by Marie Force
“Fine by me,” Shane said.
“Wonderful! I’ll see you then.”
Chapter 16
With Shane still standing in the doorway, Katie shook her head at her mother’s audacity. “Okay, that was mortifying.”
“What was?”
“She’s already pinned you down for a third date, and we haven’t even left on the second one yet.”
“You don’t see me complaining, do you?”
The way he looked at her, as if he were taking in every detail and liking what he saw, made her skin tingle and burn with awareness.
“I love your mom and Charlie, too. They’ve become good friends since I’ve lived here. It’s never a hardship to spend time with them.” He closed the door and stepped closer to where she stood, riveted by the intense way he looked at her. “And it’s never a hardship to spend time with you either.”
Say something. Be normal. Be witty. She cleared her throat and said the first thing that came to mind. “Except for that time I almost drowned you.”
He threw his head back and howled with laughter. It was the first time she’d seen him laugh like that, and she couldn’t believe the way it transformed his normally serious demeanor. “You’re funny, Katie Lawry.” He tugged on a lock of her hair as he said that, which sent tingles through her scalp. Was her scalp directly linked to her nipples? They stood up to take notice of his nearness, and she hoped he didn’t notice.
“Yes, I love to joke about near drownings and other such topics.”
“All’s well that ends well on the drowning thing, and besides, it gives us a good story of how we met.”
“We actually met the night before,” she reminded him.
“We can leave that part out. Me saving your life is so much more dramatic than saying we met at a dinner when my sister married your brother. That’s boring.” His fingers moved over her face in a light caress that made her want to beg him to touch her everywhere. “Did you think about me today?”
“For a minute. Or two.”
He smiled. “I gave you five whole minutes.”
Her mouth fell open with surprise. She quickly closed it again when he stepped even closer, his hands landing on her hips and his gaze sweeping over her face.
“I’m lying.” His lips hovered over hers, close enough to make her entire system go haywire with anticipation.
“Oh.” She licked lips that had gone dry. “You are?”
Nodding, he said, “I thought about you all day.”
“You did?”
“Uh-huh. Want to know what I thought about?”
“Um… yeah.”
“This.” He touched his lips to hers so lightly she barely had time to enjoy it before he pulled back. “I thought about that a lot.”
“Could you please refresh my memory on that one? It’s all fuzzy.” The moment the words left her lips, Katie was appalled at how forward she’d been. But if his bright smile was any indication, he was more than happy to oblige her request.
His lips met hers again. His hands cupped her face, tilting her to improve the angle.
Katie was utterly captivated by the gentle way he held her face and moved his lips over hers in an undemanding caress that made her entire body go hot with feelings she’d never experienced before.
“Katie,” he whispered as he pulled back ever so slightly, making her want to beg him to keep kissing her. “You’re so sweet. I love kissing you.”
“Me, too. I mean… I love kissing you, too.”
His smile made his eyes glow as he bent his head and came back for more. This time his lips were parted, which had her straining to get closer to him. She had no idea how to tell him what she wanted or where to put her hands.
“Shane…”
“Hmm?” He kissed a path from her mouth to her ear. She gasped when he bit down on her earlobe, which seemed to be directly connected to the place between her legs that she’d always thought of more in a clinical sense as a nurse. As it came alive with a startling throb of sheer pleasure, she could think of it only as a woman awakening to desire for the first time in her life.
“I… I want…”
“What do you want, Katie? Tell me.”
“I want… more.” She couldn’t think of any other word to convey the restless energy pulsing through her body, which had been electrified by his touch.
“How much more?” He continued to kiss her neck and throat. “I know this is all new to you, and I don’t want to do anything to scare you off.”
“I… I haven’t avoided… this… because I was scared. It was for other reasons.”
“I know, but that doesn’t answer my question. You have to tell me what you want, Katie, so I’ll know.”
Like a wildfire sparked by lightning, a flashpoint of heat traveled through her, making her feel lightheaded and needy. “I want to do everything.”
He raised his head to look down at her, as if to gauge her meaning.
She swallowed. “Eventually.”
“You’re killing me right now. I hope you know that.”
“I’m so sorry. I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m like a bull in a china shop when it comes to this.”
“I didn’t mean you were killing me in a bad way.” He dropped his hands from her face and moved them to her hips, drawing her in closer to him, until their lower bodies were pressed together and she could feel what their chaste kisses had done to him.
“Oh.” She wiggled against him, needing to get closer.
His head fell back and his eyes closed. “Katie…”
“Help me. Show me what to do.”
He captured her lips again, and this kiss was nothing at all like the earlier ones. This one was all need and desire and heat, blistering heat. His tongue slid over her lips before dipping inside her mouth in little dabs that made her want to beg him to stop teasing her.
She wasn’t sure what he expected her to do, so she let instinct take over, rubbing her tongue against his, which made him groan into her mouth.
