“What do you like?” He held her close as he stilled, so still that she could feel the thump of his heartbeat through his chest. She wiggled impatiently against him, but he remained frozen, holding her in place.
“Less talking, more moving.” When he remained immovable, she huffed out a breath of impatience. “I like all kinds of things. Why? What do you like?”
A gasp escaped her as his hands moved to her hips, urging her to bend over. She did, stretching her arms out in front of her, her spine elongated with rear canted into the air. He bent over her, pinning her in place, and she savored the weight of him, pressing her down into the mattress.
“I like sex.” The wet heat of his voice fanned out over her ear, and she trembled. “That’s what I like.”
“Isn’t that a given?” She heard the quiver in her voice, fought to smooth it out. “I mean, isn’t that why we’re here?”
“Maybe I’m not making myself clear.” His voice was low, amused, shades darker than it had been before she’d been naked and beneath him. “When it comes to sex, I like everything.”
“Nobody likes everything.” Her voice was breathless, but there was no room for air, not when everything in her core had gathered low and tight. “What’s your favorite position? What’s your most wicked fantasy? What do you want me to do right now?”
She gasped when he slowly inched his hands up, smoothing over her flesh until they cupped her breasts. She pressed forward into the touch, aching for more.
“You’re being very specific.” His breath fanned over the top of her head. “I don’t know how to explain it further. Whatever your favorite position is? Right now, that’s my favorite, too. Your most wicked fantasy? Also mine.”
Squeezing her breasts lightly, he flicked the tips between his forefingers and thumbs, the touch combined with her piercings sending shock waves of need through her.
“And what I want you to do right now?” He pressed a warm, openmouthed kiss to the base of her skull. Amy had never known that the shallow indent could be an erogenous zone. “I want you to tell me what you want.”
“I want...” The words, so vibrant in her head, choked when they hit her tongue.
What was wrong with her? She’d never had trouble telling her partners exactly what she did—and didn’t—want. Why couldn’t she spit it out right now?
Maybe...maybe because there was something happening here that she couldn’t put a name to. Something that went beyond a one-night stand.
“I want...” She tried again, then cleared her throat. She wasn’t going to let fear keep her from what she really wanted, right this moment. “I want...you.”
“Jesus.” Before she could say another word, inhale another breath, she found herself flat on her back. She cried out when he tugged her hips toward the edge of the mattress, then knelt on the floor between her spread legs. He made no secret of the intensity with which he studied her center, sending a warm flush over her skin.
His gaze tracked up over her stomach, her breasts, her neck and face to her eyes. When their eyes met, her pulse skittered. Her brain told her that whatever was about to happen was going to change her, but she couldn’t—wouldn’t—stop.
His hands clasped her on either side of her waist, then slid down. He traced the outsides of her thighs, down to her knees, then moved over and back up the inner planes. When his fingers brushed her outer lips, she shivered, feeling the burn of his skin right through the satin.
He kept his eyes on her face as he lowered his mouth and pressed it to her mound, over her thong. She tensed, shifted her weight beneath him, desperate for more.
“I think what you want me to do right now is to kiss you right here. Over and over, until you come.” She felt his words as vibrations on her sensitized flesh. “That means it’s what I want, too.”
She wanted to reply, to say something that would break through some of the erotic and emotional tension in the room, but her throat was too dry to speak. Instead she nodded, the movement almost frantic.
She closed her eyes, letting her head fall back on the cool sheets as he hooked a finger in the skimpy strings on either side of her thong. She lifted her hips without being told, letting him tug the fabric over her hips and down. He took the time to rub each ankle, each foot as he unhooked them from the garment, finally tossing it to the floor.
She was naked now, completely so. She’d been naked with others before, but she’d never felt this exposed. When he started to trail a finger in looping lines over the flesh of her inner thigh, she knew that he was tracing the lines of the flowers inked there, a single thorny stem that branched out into two red roses in bloom.
Nobody had ever taken the time to admire her ink like this before, not beyond a question or comment or two. It did something to her, knowing he was taking the time to appreciate something that was so intrinsically part of her.
She just hoped he didn’t take the time to admire all her other tattoos, not right now. She had enough that it could take all night, and she was running out of patience fast.
Finally. Finally he lowered his head. She opened her eyes long enough to catch the greenfire in his eyes just before he placed his mouth on her naked skin.
She gasped as he kissed her, long and slow and wet. His fingers joined his mouth, holding her open so that he could swipe his tongue through her folds. He worked his way up one side, then down the other. Her fingers fisted in the sheets until finally he focused his attention on her clit. She gasped as he moved his tongue over the swollen nub, over and over until her body clenched with the sheer pleasure of it.
“You like that.” He hummed with approval, sending shivers through her sensitive flesh, then returned to the long, slow strokes of his tongue. Pleasure slid through her, slow and sinuous like sun on a warm day. She wanted to bask in it, but heat gathered quickly, low and tight in her core. How had he driven her to the edge so fast? It was like he already knew her body, every place to touch that made her gasp and sigh and pant.
“Good girl.” Pulling back for a moment, his face wet with her desire, he grinned up at her. “Give us what we both want.”
