“I remember you leaving early,” Lauren said, meowing back as good as she got. “Weren’t you the one who got so drunk, you passed out and didn’t even realize a freshman drove you home?”
Beside her, Seth chuckled and whispered, “That was Sixteen Candles.”
“Shut up,” she hissed back, enjoying watching Roseanne sputter.
“That’s not funny!”
“Sure it is,” Lauren replied. “Come on, Roseanne, you were totally wasted. And Seth wasn’t even your date that year. He went with, hmm, who was it?”
“Sharon Stillwater,” he said, unabashed, obviously enjoying himself.
“You were such a dog,” Lauren couldn’t help replying.
“Only until you finally gave me the time of day.”
His smile tender, he slipped an arm around her waist, visibly saying to everyone else what hadn’t yet been put into words: the prom king had finally claimed his queen. At least for tonight.
Even Roseanne shut her mouth as Seth led Lauren toward their tower, heading for the elevators. Lauren imagined there would be a lot of gossip flying around this place tonight. Tomorrow’s carnival and formal dance would probably turn into interrogation sessions, and her friend Maggie would probably be lead inquisitor.
But she’d worry about that tomorrow. Tonight, she didn’t have a care in the world. She was going to live, to take what she had wanted for such a long time, and enjoy the hell out of it.
As they waited for the elevators, Seth murmured, “I really was a bit of a player, wasn’t I?”
“Not really. Just a typical high school superstar.”
“Why’d you ever agree to go out with me?” he asked, looking truly curious. “I must have asked you a dozen times before you finally said yes in our senior year.”
She didn’t have to think about it. The memory was emblazoned in her mind. “I saw you with Em, comforting her.”
He raised a curious brow.
“It was about a week after 9/11, when classes started again.”
He swallowed visibly, the way everyone probably did when thinking about those awful days.
“I was walking to the bus stop, and passed you sitting on a bench, holding her hands. She looked like she’d been crying, and you were reassuring her that she would be all right, that you wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”
He nodded. “She had bad dreams for weeks. My parents were in New York when it happened. It took them two days to think about their children, to call and tell us they weren’t dead.”
She remembered him telling her that, later. Remembered the quiver in his voice, the moisture in his eyes.
But not as well as she remembered that September afternoon, passing by them as they sat on the bench, witnessing Seth’s tender care of his sister. That was the moment she’d realized there was so much more to him than the rest of the world ever gave him credit for. It was also probably the moment she started to fall in love with him.
She turned toward him, rose on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his jaw. His sandpapery skin was rough against her mouth, but she loved the roughness, the raw masculine power of him and couldn’t wait to experience it on other parts of her body.
“I saw the real you that day,” she whispered. “I decided he was somebody I wanted to know better.”
And soon, she was going to know him as thoroughly and completely as a woman could ever know a man.
It was their long-promised night. At last.
4
SETH MANAGED TO KEEP his hands to himself, at least until they were inside the elevator. Alone. The minute the doors swished shut, however, all bets were off.
There was a camera above them. He didn’t give a damn.
“Come here,” he ordered, grabbing her waist and pulling her close.
Lauren didn’t resist. Melting against him, she lifted her arms around his neck. Their mouths came together in a fast, hard kiss, their tongues plunging in a frenzied mating that had been building for ten years.
She tasted like heaven. Like Lauren. Familiar and sweet and sultry and so impossibly good.
He’d kissed other women over the years, but none had felt as right, as perfectly made for him. He hadn’t imagined it. All the times he’d wondered if there really was such a thing as a soul mate, the one right person for everyone, he’d remembered how it had felt to kiss her. But he’d also wondered if his memories were lying to him.
They weren’t. She was perfect…for him, anyway.
He kissed her hard and deep, as if to remind them both of that, to drive thoughts of any other man out of her head for good, and to imprint her on his own, lest he ever have doubts again.
