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Full Circle

Page 11

by Shannon Hollis


  “Daniel,” she said, “do men actually prefer oral or vaginal sex? Performing it, I mean. On a woman.”

  His grin got wider and then he threw back his head and laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” She hadn’t said anything remotely amusing. She really wanted to know—and she didn’t have an Internet connection or a library handy with which to find out.

  “You.” He reached over and squeezed her knee. “You sounded as if you were posing the question to your first-year students.”

  “I was posing it to someone who might be expected to know. Though I suppose you could say that of any first-year student.”

  “To be honest, I don’t know about men in general—or rather, locker-room conversations can’t be trusted. I only know for sure about me.”

  Again, her body did that little internal shimmy of anticipation. “Tell me.”

  “I like sex in all its wonderful variations, but I’ve discovered that there’s a certain pleasure my partner gets when I give her oral sex that she doesn’t get any other way. And since pleasing my partner is becoming more important to me, I’d have to say I prefer that.”

  No one had ever done that for Cate. Somehow she felt deprived, as if millions of happy women knew something she didn’t. She’d masturbated, of course, but she was quite sure it wouldn’t feel the same.

  “Why do you ask?”

  She should have thought about this. Now she’d have to confess that there was yet one more thing about sex about which she was ignorant. But trying to hide something like that from Daniel would be ludicrous—especially when chances were probably one hundred percent that he’d be happy to bring her up to date.

  “I was just curious,” she said at last.

  “I like that in a woman.” He kept his eyes on the road. “Cate.”

  “Yes?”

  “Has no one ever gone down on you?”

  “Is that surprising?” she said a little stiffly.

  “I don’t know.” Instead of merely squeezing her knee, he ran his free hand under her skirt and as far up her bare leg as the taut fabric would allow. “But if you want to, we can correct this deficit in your experience as soon as I can find a place to pull over.”

  “Daniel Burke, you will not!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because—because—”

  She had to think of a reason, and quick. He would never back down from a challenge like that. Not to mention the fact that her sexual education had clearly become a personal mission for him.

  “Because we’ll be arrested for indecent exposure!”

  “Not if we’re discreet.” He scanned the roadsides, but there was nothing on the left but a sheer drop of a hundred feet to the ocean, and on the right empty reaches of low-lying scrub that offered no cover at all.

  Good grief. She sounded like a military strategist. One who couldn’t help staring in fascination at what was happening behind the button fly of his jeans.

  “It is completely impossible for me to be discreet when I’m having an orgasm, and you know it,” she said a little breathlessly.

  Her face flushed with the forbidden excitement of it, and her blood was flying through her veins, each red cell rushing to be the first into her swollen femininity.

  He laughed again. “And I’m glad to hear it. Look. Up ahead. It’s perfect.”

  On the left, the road widened for about twenty feet, and the department of highways had planted two huge boulders there, presumably so people wouldn’t take a suicide dive off the edge. Spinning the wheel, Daniel backed the Camaro between the boulders with just enough room for the door to open on her side. He hoisted himself straight up and into the back seat, then hopped out on the passenger side and opened her door.

  “See?” he said, kneeling on the ground. “No one can see a thing.”

  Sure enough, the open door shielded him from the view of anyone on the road, and behind there was nothing but the wide sky and the wash of the waves far below. For a woman who craved space and the freedom of open air, to be set free and flying on an orgasm in such a spot was perfect.

  Once you got past the whole sex-in-a-public-place part.

  “Lie down, Cate,” Daniel said. He knelt in the dust and ran his hand up under her skirt a second time. His dark eyes were nearly black with passion and anticipation, triggering an answering jolt of need from her treacherous body. “Let me do this for you.”

  She simply must have it. There was no use telling herself they needed to wait until they had a motel room and a bed and all the trappings of civilization. On the side of a highway, on the edge of the continent—if she didn’t let him have his way, she would regret it forever.