She made a small sound, deep in her throat, as he returned to his work, swirling his tongue around the center of her pleasure, over and over again. If anyone else had called her a good girl, especially when she’d given him the gift of her submission, she would have had her clothes on and been out the door in the next breath. But when Fred said it, she understood that he was actually demonstrating his appreciation for her giving in to the moment. For her submission, though she felt as though she should chafe at the word.
Fred growled. Grabbing her hips, he yanked her even closer to the edge of the bed. Hooking her legs over his broad shoulders, he licked harder, faster, and within moments she was panting, riding that wicked edge of release. It sliced through her like a razor, leaving her gutted and exposed.
Her thighs trembled as he caught her behind each knee, lowering her pelvis gently back to the mattress. Scrambling up the bed on shaky limbs, she settled back on her elbows as he got to his feet.
“Is it my turn to watch now?” Her voice felt as though it was coming from someone else entirely, someone who hadn’t just had the biggest orgasm of her life.
“If that’s what you want.” His smile was wicked as he moved to stand at the end of the bed. Grabbing at the back of the neck of his T-shirt he slowly, slowly pulled it up and off. When he tossed it to the ground, a sound of pure appreciation purred from her lips.
“Wow.” Her mouth went dry, and she swallowed painfully as she took in the view in front of her.
“See something you like?” He stood still, letting her drink in the sight. She’d been attracted to his lean frame from first sight, but she’d had no idea that his sweater had been hiding muscles like these. His shoulders were broad, his chest defined. Ripples of incredibly defined ab muscles led the way to a flat stomach that
she wanted to lick.
The thing that really made her drool, though, was the smattering of hair on the tight, flat skin of his lower abdomen. His hipbones were sharply defined, like arrows, and wherever they led was a place she wanted to go.
As she watched, he undid the button at his waistband, giving her another inch. Then came the zipper, and the metallic rasp in the otherwise still air was the sexiest thing she’d ever heard, full of promise.
He worked his jeans down until they hung around his hips. Beneath he wore black boxer briefs, and his swollen cock pressed through the slit in the front.
“More.” She swallowed, transfixed by the sneak peek of that rigid flesh. “I want more.”
“Good girl,” he said for the second time that night, and again, she didn’t mind. In fact, when said in this man’s decadent voice, she fucking loved it. She was a good dirty girl, and she wanted to please him so that he would please her. “I like the way you’re looking at me.”
“I can’t help it.” She groaned when he slid his boxers down, too, working everything down to the ground, where he stepped out of his clothes and kicked them aside. “I want you.”
“What do you want, exactly?” Eyes still on her, he wrapped his large hand around his equally big erection. She thought she might self-combust when he slid his hand up and down, and then again, fisting himself just for her. “This? Is this what you want?”
“Yes.” The word came out on a hiss.She watched as he climbed onto the bed, kneeling overtop of her, one knee on either side of hers. He was still stroking himself, and now that he was closer, she could see the droplet of arousal, shiny against the stretched skin of the head of his cock. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d pushed herself to a sitting position and reached out for him. She ran a thumb through the dampness, then brought it to her lips. Salt and musk ran over her tongue as she licked the digit, smiling at the curse he muttered in return.
“You little witch.” He watched as she fisted her sweaty hands in the cool sheets, restless and desperate, watching as he retrieved a condom from the jeans he’d tossed to the floor. Tearing into the foil with his teeth, he removed the tube of latex. Pinching the tip, he placed the ring over the head of his cock, then rolled it down the thick length. She thought she might stroke out from the sight, and from the fact that he hadn’t even asked if she wanted him to use one—he just did it.
Bending at the waist, he prowled over her, forcing her to lie back, her head on the pillows. He braced himself above her, though she was caged in by the defined arms on either side of her head. She arched her hips up to meet his, and they both moaned at the delicious contact.
She expected him to slide inside her then—was desperate for him to do just that. What she was not prepared for was a kiss—and what a kiss it was. Tangling long fingers through the raven-dark ribbons of her dreads, he tugged gently as he took her mouth roughly, awakening nerve endings in both places. She gasped into his mouth as her tongue met his own, as he explored her lips, her teeth, like he might never get the chance to again.
He kissed her until something liquid and golden began to flow through her veins, an ambrosia that mixed with the need that was riding her to become the most exquisite kind of longing she’d ever experienced. She couldn’t look away from those brilliant, bottle green eyes when they finally broke the kiss, breathing on her own a strange sensation after inhaling as one.
Reaching between them, he lined up his rigid shaft with her swollen heat, rubbing the tip back and forth through her wetness. One thrust of his hips and he was in, moving slowly but steadily forward until he’d hilted inside her.
“Jesus.” She rocked her hips up against him and had the pleasure of watching his eyes cross. “You’re big everywhere, aren’t you?”
He huffed out a laugh as he lowered his torso over hers. The friction of her pierced nipples against his chest sent a jolt through her system, and she arched up against him, seeking more. Bracing his weight on one arm, he used the other to cup one of her aching breasts, his fingers toying with its tip. She could have stayed like that all night, the twin jolts of pleasure-pain working her to a frenzy, but he shifted inside her. She caught her breath at the new angle.
