Athena's Daughter (8 page)

“Tell me how to do it the way you like it,”
she told him.

“You’re doing just fine, angel. Believe me.”
His heart was beating fast under her ear, but she wanted to please
him to point where it would pound as hard as hers.

“I still want you to tell me how you like
it.”

“Well, you could maybe tighten your fingers,”
he said in a voice taut with strain.

“Tighter?” Her fingers gripped him an
infinitesimal bit more.

“More like…” His hand closed over hers and
squeezed, providing the right pressure. And now his heart did
pound.

“Mm.” Emboldened by his reaction, she wanted
to know more. “Show me what to do now.”

“This.” He urged her hand into a slow up and
down caress along his length. “Just like that,” he groaned.

Turning him on was the sexiest thing Athena
could think of experiencing. Nothing he could do to her would be
able to compare to what she felt making him groan, feeling him grow
bigger in her hand, or hearing his heart race.

His hand fell away to clutch the sheet, and
Athena continued, improvising a bit. She noticed that every time
her fingers got near the tip, it caused Derek to squirm and
shudder. Instead of stroking downward again, she lingered there and
let her fingers trail in circles around him.

“Oh, Christ!”

That impassioned growl spurred her on, and
her touch grew bolder. She explored every inch of him, paying
special attention to the areas that brought the most reaction. Lost
in what she was doing to him, she was surprised when he took her
wrist and moved her hand away.

“You’ll have to stop now, angel.”

Oh, God. She’d done it wrong. Cheeks flaming,
she dropped her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” He raised her face to meet his
eyes, bright with desire. “It’s just that you’re doing too well,
and I don’t want this to end so soon.”

Sudden understanding dawned, and her cheeks
burned hotter. “Oh. Well, I don’t want it to end soon, either.”

“Come here.” He pressed soft, fleeting kisses
to her lips, and rolled her over onto her back. Sliding his body
over hers, he trailed the kisses down to her jaw, her neck and her
shoulders.

Athena held her breath until he reached her
breasts, then let it out with a gusty sigh as his warm mouth closed
over a nipple. As his lips and tongue did wonderful and amazing
things, the fingers of his left hand worked magic on her other
breast. Flares of pleasure shot through Athena, quick and bright as
shutter flashes. Derek’s ministrations were so much more
stimulating than the tuning-a-radio twists from her prom date. She
held her breath again, muscles rigid with anticipation.

“Let go, angel,” Derek murmured against her
skin. “Let me feel you come.”

“I…” She swallowed and closed her eyes. “I
haven’t ever…” Overcome with embarrassment at her utter lack of
sensuality, she couldn’t go on.

With one last kiss on the slope of her
breast, Derek slid up her body and threaded his hands through her
hair. “Ever?” he asked softly.

Miserable, she shook her head. The frantic
fumbling of her high school partner had done nothing for her, and
even her solitary experimentations hadn’t yielded any pleasure. She
came close a time or two, but never was able to bring herself over
the edge. Now, with a beautiful man doing wonderful things to her,
nerves and the sneaking feeling that, despite his reassurances to
the contrary, she was doing everything wrong had her so tense that
achieving orgasm seemed impossible.

Derek spread her hair over the pillow and
kissed her forehead. “Then we’ll just have to remedy that, won’t
we?”

“I don’t…”

“Shh,” interrupted, and put a finger over her
lips. “Don’t think, don’t try. Just feel.” The back of his hand
stroked her cheek. “Feel my hands touching you.” A warm kiss was
pressed on her lips. “Feel my lips on you.” He moved his mouth to
her ear and the tip of his tongue traced its outline. “Feel my
tongue. Just feel.”

Lulled by his soft touch and his husky
murmurs, Athena relaxed and took a deep breath. His hands and mouth
were on her breasts again, and instead of tensing against the
flares of pleasure, she let them flow through her. Each gentle
flick of his tongue brought an answering quiver deep within her, a
quiver that radiated from her core through her body to set her
fingertips tingling.

