He woke me in the middle of the night, his mouth nuzzling mine. As soon as I started to return his kisses with fervor, I found myself pushed to my back as Henry settled his knees on either side of my waist.
There was tenderness mixed with the desire in his eyes and I was both thrilled and afraid. Hands braced on the mattress on either side of my head, he bent to graze his lips over mine. More nuzzling, soft, sweet kisses that gradually grew deeper. It felt like he was pouring his longing into me via his kisses and I wanted to cry because it was longing I returned. I was lonely. More than I’d realized. I’d been waiting for someone like Henry.
Tears burned beneath my lids because more than anything, I wanted to believe that these kisses were real. That his longing was as real as mine.
As if he sensed the change in my emotions, Henry’s kisses grew rougher, more desperate, and I clung to his waist to meet him breathless kiss for breathless kiss. I gasped into his mouth as his erection stroked my belly. His lips drifted from mine to lace kisses across my chin, down my jaw, along my collarbone. He kissed his way down my chest, his mouth hot, searching, as though he was looking to discover all my secrets.
I held on, trailing my fingertips in light caresses across his muscled back, sliding my hands up into the silk of his hair, and curling them in tight when his hot mouth closed around my left nipple. He sucked it and my hips jerked against him in reaction. “Oh God.” My thighs gripped him as I urged him closer, my back arching for more as he licked me and then sucked harder, all the while pinching my other nipple between his forefinger and thumb.
“Oh God,” I moaned softly.
He lifted his head to watch my face as he moved against me, rubbing against my clit, building my need into craving. I groaned, tortured. “Henry,” I begged.
His answer was to dip his head again, to lick my other nipple, and cup and squeeze my breasts in his hands. He lifted his gaze, releasing my nipple from his mouth. “You’re so beautiful. I’m particularly enchanted by these.” He squeezed my breasts a little harder. Arousal shot straight from where he was fondling me to between my legs and the coil of tension tightened in my lower belly.
I was panting hard, my fingers tugging his hair. “I want you inside me.”
But Henry wasn’t done making love to me. He created a trail of feathery, tormenting kisses down my stomach. I shivered at the touch of his tongue across my belly and melted into the mattress, my thighs falling open, guiding him to his southerly destination.
He kissed me there. Licked me. Sucked my clit between those clever lips until I was shivering and trembling, fingers curling into the sheets, flushed furnace hot, as he played me toward climax.
I lost my breath as the tension tightened inside me, my hips stilling against his mouth momentarily as I reached my pressure point.
His tongue pressed down on my clit and that was it.
Over the edge I went as my orgasm seized me. I had no control over my body anymore as I pulsed and pulsed against his mouth.
Finally, cognizance returned as bliss faded to languid satisfaction. Henry moved back up my body and when I opened my eyes, I stared straight into his. He had his hands braced on either side of my head, his lower body pressed to mine.
Fear returned as he stared down at me with more hunger and want than any man I’d ever been with. He studied my face with his eyes and the gentle caress of his fingers, and something like panic squeezed my lungs. To escape it without escaping him, I pushed against his shoulder and shoved him onto his back. Anticipation flared in Henry’s eyes as he lay back on the bed for me, his cock straining toward his belly. This was what I needed and wanted right now. And I wanted him to find as much euphoria as he’d given me.
I lowered my head and Henry muttered, “Fuck, yes,” before I even touched him. When I wrapped my mouth around him, the muscles in his abs contracted and his hips flexed against me. His fingers threaded through my hair, “God, woman, you’re a miracle.”
I licked along the underside of his cock first, teasing him for only a few seconds before I began to suck, tasting the salty heat of him. At the same time as I moved my mouth, I pumped the root with my hand. His hisses and groans of need filled the room, and I got off on his noise of pleasure as if it were his touch. My nipples tightened into hard, achy peaks. I grew slick with heat between my legs and I found myself pumping my hips as I sucked him off.
I looked up at Henry’s face from under my lashes, loving the sight of his tight, restrained expression and the glow of raw lust in his low-lidded gaze. The color was high on his cheeks and his chest rose and fell in shallow breaths as I vacillated between teasing licks of my tongue and hard pulls of my mouth. I slid my free hand up over the hot, damp skin of his lower abs, feeling them ripple under my fingertips.
I sucked him in deeper, and he squeezed his eyes shut, his teeth gritted together. “Nadia,” he bit out, “fuck!”
That was my warning that he was coming and instead of jerking back, I sucked him through his climax, something I’d never done before, and he shuddered and shivered as he came down from the explosion.
When his cock softened, I pulled back to stare at him.
He stared back at me in awe.
But more… there was so much more in his expression. Escaping it once more, I jumped off the bed and pulled on my robe.
“What are you doing?”
“Freshening up.”
“Do it without the robe.”
I stared back at him, unsure. It was different when two people were having sex—I lost my inhibitions as my desire for orgasm overtook every other feeling. But walking around my apartment naked in front of him, my ass jiggling and my boobs bouncing…
Um… no. Emphatically not. “I’d prefer not to.”
