His for the Taking (22 page)

His eyes were darker than the night around them. His hand on her belly was arousing and gentle. He smelled of the outdoors and of the wine they’d shared.

She took a deep breath, as full of him as she was. She let it out, letting her body relax.

‘Okay,’ she said.

She felt his smile even more than she could see it. Nick kissed her again with tenderness and passion and then, slowly, he began kissing a trail down her face and neck. His soft hair brushed against her skin. Zoe sighed and closed her eyes as she felt him parting her sweatshirt and kissing down over her chest, through her T-shirt. His mouth was warm even through the fabric, and she felt her breasts aching and nipples beading for his touch, but he avoided them, kissing between her breasts and over her ribs. When his lips touched the bare skin of her belly she nearly gasped.

She felt Nick raise his head and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her. ‘The first time I touched you I was amazed at how soft your skin is,’ he said. ‘You’re such a strong woman, and then you have skin like a new leaf.’ He kissed her again on her stomach, and the heat of his tongue stroked into her belly button.

‘You’re very poetic,’ she said, though it was more of a gasp because she was finding it difficult to breathe. The two of them had had sex again and again, in different positions and different ways, and his mouth tenderly touching her belly was one of the most erotic experiences she had ever had.

‘Not usually.’ He pushed her sweatshirt off her shoulders and slipped her T-shirt upwards. She helped him pull it over her head. She hadn’t bothered with a bra after their shower and the night air on her bare breasts was both cold and delicious. When she lay back her skin was so sensitised by Nick’s touch that she swore she could feel every strand of grass.

But for a minute he didn’t touch her. He lay beside her, his body propped up on one arm, and she saw him looking at her. As if her body, laid half-naked here outdoors on the grass beneath the fragrant trees, was an offering to him.

As, God help her, it was.

‘You’re beautiful, Zoe,’ he said to her, and she was never going to get sick of hearing that. ‘Out here by starlight.’

‘What’s next, Boy Scout? You going to earn your romance badge by writing me a sonnet?’

His hand traced a slow line over her collar-bone; even in the silvery light she could see how much darker his skin was than hers. ‘Why so resistant to compliments, Zoe? You must know I’m telling you the truth.’

She swallowed, because his words and his caress were too much.

Nick stopped. He looked hard at her. ‘Wait a minute. Don’t you know?’

She tried to shrug, but couldn’t quite manage it. ‘I know you want me, and your poetry’s very pretty, so—’

‘No, Zoe, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how beautiful you are. Can’t you see it for yourself? Hasn’t anybody told you?’

Sexy,
from her lovers and from drunks in the back of her cab.
Hot mama
from her driving colleagues when she wore tight jeans and T-shirt.
Buff
from the guys in the gym. Once or twice, from her father, when she’d been dressed for parties in one of her sister’s dresses:
pretty.
She’d cherished the word at the same time she’d disbelieved it.

And until now she would die rather than admit that it mattered to her.

‘I haven’t met many people who are as deluded as you.’

‘Zoe.’ Nick’s voice held a warning, a reminder she’d agreed to be open.

‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘Nobody has ever told me I was beautiful. I have beautiful sisters, I have a beautiful mother, and a beautiful great-aunt. I’m not. The only time I’ve ever felt beautiful—’

She paused, and then went on and said it, because, to tell the truth, she had hardly anything left to lose.

‘The only time I’ve ever felt beautiful is when you look at me like you are right now.’

He let out a low laugh. ‘Woman, you are the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen.’ His tone was matter-of-fact, and more convincing than any poetic phrases. ‘Let me show you.’

Nick bent his head to her and kissed her collar-bone, where he’d been touching her. His lips were as soft as the touch of the starlight on her skin. As if she were precious, as if he were reverent. His hair was just long enough to brush her chest, and it was another caress. He moved across, dipped his tongue into the hollow of her throat, and downward towards the swell of her breast. His hand, broad and warm, rested on her belly, lightly, but firmly enough to let her know that he was in control.

