by Ann Jacobs
While he listened to her confess what she saw as her shame, his blood pounded in his head. Fuck, having been raped by her pervert stepfather wasn’t anything for her to be ashamed of, no matter what she thought. Keith found himself not only wanting to find Garcia and beat the life out of him, but needing to reinforce to Tina that sex didn’t have to be brutal or scary. That not all men were evil.
“Come here, little one.” He had to hold her again, absorb her fears. “Don’t be afraid of me.”
She met his gaze, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I’m not. I know you’d never hurt me.” Setting her snifter on the cocktail table in front of her, she slid over and let him arrange her so they were half sitting, half lying together. They were close enough that he could smell the slight aroma of fine cognac on her lips, see the outline of her panties and her firm, full breasts beneath that simple sleep shirt that shouldn’t have been turning him on.
He shouldn’t have been doing this. He risked hurting her, only not in the way she apparently was certain he wouldn’t. Despite his resolve that he was ready to move forward with Tina, that was before he’d heard this story, about how badly a man had let her down—a man she should have been able to trust. As a result, the same demons ripped at his heels, making him doubt himself. He was too raw, too hung up in his own mixed feelings about Jackie and the way she’d died. Too leery about opening himself up to more emotional pain. When he desperately needed sex, there were plenty of willing women who wanted nothing more than a roll in the hay with an all-pro quarterback.
With every stroke of his fingers over Tina’s soft, pale arm his conscience screamed at him to stop. She wasn’t a groupie hot for a piece of him, but the woman who’d stepped into his home and given his son a mother figure. And him a friend.
But Keith couldn’t stop. Some emotion stronger than he was had him in its grip. Desire, yes. He was a normal male, and normal males didn’t go without regular sex as long as he had without reacting to a woman whose nipples hardened at his touch the way Tina’s were doing now. When the tension in her body gave way to pure, female softness he was lost.
“That feels good,” she murmured, turning her face up to his. “I should be apologizing for keeping you up.”
“Hush. I couldn’t sleep anyway. When I heard you crying, I wanted to help. You know, you’ve helped me more than I can say, being here for Jack. For me, too, although you probably didn’t know it.” Keith shifted, brought their bodies in closer contact. “You feel damn good.”
“So do you.” Tina couldn’t help the heat that began as a little twinge in her belly and spread like molten lava through her veins. It was a good feeling, being in Keith Connors’ arms, knowing that anything that happened between them would be mutual, friends giving comfort to each other. Nothing permanent but something good, satisfying an attraction she’d felt toward him during the first few days they’d shared this big house and his little boy. “If you want…”
“I want, believe me. But I’m not much of a prize. I like you, I appreciate all you’ve done for Jack and me. I’ve got a feeling you need more than liking and appreciation to wipe out the bad memories that had you screaming and in a cold sweat not too long ago. You need more than I’ve got in me to give.”
She didn’t care. She knew he must still be hurting for Jack’s mom, the beautiful woman who smiled down from a portrait above the living room mantel every time Tina walked by the room. Keith had to cope with having lost her while taking care of the baby they’d made and keeping up with his demanding job. She imagined he might be living with misplaced guilt as well, since his wife had died giving birth to Jack. His fast pulse and the growing tension on his handsome face let her know he was aroused. And she wanted to give him release. “All I want is now. I think you want that, too.”
“You’re sure?” He traced her lips with his thumb, looked at her with hungry eyes that burned right through her, made her pulse race and her skin grow hot.
“I’m sure.”
He moved smoothly, his arms taut as he lifted her onto his lap then found and captured her lips. Small, sweet kisses that felt of affection as much as lust calmed her worries, gave her a sense of rightness, a security that meant worlds to her even if it was just for now. His kisses reminded her of ones he pressed on his baby son’s chubby cheeks, only these were different. More intense.
