Icy Control (4 page)

“Your word you won’t make me recognizable in anything you make public,” he said, mortified to think of others—strangers—staring at him, soul bared and body brazen. He’d gladly show Sal every inch of his body, mind and soul, but she held his heart. He didn’t want his innermost secrets divulged to all and sundry.

Sally nodded. “My word.”

Rob chuckled. He could see her seriousness, knew she meant it and wouldn’t break her promise, but still her eyes didn’t miss a thing.

“I see I shall have to keep you busy, keep those nimble, talented fingers of yours occupied. We’ll be fine, Sal,” he said as he climbed next to her on the bed. The double mattress was roomy enough for them both, but side-by-side he could easily reach out both arms and span the length should he need to.

“Listen to you, you charmer,” she teased him.

Rob relished the warmth of her arms she wrapped them around him. Grinning, feeling reckless and like he could take on an army singlehandedly, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Telling it how it is,” he insisted. “If I were charming you, gorgeous, I’d say how your smile lights a fire in my heart, or how just the act of you looking at me with those large, speaking eyes of yours has my blood pumping hard and heating my cock.”

She laughed, her eyes sparkling.

Rob ruffled her short hair and pressed a hot kiss to her neck, nibbling a slow path down, then along her collar bone. She shivered and clung to him. He loved the sensation.

“Don’t ever doubt how that smile of yours does light up my world, though,” he murmured. “I can’t count the number of times I’ve picked you up to drag you out for food just to spend some time with you. I enjoy listening to the happy tone in your voice, and that laugh of yours can lighten my mood any time. You complete me, Sal.”

Sally grabbed his shoulders, twined her legs around his waist and lifted herself to press her breasts into him. He groaned when she closed her hand around his cock. Already half hard just from staring at her luscious body, his cock ignited under her touch.

“You give me strength. Knowing you’re out there, and others like you, like El, makes me feel safer. Every painting I create is to try and bring some joy and passion to others like you. People who need some magic and beauty in their lives.”

Her words, as much as her caresses, had him stiffening. Sally moved her hands, pumping up and down to his root. He swelled and thickened. Groaning, he kissed her hungrily, pushing his mouth hard at her, nipping his teeth lightly at her full lips as she drove him to distraction.

Pulling away reluctantly, Rob leaned back then moved to his side so he could reach out and grapple with the top drawer of her bedside table.

“Condoms are in the second drawer,” she told him.

He cursed. “Damn it, we’re going to move them to the top next time,” he groused. He had to shift farther away from the luscious warmth of her body to reach down to the next drawer. Pulling the whole box out, he then tore off a foil packet and left the rest on the top of the table.

“I’ll go on the pill,” she promised and helped him sheath himself.

Pleased, but wanting it to be her decision when her head was clear, Rob remained silent. He lowered his hand and stroked his fingers out to check she was truly aroused. Her lips were slick and when he caressed his index finger over her clit, her hips arched up. She moaned in approval.

Rob rolled onto his back, lifted Sally up and helped her to straddle him.

“I want to watch you too,” he said huskily. “Play with your breasts, gorgeous. They’re the perfect handful, pert and round. I want to see how you like them toyed with. I can learn from you.”

“Damn, Bobby, you’re going to kill me with need,” she moaned, fluttering her eyes shut.

Rob watched her, his mouth dry with wanting as she obeyed. She moved over him while he continued to stimulate her clit, penetrating his fingers gently into her pussy as she cupped herself.

After a short time, they were both panting, the chemistry in the room electric and tense.

“Please,” she pleaded. “Bobby, please. Don’t make me wait longer, I’ve been patient enough.”

“But we’re only beginning,” he taunted her. He reached up and stroked a smooth line from between her breasts down the center of her torso. He trailed his fingers down, ending at the indentation of her belly button.

Sally opened her eyes and glared at him, looking absolutely adorable.

“I began this trip back behind the sheds when you protected me from those boys and the hazards of smoking,” she snapped impatiently. “I’ve had more years than I want to consider to be put down to foreplay. I think I deserve some satisfaction.”

