“Then I’ll have them. I don’t need a husband for that.”
He nodded. That was true. She didn’t. But still, it would make things easier on a child. He’d always felt blessed that he was raised in a home with both parents. He sighed, deciding he didn’t want to talk about marriage or children with her any longer. “Okay, Justice, don’t think about the wedding you won’t ever have. Think about something else and whatever you think about, make it sexy.”
She laughed a genuine laugh this time. “Make it sexy?”
He gave her a lazy grin. “Yes, make it as sexy as it can get.”
Her eyes met his and moments later he saw her gaze become filled with desire as she stared at him. She tilted her head back at an angle that kept him within her scope while showing the sexiness of her neck, the fine lines of her breasts and the smallness of her waist in proportion to the size of her hips. A seductive smile touched her lips as she continued to stare at him.
He felt the bulge in his pants as he lifted the camera to capture her intense sensual look. “Nice. Very nice,” he whispered, his voice rumbling low. He moved around, clicking shots of her at different angles as she watched his every move.
She was giving him just what he had asked for. She was making it sexy and seeing her looking that way was more of an aphrodisiac than anything could ever be. And if he didn’t know better, he’d swear she was deliberately trying to seduce him.
His camera clicked as she took her tongue and moistened her lips. The gesture was a colossal error in judgment on her part. He shivered and felt his own tongue tingle with the urge to taste hers, to mingle his own in her mouth. He was a man who enjoyed the rewards of an intoxicating kiss, one that went straight to your head, not to mention other parts of your body.
Slowly, he lowered the camera and watched her throat tightened as she swallowed. Heat, the need for sex, stimulated the air. At this point Blake didn’t want to consider that this wanting, this desire was all one-sided. No woman had ever looked at him that way and he refused to believe he was imagining things.
He saw the warm flush that touched her cheeks. He saw how her nipples had hardened against the sheer material of the pegnoir. She licked her lips again and his groin tightened. Instinct told him to pull back and regain the professionalism he’d lost when she began making it sexy, but knew it was too late. The invitation in her gaze told him all he needed to know, all he wanted to know . . . for the moment.
Justice noticed Blake had stopped using his camera and was staring at her. “That’s it for now?” she asked nervously, licking her lips yet again.
He shook his head and slowly closed the distance separating them. He lifted her chin with his finger to hold her gaze to his. “Yes, that’s it for now.”
Then, he lowered his head and kissed her.
T
his isn’t going to be a kiss, this will be torture
,
Justice thought the moment she felt Blake’s tongue touch the very center of her top lip, stroking it gently and making her mouth open for his.
Her body shuttered the moment she tasted him, breathed him in as her tongue willingly and eagerly mingled with his. But he didn’t let her take the lead and refused to give her control. It soon became evident that he was determined to play a game of slow seduction, making her concentrate on every aspect of what he was doing to her mouth.
Like she could think of anything else.
Their mouths were in perfect alignment, opulent harmony. The sensuous slide of his tongue tasting her everywhere, exploring her fully, possessed a tantalizing heat that took the act of kissing to a whole new level for her. She was not just being kissed, she was being absorbed, tasted senseless and consumed. He was taking his time, lingering, not rushing. It was as if he intended to learn everything about her, starting with her taste.
She couldn’t stop the moan that escaped her lips when he deepened the kiss, intensifying the flavor, heat, and desire. When he pulled her closer to him, shifting his hips slightly in the process, she felt the hard length of him press through the Chantilly lace
.
Her body trembled at the contact that seared her like a molten flame. Red-hot sensations poured through her bloodstream, making her incapable of doing anything but staying latched to his tongue the same way he was latched to hers.
No telling how long they would have stayed that way, kissing, absorbing, tasting, if they hadn’t heard the none-too-subtle sound of someone clearing their throat. Too fired up, to overcome with desire to care that they’d been caught kissing, both were reluctant to stop and slowly released their mouths, but not before Blake’s tongue touched the center of her lips one final time. This time the soft stroke wasn’t a form of torture but a promise of more to come – later.
They both turned and met Tonya’s smiling hazel eyes. She had caught them kissing and seemed pretty damn pleased about it.
“So, how far did the two of you get without me?” she asked glancing around the room with a smirk on her face.
Not as far as we would have liked,” Blake replied in a voice that bordered on annoyance for his cousin’s lousy sense of timing. As far as he was concerned, tasting Justice had changed everything. Whether she knew it or not, the kiss had only fanned the flames between them and had not put them out.
“I guess we should get back to work,” Justice said softly.
“Yeah,” he said, detecting the disappointment in her voice. She wanted more like he did and he decided they both would get it. “How about going out to dinner with me later?” he asked, ignoring Tonya, who had the decency to pretend she was busy studying the proofs again.
Justice smiled and it was a smile that tempted him to pull her into his arms and kiss her again. “I’d like that, Blake.”
“Good. Will seven o’clock be okay?”
She nodded. “Yes, that will be fine. I’ll give you directions to my place before I leave.”
“All right.” He forced his gaze from her mouth and picked back up his camera before he was tempted to kiss her again. “I guess you can go change into another outfit so we can start up again.”
She met his gaze. “Okay.”
He watched her walk away, appreciating the sway of her hips. Usually it didn’t matter to him if he got to know a woman mentally before things got physical between them. In fact he usually preferred it that way. Things became less personal. He had a preference for getting into a woman’s body and not her head. And he hadn’t wanted anyone this bad since… hell, come to think of it, he hadn’t ever wanted anyone this bad, so a night of rolling between the sheets should be a satisfying conclusion.
