by Liz Kelly
“Mmm,” she said, relaxing into his care. “Let’s see…back at the pool…my hands are locked around Bad-Boy’s neck, and I’m weightless in his arms as we drift, slippery skin against slippery skin. His kisses become more aggressive, and in between them he’s whispering endearments. He tells me how much he missed me. How lucky he is to have found me. And now that he has me in his arms, he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to let me go.”
“Sounds like a pussy.”
“You did request a fantasy.”
Piper felt her top being pulled over her head and off her arms, but she was so focused on her story it didn’t fully register.
“And then his talk gets sexy,” she said quietly, luxuriating in the feel of Vance’s hands on her body. “Real sexy. He talks about how turned on he is by my body while his hands create goose bumps over my sides, my back…my rear end. He has a lot to say about my rear end. He takes a couple steps forward and my legs drift down and wrap around his waist, and now we are touching from shoulder to hip and everywhere in between.”
Piper smiled when Vance mumbled a curse right before sinking his teeth into the tendon between her neck and shoulder. “How come I’m getting jealous?” he whispered as he nuzzled his head deeper into that space. His chin, his hair, tickled as he sought the softer skin of her neck. He sucked a healthy portion into his mouth. Lust sprang from the connection, firing off ready signals to every sensitive spot in her body. Her feet flexed at the bottom of the bed. Her arms slipped down underneath her chest, clasping her hands together. She turned her face into the sheets and moaned.
Vance kissed his way across her shoulders, tasted his way down her spine, and lingered with his tongue at the center of the small of her back. His hands ventured farther, kneading the roundness of her derrière. “Relax,” he urged against her skin. “Relax, baby doll.”
She hadn’t noticed that her body was clenched up tight. Even her face was twisted. She turned her cheek to the side, loosening up her hands, her arms, her legs, and then her feet. She breathed deep and let the internal tension seep away.
“Better,” Vance whispered against the indentations on her lower back—his hands investigating the contours of her hips, her thighs, and her buttocks. “So we’re in the pool. And we’re naked. Your legs are around my hips.”
“And everything’s slippery,” she reminded him with her eyes closed.
“And everything’s slippery,” he repeated. “So what happens next?”
“Your…I mean, Bad-Boy’s hands are free to roam because I’m doing all the holding on. So they move between our bodies to my breasts. Which, by the way, he’s not seemed all that interested in. Which is highly unusual. Even gay men like my breasts.”
She felt Vance stop everything. And that caused her to smile.
He flipped her over without warning. Her eyes flew open to find Vance looking his fill. “Baby doll,” he said, “you do have magnificent breasts. You’re so tiny everywhere, and then…these,” he let the word draw out like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “There isn’t a thing about you that doesn’t make me ache.” He leaned down and kissed the tender skin between her breasts while he nudged her legs apart, laying himself in between. His mouth tongued one nipple, his hand molding itself to the other. “If you had any idea the number of fantasies about your breasts alone….”
Piper ran her fingers through his hair how he liked, scraping her nails lightly across his scalp. “I’m looking forward to hearing about those,” she claimed, smiling down at the top of his head. “Oh, and Vance?” she said softly. “Even though I don’t travel with papers, I am perfectly healthy. And I have birth control taken care of.”
His head popped up. “Are you saying I don’t need to wear a condom?”
“I’m saying I’m comfortable either way. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“Whatever I’m—? Damn, you really are Perfect Piper,” he said before kissing his way farther down her body. His hand skimmed over her waist. His mouth sucked in the soft flesh under her belly button. “Piper,” he said, his breathing starting to get heavy. “I’ve never had sex without a condom.” His hands slid to her hips, gripping the sides of her lingerie. “And I guess I’ve never, really, made love before,” he confessed as he pulled the lace down her hips and legs. “This is going to be my very first time.”
