One-Click Buy: September Harlequin Blaze

by Jo Leigh

  “I don’t,” she squeaked.

  “What are you so afraid of, Katie?” he murmured.

  “I’m not afraid,” she denied. But it was true. All of it. She’d never made love in a bed and she preferred having wild, quick sex in adventurous places while role-playing. “I like sex to be exciting and spontaneous and innovative and-”

  “Impersonal,” he finished.

  “That’s not what I was going to say.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s accurate.”

  Until this moment, until he’d called her on it, she’d never caught on that she avoided having sex in a bed. She thought it was because she was impulsive and creative, but now she knew that wasn’t the truth. Now she understood the reason why she’d eschewed beds for floors and swimming pools and closets and movie theatres. Why risk and danger and quick, hurried mating with men she barely knew had been her modus operandi.

  Beds were where married people made love. Beds were for committed, long-term relationships. And she just didn’t have that kind of staying power. Everyone said so.

  “What are you so afraid of?” Liam repeated

  You! The way you make me feel. The stark terror that if I let myself love you, somehow I’ll lose who I am.

  He swung his legs over the bed, got up and stalked toward her, his naked, erect penis bouncing jauntily with every step.

  Katie took a step back from him until her bare bottom butted up against the door. She wanted to turn and flee, but Liam wasn’t about to let her get away.

  He planted both hands against the door over her head, leaned in, lowered his head and looked deeply into her eyes. “I understand you completely, Katie Winfield. Maybe even better than you understand yourself.”

  Hypnotized, she stared into his eyes, waiting for him to tell her what was wrong with her.

  “Doesn’t it get tiring?” he asked.

  His question was unexpected and made her feel as if he were peeling off the edges of her skin, digging for the woman who lay beneath the surface. Her throat was closing off.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “Staying in motion, staying busy, trying to outrun your feelings.”

  “I’m not…” Katie broke off at the tenderness in his eyes. She couldn’t talk against the pressure weighing down on her chest.

  “It’s okay to be ordinary,” he murmured. “It’s okay for things to be boring once in a while. There’s nothing wrong with taking a time out. In fact, when you slow down, you’re really able to experience your adventures.”

  “Oh, that’s rich.” Her laugh sounded hollow. “Coming from you, Mr. Workaholic.”

  “Hey, it’s the lesson you taught me. You’ve helped me to realize, all work and no play makes Liam a dull boy. But what I’m trying to tell you is that all go and no staying power makes Katie incomplete. Slow down with me, sweetheart. Let’s explore this whole new experience together.”

  As she looked into his eyes, she knew he saw her for who she really was. He saw past the flirtation and the fun and the flair for the dramatic. He saw the vulnerable Katie who was hiding behind a live-for-today motto. He knew her.

  To the very essence of her soul.

  Tears rolled slowly down her cheeks. Liam dipped his head and kissed them away. Then he gently lifted her up into his arms again and took her back to the bed.

  This time, she didn’t protest.

  “Just look into my eyes until the fear passes,” he said. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

  Katie smiled up at him through a mist of tears. He settled her against the pillows, tenderly brushing his fingers through her hair.

  He was watching her, his eyes taking in every curve and dip of her body. His glance traveled from her shoulders, to her breast, to her waist and lower, up and down the length of her legs. Then stopping to linger a moment at the blond apex between her thighs.

  Awareness and a dazzling heat prickled her skin. She’d never felt so exposed. She’d thought that night he’d taken her on top of the Lamborghini was sexually charged. But that time, because he’d taken her from behind, she’d been unable to read his reaction to her body. Now, she saw every erotic thought that crossed his face.

  And she understood fully the power she held over him. It simply blew her away.

  Her body ignited with the heat of his gaze. That unabashed stare of appreciation caused her heart to knock against her rib cage.

  He kissed her lightly, sweetly, drawing it out.

  “That’s it sweetheart,” he said when she moaned softly. “Relax and enjoy every minute of this. We’ve got all weekend and then some.”

  Lowering his head, Liam pressed his lips to her bare belly and then kissed his way back up to her nipples, which were aching with desire.

  She quivered at the luscious sensation.

  “How’s that feel?”

  “Mmm.” It was all she could manage.

  He flicked his tongue over one straining bud and then carefully bit down. Reedy blades of pleasure sliced deliriously throughout her breast. She moaned louder.

  “You like?”

  “No.”

  “No?” He stopped.

  “I love,” she purred.

  He grinned and went back to work-his mouth suckling, his tongue caressing, fingers tickling.

  Brilliant. It felt like shooting stars.

  After a long, leisurely exploration that left her hauling in shallow gasps of air, he left her nipples and traveled downward. He spent some time at her navel, playing with that little gold hoop, teasing it in and out of his mouth. The gentle pulling sensation produced crazy, erotic ripples in her belly that undulated all the way down into her throbbing clit.

  When his lips reached her straining, hungry clit, he stopped short of touching her with his tongue. His breath was hot against her sensitive flesh, inflaming her beyond understanding.

  She arched her hips again, trying to bring his mouth and her clit into contact but he moved with her, keeping his mouth just out of her reach.

  “Brute.”

