Chapter Three

Go home with him? The idea took her breath away.

It wasn’t like her to be so spontaneous. She’d slept with a fair number of men, but never so quickly. And yet…she felt oddly safe with Reece, and there was that strange sense of familiarity about him. Maybe it was some sort of wishful thinking on her part because she’d been feeling lonely lately, with the holidays coming, or maybe it was simply the taut pull of insane attraction. She couldn’t explain it, the intensity of it, but she was tired of questioning her motives. Maybe, for once, she would loosen up and go where her instincts led her, rather than trying to rationalize everything.

“Yes. I’ll come with you. Yes.”

Smiling, his dimples flashing, he took her hand, his big fingers wrapping hers up in a warm grip. Together, they ran the three blocks through the downpour. They were both soaked to the skin by the time they reached Reece’s house, a small, low-built Mediterranean style surrounded by a stucco wall. He opened the cast-iron gate and they slipped inside, passing through a terra cotta tiled courtyard edged in ornamental grasses and enormous pots overflowing with rosemary. A blooming bougainvillea climbed one wall, its coral-colored blossoms making a bright carpet on the ground. Destiny loved the place immediately.

Reece guided her up a few steps to a pair of French doors and led her inside.

“Wait here. I’ll get towels.”

He disappeared through an archway to their left, leaving her in the tiled foyer. The living room lay beyond another archway, and an expanse of dark gleaming hardwood showed in the dimming light filtering through another pair of French doors that appeared to lead to a garden at the back of the house. The furnishings were heavy, masculine pieces with ethnic accents here and there: a Balinese mask, Moroccan rugs, Mexican pottery. She melted inside looking at it all. This place looked like her dream house come to life. One she could well afford, but refused to buy just for herself. Instead, she’d furnished her apartment with similar pieces she’d found at import stores and on some of her travels. How odd that he should be interested in the same sort of things.

Odd, and yet, not odd at all.

Reece returned with a large, cream-colored towel. Wrapping it around her shoulders, he rubbed her arms with the soft terry cloth.

She warmed immediately, despite the fact that she’d been shivering only moments before. The second he touched her, every tender spot on her body heated as though a furnace had been lit deep inside her.

God, she needed his hands on her skin.

As though reading her mind, he dropped the towel. She looked up, into those endlessly deep blue eyes, and saw naked desire there. He burned just as she did—she could feel it, could almost feel the press of his big body even though he was several inches away.

“Reece…”

His brows drew together. “I know. I don’t know what this is but…I know.”

He leaned in closer, until his mouth closed over hers, his kiss going through her like an erotic shock. His lips were warm, so warm and sweet. And when he parted them and drove his tongue into her mouth, pleasure drove in with it, spearing deep into her body. A long shudder went through her, and her legs went weak. But he held her tight, crushed against him. She could feel every taut muscle in his body, his heart hammering in his muscular chest, pounding against her breasts, making her nipples harden.

He deepened the kiss, and she closed her eyes. Again that flood of images in her mind: the bed, the softly diffused golden light, and somehow she knew his bedroom would look just like that.

But his hands roaming her body distracted her. He was kissing her hard, their mouths fused together, tongues twining. Primal. Animalistic. He gave her no time to think about it as he pushed her up hard against the door.

She could feel the planes of his chest, and God, his erection pressing into her thigh, big, warm, pulsing. She’d never wanted anything so desperately in her life. Yes, desperate for him.

Need you now.

Tearing his mouth from hers, he bent over her neck and left a trail of kisses, burning her flesh.

“Reece, I have to…let me…” She was panting as she fumbled to undo the buttons of his shirt.

“Here, darlin’.” In moments he slipped his shirt from his shoulders and she took in the smooth expanse of his wide, muscled chest.

Oh, yes, Superman indeed.

His skin was a light gold, as though he’d recently been in the sun. His nipples were brown and hard, with a bit of dark hair sprinkled between and around them. When she ran her fingers over the tips, he groaned.

He pulled her sweater off in an instant and then very quickly her bra, his hands like heated silk on her bare flesh, making her body arch into his touch. He stood back for a moment, watching her, exploring her body, her face, with his blue, blue eyes. Her nipples went harder beneath his searching gaze.

“Ah, so beautiful,” he murmured, his accent thicker, his tone reverent. “You look like… I don’t know how to put it into words. But I know your body, as though I’ve touched you before. Maybe I have, if only in my dreams. But this is no dream.”

“Touch me, Reece. Please.”

Then he was on her, his big hands cupping her breasts. She surged into him, into the pleasure of his touch, his smooth palms. She gasped when he thumbed her nipples, the sensation straight to her sex, making her ache.

It was even better when he snaked one hand down and cupped her mound through her jeans. Almost too much. She was trembling with need.

She could not get the misty image of the bed out of her mind. His bed. Their naked bodies pressed together. Reece fucking her…

“Please, Reece.”

“All right, that’s enough of these damn clothes.” His voice was a ragged growl.

He unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, then yanked them down. The wet denim stuck to her trembling thighs, but he gave another good tug and slid the jeans down her legs, her lace panties coming with them.

Yes, to be naked in front of him. Open to his touch, thighs spread for him.

His pants were gone just as quickly. His erect cock sprouted from a nest of dark curls, the silky head already glistening with pre-come. Her mouth watered.

Then he was on her again, sliding to his knees on the floor, kissing her stomach. Holding on to her hips in a tight grasp, he pressed her back against the door again. And then he put his mouth on her.

There was nothing gentle or exploratory about his mouth. He dove right into her, licking her swollen pussy lips, lowering his hands to spread them wide, opening her up to his hot, invading tongue as he plunged into her. She trembled all over, her body shivering with pleasure. Waves of it, hot and hard, driving into her along with his wet tongue. She could come at any moment.

“God, yes, Reece!”

Then he swept his tongue upward, licking across her clit, and a shock lanced through her, pure ecstasy. He sucked the swollen nub of her clitoris into his mouth and sensation drove through her body. He worked her with his mouth: lips, teeth and tongue. Licking and sucking, harder and harder. And she came, a stabbing pleasure so sharp she shook with the force of it.

She was moaning, shivering, coming harder than she ever had in her life. And just when the tremors began to subside, he pushed his fingers into her, curving them until he caught her G-spot with his fingertips, and suddenly she was coming again—all over his fingers and his hot, sucking, beautiful mouth.

Before the last ripples of orgasm had left her body, he rose to his feet and pressed against her once more.

She ran her hands over his shoulders, across his wide back, before trailing one down to fill her palm with the rigid length of his cock. Oh yes, he was big, his cock a solid shaft of velvet in her hand. She could feel the blood, the desire, pulsing beneath his flesh.

“Lord, you feel good, Destiny. As good as you taste, and you taste like fucking heaven.” He groaned when she tightened her grip. “Condom, damn it.”

He swept her into his arms, carrying her though the house as though she were no larger than a doll, and even that embrace felt familiar to her.

This is where I belong.

But she was just overwhelmed by the sexual connection. Yes, that was it. Wasn’t it? She couldn’t think, desire still raging through her body.

He kicked open a door, and she wasn’t surprised to find herself being laid on a big bed in a half-darkened room. A room lit by the golden glow of an amber-tinted glass lamp on the nightstand.

Leaning over her, he kissed her lips, her cheek, trailing down her neck to draw one stiff nipple into his mouth. She arched off the bed, wanting more of him, pushing into his mouth. He swirled his tongue over the rigid peak and pleasure was electric, shocking, making her need to come again. When he began to suck she thought she would, from nothing more than his hot, wet mouth on her breast.

Reaching down to grasp his cock in her hand, she stroked the long, hard shaft, and her own sensations intensified, spiraled.

He moaned, sucking harder before letting her nipple go to rasp out, “If you keep doing that, my darlin’, I’ll come right now in your hot little hand. Not that I wouldn’t love to. But I need to be inside you. And I want you to come again for me first.”

He slid his hand between her thighs. Two fingers pressed into her while he used his thumb to stroke her clit. He went back to work with his mouth again, licking her nipples, first one, then the other.

It was almost too much—his mouth on her, his clever fingers working her clit, pushing deep inside her. Sensation overload, but she loved it. She wrapped her hand once more around his thick, pulsing cock, like satin-sheathed steel in her palm. Writhing beneath him, she knew she was going to come again any moment. She wanted him to come with her. Wanted to feel the power of his cock in her hand, the power of making him come.

Yes…

She grasped his heavy shaft, stroking hard and fast, and his hand matched hers in speed and rhythm until there was no difference between his hand and hers, between his throbbing cock and her own body. A strange sensation, something new, but she could hardly think about it. His fingers drove in and out of her, his thumb pressed onto her clitoris, and she exploded.

Hot shards of pleasure knifed into her, and sensation was intense—nearly hurting, but so good at the same time. She called his name, exactly as she’d imagined earlier, over and over. And then he was coming, too, his fire-hot come spurting through her fingers, onto her stomach, like liquid silk on her skin.

“Ah, God, Destiny!”

He fell onto her with a groan. She still shook with the aftermath of her climax, weak and spent, but suffused with a pleasure she’d never known. And a strangely impossible sense of rightness she couldn’t understand. There was something so right about his skin next to hers, the rough cadence of his panting breath, the smell of him, of sex.

It didn’t take long for Reece to recover. While Destiny lay bathed in the languid glow of three earth-shattering orgasms, he propped himself up on one elbow, grinning down at her while he wiped her stomach with a corner of the sheet, then pulled it off and tossed it onto the floor.

“I’ll have to ask your forgiveness. I don’t usually come like a teenage boy in a woman’s hand.” His dark hair was mussed. The man was so damn sexy she could hardly stand it.

“Nothing to apologize for. I wanted you to.”

Oh yes, she had wanted him to come. Needed him to.

“This time we’ll do it right.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Already? You must be joking.”

