Exception to the Rules (13 page)

“I have, and they didn’t work. Informal evidence from a cross section of anonymous women is okay, but it doesn’t get to the heart of what I’m looking for. My line of thinking is that if I can understand one particular woman, you, then I’ll see all women in a new light.”

Gaea shook her head. “Hasn’t every man since the beginning of time tried to figure women out and failed?”

“Yes! That’s what makes my research so interesting.”

“You want my opinion on this entire plan of yours?”

“Sure.”

“I think you’re a closet voyeur, and you’re getting your rocks off asking me all of this embarrassing personal stuff.”

Instead of the hearty laugh she expected, his eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. “You could be right, although I haven’t sought out voyeuristic situations in the past.”

“I was kidding.”

“I know. But I don’t think it’s something I can simply dismiss out right.”

“What?”

“I have to be honest with you, Gaea. I’m not the model of indomitability that you are. When you were describing your fantasy, it wasn’t all research and scientific here.”

“It wasn’t?”

He shook his head. “No. There was a very distinct uprising, if you get my drift.”

She hid her smile behind her drink. “Oh, my.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, maybe we should call it to an end. The research, I mean.”

He hesitated, but not for long. “No, I don’t think so. I think we should continue on.”

“But what if there’s another ‘uprising?’”

He slid closer to her. “It’s a very real possibility.”

“Um...oh?”

He nodded, scooted closer. “However,” he murmured, keeping his voice low, unreachable to any nearby servers, “I believe that my reaction to you is an important factor in this project.”

“It is?”

“Yes. If I wasn’t turned on, then you wouldn’t be the right subject to study.”

“Okay. So it’s not any woman. It’s a particular woman you’re attracted to.”

“Exactly. And it’s equally important that the woman—you—be attracted to me.”

She frowned. “I am?”

The look on his face was riotous. Complete surprise. She hadn’t thought of him as bigheaded, and he certainly hadn’t behaved like one of those guys who thought they were God’s gift, but it was obvious he’d sensed the heat between them.

Gaea decided to be nice and relieve him of his misery. “I’m kidding,” she said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t so.”

He relaxed visibly. And touched the back of her neck with his hand. Her reaction was instant and intense. A flush to her checks, heat, rapid breathing.

Evidently he saw the signs, and more than likely suspected the rest. But just then their food arrived, via another server, and they both dug in.

After the initial hunger was sated, and they could slow down to savor the delicious meal, Bas touched her leg. “You don’t have anything else planned for tonight, do you?”

She shook her head.

“Good.”

“Why?”

“I’m not anywhere near being finished with my questions.”

“I do have to get a good night’s sleep.”

“You’ll have it.”

“You sure?”

“Definitely. My role is to help you with your campaign, not hinder it.”

“True.”

They resumed eating, the rest of the night swirling with possibilities, stirring the air between them. When Gaea took the last bite of food and pushed her plate away, Bas put his fork down and called for the bill. The server asked if they wanted dessert, and they uttered a hurried “No!” at the same time.

“Not that I’m overzealous,” he said.

“Of course not,” she agreed.

Bur he paid the check in record time, leaving an ample tip, while she hailed their driver.

They didn’t say a word as they headed toward the hotel. Not one. But she heard him. His curiosity, his desire, his intentions. She felt him, too, although all he touched was her arm briefly.

By the time they reached the
W
hotel, she was at the end of her rope. The elevator took forever, he fumbled with the key, and then finally, thank goodness, they were inside, the door was locked, and they were in each other’s arms before she could say, “I want you so badly.”

* * * *

Bas pulled her tightly against him as he moved her toward the bedroom. Everything in his body cried out for being naked. Now. But he didn’t know how Gaea would react to making love on the carpet, so he focused the one tiny section of his brain that wasn’t completely fogged over with sex and steadily pressed on. She tripped over something, and he realized it would have been a good thing to have turned on the lights. But he wasn’t about to let go, or heaven forbid, stop kissing her.  Not when her tongue was so busy exploring every inch of his mouth, and definitely not when he’d already managed to unbutton half her shirt. But when he almost stumbled over the coffee table, he said, “This is insane.”  Bas lifted her into his arms as if he was Tarzan or something, not giving a damn what he stumbled over. Finally, he made it to the bedroom and more importantly, to the bed.

