Chapter Thirty-One
The fire crackled and popped as Heath added two more logs. The iron poker clanked in the rack, signaling he was done. Jenny’s eyes followed as he rose to his feet. He moved with grace and ease for such a large man, which was fascinating to watch. His fingers moved down the center row of buttons on his brown brushed leather vest. When he shrugged it off, he folded it neatly over the back of the chair in the corner. His hands returned to his neck and began to work on the pointed collar of his light tan cotton shirt.
“Darlin’?”
Her head came up, but her eyes remained on his long fingers as they bared his thickly muscled chest. Fully undone, the placket hung open while he worked at his cuffs. A moment later, he shrugged the shirt from his shoulders. She swallowed, her throat suddenly gone dry, her eyes adhering like glue to the rippling skin that undulated over the flexing, bunching muscles. Her fingertips tingled, tempted by the dusting of dark hair that formed a T on his chest.
“Jenny,” he called softly.
This time when her eyes came up, they met the brown orbs that gleamed in the firelight. The twitch of his lips and the crinkling lines at the corner of his eyes snapped her back to awareness. Unaware how, but as if of its own accord, her hand was raised, fingers reaching toward him. She snatched it back.
“Yes—” she began, but stopped as the word came out in a croak. Licking her lips, she turned away to retrieve her nightgown from under her pillow.
“It’s all right.”
She shook out the gown, trying to ignore his pull. “What is?”
“That you enjoy watching me, taking pleasure in my naked body.” His voice seemed much closer. Turning, she found him directly in front of her, nearly touching. Reflexively, she took a step back, right into the bed rail. At the back of her knees, it knocked her off balance. Before she fell, his hands grasped her waist, steadying her. A clink of his belt buckle had her glancing down. He had loosened his belt and opened his fly. She licked her dry lips slowly. He was noticeably aroused.
“I get pleasure from looking at you,” he whispered, leaning in. “Touching you and feeling your soft body pressed against mine does that too.” He inhaled. “Your fragrance is addicting, sweet like perfume, but unlike any I’ve ever smelled before.”
“I don’t wear perfume,” she breathed.
“I know. It’s your natural scent, deliciously sweet like no other. That’s what I find so compelling.”
She tilted her head back, meeting his gaze.
“Feel free to look and touch all you like, darlin’. I crave your eyes on me, your hands on my skin, as much as you do. There’s nothing wrong with any of that.” He tugged the crumpled gown from her grasp and tossed it aside. “You won’t be needing this tonight.”
“I can’t sleep without a gown,” she whispered.
His lips tipped upward. “Don’t see why not. But if it makes you feel better, we won’t be doing much sleeping.” His hands quickly divested her of her clothing, tossing them aside to join the discarded gown on the floor. He nudged her backward, guiding her onto the bed. She gasped as he lifted one leg straight up and flipped off her shoe, leaving her foot resting flat on his chest. He did the same with the other leg, her stockings the only remaining barrier.
As he leaned forward, her knees bent toward her chest and her thighs parted. He didn’t stop until his trousers brushed her behind. Her legs gaped, spread wide open with all of her intimate secrets on full display should he care to look. Of course, he did. His eyes dipped, and her body tingled as he looked his fill.
“Heath,” she breathed.
As she met his burning gaze, the heat in the room was nearly unbearable. Was it Heath rousing her, or the blaze in the hearth? She licked her dry lips again, as his eyes followed and lingered on her mouth. Kneeling on the bed, his shoulders spread her legs wider, lifting her hips in the air. His hands cupped handfuls of her bottom as he lowered his dark head and settled his mouth against her, his tongue licking between the seam of her lower lips. The sensation was electrifying. She didn’t think it could be better until his tongue dove inside, taking possession of her intimately, driving into her already aching and needy passage. She released what breath she had left in a groan.
“Never have I tasted such sweetness,” he murmured, as he lowered his mouth to lick into her over and over.
Before long, her fingers wove into his hair, pulling him into her while pressing against his mouth at the same time. When his thumbs parted her, his tongue tunneling inside, swirling and lapping at her aching flesh, she couldn’t take it anymore and came apart. Her fingers curled into his hair as she cried out her passion and convulsed around him.
