The Virgin's Revenge (22 page)

“But—”

“Just don’t. I want to see you.” He looked her in the eye then, his desire so stark on his face that she almost couldn’t breathe. His hands came up, just the fingertips touching her skin, his thumbs circling the pale peach tips on each breast. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Amanda. You have no idea.”

She didn’t, but she was glad he did. She relaxed, though she still shook. Which was strange, because she wasn’t cold. Her body had a heat to it she’d never experienced before. But still, she shivered. Especially when his palms grazed the sensitive points, making it almost impossible to breathe. To stay up, even though she wanted more than anything for him to really touch her.

“I want to suck you.” The rawness of his voice made her stomach clench. Made her more aware of the moisture starting to flow between her thighs.

“I want that too,” she admitted, trying not to pant. Especially when her mind wandered and her clit throbbed, putting in its vote. “Everywhere.”

Was that a growl coming from him? “We need to get you out of that skirt.”

She glanced down, realizing he was right. “Leave the panties on or off?”

“Off. Now.” Oh yeah, definitely a growl.

“What about
your
pants?”

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. Just clenched his jaw and then started undoing the button on the fly.

Wow, if she’d known all it would take to get him out of his pants was to take hers off first, she’d have done it years ago!

Her back settled on the comforter, the simple cotton somehow silkier, more sensual than ever before on her bare skin. She undid her own button and zipper, then put her hands on each side of her hips and began pushing the skirt off. Hooking the waist of her panties with her thumbs, it only took a small shimmy or two to shuck them both to her knees. Cole abandoned his open pants to help her pull the useless clothes free.

Finally, nothing blocked the way between her and the heat of his gaze. The devastating need on his face.

“You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed of seeing you like this.” His palms settled on her calves, warmth seeping into her as he leaned over her.

Was it as long as she’d dreamed of seeing him the same way?

Probably not, but she wasn’t thinking about that right now. Nothing was going to ruin the fact that Cole was finally here, in the flesh, with her. Nothing could.

Candlelight flickered over his skin, loving every contour of the muscles of his shoulders, chest and abdomen. She wanted to reach up and stroke him. Run her fingers over his arms, savoring the skin-to-skin contact. She just wanted, so badly, to have all of it at the same time and drown herself in him. To feel him drowning in her.

If the look on his face meant anything, he just might.

His gaze devoured her, the heat of it taking away the urge to chatter her teeth. His jaws clenched, which for some reason was just damn sexy. Then, finally, his hands moved. Up her legs, stroking the sides of her thighs, to her hips and higher, as he settled on his stomach next to her, taking only the briefest second to toy with the belly gem he always seemed so enamored with. His fingers smoothly slid over the canvas of her ribs before pulling her flush against his chest and taking her mouth again.

She moaned at the feel of their bodies finally coming together skin to skin, but so did he, so she didn’t feel silly about it. In fact, she didn’t feel anything but the hum in her body and the restrained power of his. When his mouth left hers, she was gasping, arching as he made his way down to her breasts.

His lips feathered over her skin until his breath teased her left nipple. She watched, fascinated, as he considered how to approach his first lick. She couldn’t figure out exactly what made it so difficult for him, but finally, he met her gaze, and took the turgid tip into his mouth. Sensation flew from her breast to all the nerve endings on her body, lighting her up like a Christmas tree. And when he began to suck, drawing on her hard before flicking the tip with his tongue, she may have accidentally shrieked.

How exactly does a man smile like that with a nipple in his mouth and still look so sexy?

She didn’t keep her eyes open to find out because he switched to the other breast and somehow, that one was even more sensitive than the first. Her hands were fisting in his hair before she knew it, and his throaty laughter was making her crazy.

Finally getting him to give up his prize, she scowled at him. “You haven’t kept your end of the deal, Engstrom.”

“I’m getting there.” He bent his head to nibble at her forearm, and she let go of his hair. But he didn’t get up, instead taking those wet kisses of his and working his way down her belly, slowly rubbing the muscles of her thighs into opening for him. She rolled onto her back, wondering where the oxygen in the room had gone, not at all prepared when his palms lifted one of her legs at a time and fit them over his shoulders.

