by Nora Roberts
He hung up as Dru came back in. “Anna.”
“Yes, I heard.” She picked up the phone, set it on a nearby table. “Do you know you have beer, wine, a month’s supply of soft drinks and now leftover pizza as the total contents of your refrigerator?”
“There used to be half a meatball sub, but I ate it.”
“Oh, well then.” She walked to the door. Locked it. The sound of that turning lock might have echoed in her head, but it wasn’t going to stop her.
She crossed to him.
“The last time I went to bed with a man it was a humiliating experience for me. That’s been nearly two years ago now. I haven’t particularly missed sex. It’s very possible, on some level, I’m using you to take back something I feel someone else took from me.”
Since he was still sitting cross-legged on the bed, she slid onto his lap, hooked her legs around his hips, her arms around his neck. “Do you mind?”
“I can’t say I do.” He ran his hands up her back. “But here’s the thing. You may get more than you bargained for.”
“Calculated risk,” she murmured and brought her mouth to his.
TWELVE
HIS HANDS GLIDED over her skin, and nerves sparked under it. She wanted this, wanted him. The decision to come to his bed had been her own. But she knew the pounding of her heart was as much from panic as from desire.
And so, she realized as those wonderful hands rubbed up and down her back, did he.
“Relax.” He whispered it as his lips trailed over her cheek. “It’s not brain surgery.”
“I don’t think I want to relax.” Those nerves were a separate kind of thrill, running fast along the tingle of needs. “I don’t think I can.”
“Okay.” And still he stroked, easy hands, easy lips. “Then just be sure.”
“I’m sure. I am sure.” She eased back. She wanted to see his face. “I never seem to do anything unless I am.” She brushed at the strands of hair that fell over his forehead. “It’s just . . . been a while.”
How could she tell him she’d lost her confidence in this area? If she told him, she’d never be sure that whatever happened between them now was as much her doing as his.
“So we’ll take it slow.”
She steadied herself. Intimacy, she’d always believed, took courage as well as desire. She’d taken the step. She’d locked the door. She’d come to his bed. Now she’d take another.
“Maybe.” Watching him, she unbuttoned her shirt, saw his gaze drift down. Saw the blue of his eyes deepen as she parted the cotton, let it fall off her shoulders. “Maybe not.”
He trailed his fingertips along the swell of her breasts, the soft flesh above the fancy white lace of her bra.
“You know one of the really great things about women?” he said conversationally as his fingers danced down over lace and back again. “Not just that they have breasts—which can’t be over-appreciated—but all the cool things they put them in.”
It made her laugh even as her skin began to shiver. “Like lingerie, do you?”
“Oh yeah.” He toyed with the right strap, then nudged it off her shoulder. “On women, that is. I used to swipe Anna’s Victoria’s Secret catalogues so I could . . . Well.” He nudged the left strap. “Probably shouldn’t get into that at such a moment. You wearing panty things that match this?”
A quickening of power began to throb under the nerves. “I guess you’ll just have to find out for yourself.”
“I just bet you are.” He leaned in to rub his lips over her shoulder. “You’re a coordinated sort of woman. You know what other part—anatomically speaking—I really like about you?”
His lips were gliding along her throat now, rousing and soothing at the same time. “I hesitate to ask.”
“This right here.” His fingers stroked the nape of her neck. “Drives me crazy. I’ll warn you I’m going to have to bite it in just a little while, so don’t be alarmed.”
“I appreciate you . . . mmmm.” His teeth scraped along her jaw, closing lightly over her chin before they nipped at her bottom lip.
“You were starting to relax,” he whispered when her breath caught. “Can’t have that.”
This time his mouth took hers, hot, hard, in a proprietary kiss that was almost a branding. The leap from playful to possessive was so fast, so high she could do nothing but cling while he ravaged.
Steady, she thought as her mind reeled. Had she believed she’d needed to be steady and sure? Oh no, this breathless race was better. So much better.
Her legs tightened around his waist, her body strained. On a jolt of need she answered the demand of the kiss with demands of her own.
No, this wasn’t just want, she realized. This was craving.
She shoved at his shirt, pushing it off his shoulders so that her fingers could dig into flesh, could mold muscle.
Her scent was everywhere, as if she’d bathed in wildflowers. The delicacy of it, the silky texture of that fragrant skin misted his mind. The quiet, throaty moans she made when he touched, when he tasted, sprinted through his blood.
The light was changing, softening toward evening. He wanted to see that gentle sunlight glow over her, watch it catch in the green and gold of her eyes.
Her breath trembled out, and she arched back when he feasted on the long line of her throat. Flowed back, as if boneless, when his tongue slid toward her breast.
Struggling not to rush, he lifted his head to look down at her. “Flexible, aren’t you?”
“I take”—she shuddered, bowed—“yoga. Twice a week.”
“Mother of God,” was all he could manage as the long, lean length of her stretched back with her legs still locked around his waist.
Almost reverently now, his hands moved over her, exploring the slope of shoulder, curve of breast, the line of torso. He flipped open the button at her waist and eased the zipper down. Slowly.
