Loving Sarah (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Julie Shelton

Dinner was delicious, from the appetizer of local shellfish, to the Regency lobster bisque and the pear-and-goat-cheese salad with crisp greens. Jesse ordered the Delmonico steak and jumbo lump crab cake for her and the grilled filet of Angus beef and garlic sautéed shrimp for himself.

  A live band started playing and as soon as Sarah finished her last bite of potatoes rissole, Jesse rose and held out his hand. She let him lead her out onto the dance floor and swirl her into his arms, sending her skirt flaring gently about her legs. Jesse put his arms around her lower back and pulled her hips against him, letting her feel the thick bulge of his erection against her belly as he led her slowly around the floor.

  She sighed audibly, hooking her arms around his waist and turning her head to rest her cheek against the solid wall of his chest. Flames lanced her skin as his hands brushed gently up and down her bare back, searing her with the heat of his touch. He pressed his lips against the top of her head and she let out another tremulous sigh. The small dance floor was crowded, but he steered her expertly through the other dancers.

  When the song ended, he reluctantly released her and walked her back to their table.

  “Where did you learn to dance?” she asked, sliding gracefully onto the padded bench.

  Jesse smiled. “The Navy.”

  “Oh, right. I’ve seen all those TV ads that mention attending fancy dress balls as one of the incentives to join.”

  “It’s certainly why I joined,” Jesse agreed with a laugh.

  She answered with a laugh of her own, an airy tinkling sound like bells made of crystal. God, he loved her laugh! It was a light, effervescent sound that bubbled up out of her like water out of a spring.

  A sound that tightened his groin and wrapped around his heart, momentarily taking his breath away. It was a sound he’d been hearing in his dreams since that long-ago summer when she’d been thirteen. It was a sound he knew he wanted to hear every day for the rest of his life.

  Uncertain how to deal with the unsettling tide of emotions surging through him, he took a sip of water and cleared his throat. “Actually, the Navy taught me all sorts of useful things.”

  She put her elbow on the table, resting her chin in her hand. “You mean beyond the standard thousand and one ways to kill your enemy?”

  He drew a deep, steadying breath and tilted his head, appearing to weigh his answer.

  “When I walked into that recruitin’ office in Norfolk eight years ago, I was probably the worst possible candidate in the entire history of the US military. I was an angry punk with a mean temper, a bad attitude, and no respect for authority. I’d just been beaten to a pulp by your father’s three men.” He grinned. “Naturally, they accepted me on the spot.”

  “Naturally.” She laughed again.

  “As soon as I got outta Basic, they flew me out to California and threw me, along with 259 other guys just like me, into the meat grinder known as BUD/S training. By the time they spit us out thirty weeks later, I knew three things about myself. I knew that I wasn’t a worthless half-breed piece of shit, no matter how many times my father had tried to beat that notion into me.”

  She winced. It was the first time he’d ever mentioned his father and the sheer brutality of the image conjured up by his words brought tears to her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Jesse. I never knew how awful your life was…”

  “It’s okay, sugar,” he said gently.

  “It’s not okay. Your father—”

  “Was a drunken, sadistic son of a bitch,” he said grimly. “But I survived. Which is more than I can say for him.” His lips twisted. “He was killed six years ago in a bar brawl.”

  “Thank God,” she said fervently. She covered his hand with one of hers. “So, what was the second thing?”

  “I knew that I was now part of an exclusive brotherhood—the US Navy SEALs. I had an identity that gave me pride and value—and a set of skills that would enable me to handle any situation I ever found myself in.” He paused, picking up his butter knife and fiddling with it.

  “And the third thing?”

  “I knew which fork to use for the fish course and how to lead a lady around a dance floor.”

  “That’s four things,” Sarah pointed out, her eyes alight with humor. “So, what’re you saying, that Miss Manners was one of your course instructors?”

  “Well, think about it,” he said with a wry grin. “SEALs are the elite force of the United States Navy, deployed all over the world. We are representatives of our country. A Global Force For Good,” he quoted straight-faced. “How would it look if we were all a bunch of unmannered louts?”

