Her throat worked beneath his thumb as she swallowed. “Thank you.”
He traced her collarbone then the narrow strap of her dress to the red material curving over the swells of her br**sts. She gasped when he dipped his fingers into her warm shadowy cl**vage, and then her chest shuddered on a ragged exhalation.
Nicole Hightower in full war paint was a sight to behold, and watching her work tonight had been impressive. She’d been poised and confident and had her clients eating out of her hand. The combination was sexy as hell.
He felt a twinge of guilt for using the attraction between them against her, but shoved it aside and kissed her again, savoring the taste of her soft lips and the warmth of her body pressed against his. He outlined her waist, her hips, and then followed her spine upward to locate her zipper tab between her shoulder blades. His knuckles brushed warm skin, smoother than the satin of her dress, as he tugged the zipper down. He eased the garment from her shoulders.
She wasn’t wearing a bra. Her br**sts weren’t large, but what she had was perfectly shaped. Round and full, the n**ples hard and dusky-pink. No tan lines. He swallowed the rush of saliva filling his mouth, and pushed the fabric over her hips, leaving her in lacy red panties and her heels. He looked her up and down. Exquisite. How had he ever mistaken her subtle curves for skinny?
She braced a hand on his shoulder as she stepped free of her gown. Wanting her hands on his skin, he resented the barrier of clothing between them. As soon as she regained her balance, he shrugged out of his tux coat, tossed it toward the bench at the end of his bed and tackled his bow tie.
He hungrily drank her in with his eyes as he worked the buttons of his shirt free. She watched him, shifting on her feet and dampening her lips with her tongue. The fire building within him blazed hotter. Her skin was as pale as cream in the moonlight, her fingers fiddling nervously by her sides. He wanted those restless fingers on him. He shucked his shirt and kicked off his shoes.
“You’re beautiful. Perfect.” He reached for his belt, but the leather resisted him before giving way.
She covered her br**sts. “I’m not usually so…pregnancy has made them larger.”
He reached out and brushed her hands away, grazing her n**ples in the process. Her gasp rent the air, mingling with the whistle of his indrawn breath as he dragged his knuckles over her stiff peaks again just for the pleasure of feeling the soft little beads bump over his skin.
He cupped her, thumbed the tips then bent to capture one with his lips because he couldn’t wait another second to taste her. Her back arched, offering him more which he greedily took, sucking her deep into his mouth. He rolled his tongue around the tip and gently grazed her with his teeth.
She shivered in his arms and speared her fingers through his hair, holding him close as he sampled one soft mound and then the other. Grasping her waist, he backed toward the leather bench at the foot of his bed and sat. He pulled Nicole between his legs and feasted on her br**sts.
Her nails dug into his scalp, and her soft moan filled the room. Fighting the urgency telling him to hurry, he smoothed a hand from her breast to her belly, reverently stroking the barely discernable sign that his child rested beneath.
His son or daughter.
His and Nicole’s.
No. His. He couldn’t settle for less than full custody.
His lips followed the trail his hand had blazed. He sipped and laved her skin, letting her unique flavor coat his tongue and her fragrance fill his nostrils. The scent of her arousal combined with her perfume, and his groin engorged in appreciation.
He caressed her long legs, his fingertips tracing the smooth skin covering her lean muscles, until he reached her ankles and the tiny buckles on her sandals. It took one hundred percent of his concentration to find the coordination to make his fingers work the narrow straps and remove her shoes. When he finished he hooked his thumbs in the lacy band of her panties and tugged them down her legs.
Dark curls surrounded her center, some of the tendrils already glistening with arousal. As soon as he’d discarded her lingerie he traced the damp line, finding her slick swollen flesh. She jerked and her breath hitched. He wanted more. Wanted to hear the sound she made when she came, feel her shudder and clench around him. Need drew his body up tight and hard. His pulse roared in his ears.
Recapturing a stiff dusky tip with his mouth, he matched the suckling and stroking of his tongue to the tempo of his fingers. Nicole’s nails dug into his shoulders. He nudged her knees apart, widening her stance so he could pleasure her better. Within moments her legs began to quiver and her breath to quicken. Her back bowed and then, muscles tensing, she jerked as a whimper spilled from her mouth. He rose quickly to capture the remnants of her cry with his lips.
As her spasms died down, she clung to him, hung on him, her weight a delicious burden, her heat like a crackling fire. He broke the kiss and stared into her flushed face and slumberous eyes. He’d never seen a more alluring sight.
He had to have her. Now.
Grasping her hand, he backed toward the head of the bed, ripped the spread off with a yank that sent pillows flying and urged her onto the sheets.
She inched backward onto the mattress, her legs parting intermittently and giving him flashes of her damp center as she moved to the middle. That he believed the peep show unintentional made it all that more exciting. But that was Nicole. She had no idea how sensual she was.
