Flirting in Traffic (7 page)

Her teeth were chattering by the time they reached Finn’s air-conditioned building. Despite all the heat they’d generated in the park—and even in the backseat of the cab on the way to his condo—it struck Finn as he turned to face her after shutting his front door that Esa looked cold, wet and miserable as she stood there in his foyer.

And was that anxiety he saw shadowing her features? If he didn’t keep an eye on her constantly she was going to bolt again, he realized grimly. He opened his lips to ask her what, precisely, she had against him for a bed partner when she suddenly spoke.

“
You’re
the one who got me all wet,” she said defensively, her brandy-colored eyes flashing fire.

Finn paused in surprise, mouth hanging open. She was such a damn
fickle
creature—purring one second and hissing at him the next.

“You were staring at me like you think I look like a drowned rat,” she prevaricated when he shook his head in disgust.

“I was admiring your charms in a wet t-shirt actually. Has anybody ever told you you’ve got a mile-wide chip on your shoulder?” he demanded as he came toward her.

She mumbled something waspishly under her breath but the only thing he caught was
mostly just get that…stifling bore.

“What did you say?” he asked as he stepped next to her and his arms encircled her waist.

She looked up…and just like that she switched on him again. Her eyes smoldered in invitation. Despite being witness to one of many of her bewildering flip-flops in mood, Finn felt his body responding to that sultry stare.

He’d be damned if she didn’t possess the sexiest eyes he’d ever seen in his life. Her silky pale skin, long shapely legs, curvy hips, round ass, luminous smile—not to mention a chest that made him want to spend a solid week in bed with her—had Finn’s cock twitching pretty much constantly when he was with her.

But her eyes were the stuff out of a man’s dream.

He bent his knees and his arms tightened around her, bringing their groins and bellies flush against each other. He spread both hands over her round, damp fanny and rocked her against him.

“Why is it that I feel like the important things about you are the things you say under your breath, Esa?”

“Why is it that I feel the things you don’t say at all are the things that are most important about you?” she countered quickly. “How much do you really need to know about me?”

He caressed her witchy grin with his lips. “The only thing I need to know at the moment is how your naked skin feels against mine.”

“That sounds like a promising place to begin,” she agreed before she delicately licked his lower lip. He let her play with him for a few seconds but when her taste fully registered in his awareness he sank his tongue into her sweetness.

He lifted his head a steam-filled twenty seconds later. “Let’s go,” he said before he urged her ahead of him in the direction of his bedroom. He unglued his eyes from her swaying ass, tightly covered in damp denim, when he realized that she was heading for the bed.

“Uh uh.” He tugged on her hand. “You’re cold and wet. I’m putting you in a hot bath.”

“Oh? What are you going to do while I’m bathing?” she asked doubtfully. Her gaze flickered down to where his cock was practically bursting to get free of his button-fly.

He laughed. Obviously she didn’t think the available evidence indicated that he’d be able to wait for long. He hoped she wasn’t right, because he wanted to take his time with her. Finn couldn’t remember being this aroused by a woman in a long time…maybe ever.

At that moment, he was
glad
that she drove a car that sent out a bold sexual invitation to half the population of the world…and likely then some. He was
ecstatic
that she considered what was between his thighs to be infinitely more important than what was between his ears.

In that second, he pretty much agreed with her.

But even if all she did want from him was a single night of sizzling sex, this time Finn was going to savor her.

“I’m the one who’s going to be bathing you,” he explained.

“Oh?” she asked, wide-eyed.

“Arms up,” he prodded a few seconds later, after he’d turned the double taps, one on each end of the tub, on full force.

“This is an amazing bathroom,” she said, her voice muffled by the fact that he pulled her damp t-shirt over her head. “Actually, the whole condo is amazing. I never…got a chance to tell you yesterday.”

Finn smiled when he saw color brighten her cheeks. How was it possible that such an accomplished flirt and self-proclaimed man-eater blushed more than his sixteen-year-old sister Anna Jean when Jess teased her about the boys who called her? His gaze lowered over her elegant neck, dewy shoulders and generous breasts encased in a white lace bra. As he’d frequently had cause to appreciate over the course of the afternoon, the undergarment wasn’t padded. He spied the rosy pink color of her nipples through the tight lace.

He grimaced slightly as he ripped open the top few buttons of his jeans to give him some breathing room. Christ. Looking at her in that skimpy bra was like taking a slug of distilled, Grade-A, punch-in-the-gut lust.

