Outside

by Michelle Mankin

  When he broke the connection of our mouths and stepped back my hand went to my lips. They felt swollen and sensitive. I felt thoroughly claimed and now it was my body that vibrated with need.

  His hands went to the buttons of his shirt.

  “Please. Let me.” My hands replacing his I stumbled a bit in my haste to have my tingling fingertips on his warm skin. Once the last button was undone, I glided my hands along the smooth contours of his wide shoulders reveling in the width of them. When I finally completed my task his shirt fluttered to the floor. A half-naked bronzed male god stood before me. Chiseled and strong. A warrior. A survivor. A surf god with a temper’s voice. I lifted my gaze. His eyes sparked and his handsome face was drawn tight with stark need.

  “Babe, you’re driving me crazy.” His hands fell to my shoulders, warm and possessive as he turned me around then traced the length of my spine. Heat rushed to my throbbing core as he unclasped my bra, the lace an erotic whisper against tightened nipples that ached to receive his bold touch. The slide of the straps down my arms left a shimmery trail of awareness in their wake.

  The scrap of black lace fell to the cream carpet without a sound. But my gasp turned into a moan when I felt Linc put his warm hands on my waist setting my aroused flesh ablaze as he slowly moved them higher and higher and higher.

  Her skin beneath my fingertips was the softest thing I had ever felt and I wanted to draw it out. But I didn’t know how I could when everything within me screamed take her now and make her your own.

  “Linc.” She shuddered so hard when I palmed her luscious tits and softly flicked the tight rosy buds with my thumbs that I thought she might have already come. “Again.” She lightly panted leaning back into me and arching into my hands. “Again. Do that again. Don’t stop.”

  I did. Gladly. Being with her like this, looking at her sexy body, feeling her beneath my hands, watching the way she seemed to come apart every time I touched her, it was all even better than I had dreamed. “Babe, I could play with your tits for hours if my cock wasn’t already so damn hard just from looking at you.”

  She spun in my arms feeling like warm liquid silk. Once facing me she tipped her head back to look at me and pressed her awesome rack into my chest. Her hard nipples scored my skin and made me feel even less controlled than I already was. I wanted her writhing beneath me taking my cock as I gave it to her hard.

  I lowered my head and took her sexy mouth plunging my tongue between her cherry flavored lips. Deep, then shallow, then deep again, I repeated the pattern, the same one I planned to use with another part of my anatomy. Soon, it had to be soon or I was going to erupt inside my cargo shorts.

  Sliding my palms a little lower, marveling at the perfection of her lush curves, reveling in the soft sounds of appreciation that she made, I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of her thong and dragged the flimsy lace over her sexy thighs and down her shapely calves before looking up at her and ordering, “Step out, babe.”

  Delicate hands on my shoulders she complied. I slowly rose trailing my nose over her sweetly scented skin, calves first then thighs until I reached the gentle swell of her abdomen where I nipped her before straightening all the way and taking her mouth again. Hard. Letting her know with each eager slash of my lips and every relentless stroke of my tongue that I sensed her arousal, that she drove me mad with desire and that she belonged to me.

  “On the bed,” I grunted walking her backward tugging my belt loose and removing my shorts and boxers as I followed her. Her naked bottom settling on the bed, she scooted to the middle. I caressed and parted her soft thighs before positioning my body between them. “Simone look at me.” Lifting her gaze from where we were almost joined she blinked her dazed eyes. Balancing my weight on one hand the roar of my pulse in my ears nearly deafened me as she lifted her hips to bring her glorious mound closer to my hand. “You’re a goddess. A temptress. My only love.” I sifted through the gift she offered me finding her nub swollen and soaking wet. I swirled my thumb around it slowly and deliberately. “So beautiful.” My tone was reverential my considered movements like those of a master artist creating on a pristine canvass. “So gorgeous. I couldn’t have dreamed of someone more perfect for me.”

  “Linc.” Skin flushed, her legs parted wider and her hips moved in response to my stimulation. I couldn’t take anymore. I grabbed the packet from the mattress, ripped it open with my teeth, smoothed it on and plunged my sheathed cock into her hot perfect heat.