Lauren writhed against him, her soft body curving into all his angles, asking and answering all at the same time. They shared breaths and their heartbeats pounded in unison. The silence was broken only by their sighs, and by the ding of the elevator as it went up, up, up, taking them toward what he was sure must be heaven on earth.
But not fast enough. He needed more. Needed to taste her, touch her. “God, Lauren, I’ve wanted you forever,” he said as he moved his mouth to her neck.
She twined her fingers in his hair and held him tight, as if unwilling to let him go. “Ditto.”
Their mouths came together again, slower this time. He dropped his hands to her hips, pulling her more firmly against his groin, and heard her groan as she felt how hard and ready he was for her.
“Ahem.”
They’d been so lost in the kiss, they hadn’t even noticed that the elevator had stopped and someone had boarded it. Seth forced himself to let her go. Glancing over, he saw an older couple eyeing them speculatively. The man was grinning, the woman—mid-forties and very attractive—was studying the number panel on the side of the elevator. But Seth noticed the way a flush of color rose in her face, and how her companion slipped an arm around her waist, giving her bottom a familiar pat.
Once the other couple got off a few floors later, he heard Lauren begin to laugh.
“I think if we hadn’t been here, they’d have been the ones shocking the security camera guys. Something about this place makes everyone want to…celebrate.”
That was true. He’d seen cozy couples in the lounges, and sitting on plush couches in the lobby. The resort might have been made for group reunions, but it seemed to also invite gatherings of a more intimate sort.
“Maybe it’s because a reunion, by definition, brings you back to your younger years, when you were freer, more willing to take risks.” He nuzzled her neck. “And indulge in pleasures. Take what you most want.”
She gazed up at him, licking her reddened lips. “Makes sense to me.”
They at last arrived on their floor. Seth grabbed her hand and practically dragged her after him. Her room was closer, but he didn’t want to wait long enough for her to dig the key out of her purse. His was in his pocket, and then, a second later, in his hand.
“You had to have set this up. There must be a thousand rooms in this place,” she said, laughter on her lips as he led her to a door not far from her own.
“Yep.”
“Remind me to thank Em when I see her.”
Lauren meant that from the bottom of her heart. She didn’t know what had brought Seth’s sister back to Chicago or how she’d ended up working at this resort. She was just thankful Emily had been able to let Seth know Lauren would be here. She didn’t want to think about the possibility that she might have gone through the rest of her life not knowing the truth.
Or not having this night.
The moment they walked into Seth’s room, laid out much the same as hers, they melted into each other’s arms again. Their kisses were still hungry, still demanding, but also slower. They had all night. She wanted to enjoy every minute of it.
“Touch me, please,” she whispered.
He did, stroking her face, her throat, her shoulders. She sighed as he reached around to unzip her dress, drawing the tab down ever so slowly. His fingertips brushed against
her spine, making her shiver. All that heat against her cool skin.
When the dress was completely unfastened, he drew it off her shoulders. Lauren’s heart raced as the soft fabric fell in a puddle at her feet and Seth stepped back to look at her.
“You’re even more beautiful than I remembered.” His voice shook with honesty and need.
She smiled, lifted an arm and pushed her hair back, knowing her breasts were thrust out in invitation.
He accepted.
Pulling her to him, Seth bent to nuzzle the top curves of her breasts, breathing through the satiny fabric of her bra. Her nipples were already pebbled with desire, and when his mouth closed over one, she felt her legs weaken.
He didn’t let her fall, of course. Instead, he reached down and swooped her up into his arms, still kissing her chest. Striding over to the king-size bed, he gently lowered her onto the mattress, following her down.
Lauren still wore her black bra and panties, and her wickedly spike-heeled shoes. But Seth was even more overdressed.
“Those. Off,” she ordered, pointing to his clothes.
“Yes, ma’am.”
