Mona Lisa's Room

by Vonnie Davis

  Dark eyes locked on hers.

  She cleared her throat. “That might have been a mistake.”

  His head tilted to the side and his eyes darkened. He hardened and lengthened and thickened. Oh dear God!

  She swallowed.

  His hips rocked once against her.

  Fireworks went off in her system. She moaned.

  He bent his head and kissed her, his tongue doing a sweet dual with hers and his hand traveled beneath her sleep shirt. His thumb rubbed across her nipple, and she gasped.

  “Am I hurting you? Too heavy?” He slid to the side so he relieved any pressure to her shoulder. He slid an arm under her neck and lifted her. “Let me get this thing off.” He tugged at the hem of her sleep shirt. “I want to see you.”

  The moment of truth. Thirty-year-old man looks at forty-year-old woman—up close and personal. Her body had so many flaws. Would she turn him off?

  He tossed the garment aside and laid her back down. His fingertips traced a slow trail down her neck toward her breasts. “You’re so beautiful. Your skin reminds me of velvet.” He bent his head and pressed his lips to her collarbone. “I think I’ll buy you a velvet gown. Sky blue to rival your eyes.”

  As his kisses traveled down her body, so did his hand. His warm lips and gentle touches were sweet torture. His fingers sought her core. “Ah, a Brazilian wax, mon amour?”

  She stilled when he stroked her. No man had ever touched her in her most intimate place.

  Niko obviously sensed her discomfort. “Don’t you like my touch? Am I too rough? Too gentle? Tell me what you enjoy?”

  The heat of a blush crept up her neck. “I…I’m not used to talking about sex.” Great, I sound virginal—or frigid. “No one’s ever asked me what I like.”

  “Don’t talk to my throat, cherie. Look into my eyes and talk to me.” His hand was splayed across her abdomen. Heat spiraled throughout her body from his touch.

  She lifted her gaze. He kissed her forehead and then her lips. “Is expressing your sexual desires hard for you?” She nodded, feeling like a fool. “Do you want me to make love to you?”

  Alyson cleared her throat and blinked away tears. Say, hell yeah, fool!

  “Then say it.” His head tilted to the side. “I want to hear you say the words, and I think you need to voice your desires. To liberate your internal sexual vixen.”

  Did she even have an internal sexual vixen? Maybe in her college years, to a degree, but nothing like she imagined Niko preferred. “I want…” She cleared her throat. “I want you to make love to me.” She trailed a finger through the hair on his chest. “I’m older than you, and yet you’re obviously more experienced. That bothers me. What if I don’t measure up?”

  “You measure up just fine, mon amour.” He kissed below her ear and scraped his teeth down her neck. She shivered in response. “Tell me, how many men have you been with?”

  She cleared her throat again. This really was hard to talk about, and she hated the uptight way she reacted. Gwen would tell her to relax and go with the flow. “Three. I’ve had three lovers. Two in college and Chaz.”

  “I’d like to kill them all.”

  Her gaze lifted to his again. The vehemence in his voice surprised her.

  “I’m a very jealous man where you’re concerned. I realized that when Marie-Clare told me about the arresting office fondling you. I knew then how protective I felt. How proprietary. So make no mistake about it, once I have you, no other man will ever touch you. Is that clear? You’ll be mine forever.”

  Odd, but his words were a turn-on. Or was she merely needy at this point, lying naked in bed with an equally naked man? One who made her insides flutter for days. “Were you like this with every woman in your life?”

  “No, and that strikes me as odd as it probably does you.” He took her hand and toyed with her fingers, kissing them one by one. “There was once a woman in my life I loved. Hae-Won, a journalistic photographer. At least I thought I loved her. The level of my love for her was never as intense as what I feel for you.” He kissed her and pulled her toward him.

  This was the first he’d mentioned this woman, and she was touched he was opening up about her.

  “Do you trust me, cherie?” The tip of his tongue traced a path around her ear, while his fingers toyed with her nipple. She shifted on the bed, his touches arousing her.

  “Yes.” Why doesn’t he just get on top of me and end both of our miseries?

