Tears burned at the backs of her eyes. Tears of happiness. For the first time, a man had made her believe he found her naked body acceptable. More than that—desirable. She suspected that Jim was the kind of guy who preferred curves, especially on top, yet he could see past her body to the woman inside. That inner being was the one he was really attracted to, but his passion was such that it spilled over and he thought all of her was beautiful. Why had she ever doubted this man?
“Thank you,” she whispered, and pulled him close.
“Not yet.” He straightened. “One of us is way overdressed.”
While she shrugged out of her robe and tossed it on the floor, he pulled off his boots and socks, then unbuttoned his shirt. Heather rose to her knees.
“I’ll help with that.”
She moved to the edge of the bed and reached for him. The front of the shirt had parted, exposing a well-muscled chest covered with a light dusting of hair. She placed her hands against his breastbone, then moved them up toward his shoulders. He was strong and his chest hair tickled her palms. She slipped down, sliding over his nipples, pausing to tease the tight points and make him shudder. When she reached his waist, she pulled his shirt free of his jeans. As he let it fall to the floor, she started unfastening his belt. He stopped her.
“I’d better do that,” he said.
“Why?”
“If you touch me, it will all be over.”
“How very flattering.”
So she sat back on her heels and watched him unzip his jeans, then push them and his briefs down. His arousal sprang free—a long, hard shaft that looked smooth and velvety.
They were really doing this, she thought with some surprise. They were going to make love. She paused, wondering if she would have second thoughts. But her brain was quiet and her only sensation was one of rightness. For reasons she didn’t understand, she belonged in Jim’s arms.
She scooted over on the bed and he lay down next to her. They angled toward each other. He pulled her close so they were touching, just like they had before. Only this time they were both naked, and when her breasts flattened against his chest, she could feel the warmth of his skin and the hair there teasing her nipples. Her slender legs tangled with his. As he kissed her, he drew her left leg over his hip and slipped his right leg between hers.
The tension that had momentarily faded returned again full force. She shifted so that her center pressed against his knee and she rubbed back and forth. The pressure was more frustrating than pleasurable. Her swollen insides wanted stroking and filling and release. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back, sending her tongue into his mouth and coaxing him to follow her back. When he did, she bit down gently.
Jim raised his head and stared at her a moment. He looked as startled as she felt.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I’ve never done anything like that before.” She hadn’t, either. “I don’t know what came over me. I just…”
He smiled at her then, a satisfied male smile that made her squirm in anticipation. She’d awakened the dominant animal that lived in every aroused man. It was a side of him she’d never seen before. For that matter, she’d never seen it in any man.
“Heather?” he asked as if he wanted to make sure this was what she wanted.
“Yes,” she said even though she didn’t know what she was agreeing to. She wanted him and she trusted him. Nothing else mattered.
His mouth came down on hers, but this time it was different. Before, there had been passion, but now there was a raw, unchecked power to his kiss. Before, he had explored, but now he plunged. She met him more than halfway and gave back a few thrusts of her own.
He rolled her onto her back and ran one hand up and down her body. His touch was as soft as it had always been, but there was an impulsive quality to the movements, as if he felt rather than thought first. He circled her breasts, then slid his hand down her stomach before slipping his fingers into the protective curls between her thighs.
Everywhere he touched, her skin tightened and her nerve endings burned. She had to cling to him to keep from writhing under the exquisite perfection of what he was doing. When he moved into the sensitive folds of skin, her legs opened and she raised her hips.
“You’re so wet,” he murmured against her mouth. “I want that. I want you to have trouble breathing or thinking.”
He was getting his wish, but it would require air to tell him that so she could only strain and twist as he explored her.
He moved to her opening and gently pushed one finger inside. She was so tight. He groaned against her mouth, then tried two fingers. They both gasped. Heather felt her body slowly stretching back to life. She was too hot, too aroused, too everything, and she never wanted this moment to end.
He continued to pleasure her. At the same time, he kissed her cheek, then her nose, then her jaw. In and out, slowly, deliberately, driving her crazy.
“That’s where I want to be,” he murmured. “Inside you, filling you. I’m going to make you scream.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him. “I believe you.”
“Good.”
He moved his hand higher, searching for, then finding, that tiny spot of pleasure. She jumped.
“So it’s there,” he said, stroking it gently. “How do you like it?” His fingers continued their intimate dance. “Like this?” He rubbed over it. “Or like this?” He licked the inside of her ear. “Show me. Take my hand and show me.”
Heather hesitated. No one had ever asked her to do that before.
He read her confusion and embarrassment. “So we can be naked together, we can kiss each other, taste each other and perform the most intimate act possible, but you won’t put your hand on top of mine to show me what you like?”
Heat flared on her cheeks. “If you insist on being logical, I refuse to do this with you.”
