They walked onto the dance floor together as the fluid chords of Maxwell’s “Whenever Wherever Whatever” flowed over Cecelia. She glided into Henri’s embrace, pressing herself closer than she probably would if the music and the dimmed lights were not so intoxicating. With his arms around her waist, she had no choice but to place her arms around his neck. He stood taller than her five-five, but her head could lie nicely on his solid chest. She resisted the urge to rest her head on his body, a difficult task because gentle hints of water, mint and teak on his skin ebbed under her nose. She liked the way he smelled.
Suddenly, his hand moved up her spine and back down slowly. She looked up at him, and he smiled. His eyes actually sparkled.
What the hell, she thought and smiled back. She stopped fighting and laid her head on his chest, inhaling his fresh, woodsy scent and imagining what it would smell like coming directly off his skin. Cecelia pictured a dark spattering of silky chest hair rubbing feather-like across her nose. What would his skin taste like if she licked it?
Henri bent his head down so that his rough cheek rubbed against Cecelia’s. Her skin tingled.
“You feel so soft, Cece.”
His voice was a wave crashing against her resolve. Maybe she could take him home. He seemed willing. Her body said she was. Maybe.
Then the song was over, and he released her. Dazed for a moment, her resolve quickly repaired itself, and she knew she wasn’t the kind of woman who had one-night stands. Especially with colleagues. Where would that lead?
“Thank you for the dance, Henri.”
“We should do it again, Cece. Soon.” He gave her the mischievous grin once more.
She nodded and walked away. The tingling in the bottom of her stomach spread downward between her legs.
“So? How was it?” Paula asked when she sat down.
“It was a dance.”
“Right. I ordered you another margarita.” She pointed to the massive glass in front of Cecelia.
“Thanks.”
Paula wanted to go to a club after they left the restaurant, but Cecelia wanted to go home and contemplate her dance with Henri. The aftereffects of being so close to such an attractive, intelligent man kept building even through the rest of the evening. She felt certain she would have to relieve that pressure when she got home and in bed.
Before she could go home, however, she had to get the books she was reading for her latest article. She cursed aloud when she realized she’d left them in her office, so ready was she to strip under the covers, but there was no way she could leave them.
Cecelia saw a light on in the graduate assistants’ office beside the elevator. She peered in, telling herself she wasn’t looking for Aubrey. Why would he be there anyway? As late as it was, she would probably meet one of the cleaning staff and be embarrassed when she had no reason for looking into the room.
Aubrey’s desk was the second one next to the door.
“Oh!” She gasped when he was actually there. “What are you still doing here?”
“I should ask you the same. I thought you were going out.”
“I’ve been. Now I’m back.”
“What time is it?” He looked concerned.
“Nine.”
“I didn’t mean to be here so long. I was trying to finish these exams before tomorrow night.”
“Oh. You have a date?” Cecelia teased.
He smiled and nodded.
“Well, you get back to work. I’m just going to my office to get a few books I need. Have a good night.”
“Wait. I’ll walk you to your office.” He quickly gathered the papers into a stack on the desk. He turned off the light and stood beside her, ready to go.
Shutting the door, his arm brushed against Cecelia’s, causing an unexpected flare-up of the pressure she was trying to hold at bay.
“Did you have fun?”
“It was good. I hadn’t been out in a long time.”
“You and your husband don’t get out much?”
“We don’t get out at all. We’re separated.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She pushed the elevator button. “I notice you get out quite a bit.”
“I date my share of women.”
“Three men’s share.”
He laughed. “I enjoy the company of women. But it’s hard to find a woman with the total package: intellect, sophistication and sex appeal.”
“You just have to keep looking. You’ll find that diamond in the rough, eventually.”
“A lot of what I get is the rough. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places. Where do women like you hang out?”
“Normally, in my living room.”
Silently, they rode in the close space of the elevator. His cologne’s spicy musk wafted subtly. Cecelia stood as close to him as she could without appearing to do so.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you I like your new haircut,” Aubrey said as they left the elevator.
“Thank you.” Cecelia touched her short, raven hair. The spiky-on-top haircut had been an attempt to revive something in her life, herself. It hadn’t worked. Or maybe it had. “It’s something new I’m trying.”
“It’s good to try new things, especially when it agrees with you.”
“Really?” She looked at him hard, feeling the pressure build.
“Always.”
Cecelia walked into her office first, with Aubrey behind her.
“Close the door, please.”
Giving up the ghost of resistance, Cecelia grabbed the sides of Aubrey’s head and pressed her lips against his full ones. She pushed him against the door with her body. His lips were just as soft as she had imagined them to be.
“Dr. Sherrod?” He pulled out of the kiss hesitantly.
“Hmmm?” The feel of their lips together lingered.
“Are you sure?”
She opened her eyes and took in his questioning face. She was definitely sure. She wanted this.
“Take off my pants.” She commanded him gently, but firmly.
Obeying her, he slowly unclasped her button, unzipped her pants and pulled them down over the sides of her hips without taking his eyes off her face.
“My panties, too.”
He repeated the sliding motion, but he allowed his hands to caress her hips before letting her pink silk panties fall to her ankles.
