Chapter Seven
How long had she been staring at the menu? Yet she still didn’t have a single clue what the cafe offered. The strand of pearls lay tucked against the most intimate part of her body, sweeping away every attempt at concentration. She’d been fine leaving the hotel, but the drive to Houston had given her a couple of hours to become overly sensitive. They’d stopped at a restaurant and found the only parking space available was down the block. They’d stood waiting for a couple of vehicles to go by, and she’d become overly aware of Rio’s brawny body next to her. She’d shot a glance in his direction and found him checking traffic. At least she thought so. Then his hand came down on her hip, his long fingers stroking her absently for a second before he urged her to step off the sidewalk.
Maybe the quick steps to the curb were to blame, or his overwhelming presence. But before they’d made it across the block, she’d discovered how much her hips swayed. She couldn’t really be shaking her ass so much, right? The light coat had flapped in the wind until she’d gripped the front closed to stop the incessant thrumming.
By the time they walked into the small-town cafe, every step, every move was a reminder of his talented fingers, or his tongue discovering every sensitive spot of her swollen sex. Even now, with her sitting still in the ancient booth, she couldn’t stop replaying an image of his shaft moving against her, teasing her sensitized pussy. Oh God. Now I’m using his words.
“Celeste?” Rio bumped her thigh.
Desire shot through every bit of her lady parts, sending a rumbling breath out her lips. She clutched the menu, glancing at Rio and a concerned waitress who stood by the table, a spiral tablet in hand.
Celeste pulled her mind back to the insert in their menu. “I’ll have the cheeseburger,” she croaked.
The waitress took note. “Fries or onion rings?”
Celeste cleared her throat. “That sounds good,” she said, not caring which option she’d get. The woman picked up the menus, assuring them the order would be “out in a few” before leaving them alone in their little corner.
Rio shifted, putting his arm over the back of the booth. The bench seat dipped and came back up as he settled in his new position. Everything inside her rippled with the move, then came clawing to the surface. Need and frustration crashed over her, forcing her thighs together. None of the intimate teasing came close to what it felt to have Rio’s mouth on her, but still, it was more attention than her pussy had ever enjoyed.
“Are you okay?”
She rolled her eyes to look at him, in part disbelief and part plea for understanding. His gaze inched down her face and body, then he leaned in beside her ear. His warm breath washed over her neck and shoulder, setting off a stampede of goose bumps down her arms and across her chest.
“Too much?” She ran her teeth over her bottom lip, nodding.
“I tried to get you naked.”
The groan was impossible to hold in when her mind filled with the image of Rio’s broad shoulders level with her hips. The dress hem inching up her bare leg until his smooth cheek warmed her inner thigh and he stroked her swollen folds. She nodded, cursing the lacy bra she wore with every breath. “Glad I didn’t wear the jeans after all.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple while strumming the back of his fingers under her breast. She arched into his hand, tilting her face to seek his kiss. But the chaste brush wasn’t enough to quell the rushing need. Leaning in, she nipped at his mouth, relishing the moment he thrust his tongue between her lips, claiming her. A deep sense of gratification flowed through her veins. This was what she’d sought. The taste of him was like a drug, satisfying a need in her she’d never experienced or imagined.
The heat of his palm on her leg broke through her fog. Fingers squeezing. Releasing. Scorching a maddening trail under her skirt then up her body. She parted her thighs, urging him closer to her throbbing center, needing him with an unabashed sense of desperation.
Rio broke the kiss, his breath escaping in a rush. She whimpered, wanting to drag him back for more. Much more. “I saw a place earlier,” he whispered, glancing over his shoulder at the other tables. “Come with me.”
She didn’t think to ask where, just followed him around the L-shaped building to the narrow hallway with the washrooms. He went straight to an unlatched door at the end of the hall, popping his head into the room before he led her in and shut the door.
Needing more contact, she dragged him down for a kiss, bringing her body flush against his hard planes. He obliged, grinding his hips into hers, then backed her to a pile of boxes. Wiggling, she tried to find the top of the stack without losing him. But Rio seemed determined to continue his teasing and pulled back. She clenched her jaw to keep from screaming her frustration. His face stayed inches from hers as he reached behind her, his biceps contracting as he moved a box up and out of the way. Oh God. Yes!
