by Jane Godman
The fingers of his other hand moved to the button of her jeans.
A soft whimper greeted him, but he knew from the tone, and the way she pushed back against him, that it was a plea to continue. He spread his hand over her abdomen, enjoying the way her muscles fluttered beneath his touch. He pulled the zipper down slowly, separating the material in its wake and sliding his hand into the opening. Tormenting himself as much as Steffi, he edged his hand below the elastic of her underwear, unable to hold back the groan that rose to his lips as his fingertips encountered soft curls.
Raw heat consumed him; at the same time some of the pain that tormented his soul was quenched. This was what he had been seeking on all those lonely nights when he searched for another warm body to lose himself in. Seeking and finding were two different things. He had never felt like this. Had never known this contrast between pure energy and total peace. Never experienced a feeling so right it scared him. Touching Steffi was addictive. He couldn’t stop. He had promised her payback, but this was for him as much as for her.
His hand was shaking as he moved it lower. Using his knee, he moved her legs apart and she widened her stance, allowing him to slide his middle finger between her folds.
“Dear God, Steffi. You’re so wet. So hot and wet and ready for me.”
His middle finger found her clitoris as he spoke, feeling it throb and swell beneath his touch. Sliding his fingers lower, he parted her swollen flesh, probing her tight entrance. He pushed a finger inside with a single, hard stroke. Steffi gripped him, clenching tight around him. She cried out, tilting her head back against his shoulder and grinding her hips wildly.
He wanted to tug her jeans down around her ankles and bury himself inside her. Wanted to lose himself in her heat, and forget everything except the sensation of those tight muscles rippling around him. But he was determined to remain in control. To see this through and give her the climax he’d promised before he threw her down on that bed.
“Bryce.” The pleading sound of his name on her lips as she circled her ass made his erection jerk wildly.
Responsive to her plea, he added another finger, thrusting harder while using his thumb to circle the sensitized bundle of nerve endings. Steffi was close. He could feel it in the low moans that spilled from her lips at each thrust of his fingers.
Just as he felt her tip over toward the point of climax, she threw back her head, calling out his name as she did a passable whole-body shudder. Her internal muscles clenched rhythmically around his fingers a few times. Then she was pulling away from him, reaching for the zipper on her jeans.
“What was that supposed to be?” Bryce spun her around to face him, stunned at what had just happened.
He saw a flicker of fear in the depths of her eyes. It was gone almost as soon as it appeared. “I don’t know what you mean.”
His laugh was harsh. “Like hell you don’t. I thought you were supposed to be an actress. That had to be the worst fake orgasm in history.”
Her eyes dropped away from his as color flooded up from her neck to her cheeks. “Oh.”
“Oh? That’s all you can say?” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
She raised her eyes to his again. “I did my best, but it’s hard to know what a real climax looks like when you’ve never had one.”
“Never? Not even when you touch yourself?”
She shook her head. Her expression was both nervous and regretful. “I just can’t let go. I freeze up on the inside.”
“Damn it, Steffi, you are not frozen up on the inside.” He had felt all that heat and quivering passion just waiting to spill over. “You were close as hell...until you put on that little show.”
“It’s always the same—I get close, but it never happens.” She gave a little squeal of surprise as Bryce picked her up and carried her to the bed. “What are you doing?”
He stripped off his shirt, keeping his eyes on hers. “Trust me.”
Chapter 9
Bryce’s lips on her breasts were featherlight and teasing. He alternated sucking, licking and nipping until Steffi’s hips began to lift and undulate in a rhythm all their own. Trust me. The memory of those words burned into her brain. She couldn’t let him continue with this. He was used to women who lit up at his touch. He’d soon get bored when confronted with one who, no matter how much she enjoyed the preliminaries, couldn’t get to the finish line.
“Is this how you got to be so skillful with your mouth?” His smile was teasing. “So you could use that as a distraction from what was going on with you?”
His perception was scarily accurate. The men she’d been with until now had seemed happy with her prowess at pleasing them and her noisy, back-arching fake climaxes. Add in the fact that she was Anya Moretti, and she’d have said they were ecstatic. A small, self-satisfied club of ex-lovers. With the emphasis on the ex. Steffi didn’t do long-term.
“It’s no good.” As he trailed his fingers down over her abdomen, her voice was an embarrassed whisper. “It doesn’t matter what you do.”
“Steffi, stop thinking and relax. I like doing these things for you.”
A slight frown tugged her brows together as she looked at him. Was that true? She had always believed that, for a man, sex was about chasing his climax. Could she have gotten this wrong? Bryce certainly looked like he was enjoying himself. His expression blazed passion, and the gold flecks in his eyes were alight with pleasure.
“Tell me what you want.”
Steffi bit her lip. No one had ever asked her that before. Could she talk to him? Could she be honest? Because what she really wanted was him. Bryce. His dominance, strength and that hint of wickedness in his manner turned her on and swept her breath away.
