Once Upon a Valentine (32 page)

6

HER HEART JUMPED in her chest. She’d been so afraid of how this might go. It was a very good sign that coming back up here didn’t seem to be a mistake.

His kiss deepened and she kissed Stephen back just as hard, just as passionately. It was even better than when he’d kissed her on the subway—their first kiss, then. Their second kiss, now. Sheer perfection. Did he really think Brad was supposed to be her Mr. Perfect?

He was wrong. So very wrong.

He pulled back a little, holding her face between his hands and gazed at her intensely. “Ginger…”

“Yes?”

“What do you want to do right now?”

“I want you to take me back into that expensive room you reserved for Robert Jorgensen and make love to me on the king-size bed.”

He nodded slowly. “Seems like we’re in complete agreement.”

“First time tonight.”

He grinned before it faded just a little at the edges. “This isn’t real.”

“Oh, yes,” she assured him. “It is. Now what are you waiting for, Mr. Fox?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing at all.”

Stephen lifted her up into his arms and went back to the hotel-room door. It was a blur as his lips met hers again and emotion swelled in her chest at the taste of him, the smell of his familiar spicy cologne and the bare skin beneath it just waiting to be touched. By her.

He scrambled to shut the door and she pulled him back around, hurriedly unbuttoning his shirt to bare his chest. She slid her fingers down the front of him, thrilled at the opportunity to touch him like this.

“How long?” she whispered.

“How long do I have before I explode right now?” He raised an eyebrow. “Not very.”

She grinned shakily as he pulled his shirt off completely. “No, how long have you…felt this way about me?”

“How long have I been madly, passionately in love with you despite claiming not to believe in love of any sort?” he asked. Heat came to her face at the intense way he said it. “Since forever.”

After she shrugged off her coat, he slipped the straps of her dress over her shoulders. He raked his gaze greedily down the front of her. “That bra is way too sexy to wear on a blind date, Ms. Redman.”

She trailed her fingertips over her diamond-hard nipples, clearly visible through the thin-red-lace bra. “This bra?”

He hissed. “Yes, that bra.” He slipped a strap over her shoulder, pulling it down slowly to bare her left breast. He cupped it in his hand.

Her breath came quicker, especially when he lowered his head so he could kiss her nipple, drawing it into his mouth and circling his hot tongue around the very tip.

“Oh, hell,” she gasped.

He looked up at her. “No, it’s definitely heaven.”

“I want you.”

“Answer me a question first.”

“Anything.”

He grinned and his expression grew even more heated. “That’s a dangerous thing to say.”

“Anything,” she said again, firmly.

“You know when I fell for you—the beginning. When I saw you that night in the bar, before making a fool out of myself. I didn’t know you, only how you looked, how you moved. Physical attraction. The love…it did take at least a couple more hours. I first felt it in the office, when you didn’t hold my behavior against me. God, I felt like a fool for hitting on you like that the night before. But what I want to know is when you felt something for me…when
you
knew.”

“When I knew I loved you?” His hands on her bare skin made it hard to think, but she tried her best. “I fell for you the moment you apologized for acting like an ass at the bar. Not every guy would take it seriously. You did. And you honestly felt bad about it. I fell for you then and I’ve wanted you every single day since. But I didn’t know for absolutely sure it was love until tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“You wanted me, you desired me, I thought it was only because of the magic. It made me realize how much I wanted and desired you, too, how much it would break my heart to know it was only temporary for you.”

Stephen shook his head slowly. “Not temporary.”

“No. Not temporary.” She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “I love you, Stephen. Now stop asking me questions, because I need you so badly I don’t think I can keep standing.”

It was all she needed to say. Whatever control he’d been keeping a handle on tonight—or for the past year—went out the window. His hands moved to her back to unhook her bra and let it join her coat in a silky pile. He deftly unzipped the back of her dress and let it fall, as well. Her hands moved to his waistband, slipping downward over his erection that strained against the material.

“I need this,” she said very seriously, cupping him, “inside me.”

He swore under his breath, then lifted her up, his hands under her ass, moving her backward to the bed where he quickly pulled her silky panties off over her legs, baring her completely to him, only leaving her high heels on. Then he swore again as his gaze swept the length of her.

“Where’s your purse?” he asked.

She frowned. “My purse?”

“I think you said something about having a couple condoms in it?”

“You don’t have any?”

“I wasn’t planning on…well, let’s just say I’m currently unprepared for romance of any kind.”

“So your date earlier…?”

“Lies,” he admitted readily. “All lies.”

“No more lies,” she said firmly as he began moving down the length of her body.

“No more lies,” he confirmed as he pushed her legs apart, kissing her bare stomach, her inner thighs, closer and closer…until he finally stroked his tongue against her heated core.

This time she swore, arching her back and clawing at the bed sheets. “Stephen…oh!”

“Jorgensen said something about strawberries and whipped cream with his dinner.” Stephen smiled darkly up at her. “We’ll get to that later.”

Ginger stopped thinking. Her world grew smaller and smaller. Nothing else existed outside Stephen’s tongue against her, driving her insane with every stroke. She was begging him, pleading—not to stop, but for more. Deeper. Harder. She wanted him so desperately she became mindless to anything else. And then her narrow vision exploded as an orgasm rocked through her, leaving her gasping and crying out.

