by Exley Avis
“I’m honoured to be invited then.”
“Trust me. The pleasure’s all mine.”
If there were ever a perfect time to make a move on me, that was it and I tensed, expecting Radford to take me into his arms and lay me down on the snowy-sheeted bed. Much to my surprise, he smiled hesitantly instead, found me a clean towel and left me alone.
When I rejoined him fifteen minutes later, he’d also discarded his suit in favour of jeans and a tight black T-shirt that revealed skin three shades darker than when I’d last seen him naked before the summer. My imagination hovered around the subject of tan lines and nude sunbathing but I felt it was too dangerous to trespass on just yet and shut down.
“I hope this is okay,” Radford was saying, pouring champagne into slender glasses. He raised his to me in a toast. “Tonight feels like a celebration.”
He might have acted like a perfect gentleman so far but that didn’t stop him taking in every detail of my short black dress and high, patent boots.
“You look wonderful,” he said, trailing his hand down my arm and taking my hand. “Now it’s my turn to be jealous. I wish I were coming out with you.”
“We could make it tomorrow instead.”
He groaned, his disappointment palpable. “I’m in Birmingham for three days. Friday?”
“At my brother’s for the weekend. My nephew’s first birthday. I can’t miss it.”
“Next week?”
“Crazy busy. Aiden’s deal completes and I can see us pulling in some late nights.”
He smiled ruefully. “Between your schedule and mine, it’s always going to be touch and go.”
“Literally. Snatched hours. Stolen kisses. Never enough time.” The obstacles stacked up against us and I felt I needed to give Radford a way out. “Are you sure you really want to do this?”
“More than anything.” Radford kissed my hand to show how much he meant it. “We’ll make time. Prioritise. Be ruthless about spending every hour possible together and make the most of every minute.”
“We’d better start enjoying the next half hour then,” I said at the moment a slow song came on the iPod dock and I looked at Radford expectantly.
He took my glass from me and opened his arms. “Dance with me, Allie” he said. “Let me finally hold you without four layers of winter clothes in the way.”
Without hesitating, I stepped forward, fitting my right hand into his left and watching his fingers clench around mine. His other arm came around my waist, pulling me gently toward him but still leaving space between us as we started swaying in time to the music.
“You’re trembling,” he said against my hair, his voice warm and intimate.
“Then hold me tighter.”
I buried my face against his neck as I curled into him and allowed the familiar, masculine scent of his skin to surround me. Radford’s strong arms tightened until it felt I was being absorbed into his body. Taken over. Possessed. Held a willing captive.
His breath grazed my bare neck and found its way down the back of my dress to heat up my spine and dissolve my bones. I melted into him. When his soft mouth gently pinched my skin, up and behind my ear, I was lost and my low sighs of pleasure harmonised with the sultry music.
Unable to resist him any longer, I turned my head and pressed my lips against Radford’s stubbled throat, before letting them follow the tendon in his neck up to his jaw-line. My lips moved relentlessly, dropping gentle kisses wherever they touched – the creases beside his mouth, the small cleft in his chin, the shallow indentation of dimples on his cheeks – until they found the warm softness of his parted mouth.
When my lips met his, it was as if Radford’s body gave a huge sigh of relief. The tension drained from him and I realised he’d been holding himself taut, waiting for me to kiss him for days. His lips parted to let my tongue explore and he relaxed into the kiss, giving his whole body over to me and melding himself with me wherever we touched.
Gentle, warm, responsive and tender. And yet with an undercurrent of savage need that hinted at passion held in check. Radford’s kiss welcomed me back to his body – the place I most wanted to be at that moment.
“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” he whispered against my lips. “I’ve wanted you so badly.”
“Ssh,” I breathed, stopping the words with another kiss. “We have so much time to make up for. Stop talking and kiss me again.”
Desperate for him, I pushed my hands up under the back of his T-shirt, tracing the familiar lines of his muscles and shoulder blades with my fingertips. How could I have denied myself this for so long, I thought? Why hadn’t I run back to him sooner? Why had I hesitated over falling for him?
Inflamed by my touch, Radford’s kiss deepened, his hand on the back of my head holding me captive against his lips. In a fluid movement that literally swept me off my feet, Radford carried me over to the sofa where he lay me down, his mouth never leaving mine for a second. His urgency intensified, his hardening cock pressing against my thigh when he lay down next to me, his hand straying up under my dress as my temperature rose.
Waiting was no longer an option. I wanted him. Right there and then, whether I pitched over the edge into love or not. Pulling at his T-shirt, I succeeded in yanking it up over his head, leaving his hot, hairy chest open to my kisses. My lips feasted hungrily on him, licking and biting savagely as I went, hearing Radford curse and moan in equal measure.
When the tip of my tongue circled one of his nipples, he arched his back towards me, his face contorted by undiluted pleasure.
“Bite it,” he begged, letting out a slow breath of longing, and groaning again when I did what he asked. “Oh God, Allie. I want to fuck you so much.”