His gaze ran over her face, his features not giving anything away. Why the hesitation? He couldn’t have changed his mind now that he’d cleared a perch for her. Right? She set a questioning hand on his stomach, her fingertips landing on a hard, uneven ridge. Eyes widening, she couldn’t help but follow the progress along a well-defined set of abs. “Are you for real?” A sideways grin was his only answer.
“You ask,” he said, dropping a hand at her waist, “as I’m trying to figure out how to get you out of that damn dress without ripping something.” He cupped her breast, kneading her flesh while his heated gaze stayed focused on her mouth. His thumb played against the puckered tip, his mouth covering hers for a second to stifle her whimpers.
He pulled on the zipper at her back, the sides falling open with the continued rasp. Meanwhile, the edge of the stacked boxes shifted under her ass, tugging on the panel in her underwear. The pearls slid just a bit, unleashing pleasure that rippled through her body. Her lids drifted shut as she caught her lower lip between her teeth.
“Damn it, woman.”
Breath shuddering out, she drew a lazy pattern down his body to close her fingers around the long, thick, heated flesh at his fly. With his deep rumble echoing around them, she opened her eyes and admitted, “It’s the pearls.” Nothing she’d ever imagined Vix doing had given her the same rush of feminine power she got when he pushed his cock into her palm. Almost like he needed her as much as she needed him. “I keep thinking of you touching me.” Closing her hand, she ran her knuckles along the thick ridge, to show him what she’d suffered. “I wish I could make you understand what they’re doing to me.”
“Hmm, maybe you can,” he murmured.
Her eyes widened. The corner of her mind where she stored all the wanton scenes in the books she read flashed several possibilities. “Tell me.” She took his belt, pushing the end through the buckle.
His hands wrapped around her wrists, stopping her. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she breathed, managing to keep her jaw from dropping. She’d spread her thighs, inviting him to finger her while sitting in a cafe full of people. If that wasn’t putting her trust in the man, she couldn’t imagine what it took.
“Turn around and pull up your skirt.” Heart pounding, she shuffled around then clutched the material in front of her, not caring if she ended up a wrinkled mess. Guiding her forward, he brought her right leg on the stack of boxes, letting the dress fall away and cool air lick across her breasts. Deft fingers moved up her thighs to her hips. He hooked his thumbs in her panties and bared her to the edge of her bottom, in one quick sweep.
She lay there, covered in his shadow and little else. His lips pressed lightly at her shoulder, the base of her neck, then trailing up to her earlobe. Heart pounding, she waited for his next move, nearly weeping at the rasp of his zipper. “Put your hand on your pussy.” She released her skirt, sliding her spread fingers over her mons to find the narrow panel drenched in her own wetness. Is this how he’d found her yesterday? Her fingertips strummed along both sides of the maddening torture device.
The head of his cock pressed against her sensitive flesh, huge and hard, sending a jolt of pleasure through her body. He inched forward in a smooth, fluid motion, sliding up her inner folds. The wide shaft reached her fingers, stopping just shy of her swollen nub. With his heated skin against hers, she moaned, enjoying the way he invaded the space between her thighs so completely. He pulled back, and she adjusted her hand to hold the panel in place so the pearls would run along his shaft like her knuckles had. With the next thrust, he groaned his approval, pulling her against his chest and searching out her nipple under her bra.
He dragged his cock back and forth across the pearls, adding pressure with each thrust, while covering the side of her neck with his mouth. “I promise you, later I’ll be inside that beautiful pussy,” he rasped. “But I had to know how the pearls felt, and why they made you so wet.” Pushing aside the other bra cup, he stroked her breasts, kneading her mounds, fingering both nipples until her pulse whooshed with each pull. She shifted, the movement sending his cock over the bundle of nerves at her apex, and she shuddered. His fingers gently gripped her chin, turning her head so he could swallow her scream as he thrust hard, again and again. She flew over the edge, grinding against him while cupping her hand, having them both push his width across her folds.
The neighboring box filled with cans of prepared pasta sauce slammed against her side with his added weight, but she couldn’t think to utter a single protest. Being surrounded by him was an experience in itself. She’d never be able to look at spaghetti sauce without thinking of this moment. She’d have to find a way to thank him in kind.
A secretive smile played along her lips. Vix would never get over missing this experience.