Hers By Request

by Karen Ann Dell

  “I wanted it to be like those breakfasts you told me about when you were a kid,” she said with some hesitation.

  He merely gazed at her with enough warmth in his eyes to start an answering heat in her heart. “Thank you, darling, it smells delicious.” He began to pile his plate with some of everything. “Seriously, though, you made enough food to feed an army. We should be inviting the homeless in for a meal.”

  “I did get a bit carried away,” she admitted. “Why don’t we wrap up what’s left and take in to the studio? Your crew always acts half-starved. Surely some of them would eat it.”

  “We could,” he agreed. “But that would mean we’d have to go out.” He looked wistfully down the hall toward the bedroom.

  “True.” She kept her eyes on her plate. “I, ah, thought we might go out today, anyway.” She glanced up quickly then back at her plate where she pushed home fries and sausage around without taking a bite. “There’s a festival in Princess Ann. It’s not very far and the weather is supposed to be beautiful . . .” She chanced a peek at Dev’s face.

  “I knew from that first day in my office you were a conniver. I just never realized the depths to which you would sink to get your way.” His gaze roved over the table full of food and settled back on her.

  “I am not a conniver. I wanted to cook you a nice breakfast. The festival just happened to fall on the same day.” Her bottom lip pushed out in a pout. “We don’t have to go. We can just take the food to the studio and you can go home and get some decent rest for a change.”

  “Not a conniver, huh?” He chuckled. “Did I detect a not-so-veiled threat that I would sleep alone if we didn’t go to this festival thing?”

  “It was not a threat. I don’t know how you get by on so little sleep as it is. I simply figured you would do well to catch up a little.” She had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from laughing.

  “Once again it seems you’ve made me an offer I can’t refuse. The festival it is.”

  He sat back and sipped his coffee.

  She smiled brilliantly.

  “What kind of festival is it, anyway?”

  The smile wavered the slightest bit. “Daffodil. It’s the Annual Daffodil Festival.”

  “Conniver,” he mumbled into his coffee cup.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing, darling.”

  Amanda started packing up the leftovers. “I have one other thing on my to-do list for today. I need your measurements for the tuxedo I’m renting for the party.”

  “You don’t need to rent a tuxedo for me.”

  “Oh, please don’t be one of those men who hate to wear formal clothes,” she said. She snapped the lid onto a plastic container of sausages and gave an exasperated shake of her head.

  “I’m not. I—”

  “You know, I never could figure out why so many men moan and groan over getting dressed in formal wear,” Amanda interrupted. “You all like it when women wear something sexy, don’t you? Plunging necklines, thigh-high slits in our skirts, rhinestone-encrusted bustiers? Right?”

  Both eyebrows heading north, Dev could only nod.

  “Well, here’s a newsflash. Put a man in a tuxedo, dinner jacket, or military dress uniform and you’re more than halfway to success in the seduction department. We women loooove to see our men in formal wear.”

  “That’s good to know. But I wasn’t trying to get out of wearing a tux.”

  “Oh.”

  “I was trying to explain that you don’t need to rent one. I own several sets of formal clothes. Everything from white tie and tails to dinner jackets.”

  “Wow. I had no idea.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t graduate from the New England Conservatory without acquiring at least one tuxedo. Especially if you’ve trained in classical piano. My family was more generous along those lines, since they expected I would be going on the concert circuit after graduation.”

  “And they still fit you?”

  “Probably. I bulked up in the Army but after all that time in the hospital, I’m back to my old size. I’ll call Mom and ask her to send them down. What do you want me to wear?”

  Visions of him in white tie and tails danced in her head. She’d love to see him like that, but no one else would be dressed that formally.

  “A regular tuxedo will be fine. You’ll be absolutely dashing.”

  “I’m going to wear white gloves, too. I don’t want any of Mrs. W’s guests freaking out and ruining your party.”

  He put a finger over her lips when she tried to protest. “Don’t argue with me this time, Amanda. Think about it and you’ll realize I’m right.”

  She kissed the finger, then nodded. “All right. You can have your way this time.”

  Dev went to the pantry where she stashed grocery bags and retrieved a couple to pack the containers in while she finished clearing the dishes. She piled them in the sink to wash after they came back from the festival. Spook was curled up in a square of sunshine on the floor. She’d be fine till they came home.

  “Okay, darlin’, let’s get a move on,” Dev urged her.

  “I had no idea you’d be so anxious to get to the festival,” she teased as she got her blazer out of the closet. Dev helped her slip it on and nuzzled her neck in the process.

  “I’m not. It’s what comes after the festival I’m anticipating,” he whispered in her ear. The resulting quiver of delight arced its way to all of her erogenous zones. This was going to be one wonderful day.

