Present Danger (24 page)

A rush, indeed.

Aunie kept her face hidden, grateful for the strength of his arms holding her so tightly, the feel of his body wrapped around hers, the big hands soothing her. She yawned. She’d never known it was possible to feel this relaxed, this physically satisfied. She felt so good, but at the same time she wanted to squirm with embarrassment. No man had ever done anything like that for her, and it had felt so incredible. But for him to
watch
her while she was … Oh gawd, it was a little bit mortifyin’ and wasn’t she sort of selfish not to have done something for him in return?

She wished she had more experience. She wanted desperately to make him feel as good as he’d made her feel.

She pressed her mouth against the light pattern of hair that fanned across his pectorals, then turned her head and rubbed her cheek against him like a kitten. Loosening her grip on his ponytail, she slid her hands to his, neck and pulled herself higher, kissing his throat, his Adam’s apple, the damp skin beneath the angle of his jaw. She shivered at the damp, slick rub of her breasts against his smooth abdomen as she stretched higher to reach new areas, shivered again at the rougher feel of his chest hair. Her nipples, newly softened, shriveled into hard little nubs. She wouldn’t have thought it was possible so soon, but she was getting excited all over again.

James made a noise deep in his throat and tangled his fingers in her hair, tilting her head back. He bent his head to touch his tongue to the little mole on her upper lip, and she lifted her mouth to him with an eagerness that twisted his gut. He teased her with
broken kisses, mounting forays at her mouth that he pulled at the last minute, loving her helpless reaction: the parted, swollen lips, the reach of her tongue, the heavy-lidded eyes. God, she was so gorgeous, and for the moment at least, she was all his. Damned if he wasn’t going to wring every last drop of enjoyment out of their encounter today.

For he couldn’t help but feel that tomorrow this dainty little apparition was going to wake up and be horrified that she’d let herself be sullied by the big, rough hands of an ex-tenement rat.

Aunie’s hands were running down his hard stomach to the waistband of his jeans and James abruptly stood. She blinked up at him in confusion and he pulled her to her feet, stooping in the same movement to get a shoulder under her stomach. He surged upright, hoisting her in a fireman’s lift.

“Mistah Rydah!” she protested.

He smacked her on the butt. “Don’t call me that!”

Aunie stilled, reacting to his tone, and James cursed under his breath. What could he say?
I’m sorry if I sound surly, but I think I’m going to hear that in the morning and I don’t want to hear it tonight.
He stroked an apologetic hand over the pink lace he’d abused. “The couch is too short,” he explained in a gentle voice. “I need room to move.” He strode with her dangling over his shoulder to her bedroom. Kicking the door closed behind him, he crossed the room and flipped her onto the bed.

Aunie pushed up on her elbow, shoving her hair out of her eyes. James was kneeling on the floor, removing her shoes and socks. The tangle of leggings around her ankles was eased over her feet and dropped to the floor. Standing, he kicked off his own footwear and reached for his zipper.

She scrambled onto her knees to help him. Their hands kept bumping and tangling together until finally Aunie grabbed his by his big, knobby wrists, planted a kiss in each palm, and clamped them to her breasts. He stared mesmerized at the sight and feel of her white breasts in his weathered hands and she reached for his zipper once again.

All Aunie’s spurious expertise disappeared when she finally pushed his shorts down his hips and his erection sprang free. She swallowed hard. Gawd. It was big.

Wesley had never had anything like this.

Well, of course, he’d had
something
like this, but it hadn’t been nearly so long or so thick. She had occasionally fantasized about having a lover of impressive dimensions. It was one thing to imagine such things, she discovered, warily eyeing his erection. It was something else to be faced with the reality of
this.
It had been a long, long time since she had participated in any sexual activity. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to accommodate the thing.

But she was madly in love with him and she knew she would die trying.

She brushed his shorts all the way down his legs, and he kicked them off. Tentatively, she wrapped her hand around him. He was warm and rigid and he pulsed in her hand when she squeezed. A drop of fluid appeared and she used a gentle fingertip to spread it around the big, blunt head. The hands on her breasts went still.

Aunie tore her eyes away from the magnificence of his sex and looked up to find him watching her. She blushed furiously. “Jimmy?” she said in a soft, hoarse voice. “I’m afraid I’m not very experienced.”

James’s heart crashed against his ribcage. He eased
her over onto her back and propped himself up over her. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t want to disappoint you.”

His eyes tracked slowly down her body, then slowly back up again, absorbing its perfection. “You couldn’t, Magnolia.” He liked the fact that she was dressed only in a minuscule pair of pink panties and a blush. The more he thought of her inexperience, the hotter he got.

Which was crazy. He’d never had a yen for beginners.

Her hands shaped his shoulders, slid down to his biceps. Knowing he was showing off like a teenager but unable to resist, he flexed them. “Gawd,” she whispered in awe. He bent his elbows and brushed his chest against her breasts. “Oh!” Her fingers digging into the solid muscles she’d been admiring, she arched her back, scraping her nipples in the sparse blond fan of hair on his chest.

Pushing himself up to kneel astride her, he cupped his hands around both breasts and kneaded. He was gentle at first, but he noticed that the more firmly he handled them, the crazier she became. When he squeezed them between his fingers and thumb until his hand had swallowed up all except the distended pink nipples, her hips began a slow bump and grind. When he hunched over to gently grind first one and then the other nipple between his teeth, she whimpered and contracted her hips deep into the mattress, then thrust her pelvis up as far as his imprisoning thighs would allow. Her fingernails dug grooves into his hard leg muscles just above his knees.

He edged back further. Hooking his fingers into the waistband of her panties, he slowly peeled them off. Before she could even raise her hips to facilitate their removal, James had slipped off the bed to kneel
at its side and pulled her legs over the side after him. He tossed the scrap of pink lace aside and draped her legs over his shoulders. Turning his head, he pressed an openmouthed kiss