She stared down, dazed, to find Cole studying her folds much the way he’d been looking at her breast.

“You might want to grab a pillow,” he warned, licking his lips.

“What? Why?” Her voice was so breathy. Why wasn’t he breathy?

“Because I have a feeling this is about to get loud.” He lowered his face—still smiling, the jerk!—and she screamed.

He licked through her folds—nothing gentle or fluttery like she’d read about, either. Oh, hell no. Not Cole. He licked at her with wide, firm strokes that caressed her clit, teasing it to hard attention. Then he rubbed it between his lips, laving attention on it until she was a single electric nerve that danced to his tune. His fingers joined the act, caressing, parting her, dipping inside.

She did grab the pillow then, pulling it over her face, unable to completely stifle the cries he kept plucking out of her. One finger, then two, stroking inside her in a way no toy from the shop had ever been able to do.

Her entire body shook, coiling tight toward a pleasure she just couldn’t reach. She lifted her hips for him, rocking against his mouth, his fingers, the fast thrusts getting her so close and yet nowhere near completion at the same time.

“Please, Cole, please…” Could he even hear her from under the pillow? He must have, because he centered his attention on her clit, sucking it with fast, drawing pulses of his tongue and his fingers curled within her. Suddenly, sensation broke over her. Her body bowed, and her scream couldn’t be held back, no matter how she tried. She shuddered, her entire body quaking as wave after wave of exquisite pleasure washed through her. All the way through, he rode them with her, soothing her even as he drank her down.

Finally, her body sank back to the bed, boneless, her mind just barely able to process the slow kisses he trailed up her open thigh. Soothing, gentling kisses. When those stopped, his hands continued to caress her legs, her belly, twirling the gem there a few more times.

When the pillow lifted, he was lying full length next to her again, and the smile in his eyes was beyond teasing. Beyond pleased. But not quite satisfied. She could still see the hunger, the strain at the corners of his mouth.

“Promise kept,” he said softly, smoothing her hair from her face before bringing their lips together for a slow, deep kiss. She tasted herself, mixed with him, and the carnality of that threatened to spark the upward climb of her senses again.

“Actually,” she replied, breathing him in, savoring the intimacy, “when I mentioned your end of the deal, I was talking about your pants.”

They both looked down to the denim still hanging desperately onto his hips. The zipper had parted, revealing the dark hair she wanted so badly to touch. To feel against the same place his mouth had just been.

Just like that, her hunger doubled on itself. She reached for him, curling her body toward him, her hand sinking into the black silk of the hair at his nape and taking his mouth for her own.

“Now, Cole,” she demanded. “I can’t wait anymore.”

“You don’t have to.” The urgency had hit him too, she knew it. Could feel it in the way he rose up, pulling her with him before grabbing her pillows and shoving them up behind her.

Amanda sank into the pile against her headboard, torn between closing her eyes and watching him shove his jeans from his body as if getting them off was all that kept him from heaven itself.

“Where are those condoms of yours?”

She looked to the nightstand drawer, where she’d dumped them all like it was a giant candy dish. Before she could lean over to get to it, he was already there, stretched across the bed and pulling open the drawer.

“Holy shit, that’s a lot of condoms.”

She covered her laugh with her hand when he just stared at the treasure trove of golden packets. Filled to the brim, the little drawer almost couldn’t open without spilling them. It was kind of awe-inspiring actually. A drawer full of anticipation.

Though it might look like desperation to anyone else.

“What do you think?” she asked, starting to worry when he couldn’t seem to move.

He smiled and winked at her. “I love you so much right now.”

She laughed—with the crazy rightness of this moment she couldn’t do anything else. This was the same Cole she’d always known. Boyish grin, intensely masculine face, rakish fall of ebony hair over his eyes, and her heart ached so much in that second, she thought it might actually stop.

I love you too.

