Make her his meal.
He eased her down so her feet touched the floor and then he got on his knees in front of her and couldn’t recall the last time he’d done this to a woman, the last time he’d wanted to. But he needed Shannon’s taste on his tongue the same way he needed air to breathe. With a rough, sensuous growl he placed a palm between her legs to widen them, then dipped his head and claimed this special part of her as his. The moment the tip of his tongue touched her, she screamed. But that didn’t bother him. There would be plenty more screams before it was over.
For endless moments he continued to taste her like a man who’d been robbed of a meal for days. His tongue absorbed each and every sensation that passed through her, every pleasurable shock that her system endured without letting up, although she was begging him to. But then in another instant she was also begging him to continue, not to stop.
Without wavering he focused only on this, devouring her sweetness, the very essence of her womanhood. She had screamed three more times and still he wasn’t through with her. Even the way her nails were deeply embedded in the flesh of his shoulders didn’t bother him. His mouth was locked to her, tight, and he refused to let go until he was ready, and he wasn’t ready yet. He liked her taste. He was a hungry man, and he intended to get his fill.
In a matter of moments, he felt himself about to come, just from her taste, and knew where he wanted his shaft to be when it happened. Gritting his teeth, clinging for control, he pulled himself to his feet, lifted her bottom, and wrapped her legs around him, and pinned her to the wall just seconds before he thrust into her. But she didn’t seem to mind—her muscles began clenching him to pull everything she wanted out of him. It didn’t take long for that to happen.
“Shannon!”
The orgasm that exploded from deep within him sent sensuous chills all the way up his spine, his thighs firm and strong, pinned her in one spot while he pounded into her, just like she was begging him to. Her screams of pleasure made any self-control he might have had vanish. Completely. He inwardly cursed her ability to do that to him, to bring him to this. But at the moment there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
When she collapsed against him, he felt as drained as she did, and without unlocking their bodies he made it over to the bed. And when they lay side by side with their bodies still locked, he threw his leg over her hip to keep them that way
“It’s getting late and I need to leave,” she managed to whisper in a low, ragged breath.
“Not yet,” he said, rubbing her back gently before moving his hand to her bottom and gently gripping it. “We’re both tired. Let’s take a nap together.”
She met his gaze and he knew she was fighting whatever this thing was between them. This urgency, this obsession, whatever it was that seeped through their veins when they were within ten feet of each other, making them act sexually crazy.
Suddenly he felt himself get hard inside her. He knew she felt it as well. Aw hell.
At that moment he couldn’t resist leaning over and taking her lips. He wanted her again. And at the moment he couldn’t imagine not ever wanting her.
Adam suddenly came awake when he felt the dip in the mattress. He turned to see Shannon as she eased out of bed. He rolled to the side, lifted himself up on his elbow. It was dark outside. “You’re leaving?” he asked when he watched her reach for her clothes that were still on the floor.
She glanced over at him. “Sorry, I hadn’t meant to wake you, but yes, I’m leaving. It’s nighttime already.”
He nodded as his gaze raked up and down her naked body. “Come here for a second.”
She looked at him skeptically, not sure she wanted to do that. “Really, Adam, I do need to go.”
“I understand, but come here for a second,” he coaxed in a low, sexy voice. “I promise not to keep you, and I’m walking you down to your car.”
Unable to deny his request, she slowly crossed the room to him. “Closer,” he whispered, not moving out of his reclining position on the bed, which brought him eye to eye with her navel. He reached out and brushed his knuckles against her belly. “Umm, I think I missed a spot.” And then he leaned forward and took his tongue and swirled it around her navel while the palm of his hands eased between her thighs to caress her there.
“Think of me tonight,” he said, giving her something to make doubly sure that she did. A shiver passed through him at the thought that now he knew her too well. He had her taste down pat. He knew how she felt when she came, whether he was inside her or not. When he came inside her, the explosion that would rip through him, made him want to bury himself between her succulent thighs forever.
“I got to get dressed and go, Adam,” she said in a tone of voice he thought wasn’t the least bit convincing. But he knew he had to let her leave in order to regain his control and, most important, his common sense.
He reluctantly pulled back. “Okay, I won’t hold you up any longer. I want to ask a favor of you, though.”
She inhaled deeply and glanced down at him. “What?”
“I’m going to a drag race on the Fourth in Savannah. I want you to go with me.”
Shannon shook her head, and he could imagine what she was thinking. Sleeping with him was one thing, going on a date with him was another. That thought sent anger surging through him when she said, “I can’t, Adam. That wasn’t part of the deal.”
A curse slipped past his lips as he pulled himself up in bed to sit.
“We never got around to making any deals, remember. We’ve been too busy getting our groove on.”
She backed up, still shaking her head. “But I can’t.”
He met her gaze. “Can’t or won’t?”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and glared at him. “Same difference.”
