Ethan (9 page)

“You don’t think so?”

She shook her head. “No.”

Chapter Nine

Shae
thought about how she’d like this to go down. A shower first, because she was sandy and had the stick of salt water on her skin. Then she’d like to slip into one of her sexiest nighties—the see-through-lace variety—but she still had only her overnight case with her and that hadn’t made the cut. She thought about the lounge chairs Ethan had beside the pool, with the thick mattresses and the clandestine lighting. That was a definite possibility. She would like to push Ethan down on one of those chairs, straddle him in the orange glow of the lanterns, and ride him.

It didn’t quit
e happen that way.

She stood under the warm spray of the shower, her eyes closed as she rinsed her hair, and felt the
sudden brush of cool air against her skin. The door to the cubicle had been opened. Her skin began to vibrate, like a tuning fork, the attraction was that thick between them. Her knees wobbled. Breath bottled in her throat. There was a long moment of silence, stillness, and she could feel Ethan’s heated gaze on her body. She stepped out of the water and opened her eyes.

“You’
re beautiful, Shae.” His voice was husky. He drew a deep breath that expanded his broad chest and his hands followed his eyes, touching her lightly with his fingertips on her cheek, down the slop of her neck, over the peaks of her breasts and nipples. He tangled with the piercing at her navel and then dipped lower, over the silky skin of her belly, and made a teasing pass through her pubic hair. “So soft.”

She leaned into him, drew deeply of his scent. He was a potent mix of salt and sand and sex and it drugged her senses. She placed her fingertips on his b
iceps, followed their sculpted lines up to his powerful shoulders, which couldn’t possibly be wider. His neck was thick, corded, and she wanted her mark there.

She’d never felt a need to brand her man before and she tried to ignore it, placing an open kiss above his collar bone, then a love bite followed by the stroke of her tongue. It wasn’t enough to satisfy her. She stood on her toes to reach that sensitive skin beneath his ear and suckled it. She felt his cock stir, push against her belly, and she pulled back to have a look.

Since feeling the strength of his erection earlier, the length of it, the fullness, she had an idea what she would discover, or so she’d thought. Ethan was impressive. He was hard, thick, flushed with expectation. Her breasts grew heavy. And that spiral of anticipation tightened, brought her back to her toes, drew a clenched response from her core.

“Tell me you haven’t changed your mind,” he demanded. “Now’s the moment.”

“How ‘
bout I show you?” she returned and pushed gently at his shoulders until his back was against the tiled wall.

She’d never been more aware of a man’s passion. Ethan’s body
hummed with need. Every muscle tense, his skin flushed. And yet he held onto that control. It was frustrating. Shae wanted to test him. She wanted him to slip, just a little. Lose it a lot. And know that with her, it was okay. She lifted her hands and pushed them into his hair, tugged gently on the short strands, and then smoothed her palms over his face.

“You shaved.”

“Yes.” He brought up her arm and placed a kiss inside her elbow. “I didn’t want to burn your skin.” He bit delicately and then stroked with his tongue. Delicious sensation poured through her veins.

“I liked the manly look,” she breathed thickly.

“You wouldn’t like the rash I’d leave on your body.” He spoke against her skin as he moved from her shoulder to lave attention on her ear, circling the shell with his tongue and drawing from her a gasp of appreciation.

She
pushed back and dropped her eyes.

“
Do you want my lips here?” She circled the tip of his cock with her finger. “Have you thought about that, Ethan?”

He let his forehead rest against hers and watched her hands.

“Yes.” His voice was low, husky, a lion’s purr.

“How ‘bout here?” She drew her finger
s down that fine ridge, from head to base, and felt him shudder in response.

“Yes. All of it.”

“I don’t know about all,” she taunted. “You’re a big man, Ethan.” She cradled his balls, pushed her fingertip against that soft flesh just beyond, and felt the tension in his body ramp up. His shaft grew impossibly hard, straining for her touch. “You like that?”

“Yes. More
,” he demanded.

She followed that sensitive
line between shaft and anus, circling when she got there, pressing a fingertip into the shallow dip, and was rewarded with the gasp that hit the back of his throat. His face was taut, his smoky eyes so intense she could almost see the eclipse of his pleasure. She pressed further, dared where she never had before, and felt his body spasm.

He was going to come. She felt the bui
ld up at the base of his cock. And he had flushed a deep crimson all the way to the broad head, which quivered in preparation.

Damn, how
she wanted him inside her. She felt herself melt, her legs tremble.

“Stop now,” he
bit off, but his semen was beginning to spill. It bathed her wrist in a warm pool. He removed her hand, held it in the vice-like grip of his, and buried his face in her neck. “Give me a minute.”

She gave him the time, knowing the longer they could draw this out the more pleasurable it would be for both of th
em. But, damn, it hurt. Her core was so tight, so plush, if she didn’t have him inside her soon she would scream from the frustration of it.

She listened to his breath draw even, felt it fan against he
r neck slower. He was gaining the control he needed, and Shae was glad of it—because she planned to rip it away from him as relentlessly as she’d just done.

“What do you want? Need?” he asked. “It won’t take much now and I’m going to come, and hell if I’m going to leave you behind.”

She tipped her head back and looked into his face.
Passion made his features sharp and hooded his eyes.

“We can play catch up later,” she assured him. She had other plans right now.

“No.”

But she sank to her knees and
lapped up some of the arousal that had seeped from him. He was still impressively erect.

“M
mmm,” she murmured. He was salty and earthy and she wanted more of him. “Don’t deny me, Ethan.”

