CHAPTER FOUR
Even though Nathan was anxious to be alone with Nicole, he drove just under the speed limit and kept the sight of her car in his rearview mirror at all times as she followed him to his house. He’d recently moved from a small apartment in the city to a neighborhood on the outskirts of Vegas, and Nicole was the first woman he’d ever brought to his new home. But somehow it felt right, and he didn’t regret offering his place as an option.
When he’d agreed to be part of the speed-dating event, he never would have anticipated that this was how the evening would end. It was a pleasant surprise, and while the Ramsey assignment was definitely in the back of his mind, there wasn’t anything he could do about the case tonight.
He intended to enjoy a few hours with Nicole—a mutual satisfying night of hot sex—and in the morning, they’d go their separate ways. They’d already established she wasn’t interested in anything serious, and neither was he. It was the perfect arrangement. They were two adults attracted to each other, and they were taking advantage of the chemistry between them. It was a straightforward, cut-and-dried situation, and exactly what he needed before he immersed himself in Preston Sloane’s sordid world.
Arriving at his house at the end of a cul-de-sac, he pulled his silver Audi Coupe into the garage and she parked in the driveway behind him. He got out of his car, noticed she was in her vehicle and on her cell phone, and waited for her to finish the call. Most likely, she was letting someone know where she was, just in case. Smart girl.
Less than a minute later she was walking toward him with a sultry smile on her lips—just for him. He held his hand out to her, and she placed her fingers against his palm and let him lead her inside the house, through the kitchen, and into the adjoining living room. He flipped a switch, and a lamp next to the leather sofa illuminated the area in a soft glow.
She looked around, taking in his basic furnishings, making him see the interior of the house through her eyes. “Sorry the place is so empty and sparse. I used to live in a small studio apartment and I’ve only had this house a few months. I haven’t had time to buy more furniture.” And he honestly didn’t need much.
Smiling, she set her purse on the long table situated in the entryway where he’d left his keys, then started back toward him, a playful glint in her eyes, along with a whole lot of heat. “All that matters is that there’s a bed somewhere.”
He liked the way she thought. “There is. I have a really nice four-poster king-sized bed with a pillow-top mattress.” A completely new mahogany bedroom set had been his only indulgence when he’d moved in, and now he was glad he’d splurged.
“I can’t wait to see it,” she said, but it was obvious by the single-minded way she tugged his shirt from his pants and pushed it up and over his head, right then and there, that she wasn’t in any big hurry to rush off to the bedroom.
Neither was he. They’d get there, in time.
He tossed the shirt aside and sucked in a sharp breath when she splayed her cool hands low on his abdomen, then slowly skimmed her palms upward, using her fingers to familiarize herself with the hard planes of his chest. Her soft hands felt amazing on his skin, and when her thumbs grazed his taut nipples, he couldn’t contain the groan that ripped from his throat.
His response seemed to set her off, too. She went in for a kiss, nipping at his bottom lip as her hands slid back down to the waistband of his trousers and started unbuckling his belt, her movements quick and impatient, as if she couldn’t wait to get to the main event. She was back to being the aggressive one, and at the rate she was going he knew that once she had his aching shaft in her hands this encounter was going to spiral into a hot, fast, no-frills coupling that would be over in minutes.
Normally, he wouldn’t complain, but there was so much about this woman he wanted to savor—with his hands, his mouth, and eventually, his entire body. For him, there was no rush. They had all night, and he planned to make the most of those hours together—and that meant taking charge of the situation before he was too far gone to think straight.
Grasping her wrists, he pulled her hands away from his belt and drew his head back, breaking the contact of her lips on his. She looked up at him in confusion, and he took advantage of her momentary bewilderment to guide her back a few steps, until he had her pressed up against the nearest wall and his thighs bracketed hers.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and he smiled at her as he straightened her arms back to her sides, then flattened her palms against the cool surface behind her. “Keep your hands against the wall, and no touching.”
She arched a brow, though her blue eyes had gone all dark and smoky at his command. “That hardly seems fair,” she murmured, but didn’t appear too upset at the role reversal.
