He lifted his head to take a breath and saw that she was gasping, too, her eyes tightly shut, her head resting against the wall. “It’s been a long fourteen months for you, too, hasn’t it honey?”
Her thick lashes lifted. “Maybe I’ve had a different lover every night.”
“I’ll make you forget every single one of them.”
She smiled a little. “Silly man. You know how cautious I am.”
“But you don’t have to be that way with me, do you, Charlotte? You can break your celibacy with me. I’m safe to go wild with, baby.”
She laughed. “ ‘Safe to go wild with’?”
“Isn’t that what you need?” He had her hands and walked backward, taking a path toward their room. “There’s a lot of energy stored up in this beautiful body. You can release it with me and I’ll make sure it’s the best night of your life.”
She frowned at him, though he noticed she was allowing herself to be pulled in the right direction. “You’re sure of yourself.”
“I’m sure I know what to do with you. I know how you like your breasts to be teased, how you like my fingers inside you when I suck your nipples, how when you’re on top I can touch you in that one special place and you’ll—”
“Luke!” Red-faced, her gaze jumped behind him.
Grinning, he glanced over his shoulder to see a uniformed waiter outside their room, holding a tray with a bucket of ice, a bottle of wine, and two gleaming glasses.
“—scream just like that.”
She whacked him on the shoulder as he turned to deal with the room service order. In moments they were behind the locked door, with chilling chardonnay beside the bed and thrumming sexual tension filling the bedroom.
Charlotte stood on one side of the mattress, her gaze down, her fingers fiddling with the lace edge of the sheet. Luke leaned over to flip the pillow on its end, revealing the scarlet temptations of lace and satin. “They’re for you,” he said.
She glanced at him, glanced back at the lingerie. “I should put them on just to torment you.”
“I’ll enjoy suffering for you.” He’d seen her face at the boutique. Donning the garments would be a seduction of their own. He poured her a glass of wine, then came around the end of the bed to place the stem in her hand. She took it, as well as the soft kiss he placed on her mouth. “You’re worrying too much,” he said.
A moment passed. He could see her brain working, calculating the pros and cons. Desperation made his heartbeat kick up and it prompted him to utter the first lie he’d ever told her. “It’s just sex, Charlotte.”
The words made her eyes brighten. He saw her spine straighten. Another moment passed. “You’re right,” she finally said, handing over the glass and swooping up the lingerie in one move. Before his head had stopped spinning, she was behind the bathroom door.
In what seemed like a second, she was out again. He choked on the swallow of wine that was in his mouth. Jesus. “You’re killing me.”
The robe wasn’t tight around her waist this time. It flowed open, another frame for her bountiful breasts and creamy skin. The teddy was poured over every curve of her body, displaying the flare of her hips as well as showcasing her magnificent chest. He felt stupid, staring at her. He had a master’s degree in math. Professional credentials in engineering and physics.
He had no idea how to traverse the feet between them. How he would manage to hold on to the flaming temptation that was Charlotte’s body in that fantasy-wear.
Perhaps she sensed his paralysis, because she strolled toward him. His gaze was drawn downward to her long legs, the tops of her thighs bare, the rest of them covered with sheer stockings held up by garters attached to the lacy hem of the teddy.
“Take off your clothes, Luke,” she said.
Were there any more beautiful words in the English language? But he was still floored by the sexiest sight of his life. She frowned. “Do I need to help you?”
He cleared his throat, and was able to move just enough to set his wineglass aside. “Please do,” he said.
Her smile caused a tiny dimple to crease her right cheek. She was feeling good, he decided, decisive and confident now, and he grinned in return. He wanted her all-in here.
His all the way.
She drew his sport coat off first. “So handsome,” she murmured. “Have I ever seen you this dressed up?” Her hands ran over the navy blue wool as she draped it over a chair. Then she was back, loosening his tie.
