“I need to get my wallet,” he informed her as he breezed past the breakfast bar.
“Who’s that?” Michael asked.
“Don’t worry about who it is. You have enough problems right now. Where did Trey go?”
Lincoln passed again, holding up his wallet.
“How in the hell should I know? I think he and Flex were already having problems before they got here. He snapped at Flex once at the airport, and then when we first arrived at the house they were up in the guest room for a long time talking pretty loud. I couldn’t hear what they were saying because Dad wouldn’t let us go up and listen against the door.”
Peyton slumped her head into her hand. “Just great, Mike. Where is Flex now?”
Michael’s voice dropped even lower. “At the dinner table. It took forever to get him there, and now no one is talking. Morgan looks put out—”
“Of course he’s put out,” Peyton snapped. “I’m sure he’s been able to figure out that he’s been set up by the idiot sisters.”
Lincoln approached the breakfast bar with their box dinner. He winked at her and signaled for her to hurry off the phone.
Peyton nodded. “Look, Mike. Why don’t you just put everyone out of their misery and ask Morgan to leave?” She noticed Lincoln’s frown and placed her hand over the receiver to whisper, “I’ll be just a moment.”
He flashed a quick smile and then eased onto a stool.
“Look, this is your mess. I don’t want my name brought up. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Flex and Trey skip out on the wedding and head back to Georgia.”
Michael’s voice filled with shock. “So you’re turning your back on us?”
“Look, you, Sheldon and Frankie are like the Titanic. I’m not climbing on board. Apologize to everyone, ask Morgan to leave and pray you haven’t ruined Flex and Trey’s relationship. Now I have to go.”
“I just remembered,” Michael said. “Aren’t you supposed to still be waiting for Lincoln in San Francisco?”
“Goodbye, Mike.” She hung up and rolled her eyes. “Let me warn you now—my sisters are crazy.”
“You don’t say?” His smile wobbled. “But let’s not let them ruin our night.” He popped open the pizza box and inhaled. “Citarella has nothing on this.”
Peyton smiled. “And to jazz it up, we’re having wine.” She held up the bottle and then grabbed two frosted glasses from the freezer.
He winked. “Where should we go?”
“Let’s start in the living room and hopefully work our way back.” When she bounded out of the kitchen, he followed close on her heels.
Minutes later, they made themselves comfortable on a small pallet among a circle of rose petals on the floor.
“Let me ask you a question,” Lincoln said, as he wolfed down his first slice of pizza. “Do you think we’re ready for tonight?”
The question surprised her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean us. How do you feel about us?”
She smiled through the tightening of her heart muscles. “I have to admit I never thought I’d see the day when I would find someone like you.
“The last few days, I’ve done little else but analyze everything we’ve done, everything we’ve said in the last three months. Trust me, I’ve tried to find something wrong with what we have going. I know that sounds weird, but that’s pretty much how I’ve operated until now.”
“So what are my test results?” he asked softly.
She hesitated before she admitted, “So far so good.”
“I’ll accept that,” Lincoln said, and then glanced around. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were trying to seduce me,” he added as he played with rose petals.
“Is it working?”
“Maybe.” He gave her a light shrug. “You know I do have to warn you—I’m not exactly easy.”
Her brows twitched upward. “Oh? You mean to tell me after the flowers and champagne you’re not going to give it up?”
He grinned and took a sip of his wine. “What if you don’t respect me in the morning?”
“Oh, baby.” Her gaze absorbed his. “You don’t ever have to worry about that.”
“Really?” He lowered his second slice of pizza and leaned forward.
With her head already light from the alcohol, the potency of his kiss caused her to drift blissfully among the clouds in her mind. She heard the pizza box being pushed aside as he crawled above her and she lowered herself onto her back.
This is it. She mentally prepared herself.
The feathery touch of his hand drifted up the center of her chest and her entire body quivered. The kiss consumed her, but she gave back as fiercely as she received.
She had no memory of her clothes being removed, and as far as she was concerned they’d melted off. When his hot mouth left her body, he scorched a trail of tiny, biting kisses down the length of her neck and along the curvy plane of her shoulders.
With a husky sigh, Peyton closed her eyes, caught in the sensuality that radiated from Lincoln. And then just as quickly, he took her mouth again in another sweet, intoxicating kiss.
However, not to miss out on a chance to do her own exploring, she roamed her hands along his rock-hard chest, and then dipped them inside his silk kimono. Vast mounds of creamy flesh and rippling muscles greeted her fingertips. A surge of power emboldened her moves and her hand drifted downward.
Lincoln was a large man.
The moment she glided her hands along his shaft, there was a slight change in his breathing. She stroked him again, reveling in the soft groan that fell from his lips. Tightening her hand around him, she picked up the tempo.
