What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 5)

by Cathryn Fox

  Beneath her palms, his cheeks were arousingly rough. Excitingly rugged. Stimulating all sorts of wanton desires as he gently stroked his way down the soft skin of her neck, to tease across the swelling mounds of her breasts.

  He easily disposed of her bra and panties and freed himself from his jeans and briefs. Her full breasts trembled under the tantalizing assault of his caressing fingers and hungry mouth. His lips suckled the hard peaks, his tongue laving and teasing until she felt on fire, making her writhe in sensual delight.

  His low groan fueled her exploration. Her hand wiggled between their entwined legs, to close around his large, rigid shaft and began to slowly stroke him. Velvet over steel, his cock vibrated against her palm, causing an erotic backlash that sent her body quaking with need. Her hands, anxious and eager, moved upward along his flat stomach, reveling in the muscular strength of his abs, to anchor her thumb in his bellybutton.

  Her gaze locked onto his; her husky voice caressed his ears. “Are you sure you can handle a zerbert?” At his hitched breath, she pushed him sideways, lowered her head, her hair teasing his heated flesh as her lips sent a vibrating burble against his naval.

  “That’s a zerbert?” Adam was still laughing when he pressed her back down on the pillows. “I have a feeling it works better when you’re a toddler. But I know all sorts of things that work better when you’re an adult.”

  His mouth kissed a path back to her breasts, his tongue flicking around hardened pink nipples before his greedy lips sucked hard. Gasping with pleasure, she arched under him, pressing her hand to hold his head tight. His palm cupped her sex, his fingers teasing along the inside of her thighs to the soft blond triangle of curls. He was surprised to find her so tight when his finger invaded her wet, heated center. Tight but responsive. And he was determined to make their first time, all about her.

  Samantha trembled against the pulsating sensations that racked her body. On and on. Wave after wave arced and spiked and licked every nerve. Again and again, he brought her to new heights and then beyond, until she was stripped of control, gasping for air. Never before had she felt this way. Never before had she responded so fiercely. Never before had she given so completely. His name was moaned as her body went limp; her fingers digging into his shoulders, her throaty whimpers assaulted his senses.

  “I’ve wanted this since the first minute you insulted me,” his voice was thick, his self-control completely gone. Then he could wait no more. Plunging. Hard. Deep. Her breath caught, her senses overwhelmed with having him inside her body. Filling her with more than she had ever imagined. They held each other, reveling in private, intimate pleasures of two becoming one.

  His hands slid beneath her hips, pulling her tight as he thrust harder and faster and deeper. He knew when to be gentle and when to be rough. She had no control over her reactions, no control over her body. It clenched and pulsed and milked him. She dissolved in primitive, rhythmic movements that he matched until he erupted deep inside her.

  Adam cried out, himself out of control as she quaked and shuddered around his throbbing shaft. Fused together, they were both breathless, each part of the other. He kissed her eyelids closed, then moved to press his lips on each of her twelve freckles. “I’m not letting you go. Ever.” His deep voice vibrated into her ear as she buried her face in the curve of his neck, unable to control her own trembling.

  Samantha’s tongue wiped away the salty sweat against his collarbone to nip a quick love bite against his flesh. “I love you, Adam Rourke.” Her lips whispered against the corner of his mouth.

  Holding her fast, he rolled over, balancing her on top of his body. “I didn’t doubt that for a minute.” He trailed a fingertip down her spine, along the curve of her ass and back up to her nape. His cock was still deep inside of her, sheathed in the warm, quivering wetness of her sex. Her little tremors became the fuel that stoked and aroused him.

  She found herself being rolled over again, her body cradled by the large tapestry floor pillows. He was growing impossibly hard. Both of his hands cupped her face, his lips moved against hers, his tongue stroking deep inside the honeyed recesses. He consumed her little whimpers of pleasure, reveled in the scent of raw sex that bathed both their bodies. “No one else touches you. Just me.”

  The look in his eyes made her both scared and excited. She felt vulnerable yet utterly safe. He rested his weight on his elbows, her legs wrapped around his thighs as he rocked his hips slowly side to side. Her thighs quivered and she could feel yet another orgasm coming. She wasn’t able to breathe.

