Nothing to Hide

Allie scooted out of her pants, kicked her flip-flops off the bed and lay back in her bra and panties, arms folded across her chest, looking at him expectantly.

Except she couldn’t keep her eyes from wandering down from his face. Broad muscular shoulders, defined abs, lean hips, powerful thighs and a half-erect penis that was calling to her.

Mmmm.

“Take off the rest, Allie.” His hands were on his hips. He was looking...hungry. “Slowly.”

She hesitated, strangely reluctant now that their laughter was over. “Can you get on the bed with me?”

He shook his head. “I want to watch you undress.”

It hit her with a sudden shock that he’d never seen her naked. And that his request was perfectly natural. And that what she’d done in the costumes would lead him to believe she was totally comfortable in her body.

Well, wasn’t she? She didn’t exactly need the lights out when making love. So what was her problem now?

She smiled at Jonas, shook back her hair and sat halfway up to unhook her bra, sliding the straps slowly off each shoulder, letting her breasts emerge gradually into the cool air.

He inhaled. His erection grew. Clearly he liked what he saw. So why this intense shyness on her part?

She lay back on her elbows and passed her hands over her panties, pausing to rest her hands on the material between her legs, hoping he’d find that erotic, delaying the moment, feeling an unaccountably deep sense of anxiety and foreboding she didn’t understand.

“Off.” His lips were twisted in a small smile. He thought she was teasing him.

“If you insist.” Her voice came out thick and strange. She edged the material down, bent her knees with pointed toes, and let the cotton slip down and off.

She’d been without clothes around men before, but had never, ever felt so naked.

“You’re beautiful, Allie.” He stood watching as if he had no intention of ever moving.

This wasn’t part of their game. This wasn’t a game at all.

“Come here.” She held out her arms, hoping that as soon as he was there with her, as soon as he started kissing and touching her, her unease would disappear.

He climbed onto the bed with her and drew her close. She burrowed into the warm, soft feel of his skin, into the wide expanse of his back under her fingers, and the delicious weight of him pressing against her. The fear was still there, though it had diminished some. Why hadn’t she felt this before? When she was Cleopatra? When she was the cool-as-cucumber seductress?

Because now she was just Allie.

He pressed her gently onto her back and explored her. Slowly, thoroughly with lips, fingers and tongue. Her face, her shoulders, then her belly and legs, then up again to dote on her breasts. Allie lay as she’d been instructed to, trying to relax. He was a skilled and patient lover. She was a rock.

When he concentrated his attention between her legs, Allie closed her eyes and imagined the nightgown still covered her, imagined she was a woman of elegance, with many, many lovers, of which Jonas was her favorite. Imagined he’d pushed up the wispy cotton batiste to kiss her as he was doing now.

Her arousal rose under the strokes of his tongue until she was again at the panting level of lust she’d experienced only with him.

“I want to make love to you,” her dashing lover said.

“Yes.” She waved her hand to give him permission.

Jonas entered her slowly, lazily, a bit at a time, in and out while she made room for him inside her, getting hotter and wetter until she was able to take him all.

Then he lay still, joined to her in the most intimate way of all, and waited until she opened her eyes to find him looking deeply into them.

Immediately she froze, staring back up at him as if his gaze were paralyzing her. Slowly, she began to recognize the man in the depths of those eyes, and felt herself responding. The connection became nearly unbearable, the emotions overwhelming. She felt torn apart, wanting to disappear into him, wanting to shut him out.

And then he began to move, faster and faster, with his eyes locked on hers. She bucked up against his thrusts, whimpering at the torture and pleasure of this invasion of her body and of her heart.

Then her orgasm was simply inevitable; her body began gathering for it, climbing steadily toward ecstasy. She closed her eyes, hissing breath through her teeth, moaning softly.

“Look at me when you’re coming, Allie.”

She couldn’t, shook her head. It was too much, giving him too much. “I can’t.”

“Look at me.” He spoke sharply, grinding his pelvis on hers, then moved out and plunged in again, nearly sending her over the edge. “Look at me.”

She met his eyes, losing total control as he thrust again and her orgasm hit, making her shout, clutching his shoulders, writhing underneath him, feeling as if she couldn’t get close enough to him even as close as they were.