by Tawny Weber
His grin flashed bright in the dark room. He leaned back, sweeping his hand along her thigh as he went.
Emboldened by the night, by Alex and the freedom of this entire adventure, Dru leaned forward to brush a soft, openmouthed kiss over the velvety head of his straining dick.
He gave a breathless laugh and said, “Oh, no, you go there and we’ll be at the cuddling segment of the evening much sooner than you’d probably like.”
Thrilled that she might have the power to make him lose control, Dru grinned and shifted so she could smooth the condom over the hard length of his cock.
“Talk to me,” he said hoarsely. “Tell me what you want. Tell me what’s next.”
For the first time since they’d kissed on the couch, panic skittered up her spine. What should she say? Should she make something up? Use dirty words? Technical terms? God, she’d never talked dirty before.
She bit her lip and met his eyes. Seeing the edgy desire made her feel strong. But it was the calm appreciation there that doused the fear.
The guy had already given her two delicious orgasms. It wasn’t as if she had anything to lose.
“I want you,” she admitted as she smoothed her hand across the hard, tempting planes of his well-sculpted chest. She met his eyes, then forced herself to admit aloud, “I want to ride you. I need to feel you inside me. Deep, deep inside me.”
He gave a guttural groan and tugged her up to meet his lips. Taking that as approval, Dru swung her leg over his and straddled his body. With a nervous swallow to wet her suddenly desert-dry throat, she lifted herself over his straining erection.
His eyes held hers, the pleasure and enjoyment in the dark depths encouraging her. Filling her with answering joy.
She sheathed him in one smooth, easy move.
Her breath rushed out in an ecstatic sigh and she started to move.
“Let me,” he begged, his hands curving over the slight swell of her butt to gently lift, then lower her. Setting the rhythm of her ride with soft fingers and a warm smile.
He wanted to lead, she realized.
She gloried in the feel of him, so huge, so hard. He filled her, delighted her. She shifted, leaning down to lave one nipple before pressing kisses up his throat and taking his mouth in a wild, intense dance.
His fingers bit into her hips, an erotic ode to how much he wanted her. That he didn’t miss a stroke, his rhythm still smooth and even, was a testament to his control.
Control she needed to make him lose, she realized. She needed to know she could.
With that in mind, Dru did the most difficult thing in her life. She completely shut off her thoughts and gave herself over to the sensations swirling between their bodies. She let herself be the sexy, wild woman she’d always dreamed of. She didn’t know if she was more excited or more terrified.
She just knew she loved it.
Straightening, she captured his gaze and offered a slow smile. She ran her hands up her sides in a long, sinuous move, then cupped her own breasts as if they were offerings. His eyes narrowed to slits, but he didn’t lose pace.
She swirled her index fingers around her already sensitized nipples. He hissed out a breath and tightened his grip. She moved her hands up her chest to her throat, then arched her back and lifted her arms, her fingers catching in the long, loose strands of her hair.
He moaned and released her. His hands dug into the carpet as their hips slammed together.
Harder.
Faster.
Wilder.
Dru gasped, unable to suck in enough breath to fill her lungs. Her hands clenched her hair as she strained, needing something, anything to push her over the edge.
Alex let out a low, guttural groan and thrust harder. Her body rejoiced. He thrust again. All semblance of control was shot to hell. She pressed tight against him, taking him in as deep as she could and swirled. The pressure of his body against her clit, of his dick as deep as it would go, shoved her screaming over the edge.
The last thing she heard as she flew over was his shout of ecstasy.
DRU WOKE SLOWLY, her mind heavy with sleep. She felt as if she was wrapped in a delicious fog, the kind that weighed her body down and filled her with shivery pleasure.
Reluctant to lose this wonderful feeling, but unable to ignore her brain’s command to wake, she slowly opened her eyes. She blinked twice, taking in the unfamiliar room, the moonlight slanting across the hardwood floors to highlight a scattering of clothes. The floral silk of her dress tangled with a pair of black slacks on the floor, and a man’s shirt dropped not far off. Scraps of lace that’d once been panties announced like a neon sign what’d happened.