  “You feel so good,” I groaned. With my gaze on hers I began to move deep and shallow, deep and shallow.

  She moaned softly and her lids started to close.

  “Don’t look away, Mona. I want to see the desire in your eyes.”

  Her hands went to my hips her fingernails digging into my ass as she lifted off the mattress to meet every one of my thrusts. Her hot fast rapid breaths let me know she was just as close to the summit as I was. “Yes, Linc,” she canted as I circled and drove in deep. “Yes. Yes.”

  “Mona,” I praised dipping my head, capturing one of her perfect tits to suck on and then the other. “You feel so good. So hot. So fuckin’ fantastic.”

  I took her mouth again pulling her full bottom lip between my teeth before gorging myself on the sweet interior. Out of breath I ripped my mouth from hers. “Hard, Mona.” I warned. “I’m gonna take you so hard.”

  Her rose tipped tits swayed as I dug my fingers into her lush ass yanking her closer thrusting inside once and then doing it again and again and again. Her lids fluttered closed but even without seeing her eyes I could read the ecstasy on her lovely face. Her back arching off the bed, she exhaled my name and let out a long low orgasmic moan.

  “Mona,” I groaned soaring over the other side of the wave with her and flooding her with my desire.

  “I love you,” he breathed the words into my neck as he collapsed his deliciously sexy body on top of me. I pressed my lips to his stubble roughened cheek but held back from saying the same thing. I wanted so badly to echo his words, but irrational fear gripped me keeping me from telling him what I had already revealed to Ash.

  Just as my breathing started to level out he pushed up on his arms and withdrew from me taking off the condom as he left the bed. “Take a shower with me.” His eyes were heavy lidded and his voice was raspy in the aftermath of our shared passion.

  “I shouldn’t,” I told him slanting a glance at the clock and noting how little time remained. “I can’t go home with my hair too wet or smelling like a different shampoo. I’m afraid of what my father might do.”

  His jaw hardened. “Fair enough.” He stared at me the muscle in his jaw twitching. He looked like he wanted to say more on the matter but in the end he refrained. “You can use the tub while I get cleaned up.”

  I bobbed my head in agreement watching as he moved toward the bathroom. Taut ass. Long firm legs. Strong wide shoulders with tousled sandy hair kissing them. He was glorious to look at and beyond glorious as a lover. But what would happen when he left for Fiji? The summer was swiftly drawing to a close. My heart was already fully his even without me voicing those words. If things ended, when they ended my paranoid brain insisted, I was going to be devastated.

  Totally.

  Dully, I shuffled behind him unable to fully bask in the shimmery afterglow of our lovemaking. Once inside, I began to draw a bath. I heard the shower door close but waited until the water in the tub reached halfway up the sides before stepping in and lowering myself into the warm embrace.

  Careful to keep my hair out of the water I washed off and regarded Linc as he showered. He started with a quick lathering of his thick mane of hair then followed with a chest to toes sudsy wash over all those perfectly contoured muscles I longed to trace more fully.

  He shook his hair dry just like he did at the beach, stepped out of the shower and caught me staring. Totally mesmerized.

  He grinned whipping the towel off the rack and fastening it around his trim waist. “Need some help slowpo
ke?” he teased stalking toward me his light blue eyes glittering in the bright vanity lights.

  “Um, no.” I dropped the bar of soap I’d been squeezing back into the dish and stood. His gaze dropped to my body and rose again only slowly as though he were reluctant to relinquish the view.

  I stepped out onto the bathmat and started to stretch for a nearby towel but he beat me to it. He unfolded it and held it open for me to walk into.

  “Come here,” he ordered. I took the first step and he moved toward me enfolding me in the towel at the same time that his lips recaptured mine. His mouth was firm and delicious but he didn’t give me a moment to savor before he licked between the seam in mine and slanted his head to deepen the kiss.

  I arched into him, warm heady need and the pleasure I knew he could give engulfing my body. I wanted him. Again. I feared that the time we had was running out. Deep down I knew there was a part of me that was never going to recover when it inevitably did. That there was never going to be another man who could melt me with a single kiss.

