HeartsAflameCollectionV (3 page)

She stood stock still for a few moments after he
finished, and then, slowly, he took a clean napkin from the pile on the counter
and fastidiously wiped her hand.

“
You don't know where I've been,” he said with a
wink. “Maybe you shouldn't go hand-feeding strange men, miss.”

“
I didn't go hand-feeding anyone,” Apple said,
waking up enough to be indignant. “You're the one who made me into a... a
dinner plate!”

His eyes flared up at her words, and she realized
that though he had dropped the napkin, he was still holding her hand. His thumb
came up to stroke the sensitive inner skin of her palm, and he chuckled.

“
There are traditions,” he said softly, “all over
the world, where people say that the best meals are eaten off the bodies of
beautiful women...”

Apple laughed shakily.
“
I... I suppose you never worry about finding
beautiful women,” she said, her voice soft and husky.

“
Well, you might be surprised, but once in a very
great while, they get brought to my kitchen, and I want nothing more than to
feed them...”

Apple shuddered at the soft, insinuating words, but
the idea of herself as a beautiful woman was too much. She laughed shakily and
drew her hand back.
“
Well, tough luck, 'cause right now all
you have is
kinda
cute and still really hungry.”

Instead of being frustrated, he simply laughed and
took a step back, something that made a keen lance of disappoint pierce her
heart. She scolded herself that handsome men weren't interested in dumpy little
artists and returned to the plate of food he had prepared.

She let him coach her through Japanese curry
(delicious), Greek grape leaf rolls stuffed with rice (too bitter for her), and
Vietnamese spring rolls (amazing). He knew where every ingredient came from,
and he told her about them until her head spun with the distance that the food
she ate had traveled and the spices that exploded on her tongue.

Finally, she pushed the empty plate away and
sighed. A part of her wished that she could simply sit in the kitchen forever
with this man and simply listen to him talk. Instead, she knew that there was a
gallery full of people who were likely looking for her, and that she had hidden
herself away long enough.

“
Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much, that was
amazing.”

“
I strive to please,” he said with quick little bow
that managed to be just the right amount of courteous and ironic. “Least I
could do for a lovely woman who showed up to brighten my night.”

She laughed self-consciously.
“
You're going to have to quit that,” she said.
“Seriously.
Someone's going to take you seriously if you say
stuff like that.”

He raised a dark elegant eyebrow at her.
“
If I say that you're lovely and beautiful long
enough, do you think you'll believe me?”

“
I think that if you keep saying that, I'm going to
start saying what I think too.”

“
I'm absolutely terrified,”
Bellaron
said drily. “Go on then, gunslinger. Give me your best shot.”

Apple put her hands on her hips, her chin tilted up
and a wide grin on her face. The much needed food had given her back a lot of
her bravado, and maybe she felt like teasing a little.

“
I want to talk about how good looking you are,” she
said. “I want to talk about how big you are and how much I like that, and how I
can see old scars on your hands and how hot that is. I want to talk about how I
bet those hands know their way around a woman's body.”

Apple was gratified when
Bellaron
looked surprised, and she waited for what he had to say.

“
I... you know, I don't know why I thought you were
shy.”

“
Probably because I was starving.
Now that I've gotten some of your
amazing food in me, I could fight a dragon.”

Bellaron
laughed, and there was a hint of smoke to it that
made a pleasurable tingle run up her spine.
“
I need to keep you fed then,” he said, his eyes
falling deliberately to her red mouth. “Because I like you like this...”

“
Oh, I haven't even begun to warm up,” she said
jauntily. “I want to talk about how kissable your mouth looks, and how gorgeous
it looked when you were eating out of my hand. I've never done that before, you
know, not really, it's just been you and a little goat that I fed at a petting
zoo when I was eight.”

“
I find myself unaccountably jealous of a goat,”
Bellaron
commented. “Does it bother you to know that I make
an excellent Indian goat curry?”

“
Not at all,” she responded smoothly. “And I like
that too. I like that you know all about food. It's like, if you know your way
around a kitchen, what else do you know your way around, you know?”

Somehow, in the course of her words, she found
herself closer to him than when she had started out, and by the time she
finished speaking, she was mere inches away from him, looking up into his face.
He towered over her, but instead of making her feel threatened, it thrilled
her.

“
What do I know my way around...” he said, and there
was just a touch of strain to his voice that drew her in even further.
“
Well, I don't like to go anywhere where I'm not very, very
welcome...”

“
Welcome, huh? Well, let's see.”

Carefully and slowly, she took his hand, marveling
for a moment at how large it was. There were scars on it, the small nicks and
cuts that she imagined every chef bore, but it was completely and utterly
clean, the nails trimmed back to the quick. She stroked it for a moment, and
then she placed it on the dip of her waist.

“
Is that an invitation?” he asked.

She
laughed,
a soft gusty
sound.
“
If I could be any clearer, I would be
shouting it,” she said, and his hand drifted lower.

She held her breath as he ran light fingers over
the swell of her hip, sweeping down over the velvet of her dress and palming
her thigh. Daring to be a little braver, she reached up and took a fistful of
his tuxedo’s lapel, dragging him closer so she was pinned between his bulk and
the table.

