Her Favorite Rival (19 page)

It was such a visceral need she could actually feel her throat tense, could feel her body bracing itself for the effort of yelling until her lungs ached. She dug her heels into the sand and clenched her free hand around a fistful of the stuff and waited for the feeling to pass, as she’d waited for the need to cry to pass, as she’d waited for so many things to pass.

The feeling didn’t go away, though. It sat behind her breastbone, wanting out. Wanting release. Wanting something that wasn’t prescribed and orderly and sensible.

An image swam behind her eyelids—a hard, very male body. Navy eyes, hot with need. A mouth made for secrets and sin.

Her eyes popped open and she stared at the bright blue sky. What she was thinking was insane—or, at best, highly risky. It certainly wasn’t smart or safe or advisable.

Exactly
.

She pushed into a sitting position, then she was on her feet. Then she was walking to her car. Then she was running. She knew if she stopped to think, she’d stop, period. And she didn’t want to stop. She wanted to do something reckless and wild. She wanted to be bad and impulsive. She wanted something that wasn’t about duty or ambition or penance.

Something for her.

She grabbed her phone from her handbag as she unlocked her car. Her heart in her mouth, she called up a search engine and tapped in Zach’s name. A few seconds later an address filled the small screen.

She flung her phone onto the passenger seat, started the car and steered out into traffic. Instead of thinking or listening to the wet blanket screaming warnings in the back of her head, she punched on the radio and hit buttons until something loud and busy and pumpy blasted through the speakers.

She felt dizzy with both fear and anticipation when she pulled up outside a Victorian workers’ cottage in a quiet, leafy street in Surrey Hills. Fear because she was afraid of what she was about to do, of how Zach might react to her arriving on his doorstep, of how she might be about to seriously mess up her life, and anticipation because she had been thinking about him, about this, for too long.

She switched off the engine, grabbed her bag and got out of the car. The road was warm beneath her feet and she realized for the first time that she hadn’t put her shoes back on when she’d returned to the car.

Well, she was hardly going to get them now.

The front gate squeaked as she pushed it open. Her heart gave an almighty shimmy in her chest as she climbed the steps, fueled by adrenaline and excitement and trepidation. She could see a fuzzy reflection of herself in the opaque glass of the door, could see herself raise her hand. Her knock echoed in the small porch and sent a tremor up her arm.

What if he doesn’t answer? What will you do then?

What if he does?

Footsteps sounded within the house. A shadow moved behind the opaque glass. She heard the snick of the lock. The door opened.

He wore nothing but a sheen of sweat, a confused frown and a pair of low-riding running shorts.

“Audrey.”

She’d half expected her courage to dissolve like sugar in water the moment she saw Zach, and maybe it would have had he been fully clothed and perfectly groomed.

But he was about as close to naked as it was possible for a man to get and not be arrested for public indecency, and a wave of pure, blistering lust swept over her. She wanted this. Better yet, she
needed
it.

“Answer me honestly,” she said, way past niceties like
hello
and
how are you
and
isn’t the weather great today?
“What happened the other night at the bar—has it been on your mind? Have you been wondering what might have happened if we hadn’t stopped?”

All confusion left his expression and his gaze was very intent, very focused. “Is that why you’re here?”

“Yes,” she said. Because the time for playing games had passed.

“Thank God.”

He was reaching for her before she could process his words. One second she stood on the doorstep of his house, the next she was inside, her back against the wall, his mouth and body against hers. He tasted of heat, his tongue stroking hers with demanding greed, his body large and powerful as it pressed into hers. Her hands found his bare shoulders, closing over warm, hard muscle, even as his thigh slid between hers, forcing the heart of her into intimate contact with his leg.

It was a pale shadow of what she really wanted, but she pressed herself against him anyway, frantic for satisfaction. For ten days she’d been dreaming about him. She wanted relief. She wanted to know.

