Actual Stop (25 page)

My head started to spin, and a fissure shot up my spine, slamming against each individual vertebrae. I couldn’t think about anything else. How could I? Allison was everything, and satisfying her longing was paramount. Nothing else mattered in that moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, not next week. Now was everything. And now it was imperative that I kiss her.

I leaned in, determined to capture those luscious lips with my own. She was gravity itself, and I was helpless against her pull. Allison smiled coquettishly and leaned back, shaking her head a bit. I huffed and rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smiling.

“Guess I’m not the only one who’s going crazy,” she said lightly. Her eyes glittered, and she resumed walking, swinging our hands between us.

I pulled her closer to me and threaded my arm around her waist and under her jacket. Before she could protest, I slipped my hand under her tank top, tracing designs on the soft skin of her lower back. She stiffened and gasped. Both the feel of her beneath my fingertips and her little sighs caused my entire body to ache and a flood of moisture to pool between my legs. As far as I was concerned, we couldn’t get to the hotel fast enough.

The rest of the walk was a blur of sights, sounds, and sensations, which served only to stoke the embers of my arousal until they burned with the intensity of a four-alarm fire in an oil refinery. I was so hot by the time we walked into the lobby I was ready to come in my pants. The elevator ride was pure torture as Allison snuggled up behind me and rested her chin on my shoulder, scarcely nuzzling my ear. She might’ve been speaking to me, but I couldn’t hear over the roar of blood pounding in my ears on a fast track straight to my throbbing center. The feel of her arms around my waist, her hot breath in my ear, the sensation of her breasts pressing firmly into my back, her hips pushed up against my ass—all of it led me further and further astray from the bounds of propriety, and I craved to take her in the elevator. Too bad she’d already nixed the live sex show.

Finally, finally we reached her room. Her attempts to insert the key card into the lock with trembling hands took way longer than I wanted, and I let out a low moan of impatience. That slip only made her hands shake more and delayed her progress that much longer. When we stumbled into her darkened foyer at long last, I was so happy I wanted to cry.

Allison slammed the door shut behind me the second I was inside and flipped the deadbolt, her movements quick and jerky. She shucked her jacket and tossed it to the floor in a careless gesture, then wasted no more time on foreplay or preparations.

She pinned me forcefully to the door, and I let my purse fall to the floor. Her hands went around my waist and pulled me tight against her. She gazed into my eyes for a heartbeat or two, and all the air in my lungs whooshed out of me as I tried to make sense of the emotions I could see crackling and snapping behind hers. When her lips descended possessively over mine, my attempts to decipher what I’d seen in her eyes scattered along with my thoughts.

Holy fuck, she’s an amazing kisser.
That was my first coherent notion after who knew how long. Better than I remembered, actually. Time had blunted the memory of how exquisite it felt to have her lips pressed against mine. I was so caught up in the sensation and reeling at how incredible, how right, it felt that it took me a moment to remember I could participate in other ways. Warmth flared in my chest and slowly radiated outward as I tangled one hand in her thick, black hair while I moved the other lower to palm her ass through her jeans. I gave the cheek in my hand a firm squeeze, and Allison let out a low, guttural groan and rocked her hips against mine. I nearly came on the spot.

A warning sounded in the back of my head, faint, but not faint enough for me to ignore. Then it came again. Breathlessly, I wrenched my lips away. It was too hard to think and kiss her at the same time. My head was spinning and not just from the alcohol. No, I was drunk on desire. I wanted her in a way I’d forgotten I could want anyone, and it would’ve been so easy to get swept away on the torrent of perfectly mind-blowing sensations that her kiss sparked. But I didn’t feel right about the situation. We were both more than a little tipsy, and things were wretchedly complicated for me. I was positive I’d never be able to forgive myself if I didn’t at least try to talk to her before we gave into our obviously mutual desire.

“Allison, wait,” I gasped, turning my head when she leaned back in to kiss me.

A rumble emanated from deep within her chest, and she ignored my protests and immediately started exploring the skin of my now-bared neck with her lips. I shivered and tightened my grip on her, moaning a little as I did. Dear God. Was there anything about this woman that didn’t completely short-circuit my brain?

