Cry Me a River

by Livia Quinn

  Good question.

  His fingers trailed down my chest, dipping into the dress' bodice as his eyes flared. "Your skin is so soft. I want my hands on you."

  "Well, then it seems like you'd be more help removing your jacket."

  "It's not my clothes that are impeding the process, babe. You did look beautiful tonight, but it's time to get you out of that dress."

  He placed both hands at my waist and leaned me against the high back of the sectional couch so he could plant kisses on my throat and run his tongue along the swells above the bodice, teasing little quivers from me as his touch caused my breasts to tingle. "Jack…"

  He held me with one hand—his arms like steel—and eased the zipper down a few inches. Cool air slid through the opening, as he slipped his fingers inside to put his warm broad hand against my bare skin. "God, you feel so good." He discovered the goose bumps and his head came up. Frowning he asked, "Are you cold?"

  I smiled. "Never."

  He smiled back. "Ahh. You like." His mouth came down on mine. My pelvis rubbed against his groin as his hands roamed to my waist, one cupping my butt through the fabric, the other covering my breast. I squirmed in his arms, trying to get away from the teasing, to get closer to his lips, his hands. He stopped and I saw eyes fierce with need and hot, so hot.

  "I want you," I whispered, barely able to speak.

  Those were apparently the magic words. He scooped one arm beneath mine and swung me back up into his embrace striding down the hallway with me as if I weighed nothing.

  His bedroom was a masculine mix of navy and aqua with dark cherry furnishings. Leaving me standing at the end of the bed, and looking back at me like I was going to run, he shoved the pillows off onto the floor. A man of action, I thought.

  Doubts crept in suddenly. What was I thinking? I was so far out of my depth with this man. He was expecting someone with experience, someone he thought was "confident". The dress he'd picked was perfect for that confident, siren of a lover, but not me… I was about to make a fool of myself. I'd only known Jack Lang for two weeks. Granted, we'd been under intense situations where you get to know someone pretty well.

  Still, I asked myself, was this real? And if it was, what if I screwed it up? I'd thought my feelings for Dylan had been real, but they'd been based on a lie. Everything we'd been together had been playacting, bodyguarding —on his part at least. And I'd been blind to it. How confusing. Insulting.

  Menori swished her tail. Since when did she pop up during love play? Maybe she meant to remind me that Jack wasn't Dylan. He was honorable, genuine. He probably had some of the same doubts. I wanted him to hold me, to make love with me. But I wasn't like other women he'd known. Now that I'd changed, I didn't know what might happen. He didn't seem to be worried, but I couldn't help it. High emotion for me equaled, well, problems.

  Chapter 25

  Jack

  "You're making my eyes cross, sweetheart."

  * * *

  I tossed the pillows aside and turned.

  Tempe stood at the end of the bed, a deer-in-headlights look in her eyes, as if she was about to turn into a streak of lightning and bolt from the room.

  "Sweetheart, are you okay?" Call me crazy, but it seemed I could feel her body vibrating from three feet away.

  Her eyes darted to the skylights and her shoulder twitched. "Are you sure about this?"

  I shook my head, chuffing a breath. How could she possibly ask? I had an obvious hard-on that was about to split my zipper, and I was practically panting with lust. Not only was I desperate to have her, and I never would have believed this but, I was ready to give our relationship a shot. I hadn't been involved with anyone seriously besides my ex since high school, and that didn't compare to how I felt when I was with Tempe.

  I hid none of that from her when I said, "Positive." Her brows lifted. As frustrated as I'd been, as much as I wanted her, I figured I'd have to restrain myself from tearing her clothes off, but the tender feelings I had for her now were new to me. I wanted to go slow. Excruciatingly slow.

  "You're making my eyes cross, sweetheart. I tried to talk myself out of this, you know, but I couldn't stop thinking about you, how you make me feel, that I needed to get my hands on your skin, and taste you, every inch of you."

  Her eyes went wide as soon as she believed the intensity of my words. The light filtering through the skylights in my bedroom made them sparkle, and I realized her emotions were close to the surface. This could get interesting.