Henry frowned. “You’re beautiful. I don’t want you to hide.”
“I’m not perfect,” I huffed. “I bet you’re used to perfect. I don’t have a flat belly and I have a jiggly ass… there is fat on this body.” I pointed to myself.
He grinned. “There are curves. And they’re sexy as hell.” He leaned up on an elbow and smoldered at me. “You’re perfect to me.”
Strangely, I sensed his sincerity.
What was I going to do with this guy?
Fine. I shrugged out of the robe and put my hands on my hips, trying to hide how self-conscious I felt standing naked before him. “Happy now?”
His darkened gaze swept down my body and back up again. “Sunshine, I won’t be happy until I’ve screwed you six ways till Sunday.”
I rolled my eyes, but some of my self-consciousness dissipated. “So romantic.” Before he could respond, I walked out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom where I freshened up.
I returned a minute later and Henry stalked me with his stare, his eyes lowered to my breasts.
“Fuck,” he groaned, reaching and placing me over him so I was straddling his hips. “I think I’m obsessed with your tits.”
“I think you are too—ahh,” I gasped as he cupped them and drew my oversensitive nipples into his mouth. I writhed as he played with me for what felt like forever until the blood surged back into his cock and it push against my belly.
My eyes dropped to his dick, excited and impressed.
Suddenly I was on my back, my surprised laughter swallowed up in his kiss.
Henry’s lips were all over me again—my breasts, my stomach—and where his mouth went, his hands followed. He rested on his knees and I stared down at him, breathless with anticipation.
I cried out, feeling wrung out when his thumb pressed down on my clit. Even more so when he pushed two fingers inside me. “It’s not enough,” I begged.
“Jesus,” he huffed, thrusting his fingers in and out of me. “You’re drenched. You liked getting me off, Sunshine?”
“You might think about returning the favor,” I bit out impatiently.
“God, I like you.”
“Prove it.”
“I will… but I’m not going to fuck you, Nadia.” He gently eased his fingers out of me and then coasted both hands up my body as he moved upward.
Confused, I watched him.
And then Henry, his eyes locked with mine, pressed my legs farther apart and slid inside me.
Easily.
Beautifully.
I sighed in utter sweet, shivering, erotic, slow, dizzying pleasure as he thrust in measured strokes. The swelling, overwhelming thickness of him inside me was a delicious kind of agony.
He was making love to me.
“Henry,” I gasped, tears stinging my eyes before I could stop them.
“You are so sweet, kind, hilarious, exasperating, beautiful…” he whispered and kissed me, never breaking his excruciatingly delicious tempo. He dragged almost all the way out of me in a slow, torturous stroke before pressing back in, in an equally tormenting slow thrust.
My eyes were locked on his face, mesmerized to see again the light of affection mixed with dark possession in his expression. He was such a complicated man.
And right then, I’d never felt anything more wonderful in my life than being with him like this. Every muscle in his body was locked, tensed, as he strained to be gentle, to be tender.
His eyes moved over me and his expression tightened even more as he got lost in watching my breasts bounce against his thrusts. His control slipped and I was surprised to find amusement in my pleasure.
He really was obsessed with my breasts.
“Nadia,” he choked out as if in pain.
I caressed his back reassuringly. “Do it. Fuck me.”
“This is more than this.”
“Fucking can be more than just fucking,” I managed before gasping against his harder, deeper thrust.
My words snapped what little control he was holding onto and suddenly his hips were pumping faster, pushing him deeper, giving me another orgasm that made my eyes roll back in my head. I was losing count.
His lips parted, his hips stalled, and he choked out my name on a harsh pant as he throbbed hard inside me.
My inner muscles pulsated around his straining cock and we shuddered together in climax.
Henry collapsed against me and I somehow managed to find the strength to wrap my arms around him.
As our breathing evened and he rolled off me, I was left stunned. Henry wrapped his arms around me and I cuddled against him as satisfied exhaustion stole us into sleep before I could fully formulate my panicked wonder at what had occurred between us.
* * *
I think it was the unfamiliar weight that woke me out of my sensual dreams. Heat was wrapped all around me, and there was a heaviness over my left thigh and across my waist. My face was pressed against something warm, smooth, and solid.
Slowly consciousness returned and with it the smell of cologne and the soft sound of someone else’s breathing.
Last night came back to me in a rush of searing memories and emotions as I realized I was lying on my side, Henry curled around me. His leg was thrown over mine, his arm across my waist, and my head was buried in his chest. Unbelievably, his morning erection pressed against my belly. How on earth could that man still be turned on?
But then tingles awoke between my legs as I remembered what I’d been dreaming about. Even after the ferocious sex and stunning love-making, I’d been lost in an aroused fog, dreaming of Henry and sex.
For a moment, I lay there, enjoying the sensation of being in his arms. It was beautiful and unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
I felt safe in this man’s arms.