Once he had her safely down, he reached to the nightstand and turned on the light. He wanted to see her. All of her. Every step of this divine moment.

She lay panting, her shirt half-open to reveal a lemon yellow satin bra that couldn’t hide her very erect nipples. The sight prompted him into action, and he almost ripped his shirt in his haste to take it off.

That spurred Gaea into action, too, and they rushed to remove their clothes as if they were on fire. Which, in fact, they were.

By the time he got completely undressed, she’d reached the last item—her panties. He held out a hand. “Stop.”

She complied, her gaze moving down his chest, his stomach, finally his erection. He’d never been harder. Of course, she couldn’t know that. But from the expression on her face she wasn’t disappointed. 

“Why did you tell me to stop?” she questioned, her gaze never moving up, even an inch.

“Because if we keep moving at this pace, it’s going to be a very wonderful yet extremely short experience.”

“Nothing about that is short.”

He chuckled. “Thank you, but not what I meant.”

“No? Oh! Yes. Right.”

“So let me just relish in this for a moment.”

“Relish, how?”

“Studying you,” he murmured, climbing onto the large comfortable bed. “And caressing,” he said while his hands went to cup the most beautiful breasts he’d ever seen. When his hand came to rest on the perfect bosom, he nearly came. That would have been most unfortunate. The clever thing to do would be to think about hockey stats or perhaps leeches. But he couldn’t. All he could think about was how stunning she was, and how lucky he was, and how to be inside her was probably the most wonderful thing that would happen in his life. Bas wanted it to last forever. He knew that was impossible.

“Bas?”

“Yes?”

“Can I make a suggestion?”

“If it’s about stopping what we’re doing, no?”

“The exact opposite actually,” she whispered, moving her lips very close to his. “I was thinking that we don’t have to do this only one time.”

“I agree.”

She exhaled softly against his mouth, making his entire body twitch.

“You don’t get my point. First time might be fast. Second time, we’ll go slow.”

He blinked a few times, then leaned forward and kissed her briefly, but hard. “Gaea, you are a very smart woman.”

“Yes, I am.”

Chapter Eleven

Please with herself, and even more thrilled with the man on top of her, Gaea smiled slowly, watching him study her. He clearly liked what he saw, finding amazement in whatever his gaze caught, as if every square inch held new delightful surprises. It made her feel attractive and wanted and it fluttered in the depths of her stomach, no lower.

She slid her hand down the length of his arm from shoulder to wrist, softly caressing, pleased with the suggestion of corded muscle and the silky softness of hair. When she paused, she tried to circle his wrist with her thumb and index finger, but she couldn’t. She studied him all the while, noticing a tiny twitch of his left eye, the way his nostrils flared, and his white teeth, not perfectly even, but made endearing by slight imperfections. It was as if her vision had gone far beyond the traditional twenty-twenty into a new sort of sight. Not because they were so close to one another, but because a veil of typical and ordinary had been lifted. She could read him like a book, his need, his tension, his excitement and his pleasure.

More than simply noticing, she was intimately connected to him, feeling the very emotions she saw on his face. Gaea wanted him inside her, to make the connection stronger still. Something way beyond the five senses was at work here, and the closer they became, the stronger it would become.

She shifted beneath him, Bas so still and watchful, and she lifted his large wrist, moving his hand to the lower part of her stomach. His eyes widened, dilated so that there was only a thin circle of green left.

Bas leaned forward, near enough that their breath mingled, but she didn’t close her eyes. Captivated by his scent, his face, she met his gaze only inches away from her own. Gaea expected a kiss, but instead, he licked her lower lip with his tongue. His hands inched downward, underneath her panties, until she felt him in her thatch of curls, and then, his fingers touched her upper fold.

