by J. A. Coffey
He sprawled out next to her, smiling and stroking her cheek. Then he kissed her, slowly, until he felt her passion coiling beneath the surface. He rolled atop her, tangling their tongues as he eased his legs between hers.
She stiffened, but only for a moment. When she relaxed, he nuzzled her throat, her collarbone, then undid one button on her blouse.
Her skin glowed crimson beneath his lips. He undid another, exposing the purple lace of her bra. He stopped at her intake of breath, enjoying how he made her speechless.
One look at her face told him she wasn't used to being seduced. Well, hell, he'd waited too long not to savor each and every minute exploring her body. If she wanted to be in control, so be it. He'd have his turn soon enough.
He rolled to his back. "Here, babe, I'll let you take the lead."
Wary eyes met his. "Why?"
"Because you seem to not want to be the seduced one, but rather the seducer. Have your way with me." He dared her with his eyes.
Jess rolled to her elbow and eyed him up and down. Her gaze felt heated as it caressed his form, making him shift with the warmth. He wondered if she'd take him in her mouth.
She hovered there for a moment. "What do you want me to do?"
"Whatever you want to." He closed his eyes in anticipation of her touch on his skin.
When she made no move, he looked over at her. "What's wrong?"
"...I...don't-"
He sat up and pulled off his shirt. "Here. Do whatever you like. I swear I'll love it." He flopped back down.
"I've never...."
"Taken the lead?" He looked at her. "It seemed as if you didn't want to be seduced, so I thought you'd like to take charge."
Her face reddened.
He braced onto his elbow to face her, taking a moment to undress her with his eyes. He felt himself moan and asked, "What do you like, Jess?"
She darkened even more. "I don't know."
Then it hit him, her nervousness, her clenched legs, her furious blushing every time he looked at her. My God. "Jess? Have you done this before?"
Her gaze swept down, but he wouldn't let her off so easy. He rolled her to her back, pinning her under his weight. "Jessalyn Swan, look me in the eyes and tell me you've never lain with a man."
She met his gaze, and he swore she turned purple with her embarrassment. "I've never been with a man. I've never even had a Pap smear. Nothing has been inside me. Ever." Her stare was fierce in its honesty.
She was it. She was the one. Ten years later, and she was more perfect than his memory of her. Breath left him as he collapsed to his back, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Are you...disappointed?" It was barely a whisper.
Shocked, he could only study her. "Are you mad? The woman I've carried a torch for for ten years has saved herself, presumably for me. It's not disappointment, Jess. Quite the contrary, I'm honored. Humbled. And now, sexually frustrated."
She gasped. "You could, I mean, we could-"
"Jess." He fingered her lips, finding them far more vital and precious than he had just moments before. "You've come this far. You deserve to be a virgin bride. I won't spoil that for you."
Her throat bobbed as she gulped, and tears welled in her eyes. "But, does this mean...?"
He kissed her, silencing her protest. "It means nothing. I will derive my pleasure from bringing you yours."
She frowned in confusion.
He chuckled, never having been in this position before and frankly enjoying the challenge. "I will show you. Just relax, and trust me. You will be sexually sated and still a complete virgin when I am done."
She narrowed her eyes and turned her head. "Is that even possible?"
He smiled, then burrowed his face into her blouse instead of answering. His lips and teeth explored the v of her clothing before he undid the rest of her buttons.
Each inch of flesh demanded his inspection. His teeth and tongue brought a fresh wash of crimson everywhere he nipped. When he found her freckles, he delighted in connecting them with a trail of nips and kisses.
Was he the first person to ever connect the dots?
Her hips rolled, so he unclasped her bra. She gasped as he traced her nipples and watched unabashedly as they pebbled under his touch, then she gasped again as he suckled her deep into his mouth.
Her shocked gasps told him he was the first to do this, and a hefty amount of satisfaction settled upon him.
"Darius," she whispered.
His erection throbbed painfully. God, how he wanted this woman. But his pleasure would have to wait. Now that he'd actually gotten Jess into bed- the real Jess, not a substitute-he would do nothing to ruin her before the wedding.
