Show Me

by Abigail Strom

  Slowly she became aware that he was kissing his way back up her body, taking his time, until he lay beside her with his head on the pillow next to hers.

  She turned on her side and looked at him.

  Until now, she’d thought she knew his face so well that she could have sketched it on the back of a napkin with her eyes closed. But a man who could do what Hunter had just done had hidden depths, which meant there was still more to see.

  He seemed equally captivated by her.

  “I wish you could see your face right now,” he whispered, reaching out to brush the backs of his knuckles along her flushed cheek.

  “Why? What do I look like?”

  “You look . . . satisfied.”

  “Satisfied,” she said, sounding it out. She wriggled forward and nestled close to him, tucking her head in the place between his neck and his shoulder. “That’s a really good word.”

  “Yeah.”

  Was that the feeling pulsing through her veins? Satisfaction? If so, she’d never been satisfied before. Because this feeling was entirely new.

  And yet . . . she didn’t think she would call it satisfaction. Because that implied that they were done, that this experience was complete.

  And she didn’t feel done.

  A sudden rush of energy made her sit up.

  “Whoa,” Hunter said. “You look like you’re back in the jet, ready to float up to the ceiling.”

  It was the same kind of giddiness, if not the same kind of weightlessness.

  “There’s so much I want to do,” she said breathlessly.

  He folded his arms behind his head and grinned up at her. “Yeah? Give me an example.”

  “I want to start by looking at you.”

  His eyes glittered. “That’s okay by me. You should feel free to touch, too.”

  He was still wearing his sweatpants. They were tented at the crotch, and the thought of what was beneath the material made her hands curl against her palms.

  “Will you take those off?”

  His gaze flicked down to her breasts, still covered by her bra.

  “If you take that off,” he said, his voice husky.

  They moved at the same time. She reached behind her back to unhook her bra, and he reached down to tug off his pants. As they tossed away their last vestiges of modesty, goose bumps swept across her skin.

  “I’ve never seen a naked man before,” she whispered, unable to take her gaze from the long, thick, proud erection between Hunter’s legs. “Not in person.”

  “Well, I’ve seen a lot of naked women before,” Hunter said. “Many of them in person.” He paused. “But I’ve never in my whole life seen a woman as beautiful as you are.”

  She looked up at him, startled. “That’s not true. That can’t be true. Statistically speaking—”

  His eyes burned into hers. “Fuck statistics. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Airin. And I want you so much I feel like I’m on fire.”

  Heat swept through her. “I . . .” She didn’t know what to say. But she knew what she wanted to do, so maybe she could start there. “I want to touch you.”

  “You can do anything you want, angel. But if you don’t mind, I’m going to stay really still while you do. If I let myself move, that’ll be the end of foreplay. If I let myself touch you, you’ll be on your back under me.”

  Her breath left her body, and she couldn’t get it back. Her cheeks were so hot it felt like she had a fever. She reached out trembling hands and set them against his chest.

  His skin was smooth, and the muscles beneath were like iron.

  His breathing turned harsh.

  “I want to touch your arms,” she said, and he unclasped his hands from behind his head and laid them down, curling his fingers into the blankets like she had a few minutes before.

  She slid her hands up from his chest to his shoulders, and then down those arms she’d dreamed about a hundred times.

  She could barely span his biceps.

  Her gaze swept along his torso to his hip bones. They were angled like runway lights, telling her, Look down here, for God’s sake. This is where the action is.

  After a moment Hunter growled, “If you think staring at me like that is going to make me any harder, the answer is no. It’s not physically possible. I could drill through concrete right now.”

  She met his eyes again. “I want to touch you,” she said, and he knew what she meant.

  “You should douse me in cold water first or give me a leather strap to bite on. But okay.”

  She moved down the bed until she was kneeling by his hips. Then she reached out, slowly, and took him in her hand.

  A long, low growl came from Hunter. When she looked up, his eyes were closed and his teeth were clenched tight, as if he really were biting on a leather strap.

  He was hot and hard, which she’d known already. But what she hadn’t imagined was how soft his skin would feel. She bent down and rubbed her cheek against him, and it was like velvet.

  “Fuck.”

  She looked up at him again, and his eyes were hazel fire.

  There were a lot of other things she wanted to try tonight. She wanted to spend hours touching him, finding out the things he liked. But right now, at this moment, there was really only one thing she wanted to do.

  She moved back up the bed and put her hands on his chest again. She could feel his heart pounding against her palms.

  “Hunter.”

  “Yeah?”

  His voice was gravelly, and it played across her nerve endings like a calloused fingertip.

  “I want that thing you were talking about before.”

  “What thing?”

  “When you said—if you touched me—”

  That was all it took. He reached up and seized her by the shoulders, and then he flipped them over so fast she squeaked.

  Oh God.

