by Joanne Rock
“But we’d scarcely seen each other for a decade.” He reached toward her, as if to stroke her cheek, but he must have thought better of it when his hand fell to his side. “I was surprised how well we got back into sync.”
“You might be more surprised to know how much more in sync we could be.” The words leaped from her mouth.
One moment they were in her head. The next they were in the air, with no way to recapture them.
She saw the instant that full understanding hit him. The instant he heard the proposition underlying those words. His gaze shifted to her mouth, the heat in his eyes like a laser in its intensity.
“Of course it would not surprise me. That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you.” He focused all his attention on her. “You’ve occupied every second of my thoughts today. You’ve got me so damn distracted, I can hardly think about football.”
Still he didn’t move toward her. Didn’t give in to the current that leaped back and forth between them. Her cells practically strained toward the sound of his voice.
“Then, maybe you ought to call off this engagement charade before you tank a season that means everything to you.” She wouldn’t make the first move again. Being impulsive with him the night before had only complicated things between them.
“I don’t think so.” He reached behind her and tugged a pin from the knot at the back of her head. Then, sifting through the half-fallen mass, he found two more and pulled them free.
Her hair tumbled to her bare shoulders and covered her arms. She shivered despite the warmth of the night, awareness flooding through her like high tide.
“Why not?” Her voice rasped low from the effort of not stepping closer. She wanted him to touch her the way he had the night before. Craved the feel of his body against hers.
“Because I have a better solution for all this distraction you’re causing.” He combed his fingers through the ends of her hair, smoothing it along her back.
Sensation shimmered over her skin, nerve endings dancing to life. Desire pooled in her belly as her gaze roamed over his powerful arms and shoulders, the solid wall of his chest that would be warm to her touch.
“A way to stop all this distraction?” She needed to know what he was thinking before her thoughts smoldered away in the blaze erupting between them.
“I’m beginning to think that’s a lost cause after last night.” His hands moved to her hips as he stepped into her space, crowding her in the most delicious possible way. “That dress you wore last night flipped some kind of switch in my head and I can’t stop thinking about this spot.” He palmed the front of her thigh. “Right here.”
Her breath caught on a hard gasp. Pleasure spiked. Her breasts beaded under the bodice of her dress.
“Do you remember where I mean?” His eyes were dark and lit by firelight, reflecting the bright orange flames beside them. He traced a pattern on the front of her leg, fingering gently. “There was a sheer place in the lace. Here.”
He increased the pressure of his touch and she couldn’t swallow a strangled sound in the back of her throat. He hadn’t even kissed her yet and she was utterly mesmerized.
“I remember.” Her words were a breathless whisper as she steadied herself against his shoulders, anchoring her quivering body with his strength.
“If I’m a bad friend to you, Addy, you only have that dress to blame.” He shifted his hold on her to align their hips, allowing her to feel how much he wanted her. “But I damn well can’t resist any longer.”
Seven
Dempsey’s control had snapped the second she’d suggested they could be even more in sync. He’d been hanging on by a thread before that moment, willing himself not to think about the tender brush of her lips on his the night before. Not to think about that damn siren’s dress she’d worn or the way she’d melted in his arms.
So by the time she’d made that one coy, flirtatious taunt, his restraint had simply incinerated.
From that moment on, he’d been plagued with sweaty visions of them moving together in perfect sensual accord. Now that he had his hands on her, molding her sweet, curvy body to his, he didn’t have a prayer of putting a lid back on this combustible attraction.
He kissed her. Hard. With deliberate purpose. Need. Seeking entrance, he explored every nuance of her mouth, claiming it with a hunger and thoroughness he couldn’t hold back. The way she opened for him, swayed into him, encouraged him all the more.
Unleashed, his emotions fired through the kiss until he all but devoured her. She clutched his shoulders, her nails biting ever so slightly into his skin through his shirt. He wished he could torch their clothes so he could feel the sting of that touch without barrier.
He bent to nuzzle her neck, tasting the skin all along her throat and under her ear until he found the source of her fragrance. The scent of roses made him throb with teeth-jarring need. He nipped and licked his way down her collarbone along the strap of her dress and peeled the fabric free. He had to feel more of her.
But right before he helped himself to one of her breasts, he remembered they were still outdoors. And even though it was nighttime, the fire might make them visible to one of the houses dotting the lake if someone was so inclined to spy. The porches of plenty of coastal homes were furnished with telescopes.
“I want to take you inside.” He nudged the strap of her dress back up her shoulder, his hand unsteady and his breath uneven. The ache from wanting her still heated his veins.
“I want to take you anywhere I can have you.” She loosened her hold on him as she edged back a step. “So that’s definitely fine with me.”
Her words fanned the flames hotter inside him. Aching to have her, he swept her up in his arms and charged over the lawn toward the house.
“Your room is closer.” He said it to himself as much as her, directing his steps toward the downstairs bedroom. “But the condoms are all upstairs.” He changed direction, cursing himself for the mansion’s extravagant square footage when it delayed having Adelaide.