He shrugged unapologetically. “My house, my rules,” he said as he trailed his fingers along the gentle swell of her hips and the indentation of her waist, tracing the lean lines of her figure through her dress. He couldn’t wait until she was naked and he could touch her bare skin and explore her sensual curves.
She blinked her lashes lazily, though the rise and fall of her breasts told him just how aroused she was. “And if I break them?”
Leaning into her, he brushed his lips against the shell of her ear. “There are consequences, of course.”
She shivered in excitement. “Ummm, that just might be worth being bad.”
He chuckled, amused by her feisty attitude. Lifting his hands, he threaded his fingers through the soft curls at the side of her face and met her velvet blue gaze. “Back at the restaurant, I let you have the first kiss. This one’s mine. And remember, no touching.”
He dipped his head and took her mouth in a soft, chaste kiss. She groaned in frustration, clearly wanting more, and he made her suffer a bit longer, because it was so much fun to do so. He licked her bottom lip, teasing her, and gently nibbled the soft bit of flesh with his teeth.
She whimpered, her lips automatically parting, tempting him to take what she was offering, and it was more than he could resist. With his hands entwined in the silky strands of her hair, he angled her head to the side, aligning their mouths for maximum pleasure, and deepened the contact. His tongue sank into the sweet, hot depths of her mouth, and he finally kissed her like he’d been dying to. In an instant, lust and need collided in a combustible combination of liquid heat and uncontrollable passion.
God, she was like an addictive drug he couldn’t get enough of.
Untangling his fingers from her hair, he dropped his hands to the zipper at the back of her dress, and she arched away from the wall so he could pull the tab all the way down to the base of her spine. When he was done, he ended their kiss and nuzzled the side of her neck, his mouth open and hot and damp on her skin as he dragged the sides of the dress down her arms, all the way to her waist, trapping her hands at her sides in the knot of fabric.
She gasped, the soft, shocked sound darting straight to his groin like a physical caress.
He inhaled a deep breath against her throat. She smelled warm and sweet and fragrant, and the scent only added fuel to his hunger for her. He wanted to taste her, everywhere, and he planned to start with the breasts he’d bared.
She hadn’t been wearing a bra—a pleasant surprise he’d discovered as he stripped away the top portion of her dress and felt those mounds graze his bare chest. He moved back just enough to look his fill of her. She was perfectly proportioned to her slender waist, her breasts small but firm, and as he watched her nipples puckered tight.
He didn’t hesitate to take one into his mouth, his lips pulling and sucking on the engorged tip while his tongue stroked and swirled and eventually soothed her taut flesh. She moaned and moved restlessly against him, and he felt her fingers gliding across his belly as she reached for his zipper once again. She tugged on the top snap, and his cock leapt to attention when her palm cupped the thick bulge straining the limits of his trousers.
Somehow, she’d managed to free her hands and was disobeying his order. For that, he bit down on the curve of her breast, just enough to create an erotic sting to remind her of his no-touching policy. She drew a sharp, startled breath and returned her hands to her sides, her palms pressed against the wall.
“You’re cruel and merciless.” Despite the pout on her lips, her eyes gleamed with arousal and a deeper, darker desire that told him just how much she liked him calling the shots.
Lucky for her, he was about to get more ruthless.
He shoved her dress over her hips, and when it slid down her legs and pooled at her feet she stepped out of the circle of fabric and kicked it aside. Unable to help himself, he eased back just far enough to take in the provocative view of her wearing nothing more than white lace bikini panties and a pair of strappy high heels that made her gorgeous legs look endlessly long.
With all those frothy blond curls tumbling around her shoulders and that lithe body wearing only sheer white panties, she looked like a wanton angel. And she was all his. Every inch of her. Reaching out, he slid his hands beneath her pretty breasts, cupping and gently squeezing the weight of them. He rubbed his thumbs across her nipples, and her head fell back against the wall, her lips parted, and the oh-so-sexy moan she sighed added to the slow burn in the pit of his belly.