Safe and even cherished.
It was possibly a million times more dangerous than my attraction to him.
His leg suddenly shifted and his arm tightened around my waist, attempting, it seemed, to pull me closer to him.
“I’m as close as you’re going to get me,” I mumbled against his naked chest.
It rumbled beneath my lips. “Not true,” came his husky response. “My cock isn’t inside you.”
“Charming.”
I felt him shake with laughter and involuntarily smiled in response.
He tangled a hand through my hair and gently tugged on it. I gave him what he wanted and tilted my head back to look into his eyes. Affection and heat mingled in his expression. “Good morning.”
“Morning.” Feeling stupidly shy all of a sudden, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You don’t snore.”
He gave me a sleepy grin that was way too sexy for my comfort. “Well, you’d be the first to know.”
“What does that mean?”
Henry shrugged. “You’d be the first nonrelated woman to know if I snored or not.”
Understanding dawned and a mixture of triumph and uneasiness came over me. “Are you saying you’ve never slept with a woman before? How can that be? You’ve been monogamous with a woman for periods of time.”
“Yes.” He did me a favor by not asking how I knew that. “But I’ve never slept in their bed, nor they in mine.” He reached up to curl strands of my hair behind my ear, and then he caressed my cheek with the back of his knuckles. I was breathless, watching him as he seemed to memorize every facet of my face. “Sleeping over usually sends the wrong message.”
What?
Oh my God. “But… you’re happy to send this message… to me?”
His answer was a long, sweet, drugging kiss that had my fingers curling into his biceps. When we finally came up for air, I felt a little lost.
“I can’t imagine feeling like this with anyone else.”
What? Was he saying what I thought he was saying? Or was this a phase for him, something new to try? “What does that mean? Exactly?”
“It means that waking up with you in my arms feels good.” He brushed his mouth over mine. “And I want to repeat it.”
“Henry…”
“I love when you say my name.” His kiss was harder, wanting, so I was surprised when he suddenly broke it with a miserable groan. “And I can’t do anything about it because I have to go.”
Surprise jolted through me. “You do?”
He kissed my nose as he lightly caressed my breast with his thumb, groaned in frustration, and then hopped out of bed. I wrapped the sheets around me, watching befuddled as he moved around the room, grabbing his clothes. As he pulled on his tuxedo jacket, reality came crashing back.
When he was so close, he had a bad habit of confusing me, bewitching me even. Now with a margin of distance between us, I remembered what I wanted and what I didn’t want. And what I didn’t want was to be that girl who was confused when a guy said he wanted you but then got out of bed right away to leave.
“Look,” I sighed, “you don’t have to do this.”
Henry frowned. “Do what?”
“Pretend. I’m a big girl. And we had a deal. This was a one-time-only thing.”
“Are you being serious?” he asked incredulously as he sat down to tie his dress shoes.
“Excuse me?”
“If I wanted out, I would have been gone as soon as we had sex last night. Were you not listening to anything I just said?” He gestured to the bed.
He didn’t seem angry. More amused by me. “Henry…”
I didn’t know how to articulate what I was feeling, or if I even really wanted him to know what I was feeling, but he pulled out his cell and called someone before I could make up my mind. “Henry Lexington. A Town Car, please.” He gave the person on the other end my address. “My apartment first. I need the driver to wait. I have an eleven o’ clock flight… Logan.” He ended the call. “I have a flight.”
“So I heard.” Some of my uneasiness dwindled a little now that I knew he had a legitimate reason for leaving. “Business trip?”
“To the Caymans.”
“Nice.”
Henry didn’t seem like he thought it was nice. Instead he sat down on the bed next to me and reached over to tug playfully on the sheet I had wrapped around me.
“Stop.” I swatted away his hand.
He pouted playfully. “Please. I need a visual to get me through the next few days. From the Caymans I fly to Panama, from Panama to Seattle. I won’t be back until next Monday.”
The news that he would be gone for over a week disturbed me. It was ridiculous! I would not be one of those women. “You have plenty of visuals from last night,” I reminded him, “to get you through forever.” I swatted his hand away again. “Henry, this was a one-time deal.”
He got by my swatting, fisted a huge chunk of sheet in his hand, and used it to haul me up against him. His arms wrapped around me, trapping me. “I thought we came to an understanding a few hours ago… when we came.”
I would not laugh.
He saw my lips twitching and grinned. “Nadia, I like you. You like me. Let’s not overcomplicate this. Let’s see where it goes.”
That was the problem. I did like him. And I liked that he liked me.
I wanted to see where this went, despite my reservations.
I think I wanted it more than anything. Which meant I had to hope he never found out the truth. With an exaggerated huff, I withdrew and lowered the sheet. His eyes immediately dropped and heated at the sight of my naked breasts. “Enough to see you through?” I quipped.
With a long, drawn-out groan, he dropped his face between them and mumbled, disgruntled, “It’ll just have to be.”