Jack rolled his eyes. “Got a bear suit?”
“Sadly, no.” She thought for a moment. “How about I’m a leprechaun trying to keep my marshmallowy cereal away from pesky kids?”
He stifled a burst of laughter. “Next...”
“I know!” Melissa snuck behind a hemlock and peeked out, holding fingers up by her head to suggest horns. “Weird woodland creature prowls Seward Park and terrorizes the tourists.”
Jack’s smile faded. The greenery made a fresh frame for her face, the light threw dappled shadows on her shoulders and lit her eyes.
That was it. Right there. So simple. Behind the tree she looked ethereally beautiful, like a wood nymph, like a sprite...
“Hold there.” He got to a crouch, aimed his camera. Yes.
“You’re kidding.” She giggled. “You want me like this?”
“Without the horns. A tree nymph. Perfect.” He lowered the camera. Almost perfect. She was not going to like this. “Except...those clothes don’t really say nymph.”
“What?” She looked down at them, then back at him warily. “Don’t tell me.”
“You’d be perfect naked.”
“I said not to tell me.” She shook her head. “You are a pervert, you know that?”
“How many nymphs do you know who wear tennis shoes?”
“How many nymphs do you know, period?”
He grinned and caught her exasperation on camera. He was feeling back in control now, excited, sure of what he wanted, pleased he’d been able to trust the process—their process—this time. “C’mon, off with it.”
“You don’t pay me enough for this.” She pulled her T-shirt up and over her head, reached behind to unhook her bra then caught him watching. “Do you have to stare?”
“Do you blame me?”
She made a face, slid off her bra, balled it up and hurled it at him.
He ducked, laughing, and aimed the camera again. “Okay, nymph. You’re there in the tree, shy and timid. You hear someone, a hunter, maybe. You’re curious, and also afraid. You’re peeking out and at the first sight of him you’re smitten.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes, making him grin again. Then she stood concentrating for a moment. Her expression grew anxious, her head tipped so that a needled branch touched her cheek, leaving an intriguing shadow. Click.
“Actually...” She tipped her head the other way. Click. “In mythology, nymphs were not that timid. They were in charge of what they wanted sexually and when. Males, females, whatever, whenever.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Her expression became more provocative. Her lips pouted slightly. Click. “Their sexuality was entirely outside male control. I like that about them.”
Click. “So do I. Very hot.”
Melissa arched her back. The dappled light coming through the green caught her breast, made the skin more golden, the nipple rosier. He was not going to survive this. And yet...yes, now she was perfect.
“Your problem here, Jack—” she kicked off her sneakers, shimmied out of her pants and underpants, flung them at him “—is that you need to let your women have more power.”
Click. “Tell me more.”
She turned, positioned herself so that her gorgeous peaches-and-cream ass curved out from the branches; her face in profile showed over the slope of her shoulder. “You and I are both strong people, who need to be in control. It’s how we manage our love lives. You have lots of women. I have no men. That way we’re both in charge, nothing can touch us.”
She put her hands to her breasts, barely visible through the feathery branches, but enough to make him swallow.
“But I’m thinking now that one of us will have to give up control, Jack.”
Click.
She had no idea how close he was to doing just that.
“Nymphs have power.” Her arms stretched over to grasp the smooth reddish trunk of the madrone; she stepped close and pressed herself against it, cheek, breast, stomach, thighs parted around the trunk, knees slightly bent.
Click. Lucky tree. He was getting a hard-on.
“Sexual power.” She arched back, holding the tree with the tips of her fingers and the strength in her thighs. “You need to let the women in your life indulge that power.”
Click.
The sun went under a cloud; her color and the tree color got lost in the encroaching evening, which came early in the woods. Over the water daylight still reigned, but here it was harder to tell where the tree ended, where she began.
Click.
“So tell me...” She let her head drop back, hair cascading down and away. “Jack.”
Click.
“Are you the hunter?” His magnificent naked nymph let go of the tree, stepped in front of it and leaned back provocatively against its slanted trunk. She smiled, lips parted, eyelids heavy. “Or am I?”
A breeze swept through the clearing, fluttering her hair as if it were leaves.
Melissa.
He put the camera down, and reached her in two strides.
10
MELISSA WATCHED JACK APPROACH, covering ground so fast he seemed to be flying. She braced herself against the tree, forcing herself not to reach for him, feverish for his arrival.
He stopped inches away; his deep brown eyes connected with hers in that way that left her breathless. “You know what you’re inviting?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I do.”
She hoped.
“You want this.”
“Oh.” Her body was trembling. She craved his touch as much as she was afraid of it. But yes, Gretchen, she was going to take this chance. “You have no idea.”
“Actually, I think I do.” He leaned his arms on the trunk above her head, biceps bulging under his sleeves, his lean body taut. “No turning back this time?”
“None.” She pulled him to fit against her, solid, warm, the tree bent at the perfect angle so she was underneath him without taking on his whole weight.
Instead of the attack she expected, Jack rested his forehead against hers, mouth so close her lips tingled with need. “It will be intense between us, Melissa.”
