Blue.
“Now here’s a place where we can improvise. I just happen to have a body part that will reach right—”
“Rex!” April shook her head to clear the image of him aiming that erection toward the nearest blue couple but heat was already creeping into her cheeks, though why she should suddenly feel shy was a mystery. They’d just spent a week together 24/7. When she hadn’t been in his arms, she’d been thinking about being in his arms.
Rex was right. The effects of his massages weren’t lasting long enough, and the one she’d had tonight hadn’t done the trick at all. If she’d have been on her feet, April would have tightly clasped her hands behind her back, but as one elbow was currently locked on to a Posterior Position, she’d have to settle for calling an end to this game and taking a few deep breaths.
She sat up but unfortunately Rex chose that exact moment to plant his elbow on a Bound Boy Bliss that brought him full-bodied against her. Her forehead connected with his chin so hard she yelped. He reared back, clearly startled, and overbalanced enough to skid on the slippery sheets and… Darned if he didn’t slid right off the bed.
Again.
“Rex!” She peered over the edge, uncertain at the sight that would greet her, heartbeat arrested in her chest.
He’d landed flat on his back. If it wasn’t for the way he winced when he stared up at her—had he bitten his lip again?—she might have laughed at the sight of his buttoned shirt and his erection still bobbling wildly in its leather ring.
April didn’t laugh, though. She didn’t get the chance.
Rex shot an arm toward her. Grabbing a fistful of her blouse, he gave one mighty tug and before she’d even thought to brace herself, she went crashing down on top of him.
He made a noise suspiciously like “Oomph!” and she thought her knee might have landed on something important.
“I’m sorry. Are you all—”
Simultaneously, his fingers threaded into her hair and his mouth caught hers in a kiss that sucked the air from her lungs.
April didn’t get a chance to worry, or to think. She could only react to the feel of his tongue thrusting inside her mouth, to the hands anchoring her close, to the feel of his naked legs pressed against her, the rock-hard erection that was just as rock-hard as he looked.
April wasn’t sure whether she’d had the wind knocked from her or if Rex’s kiss was stealing her breath, but she was slammed from all sides by the strength of his passion, the intensity of his wanting and her own extraordinary need.
And the realization that once she left him she would never feel this way again.
“Make love with me, April,” he whispered against her lips. “I want you.”
She couldn’t have denied him in that moment had her life depended on it. His hands had tightened their grip. His mouth ravaged hers with an intensity he’d never revealed before, almost as if he’d sensed their time together was limited.
In Rex’s arms, nerves evaporated beneath desire, high energy focused on her need to touch him, alarm bells and shrieking sirens became surprised gasps and silken moans.
In Rex’s arms, she felt right.
Before she could question her decision, before she could convince herself that work tonight should be priority, she surrendered to the part of her heart that wanted to leave him with fond memories and take away enough to sustain her through the loneliness she faced ahead.
“Yes.”
She breathed the word on the edge of a sigh and he caught the sound with his lips, deepening his kiss with a fierceness that held nothing back, a desperate need that touched the desperation inside her.
A growl rumbled low in his throat and April tried to capture the sound in her memory, the utterly possessive demand of his mouth on hers. She wanted him with a power that melted her insides and made her ache to feel him all around her, inside her, hot, hard and thrusting deep.
When he broke their kiss to nip her lower lip, she dragged her fingers through his hair to anchor him close, each tender bite making her gasp softly against his mouth.
“The pillow,” he said between tender bites.
She was so blasted with emotion and sensation that a moment passed before she could make sense of his request, to realize he wanted her to grab the Hidden Secrets Pillow for a condom.
Only when she said, “Oh,” did he let his hands slip from her hair, a motion of such obvious reluctance she knew that she must feel as right to him as he did to her.
Pulling herself up on the edge of the mattress, April forced her gaze to focus, spotted the pillow all the way across the bed. She wasn’t about to try and stand so she just tugged at the top sheet until the pillow slid toward her.
Rex must have noticed how her hands trembled when she tried to pull open the zipper, must have realized that this moment had become about more than sex, more than nerves, because he sat up and said, “Here, let me.”
His gentle tone caressed the raw edges inside her and she guessed he was trying to lighten the moment when he held up a red foil square and smiled. “Raspberry Romp? It’s ribbed for extra pleasure.”
While the name was cute, the thought of that erection in that color…. “No.”
He struggled to get his hand inside the hidden compartment and finally held the pillow open to see what was inside. “This is a woman-size pillow. R and D needs to address this problem, too. We need to mention it to Wilhemina before she leaves.” Dropping the pillow onto the floor, he displayed a gold foil square. “I’m wearing this one—the Goldstar, the condom of champions.”
When she didn’t reply, he arched that dark brow and looked mildly offended. “You don’t agree?”
“Oh, no. Definitely the Goldstar.” She swallowed back a laugh. “Do you wear it with or without that?”
He glanced down at the leather apparatus making his erection point away from his body like he’d been speared on the end of a sword. “Without, thank you.”