Allison worked one hand beneath the fabric of my shirt and started stroking my skin with her fingernails. Goose bumps broke out over my entire body, and I covered her hand with one of my own. It was an effort, and the part of me drowning in the need for her to touch me howled loudly in protest.

“Allison, please, just wait.”

She pulled back a bit and eyed me with a borderline-hostile expression. “What?”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, don’t you think maybe we’ve had a little bit too much to drink?”

She scoffed. “Honey, we’ve never been too drunk for this.”

She leaned in to kiss me again, and I cuffed her on the shoulder, trying not to laugh. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

She nodded slowly. “On a scale of church sober to that weekend in New Orleans, how drunk are you?”

“Um…I’d say I’m Superbowl Party tipsy. You?”

“Desjardin’s retirement, maybe edging toward New Year’s Eve.”

“Oh.”

“Okay?”

I frowned. “Sure.” I was glad this wasn’t all a booze-fueled hook up, but there was still the matter of…well, everything else.

She regarded me for a long moment, her expression unreadable. And then, inexplicably, she smiled. “Are you married?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

I made a face. “Of course not!”

“Seeing someone?”

I grimaced at the reminder of my recently failed relationship. That was actually a huge part of the reason I’d stopped this. What the hell had I been thinking, coming up here to her room with her? This was—

“Are you really a man?” Allison rushed on before I could fall too far back into my self-loathing or varying degrees of guilt.

I blinked, and it finally hit me what she was doing. She and I’d had an eerily similar conversation the very first time we’d slept together, only then our positions had been reversed. She’d been the one who’d been a touch unsure, and I’d attempted to lighten the mood with inane queries.

Allison brushed some stray wisps of bang off my forehead and tucked them back behind my ear, smiling broadly now that she seemed positive I recalled the exchange. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Okay?”

I bit my lower lip and nodded, not completely reassured but feeling at least a little better.

“Do you want me to stop? Because if you don’t want to do this…”

The mere suggestion was like fingernails on the chalkboard of my mind, and I shook my head. “No. Don’t stop.”

Allison cupped my jaw with her fingertips and scoured my eyes again. She waited a long moment as though to give me time to pull away, if that was what I really wanted, like she doubted my words. And then she leaned in slowly to kiss me again. It seemed to take forever for her lips to finally brush mine, but when they did, I sighed. I could easily have spent the rest of my life just kissing her.

Allison deepened our kiss, easing her tongue into my mouth and stroking mine. It almost tickled in a wonderful way, and I whimpered. Allison’s lips curved into a smile, and I pulled back just enough to nip at her bottom lip. She slid her hands around my neck and pulled me tighter against her as she moaned. The sound sparked something primal inside me, and I knew I was seconds away from letting her take me against the hotel room door. As hot as that would’ve been, it wasn’t what I wanted right now.

Using a technique we’d learned in training, I dropped my hands so the heels rested against the front of her pelvis and pushed, tucking my elbows in close to my body and creating a little distance between us. Allison growled and tried to press her body back against mine as she increased the intensity of her kiss. I waited, thoroughly enjoying the pressure of her hips against my hands, and when I thought she was pushing as hard as she could, I released my grip and swiftly wrapped my arms around her to cup her ass. I used her forward momentum to scoop her up into my arms. It was a bold move, tipsy as I was, but she instantly locked her legs around my waist, grinding against my belt buckle. She cried out, but the press of my lips muffled her moans.

Praying she hadn’t left anything on the floor for me to trip over and I could pull this off without injuring both of us, I walked us farther into the room and dropped her on the bed. Passion flared even hotter in her dark eyes, and she scooted back, kicking off her boots. I took the opportunity to lose my own shoes as well.

Allison’s eyes bored into mine as she wrenched her tank top from her body and quickly went to work on the fly of her jeans. Normally, I loved undressing her, taking my time to discover each part of her as I revealed it. Tonight, however, both of us were too far gone to even pretend to be slow and leisurely. At least this first time. I vowed to savor her later.