“Really?” His voice teased her.
She knew he had a point. It was just so personal.
“I’m waiting.”
It was then she realized he’d stopped moving his hand. It was still pressing against her but not doing those delicious things. Jim kissed the side of her neck, then moved down to her breasts.
“I want to please you in every possible way,” he breathed against her skin. “I want you to lose yourself in the moment. I want to feel you reaching that moment of perfect pleasure against my fingers and I want my tongue in your mouth while it’s happening. Let me please you. Show me what you want.”
The ache inside her doubled as he spoke. She trembled with frantic need. It would take so very little to bring her to release, so she shifted her hand until it was on top of his and led him back to her center. There she moved him in a tight circle that teased at her most sensitive spot but didn’t brush across it.
“Like that,” she said.
“Thank you.”
Then he was kissing her deeply, and his fingers were performing magic. Her hand fell away only to, a minute or so later, clutch at his shoulder as her body tightened in anticipation. Her hips rose and fell and she had trouble breathing, but none of that mattered.
Closer and closer he drew her until she was shaking and unbearably tense. He broke the kiss to look at her. Their eyes met and she knew he could see everything she was feeling. Her soul was exposed and she didn’t care.
At that moment, he gently stroked the place she most desired. Everything froze as if time had stopped. It was the last whisper of silence before the crash of the storm.
Jim continued to stare at her, then he bent down and plunged inside her mouth as he rapidly and lightly continued to caress her until she exploded in his arms.
The pleasure overwhelmed her. She clung to him to keep from being swept away. She vaguely recalled pulling him closer and gasping, maybe even screaming. She wasn’t sure. The intense release drained the tension from her body. She went limp.
Jim stroked her face and kissed her forehead. “How would you describe it?”
&nbs
p; “Extraordinary. Incredible. Wonderful?”
He looked very pleased with himself, but then he had every right to be. She’d experienced that ultimate feeling of ecstasy before, but nothing close to being in the same league as this. It was as if he’d discovered a whole new set of nerve endings in her body and made them all sing hallelujah.
“Did I scream?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“I’ve never screamed before.”
“I’ve never made a woman scream, so we’re even.” He gave her a quick kiss. “We have a little problem.”
She reached between them and touched the length of his arousal. He was hard and ready and his breath caught as her fingers closed around him. “I wouldn’t say little,” she told him. “Not even average. I think this is a big problem.”
“Thanks for the compliment, but that’s not what I mean. I don’t have any condoms with me, and I assume you’re not on birth control.”
“I’m not.” She cleared her throat. “But I do have, well, protection.”
She tensed, half-waiting for his gaze to turn accusing or for him to recoil with disgust. He did neither. Instead, he smiled and said, “I like a woman who’s prepared.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Where are they?”
She pointed to the nightstand. He opened the drawer and pulled out the small box containing three condoms. The box was still sealed. She’d purchased it in a fit of defiance after Luke had left her but had never had the occasion to use them before. A couple of times, she had nearly thrown them out, but now she was glad she hadn’t. They were going to come in very handy.
Jim put on the protection, then shifted until he was between her knees. “I want to be inside you, Heather.”
“I want that, too.” She stroked his face, tracing the outline of his mouth, then cupped his cheeks.
“I’ll take it slow.”
The thought of what those words meant had her shivering in anticipation. She wanted him to go slowly, to fill her inch by inch until she thought she might die from the pleasure. Desire swept through her, and it was as if her recent release had never occurred. She wanted him as powerfully as she had before.
“Make love to me,” she whispered. “Please.”
He braced his weight on his arms, his arousal seeking her feminine place. She reached a hand down between them to guide him in. As promised, he went slowly. Her body stretched and contracted, then stretched again. Her breath caught as wave after wave of incredible need washed through her, leaving her breathless and wanting.
She hadn’t realized she could be so ready again so quickly, but as soon as he’d entered her all the way, she felt herself straining toward her completion. He withdrew, and on his next thrust, a rolling wave of release gathered momentum with his withdrawal, then swept over her again. It had never been like this before. She didn’t understand what was different, and she couldn’t find it in herself to care. There was only the moment and the man. Her body convulsed again and again, drawing him in.
She clung to him, begging him to never stop. He thrust harder and faster until she couldn’t stand how wonderful everything was. She wrapped her legs around his hips and kissed him. They shuddered together in one last incredible explosion.
*
Sometime later, Jim felt the world come into focus around them. Heather was still in his arms, their bodies pressed against each other. He stroked her silky hair and breathed in the scent of their lovemaking.
“That was incredible,” he said.
“I know.” Satisfaction filled her voice. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
“Me neither.”