Reaching for the snap, which lived up to its easy-release promotion by popping right open, he gave a grunt as his erection sprang free. After slipping the leather ring off, he rested his head back against the mattress and let his eyes close. “Ah, man.”
The sound was such pure relief April almost felt guilty for asking him to wear the thing, especially when it hadn’t done the trick. But she couldn’t quite feel bad, not when he’d kissed her so possessively. Not when she gazed down at him, burnished hair ruffled over his forehead, sculpted lips parted ever so slightly around panting breaths, and knew a tenderness for this man that was unlike anything she’d ever known before.
The emotion was so rich it became a physical sensation that ballooned inside her chest, cutting off her air and forcing her to blink frantically against the sudden prickle of tears.
She lowered her head so her hair fell forward and covered her face, blinking hard as she reached for his top button. She wasn’t sure when he opened his eyes, but when she pushed the shirt over his shoulders, she found him watching her, his expression as tender as this ache inside her, his need unabashedly open and honest.
Lifting his hand to caress her face, he slid his strong fingers around her cheek. “Love me, April.”
Such a simple request, but one that revealed the strength of his need with such quiet pride that the tightness in her chest expanded into her throat, cutting off any hope of a reply. The tears stung her eyes again.
And he held her gaze, searching her face, staring into her soul.
She nodded.
Suddenly his hands slipped beneath her skirt, molded the curve of her bottom, up, up, to peel the hose from her waist. She rolled away so he could pull them down her legs, desperately grateful for the chance to school her reaction, to try and swallow back the knot in her throat that was choking her.
But Rex wouldn’t let her hide. In barely a heartbeat, he was pulling her back into his arms and she faced that penetrating gaze that had never left her face, a gaze that saw everything.
Slipping his hand betwe
en them, he positioned the head of that steely erection against her moist skin, and April braced her hands on his shoulders, sank down on his heat, unfurling, stretching, filled with his hot length.
A series of fluttering breaths escaped her on that luscious downstroke, winning a smile from Rex, who ground up against her, just enough to make her gasp even louder….
His gaze melted as he watched her and his obvious pleasure sparked the fire deep inside her, so fierce she could only strain up to ride his hot length, to feed the needy flames before plunging back down again.
Only, this time his groan echoed in the quiet suite along with hers.
Her skirt had bunched around her waist, but he pulled the blouse free of the waistband, a frenzy of motions to drag her blouse and bra up and away. His impatience to free her satisfied some need inside that she hadn’t even known needed satisfying and she could only laugh when he popped a button in his haste.
He drove into her hard in reply, the sleek strength of that stroke stealing the laughter right from her lips. Dragging the tangle of blouse and bra over her head, he freed her breasts, slipped his hands beneath them, caressing, lifting, even as he lowered his head toward her….
He pinched her nipples and there was something so erotic about his dark hands against her pale skin, about watching him pleasure her as she rode him, each squeeze stabbing straight to her sex, urging her to ride him a little harder, a little faster, a little deeper.
With every stroke her hips lifted, revealing the triangle of hair at the base of his erection. His hips rocked beneath her, meeting her thrusts, creating friction exactly where she needed it to mount a rising pressure that promised such ecstasy….
And his fingers and tongue and mouth still teased and nibbled and played, fueling the urgency…and her urgency fueled his until suddenly his hands left her breasts, skimmed down her ribs, over her hips.
His fingers dug into her bottom to increase her pace, kneading, stroking, slipping between her cleft to explore. He found that sensitive core of nerve endings and touched her with complete freedom, but applying a steady gentle pressure that mounted her pleasure as if he’d opened the spillway to a dam.
April closed her eyes and arched her back as orgasm rushed upon her, a wave of sensation so fierce that she cried out, a desperate sound that was half sob, half gasp.
He ground into her with a rumbling growl of his own climax and she collapsed against him, completely boneless and utterly spent as her body continued to contract, spasm after greedy spasm, never wanting this moment to end.
Rex held her possessively, so close that their racing hearts beat in time, their ragged breaths burst together, and April clung to him, tried to reclaim her wits, tried to tell herself that such an explosion of the senses was normal. That nothing more than unbelievable sex and her newly awakened ability to have orgasms were affecting her this way.
Minutes lengthened. Their breathing slowed. Their heartbeats steadied. The silence grew between them, yet Rex made no move whatsoever. He just held her as though reluctant to let reality intrude on this moment.
But April needed reality, a strong, sharp dose to knock some sense into her and chase away this bittersweet tenderness inside, this overwhelming sense of completion that spurred her emotions too close to the surface. She couldn’t trust herself not to blink back these stupid tears that prickled at her lids, to swallow back the sadness for all the things that couldn’t be.
“Did you get what you needed for tomorrow’s studies?” she finally asked, far too near the edge to bear the silence any longer.
He grunted and cracked open an eye. “And then some. Maybe we should recommend this position to R and D. What do you think? We’ll call it the Over-the-Edge Tumble.”
Only Rex could make her feel right when she felt so wrong, could chase away sadness with laughter. She managed a weak smile. “I suppose, but once we hit the floor we were technically engaged in the Ladies’ Tip-Top Thrill.”
