by Meg Harris
Later, she told herself again. Right now she was just going to watch him.
His hand moved up and down, slowly, like he was struggling to wait, to control himself. She stroked his nipples again, brushing her thumbs over them lightly but rapidly, and in an instant he seemed to lose all self-control. He leaned his head back, shut his eyes, and began pumping his fist up and down, hard and fast. A low, deep sound of need and pleasure rolled out of his chest, and then his hips jerked spasmodically, and his voice rose in pitch and volume.
"Oh... God... oh... my... God..."
And then he was coming, thick liquid bursting from him, all over his chest and abdomen, all over her hands and wrists. It felt hot on her skin, and the earthy smell of it filled her head and made her physical need sharper and more intense than before. She didn't stop stroking his nipples, and he sobbed and writhed, his teeth clenched, his eyes shut tightly. Come continued to explode from him in spasm after spasm, until his chest glistened with it.
At last he collapsed back against the couch, sucking in a long, deep breath, and dropped his hands to his sides. She discovered her back hurt from bending over so long, so she settled down on the couch beside him and looked at him. He was sweaty and breathless, and his hair was tangled and disheveled... and he was more gorgeous than ever.
"That was the sexiest thing I've ever seen," she said softly.
He opened an eye and looked at her lazily. "Maybe you need to date more."
She laughed and shook her head. "I don't think so."
God help her. She had to admit to herself didn’t react to Theodore this way. Hell, she hardly reacted to Theodore at all. But Mason… She didn’t quite dare tell Mason seriously how hot he was, because she didn't want him to know how badly she'd secretly lusted for him, since virtually the day she’d met him. But she was pretty sure there wasn't a sexier guy on the planet.
Chapter 3
After a few minutes, Mason's breathing began to steady. He reached for his t-shirt and used it to mop off his chest, then looked over at her.
"Your turn," he said.
She could still feel the insistent, desperate burning between her legs, but at his words, her cheeks began to burn, too. No, she thought. She couldn't possibly do... that... with him watching. It was just too intimate.
Besides, she had a boyfriend. Well, maybe it was more accurate to say she'd had a boyfriend, before she'd put her hands all over another guy and watched him come.
But things didn’t actually have to change between her and Theodore. He didn't really have to know about this, did he? It wasn't like she and Mason had totally crossed the line, after all. She'd just kind of... watched. Her participation had been minimal.
Well, okay, maybe a little more than minimal. But still.
The fact was, it had all been a mistake, and there was no way she was going to compound her mistake by letting Mason watch while she... no. Definitely no.
He watched her intently, his eyes glittering like emeralds in the dim light as he observed the emotions playing across her face. "You're wimping out on me, aren't you?"
"I'm not wimping out," she answered, rising from the couch and moving toward her shirt, which had been discarded on the floor. "I just... came to my senses. That's all."
"Hold it." He stood up, zipped up his jeans, crossed in front of her, and grabbed her up by the waist. "No way am I letting you go when you're this turned on."
"I'm not turned on," she said, trying very hard to maintain her air of regal dignity. Considering he was holding her captive, she guessed she wasn't succeeding very well.
But she really didn’t want to get away. His hands felt good against her bare skin, strong and warm, and at his touch she felt more moisture well from the recesses of her body. Geez. Her panties were soaked.
"Crap," he answered flatly. "You're totally turned on, Lora. I can tell by the way you’re breathing. You practically came when I did."
At the blunt words, she felt a spasm deep inside her body. Damn it. He was right. She'd been right on the edge of orgasm for a while, and she needed release very, very badly.
But she could take care of that herself. She didn't need Mason for that. She didn't need Mason at all.
He didn't seem to agree. His hands moved over her, and within thirty seconds she was totally naked. To her own surprise, she did nothing to stop him. Then again, she hardly had the chance. He was damned efficient, she thought, feeling the cool air from the open window against her skin, sending a rush of goosebumps over her body and hardening her nipples to aching peaks. She heard a low growl and knew he'd noticed.
He pulled her toward the couch, then lifted her bodily and sat her on its back. She lowered her feet to the cushions and blinked at him, puzzled.
"Ordinarily I sit on the cushions."
"Not this time." He looked at her with hot eyes. "Spread your legs."
She thought about snarking that he ought to say please, but decided she wasn't in any mood to play Miss Manners. Obediently, she parted her thighs.
She realized that he had a much better view when she was sitting on the back of the couch than he would have if she'd been sitting in her customary seat. He seemed to enjoy the view, because he stared at her for a long moment. His eyes flared with a sensual heat.
"Spread them even wider," he said softly. "And put your left foot up on the arm of the couch."
She did as he directed. Suddenly her body was so exposed to his hungry stare that it was embarrassing, or would have been, if she hadn't been so damned turned on. She could feel how wet she was, could smell her own scent, sweat and female arousal mixed with the odor of Mason's come that still clung to her hands. She shivered in the cool air, and her nipples grew even harder.
She heard his sharp intake of breath. He stepped toward her, and she could see his erection beginning to swell in its denim confinement. His hands caught her thighs, pushing them apart even further, and he stared at her most intimate flesh like it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
"Touch yourself there, Lora."
