by Lia Lee
She had never heard anyone say words like that to her before, and she was so dizzied with his praise that she totally forgot the other new items he was revealing. She remembered, however, when he tugged the dress down her shoulders and left her lying on the bedspread in her underthings.
"God, Natalie, you're killing me," he whispered.
Self-conscious, she fiddled with her bra strap uneasily. "Is...is it too much?"
She had thought she knew what she was doing in the exclusive little boutique set elegantly back from the main thoroughfare. There had been bustiers and merry widows in black and scarlet and cobalt blue, but she had wanted something simpler. The set she’d purchased was emerald green satin with just a subtle touch of black lace, real lace, soft and not scratchy. They cost more than a dozen similar sets from the department stores at home, but the difference was obvious. The scanty bra pushed her small breasts up, just barely covering the nipples underneath, and the panties were hardly more than a scrap of lace stretched over her hips and giving her curves that were far more womanly than she usually boasted.
Nathan laughed harshly, and she could hear the hunger in his tone. "Just enough, I would say. Just enough."
He pushed her onto her back, looming over her and blocking out the light from the only lit lamp. He kissed her mouth thoroughly, not satisfied until it was red and swollen with need. When he thrust his tongue between her lips, all she could imagine was him repeating the motion below. Her arms rose up to circle around his neck, desperate to keep him close. God, how could she be so desperate for him already? She had only known him for a few short weeks, and right now, she thought she might die if he didn't keep kissing her.
When Nathan moved away from her mouth, Natalie uttered a soft cry of protest. He chuckled a little, but the hoarseness in his tone betrayed his need.
"Don't worry, pet, I'm going to take very good care of you."
His mouth roved from her mouth to her ear, where his tongue caressing her lobe made her whimper in surprise. She lived in this body every day, and she’d had no idea how sensitive it could be under the right touch. The thought was at once distressing and engaging. She wanted to know what other keys Nathan might hold.
When he tilted her head back so he could nibble at her neck, he also reached down between her legs, covering the part of her that was barely concealed by a scrap of lacy satin. She gasped to feel the flat of his palm pressed against her sensitive flesh. The fabric there was so thin that they might have been touching skin to skin. Instinctively, she pushed up against his hand, making him groan slightly.
"Dear God in Heaven, you are made for this," he growled, his teeth nipping at her throat with pleasure. He kept his hand between her legs as he worked his mouth down her shoulder to her collarbone. With his free hand, he lifted first one breast from the lace and then the other.
"Oh, you are just perfect," he crooned. "Just my perfect darling..."
Through half-open eyes, Natalie could see that her own nipples were erect and hard before he had even touched them. Then he set his teeth to one, suckling gently. The heat and warmth of his mouth on such a sensitive spot made her gasp with pleasure, heat racing through her with a speed that was dizzying. When he drew back and the pleasure subsided slightly, she whimpered. Natalie became aware that she was rocking against his palm even harder, and she blushed a little.
"Can you feel yourself, darling?" he whispered. "Can you feel how wet you are, how you're just spilling open for me here?"
He flexed his fingers between her legs. Oh, now she could feel the fabric between them. It felt as if it might have been leather, it was keeping them so apart. She wanted it gone, she wanted to feel his bare fingers stroking up against her so much.
"I need you," she whispered nakedly, and Nathan laughed again.
"Not yet," he said cryptically. "But you will."
He bent his head to her body again, this time his kisses moving over her with a purpose. It felt as if he were planting blossoms of fire wherever he kissed her, turning her into a raging inferno everywhere he touched.
She whimpered wildly as he started to run his tongue along the creases of her thighs, growing ever closer to the humid center of her but never touching her where she craved. When he finally placed his mouth over the soaked satin there, kissing and probing with his tongue, something in Natalie broke that never had before.
"Please!" she cried out. "Please, I can't wait any more, please, I need you!"
In any other time, she would have been embarrassed to be quite so needy, but she couldn't bear it. She needed him, needed something, and if she didn't get it, she might go insane.
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Nathan smirked.
He slid back, leaving enough room between them that she was momentarily chilled, but it was only so he could yank her panties down her legs, casting them carelessly aside. The cool air hitting her sensitive parts made Natalie gasp, but then he was closing the distance again, spreading her legs and stretching out so he was laid between them.
"God, but you are going to be delicious," he murmured reverently.
Before she could utter a word, he pressed his mouth to her, slicking his tongue along her seam and splitting the flesh there so easily. Natalie was whimpering and moaning under his touch, but she gasped as his mouth covered her clit, drawing with such care and gentleness on her that she froze.
Nathan paused when she went still, his head coming up so he could look at her.
"Darling, are you all right? Did I do something wrong?"
Somehow, the tenderness in his voice when he asked her that only made her hotter, and she nodded frantically.
"I need you, I need that," Natalie implored. "Please!"
