CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cordelia’s world would never be the same.
Not after what Alec had just shown her—such intense pleasure that the word barely scratched the surface.
She’d thought she’d known what was coming tonight. After all, they’d already kissed, and he’d given her that beautiful release on the plane.
But she’d had no idea at all.
She felt like she could float away on a cloud of ecstasy. Were it not for the hard, heavy weight of his body over hers and the kisses he was pressing along her skin as he made his way back up her body with her hands still in his, she was sure that she would have.
“Good?” His question sounded against the underside of her breast, where he was nuzzling her, his evening shadow scratching her skin in just the right way.
“So good.” When he didn’t respond, she realized she’d only mouthed the words. Working to get enough breath in her lungs to actually speak the words aloud, she tried a second time. “So good.”
His face was level with hers by then, and when he smiled at her—a wonderfully wicked smile—she lost her breath all over again.
“I could do that all night.” He pressed his mouth to hers for a soft kiss, before asking, “What about you?”
She did want that. What woman wouldn’t? But tonight, she was even greedier. “I need you.” Without her hands free, she couldn’t strip his clothes off. But she could tell him, “All of you.”
He stared down at her, his eyes dark and intense. “Are you sure?”
A week ago, she’d thought they were going to have as little to do with each other as possible and had assumed that lawyers would take over after their initial meeting. The last thing in the world she would have thought could happen was this—the two of them in her bed, with her begging him to take off his clothes and make love to her.
“I’ve never been this sure of anything in my life,” she told him. But this wasn’t just about her and what she needed, what she wanted. Alec had to be sure too. “What about you?”
He didn’t answer right away. And though she was hovering on a breathless edge, she was glad for it. Because if they both thought things through, there would be less chance they’d regret them.
Not that she’d be regretting anything. Regretting making love to Alec would be like regretting a lavender bush’s fragrant bloom, or a hummingbird drinking nectar from honeysuckle.
“I’m sure that I want you,” he finally replied, his deep voice thick with the very desire he spoke of. “I’m sure that everything about you and your garden and even the sheets on your bed makes me smile.” But he wasn’t smiling as he continued. “And I’m sure that I’ll never forgive myself for hurting you.”
“You won’t. I promise you, I’m not going to fall apart, or cry, or even stalk you online when this is over.”
Finally, she got a hint of a smile from him. “Do you even have a computer?”
“I do, but I try not to use it if I can help it. I’d rather be out in nature.”
The wicked spark came back into his eyes. “Speaking of nature, I can’t get this crazy picture out of my head of you gardening au naturel.”
She laughed. “Actually, once when a yellow jacket was after me in the shower, I ran outside to get away from him, and somehow the front door slammed shut and locked behind me.”
He let go of one of her hands so that he could run his from breast to hip. “Did anyone see you?”
“God, no! I grabbed a tarp and wrapped myself in it before climbing in through a window.”
“You can get into your cottage through the windows?” He looked around her room in dismay.
Using all her hard-won gardening strength, she flipped them over before he could jump out of bed to start installing deadbolts on every possible point of entry to her cottage. And, oh, it felt good to straddle him like this.
But it would feel so much better once he didn’t have any clothes on.
She scooted down so that she could work on the zipper of his jeans, then tug them off along with his boxers. Once she did, she had to stop to gaze in awe at him. “Do you know what I thought the first time I saw you?” She didn’t wait for him to reply. “Even in the midst of the craziness, all I could think was that it should be illegal for anyone to look as good as you.”
She bent down to press a kiss to his chest, but couldn’t bear to stop there. She wanted to run her mouth, her hands, over every incredible inch of him. There were no words to describe the sight of Alec Sullivan in her bed, lying beneath her, his big hands inciting sensual explosions everywhere they roamed.
“I wanted you too, Cordelia. Wanted you like this, straddling me, with your breasts in my hands and your taste on my tongue.” Arousal flooded her at his deliciously dirty words. “Wanted to feel your heat sliding over me.” She rocked her hips against his, moaning at how good it felt to finally be skin to skin, in all the most wonderful places. “Wanted to kiss your sweet mouth…kiss every sweet inch of you.”
“Look at us,” she said with a smile, “both getting exactly what we want.”