  "Stay right there," I said and reached over to open the drapes. "You look beautiful in that moonlight, your hair is even more vibrant; your skin almost translucent. I want you so much, Tempest Pomeroy."

  Finally, her eyes glinted and this time it was the look of a seductress. I stepped toward her. She stepped back, and smiled. The brilliant full moon came into view and the lavender-tinted light turned her dress into a blaze of rainbows, darting like gypsy dancers with each of her breaths. Her eyes were starbursts of desire, enticing me, drawing me toward her.

  I reached out but she scooted away, "Uh,uh,uh," the seductress warned. "Why don't you sit there on the trunk while I get a little more comfortable."

  My eyes widened at the invitation from my surprising temptress. "Whatever you say, darlin'." I sat, leaning back on my elbows. "Go on."

  "You know, this could be the most unpredictable night of your life, Laser," she said as she reached around to finish unfastening her dress. Then, holding it to her with just one arm, eyes on mine, she lowered it, one infinitesimally small increment at a time.

  My body anticipated, going hard as titanium. My breathing halted as a little more of that rosy iridescent skin was exposed. My mouth went dry when I thought to make her hurry, not that she would have obeyed. The woman was on a mission, to drive me out of my mind. It looked like she might succeed.

  Just as her breasts came even with the edge of the ornate bodice, she let her arm fall away and I sighed in anticipation, but some kind of gossamer fabric draped across the swells, a lavender silk so thin it outlined the rosy points of her nipples. I leaned forward…

  With one hand she raised her hair off her shoulders, the movements straining the delicate material, and my zipper, as my mind wished it to slip free of whatever was making it remain suspended. With her other hand she shoved the dress off her hips to the floor. I nearly swallowed my tongue.

  She was a goddess, her long legs from toes to mid thigh covered in silvery iridescent stockings. And there between her legs, at the vee of her pubic treasure, that door was guarded by a tiny triangle of deep violet. She angled her body slightly giving me a different view of one of her bare cheeks and the thin purple piece of silk dividing them—a thong. "Uhhn…"

  My hand moved to my zipper. I'd never seen anything so sexy in my life. My eyes scanned the length of her body, "I knew you would be magnificent."

  Tempe

  "What if something bad happens?"

  * * *

  His breathless words sent hot shivers racing down my spine, and I thrilled as he reached out, hooking his finger into the thin strip of the thong, and tugged me toward him. His eyes were the color of the morning mist skimming the bayou, intent, hot with desire, for me, Tempest Pomeroy, Tempestaerie, child of a Djinn. He'd seen me in action and he still wanted me.

  His lips covered my breast through the silk of my strapless camisole, loosening it when he nipped the edge with his teeth. One side slid below the tip and he sucked it into his mouth, pulling on the sensitive button, then ravaging my nipples, suckling and tugging, giving them such thorough attention that if my legs would have held me I'd have endured it forever. My knees trembled and he straightened, using his hands to angle my head for his kiss, sucking on my tongue, devouring it as if he could inhale me straight into his soul. My eyes opened when his lips left mine, "Sweet Zeus! Don't stop."

  His shirt abraded my nipples as he turned me around and eased me onto the bed, bending over me to trail kisses along my neck, down a path to where the
camisole clung to my hips. His tongue stroked my navel, while one finger teased my entrance, stroked the wetness there, then he added another.

  He had but to say my name and I would fly, but I wanted him inside me. He was still dressed. I tugged on his shirt sending three of the tiny pearl buttons flying and pressed my hand to the hard ridges of his stomach. My body was vibrating with need. Menori went off, singing through my blood like a chorus of stars, light bursting behind my eyes, and electricity tingling through my extremities.

  "Uh, Tempe, honey?" Jack's voice came from far away. I opened my eyes. He smiled crookedly and looked up at the ceiling. "Think we can we do this without lightning?"

  I followed his gaze. Above us, suspended below the ceiling of the bedroom were tiny crystalline particles, mini prisms of light, water and air, the elemental stuff of Tempestaeries. "It's beautiful," I said reverently. He hadn't moved, but now he reached for my fingers, guiding them into his open zipper.

