One Good Man (11 page)

The time they spent together on the sofa, reading and watching TV, was like foreplay. They touched each other lightly, teasingly, kissing and caressing. There was no rush, no pressure to get to the bedroom and get busy. Andie was turned on, her body tingling with anticipation, but she wanted to let the excitement build and see where it took her. Where it took them both.

When the movie ended, Matthew clicked off the television.

He draped his arm around her, his fingers gliding up and down her side. "Can you wait a little longer for dinner?"

"Sure," she said, sinking against him. God. She could get addicted to this, sitting and snuggling—spending time together.

Hold on. That was dangerous thinking.

This is not a romance, Andie. It's sex. Say it with me: just
sex.

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One Good Man

by Nona Raines

She forced herself to slowly pull away, wrapping her arms around herself. "It's fine. The popcorn will hold me for a while."

If Matthew noticed how she drew away, he made no comment. He smiled, pushing a strand of hair away from her face. "'Cause I thought it would be fun to play a game,"

Matthew said, a glimmer in his eye.

"A game?" Andie repeated, not trusting that glimmer in the slightest.

"Like Monopoly, Parcheesi..." He looked at her hopefully.

"Oh. Sure." He wanted to play a game ? Andie knew something was up from the wicked little grin on his face.

"Wait a minute. Let me guess. Strip poker."

"Ah, I like how you think. Kind of like me. Isn't it lucky we both have dirty minds?"

"Excuse me," she answered, her mouth set primly. "I do not have a dirty mind. At least, I didn't before I met you."

"You're not giving yourself nearly enough credit, babe.

After all, who was the one reading Dr. D.?"

"Dr. Lisa DeMartino happens to be an internationally renowned sex therapist," she replied in a lofty tone.

"Uh-huh. And who sneaked over here in the middle of the night?"

He had her there. "It wasn't the middle of the night. It was ten forty-five." She could split hairs with the best of them. To distract him she asked, "So where are the cards ?"

"Actually, I had something else in mind." He stepped out of the room and came back with a long maroon box she recognized immediately as Scrabble.

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"You want to play Scrabble?" Andie asked.

"Yep. But I want to play it dirty."

She was momentarily daunted, but bounced back quickly.

"Okay. Set 'em up."

They were soon seated across from each other at the kitchen table. The game board lay between them and all the little wooden squares lay face down in the box top. "Okay,"

he began. "The rules."

"There are rules in this game?"

He gave her a severe look. "Of course. In this game, only sexual terms and their variations are allowed."

The game was trickier than it looked. Andie scowled and stole a look at Matthew, who was trying to be good sport and not grin too broadly. He was far ahead of her in points.

Suddenly she had an inspiration. "All right. I think I've got something now." She placed three pieces down on the board and sat back, beaming with pride.

He frowned at the board. "What's that?"

"Culo," she told him. "It's Italian. For ass."

"Ehhh." He imitated the sound of a game-show buzzer.

"What? It's a word, a naughty word."

"It's not English. The rules of the game specifically say no foreign words or phrases allowed." He pointed to the rules printed on the inside of the box lid. "Check for yourself."

Andie refused to accept his arbitrary judgment. "They also specifically say no profanity, and that's kind of the point of this game, isn't it?"

He shook his head. "Sorry. Doesn't count."

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"That is totally unfair," she argued, getting hot, and not in a good way.

"Sorry. No points." He plucked the little squares off the board while Andie glared at him. "And you have to pay a forfeit."

"What?" she shrieked. "There are no forfeits in Scrabble!"

"There are in this version," he answered. His expression had changed from alert amusement to something sleepy-eyed and languorous. "Come here."

The look on his face made Andie's blood pump thickly through her veins. She felt heat rise through her belly, her breasts. Her nipples became taut. Her lips grew fuller. Still, she had to make her point. "You are manipulating the rules for your own benefit, and it is completely unfair."

"You got it," he growled. "Now come here."