He stood beside the bed and shrugged out of his suit jacket. Beneath, his perfectly tailored dress shirt emphasized the broadness of his shoulders, the bulging muscles in his upper arms. He said he worked as a sports agent, but Seth was obviously still very active himself.
She licked her lips. Coveting. Hungry.
“You’re so big,” she whispered as he unbuttoned the shirt, revealing the muscled chest, the rippling stomach.
As she recalled, he was big everywhere.
No, they’d never had intercourse, but they’d definitely done…other things. Seth wasn’t the only one who’d enjoyed giving oral sex. Remembering his taste, his essence, she ached to experience him that way again. Sitting up, she scooted to the edge of the bed, parting her legs so he could step between them. She unfastened his belt, pulled it free, then reached for his pants button. Pressing her mouth to the perfect male abdomen, she dipped her tongue into his belly button, then tasted her way down as she drew the zipper lower.
He wore tight boxer briefs, which strained to contain the huge ridge of aroused male. She pressed her tongue to a damp spot at the top of the fabric, and was pleased to feel him shudder in response.
“You know I love that, but I’m not going to settle for it this time,” he told her, his voice shaking.
“Just a taste,” she demanded.
Not waiting for permission, she pulled the briefs down, revealing his rigid cock to her covetous eyes. She dipped her head, flicked her tongue over the silky-smooth tip, holding his hips when he jerked.
His hands moved to her head, and he gently twined his fingers in her hair. Lauren took that as his approval of what she was doing…not that she had intended to wait for it.
Easing the briefs down, she moved her mouth lower. Taking him inch by inch, wetting him with her tongue, she sucked him the way she knew he loved to be sucked. He didn’t move, didn’t pull her or try to control what she was doing. He just took the pleasure she offered.
Loving the fullness in her mouth—the taste, the smell, the brush of the spiky curls on his groin against her face, she continued pleasuring him. Knowing what else he liked, she slid her hand down, squeezing the base of his cock, then cupping the vulnerable sacs beneath.
“Enough,” he snapped, pulling back. He almost stumbled on his pants, still twisted around his legs. His hand shaking, he pointed a finger at her. “I’ve been waiting ten years for this, I’m not going to let you have me ready to shoot off like a rocket the second I finally get inside your beautiful body.”
She did feel beautiful, and desired. Seth was a picture of masculine need as he stared at her from a few feet away.
“We have all night,” she reminded him.
“And I plan to spend at least several hours of it buried inside you.”
Every inch of her tingled in excitement. Because it wasn’t a threat…it was a promise.
Never taking his eyes off her, Seth tore off the rest of his clothes, then returned to the bed. “Your turn. Those. Off,” he said, pointing to her bra and panties. Then, with a definite eyebrow wag, he added, “But feel free to leave the shoes.”
She grinned. “Aye-aye, sir.”
Smoothing her palms over her midriff, knowing he watched the way her hands moved over her body, she reached up and toyed with her bra. Her fingertips traced her hard nipples, plucking them, then tugging the fabric down to expose them to his gaze.
Seth swallowed visibly, but made no move toward her.
He liked watching her touch herself. She remembered that, too.
Pulling one strap down and exposing a breast, she continued to stroke herself, tweaking her nipple, imagining it was Seth’s hand, Seth’s mouth. As the pleasure built, her hips arched up, undulating as her body sought a much-needed rhythm.
Keeping one hand at her breast, she moved the other one down, knowing she was performing for him. She’d never felt this free with any other man, never wanted to pleasure herself while he watched. But something made her slide her fingertips below the elastic edge of her skimpy panties and tangle them in the soft nest of curls between her thighs.
“Let me see,” he ordered with a groan.
She nudged the panties down, loving the way his lids half closed over his eyes, the stare sultry, hot as he saw her rub her clit.
“Let me give you a hand,” he offered.
“Thanks ever so much,” she replied with a wicked smile as he tugged her panties down, and all the way off. He had to work them over the shoes, but she knew he’d want the shoes to stay on for as long as possible.
