The Man to Be Reckoned With

by Tara Pammi

  With Nathan, there would be no expectations, no disappointments. When it was time to leave, he would, and this fact had nothing to do with her. Therein lay her safety net.

  A sharp hunger bursting inside her, Riya slid her fingers toward the nape of his neck. Pressed her mouth to the pulse flickering on his throat. “Is a kiss a small enough step, Nate?”

  Instantly he stiffened beneath her. His fingers landed on her jaw, pushed her face away from his neck in a gentle but firm grip. Desire was a relentless peal in her, as if her pulse had moved just from some points to all over her body.

  Fear and safety were taboo. Daring and living were her words of the moment.

  She clasped his wrist with her hand and laid kisses against the inside of it. His palm was rough and warm, and as she pressed her lips again to the center of it, she felt the rightness of it.

  “Tonight’s going to be your lucky night,” she said, her throat working to get the words out. She had to brazen it out, didn’t want him to know how huge this was for her.

  A sharp grip at the nape of her neck caused her to look at him. “My lucky night?” he said.

  He looked as if his face were carved from pure stone, his blue eyes molten with desire. There was no frost, no ice tonight.

  Nathan was all fire and passion, and she wanted that fire; she wanted to lose herself in him. “Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep, butterfly.”

  Straightening in his lap, she pushed into his touch, determined to have this. “It’s okay if you’re not up to it, Nate. No one wants to be a pity f—”

  His fingers tightened their grip in her hair. His breath landed on her mouth, until there was nothing to do but breathe the same air as him. “You’re doing this for the wrong reasons, Riya.”

  Feeling gloriously alive, she bent and kissed a spot just beside his mouth. The bristle on his jaw rubbed against her mouth. Heat spread everywhere, incinerating a need she had never known. So she did it again. And again. Like a cat rubbing herself against her favorite surface. Until her lips, her cheeks, her chin stung in the most delicious way, scraping against the roughness of his jaw. Until he made a feral sound that in turn scraped against her very senses.

  And her desire went from a risk, a dare, to need for him. Only for Nathan.

  Finally her mouth landed at the corner of his luscious mouth. And she spoke the words against his lips, felt a shudder vibrate in his lean frame. Reveled that she could do this to him.

  He was like a fortress of leashed desire around her.

  “I’m doing this for the only reason that it should be done for.”

  “And that is?” he whispered back against her mouth, and Riya ached. Ached to feel that mouth everywhere, ached to lose herself.

  “That it feels so good, Nate.” She moved, to get closer to him, and felt the hard evidence of his arousal against her thigh. “From the minute you stepped into my life, this...it’s like a fever.” She pulled his hand and pressed it to her chest. “And in all the lies and confusion, this is the one thing that’s unwavering. Make love to me, Nate. I want to do all the things that I told myself I didn’t feel.”

  She didn’t wait for him to deny her. She just jumped off the ledge, hoping he would catch her. Kissed him with everything she had in her.

  * * *

  When her lush mouth touched his, it was all Nathan could do to pull in a breath. There was no hesitation, no doubt in the way she pressed little kisses over the edge of his lips, over his chin, over his lips, her breath coming in little pants all around him, her scent filling his nose, her fingers scraping against his scalp, holding him in place for her pleasure.

  No one had ever quite so thoroughly seduced him. No one had even come close.

  She was an explosion. She was a revelation. And under her honest, raw hunger he came undone. No amount of honor could compete with the liquid longing coursing through him, could puncture the desire to return her kiss, to give her what she wanted. And to allow himself what he had been craving.

  When she stroked his lower lip with her tongue, tentative but still powerfully maddening, he was done being a passive participant.

  Clasping her jaw, he sucked her lower lip with his teeth and she shuddered. Gasped into his mouth.

  And they were sucking, nipping, their teeth scraping, their tongues licking with a searing hunger that brought the world down to only them. Pasts and futures were forgotten, only the present mattered.

  Panting, he moved away from the temptation of her mouth. Sank his hands into her hair and tugged at the lustrous locks until she was looking at him.

  Golden skin flushed, pink mouth swollen, beautiful brown eyes dazed with desire and daring, she looked at him without blinking, without hiding. Pushed into his touch. She was inexperienced; her kisses told him as much. But the sensuality of the woman, the way she responded, so hot and fiery. This was a battle he’d already lost.

  But this was a defeat he welcomed.

  When she thought of him, he wanted her to do so with a smile and a sigh of pleasure.

  He leaned forward and dug his teeth into her lower lip. A gasp fell from her mouth and he blew softly over the trembling lip. “This means nothing to me except that I want you with a madness that knows no reason.” He could leave no doubt in her mind. And if she wanted to stop, he was going to head straight for a cold shower. But he couldn’t take a chance on risking her emotions. “I’ll leave when it’s time, butterfly. And if you want to stop this, do it now. We’ll forget about it. You can take the bed and I’ll take the couch.”