“I know.” She lifted her face; their lips met and the hunger was unleashed, the passion revived. All polite talk, thoughtful exchanges and civilized trappings were blown away, replaced by pure, primitive instinct.
Melissa closed her eyes and concentrated on the warmth of Jack’s mouth, the heat of his hands on her skin, trying to ignore the fear that this flood of feeling would submerge her, drown her then toss her up on some shore, a bloated shade of her former self.
No fear. She forced herself to stay in the moment, to breathe him in, simply to feel, not think.
No thinking.
Jack’s mouth left hers, journeyed to her collarbone, kissing a line across the bones, then lower, engulfing her nipple with pressure so firm and sweet that she gasped. Opening her eyes, she watched him suckle, the familiar strong stubbled lines of his jaw contrasting with her paler skin.
The sight drove her panic up further. He was real. He was here. The more he touched her, the more she’d feel, the farther she’d sink into him and the harder it would be to save herself.
She could still escape.
No. This was what she wanted. What she’d invited. What she’d both desired and avoided her whole life.
She closed her eyes again, tangled her fingers in his hair, urged his mouth along, using the panic to fuel her passion and arousal, finding the combination of fear and desire extra-potent.
A new sensation enhanced the touch of his mouth on her breast. Jack’s fingers encircled her ankle, his palm rising slowly up her shin, over her knee, along her thigh in an unhesitating, unapologetic exploration, which stopped between her legs, just shy of heaven, making her hold her breath with anticipation, body shaking.
Please, Jack...
His mouth moved to her other breast, leaving the first to cool and dry in the breeze.
Slowly, tantalizingly
, his thumb slid up her inner thigh. Closer. Closer.
Oh. Melissa’s breath exploded. She couldn’t do this. The sensations were too intense, the emotions were too, too intense.
“Jack.” She could barely say his name. He found her clitoris, started rubbing a lazy circle.
“Mmm?” His lips kissed a hot trail down her stomach. And down. And down...
Oh, no.
Oh, yes.
His tongue found the spot his thumb had abandoned, firm, wet and so warm in the cooling air. Melissa nearly came apart, could barely stand, even with most of her weight leaning on the tree. She spread her legs wider. Her head lifted and fell back on the smooth bark. Jack opened her with his fingers and entered with his tongue, thrusting inside her while his fingers played outside.
If she thought she’d been lost before, it was double now, with this man’s mouth and fingers working her. She was defenseless, at his mercy, moaning louder than she should be, hips straining toward him, wanting him deeper, wanting, wanting...
The orgasm came on slowly, inevitably, taunting her, just out of reach, then hitting full-force, a hot intense wave that seemed to stop time. She muffled her cry and rode it, letting it take her, contracting, pulsing, aware of Jack as intensely as she was of her body’s ecstasy.
Her legs turned to mush; she started to slide down, realizing and not caring that her back would be scratched to ribbons.
Jack’s strong hands stopped her. He gently kissed her still-swollen clitoris, her abdomen, then looked up at her with something like awe.
“Melissa,” he whispered. “That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It was...oh.” She laughed, breathlessly. “You really—”
Know what you’re doing.
The sentence died. Yes, he did. Because he’d done this dozens of times before to dozens of women. Whereas Melissa had come in less time than it took her to get mildly aroused by other men.
He stood, gathered her in his arms, turned them so his back was to the tree and probed her spine with light, stroking touches. “Any scratches?”
“No, no. I’m fine.” She was sort of fine. His erection lay long and hard against her abdomen. She desperately wanted to give Jack as much pleasure as he’d just given her, but she didn’t have either his experience or confidence.
Ah, but today, in this park, she was a tree nymph, right? Out of the control of men? Totally confident in her sexuality?
Maybe.
As she wavered, Jack, using his strong hands in the gentle way that gave her goose bumps, stroked up her neck to guide her head toward his, enveloped her in his arms, and kissed her, sweetly at first, then with such passion that hers flared again. She pressed her still-sensitive sex against his erection, rebuilding her hunger, building his higher.
“You are so beautiful.” He looked down at her, cradling her head in his arm, his expression slightly bewildered. “Making you come, watching you, I don’t think I’ve ever... I’ve never...”
He laughed self-consciously.
Ever? Never?
Whatever Jack was too nervous to say meant something between them had been new to him. New with her. Maybe she was really more than just his next lay.
The thought was all she needed. Melissa slid down his body—Melissa, not some stupid nymph—and poised her mouth over the straining fly of his shorts. Jack stilled, frozen, until she pressed her lips against him and began his thaw.
His groan made her smile with satisfaction. She undid his fly, unzipped and reached in for the smooth hot erection that sprang eagerly toward her lips—then inside them. She slid her mouth toward the base of his cock, banishing fears and insecurity, letting herself tune in to Jack, to the signals his body was sending.
She learned he liked it when she stretched the skin at the base of his penis.
She learned he liked it when she circled his tip with her tongue, gently, carefully, then abruptly deep-throated him.
She learned he loved it when she fondled the soft bundles of his testicles at the same time as she sucked him in deep.
“Melissa.” He let out a sound of frustration and grabbed her shoulders. “You’re making me crazy. If you keep doing that...”