As if in answer to her thoughts, Zach’s roving hand smoothed down her hip and the side of her leg. She felt the coolness of air as he lifted her skirt, then moaned in encouragement as his palm smoothed its way up her thigh and between her legs. She was wet and hot, so eager for him, and she tilted her hips into his touch. He stroked her once, twice, through the damp silk of her panties before slipping past the fragile barrier. She gasped as he stroked the seam of her sex, and an almost animalistic growl vibrated through his body. Her hands tightened involuntarily on his shoulders as he slid a finger inside her. It was so good, so exactly what she needed that she swore, the single word leaving her on a shocked exhalation.

He surprised her by breaking their kiss and lifting his head. “You know this is a terrible idea, right?”

She blinked, her brain so fogged by lust she could hardly think. “You’re seriously asking me that while you have your hand in my underwear?”

“If you want to change your mind, now is the time.”

For a moment she was stunned that he could even think of stopping—
she
was so far gone it was a wonder she was still standing. Then she saw the barely leashed desperation in his beautiful eyes and understood that Zach was trying to be a good guy, despite the fact that he was hard as a rock where he was pressed against her hip.

“If you move your hand I will strangle you with those obscenely small running shorts.”

There was no mistaking the relief in his eyes.

“You mean, like this?” He stroked her with his finger, his thumb sliding distractingly over the most sensitive part of her, his gaze never leaving hers.

By way of answer she slid a hand into his hair and dragged him down for another kiss. His tongue took her mouth again as his hand worked magic between her thighs, stroking and teasing, all thought of stopping and being sensible clearly forgotten.

Despite the fact that they’d barely started, she could feel her climax coming, could feel the tension building, and she wanted him inside her when she finally lost it. Needed it to be that way, needed to feel invaded and owned and utterly taken. Her hands smoothed down his back and across his belly. She plunged a hand inside his shorts to grasp his erection. He was achingly hard, and she slid a hand up and down his thick shaft, her thumb gliding over the silken head of his erection.

He shuddered, pushing himself into her hand. She shoved his shorts down his hips, then reached beneath her skirt to do the same with her panties. He was quick to help her, then his hands were on her bare backside, his strong arms bulging as he lifted her. She wrapped a leg around his hips and guided him to her entrance. The feel of his thick hardness against her made her sob with anticipation. She tilted her hips to invite him inside—then froze as cold reality intruded.

She wasn’t on the Pill. And he wasn’t wearing a condom.

“Wait,” she said, wrenching her mouth away from his. “Condom. We need a condom.”

He stilled, his whole body trembling, and she could feel the act of will it took for him to drag himself back from the edge of no return. “In my bedroom.”

“How far is that?”

“Down the hall, second door on the right. About a million miles.”

She grinned, even though she trembled with unfulfilled desire. At least she wasn’t alone in feeling frustrated by necessity.

He eased her down the wall and took a step backward. Her gaze moved down his body to his thighs, to the part of him that had been about to become a part of her. He was beautiful, thick and very hard and just the right length.

She couldn’t help herself—she licked her lips.

“Hold that thought,” he said. Then he turned on his heel and started up the hall.

For a second she was mesmerized by the flex of his muscular backside as he walked away from her. He had an amazing body. Amazing.

And it was about to be hers.

She followed, hands reaching for the zipper on her dress. She kicked it off as she entered his bedroom, her bra next. He was on the bed, removing a shiny foil square from the bedside drawer. She joined him, crawling up the mattress. She didn’t give him a chance to take charge, plucking the condom from his hand before planting a palm in the middle of his chest and pushing him flat onto his back. She straddled him as his hands smoothed up her sides and onto her bare breasts. She watched him watch her as she tore the condom open with her teeth, stroking the thin latex onto his erection, hugely turned on by the dark flush in his cheeks and the knowing glint in his eyes.