Piper’s heart melted with gladness as she kicked off her undies. Vance slid his hands back up her legs and stopped. “Oh. Dear. God,” he breathed, looking at her naked body. “You’re blond everywhere.” His hands and arms stretched up underneath her back, his head bending low to kiss her right in the center of those blond curls. And then he opened his mouth and kissed her again. “I’ve literally dreamed about this,” he whispered before kissing her deeper,” and I woke up with a raging hard-on.”
As his tongue worked his Vance Evans magic, Piper sucked in a breath and lifted her hips off the bed. “I guess that works for you,” he said before trying it again and getting the same reaction. “Piper, I swear to God that is such a turn-on,” he whispered. His mouth went to work, his tongue circling and then stroking again and again, varying the amount of pressure he applied.
She was in a state of semiconscious bliss when one of his hands eased from underneath her and laid itself possessively against her tummy. His palm tugged the skin of her belly up making it taut, which caused the magic he was wielding with his tongue to trigger some crazy gymnastics within her nerve centers. She’d never experienced feeling so on the edge—teetering on the brink—milking all of the pleasure of that just-before-orgasm moment. She bit her lip to avoid whimpering while solely focused on his incredible mouth. But when she felt the breadth of two fingers ease inside her she couldn’t help but moan.
“Mmmm,” he hummed against her, which made her gasp. His fingers did a slow stroke somewhere inside, and all she could do was tell him how good it felt before her body convulsed into waves and waves and waves of delicious orgasm.
“Oh…Vance,” she panted, thinking she was done. Thinking she was never, ever going to experience anything like that again. She started running her hands over her face and her hair, telling him how glorious that was even while her lower body continued to convulse with mini-orgasms. She wanted Vance to know.
But all of a sudden, she felt herself climbing. Vance hadn’t stopped his magic. He kept using his mouth, his hand, and his fingers as if he hadn’t just brought her to the greatest climax in the history of the world. He kept her body climbing, reaching. Like a circular staircase straight into heaven, her body kept going up and around, reaching another level, another climax and then going around again, coming to an even stronger orgasm, and then again and again, each one farther, longer, more intense. She groaned for him to stop. Pleaded for him to stop. And then finally ordered, “Stop now!” with her arms collapsing over her head.
After a few moments, Vance lifted his head and moved his hands, starting at both of her ankles and sliding them all the way up her legs, over her hips, up her sides, over her shoulders, and all the way up the length of her arms. His body followed behind his hands and he laid his long, sinewy form down on hers inch by magnificent inch until they touched skin to skin everywhere—his legs against her legs, his hips against her hips, his stomach against her stomach, his chest against her chest, his arms against her arms, palms flat against each other. His mouth consumed hers. Stretched out beneath him, Piper’s body rejoiced, opened, and submitted.
“Piper,” he rasped against her cheek. “If I hurt you, you tell me. I’ll be able to adjust, but you tell me, okay?” She nodded. “You’re so little. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He drew his hands down her body, and she felt a hand draw her left knee up. He bent his head, and then she felt him push against her. One arm came forward to support his weight while his other arm kept her leg bent as he slowly pushed for entry. He felt thick and substantial—exactly what her body craved. With all the lubrication they’d created he slid in easily, and she fe
lt sensation everywhere. He pulled out and slid in farther, giving her more. And after he pulled out again, she saw him look down and watch himself slide all the way in, filling her completely. He groaned with such unabashed pleasure that Piper rewarded him by squeezing her internal muscles.
“Christ.” He grimaced as his breath caught. His eyes were closed and his jaw was drawn tight. “How the…? Piper,” he breathed as he licked his lips. He had hardly moved, yet he’d broken into a sweat. “That feels so good. You feel so good, but just…let me…give me….” She relaxed around him and he exhaled.
“Baby doll,” he said as he leaned over and kissed her thoroughly, their bodies intimately connected. “What the hell did I do to deserve you?” he asked against her lips. He kissed her some more. “Your body, it’s like….” He started moving his hips then, pulling his full length out and moving back in, nice and slow.
“It’s like what?” she prompted.