  Just when the current kiss was starting to get really good, when I’d gone completely pliable in his arms and had moaned my approval into his mouth, he ended it. I opened my eyes to find him studying me closely. “What’s wrong, Simone?”

  “Nothing,” I lied. A small deception, I told myself. “I’m just tired.”

  “Hmm.” He watched me a moment longer his narrowed gaze drifting across my features as if doubting the validity of my words. “You know you can tell me anything.”

  I nodded held captive by the intensity of his gaze.

  He touched the tip of my nose and his expression lightened. “Come.” He offered me his hand and I took it readily. Why ruin the limited time we had together worrying about things I couldn’t control?

  “I know you saw the strawberries. Maybe after you eat something you’ll regain some energy.” He stopped at the row of bookshelves across the room where he’d abandoned the bucket earlier and turned to face me.

  Hands holding my own towel to my chest I watched him open the Ziploc. When he had one of the succulent berries in his hand he beckoned me closer. Drawn more by my hunger for him than by the chance to sample the delicacy I complied. He held the strawberry out to me and I opened my mouth. He traced my parted lips with the tip of it, his eyes following the berry’s path before he popped it inside. Feeling a warm flush in my cheeks I bit into it chewing while the sweet juice flowed over my tongue.

  “How did you know strawberries are my favorite?” I couldn’t remember ever having told him.

  “I watch. I observe.” He stroked my arm softly igniting awareness every time he touched me. “At the restaurant, you never touch the cheesecake. You just eat the berries.”

  My blush deepened. He noticed a lot. He caressed the round of my cheeks with the pad of his thumb before swiveling to pluck another berry. When he brought it to my lips his gaze was hooded.

  “Open again,” he ordered his voice low. When I parted my lips this time he teased me tracing the slopes of my breasts with the chilled end then lowered his head to follow the same path with his tongue.

  “Oh,” I moaned my nipples immediately tightening in response to the feel of his warm breath and wet tongue and a darker ache began to build much lower.

  “Delicious.” He lifted his head, popped the berry into his own mouth and gave me a crooked smile before he started to chew. When he withdrew another berry I peeked into the bag. There were at least seven or eight more. I wasn’t going to survive it. My heart was already trying to pound its way out of my chest.

  “What would I have to do to get you to ditch that towel?” he mused reflectively while tracing his sexy lips with the strawberry.

  “Just ask.” I met his hot stare boldly. “Nicely.”

  “Please.” How was it that he could make that one word sound like a command?

  Head down I untucked my towel. It dropped to the floor at my feet. Cold air licked my skin. My rapid breaths made my breasts rise and fall. I raised my eyes to look at him. His eyes were midnight dark, pupils enlarged, barely any blue showing. I stood before him wanting his touch and waiting once again as his gaze leisurely traveled over my naked form. I was just about to speak when he reached for me drawing me closer, a warm rush of heat piercing me where his hands gripped my ass to that part of me that ached to be filled by him. I could tell that he was thinking along the same lines as me by the size of the erection tenting his towel.

  “Open your lips,” he commanded. I leaned forward and nipped his fingers surprising him as I took a big bite out of the strawberry he seemed to have forgotten he’d been holding. His expression grew hungry as he watched me consume it.

  “Now,” I said when I was finished. “What about that towel of yours?”

  “Kiss me.” Eyes getting even darker he popped the remaining part of the berry between his lips and waited. Feeling the heat and the power of him through the thick Egyptian cotton I drew closer, touching my lips to his then suddenly sweeping the berry from his mouth into my own. I started to pull back as I chewed and swallowed my prize but he easily caught me. “Tricky minx.” He straightened, his eyes shining with mirth and the extra something that I now recognized was love. He grabbed me by the shoulders and hauled me forward bringing our mouths together firm lips melding to mine. Mint and strawberry flavors burst from his tongue as he swept it between them. Insistent swipes. Deep bone melting licks. I trembled and burned in his embrace realizing as I pressed closer to him that his towel had vanished. Only his hot hard body and my melting one remained.

  “Linc,” I begged when we both paused, lips hovering close enough to still touch but far enough apart to suck in needed air. “No more. I can’t. I need you. Please.”