“Maybe it’s the same difference in your book, but it’s not in mine. If you change your mind, be here the morning of the Fourth at ten.”
She didn’t say anything, and he watched as she raced into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Part
four
Apply your heart to instruction, and your
ears to the words of knowledge.
—PROVERBS 23:12
31
“Well, it certainly sounds like the both of you had a wonderful time ,” Faith said, smiling over at Shannon and Monique as she poured glasses of wine.
“Yes, but I feel bad that we left you here all alone,” Monique said.
“Hey, don’t feel bad. It was a lazy weekend for me. I finished one book and began another. This one was a romance novel that came highly recommended. I also practiced my tennis strokes and walked on the beach whenever the mood hit. I missed having you guys around, but it was okay.”
What Faith refused to tell them was that while reading the romance novels and coming across several hot and explicit love scenes, she had reached for the phone ready to take Shane Masters up on his offer to spend some time over at his place, but her willpower had always won out and she hadn’t. There had been times where things had gotten lonely and little too quiet, but her novels had pretty much kept her entertained. She had even gone next door to visit Anna and discovered her neighbor had gone away for the weekend as well. She then remembered Anna mentioning a few days ago that she would be spending the Fourth of July on that island her family owned.
“What do you want to do for the Fourth?” Faith asked. “Have the two of you made any plans?”
“No,” Shannon said quickly, looking into the glass as if studying the contents of her wine. She remembered Adam’s request that she go to a drag race in Savannah with him, and like she’d told him, there was no way she could do that. “I don’t know about Monique, but I haven’t made any. In fact, I plan to just hang around here and get some reading in.”
Faith and Monique glanced over at each other. Since Shannon read so much with her regular job as a college professor, she detested sitting still and reading anything when they were together. They c
ouldn’t help but wonder if there was a particular reason for her wanting to do so now.
“No, I’m free on the Fourth, although Lyle mentioned he would like for us to do something together later that day. There’s going to be fireworks somewhere on the island, and if possible, I’d like the two of you to meet him.”
Shannon eased closer to the edge of her seat, interested. “Why? Are things serious between you two?”
Monique smiled. “No, he’s still just a friend, but since I’m spending a lot of time with him, I want you to meet him.”
Later that night, when Monique slipped into bed, she thought of what Shannon had asked earlier, and what she, in her opinion, had answered truthfully. She and Lyle were friends and nothing more— although she doubted friends had a tendency to lock lips the way they had while in Beaufort. After brunch they’d walked back to the inn to check out, and once they were on the road, they had easily slipped into conversation. When he stopped to gas up the car, she had gotten out to stretch her legs and had been standing by the car when he returned from paying the gas station attendant.
And without any type of warning at all, he’d touched her arm and leaned over and kissed her. And when they reached Hilton Head and he brought her home, he kissed her again before she’d gotten out of the car. He walked her to the door, too.
She couldn’t dismiss from her mind the other thing he’d shared with her, the part about him being attracted to her when she’d been younger, and that the only thing that had kept him from making his move had been the difference in their ages. The five-year age difference didn’t matter anymore, and she couldn’t help wondering how he felt about that now.
Another thing she wondered about was how she was going to react when they jogged together in the morning. As she fluffed her pillow to settle down for the night, she couldn’t wait to find out.
Faith glanced over at Shannon. “You aren’t sleepy?” Usually of the three of them she was the first to retire for the night.
Shannon leaned back in her chair and smiled. “No, I’m fine,” she said, deciding not to tell her about the long nap she’d taken over at Adam’s place. “I really had fun working on that car with Adam today. I didn’t think I would, but I did.”
Faith nodded as she studied Shannon. “If you thought you weren’t going to enjoy yourself, then why did you go?”
Shannon didn’t say anything at first and then leaning forward, she placed her wineglass on the table. She thought about Adam and felt a gentle tug at her heart. She knew she shouldn’t have gone there. What was there about him that made her mind go topsy-turvy where she threw sense, good common sense, out the window? Was the sex really that good that it should make her lose herself that deep?
“Shannon? What’s going on with you? Do you need to talk?”
Shannon glanced over at Faith and considered her question. She then settled back in her chair, appreciated Faith giving her time to get her thoughts together. “Yes, I need to talk,” she said softly. “I have a question for you. How can something that starts off totally sexual end up in a different way?”
Faith’s brow furrowed, assuming Shannon was asking for a particular reason. “I don’t think it’s hard for physical attraction to be the dominant factor when two people meet for the first time,” Faith said, thinking of her situation with Shane. “It’s natural for a woman to be attracted to a man or vice versa at the first meeting and sometimes it’s the only reason for the meeting. Sexual attraction is a very powerful thing.”
She took a sip of her wine before continuing. “But after the two of you spend time together, you discover it might not be the only thing. Especially if it’s someone you could grow to like.” She thought again of Shane Masters. He was definitely someone she could grow to like if she hung around him, which was the reason she tried to keep their relationship strictly professional.
