by Faye Avalon
Ethan pursed his lips and nodded. “Sounds like he didn’t deserve you.”
When her friends had told her pretty much the same, she hadn’t really believed it. Now, with Ethan’s touch so gentle on her neck and the warmth and understanding in his eyes, she found herself believing. “No. He truly didn’t.”
Nerves danced as she smiled at him, enjoying the little jump in her belly as he wrapped his fingers around her neck and drew her gently toward him. She leaned in, warmth flooding her system as his arm came around her shoulders, his fingers lightly stroking her throat.
He rested his free hand on her knee and when his mouth lowered to hers she didn’t even try to resist. She wanted this so bloody badly. His kiss. His touch.
Since her panties were still in his pocket, he’d pretty much have easy access to her pussy should that hand on her knee decide to roam, but his fingers remained firm and almost resolute on her knee as he kissed her.
His mouth was gentle, his kiss soft and coaxing. When his tongue slid against hers, she opened her mouth to invite him in.
Her arms went around his neck and she was the one to deepen the kiss. It went on and on until her whole body vibrated with the need for him to touch her. Amber slipped one hand from around his neck and ran her fingers down his shoulder, down his arm until she could cover the hand that rested on her knee.
Before it went any further, she had to tell him. Drawing back a little, she broke the kiss and looked up at him. “Ethan. There’s something you should know before we do this again.”
“You already told me.” His voice was husky as he reached out for her.
“No. Not what I said earlier about not being very good at this.”
“Which is crap of the highest order, just so you know.”
“Thanks.” Even if it was fabrication and uttered in the heat of the moment, Amber let it go in the knowledge she had even bigger fish to fry. “This is important, Ethan. I— I had an accident at the end of last summer. I fell off the back of a colleague’s motorbike and was badly injured.”
He eased back a little and his eyebrows drew together. “How bad?”
“A few broken bones, they healed okay. I was thrown along the road and into a gravel path. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet, but I had no protective clothing. I was only wearing a skirt and tee shirt.” She swallowed, her throat tightening as she pushed the words out. “The accident left me badly scarred.”
He remained still for a moment, then touched her fingers lightly.
“I’ve had surgery, but it’s as good as it’s going to get. I was lucky, considering. It could have been much worse.”
“Your arms?” he asked gently. “I notice how you keep pulling your top together. Thought you were just nervous, but now I get it.”
She raised her eyebrows at his perception. “My upper right arm, my shoulder, and my back. A little on the top of my thigh.”
With his eyes fastened to hers, he raised his hands and touched his fingers to the edge of her bolero. “Is this okay?”
Amber swallowed, then nodded.
Slowly, he slipped away the right side of her bolero, revealing her scarred shoulder.
Amber’s breath caught. She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, to blot out the revulsion that would fill his eyes, but she made herself watch his reaction. She hadn’t realized until that moment quite how much she wanted it not to matter to him.
His face expressionless, he ran his gaze across her shoulder, then drew the bolero down almost to her elbow, exposing the scars, patchy red welts and pocketed flesh. Still he gave no reaction.
She wanted him to say something, anything, but he kept looking at her scars. What if he tugged up her bolero, covered her flesh, and gave her a bland smile accompanied by some platitude that it wasn’t that bad before shoving her out the door? It was possible. On the rare occasions, not long after the accident, that she’d revealed her damaged body to anyone’s gaze, she’d received a similar response. After that she’d been careful not to put herself in such a humiliating position and had taken care to cover herself.
But with Ethan? God. She’d wanted him to touch her, to accept her. She really wanted it not to matter to him.
It must only have been moments, but it seemed that hours slipped by and still Ethan only looked at her. She was about to yank at the bolero herself, cover her damaged flesh and get the hell out of there, when Ethan stayed her hand.
“I’m sorry this happened to you, but you can’t think this would change how damn beautiful you are.”
She felt her cheeks burn as her throat squeezed. Of all the things she’d expected him to say, that wasn’t one of them. “Some people—”
He cut her off with a kiss. Not gentle, not reassuring, but a hard almost punishing fusing of mouths that left Amber’s head spinning. He kissed along her jaw, down her throat. When his lips reached her shoulder his kiss gentled. His warm mouth worked along the blistered, puckered skin all the way from the first scarring at the outer edge of her collarbone to the tip of her elbow. When he raised his head, he looked straight at her. “Did you really think this would matter to me?”
She gave a slight shrug. “I thought you should know. If we’d gotten naked you might have been shocked when you first saw me.”
“I should be pissed you think I’m that shallow.”
“I didn’t think that, not for a moment. But some men—”
“Are idiots if they think what happened to you makes a difference.”
A huge inner sigh rippled through her body, releasing all the tension she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
He slid his fingers down her arm, so gently she wanted to weep, then across to her breast. His eyes were hooded, dark, and full of desire.
Her heart tripped at the realization he still wanted her, really wanted her. It gave her courage to take the lead. Watching him, she ran her fingers to his wrist, turned his hand palm up on her knee. She smiled a little as she began to slowly circle his palm with her thumb, enjoying his sharp intake of breath.