Their lips parted as Lincoln buried his head against the crook of her neck. “Jesus,” he whispered.
Still heady with power, Peyton gently eased him over onto his side, and then farther onto his back. She made quick work of pushing everything out of the way, before she took great pleasure in climbing this Mt. Everest of a man.
“Be gentle,” he joked.
“Don’t tell me that you’re already begging for mercy.” With one tug, his robe belt came undone and every inch of his body was exposed. “Impressive.”
“Beautiful,” he whispered as his gaze roamed over her. With dreamlike slowness, his hand curved around one of her firm breasts and then gave the erect nipple a slight pinch.
Peyton drew a sharp breath and arched against his hand. He repeated the performance on her other breast until she filled her lungs to their full capacity and began to tremble.
Lincoln leaned her forward and then took a nipple gently between his teeth. Her nipples hardened even more as his tongue and lips tugged at her in a loving caress that made her moan. She had no choice but to succumb to the heat that twisted and melted through her.
She felt as if she were on fire when his teeth closed around her again. It was harder this time, and forced an intense sound of pleasure from parts of her she’d long forgotten. Belatedly, she felt his hand snake in between her legs, and before she could prepare herself, two long fingers dipped inside her silky walls.
Her warmth was an incredible turn-on. It took everything Lincoln had not to just toss her beneath him and have his way with her. Above everything, he wanted to take his time with her.
Slowly, gently, he stroked the walls of her moist cave while he worshiped her magnificent breasts. He listened to her labored breathing as she rocked her hips against his hand. It was like heaven, feelin
g the way she quaked in his arms, and as a bonus he caressed her feminine bud with the pad of his thumb.
Peyton’s slight rocking transformed into a hard pound. Lincoln’s excitement grew at the feel of her muscles tightening and loosening like an accelerated heartbeat.
Air rushed from Peyton’s body as an orgasmic cry tore itself from her body and she shuddered convulsively. She fell against him and tried to gain control of her breathing.
Lincoln smiled and kissed the two mounds pressed against his face. “That was a nice warm-up,” he said.
“I’d say.” She laughed and then rolled off of him.
“Where are you going?” He curled onto his side. “I thought we agreed that there would be no breaks.”
Peyton sat up and reached for her glass from off the coffee table. “I just wanted a sip of wine, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh.” Lincoln climbed up from off the floor and stood above her. “Maybe it’s time we take this to the bedroom.”
“Or—” She twinkled a smile up at him and shifted onto her knees. “We can try something else.”
Before her meaning sank in, he watched as she took his erect shaft into her hands and glided it into her hot mouth. Instant, intense pleasure assaulted Lincoln. Despite his desire to roll his eyes to the back of his head, he also wanted to watch how her mouth slid lovingly over his throbbing arousal. There was nothing more exquisite than this: her tongue, the walls of her mouth and her exceptional ability to take him in so deep made her an exceptional woman.
With his eyes still glued on her performance, Lincoln slid his fingers through her hair, but was careful not to guide her head. Then he made a sound deep in his throat.
In response to him possibly losing control, Peyton upped the ante by quickening her strokes. His hips matched her pace and soon his moans became groans and even a few curses.
At last, he backed away and smiled down at her. “You’re trying to kill me.”
“Not quite.” She stood up and approached him. “But I have the skills to back up everything I told you.”
“Then it’s off to the bedroom.” Lincoln swept her up into his arms and grabbed his wallet from the coffee table.
Peyton giggled. “What about your ankle?”
“There’s no disabled list in this game, remember?”
She slipped her arms around his neck. “In that case, batter up.”
The phone rang.
Lincoln stopped. “I thought you turned it off.”
“Ignore it. Trust me, it’s just Larry, Curly or Moe,” she joked.
“Are you sure?”
She kissed him, and then challenged, “Is this your way of trying to get a break?”
“It’s time I shut you up.” He winked and carried her off toward the bedroom.
The eager new lovers came together with an overwhelming desire and a ravishing hunger. For Peyton, she couldn’t touch enough or kiss enough to sate this need for him. And the things he could do with his mouth were definitely a sin.
Limp from her second orgasm, it took everything Peyton had not to beg for a moment to catch her breath. If she did, he would have undoubtedly held it over her head for eternity.
“I can’t wait any longer,” Lincoln panted as he staked the dominant position. “I need to be inside you.”
In that moment, her energy restored itself and her desire increased tenfold.
From above her head, Lincoln reached for his wallet and withdrew a condom. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noted the magnum wrapper and smiled. She took pleasure in assisting him, but as he eased inside her, everything changed.
At the feel of Peyton’s tight muscles trying to adjust to his size, Lincoln was certain that he was about to come unglued. He ground his teeth as her heat pulsed around him and he still refused to give up control.