And she couldn’t have done anything anyway. She was pinned by pleasure. Every kiss was a separate exquisiteness and she held her breath as he caressed and tasted the skin of her aching breast. Zoe threaded her fingers through his hair, not guiding him, just feeling him. When his tongue touched her nipple she jerked in a breath at the sensation.

She felt him smile. And then gently, so gently she couldn’t tell his individual movements, just a slow circling of tongue and lips, he teased her nipple. The pleasure spread through her body, not only centred on her breast but all across her skin, between her legs, down to her toes.

Zoe tightened her fingers in his hair. He didn’t vary his unhurried movement, but he stroked a thumb across her belly, and the small caress was so wonderful she shuddered.

With a final small kiss he lifted his head from her breast. ‘You’re beautiful, Zoe,’ he whispered, and she felt his breath warm against her wet, sensitive skin before she felt the cool evening air. Her nipple hardened still more, and it would have been painful if it hadn’t felt so good.

Then he put his mouth on her other breast and it got even better.

Those hands, his hands that healed and comforted and saved, held her more carefully than she’d ever been touched before. She lost track of time. Somewhere above the stars were wheeling around the earth; somewhere below the world was turning towards tomorrow.

And tomorrow, she would leave.

But right now she thought she could feel for ever.

Nick raised his head again and although she’d been looking at the stars she met his eyes. ‘Do you believe me yet?’ he asked.

Nick, I think I would even believe you if you said you loved me.

The thought was so strong she didn’t dare to open her mouth in case she said it.

‘I’m going to have to try harder,’ Nick said.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Z
OE WATCHED
N
ICK
kneel beside her and draw her sweatpants down her legs and off. In the darkness he was a familiar and perfect outline, though her eyes had adjusted to the starlight enough so that she could make out his features.

She hadn’t bothered putting on underwear, either. She lay totally naked on the grass underneath the open sky and again Nick looked at her for a long moment before he said or did anything.

The first sound he made surprised her. He sighed.

‘Nick?’

He laid a gentle hand on her hip, as if he knew she’d meant to sit up. ‘I was just thinking how strange it is that I’ve spent so much of my life outdoors and I’ve never made love outside like this.’

‘Never?’

She could see him shake his head. ‘Weird, isn’t it? I just never found a woman I wanted to share this with.’ He paused, and although she couldn’t see exactly where he was looking, Zoe could feel his gaze on her body. ‘I love seeing you like this, naked in the open air.’

‘You could get naked, too. We could do an Adam and Eve.’

‘Not yet.’ He ran one hand down the length of her leg and again Zoe shivered. ‘But it is like that. Like it’s just you and me, and all the trees and animals, and nobody else.’ His hand stroked back up her leg. ‘Nobody else at all.’

He bent and kissed her thigh. After minutes without his mouth on her, it was almost shockingly warm. Without consciously planning to, Zoe opened her legs and Nick shifted himself so that he was kneeling between them.

His hands and mouth explored her legs, from hip to toe, every touch soft and caring, and Zoe heard Nick and felt Nick and touched Nick and she heard and felt and touched the outdoors, too. The sky, the breeze, the owl in the distance and the other sounds of animals. In Nick’s world, she was beautiful and cherished and even the ground was a welcoming bed.

He kissed her inner thigh and, though she’d been relaxed and patient, she couldn’t help lifting her hips. ‘Touch me, please, Nick.’

She heard him make a deep sound of amusement and satisfaction. His breath feathered against the yearning flesh between her legs, and that wasn’t enough, either.

But he held her still with hands on her hips and made his own slow way. A kiss in the crease of her thigh where her leg met her body. Another, lower down. And then the liquid heat of his tongue, parting her and tasting her, and Zoe closed her eyes in ecstasy and whispered ‘Nick’ to the night air.

The man was patient, and he was in no hurry. It would have been maddening if it weren’t so damn good. He swirled his tongue around her clitoris with the most delicate of touches and Zoe felt as if she were melting. His breath was almost as much of a caress as his tongue and lips.

‘Nick,’ she said again, louder this time, and she felt, as well as heard his sound of satisfaction. It was a male sound, a sound of conquest, and she didn’t mind because his voice vibrated against her crotch and over her nerve endings through her entire body.

