She reached for him again, and this time he made no move to stop her.
“Ah, God,” he whispered when she stroked her hand up his length.
“Let’s finally finish this,” she murmured, leaning forward to press her lips to the tip of him, reveling in the smell of aroused man, in the feel of silky hot skin sliding over a column of flesh-and-blood steel.
He made a desperate, hungry sound in the back of his throat before pushing her away so he could hop out of his boots, shedding his jeans and ankle holster in the process.
And then he was there, pressing her back into the mattress, covering her with his long, hard body, kissing her as feverishly as she kissed him, stroking her as hungrily as she stroked him, raking his teeth and tongue across her body when she wasn’t doing the same thing to him.
And just when she was about to throw a leg over his hips, when she was about to impale herself on all that hot, vibrant flesh she held in her hands, a seed of sanity bloomed inside her head.
She almost kept her mouth shut. After all, the question she needed to ask was the same question that’d made him come to his senses four years ago. The same question that had had everything coming to a screeching halt in the bathroom of the Clover Bar and Grill.
Still, the good Lord knew she couldn’t take any chances…
“You have a condom, right?” she panted, still stroking him. Running her thumb over his soft tip and spreading the silkiness she found there around his plump, smooth head.
He exhaled hard. “Damn, I don’t know. They may be in the bag I left at your house.”
For a brief instant, she considered throwing caution to the wind, especially when he did something crazy with his tongue.
“I guess,” she gasped and licked her lips, her body on fire, “I guess we’ll have to improvise.”
“Hold that thought,” he said, pushing from the bed only to retrieve his jeans from the floor and scrounge through the pockets. His sudden absence, and the cool rush of hotel room air that blew over her skin, was almost shocking.
She had to stifle the urge to launch herself off the bed, tackle him to the floor, and ride him until her eyes crossed.
Instead, she pressed up on her elbows. “What are you doing?” she asked, letting her avid gaze roam over his splendid male body, her eyes alighting on his tattoo, so vibrant and powerful-looking, spread across his beautifully broad back…
“Ah, ha!” He shouted triumphantly as he held up the two foil packages he’d pulled from his wallet. “Always be prepared. I told you I was a Boy Scout.”
***
Shell crooked a finger at him, a living, breathing goddess, beckoning him back to bed.
“Come here,” she said and, word up, he didn’t need to be told twice.
Okay, and it was official. He was the weakest-willed man on the entire planet, because he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he shouldn’t be doing this.
But she was naked.
In his bed.
And he loved her…
So despite the myriad reasons why he should put the brakes on this little endeavor, he found himself stalking toward the bed, intent on making love to her.
And it was going to be love. He’d make damn sure of that.
She didn’t believe the words when he gave them to her, so he’d show her with his hands and tongue and body just how much he cherished her, worshipped her.
How much he loved her.
He crawled up the bed, up her body, letting his eyes drift from sweetly painted toes to softly turned calves. Farther to silky thighs and amazingly curvaceous hips.
She had the cutest belly button. So little and perfectly round. It looked like it hadn’t decided whether it wanted to be an outie or an innie, so it’d become both. He couldn’t resist it. When he kissed it delicately, she giggled softly, spearing her fingers into his hair. He took that as his cue to continue his journey northward.
Of course when his gaze landed on her breasts, he had to stop again because…yo…they were perfect. Large and round, with dark, half-dollar-sized nipples. Nipples begging for his kiss.
He didn’t disappoint.
And when he lapped one with his tongue, she sighed. The sound went all through him, turning him on and revving him up.
He sucked her breast gently, loving the way she moaned and arched into him, loving the way his hands were filled to overflowing with her.
Shell wasn’t one of those delicate women who’d snap in two if he held her too tightly. She was an armful. A warm, soft, wonderful armful that he wasn’t afraid to love.
In a word: perfection.
He figured he could continue to make love to her breasts until eternity, knead their delicate lushness and kiss their hard tips until he went toes up from pleasure, but he remembered how much she loved to have her throat kissed. How it made her tilt her head just so…
He made his way up her soft neck, back to her sweet ear, letting his teeth and tongue graze against soft, fragrant skin and reveling in the way she lifted her chin, giving him all the access he could ever desire, giving in to him in a way he’d only dreamed possible.
He wanted to see her face. That beautiful face, those gorgeous eyes, and those amazing lips…
When he pulled back to look down at her, his heart stopped.
Holy, holy hell. She was something all right. Eyes, heavy with passion. Cheeks, bright with a warm blush. Lips, slick and pink and swollen…just like the flesh between her legs would be.
He couldn’t stand it a second longer. He reached down and palmed her gently before inserting one and then a second finger inside her.
She was hot. Wet. A woman ripe with desire. Every dream he’d ever dared to dream. Every hot fantasy he’d conjured up in the middle of the night.
“Make love to me,” she whispered, reaching up to nibble at his jaw, and his dick pulsed so hard he had to grit his teeth or come on the spot.
Two years without a woman was wreaking havoc on his control, which had never proved to be very good with Shell anyway.