  “Enough to allow me to do anything to you?”

  Oh no, was he into kink? Bondage? Was she lying in bed naked with a sexual deviant? She cleared her throat. “Ah…what exactly are you thinking? I’m not into anything kinky or painful.” There, she’d said it.

  His hand cupped her breast and he bent his head to flick his tongue over her nipple. Her eyes crossed and her back arched. “I’m thinking of a way to make you relax and enjoy sex. Maybe if I blindfolded you.”

  “Blindfold?” Oh, good Lord. “I don’t see how that would relax me. Really, I don’t.”

  “Don’t tense, mon amour. I would never hurt you or do anything you didn’t like.” He flicked his tongue over her nipple again, drawing it into his mouth. She moaned again. “You see, I’m already learning what you enjoy. What if I put the blindfold on you, and you take it off at the point you feel uncomfortable?”

  Actually, she was rather intrigued by the idea, if not a shade scared.

  “A woman should never be afraid of her sexuality. Or of her power.”

  “Power?” She gazed into his eyes. “Since when do women have power over men?” His lips twitched as if he wanted to smile. “Don’t you dare laugh at me. Not when I’m lying in front of you naked.” And at my most vulnerable.

  “Stay right here.” Niko rolled out of bed and strutted over to his suitcase. Alyson’s eyes followed him. What a scrumptious ass. Ripe cantaloupes came to mind. Chaz’s had been more like wine sacs. She bit her lower lip to keep from laughing. Why was it so easy for her to think lascivious thoughts, but damned difficult to voice them?

  Niko returned with a necktie. “Will you allow me to put this over your eyes?”

  She glanced at the black tie, decorated with large moss green swirls, loosely held in his hands and reached for it. “Give it to me and I’ll tie it around your eyes instead. Why do I have to be the vulnerable one? Why not you?”

  His dark eyes narrowed. “Me? You want me to be the powerless one?”

  “Do I scare you?” She slowly pulled the tie from his fingers. “You must never be afraid of your sexuality, Niko. Does my inner vixen scare you?” How did he like having his words thrown back at him? “Be a big boy and sit down, let the vixen blindfold you.”

  She winked and his eyes widened.

  After she tied the tie around his head and checked to make sure his eyes were covered, he lay across the bed, spread-eagle in all his naked glory. And he is glorious. He evidently got over the shock of her turning the tables on him; even so, he still tried to retain a measure of control. “You can look at me all you want and touch me wherever. I am yours, cherie.”

  Well now, if this wasn’t a fantasy come true. For just a few moments, Alyson looked, her eyes drinking in every part of his anatomy. Gwen’s favorite male description came to mind—all that meat and no potatoes.

  Finally, Niko spoke. “Don’t you see anything you wish to touch or kiss?”

  Now who was feeling vulnerable? A slow smile spread. Oh yeah, this might be fun, at that. With just a fingertip she touched the arch of his slender foot. His toes curled. She ran a finger up his calf and across his knee. It jerked.

  On a flicker of inspiration, she stuck her finger in her mouth and moistened it. Then she trailed it up the inside of his muscular thigh. His lips parted and a low moan escaped. Emboldened by his reaction and by his manhood standing tall, like a proud Marine ready to salute, she moistened her finger again. Leaning over him, she trailed her finger around the head of his erection. He gasped. When she blew her breathe over
him to dry the moisture, he moaned louder.

  “I’ve been thinking of a nickname for you.” As she spoke, she ran her fingertip, ever so lightly down his shaft and around the base, touching everything she saw. His reaction showed the power she had over him, and she loved it. Grew bolder with it. She touched the head with the tip of her tongue—quite lightly, you understand. Niko whined. Whined, mind you. She smiled again. Oh yeah, for sure she was enjoying this power thing.

  “What shall I call you, Niko? Hmm?” She touched her tongue lower.

  “Any…anything.” His hands fisted in her hair.

  She made a tsking sound. “I can touch you, but you can’t touch me. Those are the rules.”

  “Rules?” His voice squeaked. “I never made any rules.”