“That’s it,” he murmured as she reached up to clutch at his back, her fingers digging into the muscle until he hissed. The dark glittering of his eyes that accompanied the sound told her he liked it, so she did it again, raking her nails down his back as he started to move more insistently inside her. “Come for me.”
“I think it’s your turn.” Still, she clung to him as sensation started to tighten in her core once again. Releasing her breast, he worked his hands between her ass and the bed. He cupped the globes of flesh, pulling her so tightly against him that she gasped, then rolled. His cock inside her touched nerve endings she hadn’t even known she had as he settled on his back with her astride him. She felt his hot stare on her breasts like a touch as his hands found her hips.
Wrapping long fingers around each curve, he urged her to move, faster and then faster still. She did with quick movements of her hips that had her clit grazing the flat plane of his pelvis with each thrust.
Her pace quickly became erratic as sparks lit at the tips of her fingers, in her toes and in her center. They heated, bursting into flame as they moved inward, bathing her body with heat. When they reached her core, she shuddered as all the small flames combined to form one, a great fire that roared to life and swallowed her whole.
She shuddered through one orgasm, and when she would have slid off Fred, boneless from release, he found her clit with his thumb, circling quickly and wringing one more wave from her body. This time, as she clenched around him, slick and tight, he let go, too. His hands on her hips urged her on as he thrust up into her heat, a dozen thrusts made sloppy by the drive for release. He shouted as he came, and when she would have closed her eyes, he met her stare with his own. She couldn’t look away as their bodies moved in sync, shuddering through the most intense joining she’d ever experienced.
They each stilled, still joined, skin damp with sweat. She still couldn’t look away from him, bound by some invisible thread, the same one that had led her to see him across the club, to approach him, to come here to his hotel.
Since her first few relationships, she’d understood that what drew people to one another wasn’t always equal. There were a million different shades of attraction, of like and love and lust. She didn’t believe in soul mates, either, the notion that there was only one special person out there that could complete her. Instead she thought it likely that there was more than one person in the world who could brighten her life, even if it wasn’t forever. She also understood, however, that that kind of connection, the bone-deep pull toward another human, was rare. Incredibly so.
And now here she was, in her early twenties in Amsterdam, on a trip that was supposed to be full of fun and exploration, and one of those bonds had sneaked up to slap her in the face.
She wanted it, craved it and wasn’t even a little bit ready for it.
Finally closing her eyes, she broke the physical link, sliding off him to lie down on the bed. She listened to him rise, pad across the floor to dispose of the condom, sip from a bottle of water, then climb back into the bed with her. She kept her eyes averted as he lay on his side, pulling her in close to him, their chests touching.
She wanted to run even as she craved the feel of his skin on hers.
Taking in the bursts of light and sound from the street that cut through the darkness of the room intermittently, she lay there with her pulse pounding. She could feel him watching her but kept her gaze focused on his chest. She didn’t want to see her own spinning thoughts staring back at her from someone else’s eyes.
That...what they’d just done...that was more than sex. That had been life-changing.
She didn’t want her life changed.
“What do you want?” His bre
ath was cool on her damp forehead.
She couldn’t bring herself to reply, so she shook her head instead.
“I want something,” he started, shifting closer on the bed. She could smell his skin, his sweat, the heady miasma of sex in the air. “I want to know your name. I want to know it more than anything in the world.”
How was it possible that he didn’t know her name? That he didn’t know her birthday, or how many sisters she had? How could he not know all the things that outlined her life, when he’d just looked inside her, down to the rhythm of her heart inside her chest, and had seen everything that made her who she was?
If she gave him her name, it would take this to another level. One she wasn’t ready for. Rather than replying, she gave a purposefully sleepy hum and pretended to fall asleep.
She lay still for a long time, savoring the sensation of his skin on hers. When his breathing deepened, the body against hers relaxing into sleep, she slipped out of the bed slowly, carefully, so that she didn’t wake him up.
She shivered as she picked up the discarded items of her clothing, the night air cool on skin that had so recently been hot and flushed from sex. She dressed quickly, but after she’d tugged on her boots, she indulged in one final look.
Awake, Fred was a force of nature, charisma coming off him in waves, charming those who came close enough to be tugged inward by his magnetic pull. Asleep, she could focus on the sheer physical perfection of him. That impossibly tall body, leanly muscled, that she’d quivered beneath. The aristocratic planes of his face, the fan of eyelashes on his cheeks, darker than the auburn of his hair. Redheads—gingers—were often the target of jokes in Europe, but as far as Amy was concerned, he couldn’t have had any other coloring and been nearly as appealing.
She hadn’t bothered donning her ruined thong when she dressed again, and it dangled from her finger as she took one last, lingering glance. If this had been anyone else, any other night of fun sex, she would have left it behind, a sexy little memento to fuel the fantasies of both parties for months to come. She considered this for a moment, then tucked it into her pocket.
Harlequin Dare May 2021 Box Set Page 49