But she couldn’t say it. Couldn’t ruin this time, so she said the next best thing. “Get over here, dumbass.”

She’d barely had the words out before he was there again, their mouths mating through fading laughter, their arms around each other. As eagerly as they kissed, she could still feel his smile against her lips. Could he feel hers? Did he have any idea how happy he made her? Would he ever know how much he’d given her, how much he meant to her?

The questions faded from her mind, all of them sizzling away. She gave herself completely to the experience of making love to the man she loved.

He fit the sheath over himself then moved into the cradle of her open thighs. She lay back into the pillows, her hands lightly holding her own knees apart for him, watching intently as he slid the thick head of his cock back and forth between the lips of her sex.

“Tell me if I do anything you don’t like,” he said tightly, stroking his shaft as he stroked her.

“I’ll like anything we do, as long as you don’t stop.” She wanted to let her head fall back and close her eyes in bliss, but she didn’t want to miss a second of what he was doing to her. With her.

He pushed slowly inside, gliding deeper and deeper. Carefully. Giving her time to adjust to the sensual invasion. Or maybe simply enjoying the clasp of her body as she took him in inch by inch. Maybe both, she decided, because he was watching them join just as intently as she was. Breath held, just like her.

Finally, he was completely within her.

Wholly a part of her.

He laid his forehead against hers, their shuddering breaths melding. “Amanda?”

“Yes?” Less a word, more a sound they both pretended to understand.

“I just want you to know…”

She looked into his eyes, bracing herself for him to tell her something that would tear away the dream. Maybe even break her heart. But that wasn’t what she saw.

His eyes shone, his gaze soft and open. “This is the most amazing moment of my life.”

She sighed, relief and passion warring inside her. She pulled him to her, licked his lips and whispered, “Mine too.”

Then words were gone, their bodies clinging together as he began to move. Drawing back, pushing inside again. It started with a sigh, then a moan. She lost track of who was leading and who followed. Their bodies moved on instinct, rising and falling together. She held him tight, clasping him with her legs and her arms, her breasts stroked by his chest, her lips branded by his kiss. Within her, the pleasure built, the tension rose until she could barely breathe. Deeper, harder, until their rhythm was desperate, their bodies slick. And when she cried out against his lips, he groaned with her, both of them utterly lost to anything but each other.

Long moments passed, neither of them willing to let go. Gently rocking, touching…loving. Eventually, Cole slid free of her, taking a few moments to fix the blankets they’d mussed and pull them over her. Then he slid in behind her, moving her into his arms.

“Was it everything you were hoping for?” he asked, catching her just before sleep could claim her completely.

“It was more,” she replied, more relaxed than she’d ever been in her life, her heart beyond full. “It was so much more.”

“For me too, Amanda,” he whispered, pressing a last kiss to her cheek. She almost didn’t feel it, but it followed her into her dreams.

Chapter Twelve

Shadows gave way to half-light, a warm fingertip smoothing over her bare back. A lazily drawn line curving over her scapula, arching back toward her spine before going right back out for another bubbly circle. Then another…

“Are you drawing a daisy on my back?” she asked, knowing this was her imagination but not caring too much. Her body was far too melted to force herself to wake up. Besides, her imagination had gone to new lengths this time. She could actually feel the roughness on the pads of his fingertips, the sensation resonating the same as his other touches in real life. She tingled, especially when the stem of his flower traced its path all the way back to the base of her spine.

“Nope,” he murmured close to her ear. Now she could feel his bare chest pressing against her back, causing a riot of tingles throughout her waking body. But it was the specific heat and hardness making itself known against the curve of her bottom that finally had her opening her eyes. Velvety smooth, insistent, the blunt head of his cock nudged the space between her thighs.

Amanda froze, her eyes wide as she stared at her dresser and the window behind it, hazy sunlight coming mistily through the layered white curtains. “Cole?”

Like, the real Cole and not the Cole from her imagination?

His hand slid over her hip, aiming straight for her piercing, tinkling the gem like a cat batting a toy. “Were you expecting someone else?”