  His rock-hard muscles bunched beneath her hands. Power. Strength. Heat. Control. It was carnal pleasure beyond what she had ever imagined. With a wild cry, Samantha simply exploded as Adam suddenly hammered himself into her. Staking a claim with his body. Making sure she understood she was his. He was reduced to an animal rutting on raw instinct.

  His kisses were demanding as they climaxed and moaned and shook and held each other until the shuddering ceased. With a shaky hand, he brushed her tumbled hair off her face. “Damn…are you okay? I got a little carried away there…”

  “I know.” Samantha struggled to catch her breath. Her palm splayed across his chest, feeling his heart pounding in rhythm with her own. The tip of her tongue traced the shape of his mouth before teasingly dip inside, then retreat. Her hand moved across his broad, hairy chest, feeling the muscles rippling under her fingers. “It was wonderful. That’s the delayed power of a zerbert.”

  Morning found Samantha tangled in her bed sheets, cocooned in Adam’s lumberjack shirt and beneath her yellow quilt. Cheek on his shoulder, she spooned beside him, her full breasts pressed along his spine, her knees curved against the back of his legs. Samantha was consumed with thoughts of last night. He had found pleasure points she had never known existed. It had taken them both a long time to settle down. When the logs had become dying embers and the candles melted into waxy puddles, they had moved upstairs to the warmth of her bedroom and the comfort of a thick mattress.

  Sunshine invaded through the half-open wooden blinds on the dormer windows. Now she was able to see the dozen dark purple shrapnel scars that peppered below his shoulder blades. Samantha didn’t hesitate to kiss each marble-sized abrasion that served a permanent reminder of the war. Resting her forehead against is shoulder blade, she tried to stop tears forming but failed. And when her fingers sought to dry them, a few droplets rained against his flesh. “I am so sorry,” her words were a low whisper. How do you apologize for a war?

  “What are you sorry for?” Adam yawned, blinking more fully awake, then he felt her lips on his back. “Oh…well…it was the least of my problems at the time.” Stretching, he turned over and captured Samantha into his arms. “Too many men lost. The confusion. The yelling. The screaming…” his voice trailed off. How many years would it take to get the sights and sounds out of his head; the sand out of his lungs; the taste out of his mouth.

  The expressions that crossed Adam’s face and the far-a-way look in his eyes made Samantha act. Her lips stilled his. She put everything she had into the kiss. Heart. Soul. Mind. Body. Then he took the kiss over. Turning it from a soft and sweet meeting of lips to raw sex. His tongue stroking deep as his hands slid along her soft skin, molding the lush curves to fill the planes and angles of his body. His mouth moved from hers to skitter along her collar bone, his teeth nipping beneath her earlobe. “I thought you said you were grumpy in the morning?”

  “I am, this is me being grumpy,” she shivered as his deep, husky voice invaded her ear. “I see you’re growing a third leg,” she teased when his morning erection prodded between her thighs. Suddenly, she yelped when his watchband snagged her hair. “Ouch, who wears a watch to bed?” Carefully, Samantha pulled a blond tendril free then squinted at the time. “Oh, my God…it’s nine fifteen.”

  “So?” He pressed his weight advantage to hold her flat beneath him. “Where are you trying to go?”

  She became a mass of moving arms and legs, successfull
y wriggling out from under him. “I am supposed to meet Katherine in thirty minutes for a spa day.” Samantha grabbed up her eyeglasses and started buttoning up the front of his flannel shirt. “You don’t need this do you?” At his confused shrug, she continued to button. “It’s been booked for two months, I’ll just be able to make it, and André gets very upset if you’re late.”

  Adam watched her yank open dresser drawers. “Spa day?”

  She pulled on pink bikini panties and dark jeans. “Yup, facial, hair, mani/pedi,” she wiggled her fingers at him, “and of course André is famous for his massages. I have to pick up my dress from the alterations department.”

  “Hey, I can give you a great massage and then you can give me a great massage.” He grinned at the look she sent him while she pulled her hair back and up into a pony tail, locking it into place with a band. “Fine. Fine. Fine.”