“Sex is no laughing matter to an Irishman, darlin’.” His accent seemed more pronounced than ever. “But I intend to make you come again, with my hands or my mouth or both—whatever will make it happen, beautiful Destiny—and by that time I’ll be good and ready.”

“I’m not sure I can…”

“Not to worry, I’ll help.”

She laughed. “I’m sure you will.”

“Let’s start here.”

He drew a few fingers languorously up the inside of her thigh, and she could swear she felt him tremble beside her. Or was that her own body shivering?

“I’d like to taste you again, but I want to watch you come even more. I want to make you come with my hand and watch your lovely face. I’ll bet you’re soaking wet for me after coming so hard, so beautifully.”

He was right—she was soaked. Wanting. Needing. She could hardly believe she could still want more. But she did. The more he touched her, the more she needed him to touch her. What was it about this man? She couldn’t get enough.

And she knew this time he would fuck her.

God.

She could imagine his thick cock entering her body, ramming her hard. She could almost feel it already. But it was just his fingers sliding into her wet cleft, pushing inside.

“Yes, I’m wet. Needing you again.”

So good. So damn good. She bucked against his probing fingers as pleasure shot through her system, numbing her mind.

“Yeah, you like that, don’t you, darlin’?” he said quietly, his lips close to her ear. She could feel his breath, warm and sweet, on her cheek. “You’re soaking wet. Ready for me. You’ll come fast—I can feel it building already, and you’re so close to that edge, your lovely pussy tightening around my hand. Especially if I do this.”

He shifted until he knelt over her, so he could use both hands on her. And with one hand still pumping his fingers inside her, he used the other to roll her clit between finger and thumb. It was electric, roaring white heat that centered in her aching pussy and spread, into her belly, her breasts.

Her hips moved in time with his hands, pumping, taking his fingers deeper. The first wave of climax bore down on her, but she didn’t want it to end too quickly. She bit her lip, tried to hold back.

“Come on, Destiny. Come for me.”

“It’s too fast. I want…I want it to last. I need more.”

“Just come for me now, Destiny. Come hard. And then I’ll fuck you until you come again.”

“Oh God, yes!”

She let the waves overtake her as he worked her clit, as he gave it a hard pinch that sent her plummeting over the edge. She yelled his name as she shattered, broke apart in a splintering kaleidoscope of heat and sensation.

And while she still shivered with the receding waves, he sheathed himself with a condom and pressed his cock against her opening.

“You ready, beautiful?”

“Yes. I need you. Please, Reece. Don’t make me wait.”

He pressed the tip against her, then angled his hips, and slipped inside. His cock was so thick, her still-clenching pussy could barely accommodate him. But in a moment he pushed into her slick juices, filling her completely—in a way she’d never been filled before, as if it were more than only his flesh inside her.

You are totally losing it.

“Ah, Reece. This is…oh, that’s so good.”

She wrapped her legs around him and her mind and her body exploded. His beautiful flesh was snug inside her body, and it was as if it were her flesh, somehow—his and her own, all at the same time. The sensation was doubled, almost unbearable, pleasure upon pleasure, his and hers. He pumped into her, and she felt the sensation of a cock being sheathed in velvet tightness. His cock, as though she were inside his body, experiencing what he was experiencing.

What was this?

Reece pushed himself up onto his arms, holding himself over her, looking down into her face. And she saw herself—saw herself through his eyes!

Impossible!

But there she was, her red hair a wild mass of curls, her green eyes wide with shock, her face and neck flushed. Her lower lip was trembling.

Impossible, impossible!

Her mind was screaming. But it was a full minute before she could respond. Everything had been too good until that moment, too perfect. But this was…bizarre. Terrifying.

Get out!

She had to get out of there. Now.

She tried to push him off her.

“Reece, please. You have to stop!”

As he pulled out of her body she felt that dual sensation of pussy and cock. And as incredible as it felt, it scared the hell out of her.

She had to go.

“Destiny. Did I hurt you? My God, I’m sorry.”

She could hear the confusion in his voice. Well, she was damn confused, too. How could she feel what he felt? See what he saw? She flashed back to her earlier images of his bedroom, that intense sense of familiarity that had allowed her to abandon her usually cautious self to have sex with a stranger.

Except he’s not a stranger.

“This is…too strange. I can’t. I’m sorry.”

She got up and bolted through the dark house, into the front hall, and threw her damp clothes on as quickly as she could. Her heart was thundering as she yanked her purse off the floor. Her lipstick clattered out onto the hardwood, followed by her hairbrush and her wallet. Her mind spinning, she gathered them in clumsy hands and stuffed them back into her bag.

“Destiny, please don’t go.”

Reece appeared behind her. He tried to wrap an arm around her shoulder, but she shook him off.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m leaving. Now.”

Hurt clouded his blue eyes, but he didn’t try to stop her. He was standing in the entryway, naked and beautiful, when she glanced over her shoulder one last time. She ran out the front door, into the night and the storm, a whisper of lilacs following her.