“Wow, you really are royalty. They’d be the only one who could afford this kind of room.”
“Not royalty. The son of an earl, but that doesn’t mean nearly as much as Americans seem to think it does. Would you like a drink?” The room had a bar, and he pulled out a bottle of bourbon, dropping some ice into a glass.
“Sure, whatever you’re having. So you’re not American? Durman, then?”
He poured them each two fingers, then filled the glasses the rest of the way with water. Gripping hers by the top rim, he handed it to her as he responded. “Both actually. I carry dual citizenship.”
“Well.” She took a long drink, then coughed a little as it went down. “I think you’re off the hook, Mr. Earl. This place is so huge, I can just take the couch and you won’t have to feel honor-driven to give me your bed just to save me the cost of a room.”
He could have verbally set her straight, but if there was one thing he knew, it was that telling her that he wanted her wouldn’t really breach the insecurities she clearly had about herself. Showing her was necessary, and for that he wanted her to relax a bit.
With a swing of his arm, he motioned to the very sofa she’d just suggested she could sleep on. He followed her, letting her sit down first. He dropped easily onto the cushions close enough to her he could reach her while still giving her a bit of space. “How long have you and Ray been divorced?”
That question would probably do nothing to calm her, but it was something he felt compelled to find out.
Meg swallowed down another gulp of alcohol before looking at him. She seemed startled by whatever she saw in his gaze, issuing a nervous smile and taking one more sip. “About six months. But he really left almost a year before that. Took a job in New York. It was supposed to be a short contract. Turned out it was the beginning of a long term one, and the end of our marriage.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I just felt the need to know.”
She slapped at his knee. “Listen, no harm there. I’m not broken up about it. Really. Sure, I missed him when he left. I was hurt when he told me about the other women, but somehow I wasn’t nearly as surprised by all of it as I maybe should have been. I’ve had a long time to think about it, to come to grips with what went wrong. And the truth is that getting married in the first place was the wrong part.”
He bobbed his head in understanding. “You don’t love him.”
“Oh, no, I love him to the moon and back.” She swallowed the last of her bourbon. “Do you mind if I fix another?”
He took the glass from her and headed back to the wet bar.
“What was I saying?”
He grinned as he poured one finger this time instead of two. “Moon and back.”
“Oh, yeah. So, I do love him. We grew up together. Him and me and Rhonda. The three musketeers. But that kind of love, a working marriage does not make.” She giggled at her own words as she took the glass from him. “Once it was us under one roof and Rhonda was gone to school, getting along became difficult. See, she’s always been the one calling the shots. We followed her around like she was the alpha of the pack. Without her, Ray tried to step in, and I resented it. So when he was gone, it was like a big breath of fresh air for me.” He watched her slide her feet back and forth against the carpet. “Whew … there’s a reason big girls shouldn’t wear heels.”
Jeremy finished his own drink and sat back down beside her, this time reaching down and taking her feet to pull them up into her lap. She made a face as if she would protest, but when he began circling his thumbs into the arches of her feet, she leaned back against the arm of the couch and moaned. “Oh, that’s nice. Do they teach that at earl school?”
As he massaged, she pointed her feet in a stretch, and her toes brushed a feather’s touch against his thighs. Damn, but the woman could get a reaction from him almost without warning. He continued rubbing, then slipped his fingers between her toes.
“Oh, no, no, no,” she squealed, jerking to try to pull away from him. “Ticklish.”
“I figured…” One corner of his mouth turned up in a grin. He tugged her feet back to his lap, and when he did, the skirt of her dress hitched up almost past her knees. She immediately took hold of the hem and tried to push it back down.
He encircled both her ankles with his hands and then slid them upward along her calves, kneading the muscles of each leg as he went along.
“Jeremy, you don’t have to …”
“Shh …”
Her eyes were open wide, so many emotions in their depths that it was hard to figure what she was feeling. Fear? Embarrassment? Excitement? He pushed one of her legs to the side until it slipped off the couch, then he scooted forward into the open space between her thighs. With one ankle still in his hand, he lifted it so that he could sweep his lips across the creamy smooth skin of her calf, working his way upward.
She was still holding her dress, doing her best to cover up, but the hypnosis of his stare had her. She never once looked away from him as he made his way higher. When he nipped his teeth to the tender spot at the crook of her knee she flinched, then sucked her lip into her mouth.
He was so desperate to kiss her that he almost rose up to smother her body with his and claim her mouth. But he didn’t. Instead he let go of her leg and then took her hands, loosening the tight hold she had on her hemline. The satiny material dropped, sliding down her thighs to bunch at her waist. Under she had on tight nude-colored shapewear, which she was clearly embarrassed about.
Gazing up at her, he brought one of her hands to his cheek. Her fingers stretched long, tentatively touching his lips. When he sucked two of them into his mouth, she moaned and closed her eyes.
“Jeremy, why are you doing this?” She snatched her hands away and to her lap where she once again tried to hide herself under folds of orange fabric.
“I want there to be a day when you won’t ask that question. Maybe it won’t be with me, but one day, you won’t have to wonder why a man would worship you and your body.”
