After the Storm (All I've Ever Needed) (11 page)

He loved the way she responded to the simplest caress.
 
He didn’t know how many past lovers she’d had but he felt almost as though he was making love to a virgin.
 
She stroked his shoulders softly but did nothing to arouse him.
 
He was used to sexually-mature women who gave as much pleasure as they got and though he had enjoyed that very much, there was something special about the novelty of having a woman who allowed him to take the lead and didn’t challenge for control.

 
She gasped as he used his teeth and lips to nibble and tug on the erect points of one
 
breast and then the other.
 
He could do it all night, he thought, just to hear her throaty moans and feel her fingers digging into his shoulders.
 
Pulling the flesh deep into his mouth he gave it one last long suckle and then slowly let it go.

“No!” she protested, cupping the back of his head and trying to keep him in place.

He resisted and made his way downwards, dipping his tongue into the hollow of her navel and continuing southwards.
 
He slipped the V of her thong aside and found her neatly trimmed but not shaved, and was surprised how arousing he found the sight.
 
That was the odd thing about sexual desire, he’d discovered, it was more aroused by difference than it was to familiarity.
 
Every woman he’d slept with in the last eight years had been totally shaven.
 
Being Brazilian, Renata had been particularly obsessed about being totally hair free at all times.

Natalie wriggled and made a soft sound of embarrassment and he realized that he’d been staring at her.

Lowering his head he gently flicked his tongue against her clit.
 
She reacted as though she’d received an electric shock, gasping aloud and trying to close her legs.

Stephano smiled and settled himself more comfortably between her thighs.

***

Natalie tried to be silent but couldn’t help the little hissing noises that escaped her lips.
 
The pleasure was so intense it bordered on pain.
 
She wanted him to stop…she wanted him to go on forever.
 
Michael had done this once, the first time they’d had sex, but it had been brief and his tongue hadn’t been as talented.
 
And no, he hadn’t slipped it up inside her…

“Stop!”
 
She reached downwards and grasped a handful of Stephano’s hair, trying to dislodge him.

It he didn’t stop this instant she would…

Too late!

Her body convulsed as her orgasm exploded through her.
 
She grasped handfuls of the duvet as her back arched off the bed and her toes curled painfully.

“Stop!” she begged weakly as Stephano continued to softly arouse her.

It was too much!

He gave her one last soft kiss and stood up to ease the thong down her legs.

“Get under the duvet,” he told her as he stripped his dark blue boxers off.

She slipped under the covers and watched as he retrieved his trousers and quickly slid a condom onto his rigid length.
 

“This time I’m prepared,” he murmured against her lips as he joined her, slipping his leg between hers and reaching down to caress her softly.
 
He slid two fingers inside her and groaned, “God, you’re so tight,
cara mia
.”

Natalie buried her face against his neck as he continued to gently stretch her.
 
She was aware that she wasn’t doing much, but Michael had furious with her the one time she had tightened her hand around him while she was stroking him and made him come prematurely.
 
She ran her hand over Stephano’s chest and felt his small nipple tighten at her caress.
 

“Yes touch me, sweetheart,” he groaned.

Encouraged by his response she ran her hand down the ripples of his washboard stomach and over his soft pubic hair.
 
After a momentary hesitation, she closed her hand softly around his erection.
 
It surged into further hardness and she almost let it go it surprise.
 
She ran her fingers up and down its length slowly, marveling that she could feel its smoothness and hardness even through the latex.

“Yes.
 
Yes,” Stephano groaned and thrust himself slightly back and forth, as she unconsciously increased the speed of her caressing hand.

Turning onto his back, he pulled her on top of him and asked, “Do you want to take control this time?”

Take control?
 
In what way?

“Why?” she asked, hoping that he would elaborate.

“I don’t want to hurt you like the last time,
cara
.”

“You won’t,” she assured him, hoping that she was right.
 
It hadn’t been that bad the first time really—just unexpected.

“You do it, sweetheart.”

“Do what?”

“Join us,” he answered.

He held her gaze as she sat up and reached downwards, grasped hold of him and placed him at her entrance.
 
Holding her hips firmly he guided her softly down onto him.

She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip as he filled her.

“Do you want me to stop,
cara
?”

She opened her eyes and found him looking up at her in concern.

“No,” she replied hastily. “It feels good!”

With a triumphant laugh, Stephano held her against him and quickly reversed their positions.
 
He clasped her hands and held them against the bed above her head as he surged inside her.
 
He watched her eyes widen first in surprise and then pleasure as he started to thrust.

He leaned down and kissed her deeply as she brought her long legs up and wrapped them around his hips.
 
