One hand cupped my cheek, and his thumb brushed across my lower lip. He lifted his body so his beautiful chest was touching me and his lips were a breath from mine.
“So I haven’t been the only one suffering?” His fingers ran down my cheek to my neck to my shoulder and back to my hip.
“What do you mean?”
His fingers skated up and down from my waist to my ribs over and over again. Gooseflesh rose on my skin.
“The best part of my day is when I pick up my coffee because I get to touch you for the briefest of moments. The second-best part is when it’s just you and me in the office planning for the day.”
All the air left my lungs. “You like me?”
“I more than like you, Jess. I’ve been lusting after you since the day I hired you.”
“You have?” I leaned forward until my T-shirt-covered breasts grazed his bare chest.
“Yes.” He pushed forward until his lips gently touched mine. “This isn’t wise, but it’s probably inevitable.”
“Probably,” I said as I pressed my mouth firmly against his. The heat of his kiss raked down my spine.
His lips parted, and his tongue probed at the crease of mine until I gave way to his persistence and kissed him deeply. With slow precision, he explored my mouth. Soft velvet slid against my tongue in a give and take that made my stomach flip and flop.
His hands wrapped around my back and pulled me close—so close that I could feel his heart race to catch up with the pace of mine.
We spent minutes in our first kiss until we parted to catch a breath.
“Amazing. So much more than I anticipated.”
My brain was muddled, and I was only capable of single-word responses. “More?”
“Oh, Jess, you taste like …”
“Wine and stupidity?”
He reached up and cupped my cheeks. “No. You taste like sugar and spice and sex all rolled into one hot little package.”
“But what about work?” I had no idea what kissing Mark meant for my job. “I just kissed my boss.”
That smile I loved spread wide across his face. “Your boss isn’t here. It’s just me, Mark the man, with a woman I’ve been hot after for almost a year. A woman who leaves the room and takes the light with her each time she goes.”
Those words caused heat to rush through my veins and stall in my core until I was a throbbing mess of need. “What about tomorrow?”
His erection pulsed between my thighs. “What’s the elevation here?”
Thrown by his question and the ever-growing rod pressed against the cotton of my shorts, I was silenced. Seconds later I had enough cells working to process another word. “Elevation?”
“It’s got to be about eight thousand feet.” He lifted his hips and pressed his hardness against me. “What happens here stays here, just like the plane.”
“I’m beginning to like high altitude. I just wonder if it’s messed with the logical sides of our brains.” Without conscious thought, I ground my hips into his lap.
“You’re an amazing assistant, and I can’t live without you in the office.” He peppered my lips with quick soft kisses. “I’m pretty sure I can’t live without you in my bed right now either. Say no and I’ll sleep on the floor and make your mom happy. Say yes and I’ll give you a night you’ll never forget. What do you say, Jess?”
He wanted sex with me. I had never been so excited or scared in my life. “So this is a one-time, no-strings, no-repercussions, hot moment?”
He chuckled. “No, Jess, this is an all-night, get-our-fill, let’s-see-where-it-takes-us hot moment.”
My chest vibrated with my laugh. “Well, as long as you promise it will be hot, I’m all in.” I slid my fingers through the hair on his chest, and when I breezed past his nipples, he hissed.
“Who knew that today would turn out to be awesome after all?” He gripped the hem of my T-shirt and pulled it over my head, leaving both of us bare from the waist up. “God, you have beautiful breasts.”
My painfully hard nipples pointed straight at him. He pulled me tight to his groin where his rock-hard length sat in the cradle between my thighs.
His lips covered one nipple and drew it into the heat of his mouth. His teeth grazed the tender swollen peak, sending a jolt of desire through me. A moan ripped from my throat.
He pulled back and looked at me. “I love that sound. I want to hear that all night.” He leaned in and worked on the other nipple until my throaty moans were a string of notes that never ended.
