by Livia Quinn
“You are a remarkable woman, Tempest Pomeroy. It’s one of the reasons why I’m… why I can’t shake my feelings for you.” I curled my fingers around hers. “I didn’t mean what I said to Aurora—about going back to before I won the election. I was in shock. I’m sorry. Damn, I’m always apologizing to you. Let me explain.” I drew put her hand down onto my lap.
“Ever since I got sole custody of Jordie, I’ve been focused on a narrow set of parameters I felt we had to follow to right the ship so to speak, to fly straight and overcome the past. I had a picture in my head of how that would go.”
She chuckled, “Small Town, USA? You sound just like a retired commander.”
“What can I say? Pilots and lawmen, we deal in absolutes. It’s predictable, dependent on contingencies, backup plans, but controllable. I feel like I’ve lost control.” I palmed her cheek. “But I think I’ll get used to it, if I can ever get a few days under my belt to adjust.”
Ryan turned the corner and parked in front of my house. I signaled him and he came around to open the door.
“Can I do anything else for you folks this evening?” he asked in his best limo driver voice.
I palmed a bill and shook his hand. “That’ll be all, my man. Thanks.”
Ryan grinned and slapped me on the back closing the jet door behind us as Tempe started up the driveway, holding her gown off the concrete with both hands. “Tempe,” I said softly.
She turned, the full moon reflecting off the stones of her dress. The loose tendrils of her hair floated around her head like a sedate beach breeze version of what I’d seen just two days ago. “Let me…” I scooped her into my arms and carried her to the door.
“My keys are in my left pocket,” I said and while she went searching, I nuzzled the smooth perfection of her skin. It was warm and soft and she smelled like some combination of sea breezes and woman. I kissed my way up her throat to nibble on her ear, leaning against the door. A sound escaped her that I took as frustration as she dug for the keys, that part of my pants having suddenly become a tight fit.
I captured her lips as she withdrew her hand, both arms coming back around my neck as she threw herself into the kiss. Her tongue entered my mouth, exploring. Desire sped South. I groaned and attempted to find the keys myself without unlocking our lips. Her hand roamed again, stroked the bulge in my pants, accidentally or not, as she got back to searching for the keys. I locked her in place with one arm, the urge to thrust against her out-weighing the need to get inside.
“Jack,” she laughed, and I covered her mouth with mine. I heard a clink, and her hand slipped out of my pocket to clasp my shoulders, her teeth grazing my bottom lip. The kiss became a full on clash of tongues. Keys jangled, which reminded me we were standing on the porch, making out against the front door. Once again, I’d proven that when I touched her I lost track of where I was. I heard the key in the lock. “Jack, wait—okay.” The door swung open.
I walked over the threshold and kicked the door shut, struggling to balance with an arm full of fluffy fabric and wriggling woman. “Bolt it,” I said with my mouth around her earlobe.
Her breath stuttered, but the lock clicked. Desire nearly slammed me to my knees. Finally, I had her in my house, my arms, this alluring, tempestuous female. I bumped the switch activating the lamp near the couch. Passion stared back at me, her gaze on my lips, her tongue darting out to moisten her own.
I groaned and took her mouth again. I loved kissing her. Her taste was heady, reticent of spice and, “Hmm, you taste good,” I said finally releasing her lips and leaning against the inside of the door to get my breath. She flicked her tongue out again, teasing my lower lip.
My pants were cutting off circulation to my lower extremities, one in particular. I moved my hips in an attempt to get more comfortable. I knew what would work, getting us both naked. But I wanted her here, now, against the door. My eyes went to the couch. Yeah, there, too. And on the carpet, in front of the fireplace, but first…
I bumped into the back of the couch. Like a siren, she looked up at me and smiled. “Maybe you should put me down.”
Reluctantly, I bent to set her feet on the floor. In her heels she stood tall enough that I barely had to look down. “How high are those heels anyway?”
She rolled her eyes. “Six barbaric, excruciating inches.”
