Gold Shimmer (7 page)

As I slide my hands to his chest, intending to push him back, he captures my chin and nips my jawline near my ear lightly, his voice a low, mesmerizing hum against my heated skin. “No flying away, Raven mine. I’m nowhere near done claiming every part of you.”

My heart jerks when he clasps my waist and lifts me up onto the counter. Eyes wide, I stutter, “Wait, you’re going to…here?”

“Where better to savor you than in the kitchen?”

I bite my lip, excitement racing through me at the idea of him going down on me in a near public setting. Reaching up, I run my finger along the two dark points of ink peeking a quarter inch above his jacket’s stand up collar.

“This could be anything: the point of a star…a letter. Some say that tattoos are scars worn on the outside. I think of them as the most intimate part of a person.”

“Most intimate part?” He folds his fingers around my forearm, unknowingly touching my other tattoo underneath my shirt’s sleeve. Pulling me closer, his hooded gaze darkens with sexual hunger. “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”

I exhale of slow breath, my lips twitching. “Do you really think I have one?” I deftly avoid confirming his assumption as I pull free to reach for the first gilt gold button.

He captures my wrist, stopping me from unbuttoning his collar. “I’d lay money on it.”

I arch an eyebrow. “You’re not going to let me see yours?”

“You’ll see all of me soon enough.” A grin, full of sensual promises, flickers. Stepping between my legs, he rests his warm hands on my thighs, skin to skin. “For now I want to hear you beg me for it.”

He’s so freaking arrogant.
“Good luck with that.” I pick up his hat and set it on my head, then salute him. It’s sad how honest that statement is, but I might as well enjoy the build up.

“Smartass,” he mutters, tugging on the bill to bring my face close to his.

His mouth is a breath away from mine as he flattens his palms along the marble on either side of my hips. His nearness fills the air with an electric charge that runs all the way to my toes. How did the fun banter shift to something much more intense so quickly? I need to keep this light, a bit of raunchy fun. “Strategizing, Mr. Navy?”

A dark smile crooks. “Always,” he says right before he clasps the insides of my thighs. “Lay back.”

I gasp at the cold transferred from the marble to his hands, but the chill on my skin only ramps the heat between us. Exhaling a calming breath, I lower myself down to the cool marble surface. I need some space from his heady magnetism. But my anticipation only rachets higher as he slowly slides me on the slick, glitter-covered surface until the back of my knees hit the island’s edge.

As he grasps my thighs, his gaze slides leisurely over me. Lust flickers in their depths and his firm grip loosens. “I’m discovering a whole new appreciation for glitter.”

I bite my lip while he begins to rub the golden flecks from his palms along the insides of my thighs, his movements methodic and sensual. When he reaches my short skirt and flips it out of the way, the thin red ribbons holding my silky black underwear together at each hipbone draw his attention. Pausing, his gaze flicks to mine, full of carnal heat. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

“Only if you use that cocky mouth of yours for more than just talking.” Exhaling a sigh, I raise my arms above my head and stretch, undulating my hips in a move that I know drives guys crazy. “Do your best to solve me, Mr. Navy. That is…if you’re up to the challenge.”

His lips twist as he leans over me. “There’s something you should know about a good strategist.”

“And what is that?” I say, my words coming out in a breathy whoosh when he plants a kiss on my belly button.

He lifts his hooded gaze my way. “We study every angle, learn every possible move that can be made for the very best outcome, and then we implement a solution.”

I slide my fingers in his hair and gold flecks shower down on my belly. Trailing my fingers along his hairline, I halt at his temple. “And what’s your success rate?”

He grips my hips in a firm hold and runs the flat of his tongue along my stomach. Licking up every bit of glitter sugar, he rumbles against my suddenly prickled skin, “One-hundred-percent.”

His attentiveness makes me so wet, I almost hate that I’m going to ruin his record. Even though he’ll never know he didn’t succeed, I feel it’s only fair to warn him. “I’m not so easy to solve.”

He slides his hands to my ass and chuckles as he nips at my hipbone. “Complicated, are you?”

When I mumble, “I’m a double-sided, 3D puzzle,” he glances up at me once more, his gaze suddenly serious.

“Every puzzle has a solution, Raven. I’m yours.”

Before I can rib him about his overconfidence, he lifts my right thigh and kisses a searing path toward my sex, rendering my brain useless.

The closer he gets, the hotter my body radiates against the cool marble. Chill bumps layer over flushed skin. The combination is so stimulating, I rock my hips, encouraging him as I let out a breathy sigh. “I’m enjoying your strategic moves.”

Biting lightly on my inner thigh, he shifts to my left leg, lifting it up to press a kiss along the inside of my knee. As he trails his tongue in a swirling pattern down my leg, his warm breath bathes my skin while he slowly makes his way to the edge of my underwear.

I’m surprised when he turns and presses his nose against my sex. Inhaling deeply, he groans. “You’re soaked and fucking hell you smell like dessert.”

His teeth nip the edge of my underwear, and I jump, gasping.

