“No. It’s not that. I can’t draw any attention to myself.”
“What does that have to do with us?”
“It has to do with me not doing anything stupid. Like getting involved with a beautiful, sexy actress whom the press stalks.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a long story, and most of it is classified. Suffice it to say I’m keeping my head down for a while. I can’t afford for certain people to notice I’m here on this movie set. And that means I can’t risk gaining notoriety by jumping in the sack with the up-and-coming star of a movie.”
Oh, God. If he wouldn’t help, her career was over. Worse, she’d made a complete fool of herself. She’d just assumed he’d be willing. It had never dawned on her that he might turn her down. If word leaked to the press about this—
—To hell with the press. He’d just rejected her, and it hurt like hell.
“Aww, baby. Don’t look like that.”
She tried to put on a brave expression. Her gaze slid away from him involuntarily as she said lightly, “It’s okay. I understand. I’ll figure out something else. Watch a bunch of porn movies on pay-per-view or hire a male prostitute. And if you could just keep this conversation to yourself, I’d really appreciate it—”
A huge splash cut her off. She whirled around in the water in time to see Blake surface in the pool, clothes and all. “What are you doing?” she exclaimed.
He stripped off his sodden shirt, wadded it up, and tossed it to the edge of the pool. “One sec,” he said as he ducked under the water momentarily. He came up with a big wad of soaked khaki. His pants. They joined his shirt on the side of the pool. Two socks flew poolside, and then a ball of black Lycra. Oh. My. God. His underwear. He was as naked as she was.
She watched warily as he paddled slowly toward her. Of course, he was as at ease in water as he was handling explosives. The guy was a Marine, after all. His gaze never leaving hers, he swam up to her and braced a hand on the edge of the pool on either side of her head. She’d sunk to her neck in the water, again, and was flapping her hands back and forth frantically to keep the water around her breasts moving briskly. Obscuring the view, she hoped. She was such a gigantic chicken!
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“The vast majority of porn films aren’t sexy. They’re fake. And just nasty. If you’re going to rock your love scene, porn won’t cut it for research. And no male prostitutes for you—too much risk of an STD.”
A slow smile spread across her face.
“Don’t smile at me like I’m some knight in shining armor,” he ordered. “I already told you once I’m not that guy. I have a few conditions for this research project of yours if I’m going to participate.”
She nodded solemnly. “Name your terms.”
“This has to be just business. Nothing personal.”
“Sex is pretty personal, Blake.”
“I mean no emotional involvement. Friends with benefits. Not a whole relationship with commitment and fights and emotional drama. You don’t need any of those, and neither do I.”
He was right, of course. But a little piece of her heart rebelled at ruling out a real relationship with him. Still, she was the one who’d propositioned him. This was an educational exchange. Not true love. “Anything else?” she asked.
“One more thing—it has to stay strictly secret between us. Nobody, and I mean
nobody
, can find out about this.”
That suited her just fine. The
last
thing she needed was for anyone to find out she was taking sex lessons from a consultant on her film. “Deal.”
The night sky and the stars and glow of the pool stood silent sentinel around them, disturbed only by the faint whapping of the pool filter door swinging back and forth.
“Do you have any idea how naturally beautiful you are?” he asked quietly. “Not too many women look so good with no make-up and wet hair.”
She smiled. It was sweet of him to say something nice to her. “You don’t have to go to all the trouble of romancing me, Blake. If you want to skip the whole foreplay thing and get straight to the sex, that’s okay with me.”
He shoved back from the wall, drenching her in water. She came up coughing and batting water out of her eyes.
“What the hell was that?” she demanded.
“That was me reconsidering this whole thing,” he snapped. “I’m not a gigolo, and you’re not some cheap slut. If that’s what you expect from great sex then maybe you are better off watching your porn films.”
She gulped, panicked. “Please, Blake. I’m sorry. I already told you I don’t know what I’m doing. I didn’t mean to make you mad.”
He sighed and glided close once more. He pushed the hair off her face gently. “How about you let me be in charge and call the shots, then?”