Cecelia kicked them off over her nude heels. She grabbed his hand and hopped onto the edge of her desk. She pulled him between her legs and kissed him again. This time there was no hesitation in his kiss. He pressed against her lips with need and urgency. Her stomach quivered with the idea that a man could need her, not for cooking or washing, but for lustful satisfaction. Aubrey’s kiss said only she could satisfy his need.
Cecelia had been like a dead thing, sleepwalking for the past few years. Even when she and Donald had sex, it was ordinary and mechanical. A biological function they performed to scratch an anatomical itch. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt like a woman full of desire, passion and prowess. But tonight she awakened. She didn’t know if it was the dance with Henri, the talk with Paula, the margaritas or a combination of all three. She hardly cared, however. Tonight, she reincarnated into Desire herself.
“I want to feel your lips on me,” she said, seductively. “I want to feel your lips move up my thigh, and then, I want to feel your tongue as you taste me.”
Aubrey’s eyes widened, followed by a raised eyebrow. He smiled and dropped to his knees. Next, he snapped her forward by her hips.
“Oh!” she gasped in surprise.
“Just trying to please, Dr. Sherrod.”
She caressed his face.
He began slowly, taking her bare foot in his hands. He planted feather-soft kisses on the sole of her foot before kissing the top. Massaging it, he moved up to the side of her ankle, her calf and her inner thigh with his lips. Then he moved to her other foot, but by the time he had reached her thigh, his tongue moved wet and warm against he
r skin. And then, it was there, between her legs, wet against her lips. Aubrey licked her outer lips, before running his tongue hungrily inside them. Cecelia threw her head back and moaned from the pit of her stomach. She felt like her body was releasing rays of rainbow light.
“Oh my god, Aubrey!”
He answered her by pulling her bud into his mouth, alternately licking and sucking it.
“Don’t stop! Don’t you dare stop!” She pushed forward, trying to smother his face with her wetness.
Soon, the light that she felt escaping from her body turned inward and overtook her, building quickly and pressing against all of her pressure points. She was going to implode, shooting beautiful sexy new light, all over Aubrey.
Obviously sensing this, he sucked just a little harder and inserted his finger inside of her. She couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Oh, goooooooodddd!” she screamed as the light spilled from her body.
Shaking, Cecelia was unaware of where she was or who she was until she felt someone rubbing his face against her thigh.
“Oh, Aubrey.”
“Dr. Sherrod, you seem pleased.”
“I am.” She thought it odd that he would still call her Dr. Sherrod after that, but somehow she liked it so she didn’t correct him. “But we should both be pleased.”
“I enjoyed pleasing you. You’re so beautiful when you come.”
“Are you real?” She laughed. “Come here, boy.”
He stood up and still sitting on the edge of her desk, she undressed him. First his shirt, next his pants, then his shorts hit the floor. Cecelia gasped at the huge thickness of his dark penis.
“Yes, we are both going to be pleased.” She smiled.
She unbuttoned her blouse and discarded it along with her pink bra. With one stroke of her arm, she cleared her desk of the books, papers, nameplate and In and Out trays that kept her life neat and ordered. She kissed him, and tasting herself, became more aroused. This experience was wholly new for her. Cecelia lay back and pulled Aubrey on top of her. Her hands moved across his bare back as he kissed her neck. They ran across his butt and back up his spine before she gave in to the urge to feel his chocolate skin against her tongue. She licked his shoulder up to his neck and bit his earlobe. She sucked on it, relishing the feel of a man’s flesh between her lips. She was hungry for him; she was hungry for this.
“I need you inside of me,” she let out on a fevered breath.
Kissing her again, his tongue filling her mouth, he pushed into her slowly.
He closed his eyes and moaned.
They began to dance a slow groove, their bodies in complete sync with each other. He felt so good inside of her. She was definitely no longer a dead thing. He made every cell in her body come alive and evolve.
He pushed deeper into her. Cecelia received him, melding her body around him, claiming him as he thrust in, recalling him just when he pulled out.
“Damn, Dr. Sherrod, you feel so good.”
She pulled his mouth to hers and pushed her tongue into it. She thrust her hips forward, willing him to go faster, deeper if he could. The light was building again inside of her. Cecelia wanted this feeling to last forever, but she needed to see where the rainbow-colored light ended. It was a paradox she couldn’t solve, and she didn’t care. She moved faster.
“Aubrey, oh god, Aubrey!”
“Dr. Sherrod, you gotta come, baby. I can’t hold back any longer.”
The light was building…it was building…it was so bright…it was so full…she couldn’t hold it…she couldn’t…she couldn’t…
“Ohhhhh!”
“Yes, baby! Yes!”
She broke apart into a million points of light, shards of brightness scattered across her desk and Aubrey. She lay spent, weightless and glowing.
Aubrey kissed her and rolled over onto the sliver of desk space left. After a while, he sat up on his elbow and smiled down at her.
“I want you to know that I don’t expect anything from you,” she assured him.