Liquid squeezed out of his tip. They should set a date.
After he proposed, of course.
Screw the lawyers.
Easing off the bed, Darius swung her legs around to face him. He popped the button and undid the zipper on her jeans and went to shimmy them down her legs, but her fear showed as her hands covered the opening. So he backpedalled and moved up her chest until she writhed, then he resumed his disrobing of her, appreciating every inch of toned muscle he uncovered until her pants lay crumpled at his feet.
Need urged him to move faster than he preferred, but he had to taste her. Take her in his mouth. Now.
One yank drew her panties off. She gasped, and he wobbled her a grin. "They're elastic. Didn't think they'd break."
Her hands tried halfheartedly to cover herself. "I feel all wet and weird."
Definitely an angel. The most beautiful, perfect, delectable angel of all. "Soon you'll feel sated and sleepy."
"What are you going to do?"
"This." He licked a tiny trail from her ankle to her thigh, then matched it on the other leg. Whenever she tensed, he sucked and kissed until her legs spread. Then, when the scent of her arousal drove him to madness, he hooked his hands behind her knees and drew her across the bed to him, tossing her knees over his shoulders.
Her legs clenched against his ears as he knew they would, but as he massaged her breasts, she arched into his touch.
He found her clit with his tongue, then eased a finger around her opening. Slick moisture greeted his exploring digits. He sucked and licked, finding more and more liquid the longer he attended her.
His finger dipped inside her tight channel, and sure enough, her barrier thwarted him. She was his.
More liquid dripped from him, and instinct made him tear off his own jeans, throw her back to the center of the bed and cover her. He pressed the tip of his erection to her swollen flesh and felt her gasp.
"God, Jess, I want you." The devil's own voice whispered, Thrust.
"Something's happening."
Her climax. He rolled her nipple between his teeth and stroked her clitoris with a firm finger, over and over. Her hips inclined off the bed, so he stroked and sucked harder. Her breath came in fast, tantalizing hiccups, and when he vibrated his knuckle on her, she cried out and collapsed beneath his touch.
It was too much. The scent of her arousal drove him mad with desire, obliterating all thoughts but those of possessing her. He rolled onto her again, his erection finding its nesting place as if magnetized. He inched inside her tight swollen flesh, feeling her muscles clench at the intrusion.
"Darius."
That damned voice again urged, Thrust. "I...."
"Darius."
Thrust. Thrust once. Thrust hard. He fought it, but the drive behind the voice was winning. "Jess...."
"Darius, you're hurting me."
He drew back as if slapped. Seeing her hands cradling her groin in pain deflated his need. He breathed fast with his realization and angled off to her side, gathering her back onto the bed and into his arms. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean, damn it, I didn't mean to-" he punched the mattress.
"I'm alright. You didn't, ah...."
"No." Relief washed over him. Relief and a giant need to release. "No, I didn't."
"I would hav
e let you, Darius." She looked up at him under tear-laden lids. "Don't you want me?"
He groaned and cradled her tighter to his chest. "More than you can possibly know." He kissed her crown. "Damn. When it happens, Jess, it's going to hurt. I so do not want to hurt you."
"So, you would have if it hadn't hurt." He noticed it was not a question but more of a self-rebuttal. "If I hadn't stopped you."
No. No no no no no. "I wouldn't have done it. Not yet." He hoped. "Damn it." He kissed her lids to deflect his thoughts.
"Why not?"
He crunched her in his arms, more to stop his self-condemnation than her words. "Do you feel sleepy?" It seemed safer to change the subject than to admit he wanted to marry her. Right now.
"Like I ran for three hours." She tried to smile. "Not that I'd know what that feels like."
He kissed her lids again, relaxing both his grip and his self-reprobation. "Close your eyes, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere." He smiled to himself when he realized just how truthful those words were.
She obeyed, but asked, "Don't guys get, um, painful? Jeremy said if you don't, um...."
He slid her a glance. "We call it blue balls. Yes."
