The Wrong Man (8 page)

A mild pulse of awareness filled her. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. She wanted to be like those women—to touch him, his hair, and his hard body. And she wanted him to touch her, to explore and make her feel alive and desirable again. She hadn’t had her sexual needs tended to in so long, and he would know what to do.

Tomas might be the wrong man for a long-term relationship, but he was the right man for what she had in mind.

****

Hours later, when darkness fell and guests started to leave, Talia lingered. Luckily she’d followed Shawna in her own vehicle, so when her friend was ready to go, she made up an excuse to stay behind. Shawna sent her a warning look, but she didn’t say much else before she and Ryan left.

Talia helped with the clean up, clearing dishes, tied up trash bags, and did whatever she could to delay her departure. When the last of the stragglers had gone, she went into the kitchen and wiped down the counters. Covered leftovers were put away in the refrigerator and then she focused on washing pots, pans, and utensils while Tomas finished up outside.

She had put away the last of the dishes and was wiping her hands on a towel when she sensed him behind her. She turned to see him leaning against the doorjamb with a Corona in his hand, watching. He did that a lot. Observing, paying attention to people as if turning things over in his mind. As she was the only one there, she was the focus of his watchful gaze. How long he’d been standing in the doorway, she had no idea.

Seconds dragged by and neither of them made a sound.

He walked slowly toward her, and the closer he came, the louder her heart beat. Now she was about to execute her plan of seduction, she became extremely nervous. Her mouth dried and butterflies filled her stomach. An irrational need to bolt surged through her, but she suppressed it. She hadn’t stayed behind only to succumb to nerves.

“All done in here,” she said in her brightest voice, but it sounded false and nervous.

“Thank you for your help. You didn’t have to wash the dishes.”

She shrugged. “I wanted to.”

He tipped the beer toward her, but she declined his offer with a shake of her head. He upturned the bottle and chugged the remnants, the entire time keeping his eyes on her. His Adam’s apple bobbed once, twice as he swallowed. Even when he set the empty bottle on the counter he didn’t take his eyes from her.

He tilted his head to the side. “Why are you still here, Talia?”

She swallowed and had the distinct feeling that because she was out of practice, she was unprepared for what was to come. She seldom felt out of her depth, but he was so big, so virile, so unapologetically male. “I wanted to help you.”

He studied her with an intense, probing look. “Just being helpful?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I didn’t think you knew how to do household chores.”

“I didn’t have to growing up. We always had hired help…” He raised his brows, and she realized how pretentious she sounded. “I do know how to clean up,” she insisted, a defensive note to her voice. “I just don’t have to because—”

“Because you have someone else to do it.”

His gaze skipped to the front of her dress, doing that thing he did, undressing her with his eyes so she felt naked. He was so brazen about it; it was obvious he didn’t give a damn if she noticed. Her breasts suddenly became heavy, as if weighted down with a foreign substance.

He came closer, invading her personal space. The temperature in the room rose to scorching as his focus moved to her mouth. “You have nice lips.”

She felt like a gazelle being stalked by a lion, waiting, wondering when it would pounce. Lust coiled in her loins as high voltage electricity surrounded them, and her nipples throbbed and jutted against her dress. It had been a long time since she’d felt sexual in any kind of way. She laughed to ease the tension, her heart fluttering like the violent flap of a bird’s wings.

“You should see pictures of me as a child. I had to grow into these lips.” She touched her fingers to her mouth.

The corners of his lips didn’t budge, not even a fraction. “I’m going to kiss you,” he said calmly. “Do you have a problem with that?”

She couldn’t move, could hardly breathe. Helplessly frozen as if bound by ropes. What breaths she did take were filled with the scent of him. “No.”

It’s what she’d been hoping for, what she’d wanted, why she’d stayed behind under the pretense of being helpful. She wanted kisses and much, much more.

“I didn’t think you would.”

His cocky self-confidence should annoy her, but instead it made her hornier. His index finger slowly traced the curve of her jaw line and the outer edge of her bottom lip. The benign touch sizzled across her skin and spurred her heart into a gallop at breakneck speed.