I leaned forward and ran my tongue along her collarbone. “Then why don’t you slip out of them?” I muttered against satiny skin.
She toed the heels off and then her hands slid up my chest to push my jacket off my shoulders. “Need some help with those cufflinks, Commander?”
* * *
Tempe
Who cares? am “Please, no lightning bolts.”
* * *
Jack wasn’t helping. “Mmmm, if I do this…” he ran his tongue up the side of my neck making goose bumps form on my arms, pretty good for someone who’s never had goose bumps. He pulled back and looked down at me, “I don’t have to worry about being electrocuted do I?”
Good question.
His fingers trailed down my chest, dipping into the dress’ bodice as his eyes flared. “Your skin is so soft. I want my hands on you.”
“Well, then it seems like you’d be more help removing your jacket.”
“It’s not my clothes that are impeding the process, babe. You did look beautiful tonight, but it’s time to get you out of that dress.”
He placed both hands at my waist and leaned me against the high back of the sectional couch so he could plant kisses on my throat and run his tongue along the swells above the bodice, teasing little quivers from me as his touch caused my breasts to tingle. “Jack…”
He held me with one hand—his arms like steel—and eased the zipper down a few inches. Cool air slid through the opening, as he slipped his fingers inside to put his warm broad hand against my bare skin. “God, you feel so good.” He discovered the goose bumps and his head came up. Frowning he asked, “Are you cold?”
I smiled. “Never.”
He smiled back. “Ahh. You like.” His mouth came down on mine. My pelvis rubbed against his groin as his hands roamed to my waist, one cupping my butt through the fabric, the other covering my breast. I squirmed in his arms, trying to get away from the teasing, to get closer to his lips, his hands. He stopped and I saw eyes fierce with need and hot, so hot.
“I want you,” I whispered, barely able to speak.
Those were apparently the magic words. He scooped one arm beneath mine and swung me back up into his embrace striding down the hallway with me as if I weighed nothing.
His bedroom was a masculine mix of navy and aqua with dark cherry furnishings. Leaving me standing at the end of the bed, and looking back at me like I was going to run, he shoved the pillows off onto the floor. A man of action, I thought.
Doubts crept in suddenly. What was I thinking? I was so far out of my depth with this man. He was expecting someone with experience, someone he thought was “confident”. The dress he’d picked was perfect for that confident, siren of a lover, but not me… I was about to make a fool of myself. I’d only known Jack Lang for two weeks. Granted, we’d been under intense situations where you get to know someone pretty well.
Still, I asked myself, was this real? And if it was, what if I screwed it up? I’d thought my feelings for Dylan had been real, but they’d been based on a lie. Everything we’d been together had been playacting, body guarding—on his part at least. And I’d been blind to it. How confusing. Insulting.
Menori swished her tail. Since when did she pop up during love play? Maybe she meant to remind me that Jack wasn’t Dylan. He was honorable, genuine. He probably had some of the same doubts. I wanted him to hold me, to make love with me. But I wasn’t like other women he’d known. Now that I’d changed, I didn’t know what might happen. He didn’t seem to be worried, but I couldn’t help it. High emotion for me equaled, well, problems.
Chapter 25
Jack
“You’re making my eyes cross, sweet
heart.”
* * *
I tossed the pillows aside and turned.
Tempe stood at the end of the bed, a deer-in-headlights look in her eyes, as if she was about to turn into a streak of lightning and bolt from the room.
“Sweetheart, are you okay?” Call me crazy, but it seemed I could feel her body vibrating from three feet away.
Her eyes darted to the skylights and her shoulder twitched. “Are you sure about this?”
I shook my head, chuffing a breath. How could she possibly ask? I had an obvious hard-on that was about to split my zipper, and I was practically panting with lust. Not only was I desperate to have her, and I never would have believed this but, I was ready to give our relationship a try. I hadn’t been involved with anyone seriously besides my ex since high school, and that didn’t compare to how I felt when I was with Tempe.
