by Nicola Marsh
"You don't know the first thing about me." She took a step back, hands on hips, a sexy avenging angel. "But I'm hoping to rectify that before morning."
"Fighting words, but can you deliver?" I deliberately taunted her, wanting to see how far she'd go. Because now that I'd almost given in, I glimpsed more than determination in her expressive eyes. I saw fear. Maybe I could dredge up the last of my shredded self-control to finally push her away? "If you stay, there's no turning back. It's you and me, having hot, sweaty, debauched sex, all night long."
Her eyes darkened to midnight and a vein in her neck pulsed. "How debauched?"
"I'll have to show you." I stood so fast she yelped and backed up a few steps.
Mortified that I'd resorted to games to drive her away, I turned my back on her. "Just go."
I held my breath, willing her to put on that damn coat dress and run from this room as fast as she could.
As if things weren't complicated enough between us, I'd have to chalk this up as another disaster.
"I want to stay," she murmured, a second before she slid her arms around my waist and pressed her front to my back from behind.
I stiffened, every muscle in my body rigid and on high alert. Her breasts were squashed against my back, her pelvis snug against my butt, her skin setting fire to mine.
I gritted my teeth as one hand slid up under my T-shirt, the other toyed with the waistband of my sweatpants. "Bellie, please—"
"Ssh …" She slipped her hand inside my pants and I heard her sharp intake of breath. "Commando, huh?"
"I wasn't expecting company."
Her fist closed around my cock and I moaned.
"I've wanted you for so long," she said, her hand moving slowly up and down while she tweaked a nipple with her other hand. With her body pressed against me from behind, it was damned near the most erotic thing I'd ever done. "Don't you want me too?"
Her whispered question hung in the air between us and I couldn't resist any longer.
With a growl, I stilled her hands, and spun around. Grabbing hold of her, I said, "Hell yeah. I've never wanted anything so badly."
Her lips curved into a smug smile a second before I kissed her.
If our kiss last week had been hot, this one nearly blew my head off. Her tongue challenged mine, her teeth nipped my bottom lip and she gave new meaning to the term sucked face.
I flicked the hooks on her bra. She pushed my sweatpants down.
I nuzzled her neck. She dug her nails into my butt.
I ripped off her panties. She tore my T-shirt in a hurry to get it off.
Which left us gloriously naked, panting and eager and out of our goddamn minds.
"You're beautiful," I said, the reality finally sinking in as I studied her, my fantasies not coming close to the reality.
"I'm short and pale and freckled." She shrugged. "But when you look at me, I feel beautiful."
Her vulnerability slayed me more than her bravado in coming to my room and putting herself out there. And right then, the last of my fears fell away.
I wouldn't hurt Annabelle. I couldn't. Not when we'd swum together in the river that ran behind our properties. Not when we'd challenged each other to hamburger eating competitions. Not when I'd watched her morph from a feisty tomboy into a curious teen, to the brave, beautiful woman standing naked before me.
It took a lot of guts to turn up here, especially after I'd done nothing but push her away since we’d reconnected.
I wouldn't let her down. For the simple fact she meant something to me.
"You're an amazing woman and don't you forget it." This time I didn't devour her. I eased her onto the bed and knelt at her feet. Wrapped my fingers around her ankles. Eased them apart.
She gasped and propped on her elbows, watching me.
Without breaking eye contact, I licked my way up her right calf, pausing to nibble at her knee, nipping at her inside thigh.
She writhed. "Oh my God, Joel. Please …"
"I'm getting there, sweetheart." I paid the same attention to her other leg but didn't stop at her inner thigh. Hell no, this time I went for broke.
I tongued her clit and she arched off the bed, making the soft panting noises I remembered. Holding her hips down, I licked and laved and tasted until she screamed.
Kissing my way upward, I lingered at her waist, at the undersides of her breasts, before sucking one nipple into my mouth, then the other. She was so responsive, so eager, so mine.