She was making him crazy.
Something snapped inside her then, a final thread tethering her to Old Nervous Melissa. A sweet, beautiful relaxation came over her, more profound than any she’d known, a certainty about who she was and what she wanted. She pulled Jack’s shirt up and off, laid it carefully on the ground, found hers where she’d hurled it, and spread it beside his so they formed a roughly body-shaped covering for the dry earth.
He was watching her, hands on his hips, erection magnificent and proud.
“There.” She backed up to survey their love nest. Warm arms encircled her immediately; his hand found her breasts. “Are you going to let me make love to you on the forest floor in the middle of a public park?”
She arched back so her bottom pressed against him. “I’m going to require you to. As long as you have a—”
“Condom?” He held one up, magically produced from thin air.
“Just in case?” She sent him an acerbic look with enough humor that he’d know she was teasing.
“A guy can always hope.” He moved them to the shirt-bed, knelt with her, lowered her gently to the ground and rolled on the condom. “In your case, it was less hope than desperation.”
“Really.” Melissa welcomed his weight on hers, no fear this time, no sense of shame, no inkling of inner protest that this was too much, too soon, that she was being unwisely risky with her body and heart. So new. So wonderful. Everything about this moment felt natural and right. She traced his lips with her forefinger. “I think I’ve experienced some of that desperation, too.”
“Yeah?” He returned her smile, then his faded slowly; a small frown creased a line between his brows. One soft, sweet kiss, then he pulled back just until their lips came apart. “You are a remarkable woman, Melissa.”
She stared into his dark eyes, feeling a glow of something she barely understood. A ray of sun made its way through the trees and lit his face, touching his black-coffee hair with glints of auburn, lighting his skin, making him look positively godlike. “You certainly make me feel that way, Jack. And you are—”
“No, shhh.” Her personal god put a finger to her lips. “This is your compliment session. Mine comes later. When we have a lot more time.”
She burst out laughing, then stopped abruptly when he kissed her, a serious, sensual kiss that left no question what was on his mind.
Her mouth responded, her arms crept around him, her brain sent signals that this man was getting deeper and deeper into her heart and mind, places unused for so long that they’d been in danger of atrophying. That was a good thing, no matter how or when or whether she and Jack ended.
His erection nudged at her; she opened her legs eagerly, reached down to help guide him.
An inch at a time, pushing in, pulling back, he went inside her, watching her, closing his eyes in pleasure for brief moments, then opening them again. It was too much, but it wasn’t fear she felt this time. It was an emotion Melissa couldn’t name. She had to look away, could only manage glances back up at him.
Then he was all the way in and slowly, gently, he began to move. As it seemed with everything between them, the sex was more. More feeling, more friction, more awareness of the contact between their bodies, of the stunning intimacy, of the breeze washing over them, of the forest whispers, of their natural place lying on the earth, tree and freshwater smells surrounding them.
Melissa never wanted it to end. The push and pull of his hips, the touch of his broad firm chest against hers, the wide, smooth planes of his back under her fingers, the sweet murmurs in her ear. She’d never had a lover like this. Jack was skilled, yes, but he was also there, in every sense, acknowledging and indulging each sensation along with her, a connection she’d never experienced to this degree.
Gradually, urgency crep
t into their movements; their breaths became shallower, shorter.
“Melissa.” Jack kissed her shoulder, her cheek then her mouth, hot and hard, on and on while their bodies reached higher and more frantically for release.
His approached first, his body tensing. A groan ripped from him that was so sexy it pushed her over the edge and she burst into a second orgasm, barely keeping herself from shouting at the power of it, clinging to him helplessly as their bodies pulsed together...and came down.
Then all was quiet and calm, the earth still turning, birds flying home to roost, sun on its way to ending its daily appointed round. Jack lifted his head, breath coming fast, face flushed, eyes bright with pleasure.
“That was...” He laughed and shook his head.
“Yes.” She grinned at him, drew a line down from his temple to his strong chin. “It was.”
“Can we do that again sometime?”
Melissa pretended to consider. “Well, I suppose if—”
“Hey, Dad! Come look at this!”
Melissa was pretty sure neither of them had ever moved quite so fast in their lives as they lunged for their clothes.
“Good lord.” She crouched, peering through the trees, fumbling with her bra. “That’s all we need, to scar a small child for life. What were we thinking?”
“We weren’t.” Jack stepped into his shorts. “He’s run back to his family. I don’t think he was talking about us.”
“I hope not.” She pulled her shirt over her head. “That would have been horrible.”
“Would have been.” He bent to kiss her as she struggled into her pants. “But wasn’t.”
“Next time we do this—”
“Inside. In bed, behind a locked door. Yours, mine, doesn’t matter.”
She nodded as if they were discussing business, while inside she was celebrating. They would get to do this again, go to that amazing place together again. “Good plan.”
He grinned and pushed back the hair that had fallen into her eyes. “You know, you look adorable when you’re in danger of being arrested for indecent exposure.”
“Aw, thanks.” She beamed at him. “And you look gorgeous when you’re guilty of lewd conduct.”
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