He shook his head and kissed her again. Moving nice…and…slow. “That feels good,” he said, seeming well-satisfied by the rhythm.
“Mmm, and my body is like?”
“Is like—Oh God,” he blurted out, holding himself still, stopping everything. “Baby doll,” he said, panting, looking down into her eyes, blinking sweat from his own. “Your body is the hottest, sexiest wet dream ever,” he whispered. “And I mean that,” he said as he started moving again, “in the best—oh God,” he whispered, “possible…” he said before he cursed again, “…way. You’re just so tiny. So slippery, so agile.” He started pumping, deliberately pulling less length out and then thrusting back in. “And this no-condom thing,” he said tightly, thrusting harder, “is fucking brilliant.”
Piper did her best, but in the position Vance had her, she could hardly move. So she concentrated on timing the tightening of her internal muscles with his withdrawals.
“Oh, hell, yes.” He pushed himself up and watched her face as he pumped faster. Piper spread her knee up and out, giving him more room, more leverage. Her reward was a shift in his features—as if he couldn’t believe it could feel any better. The muscles of his shoulders went taut as Piper slid her hands over them, reveling in his power, his masculine form. That’s when her awareness of the constant friction came into play.
“Vance,” she whispered, starting to concentrate on what was building. “Keep going if you can,” she breathed, finding a way to move in opposition now that it seemed vitally important. “This is starting to feel better than good,” she told him. “I think…I think I might be able to come like this,” she said in awe, closing her eyes and concentrating on the sensations of their bodies coming together.
“Piper. Sweet Piper,” he breathed. “You are so good at this,” he praised, spurring her on as he continued to pitch deep and thorough. “I knew getting inside you was going to be amazing,” he whispered in her ear. “You are perfect—perfect for me. So come on, take what you need, baby. We can do this, baby doll. So good. That’s it. So…damn…good.”
His body had brought her to the edge and now his talk was throwing her over.
Her body wrenched upward as all sensation pressed down, coiled and tightened. A series of convulsions gripped Piper, squeezing excruciating pleasure from her body. Squeezing the part of Vance that plunged and bore, driving toward his own release.
Vance roared at the sensation. His body shuddered, and he held himself deep inside her as his ejaculation pulsed over and over, finally causing him to gasp for breath and pant at the finish. He swayed, struggling to keep above her, to hold his sweat-drenched body at bay.
Making a last-ditch effort to save himself.
Piper reached up and ran her fingertips through his hair and watched him give in.
Piper welcomed his weight as he gently laid his body down and tightened his arms around her. “I love you,” he breathed into her neck. “Please don’t leave me.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Piper rested her head on Vance's chest and snuggled up against his naked body in her own bed. Which was sheer heaven. The hell of it was that the dawn of that dreaded Monday morning—after two weeks and three days of vacation—had arrived.
After so many glorious mornings of walking out into the hot summer air and enjoying the twinkling sunlight glistening off the Evans’ family pool, stepping back into her Lawyer Beaumont persona seemed so…restrictive.
She’d have to wear shoes.
She sighed and rolled to her back, because that wasn’t the worst of it.
Now that she was back in Raleigh, she wasn’t going to be able to waltz into the Evans’ gourmet kitchen where she had carte blanche to bake and cook as she pleased. Or hop in the Maserati and take a picnic lunch over to Vance at his office. And poor Jesse was bound to eat all of the Toll House cookies she’d left him before she could get back to Henderson next weekend with a fresh batch. Pinks wasn’t going to be happy that Hale had finished off the last of her 10 Molar Chocolate Cake, and Emelina had become addicted to her French macaroons.
Oh! And Tansy. Once Piper figured out Tansy hoarded her Sea Salt Caramels, she became Vance’s secret weapon on the Tansy Langford front. Whatever Vance needed done was completed without a big fat quarrel as long as the request was accompanied by Piper’s caramels.
So maybe she wasn’t keeping people out of jail through her guilty pleasure of baking. But it sure seemed her efforts were appreciated just the same.