He dropped his mouth over hers and kissed her again. Slowly, languidly, as he smoothed one of his hands down her flat stomach and into the waistband of those flimsy panties. This time he released a low, deep rumble of pleasure when he encountered the softest, hottest heat between her legs. She was so wet, so ready, and he didn’t hesitate to push one finger, then two, deep inside her.
She went wild, and he had to admit he did, too, his cock surging with sensory overload. She shuddered, hard, and then her hips were moving restlessly against his hand and the fingers invading her tight body as they stroked and thrust in the same seductive rhythm as his tongue sweeping through the dark recesses of her mouth.
He felt her naughty, rebellious hands again, this time splaying low on his back, her fingers digging into skin and muscle as she ground her hips urgently against his, seeking relief. The tantalizing gyrations pushed his fingers harder, faster, into the tight clasp of her sex, and he thought his head was going to explode.
With monumental effort, he broke the kiss and stilled his hand, waiting for her to understand the repercussions of her touching him. After a moment, she released a soft sob of frustration and let her arms fall back to her sides.
“Nathan,” she said, her voice a low rasp of sound. “I want you inside me. Please.”
He buried his face against her neck and trailed delicate, moist kisses up to the shell of her ear. “I am inside you,” he whispered, and to make sure there was no doubt in her mind, he stroked her slick inner walls with his fingers. “I can feel how snug and warm you are, how soft and aroused.”
She groaned and shook her head. “You’re driving me crazy.”
He chuckled, then pulled back so he could look into her bright blue eyes. “Yeah, maybe a little. But there’s no sense rushing a good thing.” He eased his fingers back out, then drove them deep again, watching as her breath quickened and her lashes fell half-mast. “I want to watch you come. I want to know what it’s going to feel like when you tighten around my cock when I’m pushed all the way to the hilt inside you.”
The image he must have created in her head had a rippling effect on her body. She shivered, the tips of her breasts piercing his chest, branding him, while lower, she clenched around his plundering fingers.
“Please,” she begged shamelessly.
Smiling like the devil, he continued to decimate her senses with a heated caress here and a leisurely stroke there. “You’re in way too much of a rush,” he murmured. “You’re going straight for satisfaction and bypassing all the good stuff in between. Don’t you know foreplay is the best part of sex?”
She laughed huskily, even as her hips continued to strain toward his enticing touch. “Yeah, I know that, but most guys aren’t so patient and generous.”
“Maybe you’ve been with the wrong kind of guys,” he suggested, and brought his thumb into play, sliding the pad through the weeping folds of her sex until he found what he sought. Her clit. And that’s where he next focused his attention.
She bit her bottom lip and moaned as he glided his thumb over the hard nub of flesh, using her own slick moisture to enhance the pleasure. “I think you’re right,” she said breathlessly.
“Of course I am,” he teased, then began in earnest to prove how right he was.
His mouth went back to work seducing hers, deeply and thoroughly and with infinite patience, while his fingers adopted the same slow, deliberate rhythm down below. He ignored the desperate, needy sounds she made, ignored her attempts to speed things up. Instead, he made her burn, inside and out. He gradually brought her to the breaking point, to that pinnacle where lust and desire meshed into the ultimate pleasure, then pushed her even higher, until she was unraveling, trembling. The strength of her orgasm completely consumed her, leaving her weak and spent and gasping for breath.
He gave her a few moments to recover, brushing his lips across her cheek and removing his hand from the incredible heat of her still-pulsing body. He was achingly hard, and it was all he could do to keep from taking her right there, up against the wall.
Her eyes opened languidly, and a content smile curved her kiss-swollen lips. “Oh. My. God. That was amazing.”
Her compliment stroked his male ego and made him want her even more. “And just think, we’re not done yet. Condoms are in the bedroom,” he said, leaving the next decision up to her.
She didn’t hesitate. “Lead the way.”
Taking her hand, he guided her down the hallway to his bedroom, where Nicole was quick to turn the tables and take control. This time, he let her, because he was done with the teasing and beyond eager to be inside her. She obviously wanted the same thing.