Thunder rolled outside and a bolt of lightning lit the sky. It wasn’t just the storm raging over the lake. It was the one brewing inside her, making her clasp Keith’s broad shoulders, press closer to his long, muscular body. His erection branded her with its heat and hardness, made her shudder for just a moment.
She knew he wouldn’t hurt her the way her stepfather had. Keith would make her feel good in a way nobody had for a long time. He reminded her of Bobby a little. Their bodies were similar, both tall, lanky and powerfully athletic. But the way Keith was kissing and caressing her now made bells ring. They’d never rung like this when she and Bobby had experimented with sex under the bleachers when they were in high school. Bobby had been a boy back then. Keith was a man, a successful man who’d had years to develop the technique that had her wet between her legs and panting for more. He was making her feel cherished, even if the feeling would only last a little while.
Tina guessed she was still the same insecure girl she’d always been, needing sexual fulfillment but wanting a white knight to come swoop her up, deliver her from her own difficult life and take her to the place she’d always dreamed of. Only now she’d settle for the promise of an hour in fantasyland with Keith.
She threaded her fingers through his longish, light brown hair, loved the way the silky strands contrasted with the shorter, crisp hairs at the back of his neck. When she stroked him there he deepened the kiss, ran his tongue over her lips and thrust inside when she opened to him. For a long time he kissed her, his tongue making a lazy exploration in her mouth as if he wanted to memorize her taste, the textures of smooth flesh and teeth she’d always wished were a little straighter. He aroused her slowly, his big hands caressing her neck, her spine, seeming to avoid the places she’d learned as a teenager that boys liked to zero in on. He hadn’t even gotten rid of her sleep shirt yet.
He didn’t need to. His sensual touch through the light fabric had her squirming against him, clutching his muscular arms like a lifeline when she was about to melt in erotic sensation. “Easy there, I’ve been starving for this a long time. I’d like to make it last.” He sounded breathless, as if he was as affected as she by the contact, the promise of fulfillment he seemed determined to hold at arms’ length.
Tina didn’t doubt at all that he wanted her now. That was evident in his touch, in the taut expression on his handsome face. In the way he whispered her name. Hers. Nobody else’s.
Not once did he make her believe, while he slowly built up the need in both of them, that he was seeing his wife’s ghost. She wouldn’t have believed that even if he hadn’t often called her by name, whispered how much he needed this, how badly he wanted her. By the time he raised her sleep shirt, ripped off his sweatshirt and lowered his head to her aching breasts, she was nearly crazy, craving more.
She wanted it all. Wanted him to rip off his pants and her damp cotton panties and fill the emptiness inside her with his hot, rigid shaft that now throbbed against her swollen sex. “Take off your panties and lie back on the couch. Open up for me so I can taste your sweet honey.”
“But—” She’d heard a lot about oral sex but never experienced it. “You don’t have to.”
“But I want to. Unless you’re afraid?”
“I’m not afraid of you, Keith.” Everything else he’d done to her felt delicious. The idea of him burying his face between her legs and stimulating her with his mouth somehow seemed more intimate than the prospect of him plunging into her core. Too intimate, almost, for this interlude she was sure wouldn’t blossom into a lasting relationship. Yet not intimate enough, not unless… “I’d like to taste you, too.”
&n
bsp; “Me first.” When he stretched out between her legs and spread her outer lips, she shuddered. His hot breath on her damp flesh sent little tremors along her nerves, made her hold her breath with anticipation. Then he found her clit and took it between his teeth. When he licked along the tip of her sensitive flesh she tensed. It was like when she satisfied herself, only better. His tongue felt like wet velvet, his touch sensual and sure. “You taste so damn good,” he muttered, lifting his head for a second before diving back in, this time licking along the length of her swollen, wet slit.
She felt pressure building, making her muscles tighten, her body gush hot lubrication. The musky smells of sex and pungent smoke from the fireplace filled her nostrils, surrounded her with an almost desperate need for release. Could she come this way? Would Keith want her to?