She nipped at his neck while he covered the distance, those delectable breasts of hers pressed tight to his chest as she clutched him. She made a luscious armful, her thighs draped over one arm while her hip grazed the erection that had hounded him the better part of the day.
“I can’t wait to feel you without the barrier of clothes,” she murmured against his ear, her breath puffing a silken caress along his skin.
“That’s good.” He ground the words out between clenched teeth as he finally reached the door to his suite. “Because I don’t think we’re going to leave this room until the game on Sunday.”
He needed to wear himself out with her. To excise this hunger spilling over into every aspect of his life until all he could think about was Adelaide.
Setting her on her feet, he backed her into the nearest wall, yearning to feel more of her. Light spilled into the room from low-wattage sconces on either side of the bed that came on automatically at sunset. He toed the door shut behind them and took another valuable second to flip the lock into place. Then all of his focus returned to Adelaide.
Immersing his hands in all that long, caramel-colored hair of hers, he shifted the length of it over one shoulder in a silky veil. His body pinned hers in place, hips sinking into hers where they fit best.
He was dying to have her. It was as if he’d been holding back for years instead of days, and maybe subconsciously he had been. That friendship wall could be a strong one. Mistresses were plentiful. Friends, true friends, were few. But the time for restraint was long gone as he tugged the straps of her thin sundress down and exposed a pretty turquoise-colored bra that wouldn’t be nearly as enticing as what was underneath. Applying his hands to the hooks, he swept that aside, too, so he could get his mouth around the tight buds of dark pink nipples he’d felt right through her clothes.
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Her back arched to give him better access, her body straining toward his while he laved and licked at one and then the other. She made soft sexy sounds that told him how much she liked what he was doing, and her hands worked the buttons on his shirt until she was touching bare skin. He hauled the shirt off his shoulders and let it slide to the floor, his eyes never leaving her. With her dress tugged down and all that goddess hair draped over her shoulders, she made one hell of a vision.
Lifting her against him, he slid a hand up her skirt to wrap her leg around his waist. Positioned that way, the vulnerable, hot core of her came up against his rock-hard erection. She shuddered against him, a subtle vibration he felt right there, a sensation so damn good he cupped her hips and moved her against him again and again. A sensual ride he wanted to give her for real.
“That feels...” Her words broke on a small cry of pleasure as she braced herself on his shoulders.
“Tell me.” He wanted to know everything she liked. Exactly how she liked it.
While he’d always striven to pleasure the women in his bed, this was different. He needed this night to be perfect because this was Adelaide and she was different. So much more important to him.
And he wasn’t ready to think about what that meant or all the ways that was going to complicate things for them.
“It feels so good.” Her eyes flipped open long enough for him to see the haze of desire there, her gaze unfocused. “I’m so close. Already.”
Knowing that only cranked him higher. He kept up the friction beginning to torment him and fastened his lips back on one breast. He drew on it. Hard. Then, finding the edge of her panties with one hand, he slid beneath the satin to stroke the drenched feminine folds. Once. Twice.
She came apart with a high cry she muffled against his shoulder. The force of it, combined with the way she went boneless in his arms, made him sway back on his feet a little.
Damn. He used that moment to watch her, to soak up the vision she made with her cheeks suffused with color and her chest heaving with all that sensation.
Giving her a moment—giving himself one, too—he tried to catch his breath before he carried her over to the bed and deposited her there. His own release was close and he hadn’t even taken off his pants. Leaving her just long enough to retrieve a box of condoms from the bathroom cabinet, he dropped it on the nightstand.
Then he went to work on his belt while he watched her slide off her heels. He dropped his pants while she wriggled out of her dress. He was left wearing only his boxers at the same time she wore nothing but turquoise-colored satin panties.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” she dared him, hooking a finger in the lace waistband about as substantial as a shoelace.
He slid off the boxers.
“I’m going to see yours, all right,” he warned her, edging a knee onto the bed and stretching out over her. “Up close and personal.”
She let go of the panties, her hand moving to his chest as he shifted closer.
“Oh?” Her breathless question told him exactly how much she liked that idea. “Well, I’m going to revisit on you all the same pleasure that you give me.” She arched an eyebrow at the sensual promise.
Laying a hand on her hip, he slipped the satin down her thighs and off.
“Not a chance. This isn’t like a favor where you can keep an accounting. In this bed, I get to give and give and give all that I want.” He stroked the soft curls just above her sex, sliding touches lower and lower while she drew in a breath between her teeth.
“Dempsey.” She arched her hips toward him, a silent plea.
One he was powerless to resist.
Parting her thighs, he made room for himself there. She watched him with wide eyes, biting the soft fullness of her lower lip while he found a condom and opened the packet. She stole it away from him, rolling it into place herself and positioning him where she wanted.
Where they both wanted.
