Real Men Do It Better (6 page)

She rose up on her knees, staying close enough to slide her cleft along his cock so the current’s hot spot wasn’t broken. “Have you tried before, with anyone else?”

“Not like this.” He kissed her. “You’re my first, in a way.”

“Keep kissing me.”

Their mouths met. The intimacy escalated. It was even more erotic—and moving—having his tongue slide between her lips the same moment as she lowered herself onto the slickened head of his cock. She sank lower, gasping as her tight passage opened to accept him. He was all aggressive, invading male. All cock—thick and blunt and overwhelming.

A bolt of electricity lit her up inside. For an instant, she was at the center of a blazing sun. Then she lifted an inch higher on her knees and felt the relief of slippery warm liquid, before hard lust drove her down and the fireball ripped through her again. She tore her mouth from his and would have screamed, if every drop of oxygen hadn’t been jarred from her lungs.

Gabe leaned away. His hands tightened on her waist.

No.
Air scraped her throat when she inhaled. “Stay inside me.”

“Fuck, yes.” He’d only deepened the angle.

Her hips ground in small circles. He held her ass, trying to fix her in place to pump into her, but she was too lost in the roaring sexual delirium to have her movements contained. Each thrust was another shock, exploding with sharp pleasure and sweet pain. She couldn’t stop. But after only a minute she felt herself collapsing, her bones melting in the bubbling cauldron at their point of joining.

He took care of that. With one great heave, he lifted her off the floor and dropped her on the couch. From the verge of withdrawal, he drove solidly into her again. Even deeper. Right to the hilt, catching her by the back of her knees and levering her legs up and open, open so wide there was a piercing pressure right where she’d been needing it.

Zzzap.
A bolt of sensation struck her clit and zigzagged upward.

He caught her cry on his tongue. They kissed hungrily. Soon their lips and tongues were part of the motion, their fingers and nipples and navels. Every part of them, gliding thrusts and dissolving restraints, creating a synchronicity of wet friction and tight, spiraling pleasure.

Gabe let out a shout and accelerated to short, hard strokes as he came. An endless string of pulsing electric charges detonated inside Karen. Her climax was an inferno, burning hot, burning hard, until her mind was scorched bare and there was nothing left—not inhibition or reason or regret.

Gabe moved first, minutes later, when he dropped an open-mouthed kiss below her navel. “Are you okay?”

She wasn’t ready to answer. Her body was still vibrating.

He licked, shooting a weakly quivering arrow into her.

“Huh.” She put her tongue back in and closed her mouth. Tried to remember how to form words.

He reached up. A hand squeezed her breast. Another small dart of pleasure.

“I think…” Her neurons were firing up. “I drained you.”

“That’s right.”

“I mean, when you touch me now, it’s not quite so electric.”

He chuckled against her lower belly. “You’re saying the magic is gone?”

“Don’t be a tease.” She jogged his shoulders. “I’m serious. Maybe you’re cured.”

After a minute, he said, “Maybe,” but she could tell he wasn’t convinced.

The Thor thing wasn’t entirely a joke. She had a thousand questions about his—what was it, a medical condition? Except she imagined that he’d been treated often enough as an extraordinary spectacle, practically a circus sideshow. The questions could wait.

He was drawing small circles over her stomach. Small tingling sparks followed his fingertips like comet tails. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

“As far as I can tell.” She wiggled into the couch cushions. “I do feel rather, uh, incandescent. As if you stuck a light bar up me and flicked the switch.” She patted his shoulder to let him know she was fine. “All I can say is—” She laughed. “Thank heaven for the rubber.”

His gaze traveled up her lax body to her face. “You’re not freaked out?”

“Do I look freaked out?”

“You look too stunned to react.”

“Maybe. But my brain is starting to function.”

“What about here?” He stroked between her legs, where she was damp and sore.

She couldn’t hold back a wince.

“Poor pussy,” he said, lowering his head. “I’ll make it feel better.” Gently, he parted the inflamed lips with his tongue. His hands petted and comforted.

The warmth of his mouth felt wonderful. She sighed and spread her thighs, shivering a little at the erotic fever of his tongue spearing through her slick flesh. He hummed sweet praise and hot breath against her blossoming folds. She thought of florists, gently blowing into roses to open the petals.