He zeroed in on her sex, plunged his tongue deep inside her. His lips put delicious pressure on her clit. She wanted to give back the pleasure, take his long, thick sex in her mouth. “Please. I want to taste you, too.”
“Not until you come for me.”
A dam of sensation broke inside her, spread through her veins. “Omigod, I’m coming now. Don’t…don’t stop.” She wanted more, wanted him to claim her fully. “Please. I want you. All of you.”
He muttered something then resumed fucking her with his tongue.
It wasn’t enough. “You’re not going to…”
“Do what I’m aching with the need to do? Not tonight. I don’t have a single condom in the house.” He resumed sucking her clit, making her squirm against his mouth, splay her fingers over his shoulders.
Her good sense warred with the need to have him inside her, feel his heat and hardness. She wanted him to take her fully even as she appreciated him being considerate and not willing to risk making her pregnant. “That doesn’t seem fair to you.”
He backed off, blew on flesh already sensitized by the rasp of his evening beard, the smooth slide of his tongue. “Don’t worry about me. I’m getting more pleasure than I’ve had for a long time. Besides, you can help me come, too, if you really want to.”
“Oh yes, I do.” She’d touched Bobby once or twice but never when she was starving for fulfillment. When her high-school friends had talked about going down on their boyfriends, she’d had mixed feelings about trying it. Now, with Keith, she wanted to touch him, taste him, do for him what he was doing for her.
Oh God. His long fingers and agile tongue worked magic on her, made her shatter again like an overfilled balloon into what seemed like a thousand pieces of pure pleasure. He kept it up, and the sensations intensified. She wouldn’t have believed that possible. “Please don’t…don’t stop.” She threaded her fingers through his hair, pressed him closer. “Omigod.”
“Keith!” She called out his name as shock waves kept going through her.
Chapter Five
He lifted his head but kept his fingers inside her, hard and hot for her inner muscles to clench around. Her juices glistened on his mouth, his cheeks. His eyes expressed hunger. Hunger she longed to satisfy, however he wanted. “Tina, baby, you have no idea how much I want to…”
He was about to explode, holding on by a thread to keep from ripping off his pants and burying his cock to the hilt in her wet, welcoming pussy. “Feel your hands and mouth on me.”
Keith felt her tremble, sensed her hesitation. More than that, he recognized her need. “Come for me again, little one.” He drew her clit into his mouth, sucked greedily while he slid two fingers inside her warm, wet pussy and scissored them. She tasted so damn good, clean and soft and so arousing it was all he could do to hold back his climax. Her soft cries excited him more as she came again. He’d never experienced such a powerful response from a woman, as if her entire being centered on him. Soon she’d be climaxing while he buried his cock deep inside her. He’d be absorbing her cries of satisfaction in his mouth.
He shifted away from her spasming pussy and licked her juices from his lips as he met her stunned yet contented gaze. How could he ever have thought she was plain? “You’re so damn beautiful when you come.”
He rested his head on her belly, tried to concentrate on the storm that was raging outside. On anything but the one inside him that was sweeping him up in its fury, robbing him of the self-control he had to maintain.
“May I?”
Yeah. God yeah. His cock ached with anticipation. He sat up then lifted himself enough to pull his pants off. “Please touch me.” Last week’s debauchery had taught him he liked oral, too. A lot. His cock swelled with anticipation when she first touched him. She was no expert, he could tell by her tentative touch, but he liked her slow exploration of his shaft and he loved the way she bent and put her tongue to the lubrication on the tip of his cockhead. “That’s the way.”
She slid off the sofa and knelt between his legs. Her hungry gaze, the warmth of her breath as she leaned closer, fired his libido, made him clench his fists to keep from grabbing her head, guiding her mouth to his throbbing cock. Let her do it in her own time. You can wait.