Proof that the wildest sex she’d ever dreamed of hadn’t been a figment of her imagination.
Alex.
It had all been real.
Her brain was now fully awake and assigning labels to the sensations flying through her body. Her lips were swollen, her nipples beaded, still tingly, against the cool sheet. The delicious ache between her legs was proof that the sex had been anything but tame.
And the weight around her waist was Alex’s arm. Muscled warmth, curving tight to hold her close against the hard length of his body. The soft, even rhythm of his breath.
Her heart sped up. She wet her lips and tried not to breathe too deep and wake him.
Oh, God. What kind of woman slept with a man she’d barely known twenty-four hours?
The horny kind, Dru answered herself with a shiver. A very horny, and now very satisfied, woman.
A woman who’d finally had great sex. The kind of sex women dream of, whisper about and never, ever regret. The kind she planned to keep on having until she got on that plane home. For once, she was going to have fun. No meeting of the minds. Screw all that common-ground stuff. This was all about physical pleasure, and the more of it, the better.
Alex’s arm tightened around her waist.
Mmm. A tiny part of her that had wished for a moment alone to stretch out on the bed and giggle like a giddy school-girl whose crush had finally noticed her sighed. The rest of her, the part that was warm and cozied up against Alex’s very male, very naked and very delicious body, was thrilled he was still there.
Even if she didn’t have a single clue what to say to the guy. Except maybe, “More, please.”
His hand flattened against her belly, warm and comforting. Like magic, the tension that’d been knotting its way up her spine dissolved at his touch. His breathing changed, warning her just before he nibbled in soft, arousing bites over the back of her neck. Eyes closed as fresh pleasure spun through her system, Dru gave a brief thanks before turning to face him.
He shifted, not letting go but giving her room to tilt her head back and look up into his midnight-dark eyes as she smoothed her own hands across his broad shoulders.
“What do you think? Shall we try to get a little ‘badder’?” Alex murmured, a wicked smile reflecting the sliver of moonlight in the dark room.
“Badder?”
Could she? Grateful there was no light on her, Dru blushed. She’d tasted nearly every inch of skin on his body. She’d talked dirty, demanded he do her harder and screamed when she came.
How much “badder” could she get?
His hand swept up her spine, making her skin tingle with need. He curved the other over her breast. Her nipple tightened to a hard, aching peak against his palm.
She’d be crazy to waste a single second of the best sex of her life. After all, flings didn’t last forever.
6
DRU WATCHED the seductive play of light dance over Alex’s features as he stirred the embers of the bonfire. The crackling heat of the orange flames warmed her, despite the cooling night air and the chill of her still-wet, for more reasons than one, swimsuit. Night surfing, Alex had called it, even though they’d never stood on the board.
Lain, yes.
For almost a week, they’d been all over each other. In each other. Enjoyed each other. And every single time, it’d bee
n over-the-top, mind-blowing.
With one last stoke of the flames, Alex tossed his stick aside and turned to walk toward her. She curled her fingers into her palms to keep from digging them into those broad, sexy muscles and begging.
Begging him for one more orgasm. For one more night. Or worse, for a promise of a month of orgasm-filled nights.
In other words, a future.
“You’ve got a look in your eyes, like you could light the bonfire with just a glare. Where’d you go?” Alex asked in a teasing tone as he dropped to the blanket next to her.
“Just watching the waves. It feels like magic,” she murmured as she gestured to the water, there just on the other side of the dancing fire. “It seems so busy during the day, the sea. But at night, it’s softer, filled with possibilities.”
