A Convenient Arrangement (12 page)

He carried her toward the bedroom, where he pushed open a door and set her on her feet beside a giant bed in the center of the room. Windows looked out at New York and the lights of the skyline bathed them both.

Leo took a step back, focusing his dark-eyed gaze on her. His hands found the edge of her sweater and lifted it up and over her head. Chilled air hit her skin, raising goose bumps, but then the heat of his hands on her arms erased them. His hands moved around her and unclasped her bra. The lace fell from her flesh. He plucked the straps from her shoulder, letting the bra fall to the floor. No kissing, hardly any touch—only his eyes devouring her. She fought the desire to cross her arm over her breasts, to hide her nakedness from him.

“You’re beautiful.”

Her stomach contracted at his words. Normally she didn’t feel beautiful, certainly not compared to the polished, perfect women of New York’s A-list. But Leo’s words, Leo’s eyes, the look of want that shadowed his face, the truth of his tone made her feel beautiful.

His hands went to the waist of her jeans and quickly unfastened them, drawing them down over her hips and off. Now only her panties were between them. His finger traced over the center of the lace and her entire body flamed. Still no kiss. But his gaze, roaming over every exposed inch of her, was somehow more intimate than the press of his lips to hers or his tongue deep in her mouth.

“I want you.” His voice a low rumble, a caress. “I’ve wanted you for much longer than you know.” He pulled her panties down over her hips. Her entire body thrummed with desire and yet…

His fingertips tilted her chin upward, bringing her eyes to meet his. She couldn’t hide from his gaze, from the question in his eyes. Even with the heat and the darkness and the desire between them, she couldn’t hide from, or conceal, her own hesitation.

“Tell me.” Deep need shone in his eyes. She couldn’t help but answer, even as she stood naked before him. Completely naked, entirely exposed.

“That night, what happened, is sitting here in this space between us. It’s making this—even though this is totally hot and exactly what I want—it’s making the whole thing strange.”

He put his hands on her waist and gently drew her close, close enough to feel the warmth of his body. “Solution?”

“We acknowledge that we like each other, that this is more than just mutual lust. I mean, seriously, Leo, I could strip your clothes off you right now and be a-okay with that, if I knew that you’re not going to sneak out of the bed in the morning.”

“It’s my bed.”

Gwen twitched one corner of her mouth up into a wry smile. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m not leaving.” His voice rough. He stepped back and unbuttoned his shirt.

Her tongue chased over her lip as Leo’s clothes fell away, revealing his glorious body. Muscles rippled beneath skin. A dark trail of hair ran down his chest to his belly, disappearing into the waistline of his jeans. Her fingertips longed to trace it, to feel his sculpted chest and abs.

“And you’re not going anywhere, either.” He unbuckled his jeans and stripped them over his hips. Her breath shortened. He was naked. Naked and standing before her.

Her gaze traveled over the beauty of his maleness. Strong, tall, his shaft hard and erect. He eased her back onto the bed. Her hips moved instinctually, with a rhythm that came from deep inside her, as his eyes feasted on her flesh. Her fingertips moved to her nipple and she pulled the taut flesh, her tongue running across the flesh of her bottom lip and her legs falling open as an invitation to him, a signal of her want, her arousal, her passion.

He kneeled at the end of the bed and picked up her leg. His lips pressed to the skin of her calf. “I intend to explore every inch of you.”

Her sex clenched. Her body shuddered. Her breath caught in her chest.

He turned his mouth away from her leg. “More than once.”

Her hips twitched at his words. Tendrils of hunger curled through her. My God, but she wanted him. Wanted his mouth on her sex and his huge cock inside her. She wanted him to take her. He trailed kisses up to her knee and then along her inner thigh. Her flesh, sensitive and tender, trembled beneath his lips. Her eyes fluttered and she pressed her head back into the pillows.

He stopped. His face between her legs.

She could hardly breathe. Want shot through her core, grasped her in the tight fist of unsatiated desire. The memory of the pleasure that would soon roll through her body made her muscles tighten.

His movements measured and slow, Leo spread her legs open with his hands. He gripped her left calf and lifted her leg, placing it on his shoulder. Her hips rolled up slowly, as if she were in a trance. His fingertips stroked down her right leg. He lifted it, turned, and pressed his mouth to the skin of her inner thigh.

