Catherine (Echoes of Ossiria #1) (10 page)

He turned off the
TV.
 
“Why don’t you take your hair down?”

She nodded.
 
“Alright.”
 
She didn’t know how many pins the hairdresser had used, so she was kind
of feeling blindly, and placed them on the nightstand as she pulled them out.

“Here.”
 
He came over to help.
 
He batted her hands away and took over,
loosening the curls as they tumbled down.

How did he make
everything a sensual experience?
 
Having
his hands in her hair sent tingles down her spine and butterflies fluttering in
her stomach.
 
He removed the last pin and
combed his hands through her locks to make them flow freely down her back.
 
She bit back a moan of pleasure.

“There. Much
better.”
 
He stroked the silky strands
from crown to ends.
 
“So pretty. Cat…”

“Hmm?”
 
She half turned.

He slid his hand
under her hair to cup her neck and leaned in to kiss her.
 
She sighed into his mouth, her arms slowly
sliding up to wrap around his shoulders.
 
He had the most perfect lips for kissing, not that she had a
lot
of experience.
 
They had just the right
fullness, his bottom lip slightly more plump, and were surprisingly soft for a
man’s.
 
She could tell he was holding
back from completely devouring her, and a part of her wanted to throw caution
to the wind, but room service would be there soon.

Maybe after she
ate.

All too soon, the
doorbell rang.
 
They parted, panting.

“I’ll get it,”
they both said.
 
He chuckled, while she
blushed.

“I’ll get it,” she
repeated.
 
She walked out only to find
the attendant was already gone, leaving a cart with covered plates on it.
 
She wheeled it into the bedroom, stopping in
her tracks when she looked up.

He’d shed his
shirt and was casually reclining on the bed.
 

Yummy
, she
thought, before dropping her attention to the cart.
 
She lifted the cover off the bigger plate,
her mouth watering the second the aroma of the large burger hit her
senses.
 
She picked up the sandwich with
both hands and took a big bite, humming with pleasure at the first taste.
 
“Oh, this is good!”

He laughed.
 
“And they say the way to a
man’s
heart
is through his stomach.”

“Oh, shut up,” she
mumbled, her mouth partially full.
 
She
wolfed down the burger like she hadn’t eaten in days.
 
He stood and leaned over to snag a couple of
fries.
 
She slapped his hand.
 
“Hands off my food, buster! Get your
own.”
 
She pulled the cart behind her and
tried to look stern, though the effect was somewhat dimmed by the fact that she
was still chewing.

He grinned and
backed away to the bed.
 
“You are so
bloody adorable.”
 
He propped a pillow
behind his back and crossed one foot over the other, getting comfortable.
 
“You can have a seat, pet.”

“No more stealing
my food,” she said, eyeing him warily, before taking a seat at the foot of the
bed.

“Mm-hm. Give me
your foot.”

“What for?”

He rolled his
eyes.
 
“You’ve been complainin’ about
those shoes, and I have hands. Gimme a foot.”

“Okay, okay…”
 
She shifted to put the footboard at her back
so she could place her feet in his lap.
 
The heels of her shoes came close to landing on sensitive property.
 
She blinked innocently when he winced.

He unbuckled the
sandals and dropped them on the floor, then took one of her feet in both hands
and started kneading it.

“Ow! Ow.
Ohhhh…”
 
She melted as the tension
suddenly disappeared.
 
“How did you do
that?”

“Told you—I have
many talents. Relax and finish your grub.”
 
His skilled hands worked over every inch of her foot.
 
He switched feet.
 
She was leaning back on her elbows, eyelids
heavy, watching his hands.
 
“Puttin’ you
t’ sleep, love?”

“Hmm? Um, no…just
very relaxed. I’ve never had a foot massage before. My ankle once, after I
twisted it, but not my feet.”

“No generous
boyfriends in high school?”

She shook her
head.
 
“I had boy friends, but not
boyfriends
.
Everybody’s best friend.”

“A date for the
dance, at least?”

“I went, but it
was always a group outing. You saw me when I arrived. I wasn’t one of the
popular kids. But I had several friends and we stuck together, made sure no one
was alone. Could’ve been a lot worse. Were you ever picked on as a kid?”

“Couple o’ times,
maybe…hard to remember that far back.”

Yeah.
 
Right…
 
“I suppose. Kids are cruel in any time period, though, right? Popularity
contests seem to be human nature.”

“They do, at
that.”
 
He pulled her closer by her
ankles.

“Hey…”

Started massaging
her calves.
 
“Done with the feet.”

She smiled,
shaking her head, looking at the canopy above.
 
Standard male tactic: look as innocent as possible while getting their
hands on more skin.
 
Extra points if the
girl doesn’t notice.
 
Not that she
minded, honestly.
 
She knew how this
night had to end.
 

Four more hours
to sunrise.

He was at knee-level
now.
 
Any higher, and he had to slip
under the hem of her robe or push it higher on her legs.
 
His hands moved under her knees so he could
work on the back of her legs.

“Why don’t you
roll over?”

“Why?”

“Catherine…”

“Okay, okay…”
 
She flipped over.

He kneaded her
thighs, skipped over her ass, and started on her lower back through the
robe.
 
The thick terry kept sliding under
my fingers, getting in the way.
 
“This
would work better on skin,” he said.
 

She wriggled to
pull her arms out of the robe and pushed it down to waist level.
 
He put his hands on her back.
 