  “No! Don’t! Get back. Get—”

  Amanda woke to the sound of panic. Dev thrashed his right arm and groaned as if in pain. She caught at his arm and grabbed his shoulder.

  “Dev, wake up. You’re dreaming.” She switched on the bedside lamp, then shook his shoulder a little harder. He was bathed in sweat, his face contorted in a grimace that was frightening to see. “Wake up, Honey. It’s just a nightmare.” She stroked his damp hair off his forehead and he jerked away from her touch, opening his eyes but obviously not seeing the bedroom or her. “Honey, it’s me, Amanda. Please wake up,” she begged.

  He jerked out of her grasp, put the flat of his hand against her chest, and shoved with all his might. She flew backward across the bed and off the side, knocking the clock radio off the table and cracking her elbow against its edge. She landed with a resounding thump and the alarm went off, loud enough to scare Spook and send her running for cover.

  Dev sat up and leaned over the side.

  Amanda scooted backward at the sudden move. “Are you awake?”

  “Yeah.”

  He scanned the room, still a little disoriented. She went to get up but her elbow protested and she sat down hard. “Ow.”

  Dev was on the floor next to her in seconds. Gathering her into his arms, he picked her up and sat on the bed with her in his lap.

  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. Show me where it hurts.” He examined her arm, squeezing gently along its length until she reacted with another “ouch.” Her skin was intact but a bruise was already beginning over the outside of her elbow. “Can you bend it?”

  “I could, but I don’t want to.”

  “Shit. I’ll get some ice. It’ll help to keep the swelling down.” He went to slide her off his lap onto the bed.

  “Wait.” She could feel the pounding of his heart where her arm rested against his chest. The sheen of perspiration on his face gleamed in the lamplight. “Are you all right?” She searched his eyes for reassurance that the Dev she knew was back in control.

  “I’m fine. Let me get the ice, baby, I’ll be right back.”

  He maneuvered her onto the bed and put a pillow behind her back. Aching elbow or no, she enjoyed the rear view of her totally naked lover as he hustled toward the kitchen. A few seconds later the sound of
ice being smashed by a very heavy object was followed by drawers being opened and closed.

  “I need a—”

  “Bottom right-hand drawer,” she called down the hall.

  He came back with the ice wrapped in a dishtowel. He laid it against the bruise and wrapped a second towel around her arm to hold it in place.

  “You could at least wait until I finish the question before you answer it, smarty.” He kissed her lightly on the tip of her nose.

  “Why? I always know what you want.” She patted the mattress next to her. “Come on over here and give me something to lean against.” When he settled at her side, she snuggled against him, arranging the covers up over their laps.

  “That must have been some nightmare.” She felt his whole body tense. “You want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  She sighed. “Okay. But if you ever do, I’ll be glad to listen.”

  “Thank you. If I ever do, you’ll be first on my list of listeners.”

  She smiled and kissed his chest. She loved the feel of him, the play of his muscles under her lips. The light dusting of hair across his chest, arrowing down his flat belly to the darker nest of hair surrounding his manhood drew her eyes like a magnet. And where her eyes went, her mouth longed to follow. Her own heart rate kicked up and despite the ice against her elbow, she felt her hands warm.

  For the past two weeks they had spent every non-working moment together—most of them right here, in this bed. Some days it was in the evening before he went in to work, some days in the morning as soon as he was off the air. She’d finally gotten him to take his shirt off and while the sight of his damaged arm broke her heart, it didn’t repel her or diminish her attraction one little bit. The rest of his body was everything any woman could want and she’d enjoyed every inch of it thoroughly. She’d like to know him on the inside just as well.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t sleep here anymore.”

  “What?” She pushed away from him so she could look him in the eye. “That’s it? You’ve had enough of me already?”

  “Don’t try to twist my words, woman. You know I haven’t had enough of you.” He brushed a finger over her cheek. “I’m not sure I’ll ever have enough, but that’s not what I’m saying. I don’t want to take the chance I might hurt you again.”

  “Oh for Pete’s sake,” she huffed, “you didn’t hurt me.”

  “I did. I don’t want it to happen again, Amanda, but I never know when I’m going to have a nightmare.”

  “Are they always the same dream?”

  “Pretty much, yeah.”

  She reached down and held his left hand, then brought it to her lips and kissed each finger. “It’s about how you got hurt over in Iraq, isn’t it?” He didn’t answer, but his hand curled into a fist. “Well, maybe if you talked to somebody about them they would stop happening.”

  “No.” He snatched his hand away.

  “I didn’t mean me, Dev. You should talk to someone who could help you.”

