What if you win and it crushes him …?
Jill froze but shook the thought away and lost herself in a kiss instead. ‘Take me,’ she said. Meaning to the shower, but the other way too.
He nodded succinctly, turned on the water and managed to get her out of her socks and bra without fucking her right there against the wall. She knew he was feeling that way because she was feeling that way and the invisible sizzle of energy that ping-ponged between them was palpable.
Jill stepped under the warm spray. And just the night before she’d been in here nervous and soap covered. Alone. Now she pressed her back to the wall to make room for the wall of muscled man stepping in after her.
‘Turn around,’ he growled.
He knew her secret. That she truly got off from being taken from behind. That the feel of a man handling her and penetrating her that way added so much to the erotic experience it made her mouth go dry and her nipples peak just to think about it.
She turned and a shuddery breath snaked out of her as he kneed her legs apart and reached between her legs to test her. He slid a single finger into her pussy and moved it in a small circle. ‘Nice and wet. Primed,’ Cole said, his words raining down on her from above just like the warm water they stood in.
He pulled back and turned her, manoeuvring her in the small space so that she stood under the hot spray. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Getting you clean before I get you dirty. We both have the stink of stress and fear and war on us.’
‘Oh.’ But the confusion died off the moment he started to massage some sweetly scented shampoo into her long hair. The braids had left her hair a wavy mess and with each rush of hot water along her scalp the waves faded along with the tension of the day.
‘I like the way you look wet,’ he said above the humming rush of water. Cole nuzzled her neck and pinched her nipples when they stood at attention. Then he tilted her head back to rinse it. When all the fragrant soap bubbles slid from her hair he bent to suck her nipples into his hot mouth. His tongue seared her skin the way the heated water couldn’t and as he suckled one, he pinched the other tender disc of flesh.
‘I could fuck you until your knees buckle right here,’ he said.
‘But?’ she gasped. ‘Problem?’
Their eyes met, his that startling storm-blue in the dim bathroom light. Outside a storm had started to rage and Jill wondered about the power when the overheads seemed to dim further for a moment.
‘No condom,’ he sighed. ‘I forgot. You scrambled my brain.’
She grabbed his face in her hands, water beading on his cheeks and her fingers. ‘You look so different without your glasses.’
‘It’s called sorta blind.’ He smirked. Tried to kiss her. But Jill pulled back.
‘Can you see me?’
‘Yeah, babe. I’m far-sighted,’ he said and touched her nipples and then wrapped his hands to her wet waist.
His cock jutted out hard and true and she took him in hand keeping her eyes locked on his bright ones. ‘I am clean. I mean clean-clean. I haven’t been in a relationship – sexual or otherwise – for over six months. I was checked at my last yearly. Cleaner than the proverbial whistle.’ She swallowed hard and rushed on. ‘And if you are … and tell me you are … I will trust you and we can just …’
Jill squeezed the length of him hard enough to steal the air from his lungs. She heard it slip out of him and it almost made her laugh. That powerful rush of an aroused man under her hand.
He stilled, it felt like his eyes were staring into her instead of at her. Examining all the small secrets hidden there and sliding along her soul. She trembled even in the heat of the water.
‘Turn around,’ he said, his voice a low rumble.
‘I –’
‘One year. One year. I haven’t been with a woman in over a year. Not since before I got sober. When I got my act together. And I was checked and clean and you are the first since I decided to fix my fucked up life and …’ It all came out of him in a rich tumble of words and she felt for an instant like she couldn’t breathe.
He turned her quickly so her palms slapped the black and white tile and her cheek kissed its wetness. His hand yanked her hips just so and she was so aroused, so unbelievably turned on she thought she might die. Cole ran the slick head of his cock to her cunt and teased her until she moved back to try and force his hand. Then he slid in deep with a soft laugh and a hard hand on her hip.
‘You are so fucking tight. So fucking tight. And sweet. And a hell of a cook. And a hell of a woman …’ He dropped all those pretty words in her ear as he thrust and Jill found her clit with a fingertip. Spreading moisture – both hers and the shower’s – along that tender bit of herself, she arched back to take him.