“My purse…” she gasped. “By the door.”

Stephen pushed away from the bed, but was back quickly as she recovered from the most intense climax of her life. Colors sparkled around her vision. She got up enough to begin undoing his pants with shaking hands, pulling them down over his hips.

She got up on her knees on the bed next to him and pressed her mouth against his, tasting herself on his tongue in a deep, hot kiss that left nothing unsaid. Her fingers wrapped around his hard cock and she stroked him as the kiss intensified, until he broke it off, gasping.

“Ginger, I want you.”

“I think I know that by now.” She grinned against his lips. “If I didn’t, this would be a clear giveaway.” She squeezed him just a little and he groaned deep in his throat.

“My cock,” he said mock-apologetically, “doesn’t have nearly as much self-control as I try to have.”

“Clearly.” She kissed him again and pulled him down on the bed so she could feel his weight press against her. He worked his pants off the rest of the way so there was absolutely nothing between them anymore—no clothing, no control…no lies. Just bare skin and heat.

She grabbed his hand and guided it between her legs. “Feel how much I want you. How wet I am.”

That earned another dark groan. “I want you, too, Ginger. Every night.”

“Just nights?”

He gave her a pained grin. “Days. Nights. Weekends. Leap years.”

She nodded, taking his other hand and removing the packaged condom from it. She tore it open and helped roll in onto his hard length. “Prove it.”

His gaze bore deeply into hers. “You know how the fairy tale ended, right?”

“The fairy tale?”

“‘The Gingerbread Man.’ Everyone wanted the delicious gingerbread man, chased him all over town, because they wanted to eat him. He ran from them all—none of them could catch him. It wasn’t until he found the fox, who promised that he’d keep the cookie safe, that he stopped running. But the fox was a liar. The fox is the one who ended up devouring the gingerbread man.”

Why this tale only made her hotter, she wasn’t totally sure. Devouring had taken on a whole new meaning to her tonight. It wasn’t something bad, dangerous. It was obsession, it was desire, it was…love.

“I want you to catch me,” she whispered as he slowly pushed himself into her an inch at a time. Slowly, slowly, until he filled her completely. And then, without any more to say, he began to move inside of her, making her world narrow once more to only include him. Only Stephen inside of her, making love to her, only the bed against her back. Only the spicy and familiar smell of him, only the addictive taste of his lips, his tongue, as he devoured her mouth with a kiss that confirmed that this was right, so right. She never wanted anyone to catch her again. Only Stephen. Again and again.

It wasn’t long at all before his thrusts became harder, deeper. She clung to him, her arms around his shoulders, her fingers pushing up into his silky hair. His hands came to her back and he lifted her up off the mattress, so she clung to him, her legs wrapped around his waist as she felt the slide of him in and out of her. Then, in one final, deep thrust that made another orgasm shatter her entire world, Stephen called out her name before they both crashed back down to the mattress.

His breath came fast and she felt his heart thunder against her as she held on to him tightly.

“So…” Stephen said after a minute.

“So.”

He propped himself up on his elbow and gazed down at her. He brushed a lock of red hair off her forehead. “That was…nice.”

She glared up at him and tried not to smile. “That was better than nice and you know it, Mr. Fox.”

“I didn’t want to let it go to your head, Ms. Redman.”

“Too late.” She drew his face closer to hers and kissed him, long and deep and perfect.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he whispered.

“Best one ever.” After another kiss, she brushed past him and got up from the bed. He eyed her warily and there was the slightest edge of doubt in his gaze.

“You’re not leaving me already, are you?”

“No, not quite yet.” She cast a sly grin over her shoulder. “I’m kind of hungry.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I think Jorgensen said something about ordering room service.” She strolled, naked, to the cart the busboy rolled in earlier, feeling his appreciative gaze heavy on her. She lifted the silver, domed lids from on top of the food.

“Steak, lobster and a baked potato,” she announced.

“Better eat it before it gets too cold. That is costing me a fortune.”

“Not really in the mood for that.” She lifted the other lid and picked up the bowl underneath, swirling her finger into the fluffy whipped cream and bringing it to her mouth so she could lick it off. Her gaze flicked to him, where he lay propped up on the bed. The look of arousal on his face was absolutely priceless. She forced herself not to laugh. “I feel more like dessert.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Ginger ignored the strawberries, the steak and the lobster. She returned to his side and dabbed a little of the whipped cream on his chest and leaned forward to lick it off. He groaned.

“Just as delicious as I thought you’d be,” she told him with a wicked grin.

She wanted whipped cream, lots of it, all over the man she craved more than any other.

She was ready to take back what she’d decided earlier. Valentine’s Day didn’t suck at all. It was now her very favorite holiday.

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, just after six o’clock, Ginger woke in Stephen’s arms. Very carefully, after gazing with deep appreciation at his handsome profile for a few minutes, she slipped out of bed and quickly got dressed. She was surprised how soundly he slept. He didn’t hear a thing as she left the room. She silently promised to return before he woke up.