I looked over my shoulder and found his eyes shuttered, his thoughts inaccessible, his sensual mouth set in a firm line.
“Are you trying to scare me off?”
He shook his head slowly. “No…but I want to be honest with you. And I need you to be too.”
That was a request I couldn’t accommodate. “Are you telling me you’re a sadist?” My eyes were wide in anticipation. The thought of him wanting to inflict pain on me…no, it wouldn’t work.
“No, pain isn’t my thing. At least, not extreme pain.”
My brows creased inquisitively. “What other kind is there?”
His eyes dancing, alight with mischief, he replied, “We’ll save that demonstration for another night.”
I pressed backwards, against his muscular chest, and his penis twitched, turned hard against the small of my back. His hand skated over my taut abdomen. It moved lower, until he was raking through the patch of hair covering my sex. As he parted and stroked me, I gasped. He soothed the sting with his touch, working the oil into my tender skin. My body was bunching up again, straining, in desperate need of relief.
“I’ve got you. Let go, Vera,” he whispered seductively.
How could I explain that I could never completely let go, that I was incapable of letting myself depend on anyone. My mind screamed to run away––it knew it was in grave danger of relinquishing all control––while my body, addicted and enslaved, raced towards him at Mach speed. His formidable persistence paid off. It started quietly, building momentum until I fell over the edge with a scream that could have woken the neighbors. My head flopped back onto his shoulder.
“I didn’t think I had another one in me.”
“Don’t ever underestimate me, lover,” he whispered.
No. I would be a fool to ever underestimate this man.
* * *
Stretched out on the bed with his hands tucked neatly behind his head, his arms protruding like wings, he looked like a jaded, just recently pleasured sultan. A self-satisfied smile lingered on his lips. His beauty still managed to leave me speechless at times.
I lay on my stomach perpendicular to him, my lips charting a path from his navel to his right hipbone. His penis lay long and soft on his thigh. When I licked the space between bone and muscle it twitched, coming to life again. “You are insatiable,” I proclaimed with a wide, unadulterated smile.
His lids lowered to half-mast. “Your fault,” he murmured seductively, then chuckled at my eye roll.
“Do you know––” I said, kissing the dip between his taut abdomen and hipbone, “that I have been dying,” another kiss, “to do this,” he hissed as I licked him, “since I saw you hanging by those sinister looking straps in your gym.” Come to think of it those straps didn’t look so unappealing anymore.
“Really?” His voice was high and tight.
“In fact, I’m certain that this small piece of real estate right here,” I licked my index finger and drew a triangle between his navel, his hip bone, and the beginning of his pubic hair, “is the most precious in all the world. I would love to build a home right here.” I dropped another soft kiss on the spot, rubbed my nose on it, and watched him grip the sheets tightly. His sex turned dusky and hard, standing up proudly.
“Imagine the view,” I purred. In a heartbeat, I was lifted and placed astride his lap while I squealed in surprise.
“Enough,” he said, laughing, a full-throated laugh I hadn’t heard from him before. Music to my ears. His laughter was so rare I almost didn’t recognize the sound. I wiggled against his twitching erection. “Good Lord woman, have some mercy,” he pleaded in a heavy drawl, “I’ve abused your sweet body enough tonight.”
“That accent makes me crazy.”
“Good to know. Have to put it to use at a later date.”
We were both grinning like idiots. It made my heart swell to see him relaxed and happy. He closed his eyes, and kissed me so tenderly that a surge of emotion clogged my throat. It came to me in a rush, the knowledge that I was way past the point of no return, already fiercely attached to him. So I pulled back, scared of my own feelings, of my weakness for him. A flicker of disappointment dimmed his eyes before he averted his gaze.
Running his fingers through his hair impatiently, he said, “It’s late. We should get some rest.” When he turned the lights off, the silence was stifling, a chasm separating us all of a sudden…and then I felt him reach out and pull me closer. Tucking in behind me, he held me like he never intended to let go. I exhaled, relieved, because I didn’t want him to either.
* * *
The room was swaddled in darkness. I blinked repeatedly as my eyes adjusted slowly to the faint glow of a streetlight pouring in through the wall of windows. His iPhone on the bedside table read 3:50. The smell of sex hung in the air. It invaded my senses, bringing with it a rush of images and feelings of all the things we’d done and shared.