by Leslie Kelly
Women weren’t supposed to react this way, were they? Good women were supposed to want protestations of love. Roses. Candlelight. Whispered promises meant to be broken. Tender touches and kisses. A connection of the heart before a connection of the body.
Hell, at least dinner and a movie first!
But Venus just wanted that. That magnificent hard-on Troy Langtree made absolutely no effort to disguise, not to mention all the rest of his big, hard body.
“Are you lost?” he finally asked, still completely in control, making no effort to cover himself, showing no sign of embarrassment at his obvious reaction to her.
She shook her head mindlessly. “Mrs.…um…the housekeeper…”
“Mrs. Harris?”
She nodded. “When she took me to my room, she told me to feel free to use any parts of the house I wanted.”
“Including my bathroom?”
She gulped. “I didn’t know it was yours. She said my room has the best view, but apologized because the bathroom has a standard tub. And she said this room had a great sunken tub with massaging jets.”
“It does,” he said, glancing toward the tub a few feet away. “You’d love it.” His words sounded almost like an invitation to try it out.
“I had no idea anyone would be in here since you said Max lives alone. I thought I’d take a bath…I didn’t realize…”
“I’m a houseguest this week too.”
“I’m sorry to intrude.”
“Sorry enough to hand me a towel?”
“Only an idiot would be that sorry,” she mumbled, unable to remove her eyes from his naked form.
Casting a quick glimpse at his face, she saw his eyes darken. A small smile widened his lips.
“So you strolled right down the hall,” he continued with a pointed look at her towel, which, even she could admit, didn’t cover much. “Like that?”
“I’m right next door. Your door’s four feet from mine,” she replied, hearing the breathy tone in her voice. “It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision.”
The explanation sounded weak, even to her own ears. But it was entirely true. With every step she’d taken as Max Longotti’s housekeeper had led her toward her room, she’d grown more and more convinced she could never be comfortable in this house. There was too much money and too much class, from the roof on down to the pricey tile, for Venus Messina to ever feel comfortable.
A bath had sounded downright necessary.
A naked man and a bath sounded downright delightful. She very much wanted both. One after the other or both at the same time. Any way she could have them.
He finally chuckled. “Do you really think this is fair?”
“Fair?”
“I mean, is it fair for you to see what you do to me? Just the thought of you made my shower a lot more chilly than it would otherwise have been.”
He had to take a cold shower for her? Damn, that was a pretty high compliment, in Venus’s opinion.
“Men are pretty obvious about things like this,” she finally admitted as she stole another peek at the impressive evidence he made no effort to hide.
“So are women.”
She raised a brow. “Oh?”
He grinned lazily. “It’s a little more concealed, but it’s just as easy for a man to see a woman’s desire…if he knows what he’s looking for.”
She instantly reacted to the note of challenge in his voice. “Oh, really? And I suppose you’re an expert?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
She had no doubt this man knew his way with women. But Venus also knew women’s bodies were neater, much more discreet than men’s. Just glancing at his made that perfectly clear.
Crossing her arms, she retorted, “Aside from the one obvious point, which could also be caused by a chill, I’m not buying it.”
He looked pleased, as if her words had led her directly into his trap. When he continued, she realized they had.
“There’s one way to prove it,” he murmured, his eyes holding a recognizable spark of mischief.
“Drop the towel.”
5
VENUS NIBBLED HER LIP, noting the amused challenge in his voice. He almost certainly didn’t think she’d do it. After all, she’d walked in on him by accident, and he hadn’t intentionally exposed himself to her.
This was different. What woman would simply drop her towel in broad daylight and show her naked body to a man she’d known for only a few hours? A man with whom she had no relationship and had never been intimate?
Nudity with a new lover was intimidating enough. This bordered on exhibitionism.
It would take a lot of confidence, and a lot more nerve.
Fortunately, Venus had been blessed with both.
She reached for the knot over her breast, never taking her eyes from his. He raised a brow, silently egging her on.
“You think I won’t?”
“I think you want me to think you will,” he countered.
She wondered if the naked hunk had retained any of his normal executive, suit-wearing inhibitions now that his clothes were off. If so, she’d be able to tell by his reaction. Right now.
Untying the towel, she removed her hand and let gravity do the rest.
A slow, pleased smile spread across his parted lips as he studied her from head to toe. Not a hint of shock appeared on his face; he never even pretended to look away.
Question answered. No inhibitions in the man.
Venus remained still, letting him look his fill, knowing what he saw. Full breasts, slim waist, flat tummy as a result of way more sit-ups than any one person should have to endure. Her hips were a little rounder than she’d like, but not bad for a woman pushing thirty. And she already knew he liked her legs—he’d been eyeing them since the minute they met.
She heard him draw in a ragged breath. He obviously approved.
“You didn’t think I’d do it, did you?”
He tilted his head and raised a brow. “Oh, I knew you’d do it, Venus. Why else do you think I suggested it?”
He wasn’t kidding. He’d known damn well she wouldn’t back down from his challenge. He hadn’t known her long, but he already knew her better than most other people ever had.