  She laughed again as he rose and handed her up out of her seat as the next song began. “I Will Always Love You.” A song she’d always considered supremely sappy, but tonight she was willing to give it another shot.

  The band was joined by an excellent female singer, and when she started belting out the chorus, Jesse released Sarah abruptly, lifting his hands to frame her face. Their eyes met, held, and the breath died in her throat as the heat of his gaze raked over her, consuming her in white-hot flames. They stopped moving, like a boulder in the middle of a stream, forcing the flow of the other dancers to go around them. Even if she’d noticed, she wouldn’t have cared. All she cared about was the man staring at her with such fevered intensity. She watched his pupils dilate, darkening with hunger and need and a whole host of other emotions. Emotions that were echoed in her own eyes.

  Slowly, his eyes never leaving hers, he lowered his head and took her lips in a kiss that melted her bones. Gently he brushed his lips across hers, back and forth, back and forth, using just the tip of his tongue to moisten his strokes. The breath drained from her lungs.

  Grabbing the lapels of his jacket, Sarah clung to him helplessly, knowing that if she let go, she would sink to the floor in a boneless puddle. Every nerve ending in her body was on fire and she was trembling with arousal. The tightening spiral in her feminine core told her she was on the verge of orgasm. Holy Moley! I am going to come! Just from a kiss!

  No, she realized dazedly, as his mouth released hers. Not just from his kiss. From everything about him. From his heat, from his touch, from his scent. From the look in his eyes. Those black, unfathomable eyes, flickering with the flames of an arousal as fierce and as deep as her own.

  Shaken to the core by the emotions threatening to overwhelm her, she sagged against him. Hot cream flooded her slit. Jesse slanted his head, opening her lips with his, inserting his tongue in a leisurely search of her sweet mouth. His arms went around her waist, holding her tight against the erection that pressed into her belly like one of the Sarsen stones at Stonehenge. They started moving again, but they weren’t really dancing. Just swaying gently back and forth in time to the music. His tongue rasped against hers, stroking, circling, exploring. When the song ended, he released her mouth and led her off the dance floor, keeping her slightly in front of him to hide the enormous bulge in his pants. She was barely breathing.

  They had just reached their table when the waiter appeared. “Would you care for dessert, sir?”

  Sarah was about to decline when Jesse said, “Yes, bring us one serving of your frozen hazelnut mousse.”

  As the waiter left, Jesse pulled Sarah back against him and nuzzled his cheek against hers. “Are you wet for me, Sarah?”

  Unable to speak, she just nodded.

  “Good. When you sit down,” he said quietly into her ear, “I want you to sit as you did in the car, bare ass on the seat, legs apart,” adding, when she hesitated, “don’t argue with me, Sarah. Just do it.” He kissed her cheek. “Trust me, sugar. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Blushing, she gulped and sat gingerly, feeling the smooth vinyl of the seat against her bare skin, grateful that he remained standing there, blocking her from the view of the other diners.

  “Good girl,” he said, those two simple words making her feel inordinately happy. “Now, pick up your napkin and spread it out on the seat between us.” When she had done so, inste
ad of moving back to his own seat opposite her, where he’d sat throughout the meal, he sat down on the linen napkin beside her, sliding her into the deepest recesses of the curved bench with the inexorable pressure of his hips against hers, wiping up her juices as he went. The sweet scent of her arousal nearly had him coming in his pants.

  He stretched his left arm across the back of the seat above her shoulders, leaning into her to brush his lips lightly over hers. He started with one tiny, drawn-out kiss, suckling gently on her lips as if he were seeking sustenance.

  Response flared through her like a match set to gunpowder. God, the man can kiss! Her feelings were a jumble, her emotions a howling mass of confusion and need. “Legs apart,” he reminded against her mouth.

  Lord have mercy, that Dom voice of his! Dark. Demanding. Accepting no response other than total compliance. Trembling, excited beyond belief, she did as she was told.

  Using the crisp linen tablecloth to cover his movements, he placed his right hand on the top of her thigh, caressing the satin-smooth skin above the lacy top of her stocking, mere inches away from her wet, swollen pussy. He cupped her bare mound, before sliding his two middle fingers down through her slippery folds, seeking her opening.

