Naked (12 page)

Then without another word, Alex moved down my body to center his mouth over my lace-covered clit. He kissed me there. I jerked but kept my hands together. His low laugh blew damp heat over me, and I opened my legs for him.

He hooked a finger in my panties and slid them down, his mouth following. Kiss after kiss, first on my belly, then my
thigh, then my knee. Both ankles. Up again on the other leg, until he’d centered himself again.

I stayed very, very still. It took an eternity for him to put his mouth to me again, and when he did my fingers slipped apart. Only for a second. I clutched them tight together.

“I know you like to win.” He spoke against my skin. His tongue found my clit and circled there, and I felt his finger stroke me. “Don’t you?”

“This isn’t
Dance Dance…
” My words slid into a groan at the pleasure of his mouth.

He murmured laughter against me, and it felt so good I pushed myself against his tongue. His finger slid inside me, and that felt good, too. They call it eating out, but Alex didn’t just eat me. He savored me.

He licked and stroked me until I trembled with climax, and then he eased off. The futon dipped as he knelt upright. I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes until he stopped, and then they flew open.

He wasn’t smiling when he unhooked his jeans and pushed them down to free his cock. He got out of them and knelt again, one knee between my legs and the other at my side. He stroked himself slowly, eyes narrowed in concentration.

My internal muscles clenched, my clit throbbing. Every muscle in my body had tensed, ready to tip over into orgasm, and now I hovered on the edge of pleasure. It would take only one more kiss, a touch, and I was sure I’d come.

He didn’t touch me. He kept stroking himself, his face serious. He bit down on his lip and then let his head tip back. His hips pushed forward, thrusting his cock into his fist.

He made a pretty picture. Even with an orgasm tightening my body I had to frame him in my head.
Snap, click.

His eyes opened and he looked down at me. I’d made a noise, sort of a growl. When he smiled I wanted to curse him out, except he looked so delicious I couldn’t.

“I’m so fucking hard,” he said, deliberately stroking. “I want to be inside you, Olivia.”

My fingers slipped apart, just a little. I moved them from over my head to rest on my forehead, just over my eyes, though I could still see him. I wanted to see him. “You are so not being fair.”

His laugh became a groan. “Fuck, this feels so good…but you’d feel better.”

My clit throbbed again. Climax had not eased off; I was still so close I thought I could probably finish just by squeezing my thighs together. My cunt ached, empty.

“You’re so wet,” he said. “I’d slide so far in…and then out….”

He cracked open one eye, judging my response. I’d have laughed if I’d been able, but I couldn’t find the breath. All of it was taken up with trying not to unlink my hands.

“Fuck it,” I said after a second, and sat up, reaching for him. “You win.”

I pulled him on top of me and we kissed wildly. His hands slid up my body to help me off with my clothes. Bared to him, I breathed out. Everything in me strained for release.

He sat up long enough to grab a condom from the box; smart man, he’d put it under the cushions. Foil tore. He didn’t play any more games. Alex rolled the condom down over his cock and then moved back over my body. His mouth found mine. He covered me, one hand pressing the futon next to my shoulder and the other…oh, the other, fuck, guiding himself inside me.

He pushed into me slowly and stopped when I grumbled a small protest. He slid a hand beneath the back of my neck, fingers diving into my hair, and brought my mouth to his. Openmouthed, he kissed me and then stopped, breathing hard.

I blinked him into focus, his face so close I could count his lashes. Inside me his cock throbbed, and I shifted. My clit pulsed, but he didn’t move. I shook, not on purpose, but unable to stop my body from finding its way.

He pressed deeper into me. Then just as slowly withdrew a shallow inch. It wasn’t enough. I lifted my hips and clutched his ass to move him.

He sank into me, then pulled out. Thrust. Our teeth clashed in a hard kiss, but I didn’t care about bruises. It felt so good nothing else mattered; it all fell away. We fucked hard and fast, and when I came I closed my eyes on starbursts of color like fireworks.

Alex came a half a minute after I did. He groaned my name, surprising me. I loved it.

A minute passed before he reached between us to hold the condom and pull out of me. He rolled onto his back with a loud sigh. I stared up at the ceiling, unable to form words, boneless and sated.

“I’m sorry,” he said after another minute.