Fire seized her belly. Her sex throbbed.

He settled her right leg over his other shoulder and turned to her. He leaned forward and parted her with his thumbs. His breath warmed her sex. And yet his mouth, his tongue, the pleasure of what he could do, remained too far from her.

She moaned and her hips hitched.

“You’re beautiful.” His tongue darted out and slowly caressed the side of her inner lip. “You taste sweeter than honey.”

“Oh my God.” She moaned. Her hands clutched the bed.

“You’re wet for me.” He thrust his tongue deep into her core and then slowly pulled out from her. “Do you want me?”

Did she want him? She wanted him like she wanted water after chocolate, milk after cookies, and oxygen after swimming. My God, yes.

“Yes,” she hissed. Her teeth clamped over her bottom lip and she writhed.

The hot breath from his slow low laugh tickled her sex and then his mouth was on her, pulling her clit deep into hot, wet bliss. His tongue circled her engorged nub. He sucked and pulled and her body arched upward. The edge of pure, unadulterated pleasure. He released her clit and his tongue probed deep within her again. Waves of pleasure broke over her, stealing her breath. The man knew how to use his mouth.

So close, so close to the edge. His fingers found her clit, stroking with an increasing need as he plunged his tongue in and out of her. Heat spread over her skin, the desire hot and fierce. He shifted his mouth upward, again clasping her clit and sucking her deep into the hot sweetness of his mouth.

Light exploded behind her eyelids, electric rapture cascading through her. His fingers plunged deep into her. She opened her eyes. Leo was between her legs, his eyes hot with pleasure.

“Leo, oh my God, Leo,” she screamed. She pressed her head back against the pillow and shattered over the edge.

*

Gwen was pure sexual pleasure. Every inch of her held a sensuality he hadn’t anticipated. Even on New Year’s, she hadn’t been so ready, so willing, her body so hot to fly over the edge. He raised himself above her and leaned forward, the taste of her sweet juices still on his lips. He kissed her. She had to know how impossibly good she tasted.

His tongue tangled with hers. His hand grazed her taut nipple.

“I want you,” she whispered around his kiss. “I want you in me, please. I want you.” She reached out and grasped his hard shaft. His belly tightened; his breathing stopped in his chest. God, but he wanted her too. He rolled to his left and pulled a condom from the bedside table. She took the foil square from him, opened it, and rolled the condom down his shaft. Her fingers ran lightly along his cock, her hands teasing against the skin of his shaft.

She looked up at him, still wearing a sated, half-lidded sexy look. He wouldn’t last long, couldn’t last long. Already he felt the hard tug in his lower back and the heat piercing his balls. No, this woman, my God, this woman made him insatiable. She lay back and he moved over her, between her legs. He kissed her, tugging at her bottom lip with his teeth. Then he ran his tongue across its plump flesh. Her hips hitched upward, seeking him, wanting him, her hand reaching out. He dipped his head and pulled her nipple into his mouth, rolling the sweet flesh between his lips, caressing it with his tongue. Her breasts, my God, but her breasts were beyond perfection for him.

“I love every inch of you.”

“Please Leo,” were the only words she could manage as her body writhed with want beneath him.

Her body was so damned responsive. My God, yes. He braced his arms on either side of the wild red hair framing her face. He pressed the head of his cock to the edge of her entrance. Hot and tight, she was wet and ready for him. Her muscles closed around his tip.

“Yes,” she whispered. Her gaze locked with his. He pushed slowly into the heat of her.

He couldn’t wait. He wanted to go slow, to make certain that her pleasure was there again and again, but a roar ripped through his chest and over his lips. He thrust deep and hard and forcefully into her inner softness, not able to stop himself, not able to hold back. Her arms wrapped around him and her hips met his.

“Gwen, my God, Gwen.” He pulled back. She moaned, a low, soft sound, and he thrust forward again.

“Yes.” She clasped her legs around him, her heels pressed to his ass. “Leo.” Her body pulled him deep into her, as far as he could get. Heat flared deep inside his shaft. Restraint slipped away. He craved this passionate woman beneath him, and she was his.