She drew up her knees. Reached down to stroke his hair.

And there was a loud knock at the front door.

“Oh, God, not now.” She shoved Gabe away, when what she wanted was more of the healing power of his talented tongue.

The knocking had become pounding. A male voice shouted for her. “Karen? Are you home?”

“Damn it.” She scrambled to her feet, gathering Gabe’s clothes off the hearth in one fell swoop, and thrusting them into his arms. “It’s Officer Dan. Go upstairs.”

“What’s an Officer Dan?”

“The town cop. We—we’re friendly.” She yanked at the nightshirt that had become a wrinkled flannel obi around her waist. “I’m sure he’s here to check on me. I’ll get rid of him as fast as I can, but he can’t see you here.”

Gabe’s shoulders broadened. “Why not?”

“Don’t get territorial on me.” She whipped the toile throw off the floor. “This is a small town. I’d rather keep my private life private.” She turned toward the front hall and hollered, “Coming!”

Gabe licked her ear. “Is that what you say to all the guys?”

Ticklish. She batted at him before the shiver became reckless desire. “Please, go upstairs. And for Pete’s sake, pull up your shorts.”

Even though Officer Dan continued knocking, she paused, falling into a brief reverie as she watched Gabe climb the steps with his pale moon showing, as he fumbled with the tangle of clothing and the briefs down around his knees. He had a fine, firm ass. A delectable ass. What a shame that they had so little time to become acquainted.

“Hello, hello? Karen?”

“Right,” she said. “The door.” Still, she hovered at the bottom of the steps, calling sotto voce, “My room is the one on the left. Make yourself at home.”

The image of Gabe waiting for her naked in bed was so strong she had to blink several times to bring herself down to the reality of Officer Dan O’Shanahan standing on her porch, turned out for emergency duty in his blue uniform with visor cap. He really liked that uniform, with its badges and equipment and accompanying air of authority.

She said hello. “Sorry I took so long. I was—”
Indisposed
was not the word, when she’d been very disposed to appreciate every flick and swirl of Gabe’s tongue.

The police officer looked at her tousled hair, bare legs, and the crumpled nightshirt. “In bed, were you?”

Suddenly she became all too aware of the slick juices leaking out of her. She squeezed her thighs together, forgetting to answer when a telltale trickle still managed to work its way south.

“I heard the storm was real wicked out this way.” Officer Dan surveyed her yard. “Looks like the lightning hit you good. You’ve got a big branch down. The power’s out, heh?”

“So’s the phone.” She stopped, nervously smoothing the shirt. “Isn’t everyone’s?”

“Must be only along this stretch of road.” Officer Dan stepped past her to go inside, craning and swiveling as he checked out the house. He saw the candle stubs. “Haven’t you got flashlights?”

“Actually, yes, but the batteries went out.” Karen was remembering all over again why her fling with the officer had been such a mistake. He’d assumed their one foray into sex was permission to take over her life. And since he was one of those guys who is happiest when he’s busy being useful, what had seemed sweet and thoughtful at the start quickly became bossy and intrusive. Extrication had been complicated. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, since his intentions were good; but she’d also been too embarrassed to admit that she’d gone to bed with him only because phone sex had given her an itch that he’d been handy to scratch.

Officer Dan marched into the kitchen and picked up the large flashlight. He turned it on and the beam cut through the darkness. “Huh, it’s working now.”

He walked to the doorway, holding the light up by his shoulder to illuminate the cozy parlor and dying fire. “How are you fixed for wood? I can carry some in for you, in case the electric stays out.”

Karen cringed. The room reeked of sex, even with the masking scent of wood smoke in the air. The number of dishes on the coffee table were another dead giveaway. “Thank you, but I’m fine.” Firmly, she took the flashlight from his hand.

He nudged too close, examining her face in his forthright way. Probably hoping for signs she’d become a damsel in distress. She prayed he wouldn’t pick up on the braless signal instead.

“I don’t like you being out here all alone.”

Her smile was a reflex. “A little thunder and lightning can’t hurt me.”

