by Lisa Alder
His palm cupped the heavy weight of her in his hands. Her nipple had tightened to a near painful peak. And finally he touched her. His thumb brushed across the swollen bud, once, twice, then again as she swayed toward him.
He continued the gentle torment. And brought his other hand to cup her waist, searing her through the silky material with his heat. His head bent.
Finally, he’ll kiss me again. Kiss me as if I were his salvation. As he had on stage in front of a screaming crowd.
But instead, he passed her lips and lowered his mouth to the curve of her collarbone. The hot lick of his tongue shocked her and she curled her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer.
Jake’s mouth continued to lick along her collarbone, and his late night stubble rasped along her tender skin. Then he changed attack and suckled her flesh in the sensitive curve where her neck and shoulder met.
The hand cupping her waist moved around to her bottom and pressed her closer. Heat and desire pooled low in her belly. Lilah fisted her hands in his hair and held on. Oh, this terrible pressure was building inside.
“Jake?” Her breath oozed out in a molten sigh.
“Hmm?” His mouth slid up her neck, and nudged aside the netting from her veil. His tongue began toying with her ear. With the hand on her bottom, he pulled up her dress and slid his warm fingers along the back of her thigh and then toward her bottom. Each sensuous slide brought his hand closer and closer to the hot, pulsing warmth of her feminine core. His thumb was almost…there.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered. There. Oh my.
Her body strained toward his hand as her hips rocked in motion with the slide of his fingers. Each rock pushed her deeper into the curve of his body. His arousal pressed against her from the front as his fingers slid along the cleft between her legs from the back.
He pinched her nipple.
“Oh my.”
His finger pressed in some magical spot, and sent her over the edge.
And she screamed.
Bright colors flashed inside her mind, like a fireworks finale on the fourth of July, and bursts of pleasure bombarded her body.
Lilah’s knees nearly gave out.
Jake held her against him as her body pulsed from a mind-blowing orgasm.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” Lilah clung to Jake, sure if she let go she would fall to the floor in a puddle of satisfied female. “I, I can’t stand up.”
“Then we’ll sit.” His voice rumbled in her ear. Shivers of pleasure touched on all the trembling parts of her body.
Christ, Jake didn’t think he could get any harder. Just standing in the middle of a hotel room and responding to his touch, she’d blown his mind. She’d had an orgasm. A good one, from the sounds of it.
Who would have thought Miss Priss was a screamer?
“I’ve,” she swallowed and started again. “That’s never. And you never even kissed me.”
Never? He pressed a fierce kiss to her lips and tried not to notice the hard points of her nipples drilling into his chest. “So you don’t usually scream?”
A fiery blush spread over her. “We didn’t even take our clothes off.”
Damn, he’d been trying not to think about her naked or he’d go off in his pants like a teenager.
“Let’s not talk about you naked right now.” Jake groaned.
“You’re right. Let’s not talk about it.” Lilah stepped back from his embrace. Her fingers went to the buttons on her dress and she began to slowly slip them out of their holes. Her fingers moved down the front her dress languidly.
When the buttons were open far enough, Jake slid the rayon dress down and pushed the straps of her slip off her shoulders. A slip. Who in this day and age wore a slip? The slip caught on the thrust of her oh so, sensitive breasts. Jake reached out to slide his fingers under the material, right over her erect nipples, and scraped the peaks with his nails, then dropped the dress and slip into a heap on the floor.
She arched her back and pushed her breasts, still covered by her sensible white cotton bra, into the pressure of his hands. And he thought he might explode. Christ, she was responsive.
Jake bent his head to take one nipple into his mouth, and nipped at the bud through the material. Lilah reached behind her to unhook the staid garment. The movement pushed her breasts forward. Jake opened his mouth further, and pulled more of her breast into his mouth. He used his tongue to press her nipple toward the roof of his mouth and sucked, drawing a deep moan from her.
Jake slid his hands down her stomach, sliding the granny underwear down her hips. He paused for a moment to cup her mound, spreading the wet heat from her orgasm over her body. The musky scent of her desire coated his fingers. And the urge to slide his fingers into that damp, wet heat was overwhelming. But she stopped him, pulling back. The loud pop of her breast coming free from his mouth echoed in the room with their harsh breathing.
She stared at him, with heavy-lidded eyes, and within their blue depths, a stormy burning hot blaze. Her gaze dropped to the front of his jeans.
If he didn’t loosen these jeans soon, he’d never be able to have children. Of course, he didn’t want children so it didn’t really matter, but he was in near pain.
Lilah reached out to the button of his jeans, but he grabbed her hand.
“But you didn’t, you know.”
How could she be a siren temptress and an innocent woman at the same time?
“Ah, no. But, we have plenty of time.” Jake smiled. “We won’t if you touch me right now.”
“Oh.”
Jake did the honors himself, carefully pushing the soft material past his stiff erection. He stepped out of his jeans and underwear.
“Oh my.”
She extended her hand toward him and one lone finger touched the tip of his cock. A bead of liquid desire dewed on her fingertip. She rubbed the head of his cock back and forth lightly. But then her touch grew harder with each pass, until she curled her hand around his hot length.