She swallowed, rolling over to tuck her legs close to her chest so that she could fully ensconce herself the way a child would pull on an oversized tee-shirt. “Mom used to call me big-boned,” she snickered. “Listen, I don’t have any illusions about myself. I’m a plus-sized girl. I had to practically starve myself to get down to this dress size for the wedding. It’s just the way it is. And I know that guys like you don’t have hook-ups with girls like me.”
Jeremy gritted his teeth, angry at all the people who must have made her feel the way she did about herself. Inhaling deep, he turned so that he was sitting beside her and leaned in close so that he could peck kisses to her cheek and neck. She didn’t pull away, but held herself stone still, barely even breathing.
“Meg, the fact that I want you isn’t an illusion. I wish you could understand. I wish you’d let me help you understand. Tonight, let me do that.” She still didn’t respond, and he reached out to take one of her hands. She let him, though the tension in her arm was palpable as he moved even closer to her. “I want you …” He placed her hand between his legs, pressing his erection into her palm so that she could clearly feel his desire.
Meg pushed her hand tighter to him, rolling her head to the side so that she could look at him. Her brown eyes were liquid and filled with longing. She licked her lips and his ability to resist tasting them evaporated. Still cupping her hand against him, he leaned over and claimed her mouth, beckoning with his tongue until she opened her lips to him.
When Jeremy kissed her, all thoughts of insecurity fled temporarily from Meg’s mind. She clutched at him, drawing him as close as she could. He managed to maneuver them sideways onto the long sofa, and she was sure she’d never felt anything as wonderful as his body pressed into hers.
When he tore his lips from her, she opened her eyes and looked at him, suddenly afraid that was all there would be. One kiss. One taste just didn’t seem fair.
“Will you let me?”
Blinking, her brows furrowed into confusion. “Let you?”
“Let me show you tonight. Let me be with you?”
All she could do was nod. Her breath was stolen by the mere thought of spending the night with him. Once he had her consent, he slid away from her, standing and holding a hand out to her. She slipped her fingers into his palm and he rubbing his thumb over her knuckles before helping her to her feet.
The bedroom was no more than ten footsteps away, but it felt an eternity. Just long enough for her to begin to worry about what she’d gotten herself into. What would he think of her body once he really saw her? So much could be hidden beneath clothing, especially with Lycra holding all of the rolling bits in place. He flipped on the light once they were through the threshold, and she bit her lip as she glanced at the switch, longing to turn it off again.
He must have caught the angst on her face because he stopped and turned to her, tugging her arm to swing her against his front. Both his hands cupped her face, caressing her cheeks and being especially careful with the injured side. “This isn’t supposed to be a frightening experience, Meg. I want us both to enjoy this.” He swooped down to brush a petal-soft kiss to her lips.
After a few gentle pecks, he urged her mouth open with his tongue, and she gladly complied. The feel of his tongue sweeping hers was heavenly, and she held onto him as her body melted to his. So caught up was she in the sensation of that kiss and the delicious warmth building between her thighs, she barely even noticed that his hands had moved around behind her and were carefully lowering the zipper of her gown.
It was the feel of cool air sweeping her back that alerted her. The gown itself was strapless, but she’d insisted on a bolero to cover her arms and the bra-straps that girls with big breasts needed for support. Once he had the zipper down to its ending just past her buttocks, there was nothing else to keep the dress from falling.
And it did, dropping first to bunch up at her waist and then slipping down over her hips to pool on the floor. His fingers helped the bolero to slide offer her shoulders and join the dress on the floor.
He wasn’t looking at her yet, thank God. Instead he was seeing her with his hands, running them along her back, across her rear and then grazing her outer thighs before trailing up to her breasts. Her padded bra didn’t allow her to feel much sensation, but he cupped both breasts and lifted them, skimming his thumbs up along the very tops where he could find naked skin.
She briefly wondered if she should explain to him how to get her out of the skintight contraption covering just about all of her torso, but somehow he managed to find the eye hooks at her breastbone and begin unclasping them one by one. He was doing it all by touch, eyes still closed as he kissed her again and again. “Stop thinking…” he told her, noticing that she was no longer participating.
“Sorry.” She shook out her arms to try to relieve some of the tension that had been building there, then she rubbed her hands up his arms until she reached his neck and drew them down along his chest.
He was a man straight up and down, virtually no excess fat or skin on him. It was so different than Ray’s brawny body that she almost marveled at it. But for all his tall, slender form she could feel ridges of muscle in his chest and abdomen, and she found she really wanted to get his shirt off so that she could touch his skin.
Jeremy was just about finished with the clasps on her girdle by the time she started unbuttoning his shirt. He took the straps and began to pull them off her arms, this requiring her to stop working on him and step back a bit.
And that meant he would see her. She bit her lip to fight the urge to cross her arms over her body and go running to the bathroom. He gently pulled the tight material off her and down to her ankles. He was crouched in front of her now, and she dutifully stepped out of the material when he urged her to.
She remembered too late that she hadn’t worn panties under the girdle. Jeremy’s face was just about in line with the apex of her thighs. He caressed his hands up her legs to that spot.
