His deep voice raised every single hair on her body, and she shivered. “How can you make lying there sound so dirty?”
He laughed and began to unbutton her blouse, kissing her while he did so. She continued to shiver, her heart pounding, fighting against her instincts to turn and walk out of the room. “Are you cold?” he asked, sliding her blouse off her shoulders.
“A little,” she lied, wondering if he would express concern, talk about putting the heater on or apologise for removing her clothes. He did none of those, but pushed her skirt down her legs, then stood facing her, a little smile on his lips.
He brushed her taut nipples with his thumbs. “So you are.”
She blinked, inhaling as he slid his fingers between her thighs. It was only to unpop the buttons of her body, however, and she suddenly realised what he was going to do.
“No!” She crossed her arms over her breasts, stopping him from removing the lacy body.
He stepped back and stripped off his T-shirt, then came back to put his hands on her hips and murmur in her ear, “I love your underwear, but I want to feel you against me.”
“I can’t…”
He kissed her for a while and then said, “Of course you can. I’ll help.” He unclipped her stockings, then took the bottom of the body in his hands.
“Ash…”
“Trust me,” he said.
She hesitated, looking up at him as his dark blue eyes fixed on hers. Like chocolate, trust was not something she gave away easily. She fancied him rotten, thought he was funny and warm, adored the way her outspokenness amused rather than annoyed him, and was beginning to have a sneaky feeling she was addicted to his kisses. But trust him? How could she trust him when she still couldn’t make sense of what he did for a living?
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. He kissed her lips. “Trust me,” he said again.
She looked deep into his eyes. They were the colour of the dusky sky outside the window, but clear, open, honest. He watched her, smiling a little, seemingly content to wait as the thoughts spiralled around in her head like a kite caught in the wind. Time seemed to slow, and she became aware there was more riding on this moment than mere removal of a piece of underwear. Letting him do this had other implications connected to wider issues of what she did and didn’t believe, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.
Or was it as complicated as that? He was only asking her to take her underwear off.
Christ, Grace. Talk about making a mountain out of a very tiny thing.
Chapter Eleven
“Trust me,” he said for a third time, and kissed her again.
She sighed, slid off her glasses, put them on the bedside table and lifted her arms. The look of delight that lit his face was worth the frantic pounding of her heart and the possibility of passing out. He peeled the body off, lifting it carefully over her hair, and let it drop to the floor. She took off the garter belt and stockings and turned back to face him.
She went hot all over as his gaze slid slowly down her body and then slowly back up to meet hers. His eyes were hot and lusty.
“Can you take your hair down?” he asked huskily.
Grace’s cheeks grew even more warm, although she had no idea why the thought of letting him see her hair down was even more embarrassing than letting him take off her clothes. She reached up, pulled out the half a dozen pins lifting her hair off her neck and shook her head. Ash took the long brown tresses that curled like a silver fern and unfurled them, bringing her hair around her shoulders.
He slid his hands into her hair and studied her for a moment.
“What?” she asked weakly, humbled by the look of awe in his eyes.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. He moved a little closer to her. “And I’m going to show you how crazy I am about you.” He lowered his lips, brushed them against hers and then kissed her.
He kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her, until she began to feel weak at the knees and her breasts ached for his touch. Eventually he drew back the covers on the bed, scooped her up in his arms and laid her down, quickly divested himself of his pants and boxers, and climbed on beside her. He kissed her again for a while, stroking her from breast to thigh and back again. Where his body touched hers, she sizzled, and the sensation of his warm hand sliding across her skin seemed to make her whole body throb. She wanted him inside her but he didn’t seem in any hurry.
He began to kiss down her neck. He paid some attention to her breasts for a while, licking and nibbling and making her sigh, and then carried on down over her stomach to her hips, and finally positioned himself at the end of the bed.
“Um…” she said, sitting up.
He pushed her back. “Do as you’re told for once in your life.”
She lifted herself onto her elbows. “Don’t boss me around.”
“This is my bedroom.”
She thought about it. “That’s true.”
He kissed up her thigh. “Do it for me.”
“For you?”
He kissed just above her pubic hair. “Yeah. Put up with it for me.”
She tried not to smile. “Lie back and think of England?”
“Whatever country works for you, honey.”
She studied him. It had been an age since anyone had done this for her. Literally, an age. An epoch. An era. Creatures had evolved and walked upright since a man had performed oral sex on her. Still, she hesitated. She’d erected plenty of barricades over the last four years or so, barricades that no man had come close to breaking down. And here was Ash, gradually dissolving her fears like salt in warm water, the solution to all her anxieties.
He kissed her pubic hair, and Grace sighed and flopped back on the bed. Having a Viking god go down on you had to be fairly high up on the list of Things To Do Before You Die. She was only human. And judging by the determined look in Ash’s eye, she was only delaying the inevitable anyway.
“Good girl,” he murmured, moving her legs up, getting comfortable.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a year eight st—fuck!” The word was out before she could stop it, as he brushed his warm tongue right through the heart of her.
“Oh yeah,” he said in approval. “I want to hear more of that.”
“One swear word is all you’ll get from me,” she said, raising an arm across her face, her cheeks burning.
“We’ll see about that.”
He proceeded to test her self-control more than it had ever been tested before, licking and sucking her soft folds, sliding his tongue inside her, then replacing it with his fingers as he concentrated on the most sensitive spot on her entire body, using his teeth and tongue to bring her to the edge of climax.
“Oh God…” Grace shivered as he slowed his tongue, drawing out the moment for her. “Ash…”
He gave a murmur of appreciation, flicking his tongue lightly, sliding his fingers slowly in and out of her.