“But what if you don’t want to like him? What if you know he is all wrong for you?” Shannon asked, frustration deep in her voice.
Faith shrugged. “In that case, you should cut your losses and move on.”
“But what about the chemistry, the great sex, the desire to be with that person in or out of bed?”
“So it’s not only about taking the edge off your sexual neediness?”
Shannon smiled. “No. I’d proved that’s not as big a deal as I thought,” she said. “I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone but Cely, but I took an oath of celibacy more than a year ago and had walked the straight and narrow path until I met Adam Corbain, and then it was like I was making up for lost time. The sex with him is off the chain, hot-hot-hot, crazy and torrid as hell, but then I’m discovering something else.”
“What?”
“It’s not just the Penis Syndrome that has me caught in its grip. I really like him. He’s different.”
“Umm, in what way?”
“Well, he certainly isn’t my usual type, and before you start on me about how I feel about that, just hear me out for a second.”
Faith nodded. “All right.”
“Okay, I might be what one could consider a snob, but that’s just me, okay? I admit it. And I’ve been this way for so long, it’s part of who I am and the way I am. But with Adam, I can still feel naughty in the bedroom and somehow feel like we’re on the same level out of the bedroom—when I know we’re not.”
Faith nodded slowly. “Could it be that levels don’t mean anything with the two of you?”
“But it should!”
“Yes, but it seems it doesn’t. You’re beginning to like him for who he is and not for what he does, and only you can decide if that’s enough. This is just a summer fling, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you so concerned about it? It’s not like you’re going to see him again once you leave this place.”
“I know, but...”
“But what?”
Shannon shrugged. “But nothing. Maybe I’m getting worked up about it for all the wrong reasons.”
“Or you could be getting all worked up about it for all the right reasons.” Faith stood. “Go to bed and sleep on it, and I believe that the answers will eventually come. My advice is that if you like this guy—and I mean really like him—then nothing else matters because fling or no fling, you, Shannon Carmichael, will make things work. I’ve never known you to back down from a challenge, and with that last comment I’m turning in.”
Shannon smiled up at her. “Thanks for listening.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for. I wished Cely was here. She was the one who was good at giving advice.”
“That might true, but evidently she didn’t take any of her own. She would never have let us contemplate doing what she did,” Shannon said bitterly.
Faith heard the anger in Shannon’s voice and understood it. Cely had been a friend and a confidante to all of them, but to Shannon, Cely had always been her voice of reason, the one who used to give Shannon a good bitch reading when she needed it. “I don’t think we’ll ever fully understand why Cely did what she did without turning to us, and it hurts because the four of us were so close. But it comes a time when we have to accept things as they are, let it go, and move on.”
“It’s hard,” Shannon said, wiping a tear from her eye.
“I know, but I feel her presence, especially here. It’s like she’s missing from our midst physically but not in spirit. I truly believe whenever we gather together like this, she’ll always be with us. Good night.”
After Faith left and Shannon found herself alone, she poured another glass of wine. Faith was right. Cely was there with them in spirit.
32
“Good morning.”
Monique glanced up at Lyle’s greeting. Everything appeared as usual for their early-morning jog: the beach was empty except for those individuals wanting to walk or run along its shores, which weren’t too many.
Although the scenery was the same, she and Lyle were different, and she could immediately feel it. This past weekend the
y had crossed a line in their relationship, and she was still trying to figure out just where that line was . . . and, more important, what were the expectations.
“Good morning,” she replied, smiling.
Then like it was the most natural thing to do, he leaned down and kissed her. And it wasn’t a brotherly kiss, either. It was a replay of the ones from yesterday but this had even more tongue play. When he pulled away, she had to almost fight for breath.
He smiled down at her. “You okay?”
“Kind of. I guess I’ll survive.”
He chuckled. “And I’m going to make sure of it. Ready to start jogging?”
“Yes, but we need to talk.” She was certain she didn’t have to tell him what about.
“Okay. We’re having breakfast together this morning, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then we can talk then. Come on, let’s start our run before it gets too hot out here.”
And as they began jogging together, Monique was sure things would be fine. They just needed to get a few things clarified.
“Okay, Monique, let’s talk.”
“All right,” she said after taking a deep swallow of orange juice. It seemed that Lyle didn’t intend for them to waste any time to get down to the business at hand. After their jog she had used his bathroom to shower and change and then had joined him in the kitchen.
On this particular morning, he had prepared sausage and biscuits. They had decided that on Wednesdays she was the one responsible for getting in his kitchen to prepare breakfast. One thing she had discovered was that the two of them worked well together.
She placed her juice glass down and met his gaze. “We were friends.”
He smiled warmly at her across the table. “I hope we still are.”
What a Woman Wants Page 21