  He laughed.

  “You enjoy torturing me.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Liam admitted. “Stick with me, sweetheart. We’ll get there and I promise you it will be worth the wait.”

  She didn’t want to wait. She wanted him to make love to her with his mouth right this very minute. Her brain glazed with lust, her blood pumped feverishly.

  Gingerly, Liam spread her thighs wider and moved his body around so that he was positioned between her legs. “So beautiful,” he murmured.

  The head of his cock throbbed against her knee as he leaned forward. Katie’s excitement catapulted. What sweet, desperate pressure.

  His big fingers caressed her clit as his tongue probed her folds. Katie’s eyes slid closed, blocking out everything except his touch.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”

  His tongue captured her hooded cleft.

  Never in all her life had she been pleasured this way. It was rapture. It was ecstasy.

  Liam seemed to know exactly what she needed even better than she knew herself. He reveled in her and he made her feel cherished. It was dangerous territory, these tender feelings, but she couldn’t stop them, so she rode, letting the anxiety build, experienced it and then allowed it to drop away.

  While he toyed with her clit, Liam slipped an index finger into her slick, wetness. The walls of her womanhood tugged at him, gripping and kneading him in rhythmic waves, pulling his finger deeper and deeper into her.

  Sound was altered and she existed in the delicious void of ocean waves and heavy breathing. She floated, bodyless. She was total awareness, her entire being a giant throb of sexual energy.

  She surfed his tongue, owned it. She hovered on the brink of orgasm, but he would not let her experience release. A steady strumming vibration began deep in her throat, emerging as a wild moan.

  “Liam, Liam
,” she cried his name.

  “What is it, sweetheart?”

  “Make me come.”

  He let loose then, giving her everything, holding nothing back. His tongue danced, his fingers manipulated. She let go and allowed him to take over. It seemed he was everywhere. Over her, around her, in her, outside of her.

  He was magic. He was wonder. He was amazing.

  “More.” She thrashed her head. “More, more. Give me more.”

  He gave it to her just the way she asked for it, pumping his hand into her with his fingers. His thumb pressed her clit like a trigger, shooting off the secret button of her release.

  “Come Katie, come for me,” he coaxed.

  She exploded.

  The orgasm overtook her in great, writhing pleasure moans.

  She cried out, her voice echoing around the room. Laying there, she trembled with the power of what he’d just done to her.

  And she realized that making love in a bed hadn’t been boring or predictable or uninspired. In fact, it had been the most intimate, intense, moving experience of her life.

  13

  LIAM TOOK HER to dinner at an elegant restaurant, specializing in Pacific fusion, not far from the bungalow. Utilizing indigenous seafood, the chef paired French cooking and Asian flavors. Adventuresome Katie ordered squid and sushi. Liam, sticking with more traditional fare, went with the tuna.

  They were seated at the best table near a romantic waterfall surrounded by exotic vegetation. He looked dashing in his suit, although she couldn’t wait until she could get him out of it again.

  Liam ate like a man whose appetite had been whetted. Tilting her head, she watched him in the candlelight and couldn’t believe she’d underestimated his passion. This was a man who could really enjoy himself when he allowed his playful side to come out.

  Briefly, they discussed both his ad campaign-which was almost finished-and the bungalow’s profitability. Liam’s opinion was that her family could make more by keeping the bungalow and renting it out than by selling it. Then, he presented the downside to renting versus selling. But this dinner wasn’t about business and they both knew it.

  “Which way would you go do you think?” Katie quizzed. “Sell or rent?”

  “When you’ve got something valuable, you should hang on to it.” He was gazing at her, and she knew he wasn’t talking about real estate.

  “Is that the outlook that turned you into a tycoon?”

  “No. What’s got me where I am today is recognizing a great opportunity when it falls into my lap.”

  Katie felt a blush of heat radiate up her neck. The more she was around him, the more she found to like and admire. He was strong and masculine, but also tender and kind. And he made her hope for something she’d never hoped for in her life.

  She savored her dessert of bananas foster while Liam sipped a brandy. He raised his glass and winked at her.

  Katie winked back, noticing how his hazel eyes darkened with appreciation whenever he looked at her.

  He paid for the meal against her protest that she owed him for flying all the way to Fiji to assess her family’s property, but he hushed her by saying, “We both know that’s not why you invited me. Nor was it the reason I came.”

  For one heart-stopping moment, she thought he knew about her Martini dare, but she quickly realized that was impossible. She’d almost forgotten about the silly dare herself.

  He held out his hand to her as they left the restaurant. “Stroll on the beach?”

  “How about skinny-dipping in the moonlight?”

  “To be honest,” he said, “I never found sex on a beach quite what it’s cracked up to be. Too much sand in all the wrong places, and now that I’ve been introduced to the wonders of regular bed sex, I don’t want us to lose our momentum.”

  “Okay,” she agreed without protest because she was enjoying the bed sex more than she wanted to let on. She slipped her arm through his, snuggled up close against his warm body. Sated happiness, sweet and light, filtered from her head to her toes.

  When they reached the sand, Katie took off her sandals and hooked them around two fingers. Hand in hand they walked along the beach, the surf lapping at their feet.

