Red Leopard (The Vistaria Affair Series)

by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Then he carefully eased his jeans back over his hips and did up a few of the buttons on the fly. He did not fasten all of them, for even the few he tackled strained to cover his erection. The tip of his cock showed just above the fastened button.

  “Besides,” he added as he started the engine and backed up the jeep a little so he could regain the thin strip of tarmac, “The longer I am in this state, the longer I can pleasure you.”

  She could feel herself blushing, even though she knew it was ridiculous to react that way. She was also acutely aware of her nakedness. “This is a busy road?” she asked, lifting her voice over the wind a little.

  “Pretty busy.”

  “How do you pass anyone here?”

  “Carefully.”

  “Slowly, then?”

  “Very slowly.”

  She shivered, suddenly nervous. “I should get dressed then.”

  “We’ll be turning off in a minute and then the only people we’ll see are farmers. Stay that way. I like the view.”

  She studied him. With his bare chest and the jeans not quite covering his cock, he was virtually as naked as she. “Undo the rest of the buttons, though,” she said.

  His smile was slow and seemed filled with delight at her command. “As my lady pleases,” he said and reached down to release the buttons once more. His cock sprang up straight.

  “That’s better,” she said.

  “Hang on,” he warned and turned the jeep into a rough gravel track that seemed to head straight up the side of the mountain. After the initial sharp descent the gradient decreased, although they continued to climb, rounding a dozen hairpin bends along the way.

  “How long?” she asked.

  “Impatient?”

  “Yes.”

  “Minutes, that is all.”

  The jeep continued to climb, then the road evened out and arrowed straight into the trees, which grew as a shady tunnel over the top of them. Two hundred yards further on the trees thinned out and Calli saw the jagged peak of a mountain directly ahead. Nick turned the car to toward the mountainside. Then she saw the house.

  It was a low thing of glass and thick black timbers, bereft of any adobe and nestled into the trees. Behind the flat roof of the house, she saw a waterfall cascading down the side of the mountain.

  Nick pulled the jeep up sharply at the front of the house, where inlaid cement flagstones led right to the front door. He climbed out and strode around to Calli’s side of the car and opened the door. She caught only a glimpse of the unfastened jeans barely hanging onto his hips before he scooped her up and carried her towards the house.

  “Now who’s impatient?” she asked, looping her arms around his neck.

  “Damned right,” he growled. He pushed the door open with his shoulder—apparently he saw no need to lock his house up—and then they were inside a green oasis with raw terracotta tiles and large walls of glass. She saw nothing else before Nick pushed through another door and placed her on a wooden surface. A table.

  He moved around the side of the table and bent over and kissed her, while his hand ran across her body, smoothing its way across her ribs, her stomach, to the small patch of hair over her mound.

  “You are so beautiful.” His lips brushed against hers as he spoke. “I could explore for a decade and not tire of it.”

  She groaned into his mouth as his fingers slipped inside her and stroked up and down the length of her pussy. The irregular shape of his fingers moving against her felt far different than his cock. His thumb caressed her clitoris. It was again the delicate touch that electrified her, yet at the same time made her desperate for more.

  “Nick...you...I want you inside me.”

  “So do I,” he muttered and moved around to the end of the table. She heard the whisper of denim and knew he’d stripped off the jeans. He lifted her legs over his arms.

  “Hurry,” she said.

  “Shhh...Such a moment should always be savored.” He paused with the head of his cock right against her pussy, all but entering her.

  Calli’s heart trip-hammered with anticipation. “Nick...!”

  He slid into her slowly, so slowly that she thought she might die of frustration and need. But finally he rested, buried to the hilt. The heat and size of him made her groan. “Good,” she said thickly.

  “Very good,” he agreed.

  He pulled out of her at the same unhurried speed.

  “You’re killing me!” she cried.

  “You have to feel it, with every inch of your body. Focus on every little sensation, every quiver, every spasm. Delight in it.” Despite his words, he sounded strained and under pressure. His eyes were half-closed, watching her. A bead of sweat formed at his temple.

  He pulled all the way out of her, then just as slowly pushed back in again. This time Calli tried to extend her senses and focus on the sensations. She could feel the ridged head sliding into her and opening her up, the touch of his pelvis against her clit when he was fully inside her. She could hear his breathing, rough and ragged.

  Despite the slow, slow thrusting, her heart was thundering, her body pulsing, every nerve end a sensitive live-wire triggered by the slightest touch. Her head rolled to one side and her eyes closed as Nick pushed into her once again. He paused and she could feel him quivering against her, the little shifts that said he neared the limits of his control, too. That pushed her excitement up a notch and she swallowed on a throat gone dry.

  “I can’t stand it,” she pleaded, her own hips moving restlessly, her legs quivering against his arms.

  The rate of his thrusting picked up speed. Just by a small amount. After a moment he swore, his voice hoarse. “Again, too much,” he gasped. He thrust hard and quick, his fingers digging into her thighs, the tendons in his neck showing the strain.

  The pressure against her swollen and sensitive clit, the quick little pushes, sent tremors of pleasure bursting through her already quivering, desperate body. Her climax slipped over her like a hot wave of electrical light. While her heart and mind hung suspended, every nerve flared in response.