God, how she wanted to take every single thing this man – this crazy amazing man – had to offer. And she did. He gripped her hips so tight with strong fingers, his flesh biting into the meaty part of her flesh. Holding her fixed, yanking her back, thrusting deep until she moaned and her heart jumped and her stomach sizzled and she came with a single word.
‘Cole.’
She didn’t know if he heard because a long, low moan unfurled from him until he stopped coming. And then the water beat a constant tempo around them as she rushed to kiss him. Cole cupped the back of her head in his hand, pinning her to him by holding her waist with the other. She was crushed to the front of him and taking the intense assault of his kiss until he said, ‘Water’s getting cold.’
‘Let’s eat.’
‘And then get dirty again,’ he reminded her.
‘I can do that.’ She touched his cock gently and felt it twitch to meet her grazing fingers. She smiled.
‘And then I want you to do something for me. For luck.’
‘What?’
He cut the water and they stepped out. Before drying himself, he dried her. It was an entirely sweet gesture. ‘Stay the night. Will you do that?’
A knot of worry lodged in her throat for a moment, preventing air from coming in or words from going out. When finally Jill managed to fight past it she whispered, ‘Yes.’
Chapter Seven
‘THIS IS PATHETIC,’ HE murmured and Jill snorted before quickly covering her face with her hands.
Cole looked up and grinned at her while spooning the scrambled eggs onto the small plates. He added a few strips of crisp bacon while Jill gathered the toast and jam and butter and some lemon curd. ‘What’s so funny?’ he asked.
‘Just us. Two award winning chefs battling in the TV competition for Best Chef and we’re having breakfast for dinner like college kids.’
‘Too tired to go out and eat.’ Then his eyes narrowed down behind his black glasses and he said, ‘Shit. Did you want to? Were you just playing along with me wh –’
She walked into his bedroom and dropped onto the unmade bed. ‘When I said I wanted to eat in and eat simply, I was telling the truth. 110 per cent.’
Cole blew out a breath and looked relieved. ‘Good. Now, would you like the scrambled eggs with bacon, Madame, or the scrambled eggs with bacon?’
Jill pretended to think, tapping her chin in deep faux thought. ‘I believe I’ll have the scrambled eggs with bacon.’
‘Good choice.’ He dropped onto the mattress next to her and they sat Indian style in the mountain of covers with the TV running the weather channel on low volume.
The storm was hovering. Nothing severe or scary, but tons of rain which instilled in Jill the urge to nest. It would be nice to sleep next to him tonight. It would be nice to feel him there. They ate in silence for a few minutes, watching.
‘This lemon curd is the bomb,’ Cole said ripping off another piece of fresh Italian bread and smearing the thick sunshine coloured curd on top.
‘Scottish is the way to go.’
He cocked an eyebrow and chewed.
‘OK, so I’d never tried this kind until the show provided it in our welcome basket,’ she giggled.
‘Sneaky,�
� he said and gave her a lemon flavoured kiss.
Jill snaked her hand up his leg and gripped him through his sweats. She parted her lips and let his tongue slide past the plump barrier of her lemon-sticky lips. He was so hot, on every level. Smart, funny, kind – such a good man.
Her cheeks blossomed suddenly hot and her body followed – a brush fire of warmth that spread through her so quickly it was startling. So when he started to push her, once again borrowed, tee over her head she felt the cool blissful kiss of air against her feverish skin.
‘Let’s ditch the rest of this food. Because touching me was, by far, your sneakiest move of all.’
They moved the plate and bread and food and at some point the jar of lemon curd fell to the carpet.
‘Oops,’ she said.
‘Oops. I’ll get it later.’ He shoved pillows under her bottom so her pelvis was higher than the rest of her and then, laying his head on her arm and staring her in the eye, proceeded to finger fuck her to the point where she was gasping. Rising up to meet his gentle but aggressive touch. Begging him with all of herself to finish her off. Give her the coup de grace and make her come.