When his kisses moved lower, her muscles
tried to stiffen again, but remembering his instructions, she
forced herself to relax. She concentrated on the gentle touch of
his hands caressing her hips, and the warmth of his breath against
the skin of her inner thighs. One finger slid over her folds, and a
different kind of gasp parted her lips. The slow, soft strokes grew
firmer and bolder, and Athena couldn’t stop the jerk that lifted
her hips from the bed. The finger was instantly replaced by his
mouth, and her eyes flew open.

Had she really thought that nothing could
compare to the decadent pleasure she’d gotten from stimulating him
with her hand? How wrong could she have been? That feeling was
eclipsed completely by what was coursing through her as his lips
closed over her. There were no words to describe what her body
experienced at the flick of his tongue. She forgot to be shy, and
spread her legs wider.

Her hands rose to clutch the pillow on either
side of her thrashing head as she arched her back, searching for
some nameless, vital, necessary completion. She found it when
Derek’s fingers slid inside her and moved in rhythm with his
tongue, and she cried out with a release so intense and so damn
good that she pushed back against his fingers to prolong it.

Delicious little tremors continued to shake
her as Derek kissed his way back up her body and smiled down at
her.

“Holy shit,” she panted.

“I’m not done yet,” he purred, and slipped
inside her. Muscles still sensitive and quivering clutched him, and
he drew in a quick breath. “Oh, I like that.”

Her long-awaited release erased any lingering
inhibitions, and she wrapped her legs around his lean hips and
arched up to push him in further.

Derek’s eyes sprang wide before he gave her a
sweet, wild smile and began to move, whispering her name against
her lips.

Athena woke to the feel of Derek’s soft
kisses on her face and hair. Wrapped in his arms, she listened to
the tick of the rain hitting the window over the bed, and was
filled with a happiness so intense she almost vibrated with it. The
light in the room hadn’t changed much, so she hadn’t slept that
long, but she felt as refreshed as if she’d been out for hours.

Turning her head, she pressed her lips to the
hollow of his throat, and thrilled to the feel of his arms
tightening around her.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said.

Athena shook her head. “You didn’t. I don’t
think.” A soft laugh bubbled up out of her. “Even if you did, I’m
glad.”

“Good.” His hand smoothed her tumbled hair.
“When do you have to go back to the hostel?”

“I don’t. I was supposed to leave London
today, so I’m not expected.”

She heard an audible click as he swallowed.
“You’re leaving?”

“I was. Now I’m not so sure.”

Derek tilted her face to his, and kissed her,
hard and long. “Stay with me.”

“Yes.” A wild, bright joy filled her. It was
what she wanted, but she hadn’t been sure he wanted it, too. “I
will.” The release of tension left her weak, and she snuggled
closer to his chest. “Derek?”

“Mm.”

“I want to do to you what you did to me.” She
took a deep breath and rushed on before he could say anything. “But
I’ve never done it, so you might have to…to tell me how.”

“Well.” Despite the note of excitement in his
voice, she sensed hesitation. “I wouldn’t be able to tell you much
since I’ve never had anyone do that for me before.”

Her eyes stuttered to his, surprised. “You
haven’t?”

“No.” One side of his mouth quirked up. “I
told you I haven’t done this very much. In fact…” A wash of color
stained his cheeks. “When I did it to you it was the first time
I’ve done it. I think it was okay, though, right?”

“Oh, my God, Derek. It was more than okay.”
She shook her head in wonder. “It was out of this world great.”

A pleased expression lit his face. “And
whatever you do to me will be out of this world great, too.” His
smile widened into a grin. “I think we’re both going to enjoy the
hell out of learning to please each other.”

Athena rose over him and pinned his shoulders
to the bed. “Then let’s get started.”

Memphis, April 5, 1975

Maneuvering through Memphis rush hour traffic
was tricky enough, but doing it while overwhelmed by a mix of
confusion and anger was just asking for trouble. Hands gripping the
steering wheel so tight her knuckles were white, Athena tried to
keep her mind focused on avoiding idiot drivers so she could make
it in one piece to Andi’s house. It was insanity to drive down
Poplar Avenue at five o’clock on a Saturday, but it was the most
direct route to Germantown, and despite the traffic and the four
hundred thousand stoplights, it was also the quickest. Besides,
Athena knew that in her present state of mind if she attempted to
negotiate any of the side streets that would get her to her
destination, she’d end up in Mississippi with no idea how she’d
gotten there, and there wasn’t enough gas in the car for such an
excursion.