  Nick slammed into her one last time with a choked cry. She felt him pulsing inside her and the hot spill of semen, even as her own body clenched around him in orgasmic pleasure. For a moment he sagged over her. He lowered her legs, then propped himself up with one trembling arm and gave a deep, gusty sigh.

  Then he slid his arms under her shoulders and lifted her up off the table. Calli twined her legs around his hips instinctively as he turned around. He surprised her by sitting on the table and settling her legs around him, so that she sat in his lap. His cock was still buried in her.

  Nick stared into her eyes and brushed tendrils of hair from her face. “Welcome to my home,” he said gravely.

  She gave a tiny laugh. “That was quite a welcome.”

  He smiled. “It is a better welcome than most Vistarians extend and we are known for our warmth and generosity.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she said.

  He still stared, still studied her. The humor faded from his face. “If I considered myself a superstitious man, I would say you have bewitched me, Calli Munro.”

  “You are not superstitious?”

  “I thought I was a realist, but you are teaching me otherwise,” he said. Before she could respond or even begin to untangle his meaning, he hugged her very tightly, holding still for a breathless moment. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his scent and the heat of his flesh against her cheek and chest. It was a moment she knew would stay with her forever.

  Then he let her go and lifted her up and onto her feet. She sighed at the loss of contact.

  He stood and picked up her hands. “Realism says we must eat soon and I’m sure you would sell your soul for a shower, yes?”

  “Yes!”

  He tugged on her hand. “Come.”

  She followed him from the dining room, more than happy to watch his tight tanned buttocks work as he walked. His wide shoulders wer
e complemented by a lean, muscled back and tight waist and hips. She marveled again that his clothes had hidden such delightful details so well. He did not have the distorted size and shape of a dedicated body builder, but he clearly worked his body hard.

  The house seemed to be made almost entirely of glass between the black pillars and beams. Natural light flooded the house, warming the tiles underfoot and feeding the tubs of plants everywhere.

  Nick led her into a spacious bedroom. A thick Persian carpet covered the tiles, and a low bed with a dark green quilt nestled right up against the glass wall. The floor of the room lay at the same level as the ground outside, making the room effectively part of the glade.

  On the other side of the room another door was set in the only solid part of the wall. Nick crossed over to open it. A bathroom, she realized, when she stepped inside. But a bathroom with a difference. The wall with the door held the essential plumbing and equipment—sink, toilet, cabinetry. Opaque glass blocks, that had a showerhead and taps inset, made up the far half of the wall to the left. The rest of the room, all of it, had clear glass walls. Thundering down the mountainside, directly outside the wall, was the waterfall she had seen earlier. It was close enough that some spray landed against the wall from the impact of the water at the bottom of the stream.

  Nick turned on the shower, then tested the water.

  “It’s...stunning,” Calli finally managed.

  He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I never get tired of it,” he admitted. “I built the house with this one room in mind and the rest just formed around it.” He flicked water at her. “Nice and warm,” he promised.

  She undid the leather thong that held her braid and shook out her hair.

  Nick watched with narrowed eyes. She had seen that expression before, when she had done something that jolted him into a new perspective that gave him pause for thought.

  “God, you look wild, with your hair loose,” he said. “Why do you tie it up all the time?”

  “At home, it’s to keep a professional image. Here, it’s because of the color.” She stepped into the spray of water and gasped at the heavenly warmth.

  Nick frowned.

  “Too much realism for you, Nick?” she asked.

  His frown deepened. “For this moment, yes,” he said. He stepped into the water and wrapped his arms around her and she felt his head rest against hers. He sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I shouldn’t have been so practical.”

  “Don’t apologize. I’m being a fool, trying to leave the world at the door.”

  “You can do that,” she assured him. “We can be what we want, no limits, just for this short while and the rest of the world can go hang. Then after, you can get on with your life and I’ll be safely back in the States.”

  “Okay,” he said heavily.

  * * * * *

  Nick left the bathroom before her, explaining that he wanted to start dinner. When she emerged later, wrapped in a big bath sheet, she found her backpack sitting on the end of the bed. Next to it lay a white glossy box.

  She walked over to the bed and rummaged through her backpack, but couldn’t help glancing at the box curiously.

  “I saw it in my dreams,” Nick said from behind her.

  She whirled. He wore blue jeans and a black sweater. Unlike the business suits and shirts she had seen him until now, the sweater emphasized his shoulders. “What was in your dreams?”

  “The garment in that box. I saw you wearing it in my dream and the next day—the very next day—I saw it in a store window. It would please me if you wore it.”

  She opened the box and saw layers of powder blue chiffon, silk. “I thought you weren’t superstitious?”

  “Ah, but I am a liar.” He turned and left the room as silently as he had arrived.