His voice was a bare whisper, a seductive rasp that brushed away the last of her resistance. She slid her hand up her thigh, ran her fingers through her moisture, and slid her finger over the hard, aching bud of her clitoris.
Sparks exploded through her body, like every nerve in her body was somehow firing at once. She dropped her head back, closed her eyes, and shuddered. Part of her still didn't want to do this in front of him, and she kept the movement of her hand slow, trying to control her own responses. To stay in control of the situation somehow.
He knew her well enough to understand her reactions. He must have recognized that she was holding back, because he took a step forward and wrapped his hand around hers.
"Stop trying to fight it," he whispered in her ear. "Just let it happen."
She looked down at their hands. His hand was so much bigger than hers that it seemed to engulf hers, and it looked almost as if he were the one touching her. She shuddered at the thought of his big, blunt fingers stroking her flesh, wanting him to touch her there so badly she almost begged for it. But she somehow managed to bite back the words.
His big hand pressed on hers gently, forcing her to move her fingers a little harder, a little faster. It felt so incredible that she whimpered and squirmed and might well have fallen over backward if he hadn't thrown his other arm around her waist and caught her.
She couldn't believe how desperately she wanted him to touch her. But he didn't, except for his hand holding hers, and his arm wrapped protectively around her waist. She forced her eyelids open and saw his hot, intense eyes watching their hands moving together, watching her body grow wetter, watching her skin flush with heat at the same time it erupted with more goosebumps.
Self-consciousness flooded her again, along with all her anxieties. She'd never done anything quite like this before with any guy, let alone Mason. They were friends, and she had a boyfriend, and this was just going to make her life so unnecessarily complicated
. Things had been going along just fine the way they were, and she really shouldn't...
Spasms of heat started somewhere deep inside her, growing into intense waves, so powerful she could barely resist giving into them. She made one last effort to resist her climax, struggling to push it away.
"Lora," he said softly. "Stop fighting it and just let go."
His lips brushed over her ear, and she relaxed, letting her hand move freely. She knew she was only seconds away from a violent orgasm, and she couldn't fight it any more. She couldn't fight her desire for Mason any more.
But just as the heat built to an unbearable level, he tightened his hand around hers, slowing the motion of her hand again. Her body arched, and a strangled cry of need escaped her.
"You're going to come for me," he said into her ear. "Over and over again. You're going to come harder than you've ever come for Theodore."
She could hardly believe this was the same man who'd turned the color of a tomato because she'd caught him jerking off. He sounded so much more decisive suddenly. So commanding. And so... jealous. She'd never thought Mason cared all that much about her relationship with Theodore.
Maybe she'd been wrong.
He held her hand firmly, forcing her into a slow rhythm that didn't give her release, just kept her balanced precariously on a knife edge of physical need. His voice spoke in her ear, low and gravelly. "Do you ever think about me when you do this?"
She couldn't trust herself to speak without moaning, so she nodded against his shoulder.
"What do you think about?"
She licked her lips and tried to force words out. "I just... I don't know, Mason, I..."
"You're lying in bed and you can't sleep," he said softly. "So you start to touch yourself, and you think about..."
"I think about touching you," she whispered against his shoulder.
"Ahhh, I like the sound of that." She heard a hint of humor in his deep voice. "Where?"
"Everywhere."
He shivered slightly. "What else do you think about?"
"I think about..." She hesitated. "I think about kissing you."
They’d never kissed, but she wanted to kiss him. God, she wanted to, so much. She’d never dared think that he might want the same thing, but he turned his head a little and spoke into her hair, his voice muffled. "I imagine kissing you all the time, Lora."
"Me too." She was shocked to hear her voice go hoarse, like she had a cold. She sounded almost like she was on the verge of tears. Which was stupid. "I imagine the way you taste, Mason. Every night I think about kissing you, and I imagine your mouth on mine, and your hands on me, and I..."
He groaned softly against her hair, and then his hand lifted from her waist to her hair, pulling her head back gently. He captured her mouth with his, kissing her gently at first, then harder, his tongue stroking over her lips.
She opened her mouth, and their tongues touched for the first time.
He tasted as good as she'd imagined. Maybe better. He tasted sweet, like apple pie, but there was a hint of the forbidden beneath the sweetness, something intoxicating and smoky and sensual, as if someone had spiked the apple pie with a touch of wine. He groaned into her mouth and kissed her more deeply. His tongue plunged into her mouth in a blatantly sexual rhythm, and he squeezed her hand, moving it hard and fast.
She sobbed into his mouth, her cries muffled against his lips, as her climax blazed through her in a hot wave of ecstasy. He didn't give her any respite, but kept moving her hand, and she came again and again in incredible bursts of pleasure, her body shaking violently.
At last the spasms died away, and he released her hand, but his mouth never left hers. His arms slid around her waist, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
She thought she probably ought to get up and walk away from him, walk away from this, before any more damage was done to her relationship with Theodore.
But for the life of her, she couldn't seem to stop kissing Mason.