  “It’s not your place to make the rules.” She leaned over him and whispered in his ear. “It’s my place. I make the rules. Rule number one: No touching.”

  “You’re a hard taskmaster, cherie.” She noted beads of perspiration on his forehead. She lifted his hand and turned it over, placing a kiss on his palm. “You’re used to being in control, aren’t you, Captain Reynard.”

  “Yes. Always.”

  “I imagine you’re used to being in control with your women, too. Yes?”

  He smiled that cocky smile. “Of course. It is a man’s place to…” She jerked some of his chest hair. “Ouch! What was that for?”

  “For your egotism. I assure you, you’ll never control me.” She ran her tongue up and down his middle finger. “Been there, done that. I’m my own person now. Can you handle that?” She took his finger in her mouth and mimicked what he was hoping she’d do to another part of his anatomy. Meanwhile, she lightly scraped her nails over his testicles.

  “I can handle anything you dish out.” His jaw clenched when he made the claim.

  “Oh, aren’t we all brave and ‘studly’?” She grinned, and if Niko could see the grin, she imagined he’d call it evil. She ran her tongue over his lips and bit his chin. “Let’s see how good you are at living up to your word.” She ran the tip of her tongue around the curve of his ear and his breathing rasped. “Tell me, do you enjoy eating muffins?”

  “What? What do muffins have to do with sex?” He licked his lips.

  “I was thinking I’d call you stud muffin for a nickname.” She bit his earlobe. “Is that okay with you?” She did a poor breathy imitation of Marilyn Monroe.

  Now he was the one clearing his throat. “O…okay.”

  She ran a fingertip down his chest and around his nipple. “Stud muffin suits you.” She scraped the tip of her fingernail over his nipple and it pebbled. His back arched and he groaned.

  Her tongue flicked over the bead, and then she bit it. Breath hissed out between his clenched teeth. “The first time I saw you, I thought you had sexual potential.” She sucked his nipple. His fists clenched the bed clothes and his erection grew larger, if that were possible.

  “I need to touch you.”

  “Sorry, life has rules. You have to obey them.” She rubbed her breasts over his pectoral muscles, enjoying the feel of his chest hair abrading her skin. His skin was warm where she touched him. She ran her tongue around his navel and kissed it. His skin quivered. “Did I just make you quiver? You know, I think you did. Didn’t you tell me in the shoe store a few days ago that ‘if you wanted to make me quiver, you damn well could’?” Her fingertip circled his erection, slowly and continually.

  “Yes, dammit. Aly, you’re killing me here.”

  Ignoring his remark, she continued with her taunting, loving she could watch him, but he couldn’t watch her. “Now you say you want to be my stud muffin.” Her hand encircled him. “Am I right? Do you want to be my man, my stud muffin?”

  “Damn straight. Now let me touch you.”

  “Sorry, rules, you know.” She wrapped her hand around him and began a slow stroking process as she talked. By now she was so heady with this newfound sense of power she doubted she’d ever want to relinquish it. “I wonder, stud muffin, if you can keep up with me? Do you think you can? Do you think you can handle the ride?” She straddled him and took him into her in one long stroke.

  Niko lifted his head. “Condom! Get the condoms from my suitcase!”

  Alyson closed her eyes. She heard him talking, but words weren’t registering right now. Only sensations. First the filling sensation she missed for so long. Then the size sensation she never really had. While they were fabulous, the sensation that had her soaring so soon was this man she cared about being deeply inside her. Every movement she made, every rise and fall of her body over him, with him, brought her closer to something she hadn’t experienced in years.

  “Condom!”

  “Not yet!” She was so close. Oh, sweet heaven, how good he feels. The tension was building, building so sweet and so strong she didn’t think she could bear it. Yet it was something she needed. He was someone she needed. This…this moment was everything she needed.

  “Dear God, Aly. Stop and get a condom. You feel too good.” He was moving with her, his face contorted as if he, too, were in the throes of ecstasy. “So sweet. So hot. So tight. I can’t hold back much longer.”