  Calli dropped her towel and pulled the garment out of the box. It seemed to be a cross between a nightdress and evening gown. She couldn’t decide which. The chiffon lay over the top of the silk. Carefully, she worked her hips into the dress, for it fit tightly and the dress had neither zipper nor fasteners. It was cut on the cross, which gave her the room she needed to get it over her hips. The bias cut also meant it clung. Everywhere. The top was a little looser and when she slid the straps over her shoulders, the fabric between her breasts hung very low. It was low enough so that it revealed the swell of her breasts. The back of the dress resembled the black lace one she had worn, skimming down in a deep vee to finish just above her buttocks. The straps of the dress crossed her back and attached just above the end of the vee.

  The hem of the dress brushed her toes, which Calli found remarkable, for any floor length gown she bought always had to have the hem dropped. Had he seen to that already? She picked up the hem and saw the faint signs of previous stitching.

  Yes, someone had extended the hem.

  She walked over to the mirror and discovered the silk was so fine and delicate that every rub and swish of the chiffon against it transferred to her skin. As she was naked beneath the dress, her nipples and mons were delicately brushed. The subtle touch was undeniably arousing.

  She looked in the mirror. The dress outlined her hips, her abdomen and seemed to reveal more of her breasts than it covered. She felt more naked in the dress than she did wearing no clothes at all.

  * * * * *

  Calli made her way back to the dining room, figuring the kitchen had to be somewhere nearby.

  As she had been dressing, evening had fallen and it was already quite dark outside the glass walls. The dining room was empty. The door on the other side of the room led to the kitchen, also empty. But good cooking smells came from the stove and a chopping board, a knife and vegetable scraps lay on the counter.

  She went back through the dining area and down some steps, where she found Nick looking out through the glass towards the trees. Far to the left, she could see the luminous spray of the waterfall.

  “Stop there,” he said, his voice low.

  She stopped, realizing he had seen her reflection in the glass. “Why?” she asked.

  “Straight ahead, next to the tree in front of me. See it?”

  She tried to look through the glass. “No.”

  “Next to your right hand, the light switch. Turn off the lights.”

  She touched the switch and the lights all shut off. She blinked, trying to adjust to the darkness. It wasn’t that dark after all. The sky was inky blue, but not yet full dark, and the moon was still quite full even though it waned now.

  She looked at the tree Nick had singled out.

  “See the eyes?” he asked.

  She looked again. Something moved a little. Eyes reflected the moonlight back at her. She caught her breath.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Jaguar,” Nick murmured. “I think she lives around here.”

  “She’s beautiful.”

  The cat, reassured by the absence of light, prowled out from under the tree into the full moonlight. Her black coat shone with indigo highlights that eerily reminded Calli of Nick’s eyes. The cat turned her head, sniffing, scouting her way ahead. She gave a low growl, almost a clearing of the throat. Even through the glass, Calli could hear the deep rumble.

  Then, as if she had reached a decision, the jaguar leapt over the root by her feet and padded away towards the stream.

  Nick turned to face Calli. His gaze slowly traveled up and down her body and he drew in a deep breath, let it out.

  “It will do?” Calli asked. She nervously brushed at the chiffon.

  “You have an aura, standing there in the moonlight. You are glowing.” He moved across the room to come up behind her where she stood on the edge of the carpet. “Did you plan this?” he whispered, his hands sliding around her waist.

  “Plan what?”

  “To stand before the glass so I could come up behind you. Do you know how I have replayed that moment at Ashcroft’s over and over in my mind? How I have wished it might have ended another way?
”

  His hands slid up the dress to cup her breasts and she drew in her breath sharply. “It was one hand,” she whispered.

  “Ah, yes.” He slipped his hand beneath the silk and cupped her breast. She swallowed hard as low-key pleasure spurted through her and her tender clitoris awakened. In response, her shoulders straightened and she thrust the breast he held more firmly into his hand. The movement made her ass cheeks press back into him. His thumb rubbed the nipple. In the glass she saw his black shadow by her shoulder, the dark arm across her chest. He spread his other hand out across her abdomen, splayed flat, possessive.

  “More.” Her voice came out weak.

  “Mmm.” He kissed the nape of her neck, making her shiver. “Much more. But later. For now, I must eat real food.”

  Her stomach grumbled a little and he laughed. “And so must you.”

  * * * * *

  They were eating—a spicy casserole with a salad and lots of crusty bread rolls and a pale pat of butter—when a quiet tap-tap-tap sounded.

  Calli frowned, unsure what she’d heard but Nick lifted his head and cocked it, his whole body straightened in the chair, alert.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Shhh.”

  The tap-tap-tap sounded again.

  Nick stood and picked up the jacket slung over the back of the chair next to him, and put it on. “Stay there,” he instructed, as he might a child. He left the room, using the archway that lead directly to the front door—the one he had carried her through only a few hours earlier.

  Her body tingled at the memory.

  She continued to eat, her hunger still not fully satisfied. It felt like she had not eaten for a month. But she also listened, trying to hear what Nick did. As she scooped up another spoonful of the casserole, she heard what she assumed must be the front door open and close. Then nothing.

  Several minutes later, the door opened and closed again and a few seconds after that, Nick returned. He lowered himself into the chair, and picked up his fork again. “I apologize for the interruption,” he said.

  A small chill touched her spine. “What’s wrong? What has happened?” she asked.