Kiss the Girl (46 page)

“I’ve lived in a strange world.”

“I’ll bet.”  He reached for her, one hand warm on the curve of her waist, the other sliding up her ribs to cup her breast.  He dipped a finger under the lacy edge of her bra and skimmed
her nipple.  She
arched
into his touch on a gasp. 

“I like this,” he said,
rubbing the silky fabric between his fingers, while his knuckle brushed her aching nipple.

“Me, too,” she managed, while hot showers of sparks danced down her entire body.

His chuckle was low and wicked.  “I meant the bra.  I never pictured you as the lace and silk type.”

She opened her eyes and found him leaning into her, his mouth a whisper from her own.  She let her lips curve into a
knowing
smile.  “It’s a special occasion.  I usually don’t bother.”

“With silk?”

“At all.”

He groaned and dropped his forehead to the wall beside her ear.  “I didn’t need to know that.  How am I supposed to look you in the eye at the clinic now?”

She laughed and hooked a finger into his belt.  “The same way you did before.”

He pushed himself into her hand and she nearly purred at the surge of heat and wonder.  He was gloriously hard, and large enough to give her a frisson of purely female anticipation.  “Like I was two seconds from snatching you up and doing you on whatever flat surface was handy?”

She laughed, absurdly flattered.  “Wow.  I really
have
been dating the wrong guys.”

He went still, and she looked up to find his eyes gone
serious.  “I’m not the right guy, Nixie.  I thought you understood that.”

She flipped open his belt and said, “I disagree.”  She dealt with the button fly with one smooth yank, and in seconds had him gloriously nude.  She cupped him in both hands, and he sucked in a ragged breath.  “
Plus,
I
don’t think you’re entirely convinced yourself
.”

He strained against her hands, but his fists stayed rigid by his sides.  “I’m
convinced
,” he said.  “I’m going to marry Mary Jane.”

Nixie
stopped
and looked at him.  His jaw was clenched, a muscle jumping in his cheek.  Every line of his body was taut, whip-t
ight and quivering for release.  H
is eyes
were
the molten blue of fire
, and
s
he
smiled
.  He wasn’t going to marry anybody but her.

“
Do you really think that’s going to keep you safe?”
she whispered
, pressing a chain of tiny kisses along his cheek
.  “
Do you really think giving another woman your ring is going to
stop you from wanting me
?
  From wanting this?
”

She
sli
pped out of her jeans, left the rest of her clothes
in a tangle on the floor and
pressed herself against him.

Home
.  The word passed through her mind, dissolved and ran through her veins like a life force. 
Home
.  She shuddered and E
rik’s arms came around her, fierce and strong.

“
Jesus, Nixie,
” he
said
, his voice like a cat’s tongue
--
rough and somehow
comforting
.
  “You’re killing me.”  He ran his hands up and down her goose-pimpled back, a curiously tender gesture. 
 

She laughed, a sudden overflowing of joy. 
“You sure talk a lot for a guy with a naked woman in his arms.”

He rolled his hips into hers and zingy little shock waves ran straight to her lower belly.  “
You want me to stop
?
”
 

“
If I do, I’m sure I can
render you speechless.”

“Really?”  He tugged her to the carpet and laid her there like a feast. 
“Me first.” 
He eyed her head to toe, and her nipples tightened in anticipation.
 
“
Yeah, good thinking,” he said.  “I’ll start there
.”

Nixie’s entire body flashed hot as he closed his lips over her
nipple
, plucked lightly with his teeth and then soothed with his warm tongue. 
When she could breathe again, s
he grabbed a fistful of his hair and said, “Do that again.”

“At your service, princess.”  He rolled her damp nipple between his fingers, and turned his attention to her other breast.  The exquisite tug of his mouth had her arching up off the carpet
and sliding
a knee around his thigh in silent demand
.
  He chuckled, though it sounded a little ragged to her. 

“So impatient,” he said
, but
his hands weren’t precisely steady as they dealt with the condom he pulled from the tangle
of clothes on the floor
.  H
e settled into her like she’d been custom designed to cradle his weight and a feline hiss of pleasure escaped her.  She rocked under him, her hands greedy and urgent on his back, on his behind, pressing him forward. 