  “I’ve already talked to people. They couldn’t help me. No one can help me.”

  “I don’t believe that.” She smoothed her hand over his solid abs, stopping tantalizingly short of her goal.

  “I.” She leaned down and kissed his chest.

  “Only know.” She kissed his neck.

  “One way.” She kissed his ear.

  “To help.” She kissed his cheek.

  “You.” She laid claim to his mouth and slid her leg over his, gratified to feel the evidence that her plan was working poke her in the belly.

  “Your arm,” he growled when she broke the kiss, his words harsh.

  Amanda put her lips against the pounding pulse point at the base of his neck. His breathing became ragged, but he kept his hands at his sides. She smiled like a vixen, her eyes heavy-lidded. “The only way we can be sure it won’t get hurt again,” she whispered, sitting back to straddle his hips, “is to let me have full control.” She reached over to the drawer in the nightstand, aware that the movement slid her along the rigid length of him, coating his shaft with her slick warmth. She held up a foil packet.

  He reached for it but she held it away and shook her head. “Oh no.” She paused to adjust her position and slide her clit to the tip of his erection, again applying the hot juices now flooding between her legs. His pupils dilated until the jade green was but a thin circle around them. “My idea of full control means you cannot use your hands at all. Only your mouth.” She leaned forward to bring her breasts close to his face and he groaned as he nipped, licked, and finally suckled one peak, then the other.

  Amanda writhed in delight as sounds of approval escaped her. She wiggled her tush in slow circles, the friction releasing even more of her honeyed sweetness.

  “Enough of this torture, minx. If you don’t open that packet soon it may be too late.” Dev’s hands were fisted in the sheets, his knuckles white with the tightness of his grip.

  Knowing how close she was to her own release, Amanda acquiesced to his demand and quickly covered him. She intended to impale herself on his cock slowly, to savor the sensation as he stretched her, then filled her completely. But she’d waited too long, allowed herself to get too close to the precipice. So when Dev thrust into her, seating himself deeply, she felt her climax begin.

  “Oh, yes!” she shouted as it crescendoed through two more deep, rapid strokes and burst upon her with the force of a thunder clap, lights pinwheeling behind her closed lids, sensation pulsing outward from her center as wave after wave of ecstasy cascaded along her nerve endings, leaving her nearly senseless in the aftermath. She collapsed onto his chest, every muscle in her body turned to liquid from the heat of their joining. Dev followed, scarcely a beat behind, her ‘no hands’ rule forgotten as he gripped her hips and buried himself to the hilt again and again.

  Once their breathing had returned to near normal, he gently turned her over, still careful of her bruised arm, and got up to dispose of the condom. She protested, his absence for even a few seconds leaving her feeling strangely bereft. He was back in less than a minute, tucking her against him spoon-fashion, his arm around her with her breast cradled in his hand and his breath warm on her neck. Amanda smiled to herself, his plan not to sleep with her again vanquished by post-coital bliss.

  His nightmare still worried her and she debated talking to Chris Majewski about it, but discarded that idea as being too meddlesome.

  “How is your new employee working out? The one Chris sent over?”

  “What brought that up? You’re supposed to be drifting off to a satisfied nap or I’m not performing as well as I should be.”

  Amanda twisted in his arms to face him and kissed him lightly. “Your ‘performance’ was spectacular, as always. But I just had a nap and I’m not tired anymore. Besides, I hate to waste any of the time we’re together sleeping.”

  “I second that motion.” He drifted a finger across the slope of her breast and smiled as her nipple peaked in response.

  Amanda held his hand to prevent further exploration. “There are other things two people can do together besides . . .” She almost said ‘make love’ but caught herself. “Have sex.”

  “Yeah, but they’re not nearly as much fun.” He tried to tug his hand free but Amanda held on. He sighed. “Okay, let’s talk, since that seems what you’re so determined to do.”

  “I don’t get to the station as much anymore now that I have your books in order and I miss seeing everyone. Catch me up on what’s been going on.”

  “There isn’t a whole lot new. Lance, the guy you asked about, is making progress toward getting his license. I think he’ll make a good engineer.”

  “I know Chris is grateful to you for taking him on. Has he been by to see how Lance is doing?”

  “Just who is it you’re more i
nterested in? Lance or Chris?” Dev’s voice took on a bit of an edge.

  Amanda’s eyes slid away from his penetrating stare. “Well, you mentioned that Lance has PTSD and I merely wondered how often Chris checked in on him, that’s all.”

  Dev tilted her chin up till she met his gaze. “And as long as he came all that way, I might as well talk to him about my nightmares, hmm?”

  She bit her lip.