He pulled off his shoes and socks while she went to work getting him out of his pants, her mouth kissing him with a reckless hunger and passion that fired his blood like never before. As soon as his trousers and briefs were off, her hands were seemingly everywhere at once—caressing his chest, skimming down his abdomen, and then her fingers were circling his thick erection. She stroked the length of him in a firm grip, her thumb grazing over the sensitive head that was already seeping with moisture.
His hips automatically thrust against her palm, now slick from his own arousal. He groaned like a dying man, knowing he was going to lose it right there in her hand if she didn’t stop touching and fondling him.
He forced himself to step away long enough to grab a condom from the nightstand and quickly rolled it on while she kicked aside her heels and shimmied out of her panties. Without any further preliminaries, she pushed him down onto the mattress so he reclined along the pillows shoved up against the headboard, and then she straddled his lap. The dewy soft flesh between her thighs enticed the tip of his cock with the promise of ecstasy.
Holding his gaze, she lowered herself onto him, much too slow for his liking. Needing more, he curled his fingers around her waist, pulling her down with a firm tug as he pressed his way into her hot, silky depths. He shoved past the tight squeeze of her inner muscles until he could go no farther, until her head fell back, her spine arching. A small gasp of surprise escaped her parted lips as he filled her fully.
It didn’t take her long to adjust to his size, to take charge once again. Splaying her hands on his belly, she rolled her hips and rocked against him, a woman intent on stealing whatever satisfaction she could while making him insane with lust in the process. Even as she smiled down at him with such sweet, sensual longing, he recognized the on-top position as aggressive and dominant, keeping her the one in complete control. He wasn’t about to complain, not when this particular pose appealed to every one of his masculine senses. That, and he knew he wasn’t without power. Not only could he clearly watch every move she made and her changing expressions as she took her pleasure, but he could touch and caress her, everywhere.
And he did. He swept his hands over her breasts, palming the soft mounds, feeling the swell of her flesh and the rise of her nipples as he feathered his fingers across the rigid tips. With a soft, needy moan, she arched into his heated touch with an uninhibited thrust of her hips against his, the curve of her body drawing him in impossibly deeper, until using only his hands was no longer enough.
He craved more. Because of the pillows stuffed behind his back, he was sitting up rather than lying down, and the position enabled him to lean forward and put his mouth on her breast. His lips latched on to a stiff nipple, and he sucked, hard. She cried out, not from pain, but excitement. Her fingers threaded through his hair, tugging restlessly on the strands, her breath catching in her throat as he used his teeth on her, nipping her gently, then soothing the sweet ache with his tongue.
Panting now, she tightened her grip on his hair, yanked his head back, and took his mouth in a hot, wet, tongue-tangling kiss that made his cock pulse with the raw, primitive need to possess her completely. She moved on him like a bold and brazen siren, impulsive and unrestrained, seducing his body with the most erotic lap dance he’d ever had the pleasure of receiving. His hips rose to meet hers, each vigorous lunge burying his thick length deeper inside her, taking them both closer to release.
She groaned into his mouth, her writhing body clenching around his shaft, stroking him like a velvet fist as the first white-hot surges of her orgasm rippled through her. The muscles in his stomach and thighs tensed in response and he pumped into her harder, faster, driving her climax on until she was coming in deep, shuddering waves that triggered his own mindless surrender.
She collapsed on top of him, all warm and soft and pliant, and nestled her face against his neck, her breath hot and moist on his skin. He welcomed her slight weight, the crush of her breasts against his chest, the fragrant scent of her hair, and the touch of her damp lips on his throat. He massaged his hands up and down her naked back, and after a while she rolled off him with a contented sigh he felt solely responsible for.
She looked at him, all soft and sated, and he couldn’t help the arrogant male grin curving his lips. What he found more surprising was the need to keep her in his bed, rather than his usual compulsion to usher her out of it, as he normally did with the women he slept with. It was a novel sensation, and one he refused to examine too closely.
Instead, he shook those thoughts from his mind. He decided that for tonight, they still had a few more hours to enjoy each other until they parted ways in the morning, and he planned to do just that.