Love Me Twice (18 page)

“Let me.”

Drew. His arms slid around her waist from behind. He pulled her close and turned her. His lips met hers, and his tongue finished the job hers had begun.

The wind whipped her hair in his direction. Drew tamed it in his hands, holding her head in a soft, but firm grip. His body pressed her against the railing and she couldn’t miss his hard cock pressing against her stomach. Her hands rested on his shoulders and worked their way over his muscled chest to his waist. In that moment, she didn’t care how he’d gotten the bite mark, she didn’t care if he had a dozen new ones, she wanted him.

Sean had been right about that at least. She needed to be with Drew, had to see how deep her feelings for him went before she could make a decision. Celeste broke the kiss. Drew continued to imprison her hair at the back of her head. His eyes questioned her withdrawal.

“Not here, Drew.” She’d made her decision. She was going to sleep with Drew. Not because Sean ordered her to, but because she wanted to. But she still clung to a scrap of decency. Sean would know she was with Drew. There was no reason to rub it in his face by making a public spectacle of the event. “Let’s go somewhere private.”

He nodded. “Okay. Just so you know, I’m going to make love to you. If you don’t want that, then don’t go with me.”

She studied his face. His features were drawn taut with need. His eyes pleaded with her to stay with him. “Let’s go.”

He took her down the crew stairway to the Atlantis Deck, to the same fetish room he’d taken her to before.

“No cameras. No disturbances. Just you and me.”

Drew leaned against the door. She stood at the end of the bed and watched him. Now that the time was near, nerves took over. This wasn’t what she’d expected, anticipated. She’d imagined something more seductive, less raw and elemental.

“Take off his collar.”

She fingered the band around her neck. “He ordered me not to.”

“I won’t fuck another man’s woman. If you want to do this, take it off.”

“Drew. . . ” This wasn’t the easygoing man she knew.

“I want you, Celeste, but I won’t touch you again as long as you wear his collar.”

She hesitated.

“He won’t know.”

Before she could stop them, the words spilled from her mouth. “He told me to sleep with you.”

A chill filled the room. Celeste imagined it came from the man of stone looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.

His lips didn’t move. His voice sounded as brittle as icicles. “Let’s not disappoint him then.”

“No, Drew,” she held a hand up to stop him when he made a move toward her. “This isn’t about what he wants. It’s about what I want.”

He stopped and she continued. “I want to sleep with you because I love you. I have to know more about this thing between us.”

“Dammit, Celeste. Take the collar off then.”

Her hands shook, and it took longer than usual to work the clasp. The solid band, hinged in the middle, fell away.

“Put it out of sight. When you’re in this room, you’re mine and only mine.”

Celeste placed the band on a table and covered it with a towel from the nearby stack.

“Show me how much you want me,” he said.

“I told you why I’m doing this. Why are you?”

Drew went as still as a statue, and his face froze into an unreadable mask. Once again, Celeste cursed her misfortune to fall in love with a couple of spooks. If they didn’t want you to see their emotions, you wouldn’t. Her heart fell to her feet. He was hiding something, but she couldn’t begin to guess what it might be.

Her ears began to buzz as the silence in the soundproof room reached a deafening decibel level. Celeste remained focused on Drew. If she’d learned anything in her years with the DIA, it was how unnerving a direct gaze could be. If he wanted her, he’d break soon enough.

“I’m going to make love to you because I can’t help myself. I’ve loved you and wanted you for so long, and now you’re here, and it’s not in me to let you go.”

She knew him well enough to know what he said was true. There was something more, but if he hadn’t said it, he wasn’t going to. Celeste contemplated her choices. She could walk out now and never know for sure, or she could stay, and hope whatever it was he was hiding wasn’t going to drag them both under.

“Well?” he prodded.

Celeste dropped her sarong.

Drew followed her lead.

Her head spun, and her mouth went dry. In all the years she’d known Drew, she’d seen him in various stages of undress, but she’d never had the opportunity to just look at him like this. He remained statuesque, as if he understood her need to see him, all of him. Her eyes flicked to his shoulder. The bite mark that had sent her running the other day was gone. From this distance there was nothing more than a hint of a bruise where it had been. Celeste forced the memory from her mind. It had taken time, but she’d realized she had no right to judge him. How could she, when she was hopping from Sean’s bed to his. Fair was fair.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but compare the two men. They were both equal in height, but where Sean was lean and lanky, Drew was all brawn. She’d admired the width of his shoulders many times, and in the last few days, she’d had plenty of time to admire the heft of his legs as well. What she hadn’t seen much of, not like this anyway, was what was in between.

His skin was a honeyed bronze, except for a strip that began below his navel, and ended where his thighs met his hips. His cock jutted proudly from a nest of sandy brown curls in the midst of that lighter strip of smooth skin. Fully aroused, his cock was impressive.

“Seen enough?”

Celeste jerked her eyes to his. His eyes blazed with emotion. “Yes.”

“I’m not like him, Celeste. You’re an equal partner in my bed.”

She wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded intriguing. “Okay.”

Drew closed the distance between them, and a shiver raced along her spine when he was close enough for her to feel the heat radiating from his body. Now that it was time, alarm bells clanged in her head. What was she doing?

Then it didn’t matter anymore. Drew dipped his head, and his lips stopped a breath away from hers. “Come to me, Celeste.”