Jake could stand it no more. With a guttural moan, he lifted her up, the tip of him rubbed the wet petals of her body and he readied to plunge into her.
“Wait,” Lilah said. “Condom.”
Jake nearly dropped her. How could he have forgotten the condom?
He set Lilah down carefully. They reached for the box at the same time. With fumbling fingers, she tore open the package.
“Can I?”
What was he going to say? No? “Sure.”
Lilah rolled the cherry red latex over him and pushed him down onto the sofa, then straddled his lap. For a second, she looked uncertain.
Jake cupped her hips in his hands and he guided her down onto his erection. As her tight wet heat slid over him, she sighed. A breathy, aroused little pant.
Jake spread his knees forcing her legs wider apart, and pushed up into her.
“Oh my.” Her head tilted back and the scratchy netting of the veil scraped along his thighs.
Ah hell, he wanted to slam into her. To pound into that hot velvet fist until she squeezed him dry. But he needed to go easy, control himself. He didn’t want to hurt her.
Jake brought his hands up to cup her breasts. Her bra still hung off her arms, hiding her magnificent breasts from his view. He rolled her pointed nipples between desperate fingers. And pushed his hips up into hers seeking relief.
She moaned a little louder. Her hips moved a little faster. She fisted her hands in his t-shirt. They hadn’t managed to get that off yet either.
Jake couldn’t hold back any longer. He grabbed her hips and pistoned into her. He hadn’t thought it possible, but he got even harder.
She clutched his arms and slammed down on top of him. Her breasts bounced and swayed as they pounded against each other. And her hot, tight channel yielded to him with ferocity then began to contract around him.
“Oh my gosh.” She screamed.
And pushed him over the edge. With a hoarse shout, he emptied himself. The hot pulsing spurt of orgasm rushed through him.<
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A light mist glistened over her milky white skin. She was hot and naked and sweaty and riding him. Just like he’d pictured.
Christ, he’d died and gone to heaven. Either that or he was headed for hell.
SIX
Lilah peered through a bleary eye. A fine white fuzz blurred her vision. She deliberately closed her eyes hard, then opened them again. But the fuzz was still there.
Her veil.
She blinked again. Just beyond the cream netting lay the curve of a masculine back. Jake’s muscular back.
Jake.
She wanted to sigh. But she kept silent.
She wanted to run her palm along the muscled length and follow beneath the sheet draped over his very fine butt. Only, last night was over. Her night of wildness needed to end and she needed to find her control again.
What did one do the morning after a night like last night? Lilah really didn’t know. She wanted to slink off into the bathroom and hide until he left.
He’d made her scream.
Five times.
She’d never…a fierce blush heated her entire body. She’d known she was inexperienced, but she’d had no idea.
Jake stretched languorously and rolled onto his back. The sheet beneath his lower body tented immediately. He turned his head and gave her a lazy, heated smile.
Oh my.
Lilah looked everywhere, except at his body, and finally her eyes settled on the clock. 10:05. The lady from the bar had said ten o’clock. Oh my gosh.
As if she had heard Lilah, suddenly there was a knock at the door downstairs.
“Jake,” she hissed. “She’s here.”
“Yeah.” He stretched again and called out, “We’ll be right there.”
He rose out of bed with a magnificent erection and stretched his arms above his head.
Lilah bolted out of bed, and pulled the bedspread around her. “We’ve got to get dressed.”
“What are you doing?” The amusement in his voice was clear.
“I’m naked.” She answered as if that explained everything.
“Not really.”
“We don’t have time for this.” Lilah tilted her nose up in the air, trying to ignore the scratchy veil against her back.
Jake brushed past her and sauntered down the stairs as if he weren’t naked as a jay bird. Had he no shame?
Lilah ignored the fact that she’d run up those very stairs naked as a jay last night. That was different. It was morning now.
Jake grabbed something off the iron railing and tossed it at Lilah. She snagged the white cotton and held up her bra.
“Oh my gosh.”
She shoved the material behind her back and kept going down the stairs.
Jake walked over to the door and put his hand on the knob. Lilah let out a little squeal. She whispered harshly, “I’m naked.”
“I thought we already covered that.” Jake grinned, then spoke to the door. “How about we meet you in the lobby in about five minutes?”
“No problem. Wear the t-shirts from the basket.” Cat Woman giggled and left.
“You tricked me,” Lilah furiously tried to separate her dress and slip from the pile of clothes on the floor in front of the sofa.
“You’re so easy.” He grinned again. “I was only kidding.”
She pulled out white cotton triumphantly, but it was Jake’s underwear. She threw it at him as if burned.
“Turn around.” Lilah motioned with her hand. “And put some clothes on.”
“Give me my pants. And I will.”
Lilah picked up his jeans and tried not to recall how she’d run her hands all over his thighs and his shaft. But a little puff of desire whammed through her. How could she be thinking about sex after last night?
Based on her prior experiences, she shouldn’t need to think about it for another twelve years.
She threw his jeans at his naked back.
