Her brows lifted with skepticism. “My flames? To guard against what?”
“Me.” He crooked a finger toward her.
Chapter Thirteen
Shauna stood and skirted the bed in what she hoped was a slow, sensual routine, while her stomach opted to go freestyle, in more of a towel-in-the-wringer routine.
Adrian frowned.
“What?”
“You’re nervous.”
Shauna laughed. “Me? No…” She swatted away the accusation and continued toward him.
Adrian raised a dark, skeptical brow. “Prove it.”
“Okay.”
His attention slowed its appraisal. He angled his head. “Lick your lips for me.”
Shauna’s steps faltered. “Oh-kay.” Was he serious?
Adrian folded his arms in front of his chest.
“That look…” The same look of unbendable stubbornness he had from years ago. She nodded to the window. “I remember that look, when I threatened to tattle on you for setting off homemade pyrotechnics over the pond.” Yep. A challenge if there ever was one.
“Well, I’m not stopping you this time. You’ll have to come get it…and you’re stalling.”
Shauna darted her tongue out to moisten the soft pad of her lower lip.
The corner of his mouth twitched in a knowing smile. “Try again.”
She expelled a sigh. Okay, so maybe she was a tad nervous, but who wouldn’t be? How’s a girl supposed to act when her tongue is summoned by a shirtless pillar of sexual intrigue?
Shauna had to prove she meant business. No more bluffing. Couldn’t hardly blame the guy after what she put him through tonight. The man wanted a woman, not a lizard.
Perfect time for one last chocolate hurrah. If she had plucked the charred foil wrappers from the dungeon floor, she’d be licking them right now. Too bad that hadn’t come to her mind sooner.
Shauna ducked her head and tugged in a deep breath. She could do this. She’d been practicing for years. All those evenings spent seducing her own reflection, hoping that one day Adrian would see her.
But to tempt her body with someone like him?
Not like him. It
was
him. The flesh-and-bone infatuation to end all others.
Giving herself over to a lust that strong could put them both in danger. She looked up through a fringe of moist lashes. But would she ever get a chance again?
Starting in the corner of her mouth, Shauna used the point of her tongue to follow along the sharp bow of her upper lip. She continued her painstaking circular path to trace her mouth’s full outline.
Adrian’s lips parted as his attention followed her. A feral, hungry sound seemed to drag behind his breath.
Shauna’s gaze fled to the silent rise and fall of his winged tattoo. A persistent reminder of how far Adrian had traveled into the world of sex and a mysterious omen of where he was about to lead her. She stalled her approach and shifted her weight slowly from one foot to the other. What if she didn’t know enough to please him?
“Closer.” Adrian’s word seeped in challenge.
Shauna’s eyes squeezed shut, and she stole the remaining distance between them before her body roped him off with more excuses.
She cracked an eye open. Adrian hadn’t moved. The most peculiar look of mirth formed in the sensual curve of his mouth. He dipped his head, mouth angling toward hers. The heat of his breath fanned her mouth just before he meshed his lips against hers.
A pulsing warmth funneled deep into Shauna’s core as the pressure of his lips increased.
She jerked back. Had he flinched? Did she burn him? She stared, searching his tempestuous gaze and full, moist lips for any hint of pain. “I….uh.” She pointed to her mouth. “The gum. I should get rid of it first.”
He shook his head. “Can’t.”
“What? Why?”
“It serves as a compatibility test, which you passed. But in addition, its chemistry stimulates a biochemical impediment…”
Shauna frowned.
Adrian started again. “Because it lets me do this.” He laced his fingers through her hair, and cupped the base of her skull. He steered her lips back to his. The firm press of his mouth disappeared before he angled his head and drove deeper.
The hot flick of Adrian’s tongue coaxed against the seal of Shauna’s lips. She parted on instinct to grant him access.
Adrian took his time, caressing the tip of his tongue against hers in a dive-and-retreat dance that grew more demanding with each stroke.
When Shauna urged him on with a throaty moan, Adrian tightened the grip on her hair. Tingles swept along the nerve endings of Shauna’s scalp and she angled her head in compliance.
Oh yeah, she definitely needed more of that.
Heat pulsed at the swollen mound between her legs. She rocked her body against him in a desperate plea to gratify her throbbing core.