Okay, so her proclivity to blush was about the
only
thing this incredibly sexy woman had in common with Anna Jean.

“Is something wrong?”

He blinked, realizing that he’d been gawking.

“No. Well…nothing except for the fact that I’m pissed off at myself for being in such a hurry that I didn’t even take off your blouse last night,” he added gruffly before he reached around and unfastened her bra. He ought to be shot for ignoring such bounty. He held his breath as he peeled the tight material off her breasts. When he finally exhaled he did so on a hiss.

“Damn, you’re something to look at, Esa.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Let’s get you out of the rest of these wet clothes so we can work on getting you warmed up,” he encouraged gently.

“Your clothes are damp,” she complained, despite the fact that she cuddled closer to him.

“Well, if you’d give me a chance I’d get naked too. Jeez, you’re freezing, aren’t you?”

Esa moaned in arousal when he began to rub the skin on her back, arms and hips briskly, warming her flesh in more ways than one.

“Oooh, get undressed so we can get in the tub,” she begged, although she didn’t even attempt to move away from his heat or his industrious hands moving all over her body. She looked up at him when he began rubbing her bare bottom. He paused for a second and then palmed the cheeks in a possessive gesture that made warm liquid pool between her thighs.

“It’s going to be the challenge of a lifetime to go slow with you,” he admitted softly.

“No need to go slow on my account.”

He just chuckled and swatted her bottom. Esa jumped like the sound of flesh smacking against flesh had been a gunshot.

“Okay. The water’s deep enough. Go ahead and get in,” Finn said.

Esa bent over and checked the temperature of the water, purring when she felt the delicious heat. Finn’s whirlpool tub was modeled after the old-fashioned standalone kind, although this was deeper and large enough for two, in addition to having two steps that encircled the interior.

The entire bathroom was another example of tasteful luxury. It was larger than Esa’s second bedroom in her condo.

She looked over her shoulder to ask him whether his ex-fiancée or he himself had decorated the condo when she noticed how rigid his handsome face looked. She stood abruptly, realizing that she was bending over the tub with her bare butt in the air.

“Aren’t you coming?” she asked in an unnaturally high-pitched voice as she stepped into the deep tub.

“Absolutely. Hopefully several times.”

She rolled her eyes at his double entendre.

He grinned as he came toward her and switched on the whirlpool jets. “I told you I was going to bathe you. Then maybe I’ll join you.”

Esa sighed in pure bliss when she finally leaned back in the frothing water. “Heaven,” she whispered as her eyes closed. But she was too excited to remain in repose for long. The last thing she felt like doing when she was buck naked and Finn Madigan was in the room with her was fall asleep. Her family and friends might think she was lame but she wasn’t a fool.

Not by a mile, Esa added to herself as she watched Finn pull over a stool. He retrieved a thick white towel and a loofah from a linen closet and set them down on the stool.

“You weren’t serious about bathing me.”

“Do you have anything to hold up your hair?”

“Uh…yes, there’s a clip in my backpack, I think,” Esa muttered dubiously.

“I’ll be right back.”

She moved restlessly in the bubbling water when Finn returned and immediately scooped up her hair, fixing it into what Esa was confident was a haphazard mess upon her head. He whipped off his outer shirt and tossed it aside before turning off both taps. He sat down behind her head and picked up a thick bar of soap.

“This really isn’t necessary,” Esa protested weakly when he began to lather up her shoulders and chest. His hands were slightly roughened by calluses. They felt delicious against her smooth, wet skin. He alternated between massaging her shoulder and neck muscles deeply and merely gliding his fingertips along the sensitive surfaces.

“What’s wrong? Not used to being pampered, is that it?” he taunted in a low, resonant voice that made the hairs on the back of her exposed neck stand on end. He was right, of course. She’d never had a lover—especially such a beautiful one—treat her like she was a queen.

Esa wasn’t sure if she should allow herself to enjoy the delicious sensations coursing through her body. She’d always had to struggle a bit to “let go” during sex, always feeling like she owed her lover something extra in bed because she wasn’t model-thin and photo-ready for the cover of
Cosmo
. Not that her handful of past lovers had necessarily been ready for the covers of
GQ
either but…

Well, it was a man’s world after all.

She soon discovered that Finn wasn’t leaving her a choice about giving in completely to her desire about utterly giving in to
him
. He turned off the jets of the whirlpool and told her to rise up onto the deepest step of the tub. “Lean forward,” he directed.

She sat in the waist-deep water while he lathered up her back, massaging her until her flesh melted beneath the influence of the heat and his skilled hands.