Slowly she sucked the tip of his cock into her mouth, her tongue exploring as though she’d never done this before. She cradled his balls in one hand, her touch all the more arousing because it was so obviously unpracticed. Keith drew in a deep breath of air, let it out slowly when she sank deeper onto him and began to suck, first gently then harder, as though she wanted him to come in her mouth the way she’d just come in his.
He’d never wanted anything more than to drag her off his cock, slide down on the floor with her and fuck her until neither of them could see straight. But he couldn’t. He held on, not wanting to come in her mouth just yet. Keith gritted his teeth, tasted her on his lips, in his mouth, smelled the heady musk that surrounded them.
He threaded his fingers through her silky hair, tried not to force her to take him deeper. Until his lust took over, stole his desire to protect her, left him in a white-hot fire of mindless need to come, to take the release that called every pore in his body. “I’m coming. Can’t help it. Let go.”
But she didn’t. Instead she held on to him, took him deeper as she squeezed his balls. His climax built. His cock convulsed against her throat. The first hot bursts filled her mouth, escaped her lips. Slick ejaculate tickled his balls as she kept caressing them. He barely heard his own scream of completion as he fell backward onto the sofa.
“Thank you.”
She looked up at him, her hair disheveled, her mouth and chin translucent with the remnants of his climax. Her pretty blue eyes shone brightly. Wanting to hold her, he drew her up his body, settled her against his chest. He loved the way her soft hair tickled him, the slight weight of her body warming his. Their hearts beat in synch, strong and slow.
Then she looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “Thank you. For everything. For listening, but most of all for showing me sex can be good. Very good.”
Keith had seen more beautiful women. He’d fucked women who’d been more skilled. But he’d never made love with a woman before who made him feel invincible. At that moment Tina was his world. “It will get better, I promise, just as soon as the weather lifts enough that I can make a trip to the drugstore. I’ve got the feeling this was just a little practice session for the real thing.”
“You mean…”
“I mean I’m looking for a hell of a lot more than a one-night stand, and I hope you are, too.” The way he hadn’t with Liz, the way he hadn’t with Jackie for a long time before she died, he felt content. Emotionally engaged. The feeling he had when he stretched out on the carpet and drew Tina into his arms felt almost like love.
* * * * *
When Keith woke the next morning in front of the fireplace he reached for Tina, but she was gone. He vaguely recalled her having stirred in his arms earlier, saying something about needing to go take care of Jack. When he blinked he saw Mrs. Gardner, her expression as icy as the winter scene outside.
He figured now was as good a time as any to have it out with her. “
Good morning to you, too.”
Even if he didn’t suspect she’d been spying on him for his mother-in-law, Keith had never liked Mrs. Gardner all that well. The woman acted as though she could barely stand him, always had. Well, this morning he guessed she had reason for her evil-looking scowl.
Bare to the waist, sweatpants untied, one foot bare and the other in an athletic sock, he definitely looked disheveled. Though he didn’t have a mirror, he could guess his chin was bristly and his hair looked like it had been combed through by human hands, not a brush. He couldn’t help grinning when he followed the woman’s gaze to the empty brandy snifters and a bunch of sofa pillows someone had tossed in front of the fireplace.
Mrs. Gardner eyed the pillows then looked back at him, disgust in her expression. “It seems like somebody had a good time in here last night.”
That was pretty obvious, and even more obviously it was none of the snooty housekeeper’s business. After all, it was his house. Keith shot her the fake smile that had sold millions of bottles of pricey cologne. “Actually, we did. Is there any reason you need to be cleaning up in here this early in the morning, or are you just getting information to pass along to Georgia?”
“Mrs. Bern? What do you mean?”
“I think you know. Either you’re talking to her or she’s scary psychic about what goes on here.”
She seemed to miss his sarcasm. “I—I’m going to visit my daughter later today. I thought I told you I’d be gone a day or so.”
“You probably did.” Keith didn’t care, he just wished the housekeeper would leave him alone so he could ruminate on what had almost happened last night. “Are the roads around here safe enough to drive on?”