“
God
,” he said, as he slid into her, inch by glorious inch.  “I swear, I’ll do this right next time.
  I’ll take my time.  I’ll make it up to you.  But right now--
”

“Are you still talking?” she panted, squirming with the urgent need to move, to rock, to lift up and bring him
home
to her.  “This is the part where you
shut up
and just do me, okay?”

“Right,” he said, and smiled down at her
as he buried himself inside her
.
  A dazzling fullness blurred the edges of her consciousness, mixed with an insatiable, driving hunger.
  “You can render me speechless next time.”

She
narrowed her eyes at him,
clenched her internal muscles and
twisted under him.  He hissed out a breath.

“Do...What...”  He shook himself like a wet dog.  “Do that again.”

“You stuttered.”  She smiled
at him.  “
Does that
count as speechless
, or should I do it again?
” 

He didn’t open his eyes. 
“Again.”

“Are you talking through your teeth?”

“
Nixie
.” 

“Oh, fine.” 
She
flexed again, pulling at him, urging him deeper.  H
e was still moaning
when she poked a finger into his ribs
.  “Listen, Erik, you weigh about five hundred pounds, okay?  If you want me to drive, you’re going to have to roll over.”

His eyes opened a crack
, something dominant and edgy gleaming in
the blue depths as he smiled down at her
.  Her heart stuttered
ahead
on a jet of pure anticipation. 
“Who said anything about you driving?”

He surged forward, and she felt it all the way to the soles of her feet.  He made love exactly the way she’d hoped he would, exactly the way she’d
known
he would
.  Hard
-driving, straight-forward, goal-oriented.  And
God
bless him, his goal appeared to be shattering her into a million shards of twinkling light. 

She wrapped her legs around him and
took him with her when
she went.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“I have to go,” Erik said.

“
Hmmm
?”

He lifted his face from
the
glorious tangle he and Nixie had made of her enormous four-post
er
bed.  “I have to go.”  He dropped his head back into the sheets and closed his eyes.

“Right.”  Two warm fingers traced the indent of his spine to the crack of his ass.  “Go ahead.”

“I’ll give you twenty minutes to cut that out,” he said, an impossible stirring of lust pinning him to the bed.  “Then I’ll make you pay.” 

She laughed, slapped him smartly on the butt.  “I’d call you on that, but I think it might kill one or both of us.”

He caught himself smiling, and
his heart flipped over and clenched with dread
.
  He wasn’t supposed to be smiling and laughing with her.  He wasn’t supposed to be seriously considering testing the limits of his endurance by taking her one last time.  He was supposed to be walking away, physically satisfied, emotionally untouched, all lusty demons put to rest.

How had things gone so wrong? 

He’d had his share of lost weekends, but he’d never experienced anything like what he’
d just
discovered
with Nixie.  She made love like nobody he knew, laughing
, talk
ing
, teas
ing
and play
ing the whole time, even during the parts he traditionally preferred
not to
chat through.  But it was impossible
to
wall Nixie out of his heart.  She was so ridiculously dear.

He needed space, he told himself firmly.  A little distance to clear all the Nixie-dust out of his head so he could think straight.  Surely this absurd feeling of connection, of contentment and bone-deep satisfaction w
as
simply the by-product of too much sex, not enough sleep, and finally satisfying a month-long itch.  Of
course
he was going to look at the woman responsible for easing it with some fondness.  What guy wouldn’t?

He rolled his head to the side and opened one eye.  She lay on her side next to him, her long, slim body bowed into an easy C, her hair a rosy tumble around that perfect face.  Her mouth tipped into a do-me-baby smile, but her eyes were still and shining with a depth of love and passion that had his heart grinding helplessly, looking for the right gear.

“I really do have to go,” he said, sitting up abruptly.

She sat up as well, crossing her knees in front of her
and resting her chin on them
.
  “Why?  What are you afraid will happen if you stay?”