Chuckling, Rob used the hand slick with her juices to guide her hips, moving his other hand to the base of his dick and angling himself correctly. Her head down, still watching him avidly, Sally pressed the palms of her hands onto his shoulders, bracing herself while he placed the tip of his erection at the head of her entrance. Sighing deeply, he breeched her, slowly, slowly easing his cock into her depths.

Sally’s head fell back, and she closed her eyes again. Rob sucked in a harsh breath, heat enveloping around his dick as she accepted him inside her body. Farther and farther he moved in, her passage tightly clamping over him. For a moment he thought he might have been wrong, that she was a virgin and he was about to pierce her hymen and cause her pain. She was so tight he couldn’t believe she’d had a lover, despite the fact they’d spoken in vague terms of such things before.

But he continued inside her, until after what felt like an eternity, he was fully enveloped by her pussy, balls deep inside her. They stayed steady, Rob rigid with the need to hold still and let her acclimatize to his girth and length. Sally panted harshly, her pale skin flushed and a few beads of sweat making her glow like a goddess.

Wanting to ease her into her pleasure, Rob reached to cup her breasts and gently, tenderly, he toyed with her nipples. She arched her back, thrusting her peaks harder into his grasp. Rolling her tips between thumb and forefinger, he played with her until she started rocking on his cock. Rob kept one hand on her breast but lowered the other until he could cup her hip and hold her steady while she moved up and down, fucking herself on his cock.

The pleasure rippling through his body was intense, delicious in its power. A hard knot of hunger twisted in his stomach, his balls rising as the tension from her movements grew. Soon, he tugged Sally to bend over him so he could lift his chest up and suck at her teat. Scraping his teeth lightly over the sensitive nub, he suckled her hard. She shuddered in pleasure, her spine arching wantonly.

Need crawled over his skin and he canted his hips upwards, thrusting his length deeper into Sal, the force of each movement growing.

“More, Bobby, please,” she panted.

She lowered her head and they kissed hungrily. She nipped him with her teeth and they tangled their tongues around each other. Gone was the tender, delicate touches of before, now he was as desperate as she, driven to the brink by the force of their passion.

He roamed his hands over her slick skin. Their bodies slapped together as they each took from the other. Rob had no idea when he moaned or she sighed, but the noise of their pleasure echoed out across the loft and filled the air. They raced toward climax. Finally, Rob could feel the pressure get the best of him—he knew he’d not last much longer.

“Gorgeous,” he panted. “I’m almost there.”

“Thank fuck. Just a little more.”

He moved his mouth to suckle at the other breast. Her nipple was a hard point he rolled lightly between his teeth before drawing down on it and sucking. He stroked his fingers over her clit. He felt her body tighten, and her pussy clamped down hard around his shaft, caressing it like a vice. She panted a couple of quick, breathless gasps. Arching farther back, her breast pressed against his mouth and she screamed.

Her body convulsed and the pulses detonated his climax. Rob grasped her hips, holding her steady so she wouldn’t fall while he thrust with abandon. Unable to restrain himself a moment longer, he plunged into her, shouting out his release. He ejaculated over and over. He emptied himself into the condom, pumping with his dick as he came through his orgasm.

Just as suddenly as his pleasure overrode him, he fell down the other side of the peak and crashed. Every muscle in his body sagged back into the mattress. Exhaustion washed over him. Breathing hard, they both sounded like they’d sprinted a mile. Sally gingerly pulled herself off him. About to stop her, he quietened when she wrapped an arm snugly around his waist and appeared to find a more comfortable position.

Rob pressed a kiss to her cheek, then her forehead, then her mussed hair, which now spiked out in every direction.

“I love you, Sal,” he murmured sleepily.

“I love you too, Bobby,” she whispered.

Feeling sated and relaxed, complete like he’d never been before, Rob drew Sal into the warmth and safety of his embrace and closed his eyes just for a second or two.

* * * *

Rob snapped his eyes open. His brain clicked immediately into gear as if someone had turned a switch back on.

For a moment he couldn’t recall anything. He shifted defensively. A warm body was pressed against him, an arm around his waist. He wasn’t dating anyone. Rob knew there was only one person who held his heart. So why was his arm wrapped around a warm, naked…
oh.

Memory flooded back and the world righted on its axis.