When his hand reached inside the waistband of the shorts, I gasped. This was really happening. I was nearly naked with Mark Cantwell, the man who made work worthwhile. The man whose very presence made the sun rise in my world. The man who would ultimately break my heart when this ended.
“What do you like?” His hand slid around the inside of the cotton underwear to knead my bottom.
“I don’t know.” I pressed forward to kiss him. It was a quick pass-by that needed to be longer because I knew this moment wouldn’t last. This was a conditional coming together, based on a storm, a crash, and a closed highway. Without the debacles of the day, we’d never be in bed together. We’d be in Aspen drinking substandard coffee and analyzing a contract.
“I like you,” I said in a whisper against his warm lips. His tongue parted my lips and dipped inside my mouth. It was like the softest velvet or the finest silk. A delicious treat to savor, not devour in a single serving.
He lifted me from his lap and laid me on the bed next to him, then covered me with his body. His weight pushed me into the mattress until he rose on his arms and looked down at me.
“You are simply the most beautiful woman,” he whispered against my ear. “You have no idea how many times I wondered what was beneath your blouse, your skirt, your pants.” He took in my body with a slow sweep of his eyes.
My fingers danced across his chest, over his shoulders, and down his back until my hands rested on the hard globes of solid steel buns. The man was ripped from head to toe. He shimmied down my body. His lips grazed and plucked at needy nipples. His mouth kissed and sucked at my skin until he reached the edge of my shorts. “Shall we see how juicy I can make you?”
A rolling shudder thundered down my spine to my sex. “Oh, god, yes.” I lifted my hips as he tugged the material free. He didn’t give me much time to prep for him. He spread my legs and buried his face into my folds. Long strokes had me lifting my hips off the bed to meet him. The sharp grate of his teeth across my sex made me hiss. The soft flattened strokes of his tongue soothed the sting. And when he slid one of his fingers deep inside me, my body quaked—little shivers of an almost orgasm—an explosion letting off a little pressure before the big bang.
“Feels so good,” I whimpered as he pulled the bundle of raw nerves between his lips and sucked. My thighs shook. My stomach tightened. He filled my channel with another finger and thrust deep inside me. “Mark … I’m …”
He pulled his mouth away. “No, you’re not. Not yet. The best things are better when you have to wait for them.”
He slid back up my body and suckled my breasts. Two fingers turned into one. His touch slowed, and my body softened into the mattress.
“Take off your pants.” I yanked and pulled at his waistband but only moved it inches.
“You want me naked?”
“Yes. I want you.”
He rose from the bed and pulled the tie loose. The sweatpants dropped to his hips, giving me a perfect view of his stomach muscles, the perfect V, and a happy trail leading me to his full erection. He pulled the elastic waist over his erection.
“Holy shit.”
Like the cocky man I knew him to be, he winked at me. “Can you handle it?”
I always loved a challenge, and although I’d never experienced something of that magnitude, I was game to try. “You know what they say: go big or go home.”
He stepped out of his pants and crawled between my legs. “Birth control?”
I nodded. “Sex partners?”
He shook his head. “Not for a long time, sweetheart. I’ve been dreaming of you. Anyone or anything I should be concerned with?” His eyes were no longer blue but a steely gray that spoke of desire and passion.
“No one but you.”
“You okay like this then?” He nudged at my entrance.
“This is perfect.”
He pressed forward in one thrust, and I swore the heavens opened and the angels sang.
“You okay?”
“Yes, it’s so good,” I panted, trying to keep from falling off the cliff. So on edge was my body that the fullness caused a ripple to pulse through me. He held still until my sex stopped throbbing, and I adjusted to his size. His arms shook as he held himself above me. “You’re so perfect for me, Jess. Like a custom-fit glove for me.”
His hips pulled out and pistoned forward until I was shaking and on the edge again. “How many times do you want to come?”
“Once. Now. Please.” I reached for his hips and pulled, but he resisted.
