Love in the Limelight Volume Two: Seduced on the Red CarpetLovers Premiere

by Ann Christopher

  Stooping just enough, he pressed her breasts together in his rough grip, circling her nipples with his thumbs and then licking, sucking and biting them with primitive abandon, as though he’d been given only thirty seconds to claim every part of them and the only thing that mattered was not missing a single millimeter.

  “Hunter…God. Don’t stop. Don’t stop, Hunter. Hunter. Hunter.”

  “Shhh. It’s okay, baby. It’s okay—”

  “I needed you inside me. Don’t you know that? I need you…I need you…I need you, Hunter. Stay with me, okay? Stay with me. Please. Please.”

  Was that her voice sobbing like that? Chanting like that? Which of them was making that animalistic sound—part growl and part purr? Who was shaking worse?

  Leaving her breasts, he focused in on her cargo pants, undoing the button and then yanking with both hands to separate the zipper and pull them off over her hips. They fell to her ankles and she had just enough time to kick them away before he planted his hands on her ass and hefted her up.

  Apparently no one had ever told him that she was an Amazon, taller and heavier than a lot of men she knew, because he tightened her thighs around his waist and swung her around toward the bed. Through her heavy-lidded eyes, she had a quick glimpse of him staring up at her, his expression glazed and alight, his lips swollen and his forehead damp. Then he dipped his head again, latched on to a nipple and suckled with long, rhythmic pulls that shot electric jolts of pleasure to the depths of her belly and made her inner muscles clench.

  Blinded with the sensation, she clung to his neck for dear life but let her eyes roll closed and her head fall back. The next thing she knew, he was lowering her to the cool sheets and resting her head on the pillow, and there was no world but this, nothing but him standing by the bed, squirming out of his jeans and boxers to reveal a heavy erection that she needed inside her right now.

  Reaching for him, she spread her thighs and angled her hips. “Now.” There she went with the chanting again. It would have been funny if the need wasn’t suffocating her alive. “Now, Hunter. Please. Now.”

  His feverish gaze locked with hers, his movements choppy and uncoordinated, he fumbled with something in his pocket and produced a tiny package wrapped with green foil. Something in her overwrought mind protested as she watched him rip it open and roll it on. They’d used them last night after the first time, yeah, but it seemed unnatural to have anything between them even if it was the smart thing to do. Worse, the delay took too long and she needed him buried deep when this gathering eruption roared through her as it was threatening to do any second.

  “Hunter,” she began again.

  “Turn over.”

  Scrambling to obey, she rose up on all fours, presenting him with the tiny white whale tail of her thong panties between her cheeks. Since she and shame had parted ways a while back, the second he laid his hands on her, she dipped her back into a U, making herself as open and accessible to him as humanly possible.

  Just in case he needed a hint.

  “Christ,” he muttered, then crawled onto the bed behind her and sank his teeth deep into her rounded flesh.

  “Oh, God.”

  Jerking her hips back and up against him, he pulled off her thong and stroked the swollen flesh between her legs in an excruciating caress that had more sobs collecting in her throat. A rumble of approval was her only warning before he thrust deep, stretching her beyond endurance and hitting a hidden spot inside her body that made stars spark in front of her eyes.

  “Yes,” she said with what was left of her voice. “More.”

  Sliding up over her, he surrounded her on all sides, giving notice for the record. Her back was his because he’d covered it with his chest. Her neck was his because he’d clamped it between his teeth, using that exquisitely sensitive spot to hold her in place. Her dangling breasts belonged to one of his exploring hands and her engorged sex belonged to the other.

  He thrust sharp and deep, taking it all and demanding more, letting go of her neck only to bite her ear as he spoke. “Say my name.”

  Hey—if he wanted it, it was his. Everything was his.

  “Hunter,” she gasped.

  He withdrew to the tip and surged again, harder. “Who do you belong to?”

  “You.”

  “Huh?”