His heart pounded in his chest as her fingers worked slowly to unknot the fabric. He wanted to grab the thing and yank it over his head, but Charlotte was so pretty with her tongue caught between her teeth, her focus so absolute on her task. She peeped up at him, a laugh in her eyes.
“Witch,” he murmured. “You know you’re making me crazy.”
She let the strip of silk drop to the ground. “Fourteen months is a long, long time, Luke. We don’t want to rush things.”
His chest expanded as she attacked the buttons of his shirt. “We could rush the first time and go slow the second. And the third ...” The tails of his shirt pulled free and then it, too, dropped to the ground. “I’ll take it really slow, then. Lick you all over. Lick you on that very special place you like, lick you until you come on my tongue.”
She swayed. He caught her hips, yanked her close.
The kiss was sex in itself. He thrust deep into the hot cavern of her mouth. She rubbed against his chest, and he felt her hard nipples scrape against his undershirt. Still holding her close, he lifted one hand to grasp the soft cotton between his shoulder blades. He yanked it upward and over his head, separating their lips for just the second it took to toss the fabric aside.
Then it was his naked chest to her lace-covered breasts. With a quick swipe, he slid the robe from her shoulders. Then he peeled the cups of the teddy away from her, tucking the stretchy lace beneath her breasts. Desperate for more, he jerked her forward again, groaning as the stiff beads of her nipples met his hot skin.
He was going to go off just with this.
Charlotte twined a leg around his, opening her hip so that her pelvis was flush with his. He rubbed his shaft against her soft mound, watching her eyes close as she moaned and pushed back. His hand pressed the small of her back, anchoring her so that the movement was his alone.
Her frustrated sound was music to his ears. She made another as he lifted his mouth and ran his lips across her jaw and down her neck. As she went on tiptoe, the curve of her ass found the palm of his hand and his mouth met the top swell of her luscious breasts.
He breathed in, taking Charlotte-scent into his lungs. His free hand moved to cup the heavy weight of her as his mouth shifted to hover over her nipple. His tongue reached out to lick the very tip.
Charlotte jerked in his hold. A tremor worked down her spine. “Luke. Luke, please.”
He flicked her nipple, a harder touch this time and another shudder racked her frame. Teasing her like this wasn’t easy on him, either. There were dozens of things he adored when it came to Charlotte’s body, from her elegant limbs to her silky hair, but she liked the attention he paid to her breasts as much as he liked paying the attention.
He curled his tongue around the jutting stiffness and this time she broke, both her hands sliding to his head and holding him right where she wanted him. Her fingernails scratched his scalp, insisting he provide a firmer touch.
So he sucked.
Her moan went straight to his cock. Blood surged there, making it go even harder as his body processed the absolute sexual thrill of his mouth filled with her warm, soft flesh. He pressed her nipple against the roof of his mouth, and then drew on it in a rhythm that he matched with the hand kneading her ass.
She was climbing his body like ivy. He flashed hot, thinking about just freeing his shaft and pushing aside that scrap of red to shove himself inside her body. But it would be over too soon. It wouldn’t provide enough Luke-to-Charlotte contact.
He released her breast with a
carnal pop and she didn’t hesitate to put her mouth on him, her greedy tongue licking across his chest wall until she found his own nipple. She paid him back with delicate licks there and he groaned, his hand sliding down to the fastening of his slacks.
His cock needed out.
Her fingers replaced his. “Let me,” she whispered, and it was his turn to shudder as her knuckles brushed him while she worked at the zipper. Then she shoved the fabric away. The pants and boxers fell to his ankles and he tripped trying to step out of them, landing on the bed.
She laughed.
He snagged her wrist and drew her down beside him even as he kicked out of the last of his clothes. She twined her arms around his neck and they were nose-to-nose. Smile-to-smile.
He caressed her bottom. “You have the most delectable soft curves.”
“I missed all your hard parts.”
“Yeah?” He twined his legs with hers but while the stockings were hot, they weren’t the same as Charlotte’s own sleek skin. “My hard parts want you completely naked.”
