He came to a fork in the path. He’d been in here before and tried to remember which one had taken him to where he wanted to go.
He headed to the right, his memory shorting out as her tongue drove him crazy, and figured instinct was working well for him; he’d let it lead where it may.
He broke off the kiss when he heard the gurgling of the fountain.
Livvy groaned. “No, Sean. You can’t stop again.”
“I have no intention of stopping.” He cupped her cheek so he could look into her eyes. “Look where we are.”
She nibbled her lip—puffy from him this time—and looked around. The center of the maze was a large courtyard with a stone fountain and statue in the center, benches and topiaries laid out around it like an English garden, the moonlight blanketing it all in wispy, glistening silence.
“Oh, it’s so beautiful.”
“Not half as beautiful as you.”
Her cheeks flamed then and Sean was lost. The hell with the property, the clues, investors and balance sheets, what was best for her and what was best for him . . . Nothing mattered in this moment but Livvy and the way she was looking at him. The way she wanted him. The way he wanted her. That was what was best for both of them.
Sean sank onto one of the benches, wrapped his arms around her, and let the future take care of itself.
KISSING Sean was an experience all of its own. Livvy sat up on his lap, wound her arms around his neck, and dove in. He wasn’t stopping this time; she could feel it. Whatever reason had held him back was, if not gone, at least put aside. She hoped it was something that wouldn’t make things hard between them later, but given what was hard between them right now, she was willing to worry about the future in the, well, future.
“Are you sure, Livvy?” Sean growled against her lips, the look in his eyes taking her breath away as much as his kiss was. “Because if we go on any longer, I’m not going to be able to stop.” He ran his tongue over her bottom lip and she’d never been surer of anything in her life. “I won’t want to stop.” Then he licked her upper lip. “I don’t want to stop.” He kissed her. Quick and hard and wonderful. “I want you.” This kiss was sweet and delicious and skin-shiveringly good. “Here.” And another. “Now.”
She turned in his arms and slid a leg between them so that she was straddling him on the bench. There would be no doubt exactly how much she did want him.
There certainly wasn’t any question about what he wanted. His erection strained against the silky fabric of his shorts, leaving nothing and everything to her imagination.
She moved against him.
Sean’s hands flew to her hips and he wrenched his mouth from where it’d been doing delicious things to her neck. “Hold still. It’s too much all at once. I can’t take it.”
“Ah, you say the sweetest things, Sean.”
“If you think that’s sweet, you’re going to find what I say next downright decadent.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
He skimmed a hand over her hair, then along her shoulder and down her arm, which wasn’t exactly where she wanted him to touch her. About two inches to the right would be perfect. Perfectly decadent.
“That you better stop moving like this if you don’t want me to toss you onto the grass and have my wicked way with you.”
She moved against him.
And moved again.
“Ah, God, Livvy, don’t.” His lips twitched as his smile morphed into a grimace, but Livvy wasn’t buying it. A certain part of him said he was as into the moment as she was, so she was taking his don’t as don’t stop, because it’d been far too long for her and Sean was far too potent, and if he had an issue with that, well, he could just make love to her until they both got it out of their systems.
Hmmm, how could she ensure that he did have an issue?
Shoving the bench slats with her heels, Livvy backed herself up to the very edge of his knees. He wanted wicked? She could do wicked . . .
He tugged her hips. “Hey, where are you going?”
She crossed her arms and pulled her camisole off, then shook her head to tumble her curls down her back, wanting his hands in it—and on her.
She didn’t have long to wait.
“Oh my God.” The words came out in a rush as his breath whooshed out of him. “You have the most gorgeous hair.” He brought a fistful of it to his face and brushed it across his lips before trailing it along her nose and over her own lips. Then lower, along her throat, down to her collarbone, then feathering it down the center of her chest.
Too.
Damn.
Slowly.
She arched her back, her breasts aching for his touch. “Please, Sean.”
He sucked in a breath every bit as harsh as the ache she was feeling. “God, Livvy, do you know what you’re doing to me?” He dropped her hair and instead ran his palm from the base of her throat down between her breasts, his fingertips spanning the distance, teasing her with how close they came to her tight nipples.
So she teased him right back. “Yes, I think I do.” She drew her palm down his chest, smiling when his breath caught as her fingertips brushed his erection. “So what do you think? Do I know what I’m doing?”
“Jesus, woman,” he said on a long exhale. Then he slid his hands under her butt and pulled her back into him. “Last chance,” he whispered against her lips.
“Not taking it,” she said, nipping his bottom lip.
He turned the tables on her, sucking her bottom lip between his teeth and sliding off the bench onto the soft grass in front of it.
“You are so utterly gorgeous, Livvy.” Sean, kneeling over her on all fours, leaned down to kiss her. Their lips were the only point of contact, but the power in that small point was enough to drive her wild.
She lay on the ground below him, shivering with desire, her breasts aching to be pressed against him. To be touched by him. “Stop teasing and kiss me, Sean.”
