Just About Sex (27 page)

Sometime later, Alex stirred. He didn’t think he’d been asleep, but he certainly hadn’t been conscious, either. Had he had a near-death encounter? Goodness knew the extreme pleasure Simone’s tight, hot, wet body gave him was unlike any earthly experience he’d ever had. Or probably ever would have. Stunned, he tried to think, but couldn’t. Maybe he needed a while for the blood to leave his groin and remember its responsibilities to the rest of his body.

Disentangling his hand from her hair and sliding his sweat-slicked chest away from her bare breasts took a great deal of effort, probably because he didn’t ever want to let her go. Still, he needed to. He carefully stood, didn’t fall, which he considered a minor miracle since his knees were a little weak, and got rid of the condom in the bathroom. When he came back, he pulled on his underwear, sat on the side of the bed and surveyed the scene.

Shell-shocked, he felt as if he were assessing hurricane damage from a helicopter. Though he tried, he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing: the strewn clothes and Simone, now sprawled on her belly across the rumpled bed, her eyes closed and a sweet half smile curling her lips.

What just happened here?

Simone, the woman he’d wanted more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life, had been a virgin.
A virgin.
He’d experienced it with his own body, but couldn’t believe it any more than he’d believe it if he saw a ghost drift through his hallway.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, running his hand down the graceful curve of her back.

Her eyelids flicked open and she stared at him with the smiling, half-closed, sultry eyes of a satisfied woman. “Of course,” she said. “Don’t I look okay?”

Better than okay, actually. She looked like the cat that ate the canary. She looked good enough to eat.

He,
on the other hand, was
not
okay.

A faint, panicked feeling had knotted in his gut, blocking out some of his euphoria. She seemed to realize it, and bewilderment crossed over her face. Reaching out, she put a hand on his knee. “What’s wrong?”

Yes, Alex, what was wrong? What could possibly be wrong? He’d just had the best sex of his life with the woman he wanted above all others. A woman who blew his mind—in a good way—every time he was with her. A woman who’d never given herself to any other man.

A woman…he was finding it increasingly hard to do without.

A woman…he knew he could never let be with another man.

What, exactly, did all this mean? Something important, he knew that. More important than he’d thought. But
what?
What had he gotten himself into? What kinds of promises had he unknowingly made? What kinds of promises had she knowingly made?
What did this mean?

He needed to fit all these pieces together and look at the big picture. If only his brain would work. If only he could
think.

“You were a…
virgin.
”

His quiet voice, sharper than he’d meant it to be, reverberated through the room like a sonic boom. Simone winced and shrank away from him. Slowly turning over and sitting up, she covered herself with the duvet and ran her hands up and down her arms as if she had a chill.

Her gaze lowered as if she felt ashamed, and she nodded. “Yes.”

“How is that possible?”

Her chin jerked up and her gaze, flashing and defiant now, locked with his. “The easiest way is to never have sex.”

“Is this a
joke?
”

“No, but I don’t understand why you’re treating me like a leper just because—”

“I’m not treating you like a leper, Simone, I just think I had a right to know—”

“Now you know.”

Her glibness irritated him like sandpaper across his skin. Even so, he tried to keep his temper in check. “I had a right to know
before
—”

“Why?”

“So I could’ve known what I was getting into and—”

Knowing this sounded bad—hurtful—he stopped himself, but too late. She flinched as if he’d slapped her. Tears glittered in those wide silver eyes, and she furiously blinked them back.

“What…you were getting into?” she asked in a voice that was deathly calm. “And what was that, Alex? An affair with a woman who has less sexual experience than the average seventeen-year-old? So sorry to disappoint you.”

His bewildered, unfocused anger slipped away. He’d hurt her, and he’d die before he did it again, especially tonight.

“No.” Reaching out, he caught her hands and kissed first one palm, then the other. “
No.
This isn’t how I want us to spend our first night together. Let’s not do this.”

She tensed but didn’t pull away. “What have you gotten into with me, Alex?”