I’d been drifting, not quite sleeping but in a happy place. Now I pushed up on my elbow to look at him. “For what?”

He sat, too, then scooted to the edge of the futon to deal with the condom. He looked over his shoulder at me. “For…well, I said it had been a while.”

I thought he was kidding. Was certain of it, in fact, until I saw his face when he got up to head for the bathroom. And
there I sat in the pile of pillows scattered by our passion, confused.

I got up and followed him. “What do you mean?”

He was washing his hands at the sink. “I mean…it was…fast. That’s all.”

“Oh.” I chewed my cheek. This was delicate ground. “Hey. Look at me.”

He turned, expression neutral. I was used to that. I put a hand on his hip, pulled him closer, right up against me. Flesh to flesh.

“It was the best sex I’ve had in a long, long time.”

His mouth fought not to smile. “When’s the last time you had sex?”

“It’s been a long, long time,” I conceded, as I rose on my toes to kiss his mouth. “But that doesn’t make any less fucktastic.”

He put his arms around me. Kissed me back. Laughed a little. “Next time…”

I reached around to squeeze his ass. “Next time. Yes.”

We spent the day naked or almost naked, watching movie after movie from his giant collection. He hadn’t moved in much furniture, but he had enough DVDs to stock a rental place. We ate pizza from his freezer and he made me margaritas using Gran Patrón Platinum tequila with a price tag that made me cough, while the booze itself slid effortlessly down my throat. He didn’t actually drink any, I noticed.

“You sure you don’t want to go out?” Alex had pulled on a pair of loose, red silk boxers and lent me one of his soft and wash-worn button-downs. We’d made a table from a hard-sided suitcase, and sat on cushions from the futon. “We could
head over to the Corvette. They’ve got wings on special there. Happy hour drinks, too, I think.”

I was buzzed enough from the margarita, and I licked salt from the rim of my glass as I shook my head. “God, no. I’m stuffed.”

He leaned to steal a piece of pepperoni I’d picked off my pizza, and stuck it in his mouth. “You should’ve said something, Olivia. I’d have made something else.”

It took me a second to parse what he meant. “Oh…no, it’s fine. I don’t eat pepperoni, but not because…well, I guess it’s because I never had it growing up. I’m not offended by it.”

I hadn’t actually thought about that—why I turned aside pepperoni and shrimp, two foods my mother would now rather be stabbed with an ice pick than eat. Why I’d eat turkey bacon and not the regular kind, or why I’d eat ham my dad sent home with me but never would cook it myself. I poked at the round red slices, which left a smear of orange grease on my fingertip, and instead of licking it off used one of the paper towels we had in lieu of napkins.

He wasn’t asking, but I told him anyway. “My parents divorced when I was five. My dad’s Catholic, my mom’s Jewish. Both remarried. My dad’s been pretty active in his church for a long time, but my mom has just recently over the past few years decided to become observant. That means she follows the dietary laws and keeps the Sabbath.”

Alex topped off my glass with more frozen margarita from the blender, his attention taken up with not spilling, but he shot me a grin. “I know what it means.”

I laughed self-consciously. “Well, mostly around here people don’t.”

He leaned to kiss the corner of my mouth. “You forget. I’m a world traveler.”

I put a hand on the back of his neck so he couldn’t pull away. I turned the kiss from something small and light to deep. Hot. He was smiling when I let him go.

“French kiss,” he murmured against my lips before sitting back. “A little later I’ll show you an Australian kiss.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, what’s that?”

“It’s just like a French kiss,” he explained, “but you do it down under.”

I groaned and flopped back on the pillows. “Did you learn any
good
jokes in your world travels?”

Alex stretched out beside me. “That’s the best I have, sorry.”

I turned onto my side, facing him. “That’s okay.”

“Do you have to work tomorrow?”

I made a face. “Don’t remind me. But, yes. Not until four with Foto Folks, but I’ve got a few client jobs to take care of in the morning. Why?”

“Just wondering if you had to go to sleep early.”

I returned his smile. “I should. I should go home soon.”

“No,” Alex said seriously. “Don’t.”

I groaned again and flopped onto my back to stare at the ceiling. “Alex…”

“Olivia.”