Maintaining our charged eye contact, I shimmied out of my clothes. I didn’t care where they ended up as I flung them away from me. I wanted nothing between me and the hot press of her skin.

Allison hit me in the face with her panties and then tossed her bra at me. Automatically, I caught both and returned her smile, tossing the bra over my shoulder. The panties gave me pause, and I captured the crotch between my thumb and forefinger. God, they were wet.

“Come here.”

The panties slipped from my grasp, and I crawled across the bed and immediately covered her body with my own, dispensing with my usual ritual of feasting on the smorgasbord of her naked flesh with my eyes. Right now, I needed to feel her. The desire was an all-consuming ache, and my head swam.

I groaned deep in the back of my throat as our bodies collided, and a wave of satisfaction-tinged relief washed over me. She felt more amazing than I remembered, more incredible than I could ever have imagined, and my skin hummed everywhere we touched.

Allison cupped the back of my neck with one hand and pulled me to her, crushing my mouth to hers in a bruising, possessive kiss. She wrapped one leg around my hip, and the new position allowed me greater access to her dripping center.

She groaned, tilted her hips, and pulled me tighter to her. Evidently, she wanted me to continue. Smiling into our kiss, I stroked her again, pleased with how easily my fingers slid through her slick folds.

Allison hissed and broke our kiss, throwing back her head and squeezing her eyes shut. The fingers on the back of my neck tensed, and she rocked her hips again. Then she ripped my hair tie out, and I took advantage of my momentary freedom to shift my position, sliding down on the bed so I could lavish my attentions on her breasts with my lips while I used my hand to drive her a whole different kind of crazy.

The sounds wrenched from Allison’s throat were the stuff of legends. I could think of no more powerful aphrodisiac than her little moans and gasps of pleasure, except perhaps hearing her say my name as she came. The heat that poured off her was intoxicating and drew me like the proverbial moth to a flame.

“Ryan,” Allison pleaded a little breathlessly, tugging on my hair.

“Mmm.” I closed my eyes and trailed lingering kisses over the taut planes of her abdomen, tracing the ridges of her muscles with my tongue. I sucked on the skin surrounding her belly button and slid my fingers a little higher, so I was almost brushing the spot where I knew she needed me most. Almost. But not quite.

“Turn around.”

“Mmm.” I wasn’t paying attention to her words, much more interested in the tension I was creating in various parts of her body as I skimmed my lips over her skin. The scent of her arousal enthralled me, and I nuzzled the juncture where her thigh met her hip.

“I want to taste you,” Allison whispered softly. She followed her statement with a small sigh and, despite her words, lifted her hips toward my mouth.

Okay, that got my attention. I raised my head just enough to meet her eyes as I dragged my tongue slowly through her wetness, relishing her musky flavor.

Allison moaned and threaded her fingers back through my hair, gripping hard. She tugged my head back, and I glared at her, irritated that she was interrupting me. I had explicit plans for her, and she was the exact opposite of helpful.

“Ryan, please?” Her voice was low and husky, full of desire.

Arousal pierced my gut and tickled that odd spot under my right arm that it did in only the most extreme cases. I closed my eyes against the onslaught, which was almost too intense to bear. Allison loosened her grip in my hair and began to rake gentle trails through it, causing a shiver to run down my spine. I trembled, reveling in the pleasant sensations she was evoking in me.

I opened my eyes to meet hers and saw swimming beneath their depths the very passion that’d shattered me and in the same moment somehow made me whole time and time again. I melted under the weight of that look.

Still unable to form coherent sentences, I simply nodded. I lifted myself, and she sat up to meet me, our lips brushing one another in a long, tender kiss. When we broke apart, she flashed me an impish grin and raised her eyebrows once in an almost playful gesture. I grinned back, recognizing the unspoken order for what it was, and readjusted my position so she could reach me while I lavished attention on her.

Her hot breath tickling the skin of my inner thighs made me completely freeze. The first touch of her tongue gliding over my sensitive folds made me lose my focus altogether.

I lay there for a long moment, my cheek resting against her leg, completely unable to move. My eyes were closed, and sparks were dancing along the insides of my eyelids that seemed eerily timed with the motions of her tongue against my throbbing core.