A love affair with implications he couldn’t begin to understand right now. A woman whom he’d never give up and never allow to have sex with any other man. A joy so wondrous his life had surely changed forever. He pressed her hands to his chest so she could feel his heart thunder. She gasped and her fingers dug into his flesh, as if she wanted to pull him closer.

“I’ve gotten a precious gift I don’t deserve.”

A soft, happy smile curled her lips. Reaching up, he cupped her cheek and ran his hand over the exquisite silk of her face, making her purr with pleasure. She stared at him with such a look of adoration, that for a moment he couldn’t breathe. For that moment, he could almost believe he could somehow be worthy of this woman.

Powerful, unidentifiable and undeniable emotions bubbled up from his chest to his throat, threatening to overflow, but then despair washed through him, almost as overwhelming as the joy. Who was he kidding? He could join a monastery tomorrow, spend the next fifty years of his life doing good works, and he still wouldn’t deserve a woman like Simone.

But he was sure going to stick around until she got smart.

She scooted forward, into his arms. Burying her lips in his neck, Simone nuzzled and nipped, reigniting every nerve ending in his body. On fire, as if he hadn’t just had the most shattering orgasm of his life, Alex pressed her back against the pillows, pulled the duvet away from her, and exposed the glorious body that drove him wild.

Chapter 23

A
lex stared down at her with unfathomable eyes. “This time,” he said, “we’ll take all night.”

Wild excitement fluttered deep in Simone’s belly. Desire flared again, threatening to incinerate her. Her hips, which she hadn’t been able to control all night, undulated, making her writhe like a belly dancer. Alex’s gaze roved over her body, and the hot light in his eyes burned brighter.

She wasn’t at all sure she could handle any more of this intense pleasure tonight. Worse, she was afraid to give any more of herself to Alex, afraid to give him any more power over her. And yet…he already owned her heart and soul. What difference did giving him her body again make?

It wasn’t as if she could help it anyway. The deep, pleasurable ache high up between her thighs demanded that she submit and give Alex whatever he wanted. She belonged to him. She
wanted
to belong to him.

Maybe the most she could hope for was to keep her feelings to herself. As long as she never told him her ultimate secret, that she loved him, he could never truly hurt her or use her weakness for him as a weapon against her.

“Simone,” he whispered, and all of her fears faded.

One of his hands skimmed up the inside of her leg, pausing to squeeze the hollow behind her knee. On the move again, it slowed to an excruciating crawl as it neared the tender inside of her thigh. One inch from her soaking wet sex, the hand stopped altogether and lingered, grazing her leg and avoiding the spot that desperately needed his touch.

“Are you sore?”

Simone didn’t really hear him. She squirmed, desperate for him to relieve the throbbing ache that hovered just on the edge of pain. Whimpering, she raised her hips and tried to rub herself against him. His elusive light fingers stayed on her thigh, kneading, just out of reach.

Insensible and shameless, she closed her eyes, threw her arms over her head, and arched her back and hips.
“Please.”

“Simone,”
he said more insistently.

Somehow she cracked her heavy eyelids open to see him looming over her, his dark skin reflecting the light. Never before had she seen such a beautiful man. Slabs of muscle rippled in his chest and arms, and tapered down to fascinating furrows over his lean, hard belly.

She ran a hand over his chest, palming one pebbly nipple, but his face tightened and he pulled her hand away. Raising it over her head, he held both her wrists in an unforgiving grip. With his other hand he finally grazed her sex and she cried out, arching off the bed.

A wicked, satisfied smile curled his lips. Leaning down, he brushed his mouth against hers, but when she eagerly opened against him, he pulled away.

“I asked you a question, Simone,” he murmured, his breath feathering her mouth and chin. “Are you sore?”

Wha—? Did he say something?
Sore?
What on earth was he talking about? And when would he stop talking and put his hands on her? Raising her head a little, she tried to reach his lips, but they remained maddeningly out of reach.

“Please, Alex,” she whimpered, not too proud to beg at this point. “Please touch me.”