And now she’d be coming home every night to…nothing. Nothing but an empty condo. None of Vance’s family, none of their friends, no crazy stories about the mounting gossip in town over the upcoming wedding. No Pinks and Jesse tossing random girls in the pool or crashing through the house with lacrosse sticks.
And no Vance, she sighed, turning her head so she could get in a couple of last looks at his handsome face. She was startled to find his eyes open and staring at her.
“You okay, baby doll?” he asked, rolling over on top of her.
“I’m fine,” she huffed, stroking his hair the way he liked. “Just suffering the beginnings of a vacation hangover.”
“Mmm,” Vance said, kissing her chin and moving lower. “Turn in your two-weeks’ notice this morning and call a realtor. We’ll have you back in Henderson before you know it.”
“I can’t move to Henderson.”
“Why not,” Vance said, his head popping up. “Don’t you like Henderson?”
“I love Henderson,” she said tenderly, touching his face. “I love everything about it. I love your family and the people I met. I love…well, there’s nothing I don’t love. But my work is here.”
Vance scoffed. “I can start throwing kids in jail on all kinds of trumped up charges. I’ll get Brooks to do it too. We can create plenty of work for you in Henderson.”
“The law firm is here.”
Vance started kissing his way down her body again. “Brooks is trying to persuade Duncan to open a law firm in Henderson. The business boom we’re creating is going to need a guy like him, and it’s also going to attract more families to the area. Plenty of kids who will need cop-hating lawyers defending them.”
“Ah! I am no longer a cop-hating lawyer.” Piper insisted, but her stomach twisted. Something, something…but she lost her train of thought as Vance rolled her over onto her stomach and bit her derrière.
“You are not a boob man are you? You, Vance Evans, are an ass man,” she said into her pillow. Vance snickered. She yelped when he smacked her backside.
“And you, baby doll, have one fine ass.”
Yup, Piper thought as she faced her little…tiny…bo-ring office, with no fancy French oven or pretty bowls filled with rising dough. “I’ve got a vacation hangover for sure,” she said out loud as she felt her stomach pitch. She went in search of Tums.
She felt the same way when she arrived on Tuesday morning and then again on Wednesday morning. On Thursday morning, when the sight of her office made her sick to her stomach, she gave herself a stern talking-to about getting her head back
into the game, about the clients who depended on her, and the firm she owed her best to. Then she soothed herself with the thought that in less than forty-eight hours she could pack a bag and scramble back to Henderson for Hale and Genevra’s wedding.
The talking-to seemed to work. She managed to get everything done with ease. Even her emails, done, done, done. She’d lunched with her office gal pals and filled them in with the PG-rated version of her two-week fantasy vacation with Vance. She had to leave out the time Vance insisted he make love to her on Davis’ desk at E&E, and the time she got a little aggressive in the Rolls Royce while it was still parked in the garage. Oh, and she neglected to embellish the sketchy details she gave about the romantic episode in the Jacuzzi at three in the morning—or the seven different ways Vance took her both under the stars and in broad daylight at the site of his future home.
So, when Friday morning rolled around and the sight of her boring office sent her running for the ladies’ room to heave her breakfast, Piper realized this new aversion to practicing law was starting to become a real problem.
The weather on Saturday, August 21 enveloped Henderson in glorious sunshine, low humidity, heavenly breezes, and temperatures in the low eighties. Hale Evans wouldn’t have it any other way, they all said. The man was so wealthy and so in love that he could command the weather these days. Of course his wedding day would be just as exquisite as the bride he was marrying, they all said.
And that was just the beginning of what they all were saying.
Piper put on her new turquoise dress. Yellow may be her signature color, but she was getting sick of it. It had a short full skirt and straps that crisscrossed over her bare back. There was a sweet little bow where the X marked the center, and Piper felt pretty and feminine in it. She hoped the dress would get a favorable response from Vance. If nothing else, it showed off her poolside vacation tan beautifully.