  “Jesse!” she squeaked, but he swallowed the sound as he forced her lips open and swept his tongue inside her mouth. She moaned and welcomed his carnal exploration, thrusting her own tongue against his in a heated duel that ravished her senses. Her heart slammed against her breast, as if trying to escape. With one last gasp of sanity, she broke the kiss. “Jesse, we have to stop!” she whispered frantically. “This is crazy! We’re in a public restaurant, for God’s sake.”

  “Are you usin’ your safe word?”

  Her cheeks were on fire as she wrestled with her choices. End this now. Or let him give her body the pleasure it wanted. Needed. Craved with an addict’s intensity.

  “I—no,” she hissed, “but people will see us!”

  “Then let’s give them a show,” he suggested wickedly. Ignoring her tiny squeal of protest, he renewed his kiss, drinking her tiny whimpers and mewls of pleasure as he pushed his fingers into her portal, thrusting them slowly in and out of her scalding heat. She was just about to scoot forward on the bench and cant her hips upward when Jesse suddenly pulled out and rested his wet hand on her bare thigh, holding her in place with a slight, subtle pressure. She was barely breathing.

  He lifted his head and thanked the smiling waiter who suddenly materialized, placing an elaborate confection on the table in front of them. Frozen hazelnut mousse garnished with marinated strawberries and dribbled with mocha fudge sauce.

  Her mouth watered. Oh. My. God. Sin on a plate.

  As soon as the young man left, Jesse leaned forward and blew out the single candle flickering in the center of the table, plunging them into semi-darkness. Then he picked up the spoon. Fingers glistening with Sarah’s slippery juice, he scooped up a generous amount of the gooey dessert. “Open up, sugar.”

  She closed her lips around the huge, dripping bite and pulled it into her mouth. The mingled flavors burst against her tongue, wringing an ecstatic moan from her throat.

  Jesse’s cock jerked painfully at both the sound and the mental image of those beautiful lips closing around him, taking him into that hot little mouth and sucking him to bliss.

  “Careful, there,” he admonished gently, “some of it’s gettin’ away,” and all of a sudden his tongue was there, licking the excess chocolate off her lips. He put down the spoon and his hand disappeared once again beneath the table cloth. Pumping his two middle fingers up inside her, he curved them, stroking them across the slightly rough, spongy tissue of her G-spot. Her body went rigid as he reclaimed her mouth, swallowing her ragged little gasp of pleasure. He swirled his tongue deep to savor the lingering sweetness of the bite she’d just swallowed, all the while rasping his calloused thumb gently across her swollen clit. Instantly she was back at the edge, her muscles tightening in anticipation of the plunge into the abyss.

  Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Her spine arched. Her breath gusted from her lungs into his. She couldn’t stop the shuddering little moans she released into his mouth. She was going to come! I am going to come! Oh my God! Her head tilted back as her body went rigid.

  “Jesse…”

  “Not yet,” he said, removing his hand, making her gasp, leaving her teetering on the edge of a climax that she knew would send her into orbit, shattering her completely. “Not yet, baby.” He nuzzled his face against her cheek. “Not until I say so. No comin’ without permission.”

  What? With a shuddering sob, she sagged back against the bench, sucking in huge gulps of air as her orgasm retreated, leaving her dangerously close to tears. The unfulfilled lust raging inside her was a forest fire blazing out of control. This is crazy! Barbaric! Just who the hell does he think he is, anyway, telling me I need his permission to come?

  She opened her mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. She did nothing. She simply sat there, realizing the implications of her silent acquiescence. She was going to obey him. She wanted to obey him. On some deep, primitive level she’d never even known existed, she needed to obey him. She stopped breathing. Her heartbeats skittered erratically through her chest, like bongo drums on speed. Holy Moley!

  Jesse watched her struggle to deal with the new reality of her submissive nature. For a long moment, he simply held her trembling body, then he picked up the spoon and gathered another bite of the decadent dessert. He touched the treat to her lips. “Open.”