When I lifted my head, she cupped my face. "You're the most incredible guy I've ever met."
The adoration in her wide-eyed stare almost undid me as much as her touch.
I wasn't incredible. Far from it. But I couldn't stop now if I tried. So I responded the best way I knew how, by giving Annabelle what she wanted.
I slipped on a condom, raised her arse with my hands, and entered her. Tight, slick, wet, heaven.
I'd known it would be good between us. But I hadn't expected this uncharacteristic, downright terrifying sensation of coming home.
She wrapped her legs around my waist as I pounded into her, desperate to obliterate the tenderness with sheer, unadulterated lust.
She matched me thrust for thrust, her nails digging into my back, her teeth sinking into my shoulder.
As the pressure built in my balls, so did the feeling of being totally out of control.
I'd never come back from this.
I slid a hand between our sweat-slicked bodies and fingered her clit, holding back until she was close. I shot my load as she clenched around me, my grunts mingling with her high-pitched keen.
As far as sex went, what we'd just done was unbe-fucking-lievable.
It was what we'd do next that scared the shit out of me.
Chapter 11
ANNABELLE
I couldn't believe it.
I'd actually seduced Joel.
What we'd just done on a scale of one to ten? An indescribable ninety-nine-point-nine. And I only took that point-one off for him resisting as long as he did.
Sex before Joel had been okay. Fun but lackluster. Comfortable without the spark. It was nothing compared to the frantic, desperate, almost animalistic sex we'd had. It was everything I'd dreamed it would be and more. Because right at the end, before he came, he'd looked at me like he'd really seen me for the first time.
It gave me hope. Hope that this wouldn't be the one night stand I'd talked myself into believing I'd be okay with, and that we could actually do this again and again during whatever time I had left in Denver.
Joel padded out of the bathroom, naked and magnificent. I'd expected him to retreat, to make some excuse and shove me out the door.
But he surprised me by slipping back into bed, rolling onto his side to study me. "You okay?"
I linked my hands and stretched overhead. "Never better."
The simple action made my boobs pop over the top of the sheet and he sucked a nipple into his mouth, making heat pool between my legs again.
I stared at his hair, mussed and glorious, as he licked his way across to the other nipple, plucking the first with his fingers until I squirmed.
My stomach gave an almighty rumble and he lifted his head, a goofy grin on his face. "Hungry?"
Wanting him to continue, but unable to lie when my stomach rumbled again, louder than the first, I nodded. "I skipped dinner."
Pre-seduction nerves weren't conducive to eating.
"I'll order something." He half-rose from the bed and I snagged his hand.
"Thanks."
His smile faded a little. "It's only room service."
"For everything," I added, hating that I blushed as I said it. "What we did? How you made me feel? Was pretty darn amazing …" I finished lamely, somewhat off-put by his grave expression.
He stared at me for ages, until I wanted to scamper to escape the awkward silence. Then he turned his hand over in mine and squeezed. "The feeling is entirely mutual."
He raised my hand to his lips, kissed t
he back of it, before releasing it. "Anything particular you fancy to eat?"
I pointedly stared at his semi-hard dick and he laughed.
"I'll order us a couple of burgers first, then dessert later."
I nodded. "Deal."
He moved around the room with ease, flipping through the menu, ordering on the phone, totally comfortable in his own skin. Then again, with his lean legs, trim waist, washboard abs, solid pecs and all-over tan, why wouldn't he be?
He was gorgeous, and incredibly sexy in a laid-back way that only Aussie guys could pull off. But this Aussie guy wouldn't be heading home and the fact I'd soon be back in Uppity-Doo, probably working for his mum, reinforced how far apart we really were.
I'd known this would be a brief fling—if I was lucky. Considering I was still here and Joel hadn't kicked me out after sex meant he could be amenable to my initial proposal: that we hook up for my remaining weeks in the States. But that's where the fairytale ended. I had no doubt that when my departure grew imminent, Joel would wish me luck with a peck on the cheek and send me on my way.