  "You're beautiful," he said. "I wanted to draw this out, but I have to be inside you soon, Tempe."

  Fire ignited inside me at his words. I'd never felt more desired. I saw the strain on his face as he tried to hold back.

  "I'm afraid, Jack. This…" I waved my arm at the shimmering in the air. "This has never happened before. "What if I lose control, fly apart?" I looked down where my hand was holding his hard length. I looked up into his eyes and swallowed, "What if—something bad happens?"

  He kissed me, a sweet tender kiss and said, "What if something beautiful happens?" Another kiss, this time between my breasts. "I've got your six, sweetheart."

  Of course he did. It was who he was. If I believed nothing else, I could count on that. I rubbed my hand against his erection, stroked the ridge of flesh that thrummed like one of his Navy jets—thrusting, charged, ready to blast away from the carrier deck. He spread my knees and teased my entrance. "You're ready for me, so hot and wet."

  His hands reached under my seat and brought my legs up, the velvety steel prodding my center. His breathing accelerated as I shifted and rolled on top of him, pushing my hips down onto him taking him deep in one sweet slide.

  "Ahh… sweetheart."

  I moved shifting my hips to take him deeper, and deeper still as he thrust rhythmically bringing me into alignment, my breath ratcheted up as the vibrations built within me. "Let go, Tempe, now!" He surged upward and rose with me in his arms. I flew then, sensing when we left the surface of the tarmac and shot into the sky, spinning off into the clouds, the sky darkening and the stars becoming brighter and brighter until I had to close my eyes against the blinding sight, the explosion of fireworks.

  I felt the mattress on my back and Jack's forceful thrusts as our bodies slammed against each other, over and over. Then Jack's cry mingled with mine as we twirled, doing a slow spiral back to earth, the sky still dotted with drifting tracers of color.

  "Open your eyes, Sweetheart," Jack whispered as if talking too loud would break some spell. My eyes drifted open to look at him. He just grinned, "No lightning, but you sure know how to put on a fireworks display."

  "I wouldn't know. I was busy taking another one of your jet rides into space." His eyes crinkled and he nodded at the ceiling once again.

  I looked up. My mouth dropped open. It was as if all the particles that had been hanging in the air had exploded, some still bursting like excited sparklers. I couldn't hold back a smile. "Cool, huh?"

  He laughed and within seconds we were rolling on the bed like playful puppies. His pants disappeared and a tanned and naked "Six-packs" lay on his back, primed, ready to take me for another ride.

  Chapter 26

  Tempe

  "Another flight to the stars"

  * * *

  My hands glided over the taut pectorals, like smooth flesh stretched over granite. I felt firsthand what I'd heard about a fighter pilot's extraordinary fitness. No inches to pinch here because each muscle in the body needed to be able to respond to the extreme G forces of flight.

  His corded thighs flexed against me and the long length of steel between my legs pressed against the entrance of my sex. My fingertips dipped and memorized the ridges of his abs. "How do you stay in this kind of shape?" I asked and moved my hips against that hard shaft.

  He gasped. "I… never got out of the habit. It seems to have gotten easier to stay fit in the last few years though. I don't…ahh, really understand it. If you keep doing that…"

  "I love having my hands on your skin." I smiled down at him. "I've been fantasizing about it since I saw you on the porch, about how I'd like to see you in nothing but shaving cream." I drew my eyes down over the muscles of his chest and arms, down to where he probed me… "This is better."

  His erection got even harder. "Darlin', why don't you hush and climb aboard. Let's see if I can take you on another flight to the stars."

  "Do you see it too?" I asked.

  He thrust against me. "No, I suspect you're experiencing my memories. It brings back the adrenaline rush, the sites, the excitement. Some flights were indescribable," he grinned, "like making love to you."

  I leaned down lifting my hips until the silky tip just grazed my wet sheath. Pleased that I'd been able to let go and enjoy this incredible intimacy with him, I ran my tongue across his bottom lip. His teeth tugged on my lower lip in then his tongue plunged into my mouth sweeping in and pillaging, his hips pumping. I pushed off his chest and slammed my hips down over him.