He frowned and she knew he wanted her to play the game.
“Okay,” she said. “How about Hurl the Girl?”
“Hurl the Girl? More like Hurl the Guy.”
“No. You fell and dragged me over the edge.”
“No. You knocked me over the edge and I fell on the floor.”
April couldn’t believe they were sprawled out on the floor, debating the cold hard details of April Accidentally’s unfortunate talents. But she wasn’t cringing. She wasn’t even blushing. And Rex hadn’t wound up in the emergency room, either.
They were both satisfied.
A few weeks ago this simply wouldn’t have been possible.
“All right,” she conceded. “I confess. Your massage wasn’t long enough tonight. I knocked you over.”
There was no missing the triumph on his handsome face. “We’re back to Over-the-Edge Tumble. I’ll suggest it to Wilhemina when I tell her about the thread-count problem.”
“What thread-count problem?”
“Those sheets are way too slippery. Didn’t you notice how people slide right off and bust their butts?”
Only a true gentleman could turn that negative into a positive. “You’re right.”
“I keep telling you that.” He pulled her back against him again, tucked her neatly into his hard curves and rested his chin on the top of her head in an upright version of the Shingle sleeping style. “And I’ve had another brainstorm. I’m heading home to Chicago for the weekend to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with my family. I want you to come with me.”
She wanted to believe that Rex extended his invitation simply because he knew she hadn’t made any plans for the weekend. Or maybe he wanted to share his family. Some people equated adoption with loneliness and Rex was kind enough to feel bad about leaving her alone.
But she would have been lying. April knew Rex wanted to take her home for the weekend for the same reason he wanted to run with her every morning. He wanted to be with her.
“Sure. I’d like that.”
Where Rex went, she went. That was the nature of the job.
“Good. We’ll have fun. My family will like you.”
He sounded so certain that she was struck by the enormity of his concern for her. In her mind, April Accidentally had been in prime form tonight, had been lucky she hadn’t caused an accident that had wound up with a call to 9-1-1.
But to Rex, winding up on the floor had been an opportunity to make love, to create their own Kama position, to pinpoint a potential problem with the sheets.
April had told him the Shingle was the “regal” position, indicating a strong ego and sense of entitlement. While that was true, this position was also the most “protective” of them all.
And as she lay there, April could no longer deny that there was other no place on earth she’d rather be than lying in Rex’s strong arms, feeling protected.
12
“I’M NOT CONVINCED the results of that interview will be valid,” Rex said as he keyed in his password to access his computer.
“Acquiescence bias?”
Glancing up, he found April hovering above his right shoulder. “Yes. That particular respondent agreed with everything I said and I couldn’t seem to turn her around. I’ll have to take another look at the results.”
She only nodded and headed back toward her laptop.
Rex watched her go, a few short brisk steps that screamed edgy on the nervous meter. He suspected Wilhemina and Charles’s arrival was to blame, because for a woman who’d just had a minimassage and been made love to thoroughly, she didn’t appear to have carried away any afterglow from the experience.
He, on the other hand, was still feeling the effects of their stint with the Kama Sutra Sports Set big-time. He would much rather be wrapped around April than sitting in front of this desk facing two hundred and sixteen interviews.
His gaze trailed from the stack on the table back to April again, to the slim curves beneath her robe, the fine brown hairs that wisped around her shoulders. He could pra
ctically feel her curves beneath his hands, smell the delicate scent of her skin.
What was it about this woman that sidetracked him from work to think about everything he could be doing with her instead?
Rex didn’t have an answer, but he intended to keep mulling the question until he found one. He hoped a weekend off duty with his family would give April a chance to relax. And give him a chance to figure out exactly what he wanted from her.
Sex? Definitely. More?
Wrapping up the Sensuous Collection project suddenly didn’t look so good if it meant April heading back to California never to be seen or heard from again. It wasn’t even looking so hot if he could see her whenever he visited L.A.
His sister Juliet, the oldest of his four siblings, had once told him that when he finally got it, he’d get it bad.
He had it bad for April.
The thought made him smile, and remember that today was the day Harold should have returned to his office. He was about to open his business e-mail program to see if he’d received a reply, but noticed the icon to the Luxurious Bedding Company network flashing. Double-clicking on the icon, he glanced at his in-box and knew by the sheer volume of the mail what had arrived.
To: Rex Holt (mailto:[email protected])
Date: 17 Mar 2003 04:38:22-0000
Subject: Personnel Training
Sexual role-playing sessions will train employees to work cooperatively in an innovative and stimulating environment!
Studies prove that sexual role-playing promotes teamwork by teaching employees to focus towards a common goal. Managers can assess their staff’s ability to perform under pressure. The confidentiality clause of the P & P manual will protect all parties from personal repercussions.
“Damn.” He highlighted all the posts and forwarded the lot to Wilhemina’s e-mail address, chuckling at the image of her in an observation room playing a voyeur to assess her executive staff’s ability to perform.
“What?” April asked.
Between The Sheets Page 16