I sat up and pulled my knees close to my chest, my arms linked around them. “I don’t want this to get weird or anything.”

He tugged one of my locks. “It doesn’t have to.”

I looked at the futon, pillows scattered and sheets rumpled, and the box with condoms spilling from it. I looked at our dinner. I looked at him.

“This has been great, Alex. Really fantastic. And unexpected.”

“I’m full of surprises.”

Of that, I had no doubts. “I think I should go now.”

His eyes narrowed and he looked away for a second, then back. “I wish you wouldn’t.”

“Alex…” I sighed. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted him to go down on me again, I wanted to fuck him again, and that, I knew, was only going to lead to trouble. And I had been warned.

“Olivia,” he said again, patiently, “do you have a boyfriend?”

“You know I don’t!”

“Would you like one?”

I rested my chin on my knees and studied him for a few long, silent minutes. He didn’t look away. He didn’t shift or twitch. Alex simply waited for my answer.

“Don’t you think most people want someone?” I said finally. “Even the ones who say they don’t?”

“Yes. I think so.” He tilted his head a little. “So?”

“Do I want a boyfriend?” I squeezed my arms tighter around my knees, then looked deep into his eyes. “Are you offering?”

“I like you. You’re beautiful—”

I laughed.

He raised an eyebrow. “You are. And talented. And fun to be around. I’ve never met a woman who liked the movie
Harold and Maude.
”

“We haven’t even dated,” I said.

Alex didn’t glance at the futon, scene of our sexcapades. “We can date.”

“Uh-huh.” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Maybe we can start with that.”

He laughed. “Okay.”

“Okay, now this is weird.” I unlinked my hands to stretch out my legs.

“I told you it doesn’t have to be.”

“I haven’t had a boyfriend in a long time, that’s all.”

“I haven’t had a girlfriend in a long time, either. Probably longer than you haven’t had a boyfriend.” Alex ran a fingertip down my shoulder to my wrist, then pulled his hand away. He laughed, then held up a finger. “Wait here.”

He jumped up and disappeared into the bedroom he never slept in, and came out a moment later with a frazzled silk flower on a green plastic stem. He dropped to one knee in front of me, a hand over his heart, and held it out. “Olivia. Will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend? Or not being my girlfriend, whatever you want to call it?”

I broke into laughter and took the pathetic flower. “Where did you get this?”

“It was in the bathroom vanity when I moved in. See? It’s fate.”

“It’s disgusting.” I let it droop in my hand.

“Hey, real flowers have bugs in them. Be glad I didn’t bring you a beetle-infested rose or something. That would’ve been disgusting.”

I couldn’t keep a straight face around him. I tossed the flower aside and held out my arms for him to move closer. “This is crazy.”

“I got your crazy,” he whispered in my ear, before he kissed my neck in the tender spot he’d discovered.

I know he had to feel the way my pulse raced when his lips
skimmed my throat. I know he heard the sharp intake of my breath when his teeth nipped me there, and I’m certain he felt the tug of my fingers in his hair when I sank them in deep.

He unbuttoned my borrowed shirt and folded it back to reveal my bare breasts underneath. His lips moved over my collarbones on each side, then down over the slope of my flesh, pausing to suckle at one nipple, then the other. I sank back onto the pillows, my arms over my head, and gave myself up to him.

“You are too hard to resist.” My voice hitched.

I felt his laughter against my skin. “I know.”

Against my thigh, I felt his cock rise in the silk. He shifted, and the heat of it pressed my bare skin. The pillows slipped under me as I arched into his kiss. I’ve never felt small. I tower over my mother, can look my brothers in the eye, and stand only an inch or so shorter than my dad. I’m curvy and rounded and they’re all spare and thin. Here in Alex’s arms, I felt petite.

“I didn’t realize how big you were,” I said against his mouth.

He shifted my weight, just a little. “I’m not surprised, considering the size of your dildo.”

I swatted his chest. “I’ve never used that thing!”

He laughed and eased me onto the futon, which had been stripped down to the bottom sheet. “Uh-huh.”

I reached between us to grip a handful of silk-covered cock. The silk moved easily over him as I stroked, and his hiss rewarded me. “And that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

He pushed into my hand and buried his face against my neck to lick and suck gently. “Good. Because there’s only so much my ego can take.”