Midnight Remedy (13 page)

“Come now, I’m not blind. I’m dreadfully curious why you decided to take the plunge again.”

“What plunge?”

“Coming back to life, my dear. Sleeping beauty?”

Her lips quirked but she managed not to laugh. “Wrong fairy tale. Sleeping beauty wasn’t twenty-seven with a child. And life isn’t a fairy tale, in my experience.”

“True enough,” Kimberly agreed with an airy shrug. “Fine, if you won’t talk, you won’t. What are you wearing?”

“What I have on, if you don’t let me go,” she retorted.

“I brought something for you. Perhaps you’ll wear it tonight.”

Piper’s eyes softened. Although extremely self-centered, her mother could also be generous. “That’s sweet of you, but we’re not going anywhere fancy.”

“Just a casual little number. I’ll put it on the bed and you can see it after you’ve showered.”

“Thank you.” At the doorway Piper stopped and looked over her shoulder. “It’s good to see you, Mother.”

With a dimpling of her cheeks that made her look amazingly like her daughter Kimberly said, “Next time I’ll try to make sure my entrance comes at a more opportune moment.”

Her mother’s idea of casual and Piper’s were worlds apart, but Piper could no more resist the dress than she could have a new species of orchid. An unusual shade of violet, the same color that tinged the inner petals of one of her orchids, it was soft, cool, and inviting, designed to tempt a man with a snug scooped bodice, short, flouncy skirt, and a row of tiny buttons that ran from neckline to hem. Perfect, she thought.

What have I gotten myself into?
Piper wondered, sitting ramrod straight on Eric’s couch, trying not to hyperventilate.

“Would you like a drink?” he asked her.

“No
 . . .
Yes. A glass of wine would be nice.” Now that the time had come, she wanted to run. Why hadn’t she told him she couldn’t make it tonight? She wasn’t ready. Would he kill her if she told him she’d changed her mind? She took the glass from him, draining half of it in a gulp. “Aren’t you having any?”

A smile played at the corners of his mouth. “I’m not nervous,” he said, taking a seat beside her. “Do you want me to take you home?” He toyed with her hair and then slid his hand up to her ear.

“No, of course not.”
Yes
, she said silently, panicking.

His finger traced a path around her ear and slowly down her neck. Wishing it didn’t feel so seductive, she shivered. Eric took the glass of wine from her nerveless fingers and set it on the table. He brought her hand to his mouth, kissed it, ran his thumb over the knuckles before he rose and drew her to her feet.

“What’s wrong?” he murmured, pulling her close and nuzzling her ear. His hand stroked gently down her back, skimmed her hips lightly. “Are you having second thoughts?”

And third and fourth, she thought. “No, nothing’s wrong.”
Stop analyzing everything to death, Piper,
she told herself. She wanted him, he wanted her. It should have been simple, but it wasn’t.

Eric lifted a hand to her face, traced her mouth with his finger. “Are you afraid?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“All you have to do is tell me no, Angel. That’s all.”

She believed him, trusted him that much, at least. Somehow, the knowledge freed her. “I don’t want to say no.”

“I want you, Piper,” he said, sliding his hands into her hair and tilting her head back so he could look deep into her eyes. “So much I think I’m losing my mind.”

It was simple after all, she discovered. “Kiss me.”

He bent to cover her mouth with his, gently at first but soon growing bolder. She opened to him as the kiss deepened, meeting his tongue with hers, locking her arms around his neck, abandoning herself to passion. His arms tightened around her, cradling her femininity close as he ran his hands over her bottom, caressing her hips. Pressed against her, his hard flesh made her ache with wanting him. Again and again, he kissed her, withdrawing his tongue and thrusting back inside until she thought she could bear it no longer.

His hips rocked against her and he took her moans, her breathless sighs into his mouth as he kissed her. She couldn’t remember feeling like this before, this wanting, this needing, this fever to feel her bare flesh against his.

Suddenly he bent and swung her up into his arms, striding from the room with her, his mouth never leaving hers. And then she was on her back in his bed, his hands at the buttons of her dress, stripping it from her rapidly. She reached for him and kissed him, running her hands over his chest, wondering if this was a dream she would wake from.