He moaned very deep in his throat, using his talented tongue to taste her upper lip as he dipped inside her.

She closed her eyes, not because she wanted to, but because the sensations were too strong. Her poor little brain couldn’t process so many stimuli at once, so feeling won out over sight.

Her legs parted farther and he explored the soft, wet flesh between, inching down with the pads of his fingers, gently stroking as if she was skittish and he needed to reassure her.

She didn’t want to be soothed. When he plunged inside, using two fingers, she moved those last inches that separated their months, kissing him hard, sucking his tongue as if it would save her.

Bas moaned again, and she felt the vibration against her lips, in her chest. She arched her hips toward him, forcing his fingers deeper. He got to his knees, straddling her. Gaea wiggled a bit and got a smile in response.

A tearing sound distracted her and she looked down to see him pull a rolled condom out of a foil packet. She watched, enthralled, as he unrolled it over his thick flesh. Then his hands moved to her hips where he grasped her panties and pulled them down slowly.

He ran into a complication where his legs and hers touched. Instead of moving, he grasped one side of her satin thong panties in both hands and tore them apart. The sound, the rip, was louder than their combined breaths. He looked extremely pleased with himself as he dripped the ruined material. Slowly, patiently, he lifted one knee and moved it inside the V of her legs. Then he moved the other until she bracketed him. But it was clear his hold was superior as he pushed her knees apart, wider and wider until he was satisfied. His gaze traveled down from her face to her chest to the view he’d just created. Bas’s breath quickened, his chest contracting and expanding like a sprinter’s, his lips parted, his hands fisted at his sides, then opened with effort.

She felt exposed, more naked than naked as he looked at her with his raw hunger, and she wanted him to enter her, to take her now.

 Just as she opened her mouth to voice a plea, he leaned down and braced himself with corded arms on either side of her. He shifted his weight to the right as he used his left hand for guidance.

As she felt the tip of him touch her, he whispered, “Gaea,” forcing her gaze to meet his. The connection was electrifying and breathtaking as he slid into her wet folds inch by inch, filling her with his body, becoming something greater than him and her.

Both arms now flexed on either side of her as he balanced on hands and knees. The tension in his body was like a bow string, drawing tighter and tighter, even the cords in his neck. He stared at her, his intensity making her tremble as he thrust in, pulled out, and thrust in again. She grasped the sheets in both fists, pulling the material up from the bed. Her hips rose to meet his challenge, and they found a feral rhythm that linked bodies and heartbeats.

There were no words to describe the feel of him inside her, only gasps and moans, primitive and erotic.

Sebastian’s eyes closed as his thrusts quickened, and her body responded in kind. It was coming, the corkscrew of tension deep in her body like a coil pulled tight.  Her mouth opened and she heard her own loud cry as if from someone else, someone far away, and then the sound changed and it was her again as the last bit of tension fractured with an orgasm that started between her legs and spread like a raging wildfire throughout her body. 

He grimaced, arching his back, his head thrown back with a growl. One final thrust, so fierce she was pushed a foot up the bed, and then he froze, straining, and she trembled as another wave of pleasure swamped her.

The room dimmed, another spasm racked her, and then she felt her legs and her hands, felt the air in her lungs, heard him take a ragged breath as he relaxed.

He looked down and gave her a slow smile. “Damn.”

“I couldn’t have said it better,” she replied, surprised her voice sounded so normal.

“So it wasn’t just me?”

She shook her head. “No.”

His grin widened. “Good.”

Raising her hand, she pushed back his hair from his forehead, enjoying the soft texture between her fingers. “Does this ruin your research?”

“Research? Oh, yeah. No, not at all. I’m thinking this is a very good thing.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah.” His smile faded. “I don’t want to, but I have to.”

“What?”

“Move.”

“Okay.”

Bas slipped out of her and rolled her onto her side. For several moments, her gaze focused on the rise and fall of his chest, then she looked up. “How is it a good thing?”

“For one thing, I can maybe think a lot more clearly.”

“In what way?”

“Lusting after you was sort of occupying most of my brain.”