When he entered her, she tightened her grip on him. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Legs tightened around his waist. And her inner muscles squeezed him with sensual pulls that had him gritting his teeth against the sweetly erotic feel of one hundred percent Adelaide.
For a long moment, he held himself still, breathing in the scent of her hair and giving her time to adjust to him. When he thought he could move again without unmanning himself, he levered up on his arms and began a slow, steady rhythm. Addy held herself still for a moment, and then, as if she’d just been waiting for the right time to join him, she swiveled her hips in a way that rocked him.
Heat blazed up his spine as she undulated beneath him, meeting his thrusts and making him see stars. She locked her ankles behind him, her heat, her softness and her scent surrounding him. He wanted to draw this out, to make the pleasure go on and on, to explore every facet of what she liked. But not this time. Not now when just being inside her was enough to send him hurtling over the edge.
Next time, he’d find some self-control. Some way to make the pleasure last. Right now the need to come inside her was the most primal urge he’d ever felt. He closed his eyes, cued in on her breathing and synced his movements, causing her to gasp and arch. He moved faster, needing to focus solely on her. On pleasuring her.
He wouldn’t let himself go until then.
She called his name with a hoarse cry as her whole body went taut. Her release pulsated through her and freed his. He kissed her to silence, the shout poised in his throat as wave after wave of pleasure pounded through him. The moment went on and on until they were both spent and lying side by side, their breathing erratic and heartbeats pounding crazy rhythms. He knew because one of his hands rested on her throat, where he could feel her pulse hammer.
She must know, too, because her hand lay on his chest, where his heart thrummed so hard it felt as though it wanted out.
Long minutes passed before their skin began to cool and Dempsey thought he could move again. He drew her into his arms and stroked her hair, smoothing tangles and skimming it to one side of her beautiful body.
“I’m speechless,” she murmured, her breath a soft huff on his chest.
“We could make talking optional for the next few hours,” he suggested, already wanting her again.
She peered up at him through long lashes. “Save all our energy for the important things?”
“Exactly.” He cupped her cheek and tilted her face to kiss her. “You can practically read my mind anyhow. You can probably guess what I’d like to do next.”
She sidled closer, her hips stirring him to life with a speed he hadn’t experienced since his teens.
“I have an excellent idea. But I stopped being your dutiful assistant when you gave me the day off. So I won’t be fulfilling your every need tonight.” She ran a lazy hand up his biceps and onto his chest. Then trailed her nails lightly down the center of his sternum.
“No?” His voice rasped on a dry note.
“I might give a few orders of my own,” she teased.
“Is that what I do? Order you around?” He found a ticklish spot on her side and made her laugh.
“Definitely.” She gripped his wrists and pinned them to the bed. Climbing on top of him, she let all that glorious hair fall around him. “Now it’s my turn.”
* * *
Adelaide couldn’t resist teasing him. She stared down into Dempsey’s impossibly handsome face and wondered how long he would let her play this game.
Judging from the impressive erection resting on his abs, he was liking it well enough so far.
“I can’t imagine what you’d ask me to do when I’ve already put so much thought into pleasing you, Ms. Thibodeaux.” His dark eyes wandered over her in the most flattering way.
“I already like your deferential tone.” She kissed his cheek and brushed her breasts aga
inst it. “Why don’t you tell me about this effort you say you’ve put into pleasing me? I’d love to hear all about that.”
Kissing her way down his chest, she paused now and again to look up at him. Make sure he was still watching. Still liking what she was doing. Because honestly, she had little enough experience with men, and none with a man like Dempsey. She could only trust her instincts to guide her and have fun with him in this rare moment to play and tease.
And enjoy his sinfully delicious body.
“I’ve taken all my cues from you tonight,” he informed her, his muscles flexing under her as she slid down him to kiss his abs.
“How do you mean?” She peered up to find him shoving a pillow under his head.
Making himself comfortable? Or getting ready to watch the show? Nerves danced along her skin, mingling with anticipation. When he put his hands behind his head, it was a devastating look for a man with his build, emphasizing the way his upper body tapered to narrow hips.
“You get a sexy look in your eyes when you’re thinking wicked thoughts, Addy. I know that’s when to make my move.”
“A sexy look?” She stroked a light touch up the hard length of him.
He hissed a breath between his teeth. “Definitely.” He shifted under her, his whole body tensing.
She climbed back up him to whisper in his ear, “I’ve never done this before. Feel free to offer instruction.” She paused to kiss his lips and wander her way down his body again, taking his incoherent groan as a good sign that he was on board with her plan.
She listened to every intake of his breath, repeating the things he liked best. When she traced the indents between his abs with her tongue, he almost came off the bed.
That was when she experimented with how she touched him, discovering it was easy to know what he liked. Tasting him received wholehearted approval. In fact, the more of him that she took into her mouth, the more encouraging his reaction.
“Addy.” His tone warned her more than his words. And he would have hauled her up to kiss him if she hadn’t paused to remind him who was in charge.