by Linda Wisdom
When they entered the bar, Ginna noticed a few women looking in Zach’s direction. She made sure her hand on his arm let them know the man was taken.
She needn’t have worried. His eyes were only on her.
They ordered drinks. She was barely aware of the taste of coconut and juices on her tongue, along with a bite of alcohol. A platter of appetizers had been set on their table. She picked up teriyaki chicken on a small skewer. She bit one piece off, then offered the rest to Zach. He leaned over and bit off a piece.
“Did I tell you I love that dress?”
She shook her head.
“Then I guess I didn’t tell you that I’d also like to see that dress off you.”
Ginna smiled. “Then I guess we’re even. While I think you look very handsome tonight, I wouldn’t mind seeing your clothes off, either.”
This time she clearly heard his soft-spoken curse. She dipped her forefinger in her drink and stirred the liquid.
“Did you know that anticipation is the greatest aphrodisiac?” she asked, slowly licking the drink off her finger.
Zach couldn’t take his eyes off her actions.
“Enough,” he said through gritted teeth.
He didn’t waste any time summoning the waitress for the check. Ginna smiled as she noticed he gave the young woman a very generous tip.
She sensed it was a good thing they were alone in the elevator. The air fairly shimmered with sexual tension.
He walked closely behind her as they moved down the hallway to her room. The light glowed green as she inserted her key card. She pushed it open and walked inside the room.
A lamp burning in a corner of the room was their only light as she turned around to face him.
Zach stepped into the room.
Ginna kept her eyes on him as she took a step back.
He kicked the door shut behind him.
She stepped forward.
He met her more than halfway.
Her arms encircled his neck at the same time his circled her waist and pulled her against him.
His hunger for her was voracious as he feasted on her mouth. Her dress was unzipped and dropped to the carpet.
He leaned back just enough to look at her.
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you,” he breathed as he reached for the clip holding up her hair. He tossed it to one side and ran his fingers through the silky strands. “You had to know what that dress would do to me. What you do to me.”
“I’m getting a good idea.” She nimbly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled the tails out of his waistband. She pushed it off to fall near her dress. “And you’re still overdressed.” She worked on his belt, as eager as he was.
Zach looked at Ginna, sexy as hell in a pair of cream-colored bikini underwear and high heels that made her legs go on forever. With her hair wild about her shoulders, she looked like someone out of any red-blooded man’s dream. He fumbled with the button at his waistband while she took care of the zipper. He’d never been stripped so quickly.
It was suddenly too far to the bed, but they somehow managed to make it there. Zach fell back on the bed with Ginna falling on top of him.
“You’re not going to mind if we don’t have dinner first?” he asked. “Or our talk?”
“Does it look like I’m complaining?” She laughed against his mouth. “Oh, Zach, shut up and kiss me.”
Kissing her was the easy part. Discovering that she still had on those sexy shoes as she straddled his hips sent his blood pressure soaring, along with other parts of his body as her bare breasts brushed his chest. He raised his head just enough to fasten his mouth on a nipple. She closed her eyes in sheer bliss and moaned deep in her throat as he drew it into his mouth.
“Ambrosia,” he murmured.
“Just don’t stop,” she commanded.
“I don’t intend to.”
He’d thought her skin was silky before, but now he felt as if she flowed over him. She tasted like nothing on earth. He ran his hands down her back, feeling the delicate curve of her spine that led down to a rear end rounded just right for a man’s hands. His hands. He tried to roll her over, but she was having none of it.
“Sorry, handsome, you’re on my turf now,” she said throatily. “My room. My rules.”
“As long as this ends up with both of us naked, I’m in your hands.” He choked when he realized he literally was in her hands.
“You were saying?” she murmured.
“You got my attention,” he groaned as he felt her cool touch against his ultrasensitive skin.
“That’s not all I’ve got,” she whispered in his ear just before the tip of her tongue traced the shell. “Why, Mr. Stone, what large—” She almost swallowed her words when she realized he was returning the favor. She arched up as he gently probed her with his fingers. “Fast learner.” She gasped.
Obviously he’d found just the right spot. He gently pressed again, feeling her muscles tighten around him. He hungered for the moment he would feel her tighten around another part of him, a part that was straining for her.
“It has something to do with those ‘come and get me’ shoes of yours,” he said hoarsely, nibbling his way up her throat. She made it easier for him as she tipped back her head for easier access.
“Talk is cheap, Zach. Show me.” Ginna cradled him in her hands.
“Anything for the lady.” He proceeded to make good on his promise as he rolled them over until he now lay on top of her. Then he slid her panties down her legs.
Her taut belly quivered under the taunting licks of his tongue. When he reached the source of her heat, she couldn’t stop saying his name. Something he didn’t mind hearing as he continued to find ways to drive her even higher. He remained in tune with her, sensing when she was ready to explode, then he would back off, blowing soft breaths across skin that responded with shivers. Each time he pushed her senses just a bit more until she was raining a variety of curses on his head.
