It only took Seth
a few seconds to put the pieces together. A flood of realization transformed
his face. “Oh. I understand." His eyes seemed more intense than they'd
been just a moment ago. "Why didn’t you just tell me what you wanted to
begin with? You nearly gave me a heart attack calling up out of the blue all
breathless and trembling.”
Erin sucked in
an indignant breath. “I was
not
breathless and trembling. I had
considered taking you up on your previous offer, but I can see you already had
plans this evening, and you’re far too obnoxious anyway.”
He chuckled and
took a step toward her. “It wasn’t even a good opera, and I was just as glad to
be called away from it.”
“Did you have a
date?”
“Of course. But
I thought it was an emergency, so I called a car to take her home afterwards.
Neither of us was having a good time anyway.”
“
She
was
probably having a good time.”
“I don’t think
so. She looked almost relieved.” His gaze crawled over her body again. “Now,
did you want me to help...take care of you or not?”
Erin felt
another wave of embarrassment, but she forced it down ruthlessly. She had
nothing to be embarrassed about. Her body had certain needs that weren’t being
fulfilled. Seth was willing to help her out. Why the hell shouldn’t she take
him up on it?
“I suppose,”
she relented, shifting from foot to foot. “As long as you can refrain from
being quite so obnoxious for a half-hour or so.”
Seth laughed—a
soft, husky, incredibly seductive laugh that sent shivers to the beginnings of
her arousal. “I’ll do my best.”
He took another
step closer, until he was standing directly in front of her. “So,” he murmured,
meeting her eyes. “Do you want to?”
“Well, I
wouldn’t say no. You said you wouldn’t mind.”
He leaned
forward and spoke with his mouth just a breath away from hers. “I don’t mind.”
Then his lips
pressed into hers, and Erin groaned softly from the back of her throat. Winding
her arms around his neck, she fit her body into his, opening her mouth and
sliding her tongue along the line of his lips.
One of his
hands slipped up to tangle in her hair and curve around the base of her skull. The
other eased down to the small of her back, pressing her abdomen firmly into his
middle.
Erin breathed
heavily through her nose and tried to suck his tongue into her mouth. Her
swollen belly pressed into the hard planes of Seth’s stomach, and the
unaccustomed feel of it was strangely intimate. She rubbed her breasts and
belly against his body, and he made a breathless sound into her mouth.
When she
finally pulled away, Erin was hot and panting. “Don’t feel obliged, though,”
she added, unable to keep her eyes from the supple line of his mouth.
The amusement
hadn’t faded from his eyes, but something else—something intense and sensual—now
mingled into his expression. “No obligation.”
He reached out
for her again, but this time he eased her down onto the bed. Erin managed to
maneuver into a reclining position with speed if not with any particular grace.
Then Seth was beside her, half sitting and half sprawled on the side of the
bed. He didn’t move on top of her, but, with a slight adjustment of her head,
he was able to kiss her again.
Erin’s hands
started moving instinctively, caressing the hard muscles of his body and thick
texture of his hair. He smelled as he always smelled, but for some reason it
was irresistible this evening: nothing overpowering or artificial, but
something clean, and masculine, and faintly expensive. She sucked in air
desperately, but with every restoring breath she just breathed Seth in even
more.
Her arousal was
already throbbing, and she really shouldn’t be turned on so quickly, with
hardly any physical stimulation. She pushed herself up into a sitting position
so she could start pulling off the jacket to his tux.
Together,
they’d removed the jacket, and Erin was eagerly starting on his bow tie when
she happened to glance toward the mirror across the room.
She saw their
reflections clearly in that instant. Seth, gorgeous and sophisticated, even when
rumpled and partly undressed.
And Erin. Flushed,
her skin glistening with the beginnings of perspiration. Her hair messy, her
lips swollen, and a wild, desperate look in her eye.
Her belly
looked enormous and awkward in the silly chemise she should never have bought.