“I was right.” He tortured them both by slipping his fingers just under the elastic of white lace panties. “Coordinated. In more ways than one.”
Tucking his hands under her hips, he lifted them. And nuzzled at her belly. He felt the muscles quiver under his lips, then jerk when he pressed his mouth to the lace between the V of cotton.
The thrill coiled inside her, tight as a fist, then spread, fingers of pleasure that stroked toward an aching. When her legs trembled, he nudged them down, then drew the trim, tailored slacks away.
“I need to work my way up to the nape of your neck.” His lips and fingers played over her legs. “It may take a while.”
“That’s okay.” Her breath caught, then released on a sigh. “Take your time.”
He didn’t rush. As the aches built she fisted her hands in the sheets to stop herself from begging. She wanted to comb her fingers through his hair, to run them over his body, but was afraid if she released her anchor, even for an instant, she would fly out of this pool of swirling pleasures.
She wanted to drown in it.
He nipped lightly at her thigh and had her turning her face into the mattress, choking back a moan. His tongue slipped and slid along the edge of lace, turned moan into sob. Then stroked under it so sob became quick, gasping cries.
Her need was his need, and still his hands were easy as he rolled the lace down, as he brushed his palm over the heat. Watching her rise up, seeing her eyes go shocked, go blind as he urged her up, was glorious.
When she went limp, he moved up her body with lazy kisses. He wanted her to tremble, to call out his name, to clamp around him as if life depended on it.
And she would, he promised himself as he suckled her breast through the lace. Before they were done, she would.
Her heart was thudding under his mouth, and its beat kicked higher when he pulled the lace away and took flesh.
Her fingers tangled in his hair, pressed him closer, then streaked down his back.
“Let me.” Her voice was thick and dreamy as she tugged at his jeans. “Let me.”
The music was a
low, pumping, primal beat, as urgent as her pulse. She rolled as she dragged denim away, pressed her body along the length of his. Found his mouth in a desperate kiss.
She needed, needed to fill herself with him, and took her lips on a wild journey over his face, his throat, his chest.
God, so hard, so lean, so male.
She wanted, wanted him to fill her, to know that shock, that wonder of being invaded, of being joined. But when she would have straddled him, have taken him into her, he reared up.
“Not yet.” And flipped her over on her stomach.
“I want—”
“So do I. Christ, so do I.”
When he closed his teeth over the nape of her neck, the erotic shock had her crying out. Her hands closed over the iron rungs of the headboard, but there was no anchor this time.
She went wild.
She bucked under him, felt herself hurtling toward something like madness. “God. Oh God. Now.”
His hand shot under her, and those clever fingers plunged into her, into the heat and the wet. She came on a violent leap that left her helpless and shuddering.
When her hands unclasped the rungs, he pushed her to her back. “Now,” he said, and crushed his mouth to hers, swallowing her scream as he drove into her.
She closed around him, arched to him. A fast rise and fall, flesh pounding damply against flesh. Each time her breath would catch, his blood beat.
So he watched her as the last glints of sunlight glowed on her face, caught in the green and gold of her eyes as they hazed with tears.
She lifted a hand to his cheek, and there was a kind of wonder in her voice when she said, “Seth.”
The beauty of it all but drowned him.
He watched her still as everything inside them shattered.
THE next best thing to making love, in Seth’s opinion, was floating along on the warm river of satisfaction after making love. There was something incredibly soft and lovely about a woman’s body after completion that made it the perfect resting place.
They’d lost sunset and were drifting toward dusk. Somewhere along the way, he realized, his last CD had finished playing. Now there was only the sound of wind rising up and Drusilla’s breathing.
Rain was coming. He could smell it—could sense the storm dancing on the air.
He’d have to shut the windows. Eventually.
He lifted a hand to stroke it along the side of her breast. “I guess you’re relaxed now,” he murmured. “Whether you like it or not.”
“I guess I am.”
He certainly was, she thought. That was a good sign. Wasn’t it? She hated herself for being stupid. Hated knowing that now that her mind was clearing again, the doubts were creeping in.
She could hardly ask if it had been good for him without sounding like a ridiculous cliché.
But it didn’t stop her from wanting to know.
“Thirsty?” he asked her.
“A bit.”
“Hmm.” He nuzzled in. “I’ll get us something, when I can move again.”
She combed her fingers through his hair. He had such soft hair, so straight, so full of lights. “Ah . . . you’re all right?”
“Uh-huh. Rain’s coming in.”
She glanced toward the windows. “No, it isn’t.”
“I mean rain’s coming.” He turned his head to look out at the sky. “Storm’s blowing in. Your car windows up?”
Why the hell was he asking about her car windows when she’d just had a life-altering experience? “Yes.”
“Good.”
She stared at the ceiling. “I should go, before it rains.”
“Uh-uh.” He wrapped her close, then rolled over with her. “You should stay, and we’ll listen to the rain when we make love again.”
“Again?”
“Mmm. Did you know you have this little dimple right at the base of your spine?” He skimmed his finger there as he opened his eyes, and saw her face. “Something wrong?”
“I don’t know. Is there?”