  “You, Hunter. You.”

  “Do you want it like this?”

  Funny guy. Laughter began in her throat only to be choked off by another moan of pleasure. “You know I do.”

  “Harder?”

  “God, yes,” she said, but even as the words were coming out of her mouth, she wondered how she could take any more before her body disintegrated. “Yes.”

  His rhythm picked up until their bodies slapped together and she felt like a very wicked girl for being punished like this. Deliciously wicked. Breathless and triumphant, she let the pleasure fill her up until she laughed.

  He growled in the most primitive kind of masculine warning but she could hear the amusement in his voice. “This is funny?”

  “You feel so good.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Are you going to come for me?”

  “Maybe.”

  The teasing sealed her fate. Unleashing anything he’d been holding back, he thrust into her with sharp strokes, in and out, biting her neck again and pinching one of her nipples for good measure.

  She flew apart, shouting her release with an abandon she’d never felt before. And just at the moment she needed his driving force between her thighs, prolonging the ecstasy, he stiffened to concrete and refused to move.

  “Don’t stop,” she begged. “Please don’t—”

  “Are you going to come again for me, Livia?”

  “Please don’t stop—”

  “You’re not holding back on me, are you?”

  As if she could. “No,” she gasped. “Just a little more. I just need a little more.”

  “Good girl.”

  He surged again, harder and deeper, and she dissolved into spasms of such intense pleasure she didn’t know how she could survive. She opened her mouth to let it out, but she had nothing left because he’d taken it all.

  She collapsed into the pillows, sated and exhausted, and listened to his raw voice say her name in an endless stream as he drove into her, again and again, and then, with a hoarse shout, went rigid all around her.

  When it was over, they stretched out, fitting together so well they could only have been made for each other, and she drifted toward peace and oblivion with his lips brushing back and forth against her nape.

  “Do me a favor,” he murmured just as she was falling asleep.

  “Hmm?” Turning her head to receive his kiss on her cheek, she brought his hand to her breasts to make sure he didn’t let her go during the night and settled her butt more firmly into his lap.

  “Think about how we can see each other when your vacation is over.”

  Now this was worth staying awake for. Lifting her heavy lids, she twisted her neck a little further so she’d be able to see his eyes. They were smiling. Intent. Happy. Knowing that she’d had something to do with putting a look like that on such a man’s face was overwhelming. Incomprehensible.

  “Yeah?”

  He skimmed the corner of her lips with a featherlight kiss that made tension coil in her belly and heat pool—again!—between her legs. “Can you do that for me?”

  Yes was the answer, but before she could give it, he slid his mouth a couple of inches in the right direction, beginning the dance all over again. As she turned in his arms and sucked his tongue deeper into her mouth, her last coherent thought was that they were going to have another deliciously sleepless night.

  *

  “Should we be doing this?” Livia asked, her voice hushed.

  He had to grin. The woman who’d made a fine living displaying her body for the world to see was turning shy on him over a late dip in the B and B’s spa. Was that funny or wh
at? Despite the fact that it was two in the morning, the whole place was asleep and he’d only turned on a couple of discreet lights inside the fenced and landscaped area, Livia was bundled up tight in the white floor-length terry-cloth robe he’d nabbed from the massage area for her. Looking worried, she watched him relax into the churning water and dipped one toe in.

  “What if someone catches us?” she wondered.

  Closing his eyes, he rested his arms on the ledge and leaned his head back. Heaven. The hot water against the cool night air on his face (it had finally stopped raining) was absolute heaven. Well, no. Being buried inside Livia’s body, making love to her—that was absolute heaven. This was…heaven’s basement.

  “If someone catches us, then we’ll apologize and leave. In the meantime, I’m staying here until my skin wrinkles.” He cracked one eye open. “You coming in or not?”

  With a final, furtive glance in all directions, she unbelted the robe, slipped it off—yeah, he needed both eyes open for that—and slid into the spa and onto the bench beside him.