She threaded her fingers through his hair. “Ash…”
He ignored her and kissed one inner thigh, then the other, before returning his lips to nibble at her centre.
“Sh…” Biting back the swear word, she screwed up her eyes as she came, tightening around his fingers, conscious of his warm tongue and lips teasing her further and further to oblivion. Fireworks exploded, the orchestra reached a crescendo, waves crashed on the beach, and suddenly she understood exactly why those images had become clichés.
The pleasurable pulses gradually died down and the bed dipped. She opened her eyes to see him leaning over her.
“Sugar,” she finished lamely.
He laughed and kissed her, and then began to kiss down her neck. “You can do better than that,” he taunted, nibbling her shoulder, kissing down her arm, touching his tongue to the sensitive spot in the crook of her elbow. He continued down to her wrist, running his tongue lightly up the inside to her palm, sucking her fingers one by one.
Grace shivered. She’d expected him to move on top of her and slide straight into her, but instead he continued to cover her in kisses. He tasted her skin all the way down, sucking her toes and nipples and earlobes, licking every erogenous zone she knew of and several she didn’t. Then he moved back up and kissed her properly, plunging his tongue into her mouth, nestling his rock-hard erection between her legs, pushing into her slightly until she began to throb with need for him.
“What are you doing to me?” she whispered when he finally lifted his head.
“Women are so lucky,” he sighed, pulling back and then sliding just the tip of his erection into her again.
Her heart pounded. “Why?”
“Multiple orgasms.” He kissed her. “I’m very jealous.” He took her hands and pinned them above her head, and then thrust hard all the way into her. “Oh Christ.” He paused, leaning his head on her shoulder. “Fucking hell, Grace. It’s like sinking into velvet.”
“Oh…” She couldn’t move—couldn’t do anything but lie there and look up at him, and wonder how on earth she could feel another orgasm coming when her other one had only just finished. “M-multiple?”
He lifted his head. His pupils were huge, a testament to the desire she could feel radiating from him. “Oh yeah.”
“I can’t.”
He laughed. “You can.” He kissed her. “Trust me.” That word again.
The hairs on his chest brushed her nipples and his pubic hair brushed her swollen clit as he thrust steadily. Her whole body felt sensitive, tremors from her previous climax still rippling through her like the quiver of a bowstring after the arrow’s released. He let go of one hand to cup her butt and lift it slightly so he could reach deeper inside her.
“Fuck,” she said, sliding her free hand down his back and closing her eyes. She didn’t care that she’d sworn. She’d never been loved like this, never had someone be so attentive to her pleasure or want her so badly.
He groaned and thrust harder. “Grace…”
“Fuck.” His other hand tightened on hers. “Jesus, Ash…” He was trying to thrust her into the next room—she was sure of it, and he wasn’t small in the crown jewels department. She’d never been screwed so soundly and it totally blew her mind. Her climax began again, and this time it was so powerful she completely lost it. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Ash growled and said something, but she missed it, conscious only of his fingers digging into her butt and the fact that all his muscles had tightened under her fingertips as he shuddered into her. She pulsed and pulsed until she thought she’d explode, and then she collapsed back with a sigh. Her whole body ached as if she’d run a marathon, and she felt exhausted.
Ash kissed her eyelids and she opened her eyes. He was smiling but she was too shattered to be embarrassed.
“Ouch,” he said.
She blinked. “What?”
He looked at his shoulder. She followed his gaze and saw two red semi-circular marks on his skin that looked remarkably as if somebody had bitten him.
“Oh God, please tell me I didn’t do that.”
He gave her an amused look that also held a hint of admiration and more than a smidgeon of lust. “Well, well, Miss Fox. If only your students knew what you were
really
like.”
She pushed his shoulders. “Get off me.”
He laughed and withdrew, rolling over. “Come here.” He scooped her up against him. “My little tiger.”
She pushed herself up on an elbow and gave him a pained look. “I’m so sorry. Does it hurt?”
“Honey, I used to have these on a weekly basis when I played rugby. This one was far more fun, believe me.”
She collapsed onto his chest. “I don’t know how you did that.”
He waggled his fingers and yawned. “Magic touch.”
“Did you train in the Middle East?”
“Well that’s where my harem was based, but nowadays I’m strictly a one-woman man.” He kissed the top of her head.
She tried to laugh but she was too tired. Now she knew why people made such a fuss about sex. In the past, she’d enjoyed it, but it had always been a bit “meh”, like vanilla ice cream. And Ash had introduced her to the double-chocolate, fudge-brownie, peanut-butter variety.
With
extra chocolate sauce.
If she stayed there, she was going to fall asleep. She pushed herself upright and stretched. “I’ve got to go.”
He caught her wrist. “Just stay a bit longer.”
She disengaged herself. “Jodi will be home soon—it’s gone half past seven.”
“That gives us half an hour, then.”
“Ash, I don’t want to be in bed when she arrives.”
“Liv said she wouldn’t be back before eight.”
She got up and picked up her underwear, stopping as he caught her hand again. “Ash, please.”
He met her gaze and frowned. “How come we’ve just had the best sex I’ve ever had in my life, and within a minute you’ve withdrawn from me again?”
She squashed the wave of pleasure she felt at his compliment and shook her head. “I need to go—that’s all.”
He let her go and she began to get dressed. “If I could—” Ash began, and then stopped.
She glanced over at him and saw his gaze slide past her. Straightening, she watched him warily as his gaze came back to her. “What?” she demanded. “What did you hear?”