She rolled to her back and let her arms and legs go lax. “You bought the goods, you get to take them off.”
He ignored his trembling hands to do just that. But he couldn’t ignore the miles of flesh he revealed. As he unrolled each stocking he trailed his tongue down the taut muscles of her thigh, over her knee, along her shin. A line of fasteners marched down the middle of the naughty scrap of red and he kissed her belly as each was undone.
He drew the lingerie away from Charlotte’s body and dropped it over the side of the mattress. The only thing now decorating the white sheets was the erotic display of her long-limbed nakedness. His heart walloped against his ribs. Staring down at her, he rubbed at the spot with his palm.
Then Charlotte, her gaze never leaving his, took his other hand. She placed it palm-down on the wet, pulsing heat of her pussy.
If she was trying to send him a message, he wasn’t in the mood to listen. Instead, he curled his fingers and tenderly slid two into the sleek, giving center of her.
She gasped, and just the glimpse of the pink wetness inside her mouth made him go harder. Without moving his hand, he stretched beside her body. Her head turned to his and their lips met, the kiss going wild as she pushed her tongue into his mouth. God!
He sucked on it, and then started moving inside her body, filling her with his fingers as she filled him with her hot, teasing tongue. His hips moved against her, his cock stroking her pretty flank.
She twisted closer and her breast brushed his chest, distracting him. Demanding attention.
Still thrusting with his fingers, he slid lower, listening to her gasp as he found her nipple and sucked it inside. Her hips pumped into his penetrating touch, her whole body undulating as he dallied at each breast, switching from nipple to nipple.
He was careful to be gentle with them. So gentle.
“Luke. Luke, Luke, Luke.”
Careful to make her eager for more. Fourteen months had passed, but everything that he’d learned of her body was still fresh in his mind. Gentle, to make her crazy.
He eased up the pressure on the nipple in his mouth. His tongue made soft, lazy lashes against the jutting bud.
His hand moved slower into the soft drenched tissues where his cock was clamoring to take over.
When he moved his head to press a closed-lips kiss on her midriff, she broke. One moment they were both on their sides. In the next, his shoulder blades were flat to the mattress and she had a hand on his belly. “Condom?” she asked, her voice fierce.
His favorite side of Charlotte. The wild side.
“I bought a package when I went out for the lingerie,” he said. “Check the bedside table drawer.”
She tilted her head. “You didn’t come with condoms?”
“Where you’re involved, I don’t take anything for granted.” Back to honesty.
She seemed to appreciate it. Once a foil packet had been located, the action speeded up. Or maybe it was just that his brain could no longer keep hold of all the details. There was ...
Charlotte.
Her smooth skin.
Her mouth latching onto his.
The teasing roll of latex down his shaft.
Her gaze caught his, a question in them, and he recalled his own promise. “This way,” he said, pulling her astride his hips.
They both groaned as he worked his way inside her.
She rode him then, leaving his hands free to play with her magnificent breasts. Allowing him to toy with that bundle of nerves that he’d promised to please.
He was pleasing her. God, what a high.
Her hair swung around her shoulders as she moved on him, counterpoint to the lift of his hips. Her mouth was half-opened, her blue gaze half-shuttered.
Fourteen months’ worth of fantasies had never been this good.
And then the crisis was upon him. The burn was shooting up the back of his legs. His balls were tightening. His movements went jerky. Urgent.
And he saw she was urgent, too. He took his fingers from her clit. Her gaze was focused on them. She saw him lift them to his mouth, wet them with his tongue. Her eyes dropped as he brought two fingertips back to that throbbing nub of flesh.
He rubbed her there, firm and sure, and he saw the moment when climax struck. She stilled, then jerked, smacking against his upstroke. As a flush broke across her skin, he reached for one nipple and pinched her there, watching as her head dropped back. Feeling as her internal muscles milked his body.
They both went wilder.
Calm took awhile to achieve.