I hid none of that from her when I said, “Positive.” Her brows lifted. As frustrated as I’d been, as much as I wanted her, I figured I’d have to restrain myself from tearing her clothes off, but the tender feelings I felt for her now were new to me. I wanted to go slow. Excruciatingly slow.
“You’re making my eyes cross, Sweetheart. I tried to talk myself out of this, you know, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you, how you make me feel, that I needed to get my hands on your skin, and taste you, every inch of you.”
Her eyes went wide as soon as she believed the intensity of my words. The light filtering through the skylights in my bedroom made them sparkle, and I realized her emotions were close to the surface. This could get interesting.
“Stay right there,” I said and reached over to open the drapes. “You look beautiful in that moonlight, your hair is even more vibrant; your skin almost translucent. I want you so much, Tempest Pomeroy.”
Finally, her eyes glinted and this time it was the look of a seductress. I stepped toward her. She stepped back, and smiled. The brilliant full moon came into view and the lavender-tinted light turned her dress into a blaze of rainbows, darting like gypsy dancers with each of her breaths. Her eyes were starbursts of desire, enticing me, drawing to her.
I reached out but she scooted away, “Uh,uh,uh,” the seductress warned. “Why don’t you sit there on the trunk while I get a little more comfortable.”
My eyes widened at the invitation from my surprising temptress. “Whatever you say, Darlin’.” I sat, leaning back on my elbows. “Go on.”
“You know, this could be the most unpredictable night of your life, Laser,” she said as she reached around to finish unfastening her dress. Then, holding it to her with just one arm, eyes on mine, she lowered it, one infinitesimally small increment at a time.
My body anticipated, going hard as titanium. My breathing halted as a little more of that rosy iridescent skin was exposed. My mouth went dry when I thought to make her hurry, not that she would have obeyed. The woman was on a mission, to drive me out of my mind. It looked like she might succeed.
Just as her breasts came even with the edge of the ornate bodice, she let her arm fall away and I sighed in anticipation, but some kind of gossamer fabric draped across the swells, a lavender silk so thin it outlined the rosy points of her nipples. I leaned forward…
With one hand she raised her hair off her shoulders, the movements straining the delicate material, and my zipper, as my mind wished it to slip free of whatever was making it remain suspended. With her other hand she shoved the dress off her hips to the floor. I nearly swallowed my tongue.
She was a goddess, her long legs from toes to mid thigh covered in silvery iridescent stockings. And there between her legs, at the vee of her pubic treasure, that door was guarded by a tiny triangle of deep violet. She angled her body slightly giving me a different view of one of her bare cheeks and the thin purple piece of silk dividing them—a thong. “Uhhn…”
My hand moved to my zipper. I’d never seen anything so sexy in my life. My eyes scanned the length of her body, “I knew you would be magnificent.”
* * *
Tempe
“What if something bad happens?”
* * *
His breathless words sent hot shivers racing down my spine, and I thrilled as he reached out, hooking his finger into the thin strip of the thong, and tugged me toward him. His eyes were the color of the morning mist skimming the bayou, intent and hot with desire, for me, Tempest Pomeroy, Tempestaerie, child of a Djinn. He’d seen me in action and he still wanted me.
His lips latched onto my breast through the silk of my strapless camisole, loosening it when he nipped the edge with his teeth. One side slid below the tip and he sucked it into his mouth, pulling on the sensitive button, then ravaging my nipples, suckling and tugging, giving them such thorough attention that if my legs would have held me I’d have endured it forever. My knees trembled and he straightened, using his hands to angle my head for his kiss, sucking on my tongue, devouring it as if he could inhale me straight into his soul. My eyes opened when his lips left mine, “Ahh, sweet of Zeus! Don’t stop.”
His shirt abraded my nipples as he turned me around and eased me onto the bed, bending over me to trail kisses along my neck, down a path to where the camisole clung to my hips. His tongue stroked my navel, while one finger teased my entrance, stroked the wetness there, then he added another.