  The night breeze was balmy, but the heat rolling off his body was sizzling. Her own body heat was inching upward as she thought about what would happen when they got back to the bungalow. Every time she caught a whiff of his cologne, she felt a jolt of desire deep inside.

  She loved the feelings he generated, wished she could feel them forever. He let go of her hand to slip his arm around her waist, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

  Fifteen minutes later, having gotten their fill of ocean and moonlight, they picked their way up the path to the bungalow.

  Liam took the keys from her, unlocked the door and held it open for her. Once they’d crossed the threshold, he drew her into the circle of his embrace. While he kissed her, he inched down the zipper on the back of her aqua-and-white floral sheath dress.

  Every nerve in her body came alive. Katie shivered as his mouth moved slowly from her lips to her chin to the smooth column of her throat. Her dress slipped off her shoulders, fell past her hips. Dreamily, she stepped out of it.

  Wearing only panties and pearls, she turned to unbutton Liam’s crisp white shirt. Once the buttons were undone, and she wrested the shirt off his shoulders, Katie splayed her hands and pushed her palms over his bare chest.

  “Ssss,” she hissed in appreciation. “I love your chest.”

  “No more than I love yours,” he said, and cupped her breasts in his hands.

  She giggled and reached for the waistband of his pants.

  Liam took her hand and led her slowly into the bedroom. This time, she did not try to avoid the bed.

  “You know,” she whispered as he laid her down, “you’re the only man I’ve ever made love to in a bed.”

  “I kind of figured.”

  “How did you know?”

  He kissed her forehead. “You can’t hide anything from me, Katie Winfield.”

  Suddenly, she didn’t want to hide anything from him. She wanted to tell him everything. All her secrets, all her shame. But their bodies were too fired up for more conversation.

  They were looking at each other and their tandem breathing quickened. Falling and rising in spiky inhalations and shuddered releases. The moonlight streaming in through the lanai sensitized their sense of touch, taste, hearing and smell.

  His palms weren’t calloused, but they were manly-strong and flat-as they skimmed over her breasts. The sound he made had her picturing a panther prowling his cage. And his scent-so masculine and musky it filled her nose and stirred her libido.

  He pulled her up tight against his chest, pressing her to his hard angles that promised so much enjoyment. She tilted her head and planted a kiss on his chin.

  Their chemistry took over and they descended into rapture.

  Katie whimpered in desperation. She wanted to feel him the way he was feeling her. She gripped his hard-muscled back, dug her fingernails into his skin. Desire rolled through her veins, tugged her down on an upsurge of sexual need. Tossed her heedlessly toward a destiny she couldn’t fathom but lusted after. Her sex clenched hard, eager to meld with his.

  His erection stabbed through his briefs, the hard ridge of him pushing against exactly the right spot on her.

  Katie moaned soft and low. She swayed into him, bumping her hips against his.

  He nibbled her earlobe, growled into her ear. A lightning bolt of desire shot straight to her womb. He brought his pelvis hard into hers, his erection poking provocatively, offering erotic possibilities of what was to come.

  Katie wanted to feel him inside her. She was overtaken by the feeling, flooded with need and being needed. There was no restraint.

  She wanted it.

  Wanted him.

  Wanted to feel every
thing all at once.

  She grabbed the top of his briefs and pulled them down. He helped her, kicking them over his feet.

  Naked together again.

  He touched her, gently pushing his thick middle finger inside of her, stroking her ache.

  She nipped his shoulder and then sank her teeth lightly into his flesh.

  He touched her in places that ignited thoughts of what it would feel like when he was between her thighs, pushing deep enough inside her to soothe that throbbing ache.

  She stroked his erection. He pulsed and throbbed against her hand. His entire body shuddered.

  “Condom?” she whispered.

  “I’ve got it.”

  His mouth caught hers again in a possessive kiss that made her quiver. Caught her, arrested her. They were swept up by a maelstrom of passion. Completely and utterly vulnerable to each other.

  Her fingers tingled to skate down those masculine curves and hard-muscled ridges.

  He clamped a hand around her bottom and drew her up tight against his hardness and she melted. Into him, into the darkness of midnight.

  Liam leveled himself into her, slipping in with surprisingly gentle movements considering how fired up they both were.

  She hissed in a breath. The minute Liam was snug inside, her muscles contracted around him.

  “Oh, no, ma’am, don’t start that yet,” he said, “or I won’t last a minute.”

  But he felt so good, so big and thick that she couldn’t resist squeezing.

  Slowly, he began to move. Their bodies fit. Hand in glove.

  “What a woman,” he growled. “You are magnificent.”

  He cupped her chin with his palm, raised her face up, rained kisses onto her chin. Her eyelids, her nose, her cheeks, her forehead. Then he took her mouth again, kissing her more deeply than she ever thought possible. Taking her breath, taking her heart, taking everything she had.

  She felt every manly inch of him as he slid in and out of her warm moist folds, his movements languid and pointed. Clearly designed to drive her quite mad. She could feel it coming, gathering in her womb, rumbling up from deep within her.

  His thrusts lengthened, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life.