CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Cordelia was on overload. Again.
She’d felt overwhelmed so many times during the past week, but flying with Alec had stirred up something inside her that she hadn’t even realized was there. She’d always been happy in her small town, in her small garden, in her small family. But lifting off into a brilliant blue sky, flying over lakes and rivers and cities and parks and people in a historic aircraft suddenly made her see that there was more. More to explore, more to experience, more worth taking risks for.
She wanted Alec with a ferocity that blew even her desire from the previous night to smithereens. “I need you,” she whispered against his mouth. “I need you to take me. And I need to take you too.” She kissed him again, tightening her hold on him with her arms and legs. She couldn’t get enough of him. “Now.”
He began to move, walking with her toward what she prayed was a private space where they could be with each other again. She needed to celebrate with him. Rejoice over how he’d just opened her eyes to so much wonder that she was all but bursting with it.
But instead of taking them inside the small airport, he opened the door to a limousine and slid her into the backseat. “Thanks for picking us up,” Alec said to the man behind the wheel. “We’re headed to Watch Hill Beach.”
Though Westchester County was only two hours by car from Fire Island, Cordelia had never been here with her family. As though she’d been saving it for Alec. She tried to muster up excitement for their journey, but it was difficult when she’d been so hopeful that he’d find them somewhere private to devour each other.
Her thoughts stopped short as a dark divider began to slide up behind the driver. Alec hit a button on the ceiling marked SPEAKER. “My friend and I have a few things to discuss,” he told the driver, “so if you arrive before we’re done with our discussion, there’s no need to come back to open the doors for us. We’ll let you know when we’re ready to get out of the vehicle.” Alec let go of the button and turned to her. “He can’t see us now. And unless I hit this button again, he can’t hear us either.”
Her heart rate sped up as he prowled toward her, pushing her back against the seat so that she was lying flat across it and he was levered over her.
“Won’t he—” Her words temporarily deserted her as Alec began to undo one of the buttons at the front of the dress she’d worn for the press conference. God, she’d never wanted anything so much. Never wanted anyone so much. But she’d never had sex outside of a bed before either, except for their glorious romps in her shower and kitchen yesterday. “Won’t he still know what we’re doing?”
Though Alec lifted his eyes to her face, his fingers continued undoing buttons. “Yes.” He pushed aside the silky fabric of her dress so that her bra was fully on display. “How does that make you feel?” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the flesh that swelled over the cotton. “Does it bother you?” And then a kiss to the other. “Or does it excite you?”
Before Alec, she would have been sure of her answer. She would have been too embarrassed. Nervous about making too much noise or having the driver give her a knowing look when she got out of the vehicle. But with Alec, she could finally admit the truth.
“It excites me.”
The whispered words had barely fallen from her lips when he was crushing her mouth against his and all but tearing off her dress.
She’d thought she was desperate for him directly after the flight when she’d jumped into his arms. But that hunger had nothing on how ravenous she felt now. As though the only reason she could breathe, the only reason her heart could still beat, was because Alec’s arms were wrapped around her.
Her head was spinning from his kisses by the time he laid her across the seat, completely exposed to his mouth, his hands, his heated gaze. “Cordelia.” She loved the way he kept saying her name between kisses and fevered strokes of his hands over her curves. “Mine.”
She arched into his mouth at her breast, his hand between her thighs, pleasure already shooting her so high that she was teetering on the edge. And when he stroked her aroused flesh, then went deep with his fingers, the climax hit her so hard that she forgot they were in a limo with a driver mere feet away. Alec’s mouth covered hers and swallowed the sounds of her pleasure.
She’d never felt so wanton. So wicked. Until she came back to earth enough to realize that Alec was kissing his way down her breasts and over her belly, then shifting her so that he could gently push her thighs apart and settle his mouth between them.
As soon as he’d sent the divider window up, she’d known they were going to have sex in the limo. But as his tongue slipped and slid over her, as she gripped his shoulders and bucked her hips up into his mouth, as she begged him for moremoremore—she couldn’t help but wonder who the woman in the backseat was. Driven not only by lust, but also by the thrill of new experiences, one after the other. With the only man she could ever imagine trusting to show her this brave new world.
And then, every thought fell away as another climax crashed over her. Even bigger, even more beautiful than the previous one, it was a release unlike any she’d ever had before. Ecstasy that went on and on as he worshipped her body with his mouth, with his hands…and with the care he took to make every second in his arms even better than the blissful moments that had come before.
* * *
Alec tore at his clothes, knowing he was acting like a madman, but unable—unwilling—to stop himself.
He’d never felt this before, as though he were only halfway to whole, and the only way he could get all the way there was with Cordelia. As though he would only barely be holding on until that moment when they were finally together, as close as they could be.
He couldn’t get enough of her soft skin, the gorgeous sounds she made when he found just the right spots with his hands and mouth, the way she flushed and heated all over, head to toe, when she came apart beneath his hands and mouth. Satisfaction filled him at just how much she wanted him, but even when she was crying out his name and shattering with pleasure at his touch, it wasn’t enough. Didn’t come anywhere close to enough.
His heart pounding fast, his hands shook from his desperate need to touch, to possess, to claim, as he tossed away the last of his clothes. Rolling on protection, he knelt on the carpeted floor of the limo, wrapped her legs around his waist, then put his hands on her hips and thrust deep. So deep that both of them lost their breath.
And yet, even as he experienced more pleasure than he ever had before, something told him that even this might not be enough. To sate him. To satisfy him. To make it so that he wasn’t always wanting more of Cordelia.
Strong and lithe beneath him, she gave as good as she got, her strong limbs holding him tightly as their tongues danced, their mouths as hot and wet and greedy as the rest of them.
As skin slid against skin, his breath came fast and hard as pleasure rode up his spine. His lovemaking was wild, raw. But Cordelia was not only keeping up with him, she was urging him for more. Begging him to take her over the beautiful edge of bliss one more time.
They fell together, so lost to anything but each other that when the limo took the next corner, they went sliding off the seat and onto the floor. Lying there, their arms and legs tangled, Alec felt his lungs burn as though he’d just sprinted around a track. After a while, he realized the vehicle had not only come to a stop, but the engine appeared to have been shut off as well.
Rolling slightly so that Cordelia’s weight rested on him, he stroked her hair. “We made it.”
She laughed, her naked breasts bouncing against his chest as she said, “We certainly did.” She lifted her face to smile into his eyes. “That was better than amazing.” She gave a happy little sigh. “Better than the flight, even.”
He knew they should get up off the limo’s floor and put their clothes on. He’d never been one to linger in bed with a woman after the deed was done to everyone’s satisfaction, hating the thought of getting any more entangled with his temporary partner than he absolutely had to be.
But with Cordelia, it was exactly the opposite—the thought of pulling apart grated on him.
In the end, that was what finally had him drawing away. For both their sakes, they needed to keep things fun and friendly.
And nothing more.