“Wrong answer.” He shifted his hips until he slipped free. “You know I’m all about the details. Let’s see how many ways I can make you come.” He moved back and dipped his head between my legs again. He massaged the tender flesh gently with his tongue. He probed me firmly with his fingers. First one. Then two. When he added the third, it was a mix of pain and pleasure. Full and ready to burst free, I threaded my fingers through his hair so he couldn’t retreat.
He licked and laved and finally pulled the hard nub between his lips and sucked, and I soared. “Mark!” I screamed. He never let up, not even when I begged him to stop. He was determined to leave nothing behind.
Spent with noodle arms and legs, I melted back into the mattress as he climbed between my legs.
Chapter 10
Mark
I had to pull out and focus on her pleasure because those few strokes inside her almost undid me. Loss of control wasn’t something I experienced often. I didn’t want this to be the one and only time for us, but if it was, I sure as hell didn’t want it to be disappointing.
And now that I’d been inside her, tasted her, felt her, I wanted her everywhere there was a surface I could lean her against or place her on. I could see her pinned against the wall of glass in my office. Spread out on the kitchen island of my home. Pressed to the leather seat of my Mercedes.
“If this goes fast, I’m sorry, but it’s so damn good, and it’s been so long.” I pressed into her moist heat and sighed. I could live inside of her forever. Damn all the deals in the world. I could stay in a seedy motel with Jess for the rest of my life.
Slow deliberate strokes brought out that moan I already loved to hear from her. Deep penetrating thrusts pulled her sated body back to life. As the pace quickened, so did her breaths.
“Are you close?”
She clawed at my back, and I continued to pound into her until her body stiffened, her breath halted, and a groan of pure satisfaction slipped from her lips. Her walls tightened and pulsed around me. I pressed forward until I was fully seated inside. I came in hot pulsing waves, the feeling so intense that I was certain my balls had pulled up inside my body. When the last shudder raced through me, I collapsed beside her and pulled her into my arms.
“Feel good?” she whispered in a sleepy voice.
“Good doesn’t even begin to describe what that was.” She was a perfect fit next to my body, just like she’d been underneath it. Her softness fit into all my hard edges. My chin rested above her head. The smell of her was an aphrodisiac, and I was already on my way to hard again. I was a thirty-two-year-old man, but with Jess, I felt like a sixteen-year-old. “Jess, that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”
When she didn’t respond, I knew she had fallen asleep. Her chest rose and fell in a steady beat.
I would have normally fallen asleep myself, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. How had I gotten so lucky? Or was the question more like, how could I be so stupid? Stupid to not see we had both been dancing around the fact we were attracted to one another; stupid to hire her when I should have dated her. Where would tonight take us, and what would happen when we returned to sea level?
Not wanting to think about it, I tucked my body around hers and fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke to the smell of coffee and the hiss of an iron. Jess was standing at the end of the bed dressed in nothing but the I Put Out for Santa T-shirt, the hem skimming her milky white thighs. The damn woman was ironing my shirt.
I looked at the clock. It was just after six. “Come back to bed.” I patted the empty space beside me. “You’re not paid to iron my clothes.”
She pressed the steam button, and a cloud of white rose from the material. “I’m not paid to sleep with you either, but I did it because I wanted to.”
I lifted up on my elbows, and the sheet dropped to my waist.
Her eyes went to my morning wood standing proud and tall tenting the cover.
“And you’d rather iron my shirt than have sex with me? Was I that bad?” It was a joke—I knew it couldn’t have been that bad. I’d made her come twice. I didn’t have a pencil dick, and, true to my T-shirt, I had laid a decent amount of pipe before I spilled inside her.
She hung up my shirt and turned off the iron, then crawled across the bed to straddle me. Rotating her hips against my needy erection, she drove me crazy with desire.
“Bad, you ask?” She laughed a sweet little laugh. “It was the best sex I’ve ever had in my life.”
My chest expanded. “The best?”
