“I find it is much improved with the current company.”
She smiled coyly. “You really do say the nicest things. It makes me feel special.”
“Good,” he answered simply.
They sat for a short while, sipping their champagne and watching the birds land on the water, leaving a gentle wake in their stead. With her free hand, Chloe traced small circles on the back of Miles’s neck. His skin was warm beneath her touch and she felt connected to him in a way she hadn’t experienced with another man before. When their glasses were empty, she took his from him and set them both down in the grass away from their blanket.
“That was delicious, but I find myself craving something else,” she said in a low voice as she straddled his legs and gently pushed him back to lie down on the blanket.
“Tell me more.”
“Well, technically you were going to show me, remember? But it’s a good thing I’m an equal opportunity kind of girl.”
A smile spread across his lips and his hands settled at her waist, sliding beneath her sweater to burn like a brand against her bare skin. She sighed a little and leaned down, brushing her lips across his, again and again. Just lightly, teasing. One of his hands slid up her back and cupped the back of her head, drawing her to him and encouraging her to kiss him properly. And, because she wanted to, she did.
She loved kissing him. Loved the taste, the feel, the texture of him. He moved his hand again, clearly enjoying what she offered and happy to take it. She shifted slightly so she could kiss a trail across his cheekbones, then along his jaw and down his throat until she nipped the skin at its base. He groaned in response. Emboldened, Chloe pushed his T-shirt up, exposing his chest. Miles helped her by lifting his torso slightly, and she slid the shirt off him completely and dropped it beside them.
She ran her hands over his shoulders, his arms. Then skimmed across his belly and back up over his ribs and his chest.
“You are magnificent,” she whispered with a reverence that would leave him in no doubt as to just how true the words were that she spoke.
She kissed him again, then. Firmly on the mouth. Taking her time to dip her tongue to duel with his as her hands continued to touch and follow every curve and hollow of his body. Her fingers glided to the waistband of his jeans and his hips bucked beneath her touch.
“Impatient, are we?” she asked, smiling against his lips.
“For you? Always.”
She moved her hand over the now-bulging denim of his jeans and gripped him firmly through the fabric.
“We need to do something about this,” she whispered, and moved lower on him.
Her fingers dealt with the button at the waistband of his jeans before slowly, carefully, lowering the zipper. Miles lifted his hips as she tugged his jeans down, together with his briefs, exposing his arousal to the warm air and her even more heated gaze. She traced his erection with her fingers, letting her nails graze ever so lightly over his sensitive tip before she lowered to him and took him into the warm, wet cavern of her mouth.
He groaned again and his hips thrust upward, as if he couldn’t get quite enough of the sensation of her mouth and tongue on him. Chloe encircled the base of his penis with her hand and slowly let her fingers glide up and swirled her tongue gently over his swollen flesh as she did so. She kept up her momentum, subtly increasing the pressure of her hand and her tongue until she felt him fall apart beneath her.
This was what she wanted for him. Complete abandon. No cares. No stress. No worries. Just the deep satisfaction of knowing someone else could, and would, give him what he most desired. She took her mouth from him and moved to lie with her head on his chest. Instantly his hands were on her and began stroking through her hair, which had begun to slide free from its knot. Then his fingers drifted lower, rubbing circles on her back. She felt him kiss the top of her head.
“I think that from now on this will forever be one of my favorite places in the whole world,” he rumbled.
His voice was thick, and beneath her ear she could hear his heart still hammering in his chest.
“Mine, too.”
They lay like that for some time—just being in the moment. Listening to the sounds of the birds in the trees and the lazily buzzing insects around them. Reveling in the whisper of the breeze in the trees and shrubs that wrapped them in their own cocoon and the gentle lap of the water on the lake’s edge.
And then Miles rolled her onto her side and sat up to kick off his boots and socks and completely remove his jeans.
“I feel overdressed,” Chloe said as she stretched out on the blanket.
“You most definitely are. Thankfully, I’m just the man you need to solve that particular issue.”
“You are, are you?”
“Indeed. Solving problems, all kinds of problems, is my forte.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a man with a forte before,” she mused.
Miles laughed out loud. “I’ve never met a woman who could steal the breath clean out of my lungs, send me to heaven and make me laugh all within the space of a few minutes.”