On the radio Elton John cheerfully sang about
“Philadelphia Freedom,” and a tiny part of Athena’s brain not
occupied with either avoiding a wreck or indecent proposals from
rock bands piped up to remind her that she needed to order more
copies of the single on Monday since it had just moved up to #2 on
the Billboard charts. It was shaping up to be a good little summer
tune, and it would be bad business to run out of copies. Even
though Athena didn’t care much for the song, at least it wasn’t
close to being as bad as the whole DeFranco Family fascination that
had swept the country two years ago.

Of course, if she took Simon up on his offer,
she wouldn’t be at work on Monday to order anything. She shook her
head. She wasn’t really considering going off with Wolf for a
month, was she? Damn Rondall for interfering and messing with her
mind!

After stomping away from Simon and Paul,
she’d gone downstairs and told Rondall he could take care of Wolf
until they left; she was done with them. The store was still
crowded despite the band’s absence, and Athena busied herself
mingling with the shoppers, making recommendations and trying to
drum up sales. It managed to distract her enough that she was
surprised when Rondall told her the band was gone. She tamped down
an unwanted wave of sadness, and nodded.

“Glad it went so well today,” she told her
boss. “We made a huge dent in our stock of their albums, and sold a
lot of other stuff, too. I can’t wait to total up today’s
sales.”

Rondall eyed her forced grin, and took her by
the elbow to pull her behind the register. “Okay,” he said, sotto
voce. “I don’t know what all the history is with y’all, but that
manager guy told me about the month-long job he offered you.”

Athena was shaking her head before he’d
completed his sentence. “Don’t worry, Rondall. I told him I can’t
do it.”

“That’s what he said.” Rondall cast an eye
around the store checking for eavesdroppers, and leaned closer to
her. “Athena, I don’t think you should be so quick to dismiss
this.”

That was the last thing she’d expected him to
say, and she gaped at him in speechless surprise.

“Look, honey, your job will still be here
waiting for you when you get back,” Rondall continued, laying a
hand on her arm for emphasis. “In all the years you’ve worked for
me, you’ve never taken a vacation day or a sick day. In fact, I can
only remember you calling in three or four days in the past seven
years, and those were when Elizabeth was sick. No, let me finish.”
He gave her arm a gentle squeeze when she opened her mouth to
protest. “This fellow told me how much they’ll pay you if you go
with them, and I hate to see you turn that down.”

“But…but…” Athena attempted to marshal her
scattered thoughts. “I can’t just run off and leave you for a whole
month!”

“For that kind of money you can.” He gave her
an amused smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you, but you’re the
best manager the store’s ever had. You took this place and turned
it around when both Eileen and I thought it had run its course. We
never would have made the changes you did that brought in a whole
new customer base and put us back in the black. And, too…” Rondall
dropped his eyes and cleared his throat. “With you running the
store, I had the time to take off and be with Eileen that last
year. That really means a lot to me, Athena.”

She blinked away a sudden sting of tears.
Even though it was two years since Eileen Thompson died of a
swift-spreading cancer, the pain was still raw at the memory of the
gentle, caring woman who gave Athena the job that allowed her to
support Elizabeth on her own. Not only had Eileen hired her, she’d
taken Athena under her wing, and treated her like the daughter she
never had. It had been a balm to the wounds left by the cutting
disapproval Athena’s parents hadn’t bothered to hide.

Athena swallowed a lump in her throat. “I’m
just glad I was able to be here so you could be with her.”

“I appreciate it more than you know,” Rondall
murmured. “And so did Eileen.” He took a deep breath and
straightened. “And you deserve something good for all the hard work
you’ve put in. There’s no way I can afford to give you what you’ll
make with that band, so you should take them up on their offer. Do
that, and you can afford to get that house you’ve been saving
for.”