  He was larger than before, filling me to bursting, and I rocked to push his bulk further into my depths. I imagined the tip of his rod touching my heart, like mighty Zeus' spear finding the heart of the Earth. A thunderous crack resonated through my body as I moved faster, meeting his powerful thrusts as our bodies melded and souls converged.

  Jack

  Looks like "faking it" will be out of the question.

  * * *

  The term "fly apart in my arms" took on a whole new meaning. I'd lied to Tempe. My best guess about her hallucinations had been memories of thousands of jet flights and the excitement of revisiting them, but this was more; it was primal; it was unearthly; it was tied to the storm woman I was buried inside. I didn't want our lovemaking to end. I'd felt like this when I flew, suspected it was like doing crack—the rush, the heightened response, the ecstasy.

  No, this was more than primal, more than leaving the bounds of the earth. Images of roiling clouds, racing stars and eyes with meteor showers in them preceded a loud crack. I felt the lightning bolt between my thighs, heard thunder in my groin, and heat exploded along my shaft as I claimed this woman for my own.

  She screamed, "Ah, Jaluu," and I knew in my heart, in that part of me that had longed for someone like her who could be my mate, that her soul called to mine. I thought I'd been ready for this, but I'd been as much a virgin as I had as a 15-year-old. Nothing could've prepared me for this—for her.

  Her hands dug into my shoulders as she joined the stars or storms or wherever she went. Her skin sparkled like the iridescent light filtering in through the skylights. A distinctive, translucent pink cast was tinting her hair an even deeper red. Her flesh was hot to the touch. I trailed my fingers down over her breasts, cupping them, rising enough to nip at the hot, turgid tips, when my gaze caught on the scraps of material at her hips.

  The edges of the camisole she'd worn were charred, the panties as well. Only enough lilac remained that I could identify them. I looked at the mattress below us. There was a ring of fire, and scorched black what-used-to-be-sheets in the outline of our bodies, like a controlled burn at the edge of a wildfire.

  A wildfire begun by a lightning strike. It had been real, not just my imagination. And I wasn't even singed.

  "Damn, sweetheart, you give new meaning to the word, 'hot'. You set our sheets on fire."

  I pointed to the air flickering, like indoor heat lightning but gradually fading, then down at the bed. "Look's like faking it will be out of the question for you." I grinned.

  Her eyes were eerily l
ight, reflecting the moon's luminosity. But her dreamy expression changed when she looked down, and saw the sheets. She whispered, "I'm sorry, Jack." She tried to roll away from me but our bodies were still joined.

  "Tempe." She pushed at my chest, and I saw tears on her cheeks. "Tempe. Stop, sweetheart."

  Distressed, tear-flooded eyes searched mine. "How can you—"

  "That was…"

  "An aberration?" Her mouth turned down in a defeated grimace. "Bet you never dreamed what it would be like to have sex with a freak." She wiped at her cheek.

  I held her wrists firmly but gently when she tried to wiggle free. Her eyebrows drooped as if she expected the worst.

  My body quickened once again inside her and her mouth opened as she realized… I wasn't mad, or turned off. Quite the opposite. "I'm trying to tell you that it was… Tempe, you have ridden with me in my F-18; experienced G forces; shot up in the atmosphere until you could touch the stars; flew along the water at near supersonic speed and heard the sonic boom. Remember?"

  When her mouth curved in a tremulous smile, I knew she was revisiting those flashes of… love travel? Hooyah!

  I touched my lips to hers, which were swollen from our kisses. I tasted rain and spring and something else that was so exclusively Tempe. Sulfur? Ozone?

  I released her lips slowly and my body made its desires known, again. Her eyes widened.

  "Don't ask me... never before, never have I experienced anything like this, Tempe. It's like my life, everything I've done, led me to you. To this."

  I began moving inside her again going deeper with each stroke as she squeezed me with her powerful core, making me even harder, longer. It was as if our intimate parts were feeding off of each other like some internal mating dance. I was awestruck, and totally, mindlessly spellbound when she stopped, and the energy between us began to dissipate. I gasped, "No."