By this time, my mouth had reached his navel and my tongue was busy sweeping down under the line of his jeans. It caught the tip of his hard cock, already wet and salty with pre-cum and just begging me to take it in my mouth. Radford moaned and pushed his hips up against my face, tickling my chin with the hair on his abdomen – that sexy treasure trail that pointed the way to heaven on earth.
My pussy clenched and spasmed, desperate to be filled by him. All day I’d fixated on the image of me lying naked across files with Radford pumping hard between my legs. Now I had him half naked and helpless beneath me, and I intended turning fantasy into reality.
I bit down on Radford’s cock through the heavy denim and he swore hotly at me but the thick shaft lurched between my teeth and grew even more rigid.
“That feels so good,” he moaned.
“Then let’s take this into your bedroom.” My fingers fumbled with his belt and buttons. “We only have ten minutes. We can’t waste any more time.”
Radford’s reaction was instantaneous but not the one I had expected. He caught my wrists, holding them away from his waist and his whole body sagged back into the cushions. When he looked down at me along his body, his face was a mask of disappointment.
“I can’t.” The words were stretched tight by his frustration. “Not like this.”
“What?” I sat up in alarm.
“I can’t fuck you like this. Not in ten minutes.”
“There’s time if we do it right here,” I said, massaging his cock roughly through his jeans, making him fully erect so he strained against the half-undone buttons.
“No. You don’t understand.”
Radford moved my hand away impatiently but then sat up, pulled me against his naked chest and began kissing me. Deeply. Thoroughly. Taking full possession of my heart and body, and instantly soothing away the hurt of the last six months.
Somewhere n the middle of that incredible kiss, both of us realised it was no longer simply about sex and passion, or our bodies’ surging need for one another. The kiss was sweet and full of longing, taking my heart back to our most intimate moments at Claridges when we’d lain naked to our very souls.
I’d never been kissed like that before, nor responded to any other man the way my whole essence responded
to Radford. Every nerve and cell sang in tune with his until I became unsure where he ended and I began. Physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually, we connected on every level, each thread binding me tightly to him whether I wanted it or not.
In court Radford was unbeatable but, when it came to capturing my heart, he was unstoppable and we’d been on a collision course since I’d very first laid eyes on him. We were only ever going to end up in one place, even though we’d taken a detour along the way. If there were such a thing as fate, Radford and I had been destined to meet and fated to be together too.
I couldn’t fight it any longer and let go, allowing my heart to freefall into something far deeper that desire, even though I was still too afraid to call it love.
Without warning, Radford broke away, his breathing ragged and his skin hot to the touch. He held my face tenderly between his hands and rested his forehead against mine while he struggled to bring his breathing under control.
“Why did you stop me?” I asked. “Your body’s crying out for mine.”
Radford gave a quiet laugh, little more than a sigh, and kissed me gently one more time. “Because the first time we go to bed together,” he said against my lips, “I don’t want it to be a ten-minute fuck before you disappear in a taxi. I want time. Space. The luxury of touching and tasting every part of your beautiful body the whole night long. At this moment, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone but a quick shag on the sofa isn’t good enough. I want to make love to you, Allie.”
Make love.
Radford made it sound like the sexiest thing I’d ever heard. Hot. Deep. Taking our bodies to the limits of physical pleasure, over and over again.
I wondered how angry my friends would be if I cancelled. I offered to call them.
“No.” Again Radford was unyielding. “I don’t want your friends thinking of me as the guy who’s taking you away. They’re a huge part of your life and, if we’re looking to build a relationship, we can’t start out with them resenting me. I’m in this for the long haul, Allie.”
Truly, could this man get any sexier? Whilst relationship, commitment and future had never featured in my dating vocabulary, Radford was suddenly making me learn new words.
“I can’t believe you’re throwing me out,” I said, smiling happily against his lips as I kissed him back. “You’re hot and horny, and good to go. And so am I. I doubt I’ll hear a word of this play tonight. I’ll be too busy fantasising about you making love to me.”
My mind was already racing forward to our next date. The food. The underwear. The seduction. The first kiss that would end in hot sex in his wide, white bed.
“Believe me, I’m regretting it already, but I want it to be perfect between us that first time,” Radford said. “I’ve waited six months for you, I can wait a little longer.”
“Well I’m glad you’re so certain because I’m not sure I can.”
Chapter Fourteen
I can’t believe myself sometimes. After six months of dreaming about Allie Lawless, I’m suddenly half naked on a sofa, with her tongue teasing the tip of my cock, and I’m telling her to stop.
What the hell is wrong with me?
The organ below my trouser line was screaming at me not to be so stupid, while my head and my heart were turning me back into the hopeless romantic who wanted to spend the night making love.
Truth is, I love sex in all its forms. The quickie in the shower. The hot and horny fuck after a night of flirting. A mind-blowing blow job in the car. A tipsy fumble at the end of a party.
