She pressed her lips to his cheek. “Come for me.”
One minute she was gasping for air. The next his mouth slid over hers. Warm lips met and explored before his tongue slipped inside. She didn’t fight or turn away. No, she drank him in. Tasted him. Gave back as much as she received.
They devoured each other in the kiss.
Sounds of sex filled the room. They mumbled and groaned as their bodies slapped together. And, with one last lunge, he filled her. The move triggered his orgasm. His mouth left hers and his head flew back as he chanted her name. He came in an explosion of sound and heat, his body shaking until his elbows collapsed beneath him. Rocking back and forth, he rubbed his chest against her breasts as his body emptied.
It was the most magnificent scene and most intense feeling Lauren had ever experienced. She had expected the sex would be good. Great, even. She didn’t know it would leave her feeling shaken and raw. He’d ceded control to her and didn’t seem to care. He’d sat back and let her take the lead, and the result was spectacular.
She lifted her head and stared down at their entangled bodies. It was hard to see where his body stopped and hers started. Her gaze moved to his face and where it was buried in her hair on the pillow. This time she didn’t even think about getting dressed. Her muscles wouldn’t have listened to signals from her brain anyway. Her strength was gone and her will to get up and out as fast as she could was starting to wane.
After a half hour of being passed out on the bed with his legs wrapped around hers, Justin forced his limbs to move. He wanted to be on his feet before Lauren got up and started throwing her clothes back on. He feared that hot kiss would scare her off. It’d had the opposite effect on him. Only made him more determined to keep trying to get through to her…and kiss her again.
Since they’d been all over each other, explored every inch, he didn’t bother getting dressed. He slid the robe over his shoulders but let it hang open when he dropped into the chair on the other side of the bed and pulled the food cart close.
He heard the rustle of the sheets. Sensed her sitting up and staring at him. “What are you doing?” she asked.
She tucked her hair behind her ears in a sexy little move that made it harder for him to stay put in the chair.
“Eating.” He lifted the lid off one of the entrees. Disappointment hit him a second later. He wanted a steak. He got a weak-ass salad.
That’s what happened when a man had to order based on making a point rather than actual hunger. Hell, he’d left work an hour early just to make his plan work. Get to the hotel, set up the dinner, and act like none of it was a big deal. He knew if he could break through her sex-only rule, he might be able to make her see that she deserved more from a man. And he hoped the man she’d turn to would be him.
She held the cover up against her breasts. “Isn’t everything cold by now?”
“It’s the type of food that can wait.” He motioned for her to take a seat across from him at the end of the bed. “There’s enough for two.”
“I told you—”
“You wanted to have sex and run.” He popped a cherry tomato in his mouth. “Yeah, I know, but you have to eat. Can’t imagine your rules require you to starve to death.”
“Have you always had a problem with exaggerating?”
“Not that I know of.”
“I don’t know…”
He could feel her resistance crumbling. Saw it in the way she kept glancing at the food tray. “Or you could sit on my lap.”
“That’s subtle.”
Since he sure as hell wasn’t going for subtle, her sarcasm was fine with him. “I’m very comfortable.”
“I know.”
He didn’t want to spook her, but he couldn’t help but smile at her response. He wanted her to come to him on her terms. That meant fighting the urge to reach out and pull her down on top of him. Also meant pretending it didn’t matter when the mattress dipped and she sat down in front of him, even though he viewed it as a huge victory in their male-female battle.
“You don’t look like a salad guy.” She picked at the lettuce then dove into the breadbasket instead.
“I didn’t think I’d be able to hold off on getting you into bed long enough to eat, so I had to be practical with my choices.”
She buttered the roll. “Good thinking.”
“I tend to be a problem solver.”
“Is that why you kissed me?”
Ah, there it was. “No. I kissed you because I was dying to kiss you. Because it felt right in the moment. That’s what good sex is all about.”
Her knife scraped harder against the bread, sending crumbs falling to the tablecloth. “Kissing?”
“Timing and mutual satisfaction.”
“Why do I think you’re trying to teach me a lesson?”
Smart, smart woman. “Just eating.”
Silence stretched for almost a minute before she spoke again. “You’re wrong, you know.”
“About anything in particular?”
She dropped her hands to the table, the bread and knife seemingly forgotten. “Gavin.”
Justin mentally applauded her initiative. Facing the issue head on sure was better than her emotional running. “We’re allowed to mention his name now?”
“He no longer has any control over my life.”
She still lacked any self-awareness about her marriage. Rather than point that out, Justin stayed quiet. Responding to that comment in an honest way would guarantee an end to the evening’s lovemaking and he still held out hope for a second round. “Hmmm.”
“What?”
He pushed the salad around his plate with the fork. “Nothing.”
“It’s something.”
He set the utensil down and stared at her. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.”
“I already figured that out.”