  “Oh,” she breathed, her eyes rolling closed and her head tipping back with exaggerated ecstasy. “God. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I tried. You didn’t listen.”

  “Hmm.”

  They sat in silence for a minute, melting into the relaxing swirl, and he figured now was as good a time as any to bring up a subject that’d been nagging at his brain for a while now.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Course,” she murmured.

  He stared at her, wanting to see her reaction. “Why haven’t you ever gotten married?”

  Those hazel eyes opened and crinkled in a wry smile. “My life isn’t exactly conducive to successful relationships, is it?”

  Why did that simple truth sting so much? And why did he feel this relentless compulsion to tiptoe down this road with her? “Why’s that?”

  “I’m always traveling, for one. For two, a lot of the men I meet are, ah—”

  “Unworthy?” he supplied sourly, thinking of rumors he’d heard a while back about her dating some producer who’d later run off with an actress.

  That made her grin. “Unworthy. I like that.”

  This should’ve been answer enough but it wasn’t. “They can’t all be unworthy.”

  “No,” she agreed. “Some are intimidated. Some could be worthy but are more concerned with a trophy on their arms and don’t bother to ever see me.”

  What did that mean? “See you?”

  “Me.” Lifting a hand out of the water, she touched it to her heart and he got it. “Me.”

  For reasons that eluded him at the moment, this explanation made him unreasonably happy. Maybe it was because he wasn’t rich or famous, didn’t have his own jet and couldn’t give her a part in a movie that would make her acting career.

  But, unlike those other men, he saw her. Not just the outer shell—her.

  He saw the fierce pride and the keen intelligence, the sweetness and the strength. He saw the beauty of her smile, yeah, but he also saw the greater beauty of her heart.

  Did she know that? Should he tell her?

  Covering her hand with his, he pressed it to her chest, where the water thrashed and her heart thudded. When her breath caught and her uncertain gaze flickered to his, he leaned in to give her lips a gentle but lingering kiss.

  “I see you, Livia.”

  “Yeah?” she whispered.

  “You’re beautiful.” Nudging her hand aside, he settled his fingers against the silky slickness of the valley between her bobbing breasts. “This is beautiful.”

  Because he didn’t trust his voice to say anything further, not now, he slid his hands to the curve where waist met hips, pulled her around until she straddled his lap and showed her just how special he thought she was.

  Chapter 12

  “Hey, sexy.”

  Rolling the driver’s-side window down a little farther, Hunter leaned his elbow on the door and steered the truck alongside Livia. She liked to ride her bike for an hour or so after lunch every day and, as luck would have it, he just happened to be traveling this very same road, on his way back from picking up a few things in town.

  What a delightful coincidence. Or not.

  Why burden the poor woman with the information that he was finding it increasingly difficult to make it through the long hours between when they left each other’s beds in the mornings and their afternoon glass of wine together? Was there any reason to tell her he’d been driving up and down these roads for the past fifteen minutes, hoping to catch a glimpse of her? No way. God knew he’d already lost his head enough over her; there was no reason to confess it outright. What if she thought he was a stalker?

  “You need a lift?”

  Grinning, she hopped off the bike and stared over her shoulder at him, her eyes hidden and mysterious behind dark sunglasses. Along with her helmet, she wore those same sexy shorts from that day he ran her off the road, and, unbelievably, the same tank top, although she had another shirt of some type tied around her waist and apparently planned to use it when she got back to civilization. Pulling the glasses down to the tip of her nose, she gave him a once-over and pretended to give it serious thought.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Mama always told me to watch out for strange men.”

  “Honey,” he said before he backed the truck under a tree just off the road, “if your mama knew the kinds of things I wanted to do with you, she’d call the police.”

  There it was again: that delighted and delightful laugh, the sunshine in his life that had nothing to do with the bright sky overhead. How this woman had worked her way this deep under his skin and into his blood in only a few short weeks was a mystery he really needed to figure out at some point.