He lifted his head, his chin resting on her titian curls as he looked up at her, grinning. “We’ll have to work on your endurance, darlin’. That was over much too soon.”
“Oh, dear heavens above,” Jenny exclaimed between gasping breaths. Nothing felt as good as his mouth on her there, except when he plunged deep inside or kissed her until she was dizzy with lust, or touched her just about anywhere. She couldn’t deny the man made her giddy with want.
“I think I’m ready for seconds, right about now.” His chin dipped down and nudged the bud he’d made sensitive with his tongue, and if she wasn’t mistaken, his teeth at the very end. He rubbed back and forth, his day’s growth of whiskers lightly abrading her tender flesh. Her insides clenched as desire sprung anew, her breath escaping in a stuttering groan as her body shuddered.
“Mmmm.” His lips vibrated as he hummed his approval. “You’re gushing for me, darlin’, your nectar as tasty as wild honey.” His tongue returned and licked slowly, swirling around the entrance before gliding in deep.
“Heath!” she cried out, unable to say more.
He raised up suddenly, enough to shuck his pants in seconds. Settling his hips between her splayed thighs, he slid the head of his shaft along her slit, his head bent to watch. “I can’t wait to feel your sweet cunt tighten all around me.”
Although her face flamed at his crude speech, her body responded hungrily. His mouth had felt glorious, but she needed his hardness inside her, filling her. Bold words rose to her lips, but she held them back, so unlike her. When his head lowered to her breast and his mouth began to tease, without making any move to claim her below, a surge of braveness flowed through her. “Stop toying with me. You’re driving me insane. I need you to come inside me now, Heath. Please.”
His head tilted up and he stared, before a slow grin stretched across his lips. “You want me to get down to business, darlin’?”
“Yes.”
“How do you want it? Fast and wild? Slow and sweet?” Putting action to words, he stroked between her thighs. Applying exquisite pressure with the length of his shaft, he dove quickly on the down stroke, dragging with unhurried patience upon his return. Never did he penetrate, only gliding outside her wet wanting flesh.
“Yes,” she rasped, “please.”
He chuckled softly at her non-answer. “You are right, of course, either way I’ll have you screaming with pleasure. But I think you want it hard.”
She gasped, her head arching back on another down stroke.
“And a little rough.”
Her mouth opened, but nothing came out, rendered speechless. She did want it rough, as well as hard and fast, and wild and sweet. She wanted all of it, and she wanted it now. Her eyes tipped to his.
“Answer me,” he demanded, a wicked grin gracing his handsome face. “You want it raw, don’t you, darlin’?” He bent his head closer, his eyes locked on hers as he declared in a low but very clear rumble, “You want to fuck.”
Too far gone to be offended, or startled by his vulgarity, she nodded. When she spoke it was breathy, broken up by the quick rise and fall of her chest. “Anything—anyway—just please, do it now.”
He moved back and ordered, “On your hands and knees, love, and spread wide.”
His words were clear as crystal, but she could barely process them. The image of her bottom pointed high in the air, her thighs spread, exposing everything, revolved in her mind, so erotic it knocked her off kilter. Her thoughts became more jumbled when he flipped her, his strong hands easily sending her to her belly. The next moment, she was on all fours as he guided her hips backward.
Heath’s hand came down lightly with a tingling smack on her bottom, so sudden it made her squeal. “Are you with me, love?”
Desire, like electricity shot through her body, seeming to crackle along her skin. Her nipples tightened and the liquid heat, now so familiar with their intimacy, began to gather. Another swat connected, followed by five or six more. She was on fire, not from the spanking, although that contributed, but she burned with need, so intense that she responded with wanton abandon, arching her back and tilting her hips, her cunt, as he’d called it, open and yielding all. Groaning, her hands searched for something to hold onto. One found a pillow, which she latched onto as she began to rock backward.
She needed him now. It was as plain as that; her body from waist to mid-thigh had become a raging inferno of want and desire, and she felt if he didn’t do something to extinguish it soon, she’d combust, leaving only cinders.