“Fine.” He threw down the napkin and sat back in his chair. “You won’t shove Gavin out of your head, which means a little piece of him crawls into bed every time you do.”
“We’re divorced.”
Justin decided to try a more global approach, one that didn’t directly address the Gavin issue. “In a solid relationship, one worth having, a man and a woman have equal control. It doesn’t matter if one of them is a submissive in the bedroom, if they like tying each other up, even if they’re into pain. If it’s mutual and both parties get pleasure, it’s even.”
She snorted.
“You disagree?” Justin asked.
“The woman who gets shared sexually is not in control.”
“She is if she chooses to be there. In fact, she has the ultimate control, because it’s her body. If the relationship is healthy and right, she can say no. She holds the power.”
“And if she wants to say no but doesn’t?”
Justin saw the mines spread out before him, all of them live and just waiting to explode. “Then everyone loses.”
“Except the men.” She stood up. “They still get what they want.”
“What a man should want is for a woman to find satisfaction. Me, well, I’m not into sharing. I want my woman to want only me.”
She backed away from the food cart. “Thanks for dinner.”
Just once, he wanted her to prove him wrong and stay to finish a conversation. “I guess we’re done talking.”
“We’re not here for talk.”
And with that, the emotional door slammed shut between them. She was shoving him away. The icy reserve had already begun to form around her.
“Thanks for the reminder,” he mumbled.
The grip on the sheet didn’t ease up as she bent down to pick up her dress off the floor. “Same time tomorrow?”
“I’m at your service.” He waited until she slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. “And whether you like it or not, the feeling is mutual.”
Chapter Five
“Sex alleviates tension. Love causes it.”
~Woody Allen
<
br /> Justin loved watching Lauren find that sweet rhythm right before her body pulled tense and she came. Her skin turned a rosy pink, her head fell back, her breasts pushed forward, and her mouth dropped open.
He could describe every movement because she was balanced across his lap and didn’t show any sign of moving off. Not that he wanted her to go anywhere.
As with the last two nights, she had walked into the hotel room and started peeling off her clothes. The only difference this time was the extended foreplay. She came twice under his hands and mouth before flipping him onto his back. Then she walked up the bed on her knees and straddled his hips with her lean thighs. She wore his dress shirt unbuttoned and open, falling off one shoulder, so he could tease her nipples without interference.
He leaned in to kiss her chin as she moved up and down on his cock. She rode hard enough for his back to smack against the headboard more than once. With one plunge, she had grabbed the wood behind his head in a white-knuckled grip. Now her body clenched against him, every muscle milking his cock.
The air left his lungs and refused to come back. He gasped for breath, only to have her lean down and kiss him. The fact she took the initiative rocked him, but the taste did not last long enough. She pulled back, letting her hair fall over her shoulders. He missed the contact immediately. He pounded his head against the wall to keep from losing his shit and grabbing control away from her. This was for her, and the woman was on fire.
His fingers settled on her hips. He had to force his fingers not to clamp down on her bare skin. He wanted to hold her, press her tighter against him, but didn’t want to hurt her. Never that.
Just then her pace over him quickened again. From the way her hands massaged his shoulder and her skin flushed even deeper, he knew she was close to the edge. She tightened the vice grip of her thighs against him as her eyes fell closed.
“Yes…” The word passed as a sigh from her lips.
He wanted more. Nothing between them. No excuses or separation.
He angled his hips even higher, pushing his cock to the hilt. Until nothing could keep them apart. “You’re almost there. Give me more.”
“I can’t do—”
“Yes, you can.”
“Love me.” Her scream ripped through the room as her body bucked and trembled. Her breasts brushed against his chest, igniting a firestorm in his lower body.
Just as her body crashed and the last bit of her climax left her, his body began to shake with an intensity he couldn’t control. She slumped against his shoulder as he pushed up inside her. Pressure built in his cock until the world around him exploded. His body moved without any signal from his brain. Lifting and plunging, he filled her. Soft moans escaped her throat as he continued to move.
He couldn’t fight it a second longer. Didn’t want to. He leaned back and let the final ripples surge through him.
Minutes of silence ticked by after the frenzy. He could feel her body relaxing into his. With her clothing scattered all over the floor, she wasn’t making her usual run for the door. She let him hold her.
“Did you order food?” she mumbled against his chest.
He kept his arms wrapped around her as he glanced at the clock. “It’s coming in about half an hour.”
“Aren’t you enterprising?”
“Always.”
She lifted her head and brushed the hair from her damp cheek. Her breathing had returned to normal. “Is that the secret to your success?”
“In business or in pleasure?”
“I’m talking about at the office.”
“In a way. I had the resources to turn salt water into drinking water. If I hadn’t capitalized on the technology, someone else would have.”
“You took charge. You’re not the kind of guy to sit around and let someone else take the lead.”
He wasn’t sure where she was going with this conversation, but he answered anyway. “I saw a need and filled it.”