“
I like it close,” she said softly, glancing up at
him. With their bodies pressed so close, she could feel how solid he was, and
how muscular. He hissed softly with surprise when she shifted against him, and
now she could feel his cock stir between his legs, pressing into her soft
belly.

“
Do you?” he muttered thickly, and his fingers found
the hem of her dress, tugging it aside so that he could slide the fabric up her
legs. He had both hands on her thighs now, and she whimpered as he dragged his
calloused palms up and up. He was amazingly warm pressed against her, and there
was something wonderful and almost terrifying by how aroused she was so
quickly. Something about this man lit her up like a night sky full of
fireworks, and she braced herself against the table so she could fit herself to
him more completely.

“
You feel so, so good,” she whispered. “I can't
remember the last time I felt this good.”

He laughed a touch raggedly, and when Apple looked
up, she could see that there was a dazed look in his eyes as well.

“
I...” He swallowed. “Neither can
I
.”

She might have scoffed at the idea of a man as
handsome as
Bellaron
ever lacking for female company,
but his hands came around the backs of her thighs and gave her round buttocks a
gentle squeeze.

“
Harder,” she found herself whispering. “I’m not a
porcelain doll.”

That was all the encouragement he needed. His
strong fingers kneaded into her soft flesh, and when she looked up again, his
mouth crashed down on hers. They had been moving so slowly that it was as if
his kiss shocked everything into bright and vivid color. Suddenly there were
his hands on her rear, and his hot wet mouth covering her own. When she parted
her lips, he swept his tongue inside, and eagerly, she sucked on it, wanting
more and then more than that.

With a muffled curse, he lifted her up on the
table, setting her up on it so that she had to look down at him. She knew that
she was likely as red as a cherry from their play, but when she looked down at
the way his eyes were nearly black with desire, a red, red smile curled her
lips.

“
You're a handsome thing,” she said softly, running
one leg up his side, and he rewarded her with a deep growl in his chest.

“
You're gorgeous,” he said simply. “Tell me what you
want.”

In the middle of her haze, Apple woke up a little.
She was an artist, and her language was metal and wood, clay and resin. Words
were always more difficult, and for a moment, she was convinced that they would
stick in her throat. Then she looked into his dark waiting face, and she felt
her throat open.

“
I want you to touch me,” she said thickly. “Run...
run your hands over my breasts, show me how much you like them.”

Obediently, he cupped her generous breasts in his
large hands, and when he squeezed, she moaned with pleasure. His clever fingers
found her nipples through the thin fabric and her bra, and he rolled them until
they rose up as taut as tender buds, all but showing through the cloth. Hissing
with pleasure, Apple found her fingers laced into his hair, and when he made a
sharp noise, she pulled.

“
Little witch,” he breathed, and she laughed and
pulled harder.

He leaned up for another kiss, but while her lips
were occupied, his hand crept up her thigh again. With him standing between her
knees, she was open and defenseless to his touch. The idea that she couldn't
close her legs against him made her whimper with desire, and that was before
his fingertips started to trace the line of her panties.

“
Lace,” he muttered.
“Naughty
girl.”

“
What are you going to do about it?” she asked
huskily, and she got her response when he eased one finger under the elastic.
He chuckled when he found her privates completely shaved, and then he moaned
when he brushed against her wet slit.

“
You want me,” he murmured heatedly. “I could smell
you before, but now I can feel it...”

“
Yes, yes,” she murmured. “Touch me, touch me
please...”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and some
part of her couldn't believe that she was doing this, spreading herself open
for a man in a tuxedo on the night of her biggest gallery show. Another part of
her seemed to wake up when she touched
Bellaron
,
asking her what had taken so long, this was what she was meant for, and she
spread her legs wider for his touch.

He ran one blunt-tipped finger over her slit,
stroking the folds with a delicate consideration before reaching to flicker
over her clit. That gentle motion was nowhere near enough, and she found
herself thrusting her hips up, desperate for more.

“
Please,” she said. “Inside, I like it inside!”

With a strained chuckle, he did as she asked, and
in a moment, his finger was sunk in her willing depths, thrusting in and out of
her with a nearly insolent slowness. She dug her fingers into his shoulders,
she pulled his hair, but there was nothing that she could do to make him speed
his deliriously sensual moments.

“
Things take time,” he said, his voice more than
slightly raw. “Things take time, and I won't be rushed, not with you, not like
this.”

He turned his hand so that he could flick his thumb
over her clit with every stroke, and soon instead of urging him
on,
she was clinging to him instead. The powerful waves of
pleasure that started low in her belly swept through her body, making her tense
tighter and tighter. She was going to
explode,
she
knew she was, it was going to happen...

“
Miss Muldoon? Miss Muldoon, are you here?

The anxious voice of the gallery manager broke
through her sensual haze, and even that might not have made pause if it wasn't
getting louder and louder.

With a muffled curse,
Bellaron
pulled away from her, and Apple managed to stifle her startled yelp of
surprise. For a moment, she felt positively murderous toward the person who had
interrupted, but common sense prevailed, and she dropped off of the table and
hastily pulled her dress down. She thought she would be able to present a calm
face, but then she looked over to see
Bellaron
sucking his fingers clean of her juices.