  This was a fling. That was the whole meaning of fling, wasn’t it? To do something with wild abandon and unexpected force. That wasn’t to say that she couldn’t still control its direction—she had pretty good aim. She’d thought this out and decided on her course of action, so doing this with Daniel was the next logical step.

  If a fling could be said to be logical.

  One flung caution to the winds, so that was exactly what she was going to do.

  12

  DANIEL TUGGED GENTLY on her knee and turned her toward him on the seat.

  “Should I take my sandals off?” Cate asked.

  “Leave them on. I like ’em. The skirt has to go, though.”

  She undid the button and zipper and slid out of it, then tossed it in the back.

  “That’s right,” he breathed, running his hands down her thighs and calves. His hands were so warm, and her skin felt so shivery and alive. “You have the greatest legs in the western world.” He positioned himself between her legs and licked the sensitive skin on the inside of one knee.

  It felt delicious.

  It felt even better on her inner thigh, where the cool air off the ocean contrasted with the hot slickness of his tongue and his breath against her skin.

  Her spine seemed to melt and the sky spun a little as she relaxed back onto the bench seat. Chevrolet had done women everywhere a disservice when it had begun to put bucket seats into its cars, she thought in some faraway corner of her brain as Daniel hooked his fingers in her lace panties and pulled them over her hips, thighs, and finally off altogether. With a flick of his wrist, he fired them past her and they draped themselves on the stick shift.

  He bent to the work of torturing her again. She stopped listening for the hum of an approaching car and instead found her concentration narrowing to that glorious inch or so of Daniel’s mouth as it traveled inexorably yet with excruciating slowness up her thigh. His tongue swirled on her skin. His teeth nibbled gently. And all the while the anticipation built until her entire body silently begged him to hurry. Even her fingers and toes were making tiny, convulsive movements, as if beckoning him in. Come on…come on….

  He paused at the very apex of her thighs and she nearly screamed. “Are you ready for me, Cate?”

  She’d never been so ready for anything in her life. Not to mention the fact that any of the cars driving past might decide to stop and take in the scenery at any moment. The urgent need to have what she wanted before someone came along to deprive her of it gave an added dimension to the force of her desire.

  “Yes! Please…you’re killing me.”

  He wasted no more time. She felt his gentle fingers exploring, parting, smoothing the way. And then…oh, then…he stroked her first with one long movement of his tongue and she came right up off the seat with a cry.

  “Easy. Easy, sweetheart.” Warm hands on her inner thighs pressed her back down, opening her wider for the sensual attack of his mouth. His tongue was hot and slick and absolutely unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She couldn’t control him—couldn’t direct him to do anything because this was completely new. He traveled with slow precision over each of her folds, culminating at the apex with her clit, where he settled down to serious business.

  It was excitement, it was pleasure, it was sensation in its purest form—and she
adored it. Sparks seemed to fly in the deepest parts of her belly, and she felt the pleasure peak and wane, then peak again, stronger. Then she felt her orgasm coming with the force of a tidal wave and she called out, “Daniel!” as it crashed over her and still he didn’t stop and she was writhing under his mouth, screaming his name and it was coming again under his relentless tongue, harder and faster this time and she grabbed the dashboard with one hand and the back of the seat with the other and let it take her, pummel her, throw her up into the endless air and set her down, as gently as a feather lands on the water….

  DANIEL LIFTED HIS HEAD.

  Cate lay helplessly on the seat, her head thrown back, gasping and laughing at once, with tears on her lashes. The flavor of her, creamy and musky and utterly unique to this remarkable woman, lay on his skin and his tongue like a fine wine.

  He knelt on the outer edge of the seat and propped himself over her. “Cate?”

  She could hardly speak. “My God, Daniel. That was…wonderful. Oh, my God.”

  What kind of jokers had she dated who had never given her this pleasure before? Not that he minded. He was damned happy that it was him enjoying this moment, giving her all he had and sharing a slightly wicked taste for exhibitionism that he never would have suspected lay under those tidy white blouses and slim, proper skirts.