“I’ve never had better.” She reached over to the nightstand and picked up a cup of coffee. “It’s not what you like. This one isn’t all thick and sludgy, but it’s coffee.” She nodded toward the machine on the dresser. One of those single-cup plastic jobs that spit out water with a hint of coffee flavor. “I had little to work with.”
I lifted up and took a sip before putting it back on the nightstand. “I want you, Jess.” My hands slid under her shirt and tweaked her nipples. She closed her eyes and hummed.
“We really should go.”
“I think we owe ourselves one more round.”
“Kind of self-indulgent, don’t you think?”
I pulled the shirt over her head and cupped her full breasts. Dusky pink nipples pebbled at my touch. She filled my palms perfectly. How was it possible that she was perfect in every way?
“I’m a selfish bastard. I want it all. Can I have it all?”
She stared at me for a long minute, then scooted down to kneel between my spread legs. She unwrapped the sheet from my body like she was unwrapping a long-anticipated gift.
“My turn to get what I want.” She didn’t hesitate. She opened her lush lips and stuck out her tongue to swipe at the drop glistening at the end of my rod. I was totally screwed; I’d never want to live without her. And when she slid my length into her mouth, I knew I’d never be able to.
“Oh. God. Jess. Jesus, that’s so damn good.”
She looked up at me with those green eyes that had a way of wrapping around my heart. Her lips tightened around my girth, and she quickened her pace, increased her depth until she nearly swallowed me. I was about three strokes from coming in her mouth when she stopped.
“Holy hell.” The sheet was fisted in my hands, my jaw so tense that my teeth hurt. “You’re killing me.”
She rocked her body back and forth, moving up my legs until her sex hovered over my eager length. She lined it up and sank onto my length. Oh, the look on her face—it was enough to make me come, but it was the grinding of her hips that took me to the edge far too fast.
I gripped her hips to stop her. “I don’t want you to think I’m a three-strokes-and-out kind of man. I have staying power, but good lord, you have some kind of magic between your legs.”
“I’m magic?” She pulled my hands from her hips and held them above my head. Her breasts swayed in front of my mouth like an offering. How could I refuse? I pulled a
taut nipple between my teeth and bit lightly. She moaned and pressed down until there wasn’t enough room for sweat between us. Her hips rotated and swiveled until my insides coiled up to spring free.
I could have pulled away, but there is something sexy about letting her have control. I was at her mercy, which (if I was honest) was a place I’d been since she started working for me. I liked how that made me feel. Like somehow with Jess, I could be vulnerable and not be less than who I was. It wasn’t something I allowed myself with anyone else, but I knew Jess would never abuse the power she held over me.
“Jess,” I groaned. “I’m going to come.”
“Then come, love. It’s what I want.” She lifted off of me and pounded back down a half-dozen times. I thrashed against the pillow as the orgasm exploded from my body, and I filled her full of me. She collapsed on top of me. Her breath tickled my chest.
“You’re in trouble,” I told her with a lack of conviction.
She pulled herself up. The motion sent a shudder from the tip of my length to my toes. “It wasn’t good?” She looked down at me, a veil of hair covering her face.
“Oh, baby, it was more than good, but I’m an equal opportunity…man.” I almost said employer, which would have taken this someplace very different than I wanted to go. “Your turn.”
I flipped her over, and she buried my face between her legs. I already knew how to get her aching and wanting with a simple suck, but this morning I wanted her begging for release.
I took her to the edge and brought her down so many times even I was dizzy. When she whimpered and begged, I conceded. I pulled her tight bundle of nerves into my mouth and sucked with a pulsing action that matched her release. My fingers and mouth dripped with her sweet juices as I literally pulled the orgasm from her body. My name on her lips was my reward.
With the back of my hand, I wiped her essence from my face and crawled up her body to kiss her. We lay there in each other’s embrace for minutes before she pulled away and spoke.
“Are you ready for reality?”
With my head resting on her shoulder, I played with a lock of her hair. “This seems real.”
Wrapped Around My Heart Page 6