He caught her head in his hands, and considered. “I know that face. You’re mildly peeved and working toward seriously pissed. What’s wrong? Was I too rough?”
“No.”
“Not rough enough, what? Hey.” He gave her head a little shake. “Tell me what’s wrong, Dru.”
“Nothing. Nothing. You’re an incredible lover. I’ve never been with anyone as thorough or exciting.”
“Then what is it?” he demanded as she pulled away and sat up.
“I said it’s nothing.” She could hear the testiness of her own voice. God, she thought, she’d whine in a minute. The first threatening rumble of thunder seemed the perfect accent to her mood. “You might say something about me. Even the standard, ‘Oh baby, that was amazing.’ ”
“Oh baby, that was amazing.” He might have laughed, but he saw the glint in her eye wasn’t just temper. “Hold on.” He had to move fast to grab her before she could scoot off the bed. And to avoid a tussle, just rolled on top of her again to keep her in place. “Just what happened between you and that guy you were engaged to?”
“That’s hardly relevant now.”
“It is when you’ve just plopped him down in bed with us.”
She opened her mouth, prepared to strike out with a sharp, damning reply. And sighed instead. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. And I’m absolutely stupid. Let me up. I can’t carry on any sort of conversation this way.”
He eased back so she could shift. And said nothing when she tugged the sheet up over her breasts, though he recognized the gesture as a lifting of the shield.
She tried to gather her thoughts as thunder rolled again and lightning shuddered through the dark. “He cheated on me, and as he claimed to love me, his reason was the fact that I was unimaginative in bed.”
“Were you taking yoga back then?” When she merely stared, coolly, Seth shook his head. “Sugar, if you bought that line, you are stupid.”
“I was going to marry him. We’d ordered the invitations. I’d had my first fitting for the wedding dress. Then I find out he’s been romping between the sheets—ones I bought, for your information—with a lawyer.”
Wind blew in a gust through the windows, and lightning slashed behind it. But he didn’t look away from her. He didn’t rush over to shut the windows against the oncoming rain.
“And he expected me to understand his reasoning,” she went on. “He expected me to go through with the wedding because it was just sex, which was something I wasn’t particularly skilled at.”
Prick, Seth thought. The kind of prick that gave regular guys a bad name. “And do you figure a guy who’d go shopping for wedding invitations with one woman and sneak around with another is worth one minute of your time?”
“Hardly, or I wouldn’t have walked out on him, causing myself and my family considerable embarrassment. I’m not thinking of him. I’m thinking of me.”
She was wrong about that, but he let it go. “Do you want me to tell you what it was like being with you? It was magic.” He leaned forward to touch his lips to hers. “Magic.”
When he took her hand, she looked down at the way they joined. Then sighing, looked toward the windows. “It’s raining,” she said softly.
“Stay with me awhile.” He brought their joined hands to his lips. “We’ll listen to it.”
IT was still raining when she rose. The soft, steady patter after the storm turned the room into a cozy nest, one she wished she could wallow in.
“Stay the night. I’ll even run out early and hunt up something decent for breakfast.”
“I can’t.” It seemed so intimate, so romantic to talk to him in the dark that her first reaction was disappointment when he turned on the light. The second was shock as she realized she was in full view of the windows. “For heaven sake.” She scrambled with her underwear toward the bathroom.
“Yeah, like there’s anyone out there at this time of night, in the rain.” Unconcerned with modesty, he got up
and, comfortably naked, followed her. He managed to stop the door from slamming in his face. “Look at it this way, you’ll only have to walk downstairs to go to work in the morning.”
“I don’t have any clothes. Any fresh clothes,” she added when he gestured to the shirt still in a heap on the bedroom floor. “Only a man could suggest I go to work in the morning wearing the same thing I wore yesterday. Would you mind getting that shirt for me?”
He obliged her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t stall. “Bring extra clothes tomorrow. I’ll pick up some supplies. We’ll have dinner. I can cook,” he claimed when she lifted an eyebrow. “Adequately. Or we could hang at your place, and you could fix dinner.”
“I don’t cook, even adequately.”
“We can go out, then come back here. Or your place,” he added, easing his arms around her. “I don’t care where. A planned date, instead of our usual impromptu.”
“This wasn’t a date.” She wiggled away to button her shirt. “This was sex.”
“Excuse me. We had food, alcoholic beverages, conversation and sex. That, baby, is a date.”
She could feel her lips quiver into a smile. “Damn. You got me.”
“Exactly.” He caught her around the waist again when she moved by him, drew her back against him. “Have dinner with me, go to bed with me, wake up with me.”
“All right, but we’ll have to eat after eight. I have a yoga class tomorrow.”
“You’re just saying that to torment me. But since we’re on the subject, can you actually hook your heel behind your head?”
She laughed and pulled away. “I’ve got to go. It’s after midnight. I’ll come back here around eight. I’ll risk your cooking.”
“Great. Hey, do you want me to frame the watercolor for you?”
She beamed at him. “I can have it?”
“That depends. I’m willing to trade a painting for a painting.”
“You’ve already finished the one of me.”