“I just did.”
“I mean really kiss me.” She fisted his shirt and pulled.
He didn’t budge. “Impatient, are we?”
“We, apparently, are not. I, on the other hand, am. So are you going to get down here and get the job done or are we going to spend our night verbally sparring instead?”
“Not the whole night.” He kissed her. Short and sweet and wonderful. But not what she wanted. “There. Satisfied?”
“Seriously?” She raised her eyebrows.
“What? You want more?” Sean leaned in, his groin brushing hers, making her forget what they were talking about.
She didn’t, however, forget that his shirt was in her hands.
She ripped it.
It seemed like the easiest way to get it off him.
Sean looked down at his chest, then into her eyes, and he smiled. “Like that, is it?”
She nibbled her bottom lip. He liked when she did that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh huh.” Sean adjusted his weight and lifted an arm from beside her to work it out of the sleeve.
“Don’t tell me you can do one-arm push-ups.” Because she found that a complete turn-on. She had no idea why, but seeing a guy able to do that did it for her.
The look Sean sent her did it for her, too. “I can if I’m motivated.”
She nibbled her lip. “Is that enough motivation?”
He brushed her nose with his. “Not quite.”
“What about this?” She ran both hands down his chest, then around to his backside and squeezed. He had an amazing backside.
“You’re getting warmer.”
She certainly was.
“How about this?” She raised her head and flicked his nipple with her tongue.
“Holy shit.” His elbows wobbled and he caught himself at the last second before he fell onto her. “Damn, woman, that’s not
fair.”
“We’re playing fair?” She licked the other one. “How is it fair that you’re all the way up there and I’m all the way down here?”
“Oh, is that a problem?” He adjusted his stance so that his legs were directly over hers in a classic push-up pose, holding himself there effortlessly and making no move whatsoever to come closer.
So she pressed down on his butt.
Sean didn’t fight her on this. He lowered himself onto her, still keeping the bulk of his weight off her, but teasing her with the most delicious points of contact ever. He swayed back and forth slightly, his chest sending her nipples on high alert, and she wished to high heaven that’d he’d follow her lead and do some clothes-ripping of his own. She needed to feel him against her.
She pressed on his butt some more.
Then she grabbed it.
That did the trick. He finally lay on her and it was utter heaven.
He angled his head to the other side, moving his weight to his elbows, and cradled her head in his palms as he deepened the kiss.
She wrapped her arms around the small of his back. God, he felt so good pressed against her. All hard strength and coiled desire. He did desire her; of that there was no doubt.
And now she had none about what they were doing. About how far she wanted it to go. Sher was right; there was no sense living in the future if she never got there. One day the future would be the present and this was as good a time as any to realize it.
She slipped her hands beneath his waistband. “I want you, Sean.”
He sucked in a breath—and her tongue—and his arms gave out.
He recovered quickly—too quickly—and lifted himself off her. But, thank God, nowhere near as far from her as he had been before. “Jesus, Livvy. Do you know what you’re saying?”
“I do. Absolutely.” And for the first time in her life, she was acting on it without thinking it through to the nth degree of ramifications. They were two consenting adults who had no other agenda besides the one fate had lobbed at them, and she was more than willing to knock it out of the park.
“No,” she breathed when he rolled off her, breaking the kiss. “Sean, you—”
“Shhh.” He smoothed her hair from her cheek. “I’m too heavy for you.” He rolled onto his back and in a move that almost defied gravity, he pulled her on top of him.
“This is how it should be. This is where you should be.” He bunched her hair into a ponytail with one hand and ran the other down her back.
She shivered.
“Like that?”
She nodded.
“How about this?”
He squeezed her butt.
She licked her lips.
“Ah, hell, Livvy. I have no defense against that.” He pulled her down and kissed her again.
And then she kissed him. Being on top gave her a certain freedom she didn’t have when he was over her. Now, she could move a bit to the right and press her thigh against his erection.
He groaned.
She smiled.
“You’re going to kill me.”
“I certainly hope not.” She nipped his jaw. “That’d kind of ruin the night.”
“You think?” he growled when she nibbled her way down his throat, the just-right amount of chest hair tickling her chin as she kissed her way from his collarbone to his navel. And maybe lower if the spirit so moved her.
Right now, it was moving her to run her tongue over his nipple. She wanted to hear him gasp in that same breathless sense-of-awe whisper she felt.
You are so in over your head.
Her conscience was right, but for once, she wasn’t going to listen to it.
He let her tease him, his hands fisting in her hair, his chest—his gorgeous six-pack perfect enough to inspire fantasies—quivered beneath her fingertips.
Somehow, her shorts joined her camisole. She didn’t know how and really didn’t care. Now if she could just get her darn thong off.
Sean helped with that.
So she helped him and the next thing she knew, they were naked on the grass.
Naked on the grass. She never thought she’d see the day when she was naked in the moonlight, rolling around on the lawn with a god of a guy who looked as if he were the model for the one in the middle of the fountain.
