He felt her move before he fully understood her intentions, felt his trousers and his briefs disappear down the length of his legs, felt Olivia’s hot breath against his thighs.
Felt her mouth close around his aching flesh.
“Livvy,” he groaned, tangling his fingers in her hair as she used her tongue in wicked ways that fried his synapses.
And then he was beyond thought, locked only in sensation until even sensation became too much and he lost control, soaring on the wave of a climax that initially made his entire body rigid as pulse after pulse of pleasure rocketed through him then left him weak and shaking with its magnitude.
Xander pulled Olivia up and into his embrace, holding her close to him until his heart rate approximated that of a normal person’s.
“Ready for round two?” Olivia asked softly.
“Round two?”
“Yeah. I have a lot of time and a lot of loving to make up.”
“Don’t we both,” he agreed, pressing a kiss on to the top of her head.
He let her walk him backward toward the bed, where she pushed him onto the mattress and bent to remove his clothes from where they’d tangled at his feet. She rubbed her hands over his body, from the tips of his toes, up his legs and over his abdomen as she positioned herself on the bed over him.
“I’ve missed you, Xander,” she said, her blue eyes staring straight into his—honestly burning there like an incandescent flame.
In the gilded light of the candles’ glow she looked more beautiful than he’d ever seen her. Her hair was a tangle of gold-red waves that tumbled in glorious abandon over her shoulders to caress her skin. Her breasts were high and full, her nipples ripe for his touch—and touch them he did, taking them between thumb and forefinger and watching her face as he teased and tugged on them.
His body was quick to recover from his earlier climax, and he felt himself harden beneath the heat that poured from her. He slipped one hand between her legs, smiling as he discovered her readiness.
“Show me,” he urged her. “Show me how much you missed me.”
She reached for a condom she must have slipped under the pillow earlier and covered him, taking her time over it and turning the act into an art form of simultaneous seduction and torment. Then she positioned him at her entrance and slowly took him inside her body. Her thigh muscles trembled as she accepted him deep within.
“You feel so right inside me,” she gasped with a strangled breath. “I never want to let you go.”
Then she started to move, and all he could do was glory in the pleasure she gave him, holding on to her hips as she rocked and swayed and dragged them both toward a peak that arrived all too quickly and yet not fast enough at the same time. She melted onto his body, her curves fitting against him like a puzzle piece made only for him. He folded his arms around her and held her tight, lost in the perfection of the moment.
Much later, Olivia rose and disposed of the condom they’d used. He watched her through hooded lids as she extinguished one candle after another. The room softened into gray, then into darkness as she worked her way closer to the bed and climbed in next to him. He rolled her onto her side and curved his body around her back, marveling again at the perfection of how they fit together.
“Good night, Xander,” she whispered in the darkness. “And...I’m sorry about today.”
In response he squeezed her tight and pressed a kiss at her nape. He listened as she drifted into sleep.
As sorry as she truly seemed to be, he felt as though she still held something back. Something vital and just out of reach of his battered mind. Would he ever remember?
Thirteen
Olivia woke late the next morning feel both well used and well satisfied. She turned her head on the pillow and looked straight into Xander’s clear gray eyes.
“I love you,” she whispered. “So very much.”
She pushed back his hair from his forehead and leaned over to kiss him before rolling over and getting out of bed. Xander caught her wrist, tugging her back down into his arms.
“Stay,” he commanded, lifting her hair and nuzzling the back of her neck.
Goose bumps peppered her body. Oh, he knew all the right places, and he took his time exploring them over and over again. It was nearly eleven when they rose and Xander joined her in the shower.
“We should just spend the whole day naked,” he said, slowly soaping up her body and sending her heart rate into overdrive all over again.
“I wish I could, but I have to take my work to the gallery. I’ll be busy all afternoon and into the evening with the exhibition opening.” She rinsed off, then pushed open the shower door. “I have to do this, Xander. It’s my career now, my reputation as an artist.”