Masking her arousal with a cool superior expression, she slowly obeyed. As she approached his side of the table, he reached out and yanked her onto his lap. She tried wriggling off, but he pulled her back and anchored her with an arm around her waist.

Matt arranged her in the middle of his lap, then he hooked one leg over his left knee, and one over his right and shifted, spreading her legs open wide. She was completely exposed to his roving hands. At any time he could reach down and...God, she was already throbbing in need just thinking about it.

"This is my forfeit?" Andie asked.

"Yep. You're going play the rest of the game sitting on my lap."

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Andie thought it seemed more of a punishment for him than for her. "You'll be able to see my letters."

"So? You'll see mine, too. Who cares?"

She stretched her arm across the table and dragged her set of letters closer. "All right. It's your turn, I think."

"You go ahead."

She gave him a sidelong look, wondering why he was being so generous. When he whisked his fingers up the seam of her jeans, along her inner thigh, she got a clue.

Andie frowned at her combination of letters. "Blah. I've got nothing." Her concentration was off because she was distracted by the fingers flickering slowly up her thigh, then down again, then farther up.

"Sometimes nothing is a real cool hand," he murmured, quoting from
Cool Hand Luke
.

Matthew's hand wasn't cool. It was hot, his fingers burning through the denim of her jeans. "You're cheating," she told him in sing song.

He placed his warm lips in the juncture where her neck met her shoulder and sparks zipped through her. Moisture gathered at the apex of her thighs as she resisted the urge to squirm on his lap.

"You better come up with something," he warned her, his breath tickling her neck. "If you miss this turn, there'll be another forfeit."

Her pulse quickened at the threat, but her mouth puckered in disapproval. "You're making this up as you go along."

"Ehhh..." the buzzer sound again. She jolted as he nipped the tender skin behind her ear. "Sorry. Time's up."

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One Good Man

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"That's not fair. There are no time limits in Scrabble," she insisted, breathless as he unbuttoned her jeans and began to slowly pull the zipper down.

"Shhh..." His fingers slid beneath the elastic waistband of her panties, over her belly, and combed through the hair at her pubis. She hissed a quick intake of breath as he delved into the wet folds between her legs. Andie shifted, leaning back to give him better access, biting her lip as his middle finger brushed her clit then danced around it.

She groaned as his finger stopped moving, pressing on the tiny nub of flesh. He peered at the game board. "Hmm...looks like my turn now..."

"Oh God!" She closed her thighs tightly together to keep his hand where it was as he teasingly made to withdraw it to spell his next word.

"What?" He was all round-eyed innocence as he looked at her. "I need my hand if I'm going to play the game."

I need it more
, Andie thought desperately. She tried to rub against his hand, but he held her tightly and she couldn't get the friction she needed. "Don't tease," she begged.

"But how are we going to finish the game?" His eyes were heavy lidded and slumberous, his voice low. The part of her that still noticed such things was glad he was not as unmoved as he pretended.

"Forget finishing the game," someone moaned.
Oh God,
was that really her voice?
"Finish
me.
"

He shook his head, playing with her. "I can't stand to leave a game unfinished. How will we know who won?"

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One Good Man

by Nona Raines

"You win," she answered breathlessly. "I concede. You're the winner."

"Aw, that's not fair." He chewed his lip in a semblance of confusion. Andie tried moving her hips to rub against the wicked finger pressed against her, but she was held fast. "I know what. You play the pieces for me. See them here? I'll tell you what letters to play. That way I won't need my hands free."

"Okay. Yes. Please." She needed to come so badly. He was being cruel.

Matthew whispered to her each letter he wanted her to pick and told her where to place it on the board. Her unsteady hands were clumsy, and more than once he had to repeat his instructions. The letters on the Scrabble board all melted into a blur before Andie's hazy eyes.

He pressed her clit firmly, then began to tap it gently with his middle finger. At first he tapped it in regular intervals.