I'd come to terms with that. I'd gone into this expecting nothing less. So why did the thought of watching him walk away from me yet again leave a hollow, gnawing ache in my gut?
"Food's on the way," he said, slipping into a robe. "They were glad to hear I'd made a full recovery from the gastro."
I laughed. "Can't you give a girl a break? I was nervous enough about turning up on your doorstep without having to come up with a quick excuse."
He smiled and perched on the edge of the bed, resting his hand on my ankle. "That was a ballsy move, showing up here after I've done nothing but shove you away."
"One of us had to make a move before we went nuts," I said, making it sound the easiest thing in the world when in fact I'd been a basket case before knocking on his door.
"And now?"
"Now we eat." I knew he hadn't been talking about food but I couldn't reiterate again what I wanted. He needed to meet me half way.
"You know this complicates everything." He absentmindedly rubbed my leg, instantly sending a delicious tingle higher. "It was bad enough concentrating at work before, and that was after one kiss. Now?" He shook his head. "I don't have a hope in hell of keeping my hands off you."
"I'm counting on it." I tried to sound casual, fist-pumping the air in victory on the inside.
Joel wanted more. This wouldn't be a one-off. Yee-ha.
"This is really what you want?" He searched my face, looking for answers I'd readily give if he asked. "A short-term fling?"
"Absolutely." If I nodded any harder, my head would fall off. "We're friends. With exceptionally good benefits. Why shouldn't we take advantage of that for the time we have together?"
"You make it sound so logical …" He shook his head, his grip tightening on my leg.
I scooted forward, rested my hand on his. "It's not complicated. We focus on work at the clinic. We play after hours. Simple."
But as the doorbell rang and Joel headed for the door, I wondered how simple things would be when I had to say goodbye to the best damn thing to ever happen to me.
Chapter 12
JOEL
I'd been looking forward to hearing this renowned American orthopedic surgeon discuss the latest research finds on carpal tunnel syndrome. But as I sat in the darkened lecture theatre, listening to the old guy drone on about the entrapment neuropathy of the median nerve, all I could focus on was the woman sitting next to me, her knee brushing mine.
I could smell Annabelle too, the faintest cinnamon and vanilla wafting over me when she played with her ponytail or ducked to take a different colored pen out of her bag.
It was killing me.
Restraint. I'd practiced it before, I could do it again.
Though in the past, I hadn't had to contend with memories of her licking ketchup off my chest after our hamburgers, or the four sensational sex bouts last night, including a particularly steamy encounter in the shower when she'd sucked me dry.
God, I was hard yet again and she chose that moment to glance across at me, a coy smile playing about her lips, as if she could read my mind.
I bumped her shoulder and muttered, "Concentrate."
Yeah, like she was the one who needed to.
She grinned and returned to taking notes, while I tried my damnedest to focus on the advocacy for surgery if repeated corticosteroid injections into the carpal tunnel failed or if there was severe motor impairment of the thenar eminence muscles.
As the surgeon moved on to discussing nerve conduction tests, I finally gave in and let my mind wander.
I'd never anticipated that Annabelle Cleary was a firecracker in bed. Sure, she'd fit the cliché growing up of the classic redhead and fiery temper, but the way she'd gone off last night …
Thank God she'd convinced me to let go of my reservations. If she hadn't turned up at my hotel room, I never would've known her highly erogenous upper arms, how she loved long, slow kisses before I went down on her, how she giggled as I massaged her insteps, how she enjoyed being on top.
Every erotic thing we'd done continually flashed across my mind, a hot porno on replay. And I couldn't get enough.
Unable to resist touching her a moment longer, my hand snaked across the short gap between us and rested on her upper thigh. She jumped, before settling a cardigan across her lap. The minx.
I let my fingers wander, edging higher, wishing she'd worn a skirt. But the soft cotton of her Capri pants could be a good thing … I could feel her heat through the material and when my fingers slid along her crease, I felt dampness.