“Okay, you got me naked. Now, big shot,” she said, narrowing her eyes in challenge, “are you going to wow me with your expertise on women?”
He stepped closer, moving noiselessly across the bathmat, until they were less than a foot apart. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek and see the pulse in his temple. That gorgeous erection was within inches of where she wanted it. Her body arched forward the tiniest bit, of its own will.
Schooling herself to remain calm, she figured her tightly clenched fingers on the counter were about the only indication of the inferno raging inside her body.
“Your eyes are glassy, your pupils dilated and your lids half lowered.”
She blinked twice. “Bad lighting.”
He laughed softly at the lie.
“Your lips are pursed,” Troy said, his voice low and soothing, almost melodic. “You’re thinking of being kissed. Of kissing back. Of using your mouth for something other than talking. Lots of somethings.”
Score one for the men’s team.
“Pursed lips can also be a sign of attitude,” she countered weakly.
He nodded. “Oh, honey, there’s no question you’ve got miles of attitude.” Watching as he moistened his own lips with his tongue, she nearly moaned. “But it’s not your attitude at work when your lips are full and ripe and parted like that. It’s another part of Venus altogether.”
Yeah. The empty, aching part that badly needed to be filled by him.
He stared into her eyes for a long moment, and she knew he saw the truth she couldn’t possibly hide. Then he looked lower. His breaths grew more labored—she heard each one as he drew it into his mouth and slowly exhaled, as if striving for control when there was none to be found.
He stared at her bare throat. Her
shoulders. The nape of her neck, where one long curl brushed her collarbone.
Then he studied her breasts, which felt heavier and tighter under his hungry gaze. “It’s not too cold in here,” he murmured, “so you couldn’t have a chill.”
True, she acknowledged silently. Her nipples tightened even more, drawing into pointy tips as she imagined him using his mouth on them.
“That’s almost too easy, though,” he continued. “So let’s move on. There’s a pink glow on your skin. You’re flushed and breathing in shallow breaths, because you’re so excited.”
She closed her eyes, trying to relax, but unable to.
“Your stomach is quivering slightly with the effort it’s taking you to keep your body stiff and unyielding when it wants to be loose and pliant.”
She moaned softly, but didn’t open her eyes. She kept focusing on his voice, trying not to think of how much she wanted to reach out a few inches and let her fingers do some walking.
“Though you’re trying to stand straight, your legs are shaky. I can see the muscles straining beneath your skin.”
When she felt a butterfly-light touch on her thigh, her eyes flew open. “I didn’t think touching was part of the demonstration,” she said between ragged breaths.
“It’s not. I don’t have to touch you to know how much you want me.” He moved his hand again, the tips of his fingers scraping ever so delicately across the curls concealing her womanhood. “Though, if I did, I think we’d both see just how much you do.”
She nodded, knowing exactly where he could touch her to prove his point. She was so wet and throbbing, she’d come apart at his slightest touch. The mere thought of him sliding his fingers into her made her moan slightly.
“Do you concede?” he whispered, still holding his hand no more than a centimeter from her curls. “I am correct in thinking you’re incredibly aroused right now?”
She nodded, unable to lie to him any more than she could to herself. “I concede.”
Oh, yes, she was definitely aroused right now, so aroused she would have gone for it, right here and now, hard and fast up against the sink. Then slow and languorous in the bathtub. Even having only known him for only a matter of hours, she would have. If it weren’t for three things: location, location, location.
“So I want you. And you want me too,” she whispered.
He didn’t try to deny it. “I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw your pretty ankles when you were sitting on the balcony outside my office.” The smooth words couldn’t hide the intensity in the man’s voice.
Venus had been desired before. She’d had sex before. She’d even had relationships before. But she’d never felt like someone wanted to inhale her completely, to indulge in her body and give her every bit of primal passion a man was capable of.
Until right now.
“Point taken. We want each other,” she said raggedly. “But this would really complicate things with the old man, wouldn’t it? For both of us.” Part of her wanted him not to care. A bigger part knew he couldn’t.
At his frustrated groan, she continued. “This was a pretty damn stupid thing to start when we know we’re not going to finish it.” Are we? She heard the tone in her voice that almost made her comment sound like a question.
He looked at her for one moment longer, then his eyes shifted away. She heard him mutter a curse under his breath and nearly echoed it.
“You’re right. Incredibly stupid.” He thrust a frustrated hand through his still-wet hair, sending droplets of water onto her hot skin, providing instant, shocking sensation. He picked up a towel from the counter and slung it around his lean hips.
“I’m sorry, Venus.”
Hearing him acknowledge that, no, they were not going to finish the way they both wanted to, she sighed heavily. Not wanting to tempt fate by retrieving the towel she’d dropped by bending down in front of this gloriously erect man, she grabbed a fresh one from a rack behind her. Quickly, she wrapped it around her.
When covered, she forced a laugh. “Considering I haven’t had an orgasm that didn’t involve a vibrator in so long I’ve forgotten what one feels like, you’re probably not as sorry as I am.”