Briefly, he closed his eyes and lowered his head. When he looked back at her, his eyes were sharp, glowing. “I don’t want you thinking I’m taking advantage of what you’ve been through.”
Her smile grew as she continued to circle his palm. “I don’t.” She snuggled against him, rubbing her mouth against his. “I want this. Want you.”
It seemed all the encouragement he needed, because he banded his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap. “Not sure what it is about you,” he grated as he took her mouth. “You drive me senseless.”
Amber was sure she’d never driven a man senseless before and had a moment to wonder if it was merely his current libido talking, but then Ethan’s hand covered her breast again, driving rational thought from her head.
His determined hand worked her flesh, his thumb doing exquisite damage to her nipple through the thin fabric of her dress. The mouth that claimed hers felt soft, but Ethan’s kiss was hot and determined, his tongue mimicking the tormenting flick of his thumb as it worked across her nipple.
She almost grumbled a denial when he stopped the torturous movement of his thumb and moved his hand from her breast, but then he shifted her so he could take off her bolero. Amber gave her scars a fleeting thought, but then his fingers curled around the strap of her dress and slowly, far too bloody slowly, he slipped the strap from her shoulder.
His hands didn’t stop as he reached around and with equal stealth drew down the short zipper of her dress. Slipping the other strap, he eased down the bodice.
Air brushed over her naked skin and she drew in a breath as her nipples were freed from their thin cotton covering.
Molten heat radiated from Ethan’s eyes as his gaze tracked down to her breasts. His breathing hitched, giving Amber spectacular pleasure in the knowledge her body had that effect on him. He toyed with her nipples, sending delicious heat burning down her body and zooming between her legs.
Amber’s head fell back as he cont
inued the slow, delicious torture. When his thumbs left her nipples she murmured a complaint but then felt the hot, wet heat of his mouth cover her breast.
If she hadn’t been sitting, her legs might have collapsed because they felt liquid, numb. She squirmed with pleasure as his tongue began a slow, steady slide over her nipple. Circling, flicking. All the while the heat of his mouth covered her sensitive breast, sending delicious shivers through her body.
His free hand slid down to her knee and she opened her legs slightly as his fingers slipped over her thigh and moved upward. He drew his mouth from her breast and touched his lips to hers. “Wider,” he ordered, his tone dark and sexy as his mouth moved against hers.
Swallowing, Amber obliged. She wanted him to touch her, to slide his hand up, to use his fingers to satisfy the ache building between her legs. Desire swam deep in her core. It was a new, agonizingly pleasurable experience. Vaguely, she wondered if Ethan was deliberately making her wait, because his hand didn’t move from her thigh. Damn him. She wiggled her body closer, but still he didn’t take the hint. Was she doing something wrong?
Nerves pushed through the pleasure, making her wonder whether she really was so bloody bad at all this that Trevor had been right. She tensed at the thought, drawing her knees together and straightening up. She met Ethan’s gaze, puzzled to see dark desire still burning in his eyes. What was going on?
“I didn’t tell you to close your legs.” His tone was so low it was almost menacing, but Amber wasn’t afraid. In fact, her confidence soared. The eroticism of his voice, the predatory way his fingers walked up her thigh, the hooded eyes that gleamed their desire all indicated she was obviously doing something right.
Air brushed over her legs as the path of Ethan’s determined fingers pushed her skirt higher. “Open your legs, gorgeous. And don’t stop until I say it’s enough.”
Eagerly, she did as he said and opened her legs as wide as the tightness of her skirt would allow.
When she reached the limit, he smiled a feral smile. “That’ll do. For now.”
Amber swallowed again, her mouth dry but her pussy weeping with erotic anticipation.
His fingers reached toward her heat, then retreated as his hooded gaze drove into hers.
She wanted to scream at him to touch her, but he was already hoisting himself above her, pushing her slowly back until she was lying diagonally across the leather sofa. Her breasts were exposed, and Ethan took a long, leisurely perusal. He hooked his fingers into the top of her dress, which lay at her waist, and started pulling it down.
Naked, except for her sandals, she shivered.
Ethan remained fully dressed in his white linen shirt and trousers.
It was so hopelessly erotic, Amber licked her lips. “It’s not exactly fair,” she complained breathily as she ran her hands up his forearms. “We should even things up a bit.”
“What did you have in mind, green eyes?”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, managing to undo two buttons of his shirt before he caught her wrists. “Not yet.”
Amber looked up at him beneath lowered lashes. “Why not?”
He placed his knee between her legs and leaned over her until he could brace himself on his forearms. “Because I’ve got plans and they don’t involve me naked being just yet.”
Plans, Amber thought dazedly. What exactly did he have in store for her?
She didn’t have to wait long for the answer, because Ethan dropped his mouth to hers and began a slow, erotic kiss that made her head spin. His tongue teased, flicked, and probed, taunting her with the promise of what was to come when he finally got inside her. The spinning feeling intensified. Damn good thing she was lying down, because she felt completely boneless.
Ethan’s hot mouth moved to her neck, his lips toying with her earlobe before tracing down the side of her neck and to her throat. Lightly, he flicked his tongue over the little notch at her collarbone.