  He was supporting his weight with his arms, but he was so big and so powerful she felt pinned in place by the sheer force of him. She felt pinned by his gaze, too, which burned into her as though he could see into her soul.

  Then he lowered his head and kissed her.

  Her body surged into his as though she could levitate through sheer will. Their tongues thrust together as she looped her arms around his neck and pulled him down, down, until his chest crushed her breasts and his muscled thigh slid between her legs.

  “Hunter,” she gasped. “Hunter, I need . . .”

  “Wallet,” he said, rearing back and panting. “I think I have a condom in my wallet. Just . . . don’t move, for God’s sake. Stay right where you are.”

  He was back faster than she would have believed possible, and then he was ripping open the foil packet and rolling the latex over his rigid length, and finally, thank God, he was over her again.

  “Please,” she said, arching her back and wrapping her legs around his waist. “Please, please, please—”

  “It’s your first time, angel. We’re going to take this slow.”

  “I don’t want slow. I want—”

  He leaned down and spoke right into her ear. “Trust me.”

  His whispered words made her shiver all over. Then he nudged at her entrance, and she went absolutely still.

  Inch by slow inch he pushed inside. There was tightness and resistance but no pain, only pleasure, and when he was all the way home it felt like the fullness and friction and pressure and heat were secrets that could unlock the universe.

  “Hunter.”

  He lifted himself up on his forearms and looked down at her, and the intensity in his eyes reverberated between them until it felt like they didn’t need words to communicate anymore—only this, forever, for the rest of their lives.

  When he started to move it was almost too much, and with every thrust hitting she climbed higher. She knew she wasn’t going to come again, not this time, but the way she felt was a hint of things to come.

  “Hunter.”

  She sank her nails into his b
ack as she said his name, and he growled in response as his thrusts became rougher and more urgent. A moment later she felt him pulse inside her, and then he dropped his head onto her shoulder as he shuddered out his release.

  They lay like that for a long time. The whole world was beating hearts and ragged breath and a heavy, rich, musky scent she knew was the tang of sex.

  She wanted to float in it forever.

  Hunter rolled away and pulled off the condom, tossing it in the trash before rolling back and pulling her into his arms. Then he tucked her against his chest and murmured into her hair.

  “How are you feeling?”

  She sighed. “This is the best I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”

  He chuckled. “Better than zero-g?”

  “Yes.” She paused. “What about you?”

  He pulled back a little, enough that he could look her in the eyes. “If I could, I’d stay here like this forever.”

  His words made her feel hollowed out and shaky and joyful at the same time, the way she’d felt after their parabolic flight.

  “I . . .” She swallowed. “I feel the same way.”

  And then, suddenly, she yawned.

  Hunter chuckled again. Then he reached underneath them to tug down the covers, and once they’d slid beneath he pulled them up again, over their shoulders this time. Now they were in a warm cocoon of naked skin and body heat and that incredible sex haze, and she could feel her eyelids growing heavy.

  Hunter reached out and turned off the light.

  “Good night, angel,” he whispered.

  “Good night.”

  Chapter Twenty

  It turned out that Airin snored.

  It was a gentle and adorable snore, and Hunter could have listened to it all night. But after a while she shifted against him, making a kind of murping sound like a sleeping cat, and fell into a deeper slumber.

  She stopped snoring. But he could still listen to her breathing, and he did. And with his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could watch her sleep.

  Making love with Airin was the best and worst thing that had ever happened to him.

  He was no longer the ideal astronaut. Not as he defined it, anyway. Because now there was someone in his life he didn’t want to leave behind.

  He stayed where he was, Airin nestled against him, while he groped behind him for the phone he’d left on the bedside table.

  He had to type the email slowly, using only his right thumb, because his left arm was under Airin’s body and he didn’t want to move it.

  Airin did great on the parabolic flight. She was born to go into space, whether you want to admit it or not. This will be the last report I send you, because I’m ending our arrangement. I understand I won’t be part of the DelAres crew. But I’ll be at Cape Canaveral when your mission launches, cheering them and you on. With luck, NASA will only be a few years behind you.

  Another hour, maybe more, went by. Airin shifted again, and this time she yawned, stretched, and opened her eyes.

  He watched her remembering where she was and who she was with. Then she looked up at him and smiled.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Hi.”

  “What time is it?”

  “I think it’s about three in the morning.”

  “Have you slept?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t sleep. I can’t stop looking at you.”

  She blinked. “You’ve been watching me this whole time?”

  “Yeah.”

  She stared up at him for a moment. Then reached out and traced the lines of his face with the tips of her fingers—his cheeks, his temples, his jaw.

  He closed his eyes and leaned into her caress. “That feels good.”

  She brushed her fingertip across his lower lip. “Hunter?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you have another condom?”

  He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “No. But, angel, there’s a lot of other stuff we can do if you’re so inclined.”

  She thought about that for a moment. Then she shifted again, sitting up this time.

  “I know what I want to do,” she said.