“I want whatever you want. This can be as easy or as serious as you want it. I have always been attracted to you, Dr. Sherrod. So if you want more, it can be more. And we can go as fast or as slow as you want to go.”
Cecelia shivered, pleased by his words and an aftershock of her orgasm. “I guess we can work that out. Right now, I want to go again. And call me Cece.”
“Cece, damn, you feel good,” he cried out as she took his growing hardness into her mouth.
She had to admit, for the first time in a long time, she did feel good.
Charlotte’s New Toy
Lavender Daye
Charlotte Kincaid stepped into the restaurant’s private dining room and looked around at the local business owners already gathered in the space. She didn’t enjoy these meetings but felt honor bound to attend. Her father had insisted before he left that she should continue his work in the community.
She understood his reasoning, but didn’t appreciate the condescension in the roomful of blowhards and chauvinists. Most just wanted to get their name in the paper for some little donation they made, but few offered their time.
A smattering of local politicians sat at the front table and the mayor waved, but she refused to be stuck next to him again. A married man looking for a fling was so not her style. Instead, she smiled and gave him her cutesy wave and turned away.
Her accounting firm took care of most of the major businesses in town and in order to have any life at all, she’d developed a persona that kept business talk to a minimum at these functions. She acted the social butterfly and rarely sat next to men in this venue, if she could help it. Once or twice, she’d been cornered by the mayor. He’d backed off a little since she’d developed a friendship with his wife. Mostly, it kept the rumors at bay and gave her some breathing room.
A single woman running a large business was suspect in this county full of alpha males, even when women ran corporations all over Dallas, just one county northwest of her office. She didn’t like playing her father’s game, but she’d learned to keep her secrets close to the vest.
Namely, that Kincaid Business Resources wasn’t run by her father anymore.
Not an easy secret to keep, since he’d moved to Florida with his submissive girlfriend three months ago. The official word alluded to business conferences, but he hadn’t so much as checked in with her. He had faith in her abilities, and so did she.
Knowing her dad, he was having too much fun in his retirement. Thank god he didn’t have any heart conditions for her to worry about while he got his daily exercise.
“Excuse me? Mind if I share your table?”
The strong male voice pulled her out of her musings, and she looked up into dark-brown eyes with a hint of humor in them. A quick scan of his body told her exactly who he was.
“Of course,” she replied, patting the chair beside her.
“I’m Jeff Sutter.”
“Yes, I know.” Charlotte smiled at his wary look. “I’ve seen your billboard.”
“Oh yeah. I keep forgetting about that.” He shook his head and grinned. “I was talked into it. Really.”
Oh my. Could he really be shy about his body? That handsome face and buffed physique had caused more than a few fender benders the first week the billboard went up. “How’s business since the ad campaign started?”
“We’ve had a little uptick,” he said just before the committee chairman called the meeting to order.
She leaned close and introduced herself with a warm breath across his throat. “I’m Charlotte Kincaid.”
The muscles in his arm, the one her breast pressed into, tightened, and she welcomed his response.
“Nice to meet you, Charlotte.”
They were forced to listen to the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce talk about the winter carnival he wanted to organize. The man droned on and on while she silently reviewed the information she had on Jeff Sutter. Unmarried, he’d recently moved to town and opened a private gy
m. He’d been seen out and about with a couple of her clients, a married couple, and she’d assumed he was a family friend.
A scattering of applause keyed her into a break in the program, and she followed suit, clapping lightly and leaning back in her chair. Waiters arrived with lunch, and she sipped her water, watching Jeff’s expression and waiting to see if he’d initiate conversation.
“A friend recommended your accounting firm. Do you have room in your schedule to look at my books?”
“I’m sure I can move some things around and fit you in,” she said, her eyes meeting his. Fitting him in was exactly what she wanted to do, eventually. “Perhaps we could get some dinner and talk about your needs. It would help me formulate a business plan for your gym.”
“That’s a good idea.”
The spark of interest in his gaze was welcome. Something she could work with and build into a blaze. “I’m glad you think so. I spend most of my life in my office. I’m thinking of redecorating just to make it more like a home.”
He laughed, a rough jumble of sounds just between them. “When?”
Charlotte reached for her purse and pulled out her phone. Paging through her calendar, she stopped and backtracked. “Next month on the fifth, or tonight?”
The slow curl of his lips said volumes, and she wondered how many women had propositioned him since his arrival. Too many to count, most likely. But her idea of sex wasn’t exactly mainstream.
“Tonight is good,” he replied. “Where would you like to meet? Or shall I pick you up?”
She gave him a fresh onceover and raised a brow. “I think it best if I drive. We’ll go to my club. Their restaurant is private, and the food’s excellent.”
His expression changed, a bit put off at her decision to take the reins. If he only knew what else she’d change in his life tonight.
“Trust me.”
Charlotte glanced over at Jeff in her passenger seat. He was off kilter, clearly not used to his date driving. He’d get over it.
Taking him to Private Delights was a gamble, but worthwhile if all went in her favor. He’d understand more about her once they entered the club, and she’d learn a few things about him. Still, risking exposure of her private life could cause a few issues in the business community, but she’d had enough hiding.
Sex Objects Page 10