She groaned when he transferred to using the loofah, gently abrading her flushed skin.

“You’re not pampering me, you’re spoiling me,” she murmured.

He chuckled while he rinsed off her back. Esa wondered with mild amusement if she even possessed a backbone a few minutes later when he put both hands on her shoulders and she sank back onto the edge of the tub.

“
Ohhh
,” she moaned when his hands suddenly were cradling her breasts, shaping the flesh in his large palms, massaging the beading nipples between soap-slick fingertips. Her hips squirmed in arousal.

“See? I have good motivation for spoiling you,” he rasped near her ear. The manner in which he played with her breasts and teased and plucked at her nipples, with such focused intent, left Esa speechless with desire. For a prolonged moment of unbearable tension he learned her shape and texture, determining precisely which caresses evoked whimpers of longing from her throat, always refining his attack until Esa was sure she could take no more.

Her head fell back helplessly onto his hard thigh.

“Take me to bed,” she pleaded. She almost screamed in protest when he removed his hands from her breasts.

“In a moment. I can’t finish bathing you unless I get in there with you.”

When she glanced around and saw him whipping his white t-shirt over his head, Esa forgot about protesting. Her mouth went dry at the sudden appearance of the breathtaking masculine landscape before her, consisting of flexing, ridged muscle and golden-brown skin. She followed the hasty movements of his fingers on his fly hungrily. She bit her lower lip hard in order to suppress an agonized groan when his penis sprang free of his jeans and boxer briefs.

Oh my
.

Her memory certainly hadn’t led her astray. He truly was every bit as beautiful as she recalled from their too-brief encounter last night.

More so.

She giggled when he rambunctiously clambered into the tub, splashing water over the sides. “Let out some of the water! You’re too big. It’s getting all over the floor.”

“So? It’ll dry.” He dropped to his knees in the tub and reached for her. Esa howled in laughter when he tickled her belly and waist. More water sloshed out of the tub in the tussle that followed.

“Stop…
oh
…stop it, Finn! I’m extremely ticklish.”

“I noticed,” Finn said with an evil, lecherous grin. By the time he finished tickling her Esa was gasping for breath between jags of laughter and there was more water on the floor than in the tub.

“Okay, I’ve tortured you enough for now,” Finn proclaimed before he dropped a warm kiss on her parted lips. Her desperate pants for air utterly ceased when he sandwiched his hand between her clenched thighs and pressed upward, applying a steady pressure on her already hyperaroused sex. “Now you get a reward for putting up with my teasing.”

All remnants of mirth faded from her consciousness. “A-a reward?”

“Uh huh,” he replied silkily. “You’ve warmed up enough now, aren’t you? Scoot up onto the next step.”

Warm didn’t begin to describe Esa’s temperature as Finn placed his hands on her bare hips and urged her higher in the water until only her legs were submerged. When he picked up the large bar of yellow soap and begin to lather up his hands, her thighs clamped back together to alleviate the unbearable throb of anticipation at their apex.

“Stay spread while I wash your legs,” Finn demanded. Esa just stared, completely ensnared in a sensual haze as he lifted each of her legs out of the water in turn and washed and caressed every inch of them. She groaned in agonized pleasure when he treated each foot to a deep massage. The man’s hands were a gift from God, there was no doubt about it.

After he’d rinsed her second leg and foot completely, he transferred his attentions to her hips, rubbing the bar of soap directly on her skin and following with a circling palm and splashes of warm water. Esa whimpered softly when he gently spread her thighs further apart and slid the slippery hard surface of the soap down through her damp pubic hair.

He pushed her legs closed and continued to manipulate the bar of soap up and down between her clasping thighs.

“
Finn
.” She grabbed onto his shoulders desperately. He’d kissed and played with and teased her helpless flesh for so long now that she trembled in incipient release. He continued to press and lather the slick soap against her sensitive tissues, creating an eye-crossing pressure.

“Shhh,” he soothed, even though he denied her the slightest opportunity for calming down by replacing the soap with his fingers, lowering his golden head and slipping a nipple into his mouth.

Esa came so violently that she checked out of reality for a few seconds.

When she came back to herself he still stroked her intimately, causing delicious aftershocks of pleasure to ripple through her body. But he was no longer sucking on her nipple. Instead he watched her through narrow slits of fiery topaz.

“All warmed up now?” he rasped.

The explosion of pleasure that had just rocked her world had temporarily deprived her energy to speak so she just nodded.

“Good. Then it’s time for bed now, Esa.”