She nodded, afraid to say something stupid and screw things up.
“Relax, Liv. We’ve got all the time in the world, and I’m not going to leap on you and ravish you.” He reached out with both hands to massage her shoulders, his thumbs digging into just the right spot to make her groan with pleasure. “What time’s your call tomorrow?”
“Late afternoon. We’re night shooting.”
“Perfect.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’re not going to get much sleep tonight, darlin’.”
She gasped as her blood fired like a gunshot through her veins. His arms went around her, one across her shoulders and one scooping down under her knees. He cradled her in his arms and waded across the chest-deep pool to the wide steps. He carried her out of the water and they dripped across the patio.
“You’re cold,” he murmured.
Was he kidding? She was burning up in his arms. She was so elated this was going to happen, that she was going to find out what it was like to have decent sex with someone who knew what he was doing, she could hardly keep from squee-ing aloud. To heck with research. She wanted
him
.
“Into the shower with you,” he announced. “I don’t want you to catch a chill.”
Okay, then. Sex in the shower. She could work with that.
Except he merely set her on her feet in her bathroom with a quiet order to stand under a shower as hot as she could stand until she was all warmed up. And then he
left
.
WTF?
He did say to let him call the shots. Confused, she climbed into the shower and cranked up the hot water until the entire bathroom steamed up into a virtual sauna. Jets of borderline scalding water pounded into her shoulders and back until she moaned with pleasure. Good call on the hot shower. She felt mellow and boneless by the time she stepped out. And much less panicked about the events to come. It would be all right. She was in good hands. After all, he’d known she needed to unwind in the shower before she had.
She towel-dried her hair and wrapped a huge, soft, bath cloth from the towel-warming drawer around herself. She opened the door to her bedroom and stopped in surprise.
The space was softly lit with dozens of candles. Where had those come from? The bed covers were turned back, and—
“Here. Try this.” Blake was there, a towel wrapped snugly around his lean hips. She ignored the liquor glass he held out and took in the acres of muscle that made up his shirtless chest. If the man had any body fat, it was not apparent to the naked eye. She’d seen pictures of six-pack abs before, but she’d never actually seen a set up-close like this. Her belly tightened in anticipation.
“If you’re not going to drink from the glass, I guess I’ll have to do it this way.” She watched, bemused as he took a sip of the amber liquid, and then stepped close to her. With his free hand he tipped up her chin. He kissed her lightly, easing her mouth open and letting the sweet, strong liquor flow from his mouth into hers. It tasted of burnt caramel and was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted. Not that his method of delivery had anything to do with it.
And that was when she knew she was completely in lust with this man. If anyone else had spit booze into her mouth, she’d have found it completely disgusting. But as he took another sip and shared it with her intimately, whatever apprehension she’d felt began to crumble.
“What is that?” she murmured.
“Liquid inhibition remover.” He held the glass to her lips and poured the potent liquor down her throat. She finished the glass and he poured her another. As marvelous as it tasted, she started to feel the alcohol going to her head. Fast. And hard. That stuff was strong. She captured the last mouthful of her second glass of the liquor and stood on tiptoe to kiss him with it.
“Fast learner, huh?” he murmured. “This
is
going to be fun.”
The liquor heated her from her throat to her nether regions. Apparently the stuff hit her brain, just as fast. She already felt the tiniest bit buzzed.
My, my.
He
was
clever about this whole seduction thing. He already had her physically and mentally warm and gushy.
“What’s next, Professor?” she asked.
“A little strip tease, I think.”
She tensed at the thought. She was emphatically not an exhibitionist and had never been one of those life-of-the-party girls.
“Easy, baby. It’s just you and me.” He guided her to the wall of mirrored closet doors and turned her to face her reflection. “The trick is to do to your body what you think your lover would like to be doing to it himself.”
“But I don’t know what—”
“Shh. That’s why I’m going to show you what I like. You just get to watch and learn.”