Adrian gripped the soft flesh of her bottom and met her stroke with the denim-clad bulge of his erection.
Shauna tensed.
Quick as anything, Adrian let go. The seal of his lips broke free.
Shauna couldn’t contain her gasp of concern. “Did I burn you?”
“No.”
“I did. Didn’t I?” But where? His lips were moist and blushed with color, but no blisters. If not his mouth, it had to be his hands. Shauna stepped back and stroked a protective palm over the back of her hair. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
Adrian leveled his gaze in warning. “Don’t—” The viper strike of his hand pulled back a fist full of her tee shirt. “Don’t do this.”
“I can’t help it, I swear.” Her vision brimmed with unshed tears.
“I know.” Adrian tugged her back toward him. “Just…hang on—” He caught the shirt’s hem and pulled the tent of black cotton over her head.
Adrian’s gaze raked over her naked body.
Shauna clasped her hands behind her back, then in front. She folded her arms.
Adrian looked far more sure of the direction they were headed. He closed his eyes. His nostrils flared with a deep inhale as he flattened his palm on the center of her chest.
He nudged her backward several feet until she stood with the back of her knees hinged at the bed and a shower of purple vapor swirling between them.
The cool kiss of air billowed around her, and goose bumps rushed over her surface from head to toe. Tiny flecks of liquid bounced and jumped off her skin, leaving iridescent footprints behind. In mere seconds, her skin was soothed and lotioned. The apple scent turned syrupy. The long strands of her hair lay heavy down her back.
Adrian glanced up from slipping off his shoe and angled his chin toward the bed.
She put both hands on the mattress behind her and with shaking limbs, she pushed herself up to the chilled, damp sheets. She couldn’t spare even the faintest diversion from the display about to take place in front of her. How many times had she imagined this moment?
Adrian leveled his gaze again, searching, no doubt, for any hint of hesitation as his hands moved to the button fly of his jeans.
Shauna swallowed to ease the desert that had become her mouth.
He worked the denim back and forth, over each button, popping them free with an expert flick of nimble fingers.
It wasn’t anything like what her brain had conjured up. The vision of tanned, muscle-corded thighs never met appeared. Her gaze couldn’t travel that far. It locked on the thick, swollen length of his erection the moment he released it, and even as he advanced into the swirling curtain that stood between them, she couldn’t look away.
Erection? The word did no justice. The strong, upward curve of its posture and the prominent pout of its dusky tip hinted at so much more. Not a simple condition. That thing was an instrument of pleasure with a reputation all its own.
Only when the mattress dipped under his weight, did her attention snap free. She inch-wormed a backward retreat toward the headboard. Her gaze pinged from the double-paned balcony, to the collection of apothecary jars, to anywhere but him, as he advanced on hands and knees toward her.
She offered what she hoped was a sensual grin, but she could feel the edge of her mouth quiver with nervous energy.
Adrian stretched out on his side, his upper half propped on his elbow.
She glanced, and then glanced again, fighting the edgy giggle that tickled her lungs.
For a moment, he only stared at her. What could be so intriguing? The guy’d seen a hundred other women in his day. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words died at his first touch.
His fingertips traced her hairline then the curve of her cheek. They followed every feature with a feather-soft touch that left the tension melting from Shauna’s apprehensive muscles. A thumb hooked the under curve of her jaw and urged her face toward his.
Adrian didn’t utter a word.
His kiss spoke for him. It grew from patient taste and exploration to a mounting demand for her attention. He caught her bottom lip between his teeth and nipped at the sensitive flesh.
His free hand continued its lazy drift over the alcove behind her ear and down the curve of her neck.
Shauna’s hands mirrored his, taking cues and subtle encouragement through the growing weight of his breath and the low growl that vibrated through his chest. She splayed her hand across the solid pads of muscle that formed his pecs and roved further south, over a ripple of toned abs.
He closed a hand around her wrist before she could travel lower, and trapped both hands above her head.
He leaned over her. His teeth scored the delicate curve of her neck and then kissed to soothe her assaulted flesh. The process continued as Adrian’s mouth moved downward. He brushed his thumb across the aching peak of her nipple, an unspoken warning that his mouth would soon travel there.