He thrust forward and back now with a force he could no longer control, a want he could no longer hold back. Her hips rocked to meet him with each thrust.

“Gwen, baby, I’m going to come.”

“Oh my God, Leo!” she gasped. With another thrust, the heat shot from his balls and down his shaft and they exploded over the edge together.

Saturday morning started with sex, a shower, and coffee. Although she was in no hurry to leave Leo’s bed, around noon a growl ripped from Gwen’s stomach.

“Let’s get lunch.” Leo rolled out from under the sheets and strode naked across the room into his closet.

They’d plowed through the leftover Chinese food in the wee hours of the morning after what must have been her sixth orgasm of the night. Six orgasms! Heat flushed her chest and neck. She’d had a couple more after their late night snack, and then another couple this morning, too. Her muscles ached in that refreshing I’ve-had-so-much-fabulous-sex-way she remembered from New Year’s Eve.

“That’s kind of public, isn’t it?” Gwen said, propping herself up on one elbow.

Leo emerged from his closet looking as though he’d stepped off the cover of
GQ
magazine. How did he do that? Gwen would need hours with a makeup artist and hairstylist to look that good. Yet for Leo, his good looks were effortless, automatic.

“Are we a secret?” Leo walked to the edge of the bed. “I don’t remember discussing that.”

“No”—Gwen glanced away from Leo and toward the window—“I mean…I’m still just concerned about the weirdness of this…” She paused, knowing it wasn’t coming out right. Wow, she’d been so willing last night to spill her guts to Leo, to discuss what they were doing. But in the light of day, after a night moaning his name, somehow her words felt heavier and more real.

“You’re not really someone I want to sneak around with.” He sat on the bed beside her. The duvet dipped and exposed her breast. She reached to pull up the cover, but Leo leaned forward and pressed his lips to her flesh.

Heat. Liquid heat poured through her body.

“I don’t want to hide this.” His voice was low and molten. “I’m the lucky bastard who gets to squire Gwen Fleming around town.” He pulled her nipple into his mouth.

Worries slipped from her brain, replaced by searing want and desire. She grasped his head with her hands. Her toes curled beneath the duvet. My God, sex again? Yes. Please.

But her stomach disagreed. Another sharp grumble, like a monster in her belly, rippled through the room. Leo released her. “While I’d love to continue along this course of action, it seems you need to be fed.” A grin curved over his lips.

She scooted down to the end of the bed to pick up her clothes from the night before. She wanted to go to lunch with Leo, and yes, she wanted to scream from the rooftops that she was seeing him, Leo Travati, hottest bachelor in New York. But she also couldn’t quite believe that this budding…whatever it was…had a chance to last. And if it didn’t, she didn’t want the repercussions of a very public downfall, plus the weirdness that would be sure to follow between her and her best friend. This thing with Leo struck too close to all that Gwen held dear. While it wasn’t one of Leo’s “convenient arrangements,” it also wasn’t a relationship or a permanent thing yet—just two people beginning to explore their feelings for each other. Gwen wasn’t sure she wanted the public observing the process.

And once they walked outside together, this thing between them
would
be public. The Travati men were hot commodities, and the number of available brothers was dwindling. Two were taken, and with only two remaining, the single ladies of Manhattan (who was she kidding, the entire world) were on the march to try to snag one of them.

Photographers and gossip pages knew all about this female obsession—a good shot of a single Travati brother attracted eyeballs and sales. Sure, if a picture of her and Leo together went public she could slough it off to the uninformed as her working with him on a charity event. But Aubrey, Shelly, and even Nina wouldn’t buy it. One photo of Leo and her together, followed by a question from any one of them, and Gwen would crumble like a seven-day-old cookie. Nope, she wasn’t a good liar, and not particularly good covering up her feelings and emotions. She’d faked it with Leo, with difficulty, but she doubted she could do it again. She’d pulled it off by using his own desires against him, his own modus operandi, and even then he had figured out her true feelings before she admitted them. She hadn’t been able to hide, even for two weeks, that his idea of a “convenient arrangement” wasn’t her.

“How about we go to my place and I’ll cook for you?” she suggested.

“Real food? Without an oven fire?”

“I can guarantee it.” This seemed a simple solution to a problem she didn’t want to deal with today.