Shock made her mouth drop open. "Do they really turn blue?" She glanced down at his erection, still rock-hard. So much for his theory of pleasuring her to sate his needs.
His first time had been with a woman two years older, just as pretty as Jess, but with far more experience. Almost too much, for he had felt incredibly awkward and bumbling when they had come together, and she had dumped him shortly afterwards. Darius smiled at Jess' innocence in this area of life. "No. It's just a term."
"What do you do to stop it?"
He groaned and tore himself away from her tempting lips. "If you're single, you take a cold shower or finish the job by hand." He gave her a hopeful, almost daring look. "If you have a woman in your arms, you could ask her to do it for you."
She looked down at the appendage in question. "By hand?"
He moaned, imagining her tentative hands holding him, holding a man for the first time. "I would love if you would."
Warm fingers grabbed him, stroking him with a sure motion. He caught his breath. "Are you sure you've never done this before?"
She shook her head no. "Jeremy's given me some pointers throughout the years."
Her touch was fantastic, and he thought his eyes might have rolled into his skull. "Oh? Like what?"
Her head nestled against his shoulder, and he saw she watched what she did to him. "You pleasure someone else with the same touch you would use on yourself."
Intrigued, his eyes held hers, and he waggled his brows and asked, "And how, exactly, do you pleasure yourself?"
She didn't blush, but she grinned and said, "Retail therapy."
"So you've done this to Jeremy, then?" Jealousy flared hot within him, and he hated the taste of it.
"No, never. But he said intercourse squeezes," she squeezed him, "and foreplay teases." Her fingernails dragged on his very-sensitive erection.
He practically fell out of his skin. "Remind me to kiss that man."
"I'd rather you didn't." She leaned over and kissed his lips. "It would create a love square that I'm so not ready to deal with." He grinned up at her, so she kissed him again. "Do women do to men what you just did to me?"
He groaned with unrepentant anticipation. "Only if the guy is really, really lucky."
As it turned out, he was.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Yowling cats and a shrieking alarm clock dragged Jess from her love-induced slumber. Confusion at her cats' odd circling behavior made her sit up and study them in the gray room, and she fumbled for the alarm clock to shut off the damn noise.
It wasn't the alarm clock. It was a strange yet familiar sound....
And then she smelled it.
"Fire!" She shook Darius awake. "Fire! Get up!"
He leapt out of bed, gloriously naked as he oriented himself.
"Here." She tossed him his clothes as she yanked on a pair of jeans and a shirt. "Get the dog. I'll get the cats."
He yanked open a window. "Jess, we have to go," he coughed. "We can't go looking-"
Toxic flames snapped inside her as she cut him off, saying, "Don't even go there." She yanked off the pillowcases and kicked open a trunk. "Ladder's in there. Come here, Queenie." She wrapped her shorthair black cat in the pillowcase and knotted it. She placed her on the floor and dragged Victoria from under her 1910 dresser. The longhair calico resisted the pillowcase treatment but finally relented when Jess told her it would be alright. "Get the dog. Towie! Tow Tow! Come here."
Darius grabbed her shoulders. "Get out of here. Take the cats and go. I'll get the dog."
"And Dovetail. She won't come to you. She's probably hiding under the credenza in the dining room." The roar of the fire grew, making her need to shout.
"Go." He pushed her towards the window, where he had already dropped the emergency ladder.
Jess snatched the belt from her robe and tied the two cat sacks together. She balanced them yoke-like around her neck and headed down the ladder with a helping hand from Darius.
She heard Towie barking in the room beneath her. Once she touched ground, she set down her cats and grabbed her trash can to bash in the window. Smoke billowed out, making her back up from the heat. "Towie, come."
A few frantic yaps carried to her as her Corgi decided how to escape. Then he jumped on the couch and skidded over to the small end table beneath the window, sending her crystal hurricane lamp shattering to the floor. She snatched him before he fell and pulled him through the broken window to safety.
His fur smelled like charred meat.