  The need to tear his jeans off and plunge into her while she was gasping and wet and sprawled open for the taking swamped him, but he controlled it with a formidable exercise of will.

  She sat up, and he relaxed into a comfortable kneeling position on a handy tussock of grass. “What about you?” Her eyes were soft and hungry and satisfied, all at once, and her mouth had that slack sensuality that begged a kiss.

  He pulled her head down and gave it to her. “I can keep.”

  “I don’t think so.” She reached down and fondled him through his jeans, and the touch of her fingers sent a rocket blast of sensation through his engorged erection, rocking him back. “Feel how hard you are.”

  “I do, don’t worry. Can you blame me? That was amazing.”

  “You are amazing.” She kissed him this time, her hair falling forward and tenting their faces for a few brief moments before the breeze caught it and blew it back. “I never had any idea. I’d read about it, of course, but never thought it would be like that. Thank you.”

  Her eyes were still wet. Had he ever made a woman laugh and cry at the same time? Somehow, he didn’t think so. If he had given her a gift, then she had given him one, too—the knowledge that what they’d done had shaken her and perhaps even touched her in some deep place inside.

  It was a start. He was the kind of guy who enjoyed the journey as well as the destination. The process as well as the prize. With Cate, the journey was promising to be exciting and full of prizes along the way.

  “Daniel, you have to let me satisfy you,” Cate insisted. She looked so cute in her summer tank top with nothing on but sandals south of its hem.

  He leaned over and picked her undies off the gear shift. “You will,” he promised. “But for now, let’s not push our luck.”

  It wasn’t exactly easy to move as he hopped back into the driver’s seat, as aroused as he was, but he managed it. Which turned out to be a lucky thing, because a second later, a California Highway Patrol vehicle came around the curve and signaled a left turn.

  “Daniel!” Cate yelped. “He’s coming over here!” She tried to yank her underwear on, but it twisted into a delicate little rope around one ankle. With a frantic glance at the car coming to a stop ten feet away, she grabbed her skirt, but there was no time to pull it on and do it up. She laid the skirt flat on her lap and casually leaned back, pressing her elbows against the side seams so they would lie flat against her thighs.

  The patrolman got out of the car. “Having problems here, folks?”

  Cate made a sound something like a squeak.

  Daniel felt himself deflating so fast his jeans had become almost comfortable again. “Not at all. We were just taking in the view.”

  The cop glanced at the car, parked backward, and at the two of them, facing the scrubby slope opposite. “Uh-huh. Just so you know, it’s not safe to park there. I’ll need to ask you to move along. Wouldn’t want you going down.”

  Another muffled sound came from the passenger seat and Daniel covered it up smoothly. “We were just doing that. Have a good day, Officer.”

  He started the engine and was about to put the car in gear when the officer laid his hand on the hood. Cate scooted a little farther into the corner of the seat.

  “Say, you look familiar. Aren’t you that explorer guy? The one who was on Jah-Redd last week?”

  Daniel let out the clutch and rolled forward, so that the door was no longer pinned against the rock. He stretched out a hand. “Daniel Burke. And yes, you’re correct.”

  The officer grinned. “I bought your book for my dad. Damn. I wish I had it with me so you could sign it.”

  “Give me your card and I’ll send a signed bookplate to your office. How’s that?”

  “Thanks.” The cop dug a card out of his pocket and handed it over. “Have a pleasant day, Mr. Burke.”

  “You, too.”

  Daniel pressed the accelerator and turned onto the highway, keeping his speed to the limit in case the cop decided to give them a police escort all the way up the coast. He glanced at Cate, who still had her elbows pressed into her sides and was gasping for breath.

  “Good thing you didn’t talk me into anything naughty back there. The only autograph he would have had is my signature on a ticket for public indecency.”