But that was the precise moment that Cole pulled free of her and covered her with his body. His wide, hard chest and the good-galloping heart beneath it smashed against her, driving some of her air out of her but she didn’t care one bit. His mouth moved with ease over hers at first until he gently nudged and probed her lips open and kissed her deeper. He rocked the rigid bulge of his sex to her split but he was, maddeningly, still covered in sweats.
‘You are mean,’ she managed. His teeth raked her shoulder and then he soothed the nip with a soft kiss. ‘Take your pants off,’ she demanded.
‘If you insist,’ Cole said and wiggled his big body to oblige.
He reached over her to find the drawer that held a jumble of stuff and somewhere in there condoms. Jill grabbed his wrist to still his hand. Stared at him.
‘Leave it. Just … be with me.’
He cocked his head a bit, his eyes shone with happiness but the look in them a bit unsure.
‘You want to take the trust thing that far. I mean, once is –’
‘Would you lie to me?’ she blurted.
‘No.’
‘See.’ Jill worked her hand down between their bodies and gripped his sex. She rubbed the smooth steel of his cock to her eager entrance and they both groaned at the moisture they found there. At how wet and ready and fucking ripe she was. ‘I believe you.’
And then he was in her. Pinning her wrists high above her head, rocking his hips hard so that every motion filled her with him. He was long and wide and the fact that she was so ready allowed her body to revel in his girth and take him with ease.
He pinned her that way, splayed and submissive to him, and he fucked her and he kissed her until even Jill could not mistake the catch in his breathing. And that bright and sweet pain was in her too.
That’s what you feel when it’s more than fucking …
But she pushed that thought away and said in his ear, ‘Kiss me. Please kiss me. I’m going to come.’
He kissed her. Holding her left leg high to his side so he could access her better, pinning her wrists down so she couldn’t shimmy or sway. She was at his mercy, no control as far as moving away from his body, and that was perfectly fine with Jill.
She came with a soft cry because the orgasm was too big to allow her a larger sound. The force of her release slammed her, pilfering her breath and her voice for an instant. Cole just kept thrusting into her as she came, soaking in every last spasm from her climax as she murmured to him. She didn’t even realise what she was saying.
‘Good?’ He asked, all the seriousness in the world in those true-blue eyes.
‘Nope.’
He frowned a little and she craned her neck and kissed him. ‘It wasn’t good, Cole. It was … staggering.’
He rolled his eyes but grinned, starting to thrust into her with small slick jerks of his hips. He let her arms go and she ran her hand through the rungs of the headboard to hold on. Her free hand held his muscled back and gripped him tight. She tugged him gently, urging him on, wanting him deeper. And when she thought she might start crying with the goodness of the whole sensual encounter, Jill wrapped her legs around his wide waist as much as she could. Opening her body to him, allowing him just a bit more penetration.
‘Oh, Jill. You dirty fighter, you.’
She squeezed him with her pussy and held him close and gripped the headboard and just stared at him.
Lord, but he was gorgeous when he came.
His orgasm ripped a groan from him. The raw sound made her nipples peak and one small orgasm, burst out of nothing but that sound and a tiny bit of pride, swarmed her. She felt it buzz and lick along her skin like scorching ice and wet fire. Jill didn’t think it would be possible not to remember that look in his eyes or the timbre of his voice or the chink in his breathing when he came.
‘You are something else,’ he whispered against her hair as he half collapsed on her, half rolled to the side. Had he let his full bulk hit her, he’d probably have crushed her.
Jill smiled. ‘You’re something else too, Mr …?’
‘Please, call me, Cole … or Chef. After all, we have been intimate to some degree.’
Jill swatted him, giving a squawk. ‘To some degree!’
His eyes grew serious and he threaded his fingers into her still damp hair. ‘To many degrees. In fact …’ he shook his head and looked away.
‘What?’
She felt it in her chest. This was the place where you only pry if you really want to know.