They’d absorbed enough of her body heat by
now to feel warm.
 
She sighed as his
thumbs dug into the muscle group at her waist.

“Nice?”

“Mmm-hmm.”
 
She placed her forehead on her hands for a
pillow.

He slowly and
carefully kneaded every inch, all the way to the nape of her neck.
 
Then brushed her hair up out of the way and
pushed his fingers over the curve of the base of her skull and along her
scalp.
 
She sighed.
 
He continued massaging her scalp in gentle
circles.
 

She fell asleep.

****

There are moments
in life that contain instant knowledge.
 

The first time
expectant parents hear their baby’s heartbeat and realize the world isn’t only
about them anymore.
 

The moment when a
runner can see the finish line and knows they’re going to win.
 

The instant death
is inevitable when your parachute doesn’t open.
 

And the moment
when you look into another person’s eyes and know that tonight, or for a few
hours, you’re the only two people in the world.

Catherine’s eyes
popped open, her body sensing she was being watched.
 

He was right
there, his blue eyes dark in the dim light.
 
Their eyes met.
 
Their lips
touched.
 
She cupped his cheek with her
hand as his arm slid under her back.
 

No more hedging or
evading.
 
She was ready to dance.

She rolled onto
her side to face him, pressing her body closer.
 
His touch heated her blood, feelings arcing from nerve endings long after
his hand had already moved elsewhere.
 
She ended up on top of him, grinding her pelvis against his hardness and
cradling his face in both hands.
 
His
hands were on her butt, encouraging her movements.

Needing oxygen,
she broke the kiss to sit up.
 
He looked
bewildered and slightly panicked until he realized she wasn’t moving away.
 
She kept eye contact and reached behind her
back and unhooked her bra, tossing it to the side and on the floor.
 

His gaze
immediately dropped to her bare breasts, his hands coming up to feel them.
 
Her head fell back as he gently squeezed and
kneaded with talented fingers.
 
He sat up
to wrap his lips around one nipple while tweaking the other between two digits,
his other hand on her back to hold her in place.

She moaned.
 
Her hips rocked back and forth over the
erection beneath her.
 
Logically, she’d
known the boob stuff was going to feel good, but not
this
good.
 
It felt like all the blood in her body was
pooling right above her clit, and if she could get just the right…

“
William…”

He lifted his head
and grinned.
 
“Need more, baby?”

She nodded
eagerly, whimpering and wriggling in his arms.
 

The hand that’d
been on her breast dropped to the tie of her panties and pulled the bow loose,
then slipped underneath to stroke her center while he sucked hard on the other
peak.
 
She squeaked and grabbed his face
to bring his lips to hers; kissing him with all the intensity she felt coursing
through her body.
 
The closer she got to
orgasm, the harder she held on, digging her nails into the back of his neck.

She panted
post-climax, watching him suck her juices off my fingers.
 
He winked.
 
“Delicious.”
 

Blushing, she
brushed her fingertips over the grooves in his skin from her nails.
 
“Sorry about that.”

He tipped her chin
up.
 
“Hey, don’t apologize. Don’t
ever
apologize for expressing your passion, sweetheart. Besides…”
 
He Eskimo-kissed her nose.
 
“I like it.”

She blushed
again.
 
“Oh.”
 

Their faces were
still millimeters apart.
 
Their lips met
again, slower this time.
 
She could taste
herself on his tongue.
 
It wasn’t
repulsive like she expected.

His hands
reflected their owner’s personality—they were rarely still.
 
He stroked her hair, her shoulders, breasts,
waist, and hips…peppered her face and throat with kisses.
 
All while his erection strained against his
pants.
 

Her own fingers
got sneaky, slipping between them to pull the zipper down and give him some
relief.
 
He gasped when she caressed the
soft skin with her thumb.
 

“Oh!” she
yelped.
 
It took all of a second of
touching him before he rolled and switched their positions.
 

 
“
Drivin
’ me crazy,
love.”

“Isn’t that a good
thing?”

He grinned and
kissed her again, then pulled the other bow loose and stuffed her panties in
his back pocket, then thrust a finger inside her, then another.
 
Her back arched and she moaned in
surprise.
 
He curled his fingers upward
and stroked the soft, fleshy wall.

“Oh, god…” she
whimpered.

“You want me,
don’t you, pretty kitty?” he murmured next to her ear.
 
“Want me to fill you up?”

She nodded, her
eyelids fluttering closed as his fingers made her eyes roll back.
 
They popped open when his touch abandoned
her, to find him naked and poised above her.
 

He grabbed her
wrists and brought her arms above her head, pressing them into the pillow, then
surged into her in one stroke.
 
Her inner
muscles clenched around the invasion, more in surprise than pain.
 

“Sweetheart, you
should have told me…”

Why wasn’t he
moving?
 
“Huh?
Oh
…”
 
She shrugged.
 
“Figured you knew.”

“Not for
certain…in this day…are you alright?”

She was touched he
seemed genuinely worried.
 
“Be a lot
better if you started moving,” she said with a smile.

“You’re not in
pain?”

“No pain.”
 
She squeezed him with her inner muscles.
 
He groaned.
 
“Move already!”

He gently pulled
out a little.
 
“Bossy bint. I can leave
you wanting if you’re not a little nicer.”
 

She wrapped her
legs around his hips, locking her ankles together.
 
The move seated him deeper again.
 
“
Really
.”
 
Her previous orgasm had left her soft and
pliant.