  Then he realized she wasn’t hyperventilating at all. She was whooping with laughter as she pulled her skirt on properly, then shook out her underwear and pulled it on as well.

  “Hey, it’s not funny,” he complained.

  Cate wiped tears from one cheek with the flat of her hand. “All through high school I never got the chance to neck with a boy in the back of a car and get busted by the local cop,” she said, buckling her seat belt. “And here I am, twenty-eight and in broad daylight, when it finally happens.”

  “We’re damn lucky he took an extra minute at lunch today. Otherwise he’d have caught me…er, going down. And not over any cliffs, either.”

  She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “And here I thought this conference was going to be so dull. I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

  As soon as he found them a place to stay, he was going to take great pleasure in showing her.

  The Egret Inn, which they discovered an hour later just south of the town of Santa Rita, was a huge, spreading Victorian mansion painted white with gray gingerbread and green trim. It was situated on the high ground between the sand dunes that fronted the ocean on the west and a wetland bird sanctuary to the east.

  “Look at the egrets!” Cate dropped her bag on the ground next to the car and jogged to the edge of the parking lot, where the slow-moving water was nearly white with a flock of the stork-like birds. Daniel grinned at her delight.

  “I forgot how you are about things with wings.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him, her hair blowing across her face in the breeze, her eyes lit with enjoyment. “They’re lovely.” She pointed out into the marsh. “And there are Canada geese here still. I thought they would have migrated north by now.”

  “Maybe they’re California geese. Too laid-back to travel. All they need are some shades and a margarita.”

  “Ooh, I could use one of those.” She collected her abandoned bag, and in a few minutes they were registered and Daniel was holding open the door of their room so she could roll her bag in.

  “This is nice.”

  The Egret Inn was evidently meant for the honeymoon market. The bed was comfortable and wide, the cushions on the window seats were thick, and the plank floor was covered by a rug into which his feet sank. Picture windows looked out onto the bird sanctuary, and he wondered if that was a mistake. He didn’t wan
t Cate on the window seat, spending all her time watching birds who didn’t know when it was time to go home. He wanted her on the bed, on the rug, in the shower—anywhere but on the window seat.

  Call him a selfish bastard, but he had a plan, here, and no bird was going to get in the way.

  Naturally Cate headed straight for the window seat.

  “Look, there’s a raised boardwalk trail through the sanctuary.” She pointed. “You know, like they do in the Everglades. Let’s go, Daniel, before we lose the light.”

  So much for the bed, the rug and the shower. “How long are you going to make me suffer, woman?”

  She left the window and came into his arms. “Poor baby. Are you suffering?”

  That was better. “Well, maybe not suffering. That cop scared my libido into the next county. It’s on its way back, though, in case you were worried.”

  She grinned up at him and gave him a kiss. “That’s the last thing I’m worried about. Humor me and come for a walk.”

  “At least it’s not a mall or something. I should be grateful.”

  “I save malls for special people like girlfriends. They’re wasted on a guy.”

  He’d been in wetland before—up to his hips in malaria-ridden, brackish water, fighting snakes and jungle insects on his way to the discovery of the Temecula Treasure. This one was a walk in the park—literally. The boardwalk wound through the sanctuary a couple of feet above the water, allowing things to swim around practically under their feet. By the time they were back on solid ground again an hour later, the bird geek at his side had identified no fewer than seventeen species.

  He’d thought there were only five or so, but she’d pointed out his error in great detail. Some day he’d take her on one of those eco-tours to the Galapagos or something and really knock her socks off.

  But in a way it was kind of endearing. At least when she got that beady look in her eye, it was over some kind of goldfinch, and not something gold. As in Tiffany or Harry Winston. He should count his blessings.

  Cate went to unpack her suitcase and stopped next to the bed. She picked up the long-stemmed yellow rose that lay on the pillow. “Daniel, you think of everything.” She breathed deeply of the scent. “Thank you.”

 

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