  Her gaze flickered to him, a shadow in it. And then she smiled. Her gorgeous, perfect, dazzling smile. “Falling in love, risking my emotions, it’s never going to be easy for me. And with you...I could never fall for you. We’re really the worst kind of person for each other, aren’t we? But that’s what makes this easy, that makes one night with you everything I want it to be.”

  Her honesty stung him, but he slashed the feeling away.

  One night to satisfy this craving, desperate need for each other. That was all they could afford of each other.

  Pulling her arm to his mouth, he kissed her wrist, licked the vein flickering there. Kissed a path upward, all the glorious skin warm to his touch.

  Her soft tremble, her gasp as he reached the crook of her neck swept him away hard. “Shall I shock you and tell you all the different ways I’ve imagined having you?”

  He licked the pulse there, sucked on her skin. She shivered, sank her hands into his hair. Shuddered, writhed, but he didn’t let go. He continued until she was panting, moving restlessly in his arms, rubbing her breasts against his chest. He was rock hard, her volatile response tightening his own need, fraying his control.

  He fisted his hands, fighting the urge to push her dress up, to drag her on top of him and thrust up into her wet heat.

  Sweat beaded on his brow. And that couldn’t be borne. He would enjoy this; he would drown himself in the scent of her, but his control couldn’t falter.

  It was all about release, all about his body. As long as he kept it to that, as long as he didn’t think about what this might have meant to her, to him in a different world, beyond tonight, it was good.

  Laughing, she tugged her hair away from her shoulder and looked down at herself. A blush spread upward from her neck as she ran a pink-tipped finger over the blemish. A soft pant fell from her mouth, and it was the most erotic sound he’d ever heard.

  There was innocence in it and there was a raw hunger in it. For more. He had been right. She had repressed so many things, and that flicker of undisguised hunger now, of playful curiosity, turned him inside out.

  Her gaze moved to his mouth and stayed there. “It stings.”

  Picking her up, he mumbled his apology into her mouth.

  She kissed him with a searing hunger that rock
ed through him. Scraped her teeth against his mouth. Stroked it with her tongue when he groaned.

  “Only in the best way,” she whispered when he let her breathe. “I want more.”

  Laying her down on the huge bed, Nathan shucked his jacket and loosened his tie.

  Raising an eyebrow, he let his gaze travel all over her. “Unzip, Riya.”

  Coming to a kneeling position, she reached for the zipper on her dress. Her fingers trembled around it. But she slowly tugged it down.

  His mouth dried as the dress came loose around her chest. He was dying to see those lush breasts, those long legs, every inch of her. Just as the fabric flapped down, she held it to herself, her cheeks flushing. “Can we turn off the light, Nathan?”

  “Nope,” he said so loudly that she smiled. “Those prim dress shirts and trousers have been driving me mad.” When she still hesitated, he stilled his hand on his shirt. “You can’t see me either, then.”

  Something flickered in her gaze. Lifting her chin, she straightened to her knees and pulled her dress down. Over her chest, over her midriff. Leaned back onto her elbows and kicked it from around her feet.

  Nathan felt his heart pump harder and harder, and for once, something else took precedence over the malfunctioning organ. His breath balled in his throat.

  Her slender shoulders bare, her lush, rounded breasts thrust upward, the shadow of her brown nipples visible through her strapless bra, the concave dip and rise of her stomach, the flare of her hips, the V between her thighs hinting at dark curls...

  If his heart stopped right then, Nathan would have had no fear, no regrets.

  And the lack of fear, the lack of any other emotion except his feral hunger to possess the woman in front of him, was a sensation he reveled in.

  Because it made him feel alive as nothing else could.

  * * *

  Riya had never understood what the fuss was about sex, how it drove people to the most unwise decisions.

  Until now.

  She’d never understood how completely it unraveled you, this desire, how completely it exposed every part of a person, how it connected one so deeply with another.

  They hadn’t even undressed completely, but the look in Nathan’s eyes—so demanding and all-consuming, the possessive challenge that lingered there—would have sent her running to the hills.

  He would demand complete surrender, of her body, her mind, even her very soul. And beneath the flicker of fear, there was also a freedom in giving herself over.

  The soft fabric of her bra chafed against her nipples and her thong, which had been a necessary evil for this dress, suddenly felt intrusive, making her sharply aware of the ache between her legs, the incessant peal of need there every time his gaze traveled over her.

  She was wet there and she was hot all over, and together, the sensation continued to build.

  His gaze never leaving her, Nathan unbuttoned his white dress shirt, pushed it off.

  All that bronzed, glinting skin, the whorls of copper chest hair, the black string hanging with a pendant over his pectoral muscles, the jut of his shoulders, the flat male nipples so unlike her own, the washboard plane of his stomach, the line of hair that went down below his navel. He was so utterly male.

  And all of it was hers tonight to do with as she wished.

  With sure movements, he unzipped his trousers and kicked them away. Then his boxers.

  Riya licked her lips at the sight of him completely naked. Her heart thudded incessantly, her sex pulsing.

  His guttural groan surrounded them, and she raised her gaze to him.