She caught a glimpse of Nathan's triumphant grin, and then he lowered his head again. His actions were bolder this time, as if he had been freed to do as he had truly wished to. God, she had thought his smile was wicked, but it was nothing compared to what his tongue could do. He laved her clit with his tongue before suckling on it gently, and when she was trembling like a struck crystal, so close to shattering, he dipped his head down lower to taste the sweet nectar below. When he thrust his tongue into her, she bucked hard against him, unable to control herself.
Over and over, he raised her to the crucial point, but just as she was sure that she must climax or die, he drew back. Her anguished cry only made him laugh, but before she could take offense, he would be back and making her feel that tumultuous pleasure all over again.
"Oh Nathan, please, I need you, please," Natalie cried out finally, her fingers grasping his dark hair. He shook her off as if she were no more menacing than a gnat, but he raised up on his knees to look at her. It occurred to her in a way that it hadn't before that he was clothed while she was utterly naked.
In a moment, he had stripped to his skin, and Natalie was left gasping at his beauty. She had guessed from the interviews given by women who had been associated with him that he was a good-looking man, but now she could see the muscles that she had only felt before, taking in the lean lines of his body and the strength that flowed through him like water down a river. He looked like some wild god come to rest, a mysterious and wild thing that had his own needs, his own language, his own passions. He was still as she looked at him, and when she finally dropped her eyes to his erection, a fine shiver went through his body as if she had touched it. A moment of nervousness crept through her; he was large and wide, more than she had ever taken before, but her hunger flattened her fear and made her reach out to him.
Nathan was utterly still as she ran her fingertips along the velvet shaft of his cock, but when she closed her fist around it, drawing along it firmly, he shut his eyes and groaned. The idea that she could make him as helpless with need as he had made her excited her in a way she could barely stand, and she did it again and again.
He tolerated it for a few moments, shaking and groaning at her touch, but then between one moment and the next, she was pushed onto her back, Nathan rising over he
r like a hurricane.
"If I spill in your hand, I am never going to live it down," he said with a hard grin. "I mean to have you tonight, Natalie."
"I wasn't arguing," she said with a sweetness that was just short of sarcastic, and he laughed in surprise.
"God, you are just full of surprises."
He spread her legs and knelt between them. She thought he would come down to rest on top of her, but instead his heavy hands closed over her hips, dragging her up to him. She gasped as he lifted her clear of the bed, her shoulders pressed into the mattress while the rest of her was brought up to him. It made her feel as light as a doll that he could pull where he wished.
He tugged her close, and now she could feel the tip of his hard cock against her wet entrance. There was a moment of utter shock when she realized he wasn't wearing a condom, that there was no reason to do so tonight. The feeling of skin against skin in this instance was more intense than she could have imagined, and her gaze flew up to meet his as he teased her opening.
Something about making eye contact with him in this intimate moment was almost too much. Somehow, something flew between them then, something that was too much for their contract and the reason they were doing it. It felt as if she had given him a piece of her spirit and received one in return.
"Nathan," she whispered.
His eyes still on hers, he sunk his length into her, and Natalie's eyes closed shut, her body taking his with an intense sensation that fell just short of pain.
"Natalie? Natalie, God, are you all right?"
She couldn't find the words. It was too much. It wasn't enough. It had been more than a year since her last lover, but it was more than the brief discomfort, there and gone. Instead, it was the power of their connection, how good and right he felt inside her. It almost made tears come to her eyes, and she couldn't explain to him that it wasn't sadness but a kind of profound joy that had no words.
"Damn, Natalie, I'm sorry, here, let me..."
She felt a deep and abiding grief as he started to pull out of her, and finally, she found her voice.
"No," she said, her hand landing on his wrist. He froze, looking down at her with concern, and she smiled at him, shy and almost tentative.
"Please don't stop," she murmured, her voice thin with need and pleasure. "I need you, Nathan, don't stop."
He was stone for a moment, and she thought he might stop, no matter how much it killed the both of them. Then the passion overtook him, and his hands tightened on her hips again. He thrust into her more slowly this time, control in every line of his body. She wanted to urge him on, but caught in this position, all she could do was feel the torturous pleasure he was giving her.
She lost herself in the rhythm of their bodies, of being completely consumed and taken over. There was nothing in this space but the two of them, nothing but skin against skin, being so close to another person that she thought they might never truly be apart again.
"Oh please, please," she whispered, both longing for a release and almost wanting to put it off because that would mean this would end. It would have been a prayer if she wasn't making it directly to the man who thrust into her over and over again instead of a god.
He shifted slightly, and somehow, that was what sent her over the edge. The pressure altered, and the pleasure that had been surging inside her turned into a tsunami. It crashed down into her, shaking her and tearing her apart with no guarantee that it would put her back together. Natalie's frantic hands caught at the sheets beneath her, grasping hard at them as she struggled to let the pleasure flow through her.
"Oh Nathan, Nathan," she cried, and she was lost to it. Every limb was hard with stress and strain, and then at once, in a motion that felt as natural as exhaling, the pleasure flowed over her, leaving her trembling and shaking, speechless with the need that had been fulfilled.