He coughed as she held him, then she screamed for Darius as Towie suddenly began yelping in pain.
Blood saturated her shirt, and she found his ribs gushing from a laceration, likely from the broken window. She applied pressure as the sirens yodeled in the distance. Neighbors came out, but Jess ignored them as she cradled her dog and ran to the front door.
Darius stumbled out, carrying Dovetail wrapped up in a towel. He looked up at Jess. "I can't tell if she's breathing," he coughed, and he, too, smelled of char.
Emotion left her, riveting her to the spot as the roar of the fire diminished as if she lived in a void. More lights in the neighborhood came on, motion lights flooding driveways as occupants came out to gawk. Heat blasted into her hair, and her eyes felt as dry as her mouth as flames licked along the corner of the house. Her bare feet hurt, and something told her she had scuffed them on the asphalt.
Windows shattered outward from the heat, sending a spray of shrapnel around them. Towie whimpered and squirmed, but she had no memory of how he got into her arms.
Sound became muffled and muted until she heard nothing but the thunder of her own heart. She touched the smear of soot on Darius' cheek and frowned, wondering how it got there. The smell of bacon and hotdogs wafted to her, confusing her, for who would be grilling in the middle of the night?
She looked down into the rolled towel he held out to her, noticed the water dripping from it. Somewhere in there, he told her, her cat lay dying. How was that possible?
"Jess? Jess?"
The firm grip on her shoulder snapped her back, hearing the creak and snap of beams as the fire roared around her. My God. Her house was more flame than frame. Darius seemed weak and unsteady, and her fear surged to the fore. "Are you alright?"
He nodded and then shook his head. "I'm okay. I breathed through the towel. It's wet."
She noted it dripped, saturating her cat.
"Go. Take them to emergency. I'll handle things here. Go."
He'd do that? "Really?" She accepted Dovetail as he pushed her into her arms, the pretty striped brown fur dark with soot. "Emergency is in Concord, off I93. If anyone needs me, that's where I'll be." She whirled to leave, but stopped to look back. Fire trucks turned down her street, blaring loud enough to compete with the roar of the fire.
/> Darius grabbed a bagged cat in each hand and headed towards her car. "Go. I'll take care of things. They need you, Jess."
She punched in her code on the keypad to her car door, then laid Dovey on the front seat and Towie on the back. The bagged cats Darius placed on the floor. She popped the trunk, grabbed the spare key hidden therein and took off, trying desperately not to watch the orange flames climbing higher and higher into the night sky.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Emergency oxygen therapy and a laceration repair set Jess back a pretty penny, especially since Dovey had been in such a rough state by the time she made it to the hospital. But, thankfully, all living creatures had survived the ordeal, including herself and Darius. Since she had gotten out first, few coughing spells bothered her, and those that did mostly came from the whiff of her clothes and hair.
Darius called after the EMTs released him from his oxygen tank, and he told her to wait until he got there, one-half hour later.
Still disoriented from her nightmare- and unused to being up at three AM- she didn't recognize Darius until he grabbed her hand and pulled her up to hug her.
She gripped tight, and as he held and caressed her, the tears threatened to fall. She pulled back to meet his gaze, and the truth simmered there.
No moisture lived in her throat, but she tried to swallow anyway. "Is it...?"
His long lashes swept down, and he whispered, "I'm sorry, Jess. I'm so sorry."
The dam burst, leaving burning wet trails down her cheeks. "It's gone? All of it?"
He guided her into her seat and held both her hands. "It's bad, hon. And what's worse is...the fire chief believes it was arson."
"Arson?" She collapsed back in the chair. "Why me?"
Darius ran his fingers along her nape, massaging her neck, which she hadn't realized was so tense until his touch relaxed it. "The first firefighters on the scene saw some suspicious things. I guess a broken basement window, and two were propped open? Something about dark smoke, too, how wood smoke is brown, not black." He shook his head. "I just can't help but think that it's because of me, that I'm somehow to blame."
Jess cupped his cheek. "We're both in the same litigation, Dar. It was my house."