  He rolled onto his back and clasped his hands behind his head. “Lay it on me.”

  She put a hand on his chest. “I want to talk about the future.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “That’s pretty diabolical. First you drug me with sex, and then you get me to have The Talk?”

  She nodded solemnly. “Exactly. This is the technique I’ll use with all the guys I—”

  A wave of possessiveness went through him. “Don’t talk about other guys.”

  One side of her mouth quirked up. “It was a joke. So can I tell you what I was thinking?”

  “You’re too intimidating sitting up like that. Lie down and you can tell me anything.”

  She slid down onto her side, her head pillowed on her arm. “Okay,” she said. “I want you to know I don’t expect anything from you. Anything permanent, I mean. Both of us have big plans for the future, and we shouldn’t do anything to derail them. I’ve only just started the application process for medical school, and I have no idea where I’ll end up. Meanwhile, you’re at NASA’s mercy. You’ll be here in Hawaii for another year, maybe two, but after that? Maybe they’ll send you to Houston. Maybe Florida. Maybe California to the Jet Propulsion Lab.” She paused. “Maybe to the International Space Station. And I don’t want to get in the way of any of that.”

  He was on his side, too, facing her. “I understand what you’re saying.”

  “And,” she went on, “I know you’re not looking for a relationship. I know this because you told me. Several times. So I want you to know I don’t expect that to change just because we’ve slept together.”

  He nodded slowly. “I see. So . . . what do you expect?”

  “Nothing. I don’t expect anything. Except . . .” She hesitated.

  “Except what?”

  “Except . . . I’d like to be with you like this again. For as long as we happen to be sharing a house. Or as long as we both want to,” she amended. “With the understanding that either one of us can call it quits at any time, with no hard feelings. And we decide right now that we won’t let things get weird and awkward again. We’ll make a real effort to be friends, no matter what.”

  She looked so serious as she said that. God, she was so sweet . . . so sweet and so earnest. How the hell had he resisted her for so long?

  Of course, he knew the answer. He’d resisted her because he’d understood, on some level, what would happen if he gave in to his desire for Airin.

  He’d go up like tissue paper in a fire.

  But Airin herself had talked about an escape route—the ability to call it quits “at any time, with no hard feelings.” They didn’t have to go too deep too soon.

  He should be grateful for that built-in safety hatch. But he found himself saying, “There’s something I want, too.”

  “Of course. I didn’t mean to sound like I was setting the rules for both of us or anything. What do you want, Hunter?”

  A wave of affection went through him that was as powerful as the lust that was already making him hard.

  “I want you to keep an open mind.”

  She frowned a little. “An open mind? Open to what?”

  For most of his adult life, his pillow talk with women had included a warning label. I really like you, but I don’t want to hurt you. I want to be sure we’re going into this with our eyes open. What Airin had just laid out were the ground rules he’d always set himself in the past. So the tack he was taking now felt a little strange.

  “I don’t want us to close the door on any possibilities.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He tried again. “I don’t think we should rule out the idea of a relationship. Not right off the bat. Shouldn’t we see where things go? In a kind of structured way.”

  She blinked. “A kind of structured wa
y? What would that look like, exactly?”

  “We’d tell Val and Dean we’re involved, so we don’t have to keep it a secret. And while we’re seeing each other, we . . . wouldn’t see other people.”

  A slow smile spread across her face. “I know I don’t have much experience in this area, but that sounds an awful lot like dating. Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

  Shit.

  “Yeah. I guess I am. But I agree with all that other stuff you said, too. I don’t want to get in the way of your goals or your dreams.”

  “And I don’t want to get in the way of yours.”

  “Okay then.”

  “Okay.”

  They lay still for a few moments, just looking at each other. Airin’s brown eyes were warm, thoughtful, intelligent, and playful at the same time.

  There weren’t a lot of women who could operate on all those levels, especially when they were lying naked in bed with you.

  A woman like that was someone you could spend your life with. A woman like that was someone you could go into space with.

  But he wasn’t ready to think about that possibility. There was too much uncertainty there, too much that scared him.

  And anyway, there was something else he wanted to do right now.

  He reached out and combed his fingers through the silken mass of her hair in one long, luxurious stroke. “Will you do something for me, Airin?”

  He could read her response to his touch in the way her breath caught and her nipples puckered and hardened.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “Lie on your back and spread your legs. I want to taste you.”

  She closed her eyes and shivered. “I want that, too. But, Hunter?”

  “Yeah?”

  “After that, it’s my turn to taste you.”

  His body hardened in one zero-to-liftoff rush.

  “If you insist.”

  He trailed a hand down her body until he reached her center, where a trickle of moisture was already making her soft and ready.

  “But first things first, angel. First things first.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The next day they flew back to Hawaii. Hunter could hardly keep his hands off Airin during the flight, and when they came through the door of their house he had an arm around her shoulders.