  He moved closer, in touching distance. Riya raised her hand, eager to touch that hardness, eager to learn everything about him. “You won’t touch me, is that clear?”

  Frowning, she tilted her head up. “Why not?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Pushing her back against the bed, he climbed into the bed and on top of her in such a predatory, masculine way that all of her possessive claims, all of her risky resolve fled.

  Leaving nothing but gloriously alive sensations toppling against her, drowning her, demanding her utter enslavement.

  He was heavy over her, he was hard against her, he was hot all over and he didn’t let her move. His arms cradled her upper body, raising her to him, locking her so tight against him. She was aching to touch him, dying to feel his muscles harden under her fingers...

  But he locked her, leaving her no escape but to feel every assault of his fingers, his mouth, his tongue, his breath.

  He kissed her until there was no breath left in her. He played with her hair...

  Her toes curled into the sheets as he dragged his open mouth down her neck and to the valley between her breasts.

  Need knotted at her nipples as he cupped her breasts reverently, kneaded them, lifted them to his mouth. She bit her lip, scrunched the silky sheets with her fingers, bucked against his grip. “Nate, please let me touch you, let me move or—”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean no?” she cried.

  He rose above her like a dark god, intent on pulling her under, every inch of his face carved from stone. His icy blue eyes wide, he was panting too. And Riya realized what tremendous control he was exercising, how tightly reined in his desire was. How, even being in the moment, he wasn’t truly with her.

  But before the thought could take root, he licked her nipple and she lost all coherence again.

  “Do you want me to stop, butterfly?” he whispered hotly against her breast, his tongue laving the skin around her eager nipple.

  “No,” she said so loudly that the word reverberated in the silence.

  His fingers tweaked her other breast, pulled at her nipple, while his mouth closed over the first one. Riya kicked her legs against the bed, and still he didn’t let her move.

  She gasped under the attack, she sobbed, she twisted and turned as he suckled, laved with his tongue. And a frantic pulsing began at her sex.

  “I wondered,” he whispered against the valley between her breasts, taking a shuddering, reverent breath.

  All she could manage between catching her breaths was to say “What?”

  “Your nipples,” he said, rolling off her and lying on his side. His muscular leg covered her legs, his arm holding her tight against him. He dipped his mouth and suckled the swollen tip again and she arched her spine as sensations rippled and splintered through her.

  The heat built intolerably between her legs and she rubbed her thighs restlessly.

  His large hands stole between them, denying the friction she needed, and Riya was ready to beg. “I wondered what color they would be.” This against the underside of her breasts.

  “I guessed it right.” This against the planes of her stomach. “Like chocolate.”

  He looked up then, and Riya looked down, her skin slick with sweat. She saw his gaze move over her face, her mouth and her breasts again, and felt a shyness come over her.

  This was so intimate, intrusively so.

  This moment when something else arced beneath the simmering chemistry between them was everything she had avoided her entire life. Here, lying naked below him, all of her exposed to his eyes, was the biggest risk she had ever taken.

  For a startling second, she wondered what she had started. Wondered how she would face him tomorrow, how she would...

  Moving up, he devoured her mouth in a kiss that left no breath in her. Pressed another one at her temple. “You okay, butterfly?”

  Riya nodded, not at all surprised at how easily he read her. She had never met anyone who had understood her so well. Grabbing his forearm, she pressed a kiss to his biceps, flicked her tongue over the birthmark that had fascinated her so.

  “You’re still thinking. And I won’t tolerate that, Riya,” he s
aid, traveling down her body again, trailing wet heat over her skin. His mouth hovered over the waistband of her thong, his teeth dragging against her skin. His breath sounded harsh. “You’re driving me insane and I very much want to do the same to you,” he said, sounding almost angry.

  She could do nothing but sink her fingers into his hair.

  Moan loudly as he tugged the string of her thong tight against her clitoris. And pulled it, up and down.

  She bucked off the bed as his fingers explored.

  Jerked as he learned her with clever, lingering strokes.

  Dug her nails into his shoulders as he tweaked the spot aching for his touch. Dragged her nails over his back as he eased a finger and then two into her wet heat.

  The softness of her sex felt amplified around the intrusive weight of his fingers. Every inch of her contracted and pulsed at that spot, and Riya sobbed.

  “Nathan!” she said, the invasion of his fingers, the relentless rub of the pad of his thumb, the building pressure, driving her out of her own skin.

  She laughed or cried, she didn’t know which, her body, her heart careening out of control.

  “Look at you!” His hot mouth pressed against her midriff, and her muscles clenched. “You’re the wildest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  He moved his head between her thighs. The stroke of his tongue against the tight bud was like touching a spark to a building storm. “Let go, butterfly,” he said, and without warning, sucked at the slick bundle of nerves.

  Screaming and thrashing, Riya shattered around his fingers in a dizzying whirl of such exquisite sensations that she thought she would fall apart. Sobbing, she tried to bring her knees together, but with his fingers still inside her, he clasped her against him. Continued the relentless pressure of his fingers so that the small tremors continued until she was nothing but a mass of sensation and pleasure.