  Samantha walked over to the bed and cupped his face in her hands. “What a sulky expression! Attitude adjustment, honey muffin.” She kissed him hard. “Besides, you have a mess to clean up downstairs. The kitchen looks like a marine platoon tramped through it and the living room…” her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth. “Besides, I want to dazzle you tonight.”

  “You dazzled me last night,” he wagged his eyebrows at her, then frowned. “Damn I’ve got to go back to the apartment anyways, my tux is there and the speech. I’ll pick you up around five thirty. That will give us plenty of time to get there in case your zipper gets stuck again.”

  Her lashes fluttered provocatively. “No chance of that, tiny little back zipper, and with this dress no underwear is needed!” Ignoring his guttural swear, she laughed and ran to brush her teeth.

  Adam pulled the Jaguar in the queue for valet parking in front of the canopied entrance of the convention center. “Damn, the day started out sunny and now…at least they’ve got some oversized umbrellas for protection.”

  Samantha frowned at her silver, high-heeled sandals. “I should have worn boots. Or maybe take these off and run in barefoot.”

  Grinning, he stepped lightly on the accelerator. “You’ll be fine, doesn’t look like puddles have formed yet, I’ll get as close as I can.” Adam turned toward her. “Now I realize you have spent the last thirty minutes complimenting me on how great the house looked, but you are just trying to deflect me asking you about what’s under your cape. And I know this is going to get me in even bigger trouble. But you spent how long at that spa? Four hours…and…hell your hair looks the same and…”

  “That’s your fault.”

  “My fault? First the moose and now your hair,” his fingers drummed on the steering wheel. “How is it my fault?”

  “I was planning on having this elegant updo until André loudly asked if I had spent the night with a vampire. That is so not funny, Mr. Rourke, and Katherine heard every word.” She groused at his laughing response. “Thankfully, makeup and concealer worked on the stubble scratches.”

  “Have I complained about the hickeys on my shoulder?”

  “They don’t show, my dress is strapless and–”

  “Wait a minute, strapless? Is that why you haven’t dazzled me with it yet,” he demanded, shifting into drive. “You may be keeping that cape on all night.”

  She gifted him with a serene smile just as one of the parking attendants pulled open the passenger’s side door. Under a protective umbrella, Samantha slid out of the car, relaxing when her delicate shoes hit a dry red carpet, and then waited for her still grinning escort to join her.

  Handing her evening cape to the smiling cloakroom attendant, Samantha viewed herself critically in the nearby full-length mirror. She had dressed for the evening with great care and, with all humility, knew she had never looked better. Her ankle-length dress was a figure-hugging midnight blue silk streaked with silver beads and rhinestones that highlighted a sweetheart neckline, with off the shoulder satin bows that wrapped her upper arms. Her blue shadowed eyes sparkled behind the glasses, her soft mouth was inviting, glossed in mauve, and her hair fell in a silky golden tumble about her shoulders. A pair of crystal shoulder-duster earrings swung provocatively from her ears.

  Adam’s reflection appeared in the mirror. Never before had she seen such admiration in a man’s eyes. Adam, she thought, looked devastatingly attractive in a European-cut, double-breasted evening jacket and ruffled shirt. His arched brow turned her into a flirt. “There is no back to this damn dress,” he hissed into her ear. “And not much front either. But hell, you look gorgeous and no man is getting within two feet of you.” He slid a possessive arm around her waist as they walked into the already crowded banquet room.

  The judge, looking very distinguished in evening clothes, was greeting a long line of well-wishers with his radiant wife by his side. Katherine looked stunning in a bronze beaded halter-neck gown, with a slim skirt that molded her figure. They both greeted Adam and Samantha effusively, but due to the size of the receiving line more than a simple exchange was impossible. However, Samantha found herself gifted with a devilish, knowing wink from Katherine and a stunned, drop-jawed expression from the judge.