Eros.
No real man could compare to a god, but Sean was pretty darn close. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him, a fact she confirmed with all ten fingers. And a set of lips. Her cheeks. And her breasts. Oh, how her breasts confirmed that, gliding over every cut line of his abs as she kissed her way down his body. She moved slightly to trace that sexy line by his hip that she was sure had been designed by those very same gods to tempt women into losing their minds, and she wanted to be first in line.
“Livvy, come here.”
She didn’t bother raising her head. The scent of him was calling to her. She wrapped her fingers around him.
“Jesus.”
“No, Livvy. Let’s not forget who we’re with here.”
Sean slid his fingers under her jaw and tilted her head. “Then why don’t you get up here and remind me? Where you are right now? I’m not liable to remember my name in another minute or so, so you might want to take it a bit slower or this will all be over before it’s even started.”
She uncurled her fingers from around him one at a time. Slowly. “Can’t have that now, can we?”
Then she scraped her nails gently up his length.
He moaned. “Oh, God.”
“No. Livvy.” She kissed her way back up his body, never taking her hand from him, her fingertips circling over the head ever so gently.
He speared his hand beneath her hair, cupping her face, and pulled her in for a kiss that defied description. Every perfect move, every sexy, sensual feeling, started in that kiss. It was a kiss like no other; it asked her, it cajoled her, it told her, and demanded things of her, and all she wanted to do was lose herself in it. In him.
She dragged her lips from his, gulping in oxygen in the vain hope that her heart rate would come down out of the stratosphere so she could hear herself think, but she wasn’t thinking all that much at the moment. She was feeling.
And she was feeling that they needed to move this along.
She looked around for her shorts. There. About four feet to the left. Thank God he hadn’t tossed them too far away.
“Where are you going?” Sean grabbed her ankle as she crawled over to her shorts.
“You’ll see.” She stretched out to reach them, her fingertips crab-walking the last few inches to get them. “Sean, let go. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.”
“I’ll be glad not to let go.” His fingers flexed against her skin.
His words warmed her heart and she allowed herself to dream for just a second what that could mean. Where it could go. But only for a second. Dreaming was a big step for her. She hadn’t dreamed of anything like this for a very long time.
She hooked the belt loop with her middle finger and pulled her shorts over, then she scrambled back by Sean’s side. “Here. These are what I was after.”
She pulled two condoms from her back pocket.
“You brought condoms?” He sort of chuckled, sort of groaned.
Good, just the way she wanted him: off-kilter but enjoying the moment. “A girl has to protect herself.”
The left corner of his mouth ticked back. “I’ll protect you, but it’s good to know we have these. I obviously wasn’t expecting this to happen.”
“Why not?”
“Huh?”
“Why not? It can’t be that big of a surprise. The kitchen countertop was unfinished business. Or was I reading it wrong?”
“What? No. Yes.” He exhaled and propped himself up on his elbows, the rise-and-fall of his sexy-as-all-get-out chest
creating a ripple effect across his abdomen that was mesmerizing. She could watch him all day.
All night, too.
“No, you weren’t reading it wrong, Livvy, but it’s one thing to fantasize about, well, that. You. But to think it could happen and prepare for it . . . That would presume a little too much.”
“But I presumed. I thought about it, and I presumed it, and now we’re here.” She held up the condoms. “So carpe noctem and pick a color. Red or Green?”
“What am I, a Christmas tree?”
She looked at his groin. “Well, you’re at least a Douglas fir, and maybe even a mighty oak.”
“I’d go with a giant redwood.”
She really wished she’d mastered the art of raising one eyebrow for this. “Thinking a bit highly of ourselves, are we?”
He smiled. “If I don’t, who will?”
She tapped her lips, enjoying the way his eyes flared when they focused on her finger. “What? There aren’t legions of women lining up to do the honors? A guy like you, I’d think you’d have a harem at your beck and call.”
She said it flippantly, but it was actually something she was worried about. Oh, sure, she knew they weren’t declaring their undying love for each other and swearing monogamy ’til death did them part, but still . . . A woman did like to know she was special.
He sat up and slid his fingers up her arm until he reached her jaw. He splayed them there, his thumb beneath her chin, each one like a torch, starting a slow burn throughout her entire body.
“There’s no harem, Livvy. There’s not even one. Only you. You’re the only woman I’ve been fantasizing about.”
“You’ve fantasized about me?”
He tilted her chin up a tiny bit more. “Is that wrong?”
Yes.
No.
She didn’t know.
He’d fantasized about her. What if she didn’t live up to that fantasy? What if she let him down? Couldn’t be what he wanted?
What if he never wanted to see her again?
He dropped his hand. “God, I’m sorry. I guess that does sound bad, thinking about your boss that way while living under the same roof. I promise, Livvy, it won’t happen again.”
“I don’t want that promise.”
What a Woman Wants (A Manley Maids Novel) Page 21