Cole shook his head again and Jill tugged him against her a bit tighter. She smoothed her hands along his chest and then the rippled ladder of his abs. She’d never seen abs like that in person before.
‘Nothing.’
‘Tell me.’
‘A man could get spoiled with you around, is all,’ he said and laid a kiss on her. Jill was pretty sure it was to shut her up.
They sprawled on his messy but cosy bed for the remainder of the night watching another cooking show where other people were under criticism. They compared notes about what they would or would not have done until Jill couldn’t stop yawning.
Her eyes drifted shut and she tried to remember the last time she felt so at ease with another person. She couldn’t. Her eyes popped open because she could feel him looking at her.
‘Don’t watch me,’ she teased.
‘Why not?’
‘I’m pretty sure I drool.’
‘That’s OK. Everyone drools sometimes.’ He swept a hand down her cheekbone. Touched her lips.
She didn’t really think about it, she sucked the tip gently in between her lips and touched it with her tongue.
He rumbled. ‘Hey now –’
She was awake. Awake and ready. So it was very easy to get on her knees and climb onto him, straddling his hips with her thighs. When the heat of her sex covered his they both stilled.
‘That’s torture,’ he said, meaning being pressed up against her but not in her.
‘Just for a minute,’ Jill said, rocking ever so slightly side to side. It was easy to relish the feel of his hands spanning her lower back. And the sounds he made. And the intensity of his kiss when she bent over him and her long dark hair curtained all around them and made the room seem almost dark.
‘Please,’ he said.
She liked that he could be the one saying please. Or her. It didn’t matter. It was fluid and sacred and good.
Jill positioned herself and held him so that she could sink down – inch after blissful inch – onto his cock.
Cole arched up under her, but she shook her head, said, ‘Shh …’
He stayed flat and let her be in charge. It was a slow and languid fuck and that made her smile. She lowered herself gently and then squeezed him with her cunt before moving her hips in a sweeping motion like she was dancing. His hands fisted in the sheets
before roaming up to find her hips and hold her tight. Not too tight – he didn’t try to guide her. He simply moved up just a hair every time she sank down on him.
So she got that punch of penetration. That rush of power and pleasure.
Jill arched over him, hovered there, letting the tail ends of her long hair brush his belly and his chest. Tickle his face and his shoulders. He made a soft sound that was almost a word but not quite.
She nudged herself repeatedly along the base of him, grinding her clit to the muscle and bone of his pelvis and when she came she just said, ‘Oh, Cole’ like a prayer.
‘Shit,’ he groaned. The tension and the need plainly audible in his voice. His hands came up to grip the ends of her hair in his fists. He held the twin hanks in his fists and tugged her. Now he was aggressive. Now he was ready to take.
And that was fine.
She spread her legs just a bit wider, the heat of her inner thighs kissing the taut length of his outer thighs. She rocked in short little blips until he was driving up under her, anchoring her to him with the twin coils of hair he’d wrapped around his hands.
‘Chef Calvert.’ His voice all rough edged and raw. He tried to grin at her, at his choice of words. But his eyes told a different story and that story made her throat close up a little with unsaid words.
I love you …
Where the hell had that come from? And why now? Why now of all times?
He didn’t speak and she didn’t speak. She simply leaned all the way over him and as he grew soft, his cock pulled from her. But she stayed put, his arms banded around her, her head listening to the slowing gallop of his heart.
‘Big day tomorrow,’ he said, smoothing her hair along the length of her now bare back. ‘We should sleep.’
‘I know. Good luck. I’m rooting for you,’ she said and yawned.
She really was rooting for him. Which was a mind blowing realisation but nevertheless felt right. Good.
‘Hey, we all know you’ll win. And that’s how it should be,’ he said. But she was almost asleep so any hope of responding was lost.
Chapter Eight
IT WAS THREE IN the morning. At first she had no clue where she was. Jill rolled to find him behind her, almost spooning her but not quite, and the thrill of feeling him there was too big to even contemplate. So she didn’t.
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