Chapter 4
Mason sat on the cushions of the couch and tugged Lora down into his lap, and their bodies started to move together in a natural, unconscious rhythm. She continued to taste and explore the recesses of his mouth, but she was very conscious of the hard bulge of his erection pressing against her thigh. She'd thought she was totally satiated, but all of a sudden she realized she hadn't gotten what she really wanted.
She thought of making love to him, feeling him moving inside her, and need and desire rolled through her, more intense than ever.
Damn it, she needed to stop this. Now. She couldn't claim her participation was minimal, even to herself, if she was going to kiss Mason endlessly, or wrap her body around his. She seriously needed to walk away from him.
But despite her noble thoughts, her fingers tangled in his hair, and she kissed him harder than before.
He gave a soft, low moan, a vibration against her mouth that she could feel clear down to her toes, and moved against her. She could feel the enormous swelling of his cock, still encased in tight denim. Poor guy. That must be uncomfortable.
She really ought to help him out with that.
Unable to prevent herself from acting on the impulse, she lifted her mouth away from his, then reached down and began to unzip his jeans. She pushed the thin fabric of his boxers out of the way... and took him into her hand.
He was just as hot as she'd imagined. He felt as hard as granite, but the throbbing warmth of him reminded her that he wasn't a sculpture, but living flesh.
God. What they'd done before had felt uncomfortably intimate, but this was something else again. Holding him in her hand, hearing him gasp as she touched him, was the most intimate thing she'd ever experienced. And yeah, she'd touched Theodore this way more than once, but somehow it wasn't the same. Not at all.
Which was crazy, because Theodore was her boyfriend, and Mason was just a friend. A friend she'd wanted to touch this way for a long time, yeah, but still. A friend.
A friend she couldn't help touching.
Her fingers closed around him, holding him a little more tightly, and he groaned and bucked up against her palm. "Lora," he whispered in a soft, intense voice.
The way he said her name made her boil with need. She stroked his velvety flesh, barely restraining the impulse to rise up on her knees and take him inside her. She had a boyfriend, and she and Mason were just friends. She had to remember all that.
His erection jerked against her palm, and she realized he'd gotten pretty damn turned on earlier. His breath was coming in short, hard gasps, the head of his cock was wet, and he was obviously teetering on the verge of another climax. And she wanted to give it to him. She remembered seeing him explode earlier, remembered the sounds he'd made, and she wanted to make him feel that way again.
But she realized she didn't want just to touch him. She wanted to feel him come, deep inside her body.
She moved her hand all the way up the thick shaft, wetting her palm with his moisture, and then ran her slickened hand all the way to the base. He shuddered, giving an agonized groan, then reached down and captured her hand in his. "Stop," he whispered against her throat. "You need to stop that right now."
She smiled, feeling very feminine and very powerful. "Don't you like it?"
"I like it too much." His hand pulled hers away from him, gently, and wrapped around hers in a gesture as intimate as a hug. "I want you so much I can hardly stand it, Lora."
His hips moved, so that his slick erection slid against her inner thigh in an unmistakable suggestion, and she practically sobbed with need. Just an inch or two further, and he'd be pressed right up against the warm, wet opening to her body. She closed her eyes, craving him like a junkie craved heroin, and spoke reluctantly. "We can't, Mason."
"Sure we can." His voice was gentle and persuasive, and edged with humor. "It's not all that complicated.
Her voice trembled. "I have a boyfriend, Mason."
His hand tightened on hers in a decidedly possessive way. "Lora,"
he said softly. "If you were all that into Theodore, you wouldn't be fantasizing about me every night."
Her cheeks went red as she remembered what she'd said to him. Every night I think about kissing you, and I imagine your mouth on mine...
"I like Theodore," she answered, her voice choked with tears. "I really do. He's been nice to me, Mason."
"And I've hardly noticed you." His voice was filled with remorse. "I know I was still into my ex when we met, Lora. I'm sorry."
The tears burned at her eyes. She tried really hard to find her snark, but her voice shook as she answered. "I understand. You see me as just a friend."
"Don't be stupid." His words were harsh, but his voice was gentle. "I haven't seen you as just a friend since that day at the lake."
"Really?"
"Really." He moved against her again, his erection hard and demanding. "Trust me, Lora. This isn't really a just-friends kind of reaction."
"No. I guess not." She rose up on her knees, just a bit, shifting so she was right on top of him, then lowered herself against him, letting him slide against her moisture. Not inside her, but pressed right up against the opening to her body. He shivered and closed his eyes, arching his head back, and whispered her name again.
She moved up and down along the length of him, and he groaned.
"Lora. Please."
She hadn't quite decided if she was going to make love to him or not, but that soft, desperate please made up her mind for her. She wanted him. She had to have him.
But then she sighed. “It didn’t occur to me to bring a condom…”
He fumbled in his back pocket, and handed her a little foil packet. She rolled it onto him, slowly and sensually. And then she rose up again, grasped him gently, and guided the head of his cock into her wet, soft body.
He responded automatically, thrusting against her, and his body slid into hers easily. In a heartbeat he was deep inside her. It felt so good that she gasped and shivered, and her nipples stiffened. She heard his low, deep groan.