With a hand to her waist, he drew her close, molding her soft curves to the steely strength of his body. He lowered his head and did exactly as he said he would.

From the minute their mouths meshed together she free-falled into the seductive pull of his lips. One large hand cupped her face as if she were made of the finest porcelain, his coarse thumb skimming the surface of her skin beneath the cheekbone. He was gentle at first, but then she edged closer, wanting more than this tender passion as fire licked through her veins with frightening speed.

He let out a low growl, his velvet tongue pushing past her lips to let the crisp bitterness of beer fill her mouth. He kissed with such fervor her head tilted back at a sharp angle. Guiding her to the counter, he tightened his hold. The edge pressed into her back, but no discomfort could distract her from this indelicate raid on her senses.

Tomas angled his head and shifted his hand into her hair. His fingers weaved through the strands to massage her scalp in a circular pattern that sent erotic sensations down to her nape. He traced the corners of her mouth with his tongue, tasting and teasing until she could barely stand the torture, shaking from the force of desire and whimpering in need. His mouth caressed hers, and she felt like she was floating on air, drifting weightlessly upward. She’d never been kissed like this, and she didn’t want it to end. Clutching his shoulders, she determined to hold onto him and not let him go if he tried to stop.

He cupped her bottom and massaged the soft flesh, guiding her leg upward so he was in the cradle of her thighs with his hard length pressed into her belly. Passion she hadn’t experienced in a long time erupted in her blood, making her feel alive, wide awake and aware of his every touch.

He lowered his lips to her neck, leaving a trail of flames wherever his mouth touched. She gasped when he sucked the engorged nipple of her breast through her bodice. Locking her arms around his neck, she held him in place. Mentally reeling, she moaned at the heightened ache he’d created with such a simple touch. But this was just what she needed. To be wanted with such keen desire nothing else mattered but satisfying it.

Boldly, she lifted his shirt, fingers hunting for the hot, hard flesh of his back. She traced the muscles there and a tremor fizzed through him. When he lifted his head, his need was laid out as plain as writing in his angular face. His clear brown eyes had darkened to chestnut, and his chest expanded with each labored breath.

He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. He simply lifted her in his arms and walked out of the kitchen.

Chapter Ten

As soon as he placed Talia on the carpeted floor of his bedroom, Tomas began to undress. The first item he removed was the T-shirt. Enraptured by the strip tease, Talia watched as each inch of his perfect body was revealed. When he finally shed all his clothes, she stood in admiration of his physique. Confident in his own skin, he waited with aplomb while she scrutinized him from head to toe, a man clearly used to being naked.

Her inspection started at his thick neck and brushed with longing over his golden skin. His muscles had muscles, a body so tight there wasn’t an ounce of surplus flesh anywhere. Washboard abs you could literally wash clothes on, broad shoulders and muscled thighs. He resembled a gladiator from centuries gone by, and she easily imagined him in a coliseum fight to the death where he would come out the victor.

Her gaze lowered to his steely length, nestled in a thatch of dark hair and standing straight up. Big. Tremendous.

She swallowed, and when he reached for her, she stepped out of reach. “It’s been a while,” she said.

“Then we should get you ready.” His fingers curled into the fabric of her dress and he pulled her toward him.

As he reached for the zipper at the back, she stayed his hand, suddenly mindful no other man but her ex-husband had seen her naked in over ten years. “The light.”

Tomas shook his head. “I want to see all of you. Everything.” He lowered his head and kissed her again, softly, soothingly, easing her fears. When he sensed her calm, he lowered the zipper and pulled the dress over her head, tossing it over his shoulder. Next, her underwear and strapless bra.

His appreciative gaze swept over her naked body and she fought the instinctive urge to fold her arms over her front and hide from him. “Beautiful,” Tomas murmured. And how could she not feel beautiful, when he looked at her with such desire-filled eyes?

He grazed the tips of her breasts with the back of his hand and the tiny buds tightened painfully.

“Tomas…” she breathed.

Slowly, he urged her backward without touching, his steps deliberate and eyes focused. Her legs bumped the edge of the bed. “What do you want,
querida
?” he whispered, bending close. He’d never called her that before—beloved, darling. She responded to the affection in the words, longing to touch and be touched. “This?”