Erin had never
been particularly insecure about sex, but at the incongruity in the reflection,
she felt a wave of bitter self-consciousness,
“Oh, God,” she
groaned, letting go of his shoulders and collapsing back onto the bed. She
covered her face with her hands. “This is crazy.”
Seth released a
rough grunt of surprise or disappointment. “What's wrong?”
“What the hell
am I doing?” she mumbled, lowering her hands so she wouldn’t look quite so much
like a child. “You don’t have to do this. I know you agreed, and that was
really nice of you, but you couldn't possibly have any real desire to do this.”
“But I want
to.”
“Really, it’s
all right. You won't hurt my feelings. I know you’re trying to be supportive
and everything, but this is
way
beyond the call of duty.” Her hands
moved down to the distention of her abdomen, and she wished that Seth was gone
already so she could confide all her woes to a listener she knew she could
trust.
He was still
staring at her dumbly. “But, I told you before, I have no reason to refuse sex
when it's offered.”
“That was
before, when I was somewhat attractive.” She wished she could be as cool as he
was about all of this. “But it’s a whole different matter to have to fuc—to
have sex with a desperate, pregnant woman.”
“But I want
to.”
She ignored
him. Stared at the mirror instead of at his face. “What was I thinking, calling
you away from a date on a Friday night? Assuming you’d just drop everything. That
you’d want to—”
“Erin,” Seth
interrupted, his voice firmer, almost authoritative. “
I want to
.”
This time, to
prove his point, he grabbed her wrist and brought her hand down to his lap. Pressed
Erin’s palm into the hard bulge there.
“I want to,” he
said, one more time.
Erin gasped and
pushed into the tight bulge which was her proof that he was already almost
fully aroused.
Just as aroused
as she was.
“Thank God.” Erin
rubbed her hand against his hard arousal instinctively. “Thank God, it’s not
just me.”
Seth closed his
eyes briefly and let out a strangled inhalation. His hips shifted slightly as
she massaged him. “It’s not just you.”
Feeling both
her confidence and her enthusiasm return immediately, Erin adjusted herself
more comfortably beside him and pulled him into another kiss. He sat on the
side of the bed now, and she had her legs drawn up under her body. But they
managed to share a very effective kiss, and Erin didn’t pull away from him,
even when he released her lips.
She ran one
hand down his firm chest to his flat belly and then to the bulge of his erection
once more. As she cupped it lightly, she trailed kisses across his jaw line. To
his high cheekbone. And finally to his ear.
She fluttered
her tongue.
Seth bucked his
pelvis up involuntarily into her hand.
She hadn’t been
massaging him. She’d simply been feeling him through his trousers, as some sort
of assurance that he actually wanted her, that she hadn't made the whole thing
up in her desperation.
But, when she
felt him thrust up as if against his will, she felt a thrill of power and
excitement, affecting her heart, her belly, and her pussy.
“Erin,” Seth
breathed, holding onto her with one hand and fisting the bedding beside his hip
with the other.
Erin could feel
desire tightening between her thighs. Felt his tense body in every one of her
nerve endings. Fluttered her tongue once more.
He bucked up
slightly, just like before, pushing his groin into her cupped hand. Humming in
pleasure, Erin kept up the motion of her mouth and tongue, and Seth released a
long, low groan as he gave a series of little thrusts into her palm.
She’d never
known anything like it. That she could somehow make the cold, powerful, skilled
Seth Thomas lose control like this.
Even six months
pregnant.
After a minute,
however, he jerked away from her touch and stood up. He was hot and panting, barely
suppressing something primitive in his eyes. “God, Erin. You’re killing me.”
“I’m the one
who’s dying here. I was just trying to take your clothes off so we could get on
with it.”
He narrowed his
eyes. “Liar. You were having some fun with me.”
She wanted to
laugh, but she was too far gone to do more than whimper a little. “Are you
complaining? And would you hurry up now?”
He pulled off
his loosened bow tie and started to work on his shirt. Erin watched and tried
to be patient, but her entire body now felt on the verge of eruption. Her
breasts tingled torturously, so she cupped them with her hands and tried to
chaff her tight nipples through the thin fabric of her chemise.