“Please…” she cried, “come into me now.”
She was begging, but she didn’t have to. Before the plea had escaped her lips, he plunged into her. Filling and stretching her, he began to move slowly, surging in and out with such powerful strokes that her hands twisted in the pillow, trying to hold on. Each pounding entry shoved her a fraction farther up the bed. Abandoning the useless bag of down, she reached up to brace herself on the headboard, her fingers curling around the spindles.
The sound of their flesh smacking together rose loud in the room, their cries of pleasure raspy, their breathing harsh. It was rough and she loved it. She felt the tension building inside as they moved together in an act of pure instinct, racing toward a mutually fulfilling and much-anticipated release. Jenny worked for it, pushing back, meeting his hips, canting them desperately to receive every inch of him, and still wanting more. The next instant, a guttural scream rushed out as she shattered.
Heath continued on, driving inside her, deep into her tingling flesh while it quivered and squeezed around him. She hung on, in both body and mind as he slammed inexorably inside her, his fingers curled into her hips anchoring her, his thumbs pressed into her soft behind. One slid between her cheeks and pressed along her other hole, rubbing and dipping inside, but only a bit. It was unthinkable, the act so taboo, that it titillated enough to re-fire the embers of the want that always seemed to smolder beneath the surface. An image flooded her mind, of him taking her there, his shaft entering that forbidden place and fucking her.
The mere thought of that vulgar word, combined with the image of the naughty act itself, hurled her toward another climax. Her body reacted violently, clamping down hard on his driving length as well as the sinfully wicked thumb in her bottom. Heath slid it in deeper, all the way in, until the feeling of fullness overcame her and she found release once again.
Jenny felt him thrust home one last time. He shuddered, letting out a rough, uneven groan as he spilled deep inside her. Breathing rapidly, he paused a moment before easing his thumb out. Gripping her hips with firm pressure, he held her there, still deep inside. An unnecessary measure because she didn’t want him to move anyway. The feel of him embedded inside her, filling her while stock-still, sent another wave of quivering pleasure through her. With a moan, he collapsed atop her, rolling them quickly to their sides.
She managed a smile. Even in his lust, which judging from his reaction had been as intense as her own, he considered her comfort.
Neither stirred until a long time later, when their breathing had quieted and their skin had begun to cool. Heath moved first, covering them, and moving them up onto the pillows. His voice came gently into her ear. “How was that for seconds?”
“Mm, it was like seconds and thirds, with dessert rolled into one.”
“You liked it rough.” She could feel his smile where his mouth was pressed into her neck.
“I did,” she admitted, smiling too.
“You also liked it dirty, me talking dirty and my thumb in your bottom. Next time, it will be my cock. How does that sound?”
She squirmed uncomfortably, burying her face in her pillow, not nearly as brave or as bold with the height of passion receded.
“Aw, sweetheart, don’t be shy. This is play, which is something wonderful a husband and wife can share. You enjoyed it as much as I did. Admit it.”
“I did, Heath. It was decadent and deliciously wonderful—almost as good as lemon chiffon cake.”
Crying foul for her likening his sensual skills to that of mere cake, he rolled them, her back to his chest, where he tickled her mercilessly. When she was laughing, shouting flowery compliments praising his virility between gasps for breath, and tears were rolling down her face, only then did Heath yield to her pleas to stop. Rolling them back to their sides, he situated them for sleep, tucking the covers snugly around them.
As she closed her eyes, heaving a deep sigh of contentment, she sank into his body and strong, enveloping arms. A smile curved her lips as he whispered, “I love you, my adventurous little imp.”
“I love you too, so much.” Her hand moved to his arm and slid down until she found his fingers, weaving them together and bringing his hand to her lips for a kiss. “Not long ago, I was stuck in a nightmare. If anyone asked me then, I’d have said I’d never smile again. You’ve brought laughter and smiles back into my life, Heath. I thank you for that and for everything you’ve done. I never thought I could be this happy.”
His arms tightened, his only response for a long time. When he spoke, his words rang with emotion. “Sleep,” he rasped, “and find only sweet dreams. If I have anything to say about it, your nightmares are a thing of the past.”