But for some reason with Justice he wanted things to be different. There was something about her that pulled at him, something besides wanting to devour her mouth again that made him want to get to know her better. He was curious as to what she liked and what she didn’t like. What turned her on and what turned her off besides the thought of getting married.
He didn’t want to rush things, which really was crazy since he had only three weeks left in Alexandria. In fact, he was willing to let her set the pace between them. She would definitely let him know when she thought he was going too far, too quickly. No doubt the time they spent together alone would be hot, intense and passionate.
But there was more. She had the ability to stir his emotions each time their eyes met and when he had kissed her, she had unleashed within him secret desires and hidden pleasures that he’d never before shared in a kiss. Why? And what kind of woman had the ability to break down his defenses that way?
He sighed deeply. Starting tonight he would find out.
***
Justice looked at herself in the full-length mirror and thought,
this is unbelievable
.
No, not the length of her dress, which she had to admit was unbelievable, too, but what she was thinking about was the fact that in less than ten minutes Blake would be arriving to pick her up for dinner.
What was so unbelievable was that for the first time ever, she felt she was dating a man outside of her element, a man completely outside her scope of experience. No man had ever bestowed a kiss on her that had taken a full twelve hours to calm her racing heart and make her change her panties twice just thinking about it. If this kept up she would have to carry a spare pair around with her.
Luckily for her things had gotten real busy after she had changed outfits and had returned to continue the photo session. But still, there had been something about watching him move around with that camera, seemingly concentrating on her with the same intensity she was concentrating on him, especially when she’d studied his mouth knowing she’d gotten a real good taste of it. Heat had settled deep down in the pit of her stomach each time their gaze had met.
She jumped at the sound of the phone and quickly wondered if perhaps Blake was calling to cancel. Maybe he’d thought over things and decided he didn’t want to become involved with her after all. She quickly picked up the phone. “Yes?”
“Boy, don’t we sound anxious?”
Justice’s brows arched. She wanted to be annoyed with Tonya but couldn’t be. Although they hadn’t had a chance to talk, Justice had recognized a set-up when she saw one. Tonya
had
set her up. “If I do sound anxious it’s all your fault,” she said, not being able to keep the smile out of her voice. “I don’t know whether to thank you or strangle you.”
“Go ahead and thank me. Besides, I thought I would be doing you both a favor, especially after I saw the flowers Blake bought you and listened for five full minutes to the lame excuse he was giving me for getting them. I figured the two of you had it bad and didn’t need me around for a while. I would have stayed away longer had I known things had started heating up.”
Justice giggled. “Yeah, your timing was pretty lousy.”
“Evidently. Trust me, I didn’t relish walking in on the two of you with locked lips, but I figured you had to come up for air sometime. Now, enough of that. Tell me what you’re wearing tonight.”
After telling Tonya about the outfit she had chosen to wear, Justice wasn’t surprised that her friend had clapped with approval. When the two of them had gone shopping a few weeks ago, it had been Tonya who had seen the scarlet red, curve-fitting mini dress and had talked her into buying it.
Justice had thought the dress was beautiful but way too short for her, but Tonya had convinced her that there was nothing wrong with showing her legs since she had such a gorgeous pair. She hoped Tonya was right because she would definitely be showing her legs tonight as well as parts of her thighs. In fact she would have to make it a point not to bend over since the dress was just that short. But a part of her had to admit she looked good in it and the high heels complimented the outfit.
“Okay, I got to run. Blake will be here any minute,” she said, suddenly feeling nervous.
“All right, and remember what we talked about the other day.”
Justice frowned. The two of them talked often and about so many things that she wasn’t sure just what particular conversation Tonya was alluding to. “What did we talk about?”
“How we would start dwelling on realistic expectations of a relationship.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right.” But what she had failed to tell Tonya that day was that her expectations of a relationship were quite different from Tonya’s. Tonya was in love with Bryan and always had been, and deep down a part of Justice believed her brother loved Tonya as well, but he just hadn’t recognized those emotions for what they were yet. No doubt Tonya’s expectations involved getting Bryan to realize that she was meant for him and only him.
As far as Justice was concerned, she wasn’t meant for anyone. Unfortunately Harold had assumed she was meant for him and had asked her to marry him. She’d known that one day he would realize she had really done him a favor and get on with his life, and from the looks of things, evidently he had.
She sighed deeply. Her only expectation from the relationship she wanted with Blake was sex. For some reason she was tired of being a shy, good girl who played it safe and protected her heart.
Justice considered herself a lot smarter than that. She knew the score and was ready to be bold and adventurous. She wanted excitement and a hot encounter that would send her up in smoke and still have her insides sizzling long after Blake left town. After twenty-six years, she wanted that. She deserved that.
And from the way the area between her legs was quivering, she needed that.
When she heard the sound of the doorbell, indicating Blake’s arrival, a part of her was determined to get that.
***
Talk about making it sexy
…
Nothing, Blake thought, could have prepared him for the woman he saw when Justice opened the door. She had looked gorgeous all the other times he’d seen her, and had certainly raised his temperature while modeling all those outfits during the photo sessions, but nothing, and he meant nothing, could be more sensuous than seeing a full-figured woman in high heels and a mini dress that fit her voluptuous body to a T. The sight had his breath coming out slow and tortured.