To his surprise, she didn’t protest or ask for mercy. She simply tightened her legs around his hips and enabled him to sink deeper. When she finally took all of him and he’d allowed sufficient time for her body to adjust, she surprised him by raining light kisses down his face.
“I’m ready,” she whispered.
Lincoln swore that there were no sweeter words in the dictionary as he began to move. “Please let me know if I’m hurting you.”
In answer, Peyton’s hips matched his rhythm. He took his time, wanting this moment to last. But after long minutes of slow, measured strokes, it grew harder to resist his building orgasm.
Peyton thrashed madly beneath him, oblivious to all space and time. She was slave to the wild sensations coursing through her. She wanted it to go on forever, but something sparked within her and thrust her toward an earth-shattering climax.
Stroke by stroke, control ebbed from Lincoln. With each silky contraction of her body, he moaned her name and confessed his love until at long last his throttled howl merged with her cries of ecstasy. Together they drowned in the sweet rain of their release.
Every tender emotion Peyton had ever experienced swirled inside her. She wiped at her eyes, not remembering when tears had slid from them. It had been more than worth the small wait for this night, and Lincoln had been worth all the frogs she’d ever kissed.
He was perfect for her. She had said that many times in the past ninety days, and tonight he proved it to her once again. More than anything she wanted this man permanently in her life, but she was too afraid to hope for that.
He rolled over onto his side and pulled her close. “Would you think any less of me if—”
“We took a break?” she suggested.
“Well, I’m not saying that I need one or anything.”
“No, no,” she said. “Of course not. I mean, I was just thinking—”
“That you wanted one, too?”
“Me? No, you look as though you might need one,” she said.
He propped himself up on his elbows. “Who, me? I can go another round right now. Come here.”
Peyton held up her hands. “Mercy, mercy. Dear God, mercy. I need a minute,” she confessed.
Lincoln plopped down on the pillow. “Oh, thank God.”
Chapter 24
Lincoln and Peyton woke to the sound of a ringing phone. Neither of them wanted to pry their limbs from the warm cocoon they’d created after their last round of lovemaking. However, the ringing persisted.
“I don’t believe this,” Peyton moaned, and rolled out of Lincoln’s embrace.
“What time is it?” Lincoln glanced around.
“It’s kill my sisters time,” she grumbled, snatching the phone. “This better be good,” she warned the caller.
Michael’s voice trembled over the line. “He hasn’t come back. It’s nearly midnight and Trey hasn’t returned.”
Peyton sat up. “What?”
“I don’t know what to do. Flex is in his room and refuses to come out.”
Peyton was beginning to feel the steady pounding of a migraine. “Did you at least get rid of Morgan?”
Lincoln moved next to her and began caressing one of her breasts with light gentle strokes.
“Morgan left hours ago,” Michael said in a quivering voice. “Peyton, you have to come and help us talk to Flex. He may never forgive us for this. What if something’s happened to Trey?”
Lincoln snuggled closer and drew a taut nipple into his mouth.
Peyton smiled as her eyes drifted closed. Her body was tingling again. She lost herself for a moment and moaned into the phone.
“Mike, this really isn’t a good time.” She curled toward Lincoln and slid her hands through his short hair.
“C’mon, Peyton. You and Flex are close. He’ll talk to you.”
Lincoln slid a hand beneath the sheet and nudged her legs open.
“Sheldon thinks we should call the police.”
Peyton was jolted out of the mood and closed her legs. “The police?”
Lincoln also sat just as another shrill filled the room. He glanced around.
Peyton placed a hand over the receiver to whisper, “What is that?”
Huffing, Lincoln pulled back the covers to climb out of bed. “I think it’s my cell phone.”
“Is that your little friend?” Michael asked. “Tell him I said hi.”
“Are you for real?” Peyton shoved the rest of the sheets from off her body and also stood from the bed.
Lincoln finally reached his folded pants and dug out his cell phone. “Hello.”
“Psst,” Peyton hissed. “I’m going to take this call up front. I’ll keep it short.” She slipped into a robe and rushed out of the room.
“Linc, Linc. Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Who’s this?” He sat in some kind of lounge chair.
“It’s Flex. Look, I need you to get back over here. My crazy sisters are going crazy. They think something has happened to you. They’re not leaving here until you come back.”
“What? You’re supposed to be telling them the truth.” Lincoln glanced up to make sure that Peyton hadn’t come back into the room.
“I swear, I was going to, but things just kept escalating. Morgan stayed through dinner and I couldn’t tell them the truth when he was here. It would have looked like I brought you here to make him jealous or something.”
Lincoln’s mouth fell open. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation.”
“I’ll tell them, but not now. Mike has worked herself up into a frenzy because you’re gone. Sheldon went home mainly because she’s supposed to be on bed rest.”
Measure of a Man Page 17