“And now you’re a wealthy man.”
Justin could see her mind working, and he didn’t like being compared, even silently, to the man who once hurt her. “But I’m not your ex-husband.”
“Now who’s the one dragging Gavin into bed?”
“I’m thinking it’s still you.”
Her shoulders fell. “Don’t tell me you continue to think I haven’t let him go.”
Since he was still lodged inside her, still reeling from their lovemaking, Justin decided to try a different tact. “Gavin is a selfish, abusive jackass.”
“No argument here.”
Justin rubbed a hand up and down her back. “He treated you like crap and stomped on your self-esteem.”
“That’s an overstatement.”
“Is it?” Justin winced as she lifted up and he slid out of her. “How else do you explain engaging in sex acts you didn’t want?”
“You’re blaming me?” She tried to get up, squirming on his lap until Justin clamped his hands on her waist and held her still. “Under your theory about Gavin, I guess I’m a selfish jackass as well.”
Justin refused to get sucked into a ridiculous argument. He also didn’t want her moving off his lap and putting a greater physical and emotional distance between them. Not now that she was finally talking and barely understanding. “I never said that you were the same as Gavin.”
“You certainly—”
Justin kissed her hard and fast, more out of his need for her than to soothe her. He feared she was beyond being calmed. “Gavin broke you down. Crushed your spirit and independence. He is at fault for all of that. But somewhere along the line you bought into his crap about being worthless and owing him something. You need to own that, recognize it, so it never happens again.”
She stopped fidgeting, but stayed quiet.
“Your ex convinced you to do things you never wanted to do. Rather than appreciating you for the sexy woman you are and trying to discover what gave you both pleasure, he only fed his needs.” Justin swallowed back the next sentence. This was the hard part. The truth that was so hard to accept, but Justin knew he couldn’t back away. They needed to face the past and try to work through it. “But you never said no, Lauren.”
“What?”
“You didn’t try to deny him.”
Her whole face fell. She grew pale and her cheeks sank. It was as if the life had been sucked right out of her. “You don’t know what went on in the privacy of our home.”
“I was there. Gavin brought me there. I saw…” Justin shook his head, forcing the words out over a wall of common sense that tried to block him. “Your eyes gave you away that first night. You didn’t really want a threesome. You didn’t want your husband introducing another man into your sex life.”
Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “You knew?”
He saw the dark end in front of him and kept right on racing toward it anyway. “That’s the part where I’m the asshole. I saw the truth and didn’t stop.”
“Why?”
“I wanted you. Always have. Still do.”
She slowly slid off him and to her feet. He didn’t stop her. He knew the words hit her like a body blow. He understood why. He had climbed into her bed knowing she wasn’t completely willing. She’d never denied him or said no, but the pain had been there for him to see.
And he had ignored it. Made every excuse he could think of—their marriage wasn’t his business, maybe this was part of their sex games, some women liked being given away. Justin remembered coming up with every rationale to allow him to come back to her for three nights. It was all a lie.
“Did my feelings matter to you at all?” There wasn’t any judgment as her monotone voice rang out in the quiet room.
He owed her the full story, so he gave it to her. “I shut it all out and concentrated on the pleasure.”
“Your pleasure.”
Not hers. The unspoken words hung between them. “Yes.”
“So, you’re no better than Gavin.”
The verbal shot lande
d right in his gut. Just as she intended. “I sure as hell hope that’s not true.”
“What, you’re not going to plead your case to me? Tell me what a great guy you are?” She lashed out at him while standing naked next to the bed.
“I don’t abuse women. I don’t force them and certainly don’t get any pleasure out of using them. I don’t want threesomes and meaningless sex. I want you.” Desperation clawed at his insides. “Can you really not tell the difference between last time and this time?”
She didn’t even blink. “No.”
Her coldness tore at him. “Last year stays with me. You stay with me.”
“How noble of you.”
“I pretended you were okay with what happened. That’s how I got through it and made it all fine in my head. I was wrong. Is that what you want to hear? Because it’s the truth.”
She stared for a few more seconds then broke eye contact. “What I wanted was three more nights and you gave them to me. I’m grateful for that.”
All the guilt and fury exploded inside of him. It took all of his power to stay on the bed. “I don’t want your fucking gratitude.”
“That’s all I have to give.”
“That is not true. You are so much more than a few hours between the sheets.”
Her sad smile came out of nowhere. “You’ll understand if I find that hollow coming from you.”
The final shot left him a little breathless.
“This is what I’m talking about. You’re letting mistakes I made and Gavin made—and yes even you made—a year ago rule who you are today. You are not that woman anymore.” Justin waved his hands, lifted his back off the headboard. He would have done anything to get her attention. “You are rebuilding your life and gaining control over what you want and who you want to do it with.”
“Goodbye, Justin.” She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
A Proper Seduction Page 4