  Instinctively following his quiet command, she took the bite into her mouth. Her entire body was stiff; tightening, releasing, tightening, releasing, desperate with the thwarted need to come. The elegant restaurant, the other diners, the scurrying waiters—all had ceased to exist for her as her massive climax crouched inside her like a feral beast, waiting, ready to pounce as soon as it was released from its cage.

  Again Jesse licked the excess chocolate off her lips, letting her chew the bite as he returned his fingers to her dripping cunt and his thumb to her distended clit. Brushing kisses along her jawline, he added a third finger to the two already inside her wet passage, stretching her, filling her.

  Her body jerked and she gasped for air.

  “No noise,” he admonished as he increased the pace of his plunging fingers, the pressure of his circling thumb.

  The breath froze in her lungs. Her back arched, pushing her hips forward as if seeking more of his touch. Her entire being pulled inward, gathering with the force of a whirlwind.

  “What do you want, sugar?” he crooned low in her ear, his fingers never wavering from their movements. “Tell me what you want.”

  “I—” She gulped. She was floating, enveloped in a murky haze of lust and need. Nothing existed for her but Jesse and the gathering storm of her orgasm. “To come, Jesse.” God, what was she saying? “I want to come. Please.”

  “So you shall, sugar, but not until I say so.” He watched the flush mount her cheekbones as she climbed the peak toward her inevitable release. He watched her eyes darken and lose their focus, then shut completely as she succumbed to the pleasure he was giving her. He watched her body tauten, her mouth open as her breathing became harsher and more erratic. Christ, she was so fuckin’ gorgeous!

  “Jesse—” It was a tiny, desperate cry. Her neck arched, her body went rigid as violent pleasure spiraled through her.

  “Not yet, baby.”

  “Oh, God—” The man is pure evil! She bit her lip, shuddering as she struggled to hold off the inevitable. “Jesse—”

  “Ask for it, baby.”

  “Please, Jesse. Please let me come.”

  He pinched her clit. “Come, Sarah.”

  At Jesse’s quiet command she blew apart with a silent scream that nearly ruptured her throat. Exploding in a cataclysm of pleasure so fierce, so earth-shattering, she knew her life would never be the same.

  He swallowed her cry of completion, her ragged little whimpers of ecst
asy, all her tiny, breathless cries. He held her tight as she jerked and spasmed in his arms, keeping his fingers stiff and still inside her as her inner muscles convulsed around them. Christ, he loved all the little noises she made as she rode out her pleasure. He could hardly wait to get her alone in his bed so he could hear them at full volume as he rammed his cock into her exquisite cunt and fucked her to raucous completion. With continual random touches against her clit, he allowed her to descend gradually from the peak before finally pulling out of her with a quiet slurp. Her pungent scent drifted up to his nostrils.

  He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life than Sarah climaxing in his arms. “Mine,” he growled against her ear. His voice was rough, abrasive, as if he’d swallowed gravel. “All mine. I own you, Sarah. You belong to me.”

  Utterly shattered, she collapsed back against the bench, barely aware of his left arm encircling her shoulders and pulling her against him. With an inarticulate murmur, she turned her face against his neck, closing her eyes with a heavy sigh. Jesse was right. She did belong to him. In ways she never could have imagined just three days ago. Days, hell. Three hours ago.

  He had awakened needs buried so deep inside her, she’d never even known they existed.

  The need to obey. The need to please. The need to submit to the will of a powerful, Dominant man. Needs so primal they terrified her, even as they excited her nearly beyond endurance. She sagged against him, eyes closed, limp with the aftermath of pleasure.

  He stroked his hand up and down her arm, pressing kiss after kiss to her cheek, her lips, her hair. “Your pleasure was magnificent to watch, sugar,” he whispered into her ear. “I knew it would be. Thank you for trusting me enough to let me give that to you. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

  She didn’t answer him. She couldn’t. Her sluggish brain wasn’t capable of producing one single coherent thought. Jesse had just given her the most explosive orgasm of her entire life—in a public restaurant, for crying out loud! And she’d let him! She had to be totally insane! Normal people simply didn’t do what they’d just done!