He’d never had a woman respond the way Heather had. He’d never felt so connected and complete…or so terrified. Being in Heather’s embrace was like coming home, and that was a sensation he’d spent his whole adult life avoiding. He didn’t want to connect. He didn’t want to get involved. And it was way too late to be having these concerns now. It had already happened. Somewhere between their first hello in the elevator and their lovemaking today, she had become his absolution.
“How long can we put off the sensible conversation?” she asked.
He knew what she meant. It was one thing for two consenting adults to agree to make love without promise of a relationship. In that case, sex was a shared biological function that was supposed to make them both feel good when it was over. But that wasn’t what had happened this time. They’d gone to a different level and he didn’t know how to get back to where they’d been before. What if he couldn’t? What if the only place he would ever belong was right here, with her?
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
He wanted her to answer all the questions because he had a bad feeling that if she asked them of him, he would be at risk of telling her what he really felt.
“I want to never move,” she said with a laugh, then shifted until she was sitting up.
Her hair was mussed, her face flushed. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She reached over the side of the bed and pulled on her short robe.
“Okay, I’ve moved.” She drew in a breath. “I don’t know what I want. Actually, the truth is I know what I want and I know what is sensible. The sensible side of me says that we can’t be this intimate and still maintain a working relationship. I thought we could, but I underestimated the chemistry.”
“Agreed.”
Her green eyes darkened. “I don’t want to quit my job.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I want to stay friends.”
“Me, too.”
Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “I’m lying through my teeth about all of this.”
He knew exactly what she meant. The “right” thing wasn’t what either of them wanted to do. But that alone convinced him that it had to be done. He wanted to tell her how much he wanted her. He wanted to say that even though it would never work out between them, he’d like to think that it would, at least for a little while. Instead, he tried to smile.
“One of us has to pretend to be logical so the other one can pretend to agree,” he told her. “We’ll fake it until we’re ready to act like it’s real.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “I don’t want you to quit, and I don’t want to lose your friendship. But we can’t stay lovers and stay uninvolved.”
“I don’t want love in my life,” she said.
“I don’t want it, either.”
“So we won’t make a habit out of this.”
“Of course not.”
But he didn’t want to let go of her fingers and he very much wanted to pull her close and make love with her again. He wanted to hear her say that she loved him and have her beg him to stay. Because if she did that, he just might be willing to give this all a chance. Even though he knew it was certain to end in disaster.
He knew that once he left her apartment, he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about her. He couldn’t imagine a life without Heather, but he also knew the kindest act would be to let her go.
She looked at him, then smiled. “You know, it’s not very late. Maybe we could agree to start being sensible tomorrow.” She slipped her robe off her shoulders. “Unless you’re too tired.”
Just for the night, he promised himself. He would return to reality in the morning. Just for now, he would let himself believe that maybe this time everything was going to be all right.
He reached out and tugged at the belt of her robe. “I’m not tired at all.”
She glanced down and saw the physical result of her words, then she leaned toward him. “Maybe this time I could be on top,” she whispered.
Chapter Thirteen
Heather woke to Diane’s crying. She recognized the fussy sound that had become so familiar over the past couple of weeks. Her daughter was still suffering the ill effects of teething. But as Heather sat up and stretched, she couldn’t help smiling. Every part of her body ached pleasantly, and although she’d only gotten a few hours of s
leep, she felt completely refreshed and ready to face the world. Last night had been the most incredible experience.
She walked into Diane’s room and picked her up. “I know you’re not feeling well, sweet cheeks, but according to Grandma, you just have a few more days, then you’ll be your cheerful self again.”
With that, she held her baby close to her chest and twirled around the room. She had an irresistible urge to hum or laugh aloud. She felt like a character in a romantic movie. She wanted to sweep open the windows and call “Good morning” to the birds and squirrels, which would only frighten the poor creatures.
Even Diane seemed to sense her good mood. Her daughter’s fussiness quieted and she laughed with her mother as they made a second circuit of the room. Heather took the baby’s hand in her own, held out the tiny arm and switched from an oddly gaited waltz to a modified tango. Diane squealed with delight.
It wasn’t just that the lovemaking had been so incredible, Heather thought as she set her daughter on the changing table and saw to her diaper. It was that Jim had been such a responsive lover. He’d been tender and serious and playful and caring and how on earth was she supposed to resist that? It wasn’t enough that the guy was perfect in every other way. Now she had firsthand proof that he was dynamite in bed.
Thank goodness she’d been smart enough to keep her heart carefully out of reach. If she hadn’t, it would have been so easy to fall in love with him. But they’d come together as consenting adults and nothing about their relationship had changed.
Heather bit her lower lip as she wondered if she’d been careful enough. Had she started to think of Jim as more than just her boss and a good friend?
Something stirred in the back of her mind, but she ignored the soft whispers. If it was different, she didn’t want to know. Better for both of them if she believed everything was as it had been except for the incredible memories of their night together.
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