  Adam guided Samantha toward a table that was filled with intricately designed canapés, hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, and an assortment of international cheeses, instructing her to gather a few samples while he went to the bar to get cocktails. Looking around the room, Samantha had to admit Janine had done a spectacular job on the decorations, turning a normally unremarkable dining hall into an artistic rendering of a Roman banquet. Janine had secured some stunning murals and studio scenery, added plaster statues and columns to give a unique appearance to the hall.

  When Adam returned, he found Samantha had become the center of attention of a group of local attorneys. She performed the necessary introductions and it didn’t take long before a lively conversation developed. They were in the middle of a friendly, bantering debate over the internet and piracy laws versus the First Amendment, when they were joined by Janine, in a seductive strapless mermaid-skirted gown in gold satin. Samantha could only envy her aplomb.

  Janine smiled an all-encompassing greeting and curved her hand possessively around Adam’s arm. “I’ve come to tell you they’ve started seating the head table so dinner can be served,” she smiled engagingly at him.

  He turned his head, noting the other speakers were indeed taking their places on the dais. He also observed that there were only enough places for five speakers, Judge Griffen, Katherine, and Janine.

  “I thought Samantha would be seated at the head table,” Adam commented quietly.

  A mask slid over Janine’s features. “It would have made things very uneven. The other speakers have wives. We had to draw the line somewhere.” Her lips thinned into a scarlet slash as she turned her narrowed gaze full force on Samantha. “I see you added a table for the Wounded Warrior Project.”

  “Actually, your father suggested it to Judge Baylor, I guess he forgot to tell you,” Samantha arched a speculative brow. “I really didn’t expect to sit up there, Adam,” she added quickly. “I’ll be fine at—”

  “Don’t worry about Sam, Adam,” Tom Douglas, one of the attorneys, was close enough to hear the gist of the exchange. “She can grace our table of seven bachelors,” he returned equably, the invitation was loudly sustained by the rest of the group. Adam reluctantly escorted Janine to the speakers’ table while Samantha supplied the only feminine touch at a table of handsome lawyers.

  As the meal progressed, Samantha found herself enjoying the delicious food, sparkling wine, and stimulating conversation peppered with good-natured spicy wit. She was supremely conscious of a pair of gleaming green eyes that seemed to take in her every move.

  After the waiters had cleared all but the after-dinner coffee cups, the speeches began. The governor’s appearance surprised everyone, as did his humorous speech that started off the ‘roast’. The mayor came next, followed by assorted state and local dignitaries. The audience was treated to many amusing anecdotes and
embarrassing incidents as the speakers could remember. It was quite apparent by the emotional timbre in his voice, that Judge Harold Griffen was touched by the whole affair. When he finally took control of the lectern and microphone, he was more than ready to respond in kind to the good-natured witticisms that were leveled by his many friends and associates.

  Samantha had just taken a final swallow of coffee when she was startled to hear the judge mention her name and felt color surge into her cheeks as heads turned in her direction. At last the awards, toasts, and speeches had finished, leaving the guests to wander into the lounge for dancing and after-dinner drinks.

  Samantha looked up and found her employer smiling down at her. “I intend to beat Adam to the punch and claim the first dance with you,” he smiled, taking her hand and leading her onto the dance floor. “It appears that I am again put in the position of apologizing for my daughter,” Judge Griffen sighed, guiding her to the rhythm of the soft music. “I’m so sorry that you were excluded from the main table. The only consolation I can offer is this is the last time you’ll have to be the recipient of her rudeness.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she smiled kindly at him. “The sad part is this is also the last time I shall see you and Katherine for three months.”

  He nodded. “We’re taking the afternoon plane for New York tomorrow, flying to Madrid and boarding the cruise ship on Tuesday. We will, however, make it our business to see you when we return,” the judge stated, then added slyly, “of course, we may be visiting you in Virginia.”

  “What gives you the idea I’m moving to Virginia?” Samantha countered lightly, eager to hear his reply.

  “You and Adam have been keeping pretty close company and there’s that rather special way you look at each other.”

  “You’ve very good eyesight,” she told him primly.

  “You are in love with him, aren’t you?”

  “I love him very much,” she answered simply, her face reflecting her emotions. “I just hope he feels the same.”