His mouth opened and he gaped at her, as if completely unable to believe she’d said what she’d said. Okay, that was probably a little crass for Mr. V.P.
Then she realized he hadn’t been shocked by her language.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t had a lover for a long time. You are the most sensuous, desirable woman I’ve ever met, Venus. I have trouble believing you couldn’t have any man you wanted, any time you wanted him.”
I can’t have you.
“It’s been a long time. Since last fall,” she admitted, lowering her lashes and wondering why she’d confessed something so intimate. Maybe because her heart had skipped a beat or two when he’d called her the most desirable woman he’d ever met.
Flattery had been known to make women do foolish things before.
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stepped closer, then closer still. His expression was intense, focused. His eyes flared with heat and determination. Wary, she took a tiny step back, but was blocked by the vanity countertop behind her.
“That’s too damn long,” he said, his voice thick and husky.
Before she knew his intention, he’d slipped his hand into her hair, tangling it in his fingers. He drew her close, catching her surprised cry with his lips.
His kiss was hotter than the one they’d shared earlier, on the balcony. Hot and hungry, and Venus melted against him. He made love to her mouth with his tongue until she began to whimper, needing more, wanting more than they’d just agreed they could have.
He slid his palm down her bare arm, slowly, his fingertips creating heat and electricity on her skin, then lower, until his hand brushed against her towel-covered hip.
She jerked and gasped. He only kissed her deeper. When his hand moved between the edges of the towel to brush against her naked thigh, she knew what he was doing, what he wanted to give her. She had one second to wrap her mind around it before his hot fingers slipped between her legs. “Oh, God,” she managed to cry, feeling the pressure. She arched into his hand, growing even more mindless when she heard his groan of pure male satisfaction at feeling how wet she was. For him.
“Oh, Troy…please,” she whispered brokenly.
He teased her, sending her higher as he made tantalizing circles around her throbbing clitoris. When she thought she’d burst with frustration, he gave her a little more, slipping his finger inside her, mimicking the movement with his tongue.
She began to shake, until finally he whispered against her lips, “Now, honey. Right now.”
Finally he zeroed in on her hottest spot. With just a few perfect strokes on the delicate flesh, he gave her exactly what she’d been missing. She cried out as waves of pleasure ratcheted through her body, the orgasm literally making her shake so hard he had to support her in his arms.
He kept kissing her, taking her cries against his lips as she gradually returned to sanity. It took several long moments. The intensity of her climax had been like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
“It’s funny,” he whispered as he moved his mouth to kiss her cheek, then her eyelid. “Right before you came in, I’d been thinking about how much I wanted to give you a bunch of screaming orgasms.”
“One down,” she managed to mutter, not sure where she got the strength to use her voice.
He chuckled. Pressing one more kiss against her temple, he stepped back. She instantly missed the hot, hard feel of his body against hers. “Troy?”
“You should go,” he murmured, gently pushing her toward the open door. She couldn’t even protest as he gently shuffled her out into her bedroom. Then, he stepped back inside the bathroom. “I somehow think I need to take another shower. A long one.” His eyelids lowered slightly, as did his voice. “I can pretty much guarantee what I’ll be thinking about for every minute of it.” He s
hut the door before she could protest.
Venus stood there, listening to the lock click, then the shower turn on. She knew what he was doing.
And she wished like hell she was the one doing it for him.
AFTER TAKING another long and equally unsatisfying shower, Troy dressed for dinner. Though an easygoing man, Max did enjoy the niceties and, so far, every night Troy had been here they’d had a full-course dinner in the dining room. Tonight, he found himself hoping the salad forks weren’t too confusing. The quiet, elegant dinner hour might never be the same once Venus got through with it.
Venus. He closed his eyes, pausing while shrugging on his pressed white shirt. He still couldn’t get her image out of his mind. Like her namesake, she was the epitome of woman, so damned seductive he had been barely able to shut the door behind her after pushing her away earlier.
He’d known full well she wouldn’t be able to resist his challenge when he practically dared her to drop the towel. Probably not his wisest move. It had been bad enough when he’d only imagined what she looked like under her clothes. Now, having seen her, all he could think about was what it would be like to go farther. Her body was the kind men fantasized about—lushly curved, sleek and supple. He wanted nothing on earth as much as he wanted to cup her breasts, to suck those tight nipples into his mouth, to press hot kisses on her stomach…and hotter ones between her long, pale thighs.
Not taking her while she still shook from her orgasm had required every bit of self-control he possessed.
“Cool it, jackass,” he muttered aloud, knowing there was no time for yet another shower this evening. Hell, when his sex drive came back, it came back with a vengeance.
He was dying to make love to her. Kissing her, touching her, catching her cries of pleasure in his mouth may have given her a little release from the tension, but it had only added to his. Troy knew he’d be able to think of nothing else but making love with Venus every time he was with her.
And when he wasn’t with her he’d have the memory of how she’d looked when she’d dropped the towel. Not just her glorious body, but that spark of devilment and outright confidence in her eyes that he’d never before encountered with another woman.