His hands moved from her waist, up over her ribs, coming to a halt just under her breasts.
She wanted his hands on her there more than she wanted her next breath, so she squirmed against him, trying to tell him what she wanted. But his hands stayed stubbornly still. Breaking the kiss, she said, “Please, Shane… Touch me.” Hearing the neediness in her tone as she all but begged him should’ve been humiliating. However, knowing she could ask him for whatever she wanted and he’d give it to her was incredibly liberating.
He went slowly, probably because he still feared frightening her.
As she clung to his shoulders, he moved his hands up and over her breasts, running his thumbs over the tight points of her nipples. Katie wanted to sob from the pleasure that coursed through her, pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known.
“Is that good?” he asked, his voice rough and gravelly.
“So good.”
“Is your foot hurting?”
“Not when I stand on my toes.”
He tugged on the button that held the front of her dress in place. “Yes?”
“Yes. Please.” Tomorrow, she would regret the way she’d all but begged him, but right now, in this moment, she couldn’t take the time to worry about her future regrets. She was too busy processing each new sensation and committing them to memory.
Her dress fell open, and Shane slid the straps off her shoulders until she stood before him, bare from the waist up with only a black satin bra covering her. He touched her everywhere—her arms, her shoulders, the valley between her breasts. And then he dipped his head to kiss all the same places, making her legs go weak beneath her.
He seemed to realize that so he guided her backward until she was sitting on the bed, her dress pooled at her hips. “Still okay?”
She bit her bottom lip and nodded.
“Lie back and try to relax.”
The thought of relaxing in this situation was so preposterous she nearly laughed.
“Th
e other day,” he said, starting all over again with more kisses to her neck, along her collarbone and down to the upper slopes of her breasts, “after what happened at the beach, all I could think about was your amazingly gorgeous breasts.”
She buried her fingers in his hair, needing to hold on to something. “You said you didn’t look.”
“I lied. I looked, and I loved the view.” He nuzzled her nipple through her bra, making her nearly levitate off the bed. “I’d really love to see them again to make sure my memories are accurate.”
Katie wouldn’t have expected to laugh just then, but how could she not? “It was only a couple of days ago.”
“Feels like a lifetime.” He pulled lightly on the front clasp, obviously waiting for a sign from her that it was okay to proceed.
Part of her was appalled at her behavior, and she had a fleeting thought that she ought to regain control of this situation before it was lost for good. But the other part of her, the part that was feeling alive for the first time in her life, told her to nod, to give him permission to be the first man to touch her intimately.
The bra sprang loose, and he pushed the cups aside. “Mmm, just as I recall. Beautiful.” He met her gaze. “Why me, Katie? Why now?”
“I really like you, and I’m incredibly attracted to you.”
“There must’ve been others who appealed to you.”
“A few,” she said with a shrug. “Everyone who matters to me adores you. And…”
“Tell me,” he said as he left a trail of kisses along her jawline. “I want to know.”
“You know what it’s like to hurt.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“That makes me feel less alone with my hurts.”
“You’re not alone.” He put his arms around her and brought his lips down on hers in a deep, devouring kiss.
Katie clung to him, wanting to get as close as she could to him. In the span of a few minutes, a lifetime’s worth of inhibitions had melted away. Now, all that remained was overwhelming desire.
He broke the kiss and gazed into her eyes. “Tell me if anything is too much, okay?”
Robbed of speech and the ability to breathe, she nodded.
He touched her first, cupping and caressing, before he bent over her to add subtle touches of his lips everywhere but where she wanted him most.
She arched her back, hoping he’d get the message, but he kept up with his plan to drive her completely crazy. Until he latched on to her left nipple, rolling it between his teeth and then sucking it into the heat of his mouth. As if she’d been electrocuted, because this was how she’d imagined it to feel, she went perfectly still under him.
He used his tongue, his teeth and the gentle suction of his mouth to set her on fire with needs she hadn’t known she had before this, before him. Then he moved to the other side and did it all over again, changing her forever one kiss at a time. She spread her legs, looking for some relief from the throbbing heartbeat of desire between them.
Seeming to understand what she needed, he pressed the hard column of his erection against her there, making her see stars, especially when he sucked on her nipple at the same time. Her entire world was reduced to the two places where he touched her.
“Katie,” he whispered, his breath warm against her wet nipple. “We should stop before we can’t.”
“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
“Are you sure?”
She wasn’t sure of anything other than that stopping was not an option.
“I don’t want to mess this up,” he said. “I like you so much, and I love touching you and kissing you. I don’t want you to be sorry.”
“I’ve waited thirty-two years already. I won’t be sorry.”
“Do you promise?”
He looked so genuinely concerned that she reached up to caress his freshly shaven face. “I promise.”