The painting.

El and James.

Sally.

Sally.

Rob drew Sal tighter and kissed the sensual, exposed length of her neck. She murmured incoherently. Sally smiled in that perfect, devastating way he adored. Her eyes were languid, a dark, mossy green that seemed to hold the secrets of nations within them. Her teeth flashed, gorgeous, straight and white. Sal’s grin, that brilliance that shined from her sweet soul always felt warmer than the sun to him.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” she teased.

He grinned back instinctively, but then her words registered.

Sleepyhead?

His head snapped around and he turned his upper body so he could stare at her digital alarm clock.

Holy fuck. He’d lost an hour.

Sure, he had been woken up at three a.m. and had worked all the way through till well past lunch time, but he couldn’t afford to sleep when it was still early in the afternoon.

“Shit. Damn,” he cursed. He scrambled from the bed. Crossing the room, he then hurried into the tiny en suite to remove the condom and quickly rinse his body. “I need to call El—hell, she’s been on her own for hours now. I need to write my report. I have to find that fucking painting. And understand what this whole bloody mess means. I need to—”

“You need to not carry the burden of the world on your shoulders,” Sally insisted in a soft but firm tone.

Rob rushed back into the bedroom without a word. He grabbed his boxers and turned to her as he slid them on. She was rumpled, flushed and looking gorgeously disheveled only half covered by the sheet. He wondered if he was completely ruining her post-sex glow.

He knelt on the bed and drew her close then kissed her slowly.

“I swear I don’t mean to be an ogre,” he promised as he stood. He flicked his gaze down to his pants, turned them the right way around so he could put them on properly. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just so relaxed, the moment was so perfect. And you were there, all warm and stunning from our sex and—dammit.”

Rob cringed internally to think of how he appeared, rushing to leave his lover’s bed after their first time having sex. Hopping on one foot to get dressed in seconds instead of minutes. He’d be lucky if Sal ever let him into her bed again. Rob shook his head, not able to even contemplate that scenario.

“Sal, I’m sorry. This case will do my head in. I don’t mean to rush off, but I must. I just can’t get a handle on the situation, and losing an hour to sleep is just time I don’t have right now.”

“And I’m not being much help.” Sally nodded.

Rob shook his head firmly as he buttoned his pants. “Don’t say that. You’ve given me plenty to think about. I just—”

“You need to stop carrying this weight alone. Bobby, you’re not contaminated by your profession, or the only person who can do this. El is almost as strong as you, and a bloody good partner. You’ve told me so hundreds of times. And while I understand you see a harsher side to the world than most people, it doesn’t change who you are, especially to me. In your soul, you’re still the same Bobby who helped guide me through the final years of school.”

Rob stopped buttoning his shirt at the insistent tone in her voice.

Sally climbed from the bed. She reached out, grabbed his hands in hers and held him still for a moment. “You came to me so I could give you my knowledge and experience. You wanted my help. For heavens’ sake, let me give it to you.”

Rob paused for a moment, weighing things in his mind. He felt torn. It was true—he needed help and plenty of it. And while part of him still rebelled at dragging Sally deeper into the murkier depths of his world, she was right. He respected her, loved her. If she was adamant she wanted to do this who was he to stop her? Especially when he needed the assistance.

Protecting her was second nature for him, but she was not weak or a coward. He could still watch over her while she worked side-by-side with him. Part of him even wanted that.

“I won’t be able to keep the guys off you if you come to the office with me like this,” he teased her. Kissing her tenderly, because he was now free to do so, Rob wrapped her in a warm hug then lifted her off the ground. She wound her arms behind his neck. She twined her legs around his waist and even after the cold water and bloody good shag they’d just had, his cock twitched in his pants.

He lowered Sally back to the floor and kissed her one last time.

“I’ll go downstairs and check my messages. Meet you there.”

Sally nodded. He moved to climb back down the stairs when he felt her hand lightly slap his arse. Choking, he turned half around and tilted his head at her. The vixen’s eyes gleamed, pride and humor shining in their depths. Sal sniggered and sashayed into the bathroom. Rob would have bet a year’s salary the extra wriggle in her hips and buttocks were very much on purpose and for his benefit.