Just when I start to reach for the ties holding my panties together, he grunts and glares at me.
Stay still.

I sigh and move my hand to his hair, heart hammering while he slides his teeth along my underwear until he reaches the bow. Clamping his lips around the end of the ribbon, he pulls it free of its loop, then does the same to the other side.

I bite my lip as he dips his head and presses a soft kiss to one side of my sex and then the other. When he continues pressing his mouth tenderly along my sensitive lips—just light pecks, not full on contact—I furrow my brow in confusion.
This is his idea of great oral?
I’m thinking he exaggerated that one-hundred-percent satisfaction rate.

I dig my fingers into his scalp and hope he gets the hint, but he only moves lower to plant a chaste kiss right against my damp opening.

What the hell?
My whole body is tightening, waiting for him to proceed. “What—what are you doing?” I say as I start to sit up.

He flattens his hand on my belly, his action entirely dominant while he patiently answers against my body, “I’m getting to know you.”

I point to my head. “My brain is up here. You can get to know it later.”

He glances up and smirks. “This part of you has a brain too, angel. Trust me.”

“Angel?” I snort. “At the moment, the devil on my shoulder disagrees. This,” I tug lightly on his hair, “ is pure physiology. No thinking going on.”

He pulls my hand from his hair and places it on my belly before he moves to drop a kiss on the bit of dark hair covering my mound. His movements unhurried, he murmurs against the hair, “This is perfect. Just enough.”

“Just enough for wha—”

I arch off the counter and swallow a shocked gasp when he bites down on my mound with enough force to instantly wake every nerve ending in my body. I throb everywhere with intense, jaw-grinding want.

Releasing me, he holds my widened gaze. “Are you ready for me to fuck you now?”

His voice might be calm, but hunger swirls in his eyes. Reeling from his shocking primal move, I barely get out “just taste me” before he dips his head and slides his tongue inside me, taking our flirtation to a deeper, more intimate level.

As he alternates between stroking me with his tongue and sucking my clit, my stomach tenses and moisture floods my sex. I wind my fingers in his hair, tugging him closer and vaguely think that I can never pull him close enough. What he’s doing feels
that
amazing.

“You taste so good,” he rasps, angling my hips to allow him deeper access. “So fucking addictive.” As I try to catch my breath, he takes full advantage of the position, plundering me with his tongue and jacking my heart rate higher. Sucking and nipping at every inch of my sensitive skin, he makes me feel like he’s worshiping my body.

Calder’s style is unlike any man I’ve ever been with. His extremes throw me completely. He’s intimately possessive, his mouth coaxing my body along like he knows me better than I know myself. Unbidden gasps and moans escape as I move my hips with his rhythm while he takes me so high that a fine sheen of sweat coats my skin. At this rate my ass is going to have a layer of gold it’ll take a loofa in the shower to get off.

As the tautness builds inside me, my elevating heart rate stutters. I know I’m about the reach the point of no return—that awful place where my body completely shuts down—I tug hard on his hair, desperate to suspend this fantastic ride. Usually now is when I’m screaming and bucking and getting louder, letting the guy believe that he’s the best I’ve ever been with. But the pleasure Calder’s giving me is indescribably body-consuming; a nerve tingling, fan-fucking-tastic high.

No one has ever gotten me this far. But despite my wishes, the dark wave is coming. I already feel its murky cold water spilling over the edges of my euphoria as it crashes against the dam of my mind, demanding to be set free. It will smother this amazing physical build-up and flatten every single response.

It always does.

So I start moaning deeper and breathing harder. I rock my hips and press desperately against Calder, grabbing his head.
Faking the hell out of it
. “Calder…I’m...going to—”

He jerks upright and my thighs lower to the counter. His expression is intense as he leans over me slightly to cup my sex. “Don’t speak. Just move.”

“What?” I pause my movements even as panic flushes my face with heat.

“You heard me. Not a sound. Not yet.”

“Why?” Exhaling to cover the sudden shakiness in my voice, I gesture to the door. “They’re not going to hear me over that music.”

Holding my gaze with an intense one, he slowly dips a finger inside me. My body instantly reacts and I arch into his hand. I swallow a genuine moan when he adds another finger. “I want to feel you come. No distractions. Understand?”

But louder breathing, exaggerated hip rolls, and bucking…they’re all part of my perfectly choreographed repertoire.
I’m the best comer ever. And now he’s trying to take that away from me? Hell no.
I shake my head. “I don’t think I can be silent.”

His expression intensifies and he thrusts his fingers as far as they’ll go, possessing me deep inside. “Do you want to come?”

I don’t like him honing in on the most broken part of me. Like he’s mocking me. Sarcasm surfaces when I feel cornered. “You wouldn’t be between my legs if I didn’t.”

Folding the heel of his palm around my mound, he tugs and I zip down the slick counter toward him until his face is just over mine. “Then stop faking it.”

I
gape and blink as shock rolls through me. “I’m
not
.”

“
Yes
the fuck you are,” he says, his hold tightening.