  If only he wasn’t too whipped to think.

  “I’m not sure.” Taking her helmet and glasses off, she tipped her face up to his as he approached, revealing flushed skin that was dewy with sweat and musky with the best fragrance in the world—healthy woman. This healthy woman.

  He kept coming until he felt the blaze of her body’s heat all up and down his front, happier than he’d been since…man, he didn’t even know when. Annette was drifting more firmly into his past, and the more he looked into Livia’s beautiful face, the more appropriate it seemed that he turn the page on that first part of his life. It didn’t mean that he hadn’t loved Annette. It just meant that he had more living to do, with Livia.

  “Is it safe in that big truck with you?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Another laugh. “Let’s go, then.”

  After he’d loaded the bike into the bed, he snapped his fingers as though he’d just remembered something. “I forgot to mention one little thing. Sorry.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Payment. You don’t think you can ride in my truck for free, do you?”

  Her face fell into a pretty pout. “Oh, no. I’m not sure I have any money with me.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll try to be flexible. What do you have to offer?”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  This time, he was the one to pull off his sunglasses. Taking his sweet time about it, he let his lazy gaze drift over her. To the drops of sweat gathered in the hollow between her collarbones; he wanted to lick those. To her beaded nipples under that little top; he wanted to lick those, too. To the V between her legs where he wanted to bury himself to the hilt. Now.

  The hot pulse of his blood wouldn’t leave him alone until he did.

  “What do you think I have in mind?”

  A wicked light flickered to life in her eyes. Her lips curled with the beginnings of a smile and that smile widened when she checked him out below the waist and saw how hard he was behind the tight button front of his jeans, how ready.

  “Well,” she said softly, “I always try to pay my debts.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  Taking her hand, he pressed it to his erection, which was
all the encouragement she needed. She stroked him up and down, rough, the way he needed it, and if that wasn’t enough to drive him to the brink of insanity and several miles beyond, she jerked his head down with her free hand, opening her mouth so he could slide his tongue inside and taste her.

  Lord. She was hot and slick, minty fresh and delicious. And suddenly playtime was over and he couldn’t wait. Breaking the kiss, he towed her around to the rear door, which he opened.

  “Have I introduced you to my backseat?”

  She hesitated, taking inventory. Her gaze scanned the long stretch of deserted road in both directions, the protective overhang of tree branches and the truck’s blacked-out windows. Then she eyed the spacious and comfy stretch of leather seat and, finally, the front of his jeans.

  The decision apparently made, she looked him in the eye.

  And peeled that stretchy top off over her head, baring her breasts to him. Dry-mouthed and astonished, he glanced to the cloudless blue sky overhead and said a silent thanks to whoever was responsible for Livia’s appearance in his life. After that, he had a quick second to enjoy the way those plump handfuls bounced back into place and her nipples darkened and tightened down into jutting buds before she bent and, still watching him, shimmied out of her shorts and shoes, straightened, and stood before him in all her considerable glory. “Jesus,” he muttered.

  You’d think that after all their long nights together, the sight of this body might be losing its breathtaking effect on him, but no. You might also think that sex two or three times a day for a man who’d spent the last several years having sex once a month, if he was lucky, would be more than enough, but no. And if you thought having constant sex with Livia made him want to do anything other than have more sex with Livia, you were dead wrong.

  Creeping closer, she went to work on freeing him from his pants. “Were we going to do this today, or…?”

  “Hell, yeah.”

  He dove headfirst into the truck and pulled her in after him. Slamming the door shut, she straddled his lap and all but mauled him with her urgency. Her mouth caught his with aggressive, biting little kisses, and she rubbed her sweaty torso all over him, arching those breasts into his hands…his mouth…her own hands. Squeezing them together, she offered herself to him, brushing those hard nipples against his lips until, with a harsh groan, he sucked the way she liked.