He had but to say my name and I would fly, but I wanted him inside me. He was still dressed. I tugged on his shirt sending three of the tiny pearl buttons flying and pressed my hand to the hard ridges of his stomach. My body was vibrating with need. Menori went off, singing through my blood like a chorus of stars, light bursting behind my eyes, and electricity tingling through my extremities.
“Uh, Tempe, honey?” Jack’s voice came from far away. I opened my eyes. He smiled crookedly and looked up at the ceiling. “Think we can we do this without lightning?”
I followed his gaze. Above us, suspended below the ceiling of the bedroom were tiny crystalline particles, mini prisms of light, water and air, the elemental stuff of Tempestaeries. “It’s beautiful,” I said reverently. He hadn’t moved, but now he reached for my fingers, guiding them into his open zipper.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. “I wanted to draw this out, but I have to be inside you soon, Tempe.”
Fire ignited inside me at his words. I’d never felt more desired. I saw the strain on his face as he tried to hold back.
“I’m afraid, Jack. This…” I waved my arm at the shimmering in the air. “This has never happened before. “What if I lose control, fly apart?” I looked down where my hand was stroking his hard length. I looked up into his eyes and swallowed, “What if—something bad happens?”
He kissed me, a sweet tender kiss and said, “What if something beautiful happens?” Another kiss, this time between my breasts. “I’ve got your six, sweetheart.”
Of course he did. It was who he was. If I believed nothing else, I could count on that. I rubbed my hand against his erection, stroked the ridge of flesh that thrummed like one of his Navy jets—thrusting, charged, ready to blast away from the carrier deck. He spread my knees and teased my entrance. “You’re ready for me, so hot and wet.”
His hands reached under my seat and brought my legs up, the velvety steel prodding my center. His breathing accelerated as I shifted and rolled on top of him, pushing my hips down onto him taking him deep in one sweet slide.
“Ahh…you’re so tight.”
I moved shifting my hips to take him deeper and deeper still. My breath was coming in pants as I moved faster. “Let go, Tempe, now!” He surged upward and rose with me in his arms. I flew then, sensing when we left the surface of the tarmac and shot into the sky, spinning off into the clouds, the sky darkening and the stars becoming brighter and brighter until I had to close my eyes against the blinding sight, the explosion of fireworks.
I felt the mattress on my back and Jack’s forceful thrusts as our bodies slammed against each other, over and over. Then Jack’s cry mingled with mine as we twirled, doing a sl
ow spiral back to earth, the sky still dotted with drifting tracers of color.
“Open your eyes, Sweetheart,” Jack whispered as if talking too loud would break some spell. My eyes drifted open to look at him. He just grinned, “No lightning, but you sure know how to put on a fireworks display.”
“I wouldn’t know. I was busy taking another one of your jet rides into space.” His eyes crinkled and he nodded at the ceiling once again.
I looked up. My mouth dropped open. It was as if all the particles that had been hanging in the air had exploded, some still bursting like excited sparklers. I couldn’t hold back a smile. “Cool, huh?”
He laughed and within seconds we were rolling on the bed like playful puppies. His pants disappeared and a tanned and naked “Six-packs” lay on his back, primed and ready to take me for another ride.
Chapter 26
Tempe
“Another flight to the stars”
* * *
My hands glided over the taut pectorals, like smooth flesh stretched over granite. I felt firsthand what I’d heard about a fighter pilot’s extraordinary fitness. No inches to pinch here because each muscle in the body needed to be able to respond to the extreme G forces of flight.
His corded thighs flexed against me and the long length of steel between my legs pressed against the entrance of my sex. My fingertips dipped and memorized the ridges of his abs. “How do you stay in this kind of shape?” I asked and moved my hips against that hard shaft.
He gasped. “I… never got out of the habit. It seems to have gotten easier to stay fit in the last few years though. I don’t…ahh, really understand it. If you keep doing that…”
“I love having my hands on your skin.” I smiled down at him. “I’ve been fantasizing about it since I saw you on the porch, about how I’d like to see you in nothing but shaving cream.” I drew my eyes down over the muscles of his chest and arms, down to where he probed me… “This is better.”