Lifting her onto the mattress, he fastened his mouth over her breast. She tossed her head back, gasping at the immediate shock of pleasure. He sucked the hard peak and she strained toward him with quivering eagerness. He licked the nipple, laving the tip with moisture, and the sight of his pink tongue flicking over the dark peak made her throb with heated desire. She let him suck and pull, unwilling to do anything but give him the unrestricted right to drive her mad. Inhaling a trembling breath, she filled her fists with strands of his hair, holding on to the brown locks as he gorged in a leisurely fashion, using his tongue and lips to tug and tease.

Then he was cupping her mound, circling her clit, his fingers becoming drenched in moisture as he fondled the plump folds. “Nice and wet, just the way I like,” he whispered, spreading warm air over her breast. He lifted his head and locked his eyes with hers. “I want you to touch yourself.”

The shocking request left her speechless, and Talia shook her head, curling her hands into themselves—embarrassed and mildly mortified by the request, even as her body creamed in response.

“Relax.” Tomas gently released the fingers one by one and guided her hand to the triangle of hair between her legs. “Go ahead. Don’t be shy,” he coaxed. “I want to watch.”

He eased her knees apart and laid her bare, exposed to him. Talia held his steady gaze and hesitantly, haltingly, slid her fingers over the tight pearl between her legs. She was so sensitive there she gasped, and right away became filled with a profound sense of power as she watched his jaw tighten in concentrated focus. His intensity aroused her further and her confidence increased.

Trailing trembling fingers over the wet curls, she stroked tentatively at first and then moved with bolder strokes. As she touched herself, her whole body became awash in sensations. A pounding ache filled her loins and her moans grew louder. She was losing herself, panting heavily as her mind spun in a twisted circle. Her fingers skirted the firm nub couched between the feminine petals, and she became lost in self-stimulation and arched her hips up, sucking in a lungful of air.

Murmuring approval, Tomas dragged her to the edge of the bed by the ankles. Spreading her legs wider, he levered over her and kissed a path along the delicate curve of her stomach. His hand joined hers between her legs, and a soft cry left Talia’s throat, her voice pained and unrecognizable.

Tomas dropped to his knees and took control, shoving her hand out of the way and dipped his head between her legs.

“
Oh…oh god…
”

The tug of his mouth overwhelmed her, evoking unbearably hot sensations. His soft hair brushed feather-light over her pelvis as long fingers pried the folds apart, his tongue strumming across her aching clit. Alternating between sucking and sinuous licks, Tomas tormented the drenched flesh, slipping two thick fingers knuckles-deep and pumping in concert. Talia stared up at the ceiling, squirming helplessly but didn’t dare dislodge his fingers as he rotated the digits in a circle and sampled the dewy wetness.

“Tomas, Tomas…” She chanted his name in a near-delirious state.

He grabbed her bottom with big hands and squeezed the plump flesh. The room spun and blurred at the relentless plunder of his mouth, and her whole body was seized by a brutal quivering in a desperate quest for release. He devoured her with such raw urgency, it was as if he’d been waiting for this moment and didn’t want miss a single drop.

Eyes rolled back in her head, at the brink of a climax, Talia encouraged and begged in short, panting breaths, sinking her shaking fingers into the lushness of his hair. “Please. Yes, like that…
yes
.”

The orgasm was not subtle. It tore up her spine in a frenzy of explosions that left her gasping and shuddering. While her body still convulsed, he made love to her lower lips with his mouth, groaning his enjoyment—feasting like a man who’d finally been granted the one meal he craved.

Struggling to catch her breath, Talia twisted from his grasp and scooted back out of reach. She rolled onto her stomach and moaned into the mattress, inhaling whiffs of his scent from the sheets. She watched Tomas stand in slow motion, his passion-filled eyes glinting with satisfaction. He licked her honey from his lips and sent another tremor trickling through her at the sight.

A wicked grin tilted his lips upward. “Mmm…”

Her eyes followed him over to the wall where he flicked the switch and plunged the room in near-darkness. At the nightstand, he pulled a stack of foil packets from the top drawer and dropped them on the top.