Once her panties were gone, Seth watched her a moment more. Then his control broke. With a groan, he swept her hand out of the way and bent over her. He gave her no warning, replacing her fingertips with his tongue, licking her fast and deep.
She cried out and nearly came off the bed.
“Shh,” he said, his mouth buried in her sex. “Let me.”
Let him? She might kill him if he stopped.
Oh, he definitely didn’t stop. He plunged his tongue deep, then swirled it over her throbbing clitoris. Within moments, she felt an orgasm breaking over her like violent waves crashing on a beach during a storm. She shook all over with it.
Seth moved up, tasting his way up her body, kissing her from groin to chest. There he stopped, taking a pleasurable detour over her breasts and nipples. When he sucked one, hard, while tweaking the other, the nearly gone orgasm reared up again, sending another blast of pleasure rocketing through her.
“God, how do you do that?” she gasped.
No one else had ever made her respond like this.
“We’re just getting started,” he reminded her before moving his mouth to hers and kissing her deeply. Their tongues met, the kiss flavored by the musky essence of both their bodies, which made it hotter, more wanton.
“I need you inside me, Seth,” she begged.
He paused, glancing toward the floor where his clothes lay in a heap. “I should get…”
“I’m on the Pill. And I’ve always been…careful.”
He nodded, understanding what she meant. She’d never had condomless sex with anyone. But she wanted it now, wanted their first time to be completely natural, wanted his skin against hers.
“So am I,” he said. “I don’t sleep around.”
“Then love me, Seth,” she whispered.
He nodded, his eyes locked on hers as he moved between her parted thighs. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer, urging him on, until she felt the heat of his erection nudging at her sex.
Ten years of waiting had made her impatient. And while Seth tried to move slowly, carefully, as if wanting to be sure he wouldn’t hurt her, she wasn’t having it.
“Take me now,” she demanded, thrusting up to meet him.
He groaned and gave in to her plea, jerking his hips, burying himself in her so deeply she t
hought she’d split in half.
Lauren screamed. Not with pain. Because nothing had ever felt so good. He was inside her, part of her, filling her up in a way only he could do.
“Okay?” he asked.
“So okay.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him down for a kiss, wanting every inch of their bodies to touch. They stayed still, joined, acknowledging the moment, giving it the attention it deserved.
“It’s been a long wait,” he whispered.
“But a worthwhile one?”
“Oh, God, yes,” he said, his voice firm and certain.
At last they began to move, rocking together in perfect harmony. He gave and she took, then she gave right back.
It went on. And on. She lost track of time and reality, focused only on his deep strokes inside her, the smell of him, the weight of him on top of her. Eventually, they rolled over, so Lauren could ride him, look down at his incredibly handsome face and amazing body.
She came again. Once, maybe twice. And still he showed no sign of being near completion.
He hadn’t been kidding about making love to her for hours. Which was fine with her. This night had been ten years in the making… . She was in no hurry for it to end.
Especially because she had absolutely no idea what tomorrow would bring.
* * *
ALTHOUGH SETH HAD WANTED her to stay in bed with him and order room service Saturday morning, Lauren had promised Maggie she would meet her for breakfast. Considering she’d come here because her friend needed her, she couldn’t blow her off. So, telling Seth she’d meet him at the carnival later, she headed to her room to shower and change, then went down to one of the many restaurants to meet her friend.
Her mood was good—great, in fact. She’d never had a better night in her life, and it obviously showed. Maggie took one look at her and demanded details. Lauren told her as much as was ladylike…and then a bit more, grinning all the while. Maggie, who was pretty anti-men/anti-romance right now, cheered her on, declaring Lauren had every right to have meaningless sex with her high school dreamboat.
Meaningless. That word echoed. As she devoured her breakfast, ravenous after her lack of dinner the previous night—followed by hours of wonderful exertion—the doubts crept in.
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