Meg held her breath, watching him. When he spread her lips with his thumbs and leaned in to flick his tongue against her, she almost fell over in alarm. But the sensation was so sensual that instead she reached down to touch his head in silent pleading for more. And he did, this time covering her nub with his mouth and sucking once hard before licking even deeper into her folds.
“So sweet. I’m going to enjoy more of that soon.”
And then he was back on his feet, guiding her towards the bed. She gave her discarded clothing, her protection as it were, a glance over her shoulder, then focused wholly on him when he led her to the bed. Her bra was front-hooked, and he had that undone just as quickly as he had the rest of her clothing. Meg let the material drop to her wrists, and she shook her arms to flick it loose and toss it over the side of the bed.
And then Jeremy walked around her until he was standing behind her. He grazed her breasts as he did so, and the small touch sent a pulse straight down to the liquid heat between her legs. He wrapped one arm around her belly and the other just under her chest, cupping one breast in his palm.
“Look,” he whispered in her ear, and when she flicked her gaze up, she realized they were standing in front of a huge floor-to-ceiling mirror. “You’re beautiful, Meg. Look how absolutely sexy you are right now.”
His fingers skimmed along her skin, reverently touching and tracing every curve of her. From the large swell of her breasts, to the concave at the waist of her hourglass figure, then to her navel. She watched, mesmerized by him. By the image of the two of them like that. When one of his hands made its way between her legs, and he slipped a finger into her wet folds, her legs wanted to buckle.
“How could I not want this?” he asked, grinding his hips against her backside, the hard protrusion of his erection proof enough of his words.
“I want you, too,” Meg admitted, then pivoted in his arms to finish removing his shirt. She looked up to see him watching her with heavy-lidded eyes as she worked each button. When they were all undone, she spread the shirt wide with her hands and then thrummed her fingers down his chest to his belly. He sucked in his stomach when her fingers reached the V that pointed straight to the place that she most wanted to get her hands on.
“Jeremy?” She was never quite sure what to do during sex. Now Jeremy nodded, and as she worked the buckle of his slacks, she never broke eye contact with him. Those beautiful blue eyes were darkened with desire, and she wanted to stay in them, lost in them.
When she lowered his zipper and began drawing his pants and boxers down, he immediately kicked off his shoes so that he could step out of everything. Meg decided to take the same tact he had earlier and dropped to her knees in front of him. He was an Adonis to her, the sleek and long body, perfectly muscled. His erection was long and thick, and it twitched with excitement when she blew out a hot breath against him.
“Wow…” she murmured, then closed her eyes and opened her mouth so that she could taste him. She first licked the little dab of pre-cum from the tip, then she widened her lips and sucked the knob hard into her mouth. Jeremy groaned, and she felt her own body clench in excitement because she knew she was pleasing him.
She drew him far back into her throat, then almost withdrew him completely before taking him in again. He only allowed her a few of those movements before he pulled away from her reach and helped her to stand again. Without saying a word, he led her to the bed and urged her to sit and then to lie back.
Her legs were dangling over the end and she held them closed, another bubble of nerves rising up within her. She felt uncomfortable and exposed, completely naked lying there in front of him. Jeremy’s hands touched her knees, then gently pulled them apart so that her lady bits were exposed to his gaze. When he propped her heels onto the bedrail, she raised her head to look down at him. He was wholly focused on her body.
And then his tongue darted out to touch her, sweeping from just above her rear passage straight up through her wet
ness and to her clit. When he reached that bundle of nerves, she lurched, so caught off-guard by the stab of pleasure that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to press herself harder into his ministrations or to pull away.
He didn’t give her a choice though, his hands holding her firmly, insistent that he should have all of her that he wanted. This was a new experience for her. Sure, she’d let Ray give her oral sex a few times in the early days, but once she realized he didn’t like doing it, it became a total turn off to her.
But Jeremy tasted and nipped and licked her like it was the most decadent thing in the world to him. And his enthusiasm was intoxicating. Meg’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she arched her back, grasping at handfuls of the bed sheets as he worked her. And then he dipped his fingers into her hot core, and she came undone. She moaned and twitched as waves of pleasure shot through her, rushing straight into her limbs like electrical pulses.
Carefully he eased his movements there, letting her body work down from the climax. Then he hooked an arm under her legs and swung her around so that she was lying fully on the bed. When her eyes fluttered open he was standing there looking at her, an expression full of appreciation for whatever he saw. And that was immediately attractive to her. Her nipples tightened into sensitive peaks and her center heated with the need for more.
One tentative hand reached out, fingers wrapping around Jeremy’s thick member. He groaned and closed his eyes, pumping his hips forward into her touch.
“That feels so good, Meg. Mmm …”
“Come to me, Jeremy. I want you inside me.”
He made another sound, this one even deeper in his throat, then pulled away to find his pants.
Meg rose up on her elbows and watched him, realizing when he found his wallet that he was searching for protection. Funny, it hadn’t even occurred to her. She and Ray hadn’t used any since she was on the pill. Safe sex was something she’d need to consider if she began dating again.
All for Family (The Rawley Family Romances Book 3) Page 6