Shauna’s breath came quick and anxious. She squeezed her eyes shut as he shifted toward the foot of the bed, gaining access to dangerous territory.
Yes, please.
She’d say or do anything to have his attention there. An ache this strong couldn’t be soothed on her own. Not now. Not after they’d come this far.
His hand wedged in the bend of her knee and he nudged her leg up.
Oh, God.
Adrian paused when Shauna tensed with uncertainty. His hand didn’t move, but his mouth continued its roving torment until it closed over her breast. Shauna arched against the strikes of pleasure that shot through her nipple. She let out an achy moan. “Yeah.”
She couldn’t bear more than a whisper, but he had to know. She might sound a bit demanding, but she couldn’t let him stop. If she didn’t tell him, he might leave her in agony. All the others had stopped long before now. She couldn’t stand to be left alone on this crest. Not again.
With his hand still wedged behind her knee, Adrian angled her thighs apart.
Shauna’s pulse sped as cool air kissed between her legs. She fought the urge to squirm and turned her head to the side. The sound she made ended with a plea of urgency.
Adrian spared her the distance between where his hand was and where she demanded it. He stroked over the wet juncture between her legs.
“Yeah,” she whispered again. She bucked under his hand, her thighs tensed, and she bucked again.
Yes, please. I want. I want.
Adrian seemed to understand her angst, and his touch became more deliberate, a circular massage that extended deeper than the outward folds.
His touch, slicked with moisture, tightened to circle the perimeter of her clit. Shauna’s thighs lost all tension. She spread wide to welcome him. “Yeah…like that…oh, yes, please.”
Many a time, she had touched herself in a similar way, but the sensation never came on this level. Shauna’s nails dug into her palms and her thighs quivered as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her. Desperation for release seemed to rack her entire body.
She had to feel him inside her.
“I need it,” she cried. “Adrian, please. Give me…give me.” It sounded spoiled. It sounded awful. To hear those words on any given afternoon would turn her stomach, but Adrian had to know what he was doing to her.
In Shauna’s next ragged breath, Adrian’s touch had left her. Her hands were freed.
She turned to face him, chest to chest on their sides.
Adrian wasted no time propping her leg onto his hip and nestling into the cradle of her thighs. He stroked forward slowly, along the slick outer lips of her vagina. This time, Shauna rolled her hips to meet him. Her plateau of sensation climbed higher with each stroke, until he paused and rolled his hips deeper, positioning himself at her opening.
Shauna was first to move, sinking down onto his shaft as it stretched and filled her. Perhaps all those evenings of self-gratification had trained her for this moment, but nothing compared to a living, breathing man. The mere size of him was both delicious and invasive as her walls conformed around him.
A bead of sweat slipped down Adrian’s brow as he pulled back and then pushed forward again to fill her completely.
She wasn’t sure what he expected, but the deep groan that chimed with hers must have meant they were both thinking the same thing.
More.
Shauna voiced her pleasure when Adrian delivered another thrust. “Yeah.”
And another. And another.
“Yes. Like that. Like that. Oh, God. Don’t stop.”
Their movements increased in force until Shauna’s throaty pleas became an unintelligible chant. They both raced for release.
Adrian gripped her hips and strained against her. He roared between clenched teeth and thrust himself deep.
Shauna tried to push back, anticipating another thrust, but Adrian wouldn’t have it. He held her hip tight and pushed deeper still.
She paused.
No!
She was close. So close. It couldn’t end now.
As if sensing her frustration he rolled to his back, taking her with him to straddle his thighs. “Take it,” he gritted, guiding her hips to rock against him. “You know what you want.”
She hesitated for a moment. Adrian rolled his hips and massaged her soaked genitals back and forth against his pelvic bone, his shaft still buried deep and unyielding.
Shauna understood, gradually building up speed and reclaiming the pressure she had lost. Her mind fled to somewhere else as tiny, sharp pangs of pleasure shot from her core. Her body took over. She plunged against the thick length of him again and again, increasing with haste and force until the friction exploded. Her muscles clenched tight in a final rush of brain-numbing shards. She cried out and managed to brace herself with one arm to keep from collapsing on top of him. Her body froze in place.