She didn’t think, didn’t question, as she moved toward him a fraction of an inch. Enough to press her lips to his. His arms slipped around her and wrapped her in a blanket of heated male flesh and muscle. She felt small and fragile. He touched her with deceptive tenderness for such a large man. She knew how deadly his hands could be, but he touched her as if she were made of spun glass.

“Drew…,” she pleaded for something she couldn’t name.

His lips caressed her neck before moving lower to lavish the same attention to her shoulder. He lifted her arm, and his lips followed the bridge it made all the way to her fingertips.

 “Celeste.”

He weaved his fingers with hers and led her to the bed. She went willingly on trembling legs. Drew lifted the comforter, and she slid beneath it. He followed her to lie beside her.

“Touch me. You can do anything that pleases you. No restrictions. No commands.”

She wanted to touch him. Her palms itched to wrap around his cock. The sheet was cold against her heated skin. She slipped her hand between them and found his shaft. Drew sucked in a breath as her fingers closed around him, but he didn’t protest. His shoulders flattened against the mattress, and she scooted closer.

His cock was satin over living steel. She pushed the covers off so she could see all of him. There was nothing to fault. He was every inch a beautiful man, and for this one night, he was all hers. She glanced at his face and saw he’d closed his eyes. And, if the strain on his face was any indication, he was having a difficult time remaining still. Power raced through her system and heated her blood. She set about exploring every square inch of him.

Celeste touched, tasted and teased. Occasionally, Drew would twitch, or moan, or utter a mumbled curse word when her fingers, lips or tongue found a sensitive spot, but he made no attempt to stop her exploration. She admired his stamina and control. The other night when he’d taken the same liberties with her body, she hadn’t been near as stoic. In fact, she might have begged a time or two before he’d ended her torment.

She slid his cock between her lips and swirled her tongue around the head to capture the bead of pre-cum that had lured her to taste him. His hips rose off the mattress, and the string of curses that escaped his lips were clearly audible. Celeste thought to protest when his hands wrapped around her head and pulled her off, but she thought better of it and let his cock slide from her mouth.

In seconds, she was flat on her back. Drew joined her on the bed, parted her legs with his, and paused long enough to protect them both. He flexed his hips, and stopped with his cock poised at her entrance. She tilted her pelvis, urging him to come inside, but he retreated instead.

“Drew. . . . ”

“Tell me you want this.”

“I want this. I want you.”

He entered her, one slow inch at a time, until he was balls deep inside her. Her body responded to his, accepting, accommodating. Drew was gentle, and careful with her body. Every stroke was measured and precise, calculated to bring her pleasure. She gave herself over to the physical pleasure, but she knew something was missing.

Drew’s hands and lips touched all the right places. He was a skilled lover. No doubt, he’d had plenty of practice. Only a cold fish wouldn’t respond to his touch and the whispered encouragements against her sensitized skin.

“You’re beautiful, Celeste. Your skin is like silk.” His hands worshiped the soft flesh of her hip.

“Sweet berries…” His hand cupped her breast so he could taste her.

“God, you are hot and tight. . . . ” He pulled out of her and slid all the way in on one smooth stroke.

“I can’t get enough of you—”

“I’ve wanted you so long—.” His hands slipped beneath to cup her ass, and tilt her pelvis at a sharper angle. “You feel so damned good.” He drove into her harder.

Her body responded. Tension wound like a coil inside her. Drew buried his face in the crook of her neck and when the words vibrated through his chest and to his lips, “Ah, God, Celeste…,” her hold on the coil strained and broke.

Wave after wave of pleasure rocked her. Blood roared past her ears, and she bit his shoulder to stifle the wild scream that rose in her throat. She knew the moment he lost control. Drew pushed off her so he was braced above her on stiff arms. Celeste saw his face, contorted in pleasure/pain. His thrusts came in staccato bursts, and with one final savage thrust, he came inside her. A sailor’s oath slipped from his clenched jaw before he collapsed on top of her.

Querido Dios, what have I done?

Drew rolled to one side, and they lay there, their breath coming in short, inefficient gasps. Celeste used the back of her hand to swipe at the slow trickle of tears escaping across her temples. It had been beautiful, mind-boggling, and wrong. So very wrong.

Recriminations and regrets blew through her mind like a tropical storm. How had she not known? What kind of idiot had she been? She thought of all the things she’d felt for Drew over the years. Desire, certainly. Love, definitely. Friendship, of course. She’d felt all those things, and more over the years, and somehow in her mind they’d become more than they were, more than they should have been.

Drew groaned and shifted his legs to a more comfortable position. For the first time, it occurred to her that perhaps he had experienced something more than she had, and panic set in. What the hell would she say to him if that was the case? Dear God, she’d screwed up again, and this time it might be beyond her ability to fix. “I’m sorry, Drew,” wasn’t going to cut it.

She couldn’t have been more surprised when Drew sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He rested his elbows on his thighs and dropped his head into his upturned palms. “What happened here, Celeste?”

Celeste said a silent prayer of thanks that Drew had known too that it wasn’t right.

“I don’t know. I honest to God don’t know.”

“I think I do.”

Celeste scooted up to rest against the headboard. “Enlighten me then.”

“You’re in love with Sean.”