liked how glossy it looked in the morning sunlight while it bounced around her shoulders.
She wore one of my button down shirts and nothing else. A cream-colored one with a black collar. It hung down just enough to cover her butt. I could see where those lovely cheeks of hers met her thighs, and seeing that stirred the desire inside me again.
It all seemed so perfect. But even now something lurked in the back of my mind. It was an invisible countdown, I knew. Just like the ones I’d had with Stacey and Alisha and all the others.
Is it weeks? Months? I wondered. Then, No, it’s different this time. I told her things I never told anyone else. Of course it’s different this time.
The thought was enough to distract me until I smelled the distinct odor of burning toast. And, sure enough, little grey curlicues of smoke rose out of my artisanal toaster from its perch on the granite counter.
“Why is this going wrong?” Quinn said, dropping the spatula on the oven top and lifting her hands in defeat. That arm-lifting action also lifted my shirt up along her back, and the desire turned to an ache inside me.
However, I don’t think either of us could answer that call just now. We were both too sore.
“Let me show you how it’s done,” I said, getting up off the barstool. I frowned at the burnt stuff in the skillet, which I took and washed down the disposal in the sink.
Quinn blushed. “You know, I’m normally pretty good at cooking up simple stuff like this. Just ask the kids I babysit sometimes. I don’t know what happened to me.”
“I happened to you,” I said, grinning while I grabbed the carton of eggs from the fridge.
“You’re giving yourself a lot of credit, mister,” she said. She grabbed my butt through my pants and gave it a squeeze.
“No more than what’s deserved. Now step back before you do to this batch whatever you did to the last.”
That earned me another slap on the butt. I didn’t mind. I liked that Quinn tried cooking for me. But I have to say, I got a lot of satisfaction from doing the cooking for her.
She kept shaking her head like I was so unbelievable. I wondered what sort of men she’d been with before who wouldn’t do something so easy like cooking breakfast for her.
Half an hour or so later we both sat at the island, our scrambled eggs and toast with the sides of fresh-squeezed juice and fresh-ground coffee all gone. The kitchen smelled good.
“I need you to tell me that these past few days were real. That they meant something to you,” Quinn said, transfixing me with her eyes.
“Of course they meant something. You mean something to me, something important,” I said.
“Because I’m not usually like this with people. I don’t let this sort of thing happen, not this quickly. And I need you to know that this didn’t mean nothing to me. I guess I’m trying to say that you have me in your hands now, and that you can’t let me slip through your fingers.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said. I reached across the granite island top and took her hand in mine. I gave her a reassuring squeeze. She looked at me for a while, I suppose trying to figure out whether I meant it.
It satisfied her. “Good. I had to get that out of the way. I’m sorry if it was awkward or anything.”
I had to say it did hurt a little that she felt she needed to ask those questions. However, I could also without much difficulty reason why she had asked, knowing what she did about me.
She was intelligent. She didn’t jump into things lightly. She needed assurances. And after I forced myself through my first few moments of reaction I found I appreciated her more than before.
I didn’t tell her about that hidden countdown I sensed at the back of my mind. With any luck, it was a countdown to nothing. A leftover from an obsolete version of myself.
“Is it Sunday?” Quinn asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Then I should get back to my place,” she said.
I didn’t let go of her hand. “There’s no need for that. Literally anything you could want or need, I can have here before lunch. Stay.”
Her cheeks heated up, emphasizing her freckles. I loved making her blush. Those freckles had to be simultaneously the most adorable and the sexiest features I’d ever seen on a woman.
“I can’t. Your marketing launch is getting so close now. Even taking this weekend off might have been too much. I haven’t even checked my email, my phone’s dead. Who knows what’s waiting for me in the mail back home…”
She got up, pulling her hand from mine, and I could see Quinn the professional taking over for Quinn the lover.
“Forget the ad stuff for now. I’ll just push it back another week,” I said.
It would take my board of directors some cajoling to go along with, but since I was the majority stockholder in the company they would just have to deal with it. Right at that moment I could have happily sold Phoenix Software if it meant no one would ever bother the two of us again.
She looked at me with hope and gratitude in her eyes, and a similar hope flared in my chest. Then those lovely green eyes of hers hardened and she shook her head.
“No, no more distractions. When I start something, I finish it, and I intend on finishing this, too.”
I stood and wrapped my arms around her, clasping them just below her navel. She leaned her head back against my shoulder and I breathed in the sweet, clean smell of her hair.
“Are you sure? I can be very distracting when necessary.”
She reached around to the back of my head and then pulled me down so that we could kiss. She tasted sweet. Everything about her was sweet, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how all she had on was my shirt.
Then she pulled away from me, spinning out of my arms like a dancer. “Not on your life,” she winked.
She left before lunch after a fresh shower (which I was forbidden from joining her in). She stepped out the door telling me that she just wanted a few days to get everything settled with the marketing push and then we could continue.
A short pause, she called it. I told her that it better be short, because I didn’t know how long I could wait.
I waited until the door closed, then started thinking of the best way to surprise her. There was no way I could wait several days before picking up again.
Chapter 18
QUINN
I walked down the street feeling more exhilarated and alive than I’d felt in, well, ever. The breeze blowing through my hair was sweet and cool. Colors looked sharper and more vibrant. I smiled at my fellow pedestrians.
They must have thought I was a nut job. For once, I didn’t care what anyone else thought.
I didn’t even mind the extra couple blocks I needed to walk before finding a taxi.
I wished my phone hadn’t died. I wished Vaughn would have let me at his computer for a bit. Though, there had been that one time I’d gone into his study. I’d even gotten as far as turning the computer on before Vaughn came in, folded me in his arms, and took me again, right there in that chair.
I need to know what’s going on! I thought. So many distractions. The old me would have despaired at the amount of time I’d lost.
For once I went home hoping that Mary wouldn’t ask me to look after the kids tonight. I needed every moment I could beg, borrow, or steal. I even thought about grabbing a few supplies and heading over to the office.
No one else would be there, it’d be perfect!
I decided against that, though. Going back and forth from there would also eat up too much time.
I got back to my place, grabbed the mail, and went up to my condo. I breathed a rather guilty sigh of relief at not having encountered Mary.
Inside, away from all prying eyes, I dropped everything for a moment just so that I could do a little happy dance.
I almost wished that Anne was here so that I could spill everything to her. Almost. That really happened. The past few days really happened! And he wants to keep seeing me!
Not only that, but I’d believed him when he said that this meant something to him, too. That he wasn’t just going to let me slip through his fingers. We both knew more about each other, now.
It was different from anything before, for both of us.
“Okay, that’s enough for now. Work. It’s time for work!” I said, shaking my head, trying to force it back into a serious mindset.
Thankfully, the sky hadn’t fallen. There was a request from Ms. Spencer dated yesterday asking for an update that I needed to reply to sooner rather than later. Anne had attached a few of the last minute revisions I’d requested to an email. Nothing else. That was good.
And I was happy that I hadn’t gotten a cat yet. It definitely would have been forgotten over the past couple days.