Back home, she’d have slapped her hand over her mouth in horror if such a sappy, romantic statement had crossed her lips. But here? With Alex? It felt right. Comfortable. He made her dig deeper, look beneath the surface of their experiences and of herself. And she’d discovered there was a little romance under the veneer she usually showed the world. And since this was her vacation—and her fling—she figured a little romance was a good thing. After all, she’d be packing it up tight and putting it away when she stepped on the plane the day after tomorrow.
She wasn’t going to worry about leaving, though.
Not tonight.
Dru sighed again when Alex pulled her close, his chest warming her back as he wrapped one strong arm over her waist to curl her tight to his body.
“It is magic, if you believe. All you have to do is make a wish,” he murmured against her skin so she felt his words as much as heard them. Maybe it was that, more than anything, that still made her nervous. She’d spent a week getting naked in almost every position imaginable—at least by her limited imagination—with this man. It was all physical, all day, all night. And yet she could feel his words move through her body, echoing out from her heart all the way to the tips of her toes.
Her stomach twisted tight with nerves she hadn’t felt since her first surfing lesson and the implicit agreement to have sex with Alex. Dru sucked in a deep breath of the cool night air and admitted to herself that she had a problem. A big one. She didn’t want this to end.
Alex’s hand curved tighter around her waist, his breath warming the back of her neck as he nibbled to get her attention.
“What would you wish for, Drucilla?”
Him.
Her heart tripped right over itself at the idea.
Crazy. He wouldn’t fit into her real world. Of course, her vacationing, fling-loving self wouldn’t fit into her real world, either.
“Success,” she finally answered, breaking their ban on discussing real life. It was that or the love stuff. This was obviously the lesser of the two evils. “I want to be the best I can, to do the most I can, and to be rewarded for what I do.”
He tensed, just a little, against her back. Oh, God, she should have gone with the painful emotional admission. Dru winced, hoping like mad that he wouldn’t try to pick up the real-life-discussion thread.
“Who decides if you’re a success, though?” he asked. She didn’t know if he’d sensed her tension or if he was just not interested in details. Either way, she was so grateful he didn’t ask for details about what she did for a living.
“My peers,” she answered, relaxing again. Peers and coworkers at Trifecta, whom she’d known longer than anyone but her mother. People who’d want her to stick around. Who’d value her input. Who’d look at her and see success, not the new girl who never wore the right clothes or said the right thing.
“Ever heard of the perils of peer pressure?” he teased.
“I’m intimately familiar with the concept,” she said with a snicker, just a little self-mocking.
“Don’t you think you’re motivated enough to push yourself to whatever level you want, without kowtowing to the judgment of others?”
Dru started to turn, ready to spill the details of each and every work-related issue and success challenge. Then she caught herself and shook her head. No. No way. Alex thought of her as a sexy beach babe, which was a major thrill. The last thing she wanted to see on that gorgeous face was a squinty stare as he tried to imagine her as a wussy scientist. Or worse, an unsuccessful wussy scientist.
“Self-motivation is good,” she said instead. “But unless success is measurable and validated, it’s better termed self-satisfaction than success, isn’t it?”
She shot him a teasing look over her shoulder as she trailed her fingers down the hard planes of his thigh where it pressed against hers. “There are a lot of things we can do by—and for—ourselves, but isn’t it always more fun, and more satisfying, to do it with someone else?”
It wasn’t just his grin that let her know he appreciated her double entendre. It was the way he took it as a hint, sliding a finger up the length of her thigh before tracing it along the elastic edge of her bikini bottoms.
Damp heat between her legs, tingling need puckering her nipples. Dru had just had a star-splashed, mind-bending orgasm not more than a half hour before, and here she was, winding right up for another one.
“But if you depend on others as judges, you’re subject to their biases, don’t you think?” Alex said, his words mellow and calm. As if his stiffening erection wasn’t spearing her in the small of the back.
“Listening to others, even with their biases, isn’t a bad thing,” she replied, so focused on his fingers, she was barely aware of what she was saying. Or that she’d slipped into scientistspeak. “All tests need parameters. Why wouldn’t testing one’s success be the same? A control that guarantees the results are realistic, are measurable.”