  “You don’t have to beg, babe.” His expression was tight, his eyes glowing dark with the heat of desire that ruled us both. “Your every wish is my command.” His hands went to my ass, strong fingers kneading the sensitive cheeks making the fire between my legs blaze even hotter. “Wrap your legs around my waist, gorgeous.” He hefted me and I complied eagerly grinding my aching need against the hot, perfectly formed length of him.

  He groaned and tossed me back on the bed so hard I bounced. His hot possessive gaze captured me when I came up on my elbows tossing my hair out of the way. Our heated eyes melded together. A warm shiver of anticipation made me tremble as he tore open a condom packet and rolled it on. Hands to the mattress he put a knee down and stalked toward me his gaze filled with wicked intentions.

  Yes, please.

  I licked my lips as he moved between my legs and moaned long and low because the instant his lips fastened on mine his hot cock surged inside me. The perfect fit. The wet heat inside me burned hotter with each deep purposeful stoke of his hardness and matching glide of his slick tongue into my panting mouth.

  The ache within me grew unbearable. Every time he withdrew he surged back inside even harder. Thrust after thrust I arched to meet him, fingers flexing into his tight ass to help him go deeper, growing more and more desperate with each perfect glide over my sensitive swollen flesh.

  “Now, Mona.” He plunged inside, delectably deep, grinding his hips and touching that perfect spot.

  “Yes, Linc. Yes!” I reached the starry pinnacle, pulsing around him, moaning his name over and over, the sound of my passion and the rhythm of my pleasure propelling him into the blissed out stratosphere with me where he let out a long deeply satisfied male groan.

  “I love you,” he declared in my ear as he collapsed his passion slickened weight on top of me.

  I love you, too, I thought wrapping my arms and legs fiercely around him.

  We dressed slowly on separate sides of the bed after bathing again. Head bowed as she drew on her dress, I could feel her withdrawing from me the way she had after we had made love the first time.

  I didn’t like it and it wasn’t acceptable.

  “Simone,” I called softly.

  “Yes.” She turned my way and I could see
that it was worse that I’d thought. Something had snuffed out that inner light of hers. I didn’t understand it. Not after the incredible night we just shared. The most incredible of my entire life.

  “What’s wrong? And don’t tell me you’re tired.” I finished buttoning my shirt and moved behind her brushing her hair to the front so I could draw up the zipper for her. Grasping her shoulders I turned her to face me. “There’s more to it than that.”

  “This was incredible, Linc.” Her eyes filled. “You’re so incredible. But I’m scared. The things Ash said…they’re legitimate concerns.” She dropped her chin to her chest. “I don’t want to lose you,” she mumbled.

  “You won’t, Mona.” Damn, Ash. I lifted her head and brushed a soft kiss across her trembling lips. “You’re not going to. I swear it. But…”

  “Linc.” Ash’s voice startled both of us. I glanced at the clock and cursed under my breath.

  We were out of time.

  “I waited for you at the dock like you told me to,” Ash called from the other room. “But when you didn’t show…” He trailed off and cleared his throat. “You two need to hurry. I don’t know if I we can get Simone home in time. I don’t want to get caught speeding at this hour of the night. It’s hard enough to get Dad to lend me the van.”

  “We’ll be right out,” I shouted over my shoulder then had to grab her as she scooted toward the door eyes wide in her pale face. “Mona, stop.” She jumped as I put my hands on her shoulders. “We have to talk. About your dad. About us. About the future. I’m not hiding anymore and I’m not letting you go. Ever.” My fingers tightened to emphasis my point.

  “I’ve got to go, Linc.” She twisted away from me. “We can’t tell my father. You don’t understand.”

  Ash’s brows lifted as we both emerged into the central hall where he was waiting jiggling a large ring of keys in his hand.

  “Give us a minute,” I growled before he could interrupt. I grabbed Simone’s arm, her long hair swirling around her slim shoulders as I brought her back to face me. Her hands fluttered along my forearms. “Why not, Simone?” My eyes drilled unrelentingly into hers. “Why can’t we tell him? What does your father have against me?”