He groaned to see her pleasure overtake her, and his hands tightened on her hips. He lost the rhythm, found it again, and then he was thrusting into her hard. There was no plan now, only the desperation that surged through him as wildly as it had surged through her. She needed his completion just as she had needed her own, but now all she could do was hang on, watching his gorgeous form as he worked her over.
When he came, he thrust into her one last time, hands tight on her hips and his body sealed to hers as if they would never be apart. She could feel him pulse into her, and Natalie closed her eyes at the thrilling pleasure of it. She had never done that with a lover before, never been joined like that, and it was a pleasure that simply overcame her.
When Nathan was still, a silence filled the room, one that was only broken by their harsh breaths. It felt like time had stopped, and Natalie wondered if she would have been content to drift there forever.
At last, however, he drew away from her with an exquisite gentleness, letting her come down to rest on the mattress again. Instead of resting next to her, however, he padded to the bathroom.
For a few moments, Natalie was filled with doubt. Had she been bad at it? Had she done something he found ridiculous or foolish? She had never thought she was bad in bed, but perhaps Nathan was used to women who were highly aggressive, taking as much as they gave...
Her fears were allayed when he returned bearing a soft, damp towel.
"Here, lie down," he said huskily. "Let me take care of you."
"You don't have to—"
"I want to. Lie down, please?"
She might have protested longer, but his soft “please” sunk her like nothing else could. She stretched out on the bed, and her face slightly red despite everything that they had done, she spread her legs for him again.
Nathan had been a storm at sea when they had made love, but he was gentle now. The touch of the towel against her intimate flesh made her eyes flutter closed, sighing with a different kind of pleasure.
"You look all right," Nathan said at last. "Do you feel all right?"
"Of course I do," she said with surprise. "Should I not?"
He scowled, but his hand resting on her thigh was as light as sunshine. "You're a virgin or damn close. I didn't expect that."
She propped herself up on her elbow, frowning a little. "I didn't think I had to report my previous partners to you. And I'm not a virgin."
Something flickered through his eyes then, but he shook his head, laying the towel away. "Good. I didn't want to deal with any virgin's ideas of what this was."
His words were harsh after the pleasure and comfort he had given her, and she sat up. Just moments before, she had been comfortable letting this man touch her in incredibly intimate places. Now she felt her nudity even more than she had before.
"And just what would I think this was?" she asked tartly.
He shrugged. "Love's the goal for many people. I don't begrudge it. I just can't have it be a goal that women set on me."
Her skin burned slightly with embarrassment, but underneath it was the passion that Nathan had kindled so sensuously just a short moment before. Yes, she could see how an unwary woman might fall in love with him. She could feel the tug of it herself, and she might topple as he said if she wasn't careful.
"Well, don't worry about that for me," she retorted.
Nathan didn't look relieved, but only turned away.
"It might keep things clearer if we slept apart," he said, and it was impossible to read his voice. "Would that be all right with you?"
Natalie stood up from the bed as proudly as she could when she was naked.
"Of course," she said, her voice held together with twine and tacks. "What a good idea. Then neither of us gets the wrong idea."
She had expected Nathan to make some remark about never getting the wrong idea when it came to situations like this one, but he only nodded, still looking away.
"That's for the best, then," he said.
Natalie gathered her clothes with short, jerking motions and stalked naked back to her own room. She would need a robe or something, she thought, because even if there was no
one to see, this naked walk raked hot claws of humiliation down her bare form.
It was only when she was back in the room she had not yet gotten a chance to sleep in, the door locked behind her, that she let hot, confused tears run down her face.
"God, what am I doing?" she whispered.
This was the bargain she’d struck, and she was all right with it. She was getting two million dollars to give a good man what he wanted. She would never have to work a day in her life if she didn't want to after this.
He was right, she decided, pulling on her nightgown and crawling into bed. They had to keep things separate. It was for the best.
***
After Natalie left, Nathan prowled around the room like a panther, hungry for something that should have been sated. Finally, he gave in to temptation and stretched on the bed, lying down where she had lain. He could smell the sweet scent of her on the pillows, but the warmth that seemed to emanate from her was gone.
She's right down the hall, his traitorous brain thought. I can go find her, bring her back where she belongs.
If Nathan weren't so very surprised at his own thoughts, he might have done just that. He had never wanted to sleep with a woman, just sleep with her, in his life. He remembered waking up with Natalie in his arms that morning and how sweet it had been. He wanted it again.
And she was the last woman he should be indulging in that with. They were in a contract, one that he had drafted to protect them both. It had been going well, but now he was shocked at his feelings of anger and rebellion towards it.
He wanted her, he didn't care what a contract said, and Nathan knew himself well enough to know that impulse could ruin everything.
He hadn't been worried about Natalie ruining things. He was more worried about himself doing it.
It should be fine if I don't sleep with her, he told himself, turning to rest on his back. If we keep that barrier up, we should be fine.
It sounded logical enough to him, but as he drifted off to sleep, he fell into a labyrinth of dreams where he could hear Natalie but never, ever reach her...