He kept his pace even, not going as hard or as deep as he would have liked.
 
But this was just the beginning of a night of lovemaking he hoped.

He bent his head and took Natalie’s left nipple between his lips and she suddenly started circling her waist, moving her groin in counterpoint to his.

Stephano felt his control instantly slip.
 
He gritted his teeth and tried to hold his orgasm back, but let go when he realized that Natalie was there before him, gasping his name and arching under him.
 
With two fast, deep thrusts, he spilled himself into the condom.

***

A tiny sliver of sunlight filtered through a gap in her heavy bedroom drapes as Natalie woke up spooned by Stephano.
 
His arm was heavy around her waist and she felt so happy it brought instant tears to her eyes.
 
She had never woken up with Michael in bed with her.
 
He’d said that he wasn’t used to sharing a bed and couldn’t sleep with someone next to him.
 
She’d believed him and hadn’t known what she’d missed until this moment.

Sex with Michael had been okay, with nothing to compare to; with Stephano it had felt the way it was described in romance novels.
 
Stephano had acted as though his only thought was pleasing her.

She and Stephano had talked and made love, talked some more and then made love again before he’d fallen asleep.

She had wanted to ask him about the other woman a thousand times, but hadn’t wanted the perfection of the night of happiness she’d decided to grab for herself.
 
If he told her the truth about the woman, it would hurt too much.
 
If he lied, it would hurt even more.

Long after he had fallen asleep, she had lain in the darkness, wrapped in his muscular arms, breathing in his familiar scent, listening to the sound of his breathing and crying because her heart was breaking.

She wished she could accept what he was able to offer her.

She had tried to hold something back—not give too much of herself as they’d made love, but her love had been like a river bursting its banks, unstoppable.

Women shared men all the time, she knew, but she was greedy—she wanted all of him, or none at all.
 
She couldn’t share him.
 
Tonight as he touched her, reverently like she was a fragile piece of glass, all she could think of was him touching that other woman in the same way.
 
She wondered if the other woman’s scent was more intoxicating, if she was tastier on his tongue.
 
Stephano didn’t seem to notice or mind that she hadn’t gone down on him.
 
She couldn’t help thinking that the other woman was probably miles better at it than she would ever be.

“Do you know a few of the guys would kill to be where I am right now?” Stephano breathed in her ear, his arm tightening possessively around her waist.

“Eh?” She was so surprised she let out the inelegant sound her mother detested.
 
She and Nathan took great pleasure in saying it to each other in private, but occasionally it slipped out unconsciously.
 
“I mean, pardon?”

“None of them ever asked you on a date because they were scared you would refuse and then it would be awkward to work together afterwards.”

“I hope you guys don’t have some kind of bet going!”
 
The disquieting thought sudden reared its ugly head.

“What?”
 
Stephano sat up and stared down at her, looking so offended, she instantly regretted the words.

“Sorry!”
 
She tried to pull him down for a kiss, but he resisted, his eyes narrowed and his square jaw clenched tightly.

“Natalie, we’ve worked together for fifteen months.
 
You should know me better than that by now.”

Natalie took a deep breath and tried to contain her surprise.
 
He had been with the agency for four years, but she had started fifteen months ago.
 
Did the date she’d started have some significance for him?

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, taking his hand and kissing his palm as she lay it against the side of her face.
 
“I’ve been hurt in the past and it’s hard for me to trust easily.”

He turned his hand over and gripped hers tightly.

“I’m not going to hurt you,
cara
.”

It was a foolish promise.
 
She knew he meant ‘deliberately hurt’, but it was strangely comforting to hear him say the words.
 
There was something so dependable about him.
 
It wasn’t just his physical strength—he gave the illusion he could move a mountain if it stood in his way.

“I must go,” he said abruptly.

“Of course you must.”
 
Natalie was surprised at the bitterness in her voice.
 
It was still early enough for him to claim that he’d been to a nightclub.
 
Some of the more decadent ones didn’t end until noon.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Aren’t you going to shower first?” she taunted as he slipped his shirt on.

“I’ll grab one when I get home.”

Stephano spent more money than he cared to admit on a range of men’s toiletries that kept his skin in top condition.
 
He didn’t doubt that Natalie had a similar or even better range—she had perfectly clear skin—but it was easier to go home, have a shower and change into fresh clothing.

“Aren’t you afraid that she will smell my scent on you?”

“I’m a grown man.
 
My mother…”
 
Natalie watched Stephano’s hands still in the act of fastening his belt.
 
If that wasn’t an indication of guilt what was?
 
“Which
she
are you talking about, exactly,
cara
?