Again his lips curled, this time in a wry smile. “I’m going to take that as a
no.
”

This time his finger slid higher, wetting itself in her dew and making an agonizing, slow trail between her legs and up over the exquisitely sensitive spot at the base of her curls. At the same time, he flicked his tongue over her mouth and then plunged deep for a thrilling, hungry kiss.

Simone’s sex flooded. Tiny, pulsating spasms radiated from her hot center to her belly, and she keened, wondering ridiculously what could possibly make that tortured animal sound. She didn’t know how she could survive this pleasure. When she came—and she would, soon—the bliss would surely rip her body apart.

Alex let her hands go and ran his own over her aching breasts. She reached for him, but he pushed her away and shot her a glittering warning look.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Alex.”

With absolute focus, he stared at her breasts. His breathing turned labored, as if someone had fed his lungs through a paper shredder. A muscle ticked in his tight jaw.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “So beautiful.”

One of his hands trailed in lazy concentric circles from the outside of her breast near her armpit in toward the nipple, but never quite found its way home. The torture was unbearable. Tears of frustration pooled in the outer corners of her eyes and trailed down her temples to the pillows.

Only one word formed in her frantic brain. “Please.
Please.
”

“Please…what? This?” His hands, fingers spread wide, came up her sides and his thumbs brushed over her nipples.

“Ye-sss.” Her body rejoiced and she waited for more, but none ever came. She wriggled, feverish and desperate. “Plea-ease.
Plea-ease.
”

“More?” He lowered his head over her and a bead of sweat trickled down his temple and dropped into the valley between her breasts, surprising her that it didn’t sizzle on her overheated body. His mouth half an inch from her nipple, Alex looked up and his glittering gaze caught hers. “You want
more?
”

“Plea-ease.”

He licked her. One great, slow swipe of his burning tongue ran over first one nipple, then the other. And then he stopped. Again.

Simone thrashed, frustrated and crying incoherently. What did she need to do to get this man to stop torturing her and put her out of her misery? Her hands fumbled for him again—maybe she could grab and force him. But he shoved them rudely away again, and she clutched at the duvet, reaching for something to anchor her to the earth. Even begging was beyond her now.

Alex’s head still hovered over her breasts, and he studied her with narrowed eyes. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she saw a slight tremble in his shoulders, but of course that was impossible. He was as cool and calm as he’d ever been.

“More, Simone? You still want
more?
”

His incredulous tone made her want to smack him, and if she could have raised her heavy arm she would have done just that. But he didn’t wait for an answer and she couldn’t have given him one anyway.

Finally he took mercy on her. His silky, hot mouth clamped down over one nipple, suckling and scraping with his teeth. After a minute, his mouth slid lower, past her ribs, and lower, delving into her belly button. Shaking, Simone couldn’t breathe. She waited…waited, her lungs heaving as he moved lower. Then his lips and tongue found her center and latched on.

Simone’s body exploded, and she arched backwards, crying his name. Wracking, exquisite jolts of pleasure shot from her sex through her belly, so intense she saw flashes of light behind her closed eyes.

Then Alex was over and inside her, stretching and filling her with his hard body, his arms lashing them together with a strength bordering on brutal. Her pulsing body milked him, and he came quickly, his hoarse cries drowning out her own.

After a while they stopped moving, but still clung to each other, and over their harsh panting came her tired voice, faint but clear, involuntarily saying the one thing she’d sworn she wouldn’t say.

“I love you, Alex.
I love you.
”

Alex opened the front door and followed Simone out onto the porch. Early afternoon sunlight filtered through the leaves and dappled Simone’s flushed cheeks. They’d just showered, and with her makeup-free face and curly wet hair she looked both as if she was twelve years old and like the sexiest woman he’d ever seen.

He could barely let her leave, and yet he needed a little time alone. To think.

They’d had a night for the ages. He’d bested his personal record with Nikki and made Simone come five times. So why did he still feel so unsettled?