As he moved lower and lips replaced his fingers, she gasped. Bryce had disposed of her clothing as well as his own and now, as he held her thighs open, she was exposed to his gaze. She felt her control slipping away. That was when fear hit her, hard and cold. She was going to disappoint him. That hungry look in Bryce’s eyes would soon be replaced with contempt.
“Well, Steffi?” There was a harsh edge to his voice. He ran a finger down her center, pausing over her entrance. “I’m waiting.”
“I...don’t want safe.” There. She’d said it. Something flared in the depths of his eyes in response.
“You want to let go of that iron control?” As he spoke, he slid his finger inside her.
She nodded, trembling wildly. “So much.”
Bryce gripped her hips, holding her down, and Steffi held her breath. Softly, teasingly, he brought his mouth down to gently touch the core of her sex. She cried out, her body jerking violently, her hands grasping tightly onto the sheets at her sides as her toes curled. He brushed his tongue upward and she opened her legs wider, offering herself to him completely. As if from a distance, she heard him moan with his own desperate desire as he teased her again, tasting her flesh over and over. Then his tongue plunged deep and she lifted herself wildly, thrusting upward toward his mouth, her back arching off the bed. He used his thumbs to pull her outer lips apart, his tongue darting in and out, while his mouth returned again and again to suckle and taste.
Steffi felt like a stranger in her own body. She didn’t know the trembling, gasping woman who lay spread wide-open, sheened with sweat, panting with desire as she handed over mastery to this man and let him drive her to the edge of madness. This was what she had always dreamed it would be like. This was the loss of control she had dreaded and longed for.
She was shaking all over, her body racked by violent shudders as she strained toward his mouth. She was so close...but then her mind began to work against her, whispering that she couldn’t do this, she wasn’t going to make it. She felt the waves of pleasure begin to dim and gave a moan of humiliation.
“Stop fighting me, Steffi.” Bryce raised his he
ad to growl the words. “We’re on the same side.”
So she did as he asked. She relaxed her limbs, cleared her mind of everything but him. Focused on that magical tongue and let the boundaries inside her mind come tumbling down. She was panting with the pleasure, unable to do anything except cry out his name, poised on the edge of a sensation that felt like it was about to tear her in two.
“That’s it.” Bryce’s words vibrated against her, stoking the pleasure even higher. “Just let it happen.”
A final masterful thrust from his tongue tipped her over the looming precipice. A rasping cry escaped her as she thrashed and arched into the oncoming abyss. Nothing had prepared her for this. She screamed as she fell over the edge and into oblivion. Darkness crowded her vision, only to be filled with brilliant arcs of white light. Ecstasy stormed through her body, fizzing along her nerve endings and convulsing her over and over.
Bryce eased up the pressure gradually, allowing her to come back down slowly. When the spasms began to subside, he moved to her side and held her in his arms.
“You did it.” Her eyes were wide and dazed as she gazed at him. Bryce rested his forehead against hers. “Now we’re even.”
“We did it.” She pressed a kiss onto his collarbone, hiding the intensity of her feelings behind flippancy. “If they had coaches for this sort of thing, you would be major league.” She almost groaned aloud. Was that the best she could do? He had just turned her world upside down and she was making a joke about it?
He grinned. “You could write a reference for my résumé.”
Maybe laughter was the best way to deal with the force of the emotions powering through her. Because Bryce was major league at this, she reminded herself. To him this was just another lighthearted encounter. No big deal. While to her it felt life-changing.
Of course my first orgasm is going to change my life, she told herself firmly. Let’s not overanalyze this.
She had very little time to analyze anything as the smile faded from Bryce’s eyes to be replaced with a purposeful look. As he moved over her, the stiff flesh of his erection pressed between her sensitive folds and a new hunger tore through her. There was nothing slow or gentle about what she felt, or what she needed from him. This was hot and furious and just about the most wonderful thing she had ever experienced. Second most wonderful, she decided. Nothing would match that first orgasm...
His thumbs found her nipples, and her back arched at the touch of his calloused flesh. His hardness nestled against her, driving her wild with wanting. She could barely keep from screaming as he shifted his hips, rubbing and caressing her still-sensitized clitoris.
Placing kisses across the mounds of her breasts, he moved lower to find her nipples. A moan burst from her as his lips covered one hard tip and surrounded it with liquid heat. His tongue rasped and licked, flicking over her nipple back and forth before he began to suck it hard. Steffi gripped his hair and held him to her, wanting to keep the sensations going on forever.
She lifted her hips and ground against the iron-hard shaft rubbing her while his tongue tormented her nipples. The twin flares of sensation that tore through her increased the mounting pleasure building in her core. How could she feel like this when she had climaxed just minutes earlier?
As Bryce moved away, she murmured a protest.
“Condom,” he explained, reaching for the backpack he had left at the side of the bed.
“You packed condoms?” She didn’t know whether to be relieved at his forward thinking or annoyed at his presumption. Although, considering the events of the last hour and the position they were in right now, wasn’t his confidence justified?
“I always carry condoms.” The comment acted like a shot of cold water. Of course he did. She’d forgotten that the women of West County were lining up to be where she was. To be stretched out on a bed with Bryce Delaney between their thighs. This forceful, beautiful man wasn’t hers to hold on to.