Officer Dan frowned. He was suspicious. “I found a bike on the side of the road, not too far away. Didn’t appear to have been struck or in an accident, so that means there’s a stranger wandering out there somewhere. He didn’t show up here, did he? I should go and check out your barn.”

Karen shrugged. “If someone was there, he’d be welcome to the shelter.”

“But you’re an attractive woman, all alone…”

She quelled him with a look. They’d been over this.

Officer Dan clamped his jaw. His nostrils flared.

“Thank you for the concern,” she said carefully, “but there’s nothing to—” A soft thud from upstairs interrupted her dismissal.

“The cats,” she said, not very subtly urging him to the door. “I’d better go see what they’re up to.”

“You’re sure there’s nothing you need?”

Need? That answer would be an emphatic
no.
She was finally completely satisfied.

“Don’t worry about me. Go take care of the little old ladies and maybe a few of the younger ones, too.”

Determinedly, she waved him off. Officer Dan was considered a catch around town. He was decent, ultra-competent, even handsome in a fortyish, thickening-around-the-waist way. He also had an ex-wife, two kids, an on-call work schedule, and an embattled township board to pacify. Too many complications for Karen, when she was looking for—for—

Peace and quiet, the freedom to work without being hassled. Or so she’d been saying.

Surely one rousing electric fuck hadn’t changed that, no matter how eager she was to get upstairs to Gabe.

5

Gabe had become accustomed to not feeling like himself. After the lightning strike, when he’d first discovered his freak-show abilities and the doctors were equally baffled and skeptical about his apparent electromagnetic sensitivity, his family had reassured him that he wasn’t changed in any way that was important. They said his affliction would pass with time, and meanwhile he was handy to keep around as a night light and fire starter.

But as the days and weeks went by, the burn marks faded, and still he remained a veritable lightning rod, he’d begun to fear that he might never be normal again. Of course, his family was accepting. They loved him.

The rest of the world was different. There, he was a medical oddity. A nuisance. Even a danger.

The getaway at a friend’s hunting cabin was supposed to clear his head. He’d intended to come to grips with the facts, strange as they were, and make a decision about how to proceed. What to do with the rest of his life.

Now, he also had to figure out what to do with Karen Jaffe.

Other than
that …

She trotted up the stairs with a beam of light bouncing before her, and entered the bedroom. “The flashlight’s working again.”

Gabe put out his hand. He might as well show her what it was like, being him.

She turned over the flashlight, watching curiously as the beam flickered, then died. “Wow.”

“Something in my body chemistry reacts with batteries and electrical systems. Which is why your watch and clock stopped. I can’t even use a remote control.”

“That’s got to be a pain in the ass.”

“Yeah.” The darkness felt safe to him. He’d become used to that, too. “I can’t drive either. Or even ride in a car for very long.”

“For real?”

“Not reliably. The systems don’t conk out as quickly as flashlight batteries do, but sooner or later they’ll malfunction. Makes it almost impossible to get around.”

Her eyes were wide, all iris black in the unlit room. “What about airplanes?”

“I haven’t dared try.”

“Then how did you get to Iowa?”

“Bus. I found out that if I sit in the back, buses are good, even for a long trip. Otherwise, I bike or walk everywhere I want to go.”

She seemed fascinated by his quirks, as most were, but not to the point that he felt like she’d paid her buck to examine a sideshow exhibit. “A bike’s got metal parts,” she pointed out. “But I did notice how you wouldn’t pick up that soup spoon.”

“I’m not always this sensitive,” he explained. “Sparks don’t shoot from my fingers on a daily basis. Lightning storms bring it out in me—all that electricity in the air. That’s when I really have to watch myself.”

She stood unmoving beside the bed. He wanted to reach for her, but he couldn’t, even now. Especially now. The current was still running inside him. He could feel the higher voltage in his prickling hair, his sensitive skin, the way his balls had drawn tight into his body at the thought of laying his hands on her luscious body once more.

“Oh. Okay.” She put the flashlight on the bedside table, then she lifted the covers and slid inside.

He balanced on the far edge.

After a moment’s hesitation, she rolled toward him, splaying a hand over his ribs. A small shock passed between them, subsiding to a staticky warmth, as her palm coasted upward across his chest. “So when you said I was your first…?”