She
took him in her mouth—just the velvet tip with the scalloped helmet, which she tapped with her tongue while she stared into his eyes. His were molten. His lips drew back in a feral grimace. She swirled and sucked and watched expression shatter on his face. Torment, bliss. A wild flush rose to his cheeks and he cradled her head, holding her on him, flexing his hips so that she took more of him.

“Okay?” he asked. She felt his restraint, knew he was holding his body in check, and that just spurred her on. She swirled her tongue around his crown and stroked his shaft with a firm hand while she sought that sensitivity that had catapulted him to the brink of orgasm earlier. This time, exploration already complete, she pushed into him, felt his muscles clench around her, and his seed spurt into her mouth. His body trembled, shuddered into his climax, and at its height he called out, a hoarse cry that was her name and an intense pleasure that pulled on Shae’s feminine wiles.

Shae guided him down until he sat with his back against the tiled wall and his legs were folded, making the perfect cradle for her to slip into, which she did. His arms cam
e around her and he pulled her close while the breath rattled in his throat and she listened to his heart hammering in his chest.

In that moment, when vulnerability reigned, he stared into her with
soft affection and awe, and drew her to him in a kiss that was gentle and reverent.

“Amazing,” he muttered against her lips. “I’ve never come like that before.”

“No way.”

“Oral sex, yes. But l
ike that, watching you, your determination, the hunger in your eyes—“ He stroked her cheek, the arch of her throat. “That little trick you’ve got. How did you find me so fast?”

“I paid
attention.” Like the way his skin hummed with pleasure when she touched him. “I followed your need.”

She smiled, tur
ned her head, and planted a kiss in his palm. Then looked him in the eye and said, “I hurt.”

“Come on.” His hands curled around her arms and he lifted her as he rose to his feet.

“Payback time?” she murmured.

“Count on it.”

“I am.” But the air was cooling and she felt her flesh rise in protest. She stuck a hand into the spray. “We ran it cold.”

The dismay must have colored her tone because he assured her, “I’ll take care of that, too.”

He stepped from the shower cubicle and grabbed a lush, terry robe which he wrapped around her. It was obviously his—her hands were lost in the sleeves and the hem trailed the floor. He didn’t bother tying the sash, but bent and lifted her in his arms.

“Until I get you worked up again, this will have to do.”

He carried her through the house, passing down the shadowed hall, through the kitchen, which was lit only by the light under the range, and onto the patio. The wind was mild, stirred the leaves in the palm trees so that they chattered pleasantly. She snuggled deeper into his robe, tucked her head against his shoulder and then, taking advantage of her perspective, stroked that soft spot behind his ear with her tongue.

She heard the sharp intake of his breath and felt the rumble of his voice
with her lips on his throat before his words left his mouth.

“
Don’t get me started again,” he said.

“Of course I will.”

“This is about you now.”

He hooked a lounge chair with his foot and pulled it
under one of the heat lamps and into a pool of amber light. “I want to watch you,” he explained. “The way you watched me.”

He laid her down
so that she was partially reclined and opened the robe. With his long fingers, he stroked her, from the instep of her foot, over the slope of her calf, then to the soft skin of her inner thighs. The heat in his eyes, the cool air, his fiery touch made her tremble with anticipation.

Shae squirmed, opening her legs, inviting him to take liberties.

“
Yes, sweetheart,” he murmured against her belly, as his mouth and tongue and teeth began an exploration of her skin.

H
is fingers brushed over the thatch of blond hair at her apex and then delved between the silky folds. He didn’t penetrate her, but swirled the tip of his thumb around her clit and slid between her lips, where she was already melting. 

“We’re going to do better than that,” he promised.

With both hands, he parted her legs further so that her thighs dangled over the edges of the mattress and she was fully exposed to him.

“Beautiful,” he breathed. He lowered his head and inhaled deeply, taking her scent into his nostrils and she watched passion flush his skin. He was crouched beside the lounge chair and when Shae looked down she watched his cock stir, fill, and she very much wanted him between her legs. He had other ideas.

“
I’m going to taste you now and you’re going to come the same way I did.”

It was a toss-up, wha
t she wanted more: Ethan’s lapping up her honey, or his cock sliding into her. She wanted both. Now. And whimpered at the unfairness of it.

“I want you inside me.”

“It will happen,” he promised.

“Just not now.”

“Not yet,” he corrected and slid onto the chair beside her so that he could finish the job of removing the bath robe.

She tried to see herself the way he did—plump breasts, slender waist,
hips that filled out a full hourglass figure. She had womanly curves and the play of shadow and light over her skin added to her seductive allure, if the tight expression of serious want on Ethan’s face was anything to go by. She decided it was and smiled with satisfaction.

He nodded. “You’re incredible, Shae. Your body makes me burn.”

“You’re hard again,” she observed.

“Yes. But I’ll last a hell of a long time now.
” His gaze fell to her breasts and he reached both hands toward her to cup their weight. She listened to his breath grow thicker, watched his face darken with arousal.

He lowered his h
ead and suckled her nipple deeply into his mouth. Shae felt the touch all the way to her womb.  She shifted, squeezing her legs together on the exquisite sensations he evoked.

“No, baby.”
He opened her again, while his mouth teased her nipples. His hands skimmed over her stomach, following indentation, swirling inside her navel, and then small circles growing larger until he was moving through that thatch of hair again, grazing over her sensitive bud, dipping into her core, but not enough. Definitely not enough. She whimpered a protest and lifted her hips for more, but he evaded her. He lifted his head and whispered, “I don’t want you coming until I’m down on you, sweetheart. I want to drink every drop of you.”