And besides, she was his.

She clutched his hair with one hand and dug the fingers of the other into the grass beside her. In the haziness of her passion it felt as if Nick were everywhere. He stroked her with his mouth, and the cool breeze on her over-sensitised breasts and skin was him, too. Slowly, slowly, he traced his finger around her and then slid it inside her, a fraction of an inch at a time.

That was it. Her muscles clenched around him and though his touches had been gentle her orgasm was violent, pounding and overwhelming. The stars blurred and the world stopped and Zoe arched her back, hit the ground with her fist, and heard herself gasping Nick’s name over and over.

He gave her a last, lingering lick, wringing another round of pleasure from her, and then he slid up her body so his face was even with hers.

‘I love it when you do that,’ he said.

‘I’m partial to it myself,’ she answered, dizzy and breathless.

He kissed her and she could taste herself on him, which was somehow doubly erotic. Then he sat up beside her and began removing his clothes.

Zoe watched him. Her limbs were languid and heavy, still tingling with her orgasm.

His chest in the starlight was a plane of rippled shadow, and his legs were long and perfect. When he moved to reach in the pocket of his jeans she could see the silhouette of his erection.

She didn’t move—she couldn’t—but desire stirred inside. No matter how many climaxes she had, no matter how satisfied she was, she always wanted more of Nick.

She heard the crinkling of a packet and knew he had found a condom and was putting it on. Her hands remembered how it felt to smooth latex over his rigid length; her body remembered how it felt to have Nick inside her. She would never get enough of him, even if she had the chance to. She bit her lip with longing.

‘You’re prepared,’ she murmured.

‘More than,’ he said, and leaned forward and gathered her into his arms. She let him position her in his lap, so they were sitting facing each other with her legs around his hips. His legs were firm underneath hers and her breasts pressed against his chest. Between her legs, she could feel the hot weight of his penis.

He kissed her again. She looped her arms around his neck, using his broad shoulders and his strength to steady herself. Nick took hold of her hips in his big hands and guided her carefully over him and downwards. His penis slid into her, inch by tantalising inch, while Zoe looked into his dark eyes.

When she had taken all of him in he stopped and held her still in his arms. Zoe could feel him wonderfully embedded in her, pulsing and alive, his heartbeat fast against hers. For all his calm steadiness he seemed to be having as much trouble breathing as she was.

She tensed her thighs, wanting to move on him, to feel the friction of him thrusting in and out of her, but he tightened his grip on her so that she couldn’t budge.

‘Look at the sky,’ he whispered to her, and that was his final step towards owning all of her world. Her body was surrounded by him and penetrated by him, her breath full of him, his taste on her lips and his voice in her ears. For a second all she could do was stare back into his eyes.

‘At the sky,’ he said again, and she tore her gaze away to look upwards. Millions and billions of stars, every one of them a tiny world. They formed constellations she didn’t know.

Her breath caught in her throat.

It was beautiful. And she was never going to see them again. Because Nick was her world now, but after tomorrow she would be gone. And they didn’t have stars like this in New York.

Then Nick moved. And the loss that had flooded her didn’t go away, but retreated back into her mind and her heart and burned there, while Zoe’s body revelled in the incredible pleasure Nick was giving her. He moved subtly, steadily, slow strokes that ignited every nerve inside her. The base of his penis rubbed against her clitoris and built up the same ecstasy he’d already given her with his mouth. And her nipples brushed the hard wall of his chest, and her thighs clenched and trembled around his waist, and her mouth kissed him and kissed him while she completely lost her mind.

She didn’t feel her orgasm coming; it just happened, as if it had never stopped. As she shuddered around him Nick held her still tighter, his movements barely quickening, until he suddenly raised her nearly off him and then brought her down fast, filling her so hard and completely that she gasped and cried out at the same time he pulsed his release.

‘Zoe,’ he murmured, pushed her hair back from her face, and tucked her head underneath his chin as they breathed together, sweat cooling on their bodies.