“Say it again,” he commanded, his breath sawing from his lungs, his voice harsh as he watched her face, watched her realize exactly what it was that he wanted.
Love. Even in the context of making it. To hear it on her lips in regards to him.
It wasn’t everything he wanted. But it was something. Something he could hold onto. Something he could build on…
A flicker of uncertainty passed over her face, and he held his breath, afraid he might have ruined it. Then she reached for him, grabbing his ears and pulling him down to her, murmuring against his lips, “Jake, please make love to me.”
***
“Shell,” Jake breathed in her ear as he spread her thighs and settled between them.
He peppered her face and neck with kisses, and she heard the crinkle of the foil wrapper. She glanced down, watching his large, tan hands expertly slide the condom on his long, pink erection, and the sight was almost as titillating as the sensation of him when he pressed against her entrance.
He was hot, hard, and throbbing. A second heartbeat to drown out the feel of her own.
“Yes,” she whispered as he slid the barest fraction of an inch inside.
“Oh, Shell…My sweet, sweet, Shell…” His voice was hoarse, the veins in his neck standing out in sharp relief as he tightened his jaw and slung his chin down to watch the impalement of her body with his own.
It was excruciatingly slow, and wonderfully delicious. Ecstasy and agony all rolled into one giant ball of sensation.
Gradually, and oh so gently, he joined them together, seating himself to the hilt with one final jab that rocked her softly against the mattress. And then he stopped, panting, gazing into her eyes.
“You feel so damned good,” he gasped, swinging his hips back only to drive home just as slowly, just as gently. “So damned good.”
Good didn’t begin to describe it.
Snow at Christmas was good. Homemade lasagna was good. This? This was tran
scendent.
It’d been years since her body was forced to yield to the intrusion of hard, male flesh. Too long obviously, because suddenly she was shattering.
All around him.
One moment she was exalting in the novel feeling of sex, the sensation of aching delight she’d denied herself for too long, and the next she was flung from pleasure’s highest cliff.
It was all so unexpected, she shouted his name, digging her nails into his shoulders as her orgasm burst through her again and again, undulating rivers of ecstasy that had a rainbow of colors flashing behind her lids.
“Oh God,” he breathed in her ear, riding the waves with her as he continued to love her so slowly. So expertly.
And when the last remnants of pleasure shivered through her, he lifted himself up on his elbows, gazing down at her with such awe, such desire.
“Jake,” she leaned up to kiss his mouth, saying the only thing she could, “again.”
He smiled then. That sweet, sexy, dimpled smile that’d captured her heart the first time she’d seen it.
“My pleasure,” he rumbled as he began to move.
His body was a machine beneath her fingertips. All oiled muscles and perfectly orchestrated strokes.
He knew exactly how to love her, exactly how to touch her. Oh, the things he did with his mouth and tongue, with the rhythmic, piston swing of his hips…
It was sooo unbelievably delicious. It’d never been this delicious with anybody, and she knew it’d never be this delicious again.
Because this was Jake. The love of her life.
It was scary to finally admit that, especially knowing they could never be. Knowing this would be the one and only time she allowed herself to make love to him.
And she wanted it to last forever. She wanted the world to stop, time to stop, so she could live in this moment. Right here, right now.
“Shell, tell me everything you want.”
What she wanted? She wanted the impossible.
“Please,” she begged, “please don’t stop.”
“Never,” he growled, his hips picking up the rhythm, swinging hard and fast.
And that was just right. Just what she needed to have her teetering on the precipice again. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh…
“Shell…”
She heard the tremor in his voice, felt the tension in the muscles of his back where her fingers curled into the deep divot of his flexing spine. He pushed back to look at her, and she could see the desperation in his eyes as he struggled against his release.
She struggled against hers, too. Because if she went, she knew she’d take him with her, and then it’d be over. This wonderful, beautiful moment would all be over, and she wasn’t ready yet.
Her inner muscles tightened around him, and she ground her jaw, fighting the pleasure.
“Please,” he begged, sweat beading on his forehead, darkening the tips of his blond hair. “Please come with me, Shell.”
And that was it.
She exploded.
There was no other word for it.
Her whole world blew apart, her body throbbing and clinging to his as he continued to thrust into her so deeply. She dissolved into a million fragments of pleasure, and he followed her immediately, shouting, “I love you!” over and over.
Then, as quickly as she’d blown apart, all the little pieces of herself began to reform. Those were her arms, clutching him so tightly. Those were her heels, tucked up under his delicious butt. Those were her lips, pressing hot kisses to the side of his neck.
When he gazed down at her, it took everything she had to resist the warmth in his eyes.
“I love you,” he said again.
And instead of answering, she choked back her tears.
***
Give her time, Jake told himself as he watched Shell close her ears to his proclamation of love once again. Just give her time to see that you’re not going to reject and abandon her like you did four years ago. Then she’ll come around. Then she’ll see…
At least, he hoped she’d see. In truth, he was beginning to have his doubts, and that had everything inside him threatening to shatter. Frustrated tears burned up the back of his throat and, okay, he so wasn’t prepared to be that guy. The one who broke down after orgasm.