“Almost.” He moved his hips against hers again, causing fireworks to shoot off throughout her body. “I promised myself I wouldn’t take advantage of you—”
“You’re not taking advantage of me!” She was so frustrated at how he kept bringing this up that she nearly yelled, “When will you finally get that through your thick head? I want to have sex with you, and I’m going to be okay when we’re done!”
“I was just explaining why I don’t have any condoms on me.”
“Oh.” She felt a little embarrassed by her outburst. “I keep a box in my bedside table.”
She leaned over him to reach for the drawer, but when she felt his tongue slick over the tip of one breast, she completely lost the thread of what she’d been doing. Simply couldn’t do anything when such intense waves of pleasure were rolling through her.
She’d never wanted anything as badly as she wanted to make love to him with no barriers between them. But for all that she trusted Alec, she wasn’t stupid. And nothing would make simple pleasure between friends into a forced permanent “relationship” faster than an unplanned pregnancy.
With that thought in the forefront, she finally managed to move far enough away that she could grab the box of condoms from the drawer of her bedside table.
“Thank God,” Alec said when she ripped open the brand-new box. “I wanted to kill any guy who’d gotten to use those other condoms. But I’m the only one.” He looked extremely pleased with himself.
“Possessive much?”
“Yes.” He pulled her down for a kiss. “You’re mine, Cordelia. All mine.”
Satisfaction shouldn’t have shot through her at his words. Not only because she was a liberated, modern woman who could have as many lovers as she wanted—but also because they were just friends. And yet, she couldn’t deny that a part of her liked knowing he wanted her to be his, and his alone. For as long as this worked for both of them, anyway.
The truth was, he wasn’t the only one feeling possessive right now. Giving silent thanks that he’d broken their kiss for long enough to roll on protection, she put her hands into his, lifted her hips, and said, “And you’re mine.” Then took him deep in one long, sweet slide.
So.
Much.
Pleasure.
Too much was all she could think as she closed her eyes so that she could focus every ounce of her concentration on how good he was making her feel as he thrust up into her.
Earlier, she’d thought he’d taken her to her highest peak of pleasure. She simply hadn’t been able to imagine that there could be more. But over and over again, Alec surprised her. Never more than this moment, when she opened her eyes to find the most gorgeous man in the world staring up at her as though he was thinking the exact same thing—that she’d surprised him too.
Needing to be even closer, she leaned forward to kiss him. But he captured her lips with his before she could get to him. And the way he devoured her told her more than any words could have.
This. Tonight. Being together. She would never forget feeling so close to Alec. Would never regret knowing just how sweet, how good, how powerful lovemaking could be when it was with the right person. Someone who liked her just the way she was. Someone who made her laugh, but also pushed her outside of her comfort zone when she needed that push the most.
The next thing she knew, her back was against the mattress and he was levered over her, her hands in his on either side of her head.
“Come for me, Cordelia. I need to see it. I need to feel it.”
And then he thrust so high, so deep, so perfectly inside of her that she couldn’t do anything but obey. Every part of her shattered, his name falling from her lips as she fell apart in his arms.
She’d never felt so wild, never been so free as she was with her legs wrapped around him and her mouth on his. “Alec.” She said his name between kisses, over and over. “Alec. Please.” She was as desperate for his release as she’d been for hers, for the moment when he would give her all of himself. “I need you.” Because it still wasn’t enough. Not yet. “Please.”
Between one heartbeat and the next, he was on his knees and lifting her hips up off the bed with his big hands to bring her closer. And as he slammed into her again and again and again, every last vestige of his restraint fell away.
She felt possessed.
She felt conquered.
She felt amazing.
Especially when, at the exact moment he called out her name, another climax hit her. As if they’d been practicing this dance for years, they moved in perfect rhythm together until they were both finally too spent to do anything but hold on to each other and try to catch their breath.
A while later, she lifted her face from where she’d buried it in the crook of his neck. “Sex with a friend is awesome.”
For a moment, he simply stared at her as if he didn’t know where he was. As though he couldn’t believe what they’d just done. Her breath held, caught, stuttered inside her chest. Until—thank God—his eyes cleared and his laughter came, rolling through from his chest to hers.
“What do you say we find out if sex with a friend is just as good in the shower?”
She was laughing too as he picked her up and carried her into the bathroom. Laughing and heating up all over, head to toe. Already desperate for more.