Like now, she imagined, feeling the head of his erection brush her bare thigh. He moved his hand to cup the fullness of her breast, then leaned down and sucked the nipple he'd hardened into his mouth.
Before she could do more than gasp and contract her belly, he'd let her go. "That picture stayed with me the rest of the day."
"I did get dressed later, you know."
"Sure. But after dinner, once the moon was up, we all went swimming." He shook his head and slid his palm down her abdomen until his index and middle finger bracketed her clitoris and tugged slightly.
And then he stopped. "Like I said. The bikini killed me. Dry was one thing, but then there you were, head-to-toe wet and dripping everywhere."
Wet and dripping like now, she thought, and shuddered from his touch: "I should've stuck with my one-piece. That bikini was fairly risqué."
"That bikini was perfect."
"Am I ever going to get it back?"
He shook his head, circled the tip of his index finger around the throbbing knot of nerves he'd brought to bear. "Nope. Never."
That was all he said as he urged her legs wider. She clenched overused muscles and braced for his deeper, intimate touch.
A touch that he was obviously in no hurry to deliver, seeing as he'd moved to stroke the crease where her hip met her thigh.
"You'll have to buy me a mew one, you know. The top's no good without the bottom half."
"Actually," he began, drawing circles on her inner thigh between her legs, "the idea of you wearing that top and nothing else pretty much revs me up."
She nudged his erection, which pressed into her hip. "You don't say."
"I don't have to say. Erections speak louder than words."
"That was terrible," she said, but couldn't stop the giggle that spilled out.
And then she couldn't stop the gasp that tore from her throat when Doug slipped two fingers into her sex.
"But
that
is wonderful." He moved again; she gasped again. "You like the top? I'll wear the top."
He groaned. "Just thinking about it now is about to do me in. A thong and strings. Barely more than nothing."
"It was obviously a lot more than nothing if you can't get it out of your mind."
"It's you I can't get out of my mind, darlin'. The way you boosted yourself up onto the veranda railing and 'wrapped your legs around my waist. The way you told me I was the man you wanted to marry."
He was into confessions? Here was her big one.
"Can I tell you something?"
"Anything," he said, pulling his hand from her body and rolling halfway on top of her. His palm rested beneath her left breast; his knee pinned her thighs. But it was his eyes that kept her from sliding out of bed when suddenly she wanted to do nothing but run.
Running would hurt, but staying was going to kill her.
She raised one hand to cup his face. "I've had a crush on you forever. I've probably been in love with you almost as long. That proposal I made? That was the real deal. And I'd say the same thing now if it would make any difference. If it would mean you'd stay here with me and forget about
Denver
."
There. She'd laid her heart on the line, her soul, her sanity, her self-respect, as well. All she could do was hope that Doug didn't trample what she'd offered him.
His eyes drifted halfway shut; his head bowed. What seemed to be a smile softened his features. But it was hard to tell much in the dark with his gaze directed away.
When he finally moved, it wasn't to speak or to push free of the hand that now caressed his neck. What he did was shift his weight so that he covered her fully, completely, belly to belly, toes to toes.
And then he kissed her, just a brief exploration of lips and tongue before he pressed his mouth to her jawline, lightly nipping his way down her neck as he slid his body lower over hers.
Sex was not what she wanted; she wanted so very much more, but she loved him, and she didn't have it in her to tell him no.
When he moved between her legs, she opened. He kissed her intimately, though briefly, yet the contact was enough to bring her surging up from the bed.
She cried out, gasped, knowing now this man's touch was the only one that moved her. And move her he did, entering her with one finger, then two, mimicking the rhythm of mated bodies she so wanted to feel.
In only seconds, she knew she'd be finished, and she wasn't ready to come. She wanted him to bury himself inside her, wanted him to take her over the edge, wanted him to feel her contractions around the fullness of his engorged cock.
She told him what she wanted by hooking her feet at his hipbones and urging him to cover her again. He chuckled as he complied, moving up and along her legs, then her torso, sliding farther still until his mouth met hers and he kissed her fully.
She tasted herself on his lips and tongue, and the evidence of her own arousal sent a sharp reckless thrill scuttling down her spine. Her legs came up around his hips, and he shoved himself home.
Buried to the hilt, he stopped, throbbed deep inside where she felt every pulse of blood to the head of his cock. She breathed in short pants, holding on to the edge of her orgasm, wanting to draw out this night.
But she wasn't as strong as she'd thought. The minute Doug began to move, she followed. His strokes were slow and smooth as he leaned a bit to one side and rested his head beside hers on her pillow. She felt his breath, in and out, rough and ragged and hot on her cheek.
Her hands roamed and gripped and clawed and caressed; the tension of sensation drove her mad. How did he manage to stay so controlled when she wanted to thrash and squirm and crawl into his skin? And then he moved a hand between their bodies to cover her breast.
He kneaded and tugged in time to the meter of his thrusts, which steadily grew stronger. She arched against him as much as their position allowed, grinding into him as the fullness of his shaft stretched her open, stimulating her cit until she tingled and ached and burned.
And then she felt it, the deep-seated hunger that surged from her core, releasing even more of her body's slick moisture to ease the ride. Doug began to pant, to lift his hips higher, to slam harder, to pump and thrust and shove himself into her with total abandon and need.
She didn't even attempt to stifle her cries as she met his hammering blows. Her explosion engulfed her in sweeping waves of sensation, shuddering waves, tremors triggered by the warmth of Doug's powerfully breathtaking release.
He slowed but still rocked against her; she rocked in return, reaching for lingering bursts of the electrical charge firing her nerves. One, and then another, and too soon it was over.