And he had no business taking advantage of her. But the ends justified the means, and at least his desire for her was honest and intense and unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
He shed the rest of his clothes in record time and eased over her. Bracing himself on straight arms, he slowly lowered his weight onto her until he had full body contact from ankles to lips. He didn’t want to hurt her, but her skin branded him and her mouth devoured his. His erection rested against her smooth, hot stomach, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from driving against her. She felt so damned good.
He eased one knee between hers and then the other, opening her to him. It took everything he had not to ram hard and fast into her wetness. Remembering the life she cradled, he took himself in hand and stroked his rock hard flesh against her, teasing her swollen center and coating himself with her moisture to ease entry. He waited until she tensed and a flush covered her cheeks, and then he eased inside one gut-wrenching inch at a time, sliding deep into her body until he couldn’t go any farther.
Her slick heat surrounded him and hunger ravaged him. He used his thumb to caress her, circling until she went over the edge. The rhythmic clenching of her internal muscles set him ablaze. A groan burst from his throat. He bore down on every cell in his being to keep from losing control. When he had a grip on his raging desire he dared to meet her aqua gaze. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she all but hissed through kiss-swollen lips. “It feels good. You feel good, Ryan.”
The breathless way she said his name made him molten hot.
“Not…too…much?” His voice was as rough as cold asphalt.
She shifted beneath him and every wiggle steamed a few brain cells. “Just right.”
His control wavered. He withdrew and eased in again and again, faster each time. He tried to keep from thrusting too deep, too hard, but when she linked her ankles at the base of his spine he lost it. Instinct took over. Her nails scored his back, his butt, his chest. Her teeth nipped his lip, his shoulder, his neck. He told himself he couldn’t be hurting her because she met each thrust and countered each swivel of his hips, and the sexy-as-hell noises coming from her mouth were signs of pleasure not pain.
He buried his face in her neck and quit fighting. The fire rushed from his toes and his fingertips to coalesce in his gut and consume him as his cli**x roasted him alive. “I’m coming, baby.”
Her cry and the squeeze and release of her body told him she was with him. After the last spasm of pleasure faded, his muscles went lax. He caught himself before he crushed her. Braced on his elbows, he battled to regulate his breathing.
As the smoke slowly cleared from his skull he told himself that great sex was all they’d shared. Nothing more. It didn’t matter that whatever he and Nicole had just done beat the hell out of anything he’d ever done before. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for another woman who could screw him over the way his ex had or the way his mother had his father.
Women were fickle and they fought dirty.
He needed to remember his relationship with Nicole was a short-term alliance. She had a product he wanted and a service he needed. If they had a pleasant interval in the process, so be it. But it would be temporary.
But as his lids grew heavy and his muscles turned to lead he decided making love with her had been a big mistake. Sex clouded the issues. But even as he acknowledged the mistake, he knew he’d repeat it. How could he not?
But he was strong enough to keep his priorities straight. He’d keep his eye on the job of getting custody of his child and never forget for one moment to look out for number one.
Ten
T hey hadn’t used protection.
Every lax, sated muscle in Nicole’s body went rigid.What’s going to happen? You’re already pregnant with his child, and you know from his medical records that he doesn’t have anything contagious.
Still…
She had never been careless. Never. She didn’t have sex often, and when she did she didn’t forget to protect herself. Physically or emotionally. Tonight she’d forgotten both.
Why had she chosen to drop her usual caution with Ryan? She eased onto her side in his bed and studied him in the dim light. His face had relaxed in sleep, softening his lips and the grooves beside his mouth. His hair was a spiky wreck from her fingers grabbing fistfuls of the thick strands. The sheet he’d pulled over them barely covered his privates.
Ohmigod. Were those scratch marks on his shoulders?
A wave of embarrassment burned over her. She’d never marked a lover before. She wasn’t the type to lose control to that extent. Or she hadn’t been until tonight when she’d been careless and out of control.
Just like your mother.
Alarms shrieked in her subconscious.
She had to get out of here.
She didn’t want to talk to Ryan or look him in the eye until she figured out why she’d let herself go. She’d read that some women were more sensitive during pregnancy and more easily aroused. If her multiple orgasms were an indicator, she must be one of them. That had to be it. She had a case of raging pregnancy hormones, a body primed for sex, and he was her only outlet.
Are you sure it’s not more than that?
It couldn’t be. She and Ryan barely knew each other.
So he’d guessed she needed to de-stress after the ultrasound. Big deal. And so what if he’d realized she had a headache before she’d admitted it to herself. They had nothing in common except their baby, chemistry and a shared past of acting out to get their parents’ attention. None of that meant anything. Or did it?
Was this the connection she’d always yearned for?
Couldn’t be.
Her feelings for him were definitely…intense. She’d never experienced anything as powerful as what she and Ryan had shared with anyone—not even Patrick, the only man she’d ever loved and ever would love.