“Hey.” He placed a hand on either side of her face, gazing down at her with a question in his eyes. There was also such a blaze of passion there that her doubts flew away. Nothing mattered except here and now. That Bryce wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him. The scorching need consuming them both was the only message she was prepared to listen to. Her senses spun out of control each time he looked at her. Each touch sent a whiplash of sensation powering through her.
She lifted her hips to meet his sheathed length, signaling the end of any hesitation. As he pressed all the way into her, the pleasure was so intense it was painful. Shooting sparks of electricity tore through her whole body. Each pulsing, zinging surge rushed across her nerve endings, jerking her hips upward in sharp, staccato movements. Each slam of his pelvis against hers stoked the blazing fire inside her even higher.
He impaled her, his iron-hard length rasping over her sensitive nerve endings, driving the pleasure to new heights. It was hotter and stronger than anything she had ever known or imagined. A flame grew in her core and spread outward. She was going to climax again. So soon and so strong. The sensations were building and growing, driving her closer to release with each thrust.
Bryce gripped her buttocks, lifting her higher and opening her to him so she could feel the grinding of his pelvis against hers. She matched his rhythm with wild movements of her own, wrapping her legs around his waist and writhing against him. She didn’t want slow and easy. She wanted this. Bryce. All of him. His power and dominance. The searing ecstasy, and the painful pleasure that only he could give her.
She jerked in his hold as the first explosion hit. Her internal muscles tightening on him, gripping him and throbbing around him as she gasped his name. Ecstasy tore through her, and a desperate cry left her lips as she heard Bryce whisper her name in response. His lips moved to hers, kissing her and heightening the sensations that shuddered through her.
She felt him throb with his own release as his hoarse male groan vibrated through her. Lying beneath him, Steffi could feel his heartbeat against her breast, and her throat tightened with an emotion she didn’t recognize. She wanted to surrender to it. To wrap herself around him and stay close and safe, shutting out the rest of the world. This was why she didn’t do relationships. This closeness was a step along the way to trust, and trust was a scary place.
Just in time, she was roused out of her warm bubble when Bryce eased away from her and dropped a kiss on her neck. “We should get ready and go out to your house.”
* * *
Even though Steffi’s house was empty, it was situated in one of the most closely guarded square miles in the world. Accessible through two guarded checkpoints, the surrounding properties had private security; the area was patrolled day and night, and the alarm systems were electronic works of art. Getting Steffi past her own front door was going to require skill, ingenuity and probably a hefty amount of luck.
Steffi explained that her own approach to Beverly Hills living was low-key. “I have a full-time housekeeper, Elsa, who has her own bungalow on the grounds, but I don’t have any other live-in staff.” She bit her lip. “Of course, I don’t know what’s been happening while I’ve been away. I hope my management company has maintained the house and continued to pay her salary.”
“What about security?” Bryce forced himself to focus on the task ahead of them and not on the mind-blowing events of the last few hours. It wasn’t easy. Sex had always been one of his favorite pastimes. He didn’t fool himself about why it had been such a necessary part of his life since Afghanistan, to the point where it had become almost an addiction. It didn’t take any in-depth analysis to tell him he was using sex as a replacement for the part of his life he had lost. That he was trying to bolster his self-esteem between the sheets. He got all that. But wasn’t there also an argument in favor of saying sex made him feel good, so why shouldn’t he just go for it? It was a great way of relieving tension and taking his mind of
f the crap that went on inside his head a lot of the time.
But sex with Steffi? That had been a whole new experience. That had been about so much more than just feeling good. He almost laughed out loud. Good? It had felt amazing. But he had never felt the sort of connection he had experienced with Steffi. Sex had always been about giving and receiving pleasure. With Steffi, he had lost himself in her, completely and intimately. And while he wanted to explore that feeling further, it frightened the hell out of him at the same time. He didn’t understand the new emotions that were tugging at him. Why did he suddenly want to sit Steffi down and analyze what had happened between them? Get her perspective on it? Talking about his feelings? That would be a first. He was fairly sure she’d enjoyed it, too. Why not leave it at that? Until now, he’d never experienced a need for reassurance about his performance. But he was fooling himself by pretending this was about the sex. It went deeper than that. He wanted to know what Steffi was feeling. Where this was going. In the past, if a partner wanted to walk away after one night, that was fine. More than fine. It suited him. He didn’t want a commitment beyond a few hours. Now? Now he sensed he might be in deep trouble.
“I have an alarm system.” Steffi responded to his question, bringing his mind back to the task ahead of them. He realized he was staring at her with an intensity that had brought a frown to her brow and he looked back along the street. “But I don’t use a security firm. I like my privacy. My management company hires bodyguards when I need them.”
They walked around the perimeter of the secure community. Bryce viewed the six-foot-high wall with its security cameras, before returning to view the gate from a distance.
“You live here. What’s the easiest way in?”
Steffi blinked. “Pardon?”
“What do the residents complain about?”