But, that weekend at Claridges, Allie Lawless became the only woman I’d ever truly made love to. Hours spent just touching, kissing, talking and laughing, sharing more than my body with her, and connecting in ways my shallow sex life hadn’t allowed before. Two nights in bed with Allie had lead me into a world of deeper pleasures I’d never tasted and I couldn’t wait to get back there with her.
I won’t lie. There had been other women in America. Countless, casual encounters that meant nothing the minute they were over. But I hadn’t expected Allie to be faithful to me either. As far as we were both concerned, it had been over between us the minute she stepped on that plane to Rome.
But since returning to London, I hadn’t been able to look at another woman, let alone fall into bed with one, because no one in the city could hold a candle to Allie.
Whatever had happened between us that weekend, my perspective had shifted until I saw clearly that Allie and I were far from done.
“Will you make me a promise?” I asked as I helped her on with her coat. “Will you wear those shiny, black boots for me another time?”
“Don’t worry. I’m already in the same fantasy,” she confessed. “Naked and just about to bend over for you.”
My subsiding erection revived and I groaned, my imagination swelling at the same rate as my cock. “How can you leave me on a thought like that, you witch?”
As a reply, she pushed me back against the wall, wrenched my mouth down to hers and kissed me hotly, the way she had that first day in chambers. All my gentlemanly resolutions went out of the window but Allie backed away just as quickly.
“That’s to remind you that I can’t wait to make love to you either, but I’m also expecting some down and dirty sex somewhere around the edges.”
“You have my undertaking as a barrister.”
“Be careful. My demands could be too high maintenance for you,” she warned.
“Such as?”
“I’ll expect a full body massage after a hard day’s work.”
“Not a problem.”
“With your tongue?”
This was starting to get interesting. “If you insist.”
“Also, I refuse to shower alone. Most Sundays I prefer not to get dressed. And I must be allowed access to your naked body on demand. Tonight is the very last time I’ll let you turn me down.”
I pretended to think about it – and would probably still be thinking about it at midnight. “You drive a hard bargain,” I told her.
“On the contrary, I’m hoping you do.”
She grabbed my balls, none too gently, sending shockwaves through my body. I adored all of her moods between the sheets but loved the tigress in her most of all, particularly when it ended up with me taming her.
“Perhaps I have demands of my own,” I said, leaning in for another hot kiss. “You might not be willing to comply.”
“Try me.”
I had my list all ready. “I want to buy you sexy underwear and take it off with my teeth. Foreplay that starts at breakfast and ends up with you seducing me over dinner.”
“I might need filthy texts throughout the day to make that acceptable.”
“If you insist. But only on condition that, once a week, I find you naked and on your knees when I walk through the door.”
Allie sighed and pretended to play it cool but I could tell from the way she was staring at my lips that she wanted a down payment there and then. “You’ve forgotten something. The Tiramisu Clause.”
I pushed my leg between hers and she ground herself down against my thigh, gasping with unspent passion. “Thank you for reminding me, Miss Lawless. I will always expect to lick tiramisu from your nipples.”
“But…”
She started to protest but I stopped her mouth with another drowning kiss. “Non-negotiable,” I said.
“I was only going to suggest that my pussy’s allowed as an addendum to that clause, and that we should add reciprocal arrangements for every part of your body.”
The blood drained from my face and rushed elsewhere until I thought my cock was going to explode against Allie’s hip. “I love it when you talk legal to me.”
“Trust me,” she said, “what I intend to do with your body is probably illegal in most European countries. How much trouble do you want to be in?”
“I think I can handle myself.”
“Not an option.” She grinned. “I’m the only one handling you from
now on.”
The next week was absolute torture. Talk about lighting the blue touch paper and retiring. We weren’t even in the same city for the next seven days, let alone in the same room, and flirty texts just didn’t do it for me like a warm body in my arms.
By the middle of the following week, when Allie had been up to her neck in completing Aiden’s deal for two days, I couldn’t stand it any longer and turned up at her office at eight o’clock one evening. To guarantee a warm welcome, I arrived carrying pizzas and cokes.
“You’re a mind-reader and a lifesaver,” she said, calling her colleagues into the office kitchen and kissing me quickly before they arrived. “We were just about to send out for food.”
“Shows how desperate I am to see you that I turn myself into the pizza delivery guy.”
“I’m sure there’s a fantasy somewhere about seducing him.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” I promised, wishing I could take her back to my flat right then for a great deal more than pizza. “What time do you finish?”
“Lord knows.” She showed me the piles of papers on the conference table. “Two or three hours at least, then another early start tomorrow. I’m sorry I’ve not been able to see you but I haven’t been in bed before one, or up after six, all week.”
The solution was staring us in the face and I suggested it tentatively. “So why not stay with me tonight?” I said. “My flat’s only five minutes away.”
“Really, Radford. I can’t.”
“Why not? I’ll make up the spare room and promise to keep my hands to myself.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about!” She laughed and touched my cheek, although she was staring at my mouth and wetting her lips. “It’s a really kind offer but I don’t have any things for tomorrow.”
“I’ll get some,” I said. “Phone your friend, tell her to pack you a bag and I’ll pick it up now.”