She nodded hesitantly. His hands were tanned and big resting on her shoulders. He used one to push her hair to the side so he had access to her neck. She tilted her head under the light pressure of his mouth so he could kiss the sweet spot just below her ear. Mmm. That felt delicious.
His hands skimmed down her arms to her fingertips and back up to her shoulders. His right hand crossed her front to grip the corner of the towel where it was tucked in under her left armpit. He untucked it and by slow degrees unwrapped the soft cloth. His left hand reached across her and took the other end of the towel, lifting it away from her body with glacial slowness. Even she was holding her breath by the time her naked body was eventually revealed.
“Remember, there’s no hurry in a good seduction,” he murmured against her shoulder.
Without him telling her, she let her head fall back against his chest. He kissed his way along the edge of her jaw and her body sang with desire. She would have turned in his arms to kiss him, but he forestalled her gently.
Through half-closed eyes, she watched his hands roam around her waist to splay on her stomach, the contrast of dark skin against her pale flesh unbearably erotic. His right hand went south to cup her mound, and his left hand migrated north to cup her breast. His thumb flicked lazily across her already taut nipple, and she moaned as she arched into the tantalizing sensation. Her hips rocked lightly forward, then back. His thumb flicked again against her breast and her whole body undulated.
If she had a skeleton at some point in the past, every last bone in her body had completely dissolved by now. Were it not for her breast straining up and into his hand, her legs would have collapsed from under her completely.
“So responsive,” he praised her. “It’s such a turn on to watch you get hot.”
She groaned. There were no words for this languid want pulsing through her with every beat of her heart.
“Open your eyes. I want you to watch what I’m doing. There will be a quiz later.”
She smiled when he added, “Spread your legs a little for me, Liv. Good girl.”
She watched, mesmerized, as his hand dipped between her legs. One finger stroked long and slow between her swollen folds and she cried out at the intense pleasure. “Again,” she gasped.
He smiled into the mirror, his gaze locked with hers. “You like that?”
“Yes,” she groaned. He did it again and her eyelids closed at the exquisite sensations zinging through her body. His hand left her and her eyes flew open in time to see him capture her right hand in his. She tensed as he guided her fingers to where his had just been.
“You can close your eyes, now,” he whispered.
He guided her fingers to her hot, moist flesh, pressing them lightly against her and moving her hand in a slow circle. Massive jolts of lust shot outward to every corner of her body. “Don’t stop doing that,” he instructed in her ear.
His finger slipped inside her, plunging in and out to the same slow rhythm she used to rub herself. “Ohmigod,” she cried out. Hips undulating, white lights exploded behind her eyelids.
“Open your eyes, baby.”
She did so, and the sight that greeted her was so intensely sexual it almost pushed her over the edge. A slender, curvaceous female form writhed in the mirror in the throes of near orgasm, tousled hair mostly covering her face, body flushed, nipples hard and proud and thrust forward hungrily. And that bronzed, masculine hand moving between her legs was so erotic she could hardly stand to look at it.
“All right, darling. Your turn.”
“What?” she managed to choke out.
“I’ll help. But now you get to do that to yourself.”
Her face heated a good ten degrees, and Blake dropped a light kiss in her hair. “You can do it. Just concentrate on how it feels. And if you get embarrassed, close your eyes.”
Gently, he guided her left hand to her breast. Experimentally, she rolled her nipple between her fingers. Mmm. Nice. She increased the pressure a little more. Oh, yes. Just like that.
Blake’s big, warm palm cupped her other hand and guided it to her belly, but then it retreated. Eyes firmly shut, she slid her palm down across the soft, flat plane of her stomach. Her skin felt like warm satin. Tentatively, she let her fingers drift lower. Found the sweet spot right…there. Oh, yes. She stroked the way Blake had shown her and was shocked when her hips rocked into her hand.
She froze but Blake murmured before she could get self-conscious, “Keep going.”
She stroked again and felt her mouth curve into a smile of slow delight.
“Open your eyes, Liv.” She stared, shocked, at the wanton in the mirror. He continued, his voice low and charged, “Real desire, real pleasure, is a hundred times sexier than any porn video.”