Lilah dropped to the ground to find her underwear and found two empty condom wrappers scattered on the floor with her slip.
The first two times they hadn’t made it off the sofa. She’d never….
“Quit daydreaming and toss me one of those t-shirts.”
She threw a t-shirt to him and frantically tugged on her underwear. “Oh.”
“What?”
“My, you know, is dirty.”
“Go commando.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“Don’t wear any.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can.”
“I most certainly will not.”
Jake sighed. “Turn it inside out.”
“What? Oh. Ohhh.” Lilah stepped into the ‘clean’ side. “What a good idea.”
“That’s me. Full of good ideas.” Lilah caught his mischievous grin as she buttoned up her dress.
You certainly were last night, she thought as she tugged on her slip.
“Lilah. It’s time.”
Lilah smoothed a hand over her dress and looked around for her shoes. “Hmm. Just let me find my shoes.”
He walked over to her and held her arms loosely. “Before you do.”
Lilah stopped and looked into his eyes. For all his teasing, their green depths were full of tenderness not malice as he bent his head. He brushed a feather light kiss over her lips.
Oh. This is how you act the morning after. Her eyes drifted closed and she opened her mouth under his.
Jake gently removed the pins holding her veil to her hair. When he was done, he lifted the veil off her head and tossed it to the sofa.
He pulled away from her mouth, with more reluctance than he should need to feel. Last night had been great. Fabulous. Possibly some of the best sex of his life. But it was over. They needed to move on.
When he saw her hair was longer than he’d thought, he almost chucked it all and took her back to bed. With all the pins out, the white blond tips brushed down over her body, ending just below her breasts.
He had vision of her naked, her nipples playing hide and seek through her hair. In that split second, his body tightened.
“Time to go,” he said quickly.
Lilah’s eyes drifted open. Then her hands shot up to her head. “You took it off.”
“It was time.”
She sighed. “You’re right.” Lilah brushed a hand over the fine cream netting, before hanging it gently over the back of the antique chair. “It’s over.”
“Not quite. We still have a carriage ride.”
She gasped.
“What?”
“My hair is a mess! I can’t possibly go out in public like this.”
From the basket, Jake snagged a black baseball cap with little cat’s ears on the top and Cat’s Meow embroidered over the front.
“Wear this.” He plopped the hat on her head. “Now, we’d better get going before Cat Woman decides to come back upstairs.”
“Cat Woman?”
“You know. Our escort.”
“Oh.” Lilah practically ran to the door.
Jake followed behind, grinning. She really could move when properly motivated. He remembered last night when he’d whispered into her ear about another never and she’d hightailed it up the stairs in about two seconds flat.
He had to stop thinking about last night.
It was over. Last night was over. Time to get back to reality. He needed distance and he needed it now.
As he closed the door to their hotel room, he stepped over the morning copy of the Times-Picayune. Distance. A reality check. He grabbed the paper. On the front, a small picture near the top caught his eye.
“Ah, hell.”
***
Lilah edged nearer to the wall in the elevator and tried to stay as far away from Jake as possible. She really wanted to press the ‘Stop’ button and jump him.
Oh, this was terrible. She couldn’t stop thinking about him naked. That wasn’t proper. The night of wildness was supposed to make things better, not worse. She had to get control of
herself before he dropped her back home.
Cat Woman, she liked the moniker, sat in the lobby on one of the antique sofas, drinking coffee from a china cup and talking to a man with a camera slung round his neck.
Lilah eased into a chair opposite the woman and smiled good morning.
Cat Woman poured her a cup of coffee and plopped a set of papers in front of her. “I just have a few forms for you two to sign. Tax stuff mostly. And a release for your pictures.”
“Release?” Lilah frowned.
Jake sat down in the chair to her right. He wedged the newspaper into the crevice between his body and the side of the chair. His nearness made her nervous, and she started writing down the information intently, keeping her mind off her pretend groom.
“It’s a little late for a release, isn’t it?” Jake asked.
My, he looked good enough to eat. But as she stared at him for a moment, his uneasy smile penetrated her haze.
Lilah scrawled her name across the signature line only half-listening to their conversation.
“Oh, you saw the paper, huh?” Cat Woman looked sheepish. “Sorry about that. Someone at the bar thought a little advance publicity would be good for business.”
“The paper?” Lilah dropped the pen. A sick feeling of dread spread through Lilah. Jake seemed to know what Cat Woman was talking about. The paper. She couldn’t possibly mean….
Lilah lunged for the newspaper, and ended up in Jake’s lap. He held onto her, making it look as if she had intended to sit on him. “Honey, you forgot to give me the forms.” He smiled and shifted a bit.
“After you give me the newspaper, darling.” She ground her bottom into his lap, and smiled at his wince.
Jake reluctantly handed her the newspaper. Lilah handed him the forms, and hopped off his lap, then flipped it to the front page.
The Front Page.
And there they were. It was a small picture. But both of their faces were clearly visible.
“This is the front page.” Lilah couldn’t keep the dread out of her voice. But Cat Woman didn’t notice.