“I need to—” he began.
“—take care of the condom,” she finished for him, and when he pulled from her body, it felt like he was leaving his soul behind.
After disposing of the condom in the bathroom trash, he glanced at his reflection in the mirror.
She will come around, he assured himself. After all, she just made love to you.
And he knew she wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t still feel something for him. Shell wasn’t one for casual sex.
Feeling a good measure of his old self-assurance return, he walked out of the bathroom only to find Shell kneeling in the center of the bed, the second foil-wrapped condom held between her fingers, a sultry half-smile playing at her delicious lips.
Yo, she’ll most definitely come around.
In fact, she already was. Though he suspected she hadn’t realized it, yet.
His heart began a happy, steady thrum.
“You ready for round two?” she asked with a little smile that caused two small divots to form beside her fabulous lips. For some reason, the sight of those divots drove him absolutely wild. “Or does a man of your advanced years need a few more minutes?”
And this was the Shell he remembered. Warm, teasing…
He wanted to shoot a victorious fist in the air.
Instead, he satisfied himself with raising a brow. “A man of my advanced years?” he chuckled as he glanced down at his dick.
Upon exiting the bathroom and seeing her there, naked in the middle the bed, the thing had started a steady climb to vertical.
Her eyes followed the direction of his gaze. “Well, well, Mr. Sommers,” she breathed, licking her lips. “I now see why you were such a hit with all the ladies.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet, doll,” he assured her as he stalked toward the bed.
She fell back against the mattress, laughing.
But he didn’t jump on top of her like he knew she was expecting. Instead, he knelt at the edge of the bed and lowered his face between her thighs, sucking in the wonderfully decadent scent of her musky arousal.
He couldn’t resist her. He opened his mouth and kissed her. Her thighs tightened around his ears, but she didn’t jerk away. And that was all the invitation he needed.
Sliding his tongue into the hot heaven of her sex, he reveled in the noises she made. They were cries of joy mixed with pure pleasure. She loved what he was doing to her, and she let him know it, especially when she reached down to grab his hair and pull him more tightly against her.
Then her breathing ratcheted up, and the sounds she was making became desperate. “Jake, please,” she panted. “I want you inside me.”
And, yo, that was another invitation he couldn’t resist.
When he moved from his position between her soft, wonderful thighs, he was gratified to see an unwrapped condom in her hand. She smiled seductively as she slowly rolled it down his length.
She was so beautiful. And tight, he thought as he slowly pushed his length into the moist welcome of her body. That was all the evidence he needed to know she hadn’t been with a man in years. And he was caveman enough to admit that the fact made him ridiculously happy.
“What are you grinning about?” she asked, gasping when he pulled back only to stroke home.
“Just happy,” he said as he moved again, careful to caress every last inch of her.
She grabbed his shoulders then, lifting up to kiss him, her nipples hard against his chest, and he quickened his strokes. And then, for a few glorious minutes, there was no need for words.
Because every second was filled with pure, triumphant pleasure.
But suddenly, “Shell,” he whispered against her lips. “Oh God. I’m really clo
se.”
“Me too,” she moaned, moving with him, her beautiful, pale skin glistening with sweat. “But I’m always so close when I’m with you.”
And that did it.
Jake’s release blasted through him like a cannon shot. “Shell!” He cried her name and felt a flash of relief when her inner muscles contracted around him as she followed him over the edge.
He held her tightly for long moments after the last shivers of ecstasy washed through their joined bodies. Refusing to break the connection, he rolled them onto their sides, staring into her eyes as he ran a reverent finger over her shoulder, down her arm, across her hip and the faint white scars she’d sustained from her pregnancy.
“Ugh,” she wrinkled her nose. “Don’t look at those. They’re ugly.”
“No they’re not,” he assured her, his heart warm inside his chest. “They’re beautiful.”
A sheen of tears pooled in her eyes. “That might be the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. Delusional. But sweet all the same.” She leaned in to kiss him, then pulled back before their lips could touch. Her eyes were huge and wary. “Jake? Is the…uh…are you still wearing a condom?”
Huh?
He reached down between them but was relieved to discover the little plastic ring fully intact and right where it should be.
“Yep,” he pulled out of her, then stared in horror at the remnants of the condom. Which wasn’t really a condom anymore, just a ragged piece of latex dangling around his junk. “Ah, shit,” he said at the same time Shell squealed and vaulted off the mattress.
She pointed at the broken condom like it might grow teeth and bite her. “Wh-what the hell, Jake?”
“Hey,” he reached for her. “It’s okay. These things happen.”
“Not to me,” she swatted at his hands. “These things don’t happen to me.” Then she turned away and bolted into the bathroom, muttering something under her breath he didn’t quite catch.
He sighed when he heard the lid to the toilet slam up followed by the sound of her relieving herself. He wanted to tell her urinating after sex as a way to fight off pregnancy was just an old wives’ tale, but she worked in the medical field, so he figured she knew a lot more than he did about such things. Besides, if the last look on her face was anything to go by, she wasn’t in any mood to hear his helpful observations.
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