“I’ve wanted you for so long. You’re even more beautiful than I imagined, like this, naked in my bed.”

Deep and husky, his voice made her throb. Unsure what to say, she took his hand and placed it on her breast. He smiled, turned his hand over to graze her nipples with the back of it before bending to take her in his mouth once more.

Piper let her head fall back as his lips blazed a trail down her throat and found the hammering pulse beating in the hollow. His thumbs teased the peaks of her breasts to tautness before he found her nipple with his tongue and she arched upward, desperate for more. He ran his lips, his tongue from one damp crest to the other, leaving a scalding trail in the wake of his sensual assault.

Eric took her hand, placed it over his erection. “Feel what you do to me, Piper. That’s how much I want you.”

The words and the knowledge were seductive. Daring, she squeezed gently, heard him suck in his breath. His fingers ran over her breast, down her stomach until he reached her thighs. “Careful, Angel, or this will be over sooner than I planned.”

Ruthlessly he drove her up to the crest, until she shuddered, straining, quivering, arching as his hands and mouth played a reckless tune over her body. Seeking release, her hips bucked against his searching fingers. He groaned and drew in a deep breath before he rolled away from her and jerked open the drawer of his bedside table. Dazed, she watched him rip open the foil packet. Hesitantly, she said his name, wanting him yet frightened by the intensity of her desires. He swept his hands down her thighs, parting them, and then he entered her, and though she gave a choked off cry, she didn’t resist.

“Am I hurting you?” The words sounded forced and he began to draw back.

“No. Don’t stop.” The first pain of his intrusion had given way to a deeper ache, one that only he could assuage. Piper lifted her hips to his and whispered, “Don’t stop, don’t stop.”

“I won’t.” With a choked part laugh, part groan, he said, “I can’t.” Sheathed inside her, he started the smooth, erotic rhythm, plunging in and out of her until she clamped her thighs tightly around his hips and felt him harden even more.

Sex wasn’t supposed to be like this, she thought, had never been like this. His hand slid between them and he ran his fingers into the silky tangle of curls, searching. Her legs tightened around him and she went rigid, then crashed over the edge, hung weightless as she came apart into a thousand pinpoints of pleasure.

He took her mouth to kiss her fiercely, plunging deeper and faster until she heard him cry out and she felt his pleasure in the last hard, lingering thrust, the last shudder of satisfaction that rippled through his body.

“Eric.” Soft, breathless, she moaned his name.

Slowly, he withdrew, added another finger and sank into her again. “I’m glad it was me.” He knew a primitive, masculine, admittedly sexist satisfaction that he had given her that first taste of mindless pleasure. And that despite having a son and despite her response, she was not very experienced sexually.

She gave another moan and shifted her hips to match the rhythm of his hand. “I should probably go
 . . .
” Her hand fell to the bed and clutched at the rumpled sheets.

Drawing her nipple into his mouth, he sucked on it strongly. “Not yet,” he murmured. No, there was no way he’d let her go yet, he hadn’t gotten nearly enough of her.

“But I thought we were
 . . .
” Her voice trailed off as he subjected her other breast to the same treatment while his hand grew even more insistent.

“Thought we were what?”

“Oh
 . . .
” she said, gripping his shoulders. “Aren’t we finished?”

Raising his head from her breasts, he looked at her, watching her eyes darken with desire. “Just getting started, Angel,” he said, and covered her mouth with his.

Eventually, he took her home. When he kissed her at her door, he realized he might have a serious problem. He wanted her again, as he had the first time, and the second. How could he be completely satisfied after making love and then turn right around and want her again? Uneasily, he wondered if that feeling would fade with time and familiarity. It had to, didn’t it?

“Darling,” Kimberly said
the next morning, “at least try to look a little less delirious.” She shuddered. “It’s indecent at seven o’clock in the morning.”

“Mother, I didn’t expect you to be up.” Delirious. That was an apt description, she thought, and smiled.

Kimberly sipped her coffee, observing her shrewdly. “There’s really no need to ask, it’s written all over your face. You’re in love with him. Ah, the wonders of love.”

Her gaze flew to meet her mother’s. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m
 . . .
” her lips curved as she thought about it, “. . .crazy about him. But I’m not in love.”