She positioned herself over him, ready to take them both to the place they needed to be, but he surprised her by lifting his head and tonguing her nipple. It felt so good, even better when he sucked hard before biting her gently. Her sex throbbed in response, and he took advantage of her momentary distraction to buck beneath her. A second later she was on her back, Zach above her, his arms braced on either side of her body.

“Sneaky,” she said.

“You didn’t really think I was going to let you be on top the first time, did you?”

She was still trying to come up with a suitable response when he nudged inside her, and then there was nothing but the feel of him, so hard and thick and hot as he stroked into her willing body.

So good. Almost too good.

Wrapping her legs around his hips, she gave herself up to the mindless, perfect pleasure of finally being naked with Zach.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A
RMS
BRACED
ON
EITHER
side of Audrey’s body, Zach stroked into her again, burying himself deep inside her wet, tight heat. She felt...amazing. Soft and firm at the same time, her skin velvety smooth beneath his hands. And her breasts... God, he loved her breasts.

He lowered his head to draw a pale pink nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue until it was tight and hard. He could smell her perfume and taste clean skin and something that he guessed must be pure Audrey. It was intoxicating, and he couldn’t get enough of it.

She made an unintelligible noise, somewhere between a moan and a plea, and he realized she was very close. He didn’t think it was possible for him to get any harder but he did, spurred on by her absolute abandonment to pleasure.

Wanting to make her even crazier, he slipped a hand between their bodies. She was already swollen and slick with need when he found her, but he could feel the new tension in her body as he teased her with his thumb. Her fingers dug into his hips as she urged him without words to go harder, faster. He obliged and was rewarded when she arched her back, her head dropping back, her eyes closing. Her breath came out on a shudder, her body tightening around his as she came.

There was something about how lost she appeared, something about the flush across her chest, the small frown between her eyebrows, the way she strained toward him that pushed him over the edge. He’d wanted to last longer, to perhaps help her find pleasure a second time, but she was too hot, and he’d been thinking about her way too long.

Pressing his face into the soft skin of her neck, he breathed in the scent of her as he drove himself home to the hilt. His climax hit him like a fist, squeezing him tight with pleasure so acute it was almost pain. Afterward, he let himself rest on her fully for a few seconds, momentarily spent.

That had been...mind-blowing. Exactly what he’d needed. A million times better than any fantasy he’d ever had. A billion times.

He could feel her heart pounding away, the vibration of it reaching him through their joined bodies. Like him, she was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Abruptly he realized how heavy he must be. Disengaging, he rolled to the side. He grabbed a tissue from the box beside the bed and took care of the condom and wound up on his back beside her, staring up at the ceiling, his mind a big, echoing void.

No thoughts. No worries. No pressing need to do anything. There was only the pleasant heaviness in his body and the warmth of her arm and leg against his side and the knowledge that he wasn’t alone, and that was a good thing. A great thing.

After a minute or two she stirred and he turned his head to look at her. She met his gaze unflinchingly, the way she did everything.

“Well,” she said. “I guess that was kind of inevitable.”

He couldn’t do anything but smile. “Probably.”

“Can’t shove the genie back in his bottle, after all.”

“Nope.”

“Good to have it out of our systems, though. Now we can get back to business as usual.”

She said it very matter-of-factly, as though they were dealing with a pesky work matter.

He knew better than to think she was feeling matter-of-fact, though, no matter how light her tone was. He’d been inside her. Her fingernails had dug half-moon shapes into his skin. He’d watched her lose herself in spectacular fashion.

He rolled onto his side, propping himself on his elbow so he could survey her at his leisure. He’d dreamed about this body for a long time, after all, and if this was his one shot at living his fantasy, he was going to take it and run with it.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s going to take more than what just happened to get you out of my system.”

“Yeah?” She didn’t look too disappointed by the prospect.

“Definitely. These breasts, for example...” He reached out and cupped one in his hand. Its curve fit his palm perfectly, the weight welcome and warm against his skin. “I’m going to need more time to get over them.”