“I told you,” he said finally, not trying to camouflage the satisfaction he felt. She was beside him now, as she always should be. “This was a very good idea.”
“You’re right,” she agreed, nestling her cheek against the hollow of his shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with sex for the sake of sex.”
He stilled. Shit. Fourteen months had passed, yet nothing had changed. He’d said they should have “just sex” to get her in his bed. But now that he had her there, he’d gotten “just” what he said he’d wanted.
Which wasn’t enough at all.
CHAPTER FIVE
Charlotte woke, confused for a moment by the beat beneath her cheek and the hair-roughened legs twined with hers. Then she recognized Luke’s scent, his wide palm cupping her shoulder, the sound of his heart.
Heat flashed over her, part-panic, part-passion. She’d had sex with Luke last night. And it had been as intimate and erotic as every other time before. On the tender skin at the nape of her neck—that she prayed her long hair would conceal—she felt a lick of heat that told her he’d left her with a reminder of his favorite kiss in her favorite place.
Fourteen months had passed—but what had happened between the sheets in the preceding hours proved that while a year had gone by, they’d lost nothing of their sexual connection. And she couldn’t afford to be connected with any man.
Agitated at the thought, she started to wrench from Luke’s hold, stirring him from sleep. Charlotte froze as his fingers twitched and his legs shifted. He settled again and she breathed out a quiet sigh, holding still to give her pulse another minute to quiet. She needed to keep her cool. And she needed to disentangle herself from him.
For now.
Forever.
Moving glacier-slow, Charlotte slipped from his lax hold and slid off the mattress. Her heart jerked as he muttered something then rolled to his stomach, gathering the pillow close. She watched him another long moment, appreciating again his wide shoulders, lean hips, and the deep valley of his spine revealed by the sheet that was pooled across the top of his muscled ass.
Who could blame her for succumbing to temptation? She’d put up a good fight, hadn’t she? But he knew all the ways to melt her resistance, and God knows he was a beautiful man.
Still, she could keep passion and emotion separate, she could. A few minutes alone, a cup or two of coffee, and she’d be back to her composed,
calm self. Their night together didn’t mean that they were together.
He was deep enough in sleep that she risked a quick shower. Then she pulled on her swimsuit and cover-up, a floppy hat, and big sunglasses, and departed the room in search of caffeine and a secluded corner beside the pool.
In the open-air lobby, silver carafes and paper cups were provided for early rising guests. Charlotte breathed in the steam of her dose of strong coffee and her spirits lifted. Clearly she was the first to venture from her room, and with a little luck she’d have enough time for the tranquility to settle into her soul.
Leaning against the nearby wall, she closed her eyes as the coffee slid down her throat.
“Charlotte,” a man’s voice said. “As I live and breathe, Charlotte Bond.”
She startled, causing hot liquid to burp from the opening in the coffee’s lid. A yelp escaped her and she whirled, seeking a napkin to mop up the burn.
The man hurried close to press a handkerchief into her free hand. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice concerned. “Are you all right?”
She kept her attention on the cooling drips. “I’m fine. It was nothing.” You didn’t break my heart. “How are you, Peter?”
Peter Langford, Audrey’s dad and Charlotte’s former stepfather, ran a hand over his expertly cut steel-gray hair. “This father-of-the-bride stuff isn’t for the faint of heart,” he said, with an awkward laugh.
“Audrey didn’t say you’d be here this weekend,” Charlotte said. She handed him back the square of cotton. Though she hadn’t seen him in nine years, he’d changed as little as his daughter.
“I have a place nearby that I use on weekends.” Tall and spare, with a golfer’s tan and a wealthy man’s aura, Peter appeared in good health—though he was gazing on her with something that felt uncomfortably close to regret.
Or maybe that was projecting, she thought, embarrassed. It was likely an old echo of her devastated teenage self. Charlotte cleared her throat and gave him her best professional smile, donning her composure like armor. Treat him like a client. “Well, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”
Kiss the Bride Page 15