Then he stopped and started, as though tapping out Morse Code on the most intimate place on her body. Even as he played with her, she knew he was not unmoved. The hard ridge of his cock pressed against her butt cheek through his jeans. He was breathing as hard as she was. His hold loosened, and she began to roll her hips between his finger and his erection, thinking he needed a forfeit, too.

She laid her head back against his shoulder, letting her head roll toward his. He smelled good, like soap. She moved her head closer and kissed his throat.

He lowered his head to grasp her lips with his own and held them in a succulent kiss, their tongues tangling and 107

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playing. Andie's hips curled to meet the finger that was no longer teasing. Matthew knew exactly the way to touch her, exactly what she needed to reach her peak. As the spasms rolled through her, her lips grew slack and her limbs stiffened.

Flashes of color sparkled behind her closed eyes.

As it passed, she slumped against him in relief, but hardly had time to gather her thoughts before he had her on her feet facing the table. None too gently, he pushed her jeans and panties down around her calves as he maneuvered her to bend over the table. Andie's brain was still muzzy, and it took a moment for her to realize his intent as the board was displaced and the little wooden chiclets scattered to the floor.

One of his hands pressed against her back. She glanced over her shoulder and scarcely recognized him. His skin was flushed and his features twisted as though he were in pain.

He hurried to get his jeans unzipped with one hand while he secured Andie with the other.

She turned away quickly, her heart bumping with fear and excitement. This was not a playful and easy-going Matthew, but one with an edge she hadn't seen before. Andie was left to wonder what it meant.

"Aw, fuck." She peeked over her shoulder again and saw he had shoved his own jeans down before getting the condom out of his pocket. "Shit." He lifted his hand from her back.

"Sorry, baby. Hold on there for a minute. These things are always more complicated in real life than they are in fantasy."

Andie breathed a laugh and set her forehead on the table.

"You've been fantasizing about this?"

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One Good Man

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"Oh, baby, you have no idea." She heard a crinkling and then a tearing sound. A moment later he was snugging up behind her, the head of his latex-covered cock tickling her entrance. "You want some of this? Huh?"

She laughed again. Was that really Matthew? Maybe that's the way he spoke in his fantasy. How should she respond?

"Ooh, give it to me, baby, yeah." She was laughing at how silly she sounded, yet all the same it turned her on.

He snorted, holding back his own laughter, and rubbed himself against her folds. "What was that?"

"Uh. Yeah. Ah." She hitched her hips back against him.

"Can I come in?"

"Ah. Yes." Did he expect her to beg? "Come on, Matthew, you know I want you."

He thrust inside her with a roll of his hips, bumping her against the table. She gripped the other side tightly and lay her cheek against the surface. It felt so good to be full of him.

But he teased her. He pulled out almost completely, then pushed in a little, drew back again, and pushed in partway.

She swiveled her hips, trying to reach him, encouraging him to push deeper, stay longer.

Andie couldn't take any more. When he pushed forward, she rammed her hips back hard and screamed "Stay!" He held himself deeply in her and reached around to touch her clit. One light flick was all she needed to send her toppling over the edge. As the sweet convulsions overcame her, he thrust a few more times and groaned as he pulsed inside her.

She felt his heat through the condom.

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One Good Man

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As she came back to reality, she felt little wooden game squares pressing into the skin of her forearms. Matthew pressed against her back, his hands reaching around to cradle her breasts. He rubbed his face against the back of her head, her hair. She felt his puff of laughter.

"Oh, honey, I think we both won that game."

Later, they sat in Matt's truck in the fast food parking lot, with their drive-thru meal. Andie felt relaxed and mellow enough to be bad and forgo a healthy green salad in favor of a cheeseburger and fries. If she was going to allow her sexual appetite free rein this weekend, she didn't see why her other appetites should be restricted.

"Tell me, Andie." The paper wrapper on his burger crinkled as he opened it. "Why'd you come over that first night?"

She hesitated, a french fry dangling from her fingers.