Both of them were spent, exhausted, unable to move. Yet they remained joined, neither willing to separate, as if a deeper, elusive completion still remained out of reach.
Chapter 12
K
insey paced the small office-cum-dressing room in
Paddington's
Ford, her stiletto heels creating a sharp echo on the highly glossed concrete floor. Click, click, click, click,
turn
. Click, click, click, click,
turn
.
It didn't matter that Lauren had indeed arranged for
gIRL-gEAR's
marketing department to work with the agency handling Ryder
Falco's
publicity, or that the media buzz this last week hyping the diversity of the available
bachelorettes
had been tremendous. Click, click, click, click,
turn
.
It didn't matter that the stage out front was worthy of an Oscar nod for set design, and the crowd was seemingly the size of an Oscar audience. Click, click, click, click,
turn
. It didn't matter that the money raised tonight was for a cause Kinsey hilly believed in. Click, click, click, click,
turn
.
She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be here at all. She'd rather be undergoing natural childbirth during a colonoscopy while having a root canal; she had zero experience with any of the three, but the combination sounded just torturous enough to cover what she was feeling. Click, click, click, click,
turn
. Click, click, click,
click
—
"Would you please sit down?" Poe barked, causing Kinsey's head to whip around, the tone was so totally out of character for the other woman. Poe rubbed at both temples with her fingertips. "You are giving me an insane headache."
"You wouldn't be nervous now, would you, Poe? Maybe over that bet we made?" Oh, but didn't she sound like the tough little
bachelorette
? Calm, cool and collected indeed. Kinsey felt a diabolical laugh bubbling up.
"Of course not." Poe leaned against the corner of the room's single desk, looking serenely at odds with her outburst. She wore the beaded ivory slip, which she'd had altered to show extra leg and extra cleavage while concealing all curves in between. "Your pacing is simply annoying me."
Annoying? Kinsey hadn't even reached annoying yet! She had at least seven layers of irritation yet to explore. "What are we doing here, Poe? Setting ourselves up for absolute ridicule? Who's ever going to take us seriously once they find out this is how we try to find men?"
Poe rolled her eyes at Kinsey's ridiculous question, not even deigning to answer as she examined the pearl polish on her nails. Kinsey started to pace again, checked the urge at the murderous glint in Poe's eye and perched on the opposite corner of the desk instead.
"Ridicule? Have you seen the crowd out there?" Izzy moved away from the crack in the doorway and whistled. "And I am not talking about the crowd here for the book signing. I'm talking about the men."
All Kinsey had seen when arriving earlier was the corner of the bar set up to look like a prison cell, with red-and-blue lighting shining from the four corners and over the eight-foot bars. Supposedly a spotlight had been situated to highlight each of the women during her auction segment.
Oh, yeah. Kinsey could hardly wait. It was bad enough that she looked like a cross between a dominatrix and Madonna in her early years. But having everyone's attention drawn so glaringly to that fact was not her idea of a good time.
Doug, at least, would've been able to see past the sex goddess image and into her heart. Or not. But Doug wasn't here. Doug was in
Denver
finalizing his plans. Or so she assumed, since that's where he'd told her he'd be.
"I don't want to do this. I can't do this. I'll make a donation to the building project."
To hell with Poe and her murderous glare.
Kinsey got up to pace. Click, click, click, click,
turn
. "I'll bring hammer and nails and put up the walls myself."
"I know you will," Izzy said, closing the door and leaning back against it. "The site cleanup is finished, and our first building party is next weekend." She pointed a finger at Kinsey. "You will be there, or I'll personally find and kick your ass."
Kinsey stuck out her tongue. "Awfully tough since you started dating that big bad EMT, aren't you?"
"You think I'm tough?" Izzy let out a long, low whistle. "I'll tell you one thing. I feel sorry for whoever ends up buying me tonight should Baron decide he doesn't like the look of the guy."
"Why doesn't Baron buy you himself?" Poe asked.
"Do you know what an EMT brings down in pay?"
Izzy asked, brow lifted.
"It's a good thing I'm crazy about him, because he certainly couldn't afford me otherwise."
"Assuming any man does bid once he gets a look at you in that getup," Kinsey teased, giving Izzy's yellow camisole and sheer ballet skirt
a
once-over. Then she cast another look down at her own body, clothed in the ridiculous bustier and tap pants of burgundy and black.
All that was left to do was roll her eyes. "What am I saying? We're doomed, I tell you. Doomed."
"Doomed to bring the room to its knees," Poe said, cutting into Kinsey's pity party. "There won't be a straight man in the place able to keep his wallet or anything else in his pants."
Oh, that was a picture Kinsey so did not need to have painted. "Then can we please get this over with so I can go home and get some sleep?"
"What?" Poe raised a brow. "No all-night, exhausting
sexfest
with your man?"
"No, Doug's in
Denver
. Where he's going to be living. And that means he's not my man. All my wicked game-playing, man-trapping schemes failed. Are you happy?"
"Why would that make me happy?" Poe's question was delivered with complete sincerity, giving Kinsey pause. "Ever since our
Belize
vacation, it's been obvious that you two were in love."
Kinsey's side of the equation may have been obvious. Doug's side was a big fat zero—no matter the wishful sigh Poe's observation caused her to make. "Well, being in love obviously counts for nothing when there's a career ladder calling one's name."
"
Pfft
. Is that all?" Poe waved off Kinsey's doom-and-gloom synopsis. "Except for Chloe and Eric, perhaps, every one of the recent gIRL-gEAR relationships has run into career roadblocks."