  His words barely registered. It was as if her mind with all logical thinking had shut down. All that mattered was the cliff she was racing toward. With a cry of joy and an enormous shudder of release, she leaped from the cliff and for a few brief, glorious seconds, she defied gravity and soared. Niko’s name tumbled from her lips. A minute later, he cried her name as he reached the jumping-off point, too.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Niko banded his arms around her and held her close. He exhaled her name on a ragged moan. Alyson snuggled and sighed. She’d never felt so light, so satisfied, so empowered—so…so free of past hurts. At the peak of her climax, her soul shattered into speckles of glitter. Eventually, in slow motion, her soul pieced itself together again, like a butterfly puzzle, only now her soul fabricated into a multidimensional puzzle. She’d never be a flat picture again. For she was a woman, a woman with sensual power. A smile of self-acceptance bloomed, and Alyson reveled in her self-discovery. Niko had granted her this experience, in which she—boring, demure Alyson Moore—released her internal sexual vixen.

  She kissed his neck, too breathless to talk. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the newness of whom she’d become.

  With one arm around her, Niko rolled her over and snatched off the blindfold. His eyes were so wild, they took her breath away. “No woman has ever done that to me.” He took several deep breaths as if to calm himself. The wildness in his eyes transformed to embarrassment. “You took away my self-control. You unmanned me.”

  She rested her hand on his cheek. “Wasn’t it glorious?” How odd that at forty she finally discovered her femininity.

  “A man needs some measure of control. You left me none.”

  Why was he angry? “What I did to you, isn’t that what you planned to do to me?”

  He gave that irritating one shouldered shrug. “That’s different. Men enjoy transporting their women to sensual heights. To control them.”

  “That is such bullshit.” She shoved at his chest. Damn him for ruining this for her. “You wanted me to submit to you. That would have been fine and dandy. But because you submitted to me, now your fragile male ego can’t take it.”

  Niko’s gaze shifted to his suitcase. “I told you to stop for a condom.”

  “Do you have a sexually transmitted disease?”

  “Of course not. I always use a condom.”

  “Then why are you so upset? Do you think I caught something from Chaz? Believe me, the first thing I did when I found out he was gay was see my gynecologist for tests. I have a clean bill of health.”

  He rolled over and laid his arm over his eyes. “What about pregnancy?”

  What remained of her after-sex glow diminished. “I haven’t used birth control for eight years. I can’t get pregnant.”

  “What if Chaz was sterile? W
hat if the problem was him, not you?”

  “Look, buster, if some miracle just happened and I conceived, you needn’t worry. I won’t saddle you with any responsibility.” She covered herself with the sheet, feeling the sting of his words. The tone of his voice rankled. His expression was like a dark storm cloud. “Look, if you didn’t want to have sex with me, why didn’t you stop me?”

  “Stop you? Hell, I couldn’t even get you to slow down long enough so I could put on a damn condom!” Niko stood and stomped over to his suitcase. He pulled out a fistful of rubbers and tossed them on the bed. “Next time, use one!”

  He couldn’t have hurt her any more if he tossed a knife into her heart. She tossed them back. “Don’t worry. There won’t be a next time.” With the sheet wrapped around her like a sex-scented sarong, she stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door.

  ****

  Niko ran both hands through his hair. You certainly handled that well, asshole. He glanced back at the bathroom door, no doubt locked. A long, slow breath exhaled. Man, could he have bungled that scene any worse?

  Seeing the pain on her face before she stormed out of the room finally brought him back to his senses. She glowed earlier. Glowed from loving him. If the delightful way she clenched around him was any indication, she had a magnificent climax. He pulled a pair of black boxers out of his suitcase, stepped into them and glanced once more at the door. Damned if he had a memorable climax himself. He never had sex without a condom before. The feel of her—he groaned and hardened with the memory—a man could spend a lifetime loving her and never get enough.

  Their foreplay started out playful. Then she turned the tables and took charge. Not only had she taken charge, she treated him as if he no longer belonged to himself, but to her. He needed boundaries. He could not lose himself to her. He had to retain control.