“Sadist!” She sobbed, even as her legs lifted to hook at the small of his back.
“It will get better,” he promised.
“Better?” she almost shrieked as he started it again, but this time when she began that otherworldly climb, he moved upward and thrust into her.
She shattered just as he buried himself deeply inside her.
He’d never imagined anything like this. She closed tightly around him, her innermost muscles squeezing him until he thought his head would burst.
At the same time, he withdrew and thrust again. And again. Ginna’s nails dug into his back, and he concentrated on not losing control.
Ginna kept saying his name over and over as she raised her head to press her mouth to his.
The sight of her face, tight with the same desire that captured him, was enough to keep him going until she exploded again. This time, he burst into flames with her.
If he died now, he knew he’d die a happy man.
“My, my, Mr. Stone, you certainly know how to greet a girl,” Ginna said, still breathless from their activity.
He lifted a hand that felt about three hundred pounds heavier than it had before. It flopped back down. That was when he realized that the bedcovers were more off the bed than on and they were lying diagonally across the mattress. He considered them lucky they hadn’t rolled off completely.
“I’m not sure, but I think I left my body at some point,” he said once he was able to form the words. “For all I know, it hasn’t returned yet.”
She rolled over and dropped a kiss on his chest.
“Now I understand what they mean by the word ravished.” She brushed a kiss across his mouth before she nestled her head on his chest. “Doesn’t that word sound so earthy? Ravished,” she repeated, then released a deep sigh. “Why did we wait so long?”
“I was being a gentleman, remember?”
She idly ran a hand over his chest, tangling her fingers in the crisp curling hairs.
He couldn’t believe that she could stir him again s
o quickly. He thought he’d been drained dry. Not to mention he didn’t feel as if he could move a muscle. Obviously parts south had incredible recuperative powers.
“Tell me something, handsome.” She flashed a siren’s smile at him. “Have you ever been ravished?”
“I thought I just was,” he said, his breathing quickening.
Damn, even after everything, she still had those sexy shoes on.
“Oh, no,” Ginna murmured, lifting herself and sliding over him. “That was just the appetizer. Now it’s time to move on to the main course.”
“NOTHING BUT THOSE SHOES,” Zach said lazily. “My kind of woman.”
Ginna’s smile was feline content. She lifted a leg. “Like them, do you?” she purred.
“Hell, I’m ready to glue them to your feet.” He kept his eyes fastened on her feet.
She laughed softly. “Careful. People will think you have a shoe fetish.”
“With you I could easily develop one.”
Ginna stretched her arms over her head. She noticed that Zach’s gaze shifted to her breasts. They’d made love twice and she was still hungry for him.
She’d never felt comfortable lying naked with a man. During sex was all right, but just lying there afterward always made her want to cover up.
Not so with Zach. She liked lying there knowing he watched her. Desired her.
Just as she liked looking at him. He was beautiful, but she doubted he’d appreciate being called that. Even his feet were beautiful.
Hm, that saying about big feet…
She smiled because she couldn’t stop smiling. She felt way too good.
The phrase “well and truly loved” came to mind. Probably something she’d read in a book. Something else she now understood.
Except now another kind of hunger was starting to make itself known.
“Zach,” she purred, “this hotel has a wonderful concept.”
“What?” He looked the way she felt.
“Room service.” She pursed her lips as she formed the words. “If I make a call, they’ll actually deliver food to the room. Besides—” she looked mournfully at her dress lying on the carpet “—I don’t think my dress survived.”
He sent the dress a fond look. “I’m not too sure I’d want anyone else to see you in it. Especially if you’re also wearing those shoes. Most men couldn’t handle the shock.”
Her smile widened. “Oh, but you can.”
“A tough job, but someone’s got to do it,” he told her.
She slid off the bed and walked to the desk. She pulled out the room-service menu. “Anything you’d like in particular?”
The wicked gleam in his eye gave her his answer.
“For food,” she stressed the words. “Sustenance. Fuel for our bodies.”
“Red meat,” he said promptly, baring his teeth at her.
She shook her head in mock disgust, clucking her tongue. “I swear the male ego gets bigger all the time.”
“Thank you.”
Ginna’s glare held no heat as she picked up the phone and tapped out the number for room service.
“One very large steak, raw, for the barbarian on my bed,” she muttered amidst Zach’s laughter.
“NOW THAT you’ve had your way with me, I suppose you’ll suddenly find yourself too busy to bother with me,” Zach said, waving his fork at her. She leaned over and stole the piece of steak stuck on the tines. “I can see it now. You won’t return my calls. I’ll just be a discarded plaything in your eyes.”
He’d pulled on his pants before room service showed up, but had remained shirtless and shoeless. Ginna put on her robe, a sensual slither of copper-colored satin that clung lovingly to her body.
Ginna widened her eyes with mock innocence. “And here I thought I’d hidden that side of myself so well. What can I say?” She lifted her chin in a haughty manner. “I love ’em and leave ’em.” She leaned over to steal another bite of steak, but he pulled his fork back in time to pop it in his mouth. She shrugged an “oh, well” and returned to her salad. “It’s not as if this was your first time,” she said flippantly.