The stimulation
caused her to arch her back a little, and, when she focused once more on Seth,
she saw that he’d stopped midway through taking off his shirt and was staring
at her dazedly.
The look in his
eyes sent another jolt of sensation down to the throbbing ache between her legs.
So, as he watched, she slid her hand from her breast, past the curve of her
belly, then dipped it under the fluttering skirt of her chemise until she could
slip it in between her legs.
She wasn’t
wearing panties, so nothing was in her way.
Seth’s entire
body looked painfully tense as he watched her stroking herself.
Finally, he
rasped, “Getting a head start?”
Erin was
impressed that he managed to keep his tone dry, despite his condition. “Since
you don’t seem to be in any hurry.”
At this, Seth
shed his clothes with significantly more haste. Then he grabbed a condom packet
from where she’d put it earlier on the nightstand.
His erection
was hard and prominent on his naked body, and Erin stared at it hungrily.
But she didn’t
stop rubbing herself, sighing in relief as the stimulation eased some of her gathered
tension.
“All right,” Seth
prompted, stretching out beside her and staring down at her hand between her
legs speakingly. “I’m ready to go now.”
“Yeah,” she
breathed harshly, feeling a more purposeful pressure develop as she rubbed
little circles on her clit. “Sorry. Blame it on the hormones. But you were too
slow. I don’t think I can wait.”
Something
pleased ignited in his eyes. He straightened up again and reached to remove her
hand.
Erin grunted in
frustration and tried to move her hand back.
He replaced her
hand with his own. “Maybe I can help. Otherwise, I'll be an unnecessary
accessory.”
“No need—” Erin
began. But then released a sharp cry as he sunk one finger inside her.
“God, you’re
wet,” he murmured, pumping the finger in and out in a way that made her writhe
in pleasure.
Sucking in
thick gasps of air, Erin managed to force out, “Let’s not start
that
again.”
He smiled
appreciatively, although his face looked a little tense. Erin knew he was very
aroused himself and that it was an effort for him to hold back long enough to
please her like this.
Fortunately, it
would take her very little time to come. Erin moved her hands back to her breasts
and massaged them clumsily. Her hips rocked up into his hand. “All right. If
you insist. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“You’ll have to
tell me what you like,” he said, adjusting his hand to get his thumb in a more strategic
position. He stroked her experimentally.
“Oh, God. Good,
but, not quite...” When Seth’s thumb landed squarely on her clit, she gasped,
“Yeah, there, there.”
Arching her
back and thrusting her pelvis up as Seth found a rhythm, Erin fell quickly
toward orgasm.
Seth watched
her with a strange sort of hunger, and his expression was so deep and intense
that Erin had to close her eyes to keep from being distracted by it.
Her climax was
quick and powerful, and she cried out in relief as she came.
Gasping
urgently, she moaned in pleasure as Seth finally slid his hand out from between
her legs. “Nicely done,” she murmured brokenly, deciding he deserved a little
praise for his effort.
“I’m glad you
approve.”
“Now get the
condom on,” she said, not even caring if he thought she was bossy. The orgasm
hadn't sated her as much as made her hungry for more.
He didn’t
appear to mind this piece of instruction, and he tore open and rolled on a
condom in an uncharacteristically awkward rush.
She'd never
thought much about it, but—had she been asked a year ago—she would have guessed
that Seth Thomas would be a perfectly skilled, suave, and confident lover.
He was good—no
doubt about that. But he was no more controlled in this than she was.
Or maybe just a
little
bit more controlled than her, but that was just the fault of her
surging hormones.
“How do you
want to do this?” he asked, his voice tight with desire. “I assume you don’t
want my weight on your stomach.”
“No,” she
agreed. She should have done something as obvious as think through appropriate
positions long before now, but she hadn’t done any such thing.
“Doggie style
should work,” Seth suggested, rubbing some perspiration off his brow. “What
about that?”
Erin didn’t
really feel like getting on her hands and knees, but she nodded anyway—as she
couldn’t think of a better option. “Okay.”