Hot damn.
Grateful we'd picked two seats on the far right of the auditorium, away from the main attendees, I rubbed her. Slowly at first, listening to her rapid breathing. Faster, as she wriggled in her seat a little.
My cock strained against my zipper as I pressed down on her clit with my thumb, hard. I didn't dare glance at her because I knew what would happen: I'd be on her in a second. Kissing her. Straddling her. Inconceivable in this place.
So I looked straight ahead and circled her clit faster, not stopping until she stiffened beside me with a subdued, drawn-out sigh.
Only then did I look at her. To find her staring at me with open-mouthed wonder, her tongue flicking out to moisten her lower lip.
"You're a bad boy," she whispered, trying to drape the cardigan over my lap.
I stilled her hand. "I can be badder, but not here."
I jerked my head at the exit behind us. "Don't know about you, but I reckon I've heard enough about carpal tunnels for now."
"Ditto." She stuffed her notebook and pens into her bag pronto, snagged her cardigan and draped it over her shoulders. "Let's go."
I didn't have to be asked twice.
Chapter 13
ANNABELLE
I'd been presumptuous in not booking a room at the hotel before lobbing on Joel's doorstep but it didn't seem to matter, considering we'd barely made it out of his this morning. And now, we'd lasted one lecture before bolting back to the room.
I throbbed with wanting him, despite the release he'd given me in the lecture theatre. God, it had been outrageous, having him rub me to orgasm through my clothes in a room full of people. But the hint of danger had added to the experience and I'd never climaxed so hard.
My legs wobbled the entire walk back to his room and even then we barely made it through the door before he was on me and they gave out.
Joel pinned me to the wall, his mouth ravishing me.
"Need to be inside you. Now," he said, yanking my pants and thong down¸ before unzipping himself and putting a condom on in record time.
"Do it." I kicked off my pants and hung on for dear life as he hoisted me up, pressed me against the wall and plunged into me.
I gasped at the sensation of being filled by him, loving how the base of his shaft pressed against my clit when he angled just right.
I'd lost count of the number of orgasms I'd had i
n the last twenty-four hours, stunned at how quickly he could make me come again and again. And this time was no exception as he thrust into me hard and fast, gripping my butt so tight it bordered on pain.
But the pleasure of having him rub against my clit with each withdrawal and re-entry obliterated everything, until all I could focus on was him inside me, pushing me higher and higher toward sweet oblivion.
My orgasm slammed into me so suddenly I couldn't breathe, the back of my head hitting the wall as he pounded into me with a fierceness that almost made me cry. Not with sadness or fear, but with the irrevocable knowledge that it would never be this good with anyone else for me, ever.
"Fuck me," he murmured, pushing me a good few inches higher up the wall with the force, a second before he came.
Boneless with satisfaction, speechless with stupefaction, I waited until he eased out of me and supported me until I could stand.
Joel rested his forehead against mine and I wished I could read his thoughts by osmosis. "I'm sorry, that was—"
"The best sex of my life, so don't you dare apologize." I slanted a kiss across his lips. "We're amazing together and I'll never get enough."
I knew I'd said the wrong thing the moment the words slipped out, but I couldn't take them back.
I waited for him to say something flippant, to laugh it off. Instead, he swept me into his arms, buried his face in my neck and headed for the bathroom.
"In that case, let’s get started on round two," he said, sucking the sensitive skin below my ear.
I couldn't agree more.
Chapter 14
ANNABELLE
I deserved a medal.
A big, shiny one for lasting another week working with Joel and keeping my hands off him. We were the epitome of professionalism at the clinic. But after hours? The gloves—or more precisely our clothes—were off.
We'd become a clichéd couple. And I loved every minute of it. We'd been to the movies twice, taken long walks, eaten out most evenings and I'd stayed over every night. Long, sensual nights I'd never forget as long as I lived.