“That sounds…safe.” He said safe in the same tone she imagined he said boring, blah and bland.
And that was exactly what he’d think of the real her, she surmised with a frown.
“Success without safety is a flash in the pan,” she pointed out, her tone snippier than she’d intended. Nothing to rip a gal back from a building climax faster than feeling defensive. “It’s a fast thrill, but once it’s over, you’re stuck having to start again.”
Dru forced herself to relax. After all, she wasn’t looking to bring Alex into her real world. He was a fling, a boy toy. As long as she kept that in mind, she could enjoy what they had. Fighting back tears, she watched the fire flare, sending sparks harmlessly over the sandy ground.
“I’ll stick with secure success,” she finally said as calmly as possible. “What about you? What’s your ambition?”
“To follow my bliss,” he teased.
She rolled her eyes.
“To know I’ve done my best,” he finally said, his words slow and contemplative as he shifted his gaze to the dark waves, “to stay true to myself while making a positive impact in the world. And to have as much fun along the way as I can.”
Even though she knew he was only a few years younger than she was, Dru suddenly felt ancient. His words seemed naïve and unrealistic. But his idealism tugged at her heart in a way that worried her.
Still, she’d wanted a sexual adventure. If she had to pay for the adventure with a small piece of her heart, well, she was a big girl. She’d live with it.
Somehow.
Swallowing hard against the unreasonable need for more, Dru watched the black waves wash a gentle dance over the wet sand. Day or night, the waves pulsed.
She told herself to hold tight to that fragile thread of peaceful acceptance. And yet…
“Do you miss it when you leave?” she asked quietly. She didn’t have to specify what she meant. As usual, Alex didn’t need it spelled out. Instead he lifted his head from his erotic exploration of the side of her throat to look out over the black, moon-drenched sea.
“I’m never away for long,” he replied. “And I always come back.”
And she wouldn’t be coming back at all. As she stared out at the water, Dru admitted to herself that s
he’d been harboring a tiny hope that maybe they’d meet up here in a few months. Or next summer. Or, well, sometime.
But that’d ruin things. The romance Alex had encouraged her to open herself up to would lose its glow.
No, better to accept that this was it. She wouldn’t be coming back.
A part of her wished she could stay longer, then. An insane part, she knew. Even one extra day was an impossible dream. She had responsibilities to get home to. Not only her job, but the mortgage and taxes were due next week on her mom’s house and she had to make sure they were paid.
Besides, what made this little sexual fantasy work so well was knowing it was just that. A fantasy. One that had solid parameters and a definitive ending.
Dru blinked fast to clear the unexpected tears from her eyes.
Stupid.
And if she was acting stupid, thinking stupid, it was time to reengage her brain. Dru forced herself to consider the possibilities, what few there were. A quick deduction told her the consequences of even one more day in Alex’s company would be too high.
This was it. Their last night. Their last time.
So she’d better make it damn good.
Unwilling to spend any more time wishing for what wasn’t when she had the most incredible reality she’d ever experienced, Dru turned quickly to lie back on the blanket. The move unbalanced Alex, who fell across her with a laugh. He caught himself on his elbows and grinned down at her. His smile, just this side of wicked, sent a shaft of desire through Dru’s body.
“I want you,” she said as she pulled his mouth down to hers. Always a good student, a week of studying his reactions had taught her exactly what he liked. And how he liked it. Her lips melted against his, silky warm and welcoming before she lured his tongue into her mouth. When he gave a low moan, she made a soft sucking action, and at the same time she pressed her hips, covered only in a bikini, against his thigh.
His moan turned guttural.
“Let me deal with the fire and we’ll go back to your bungalow,” he murmured as he used that magic mouth to drive her crazy. He traced the string of her bikini from her collarbone down to where it met the skimpy triangle of fabric covering her aching breasts. His breath, hot and damp, sent shivers of desire over her flesh.