Zach affected a deep sigh. “How little you know. Just plunder my treasures and then toss me aside.”
Ginna was sipping her wine when he spoke. She started choking and had to endure his helpful slap on the back that almost pushed her over the table.
“You are a very bad man,” she said, enunciating each word.
“That’s not what you said an hour ago.”
“There are times when bad is very good. And you are very bad,” Ginna purred, aware she meant the exact opposite. The flare of Zach’s nostrils told her he knew exactly what she meant. She was relentless. “Very, very bad.” She pursed her lips in a seductive pout.
“Now you’ve done it. Next time, I get to blow your mind.”
She smiled. “I’m looking forward to it.”
SEX SHOULD HAVE changed things.
It always had before.
Not that Ginna had a lot of experience in that area. After her divorce, she hadn’t been all that eager to enter the dating arena. Especially after listening to tales of woe from co-workers and clients.
It was easier when the only males in her life were her relatives and her dog.
But now something new had been added. Or rather, someone.
Zach only had to look at her and she wanted him. She even started to think exactly where she’d want him.
The shower had possibilities. The balcony if there wasn’t the chance they’d be seen. She wasn’t into public sex.
She hated each sunset because it meant one more day gone. It was getting close to the day when they’d be returning home.
She didn’t want real life to intrude on what they shared.
Ginna didn’t want to think it could happen. After all, they hadn’t hopped into bed that first night, had they? Not even the first week. Instead, their kisses intensified until they almost burst into flames.
When she thought about it, she was amazed they’d held out as long as they had.
Each time they made love seemed even more magical than the previous time. Except each of those times reminded her of what she would never have. When he pulled out protection she wanted to tell him it wasn’t necessary. He needn’t fear she would become pregnant. She only wished it was an option for her. A choice she could make.
Instead of a choice made for her.
Even with their intense fascination with one another, they still found time to sightsee. The only difference was they no longer slept alone. When they did take time to sleep.
But one thought kept haunting her.
That day of reckoning was quickly approaching. She couldn’t stop wondering if after returning to their everyday lives they’d discover other things that were more important than what they’d had here.
She told herself that didn’t mean it would happen.
But what if it did?
ZACH SENSED that something was bothering Ginna. He just wasn’t sure what it was.
He had an idea that part of it had to do with the fact that their vacations were just about over.
Was he in love with her?
What a question to ask himself!
How would she feel knowing he had kids? She’d said she wasn’t planning on having any of her own. She was leaving that up to her siblings. But just because she wasn’t planning on having children didn’t mean she didn’t like them. She’d said she did, after all.
By rights, he shouldn’t want anything to do with a woman who wouldn’t accept the twins.
He’d been with her when they wandered through shops and she picked up souvenirs for her nieces and nephew. When he picked up items for the twins, he let her assume they were for his nephew and a close friend’s children. Damn, it left him feeling guilty.
To spend so much time choosing just the right items, you had to love children no matter what you said to the contrary.
She’d love the twins and he had a hunch they’d love her
back.
Just as soon as he figured out how he was going to tell her about them.
Not exactly something you’d unexpectedly drop on a person.
But not now. Not when Ginna was lying so pliantly in his arms.
“Hey, you’re thinking too hard.” The object of his thoughts tapped him on the chest.
Right where his heart was.
They were sharing a lounger on his balcony. Ginna, wearing the shirt he’d earlier discarded and him feeling safe enough in his boxer shorts.
Damn, she made him laugh.
“We should be sleeping,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“If we sleep, we miss all this.” Ginna waved an arm to encompass the ocean beyond, the sound of waves breaking on the sand below a medley to their sated senses. “I want it to last forever.” She burrowed against his chest. “Let’s run off, find ourselves a deserted island and build a hut. We could run around naked all day,” she threw in as further temptation.
He tightened his arms around her until she squealed.
“The naked part sounds good to me,” he agreed. “At least, you getting naked sounds good. Admit it, you just don’t want to get back on a plane.”
“There is that.” She twisted around to reach the wineglass they’d brought out with them. She gave him a sip, then took one herself.
“I called the airline. We’ll be seated together,” he said, using this as an inducement to get her on the plane the next day.
She snuggled further under his chin. “You are so good to me,” she murmured. “One of those airplane-disaster movies was on TV earlier tonight. How do we know it wasn’t an omen? We could steal a couple of sailboards and find that deserted island.”
“That’s why we didn’t watch TV tonight.” Zach grinned as he remembered just how he coaxed her away from the television. Not that she needed much coaxing once he started nibbling on her ear. He’d learned she was as sensitive there as she was in that hollow behind her left knee.
“Mmm.” Obviously she remembered, too. “By staying up, morning will never come and we won’t return to our respective lives and forget all about each other.”
He didn’t like the sound of that one bit. “I hate to tell you this, Ginna, but I’m not the love-’em-and-leave-’em type.”