She bucked, her breath hitching. Hell. Who knew that was a particularly erogenous zone? She closed her eyes as his mouth moved lower, his tongue sliding over her breasts desperately close to her aching nipples. First to the left, then to the right. So close but so far away. She squirmed, trying to get her nipple to his mouth, but he was already sliding his tongue down the centre of her body.
He shifted her hips, angling her to him as he knelt on the floor. He circled her navel, touched the tip of his tongue to the centre so that Amber squirmed again. Ethan glanced up, his wicked mouth turned up at the corner. “Like that?”
“Like you don’t know,” she complained huskily.
He grinned. “Let’s find out what else you like.” With his hands on her thighs he eased them open, gave one last ridiculously sex grin, and then lowered his head.
As his hot breath brushed over her core, Amber closed her eyes. She let her head fall back against the sofa cushion, losing herself in the slow sweep of his tongue as it trailed down to the apex of her thighs.
He ran a hand up the inside of her thigh, letting his fingers dance near the spot where heat raged.
Amber bucked, trying to get closer to his fingers, his mouth, but he kept both agonizingly still. “Will you please…”
“Patience is a virtue,” he muttered in that low, gravelly voice. “You’re going to have to learn some.”
She shifted again, but felt his hand press down on the top of her leg, anchoring her. “This works both ways,” she moaned as she tried to catch her breath. “I can make you suffer.”
“I look forward to it.”
She heard him draw in a breath and let it out on a sigh.
“You smell sweet,” he said so quietly she had to strain to hear. “Will you taste the same?”
Dear God, if he’d just get on with it, he’d find out. She shifted her hips once more, tried to angle herself onto her elbows, but with his free hand he pushed her back down.
Watching her with those cool, blue eyes, he slid his fingers through her curls and dipped his forefinger at the entrance to her hot, slick pussy.
Amber held her breath, her body tense as she waited.
At last he pushed his finger into her pulsing folds, but only the tip.
She arched up, releasing her breath on a groan. Damn and blast the man, what was wrong with him?
Still he watched her, but now the cool gaze had turned blazing hot, and his hooded eyes were full of erotic promise. “More?”
She swallowed, nodded. “God. Yes.”
He rubbed the tip of his finger up and down her folds, alternating between light strokes and pressing deeper.
Amber threw her arms back over her head, arching her body up toward his chest as he bent over her. His linen shirt brushed against her tight nipples and she gave a low moan.
Still he kept up the excruciating pace. Light. Deep. Fast. Slow.
Her pleasure built, hot and overwhelming, until she felt the stirrings of orgasm. Hell. He was barely touching her and she was about to come. “Ethan…”
Her plea was answered when he found her clit, working the sensitive nub with the pad of his thumb until Amber’s face flooded with heat. Her chest heaved as she dragged in air and the room spun.
“Come.” His breathy demand floated down to her as he pushed two fingers inside her. “I want to feel you come against my hand.”
Desperate for more, Amber bucked her hips. “Deeper,” she ordered. “I want more. You. Inside me.”
He didn’t answer, but just kept working her with those skilful fingers.
Vaguely, Amber registered his own breathing was as unsteady as hers. The knowledge that he was gaining such pleasure from what he was doing and how she was responding added to her own pleasure. In some deep part of her she wondered if perhaps she was good at being with a man, at having sex, at giving him satisfaction.
Then her brain shut off as her muscles clenched and she jerked against his fingers and climaxed. She spun over and over, not wanting to come down from the dazzling heights of her orgasm. As s
he began the slow descent, she became aware that Ethan’s fingers were still deep inside her. Opening her eyes, she found him watching her.
“Okay?”
Amber sank back against the sofa, feeling the brush of cool leather against her heated skin. “Amazing.” She released the word on a long and leisurely breath, unable to stop the smile curving her lips.
He returned it, his mouth kicking up at one side. Boy oh boy, he had such a wicked, sexy smile. “Keep them open,” he said as she started to close her legs. “I’ve felt you, scented you, now I need to taste.”
He withdrew his fingers so slowly she felt every delicious centimeter slide against her hot flesh. Keeping their gazes locked, he raised his fingers to his mouth. With the tip of his tongue, he tasted her cream, closing his eyes for an instant as if to savor her flavor. When he opened his eyes, his hot blue gaze held hers.
It was so dangerously erotic lying there naked while Ethan remained fully clothed, but enough was enough. “I want your clothes off. Now.”
His laugh was more a low growl and he shook his head. “Not yet. Like I said, I need to taste you.”
Amber’s sex clenched as he continued to suck the fingers that had been deep inside her, and the heady pull of arousal built again so swiftly she felt a tightening through her core.
Lowering his hand, he drew his tongue along his bottom lip. “A nice taster, but now I want the real thing.” He moved between her legs. “First hand.”
Bloody hell.
Her legs seemed frozen to the sofa. All she could do was stare at him as he pressed his fingers against her inner thighs and opened her pussy to his hot gaze.
Her experience with oral sex was pretty limited as Trevor had never cared for pleasuring her like that. Although the bastard had never baulked at the idea of a blow job. Yet, here was Ethan actually taking his time and looking for all the world as if he were relishing the experience.