“I’ll hold you to it.” He left her then, standing to remove first his shirt, revealing a tan, muscular chest covered in golden-blond hair, and then his shorts. As he undressed, he never took his eyes off her, eating her up with his gaze. Still wearing a pair of well-tented boxer shorts, he reached for her dress, which was bunched under her. “Lift up.”
When she did as he asked, he swept it away, leaving her wearing only the black panties that matched her bra.
He shocked the hell out of her when he dropped to his knees by the bed and pulled her toward him, easing her legs apart with his hands on her inner thighs.
Katie stared up at the ceiling, concentrating on drawing air into her lungs while she waited to see what he would do next.
“I want to kiss you here.” He nuzzled her core, leaving no doubt about where he wanted to kiss her.
A wave of heat flashed through her at the thought of what it might feel like to be kissed there. God, she was so far out of her comfort zone it wasn’t even funny.
“Katie? Is that too much?”
“No,” she said, squirming on the bed. “I want…”
“Say it.” His lips were warm and soft and insanely erotic against her inner thigh.
“Everything.”
He let out a low groan as he continued to kiss her thigh. And then he was tugging at her panties and removing them, leaving her bare before him.
Katie resisted the overpowering urge to cover herself, to turn away from him, to escape before she did something that couldn’t be undone.
“Katie.”
The single word cut through her panic, forcing her to look at him. His gaze was intently focused on her face, gauging her reaction.
“Do you want to stop?” As he said the words, he ran his hands over her legs, leaving goose bumps behind.
“No, don’t stop.” If she knew anything for certain right then, it was that if she stopped him now, she might never work up the courage to try again.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes… Yes, I’m sure.”
“Close your eyes,” he said. “Are they closed?”
She nodded.
“Now breathe.”
Katie forced air into her lungs in an effort to relax.
“That’s it. Do it again.”
She kept her eyes closed and focused on breathing while he continued to kiss and caress her legs.
“Ready for more?”
“Uh-huh.” She’d read her share of romance novels and knew what he intended to do. However, reading about it and experiencing it firsthand were two very different things.
He used his fingers to open her to his tongue, and Katie gasped from the charge of heat that ripped through her body at the first touch of his tongue against her most sensitive flesh. She curled her fingers around the comforter and bit her lip to keep from crying out.
The hotel was old, and the walls were thin. No sense broadcasting to the family members nearby that Katie Lawry was finally getting lucky. And, oh, how lucky she felt to be in bed with a man like Shane, who was handsome, sexy and sensitive.
She was just becoming accustomed—or as accustomed as one ever gets—to the feel of his tongue when he slid two fingers into her and changed the game completely. He touched something inside her that triggered a tsunami of new feelings that she hadn’t begun to process before there were even more.
He gave her no choice but to let go and give in to the release that seemed to build upon itself like a wave crashing toward the shore. Her entire body heated as if she had a fever until the need became nearly unbearable, bursting forth in a blast of pleasure unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It left her panting, sweating and gasping.
“Damn, that was amazing,” Shane said as he kissed his way to her belly while keeping his fingers buried deep inside her.
Aftershocks rippled through her body, making her tingle from the soles of her feet to her scalp and everywhere in between.
“Are you okay?”
“Mmm, yeah, very okay.”
His smile lit up his face and made him seem lighter somehow, less burdened.
She
brushed the hair back from his forehead. “I’m making this all about me, when it’s a rather big deal for you to be doing this, too.”
His brows furrowed ever so slightly at the reminder that he was having sex for the first time since his divorce.
Katie immediately regretted the statement. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to dredge up the past.”
He looked up at her, the furrow gone as fast as it appeared. “You didn’t. It’s a big deal for both of us. No sense pretending otherwise.”
“You want to know what I think?”
“Absolutely.”
Katie smiled at his firm reply. “I think we ought to get the first time over with and out of the way so it stops being such a big deal.”
“Is that what you think?” His smile was a thing of beauty and made her realize how solemn his countenance usually was.
Nodding, she said, “What do you think?”
“I agree wholeheartedly.” As he said the words, however, he began to withdraw from her.
“Where’re you going?”
“Just right here.” He picked up his shorts from the floor and pulled his wallet from the back pocket. In the same compartment where he kept his cash, he had stashed a strip of condoms.
Katie was stunned to realize she’d never given birth control a single thought before then. “Good thing one of us is thinking with more than their hormones.”
“I’ve had Frank McCarthy’s voice in my head on these matters since I was a teenager. Some things never change.” He removed his boxers and took care of business, keeping his back to her.
Katie wanted to ask him to turn around so she could watch, but there was always next time. Or so she hoped.
“Are you still sure?” he asked as he leaned over her and she caught the first glimpse of his erection.
She swallowed hard at the realization of what was about to happen. “What if…”
“What if what?”
“It doesn’t fit?”
He dropped his head to her stomach, his shoulders shaking.
“You’d better not be laughing at me.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
“I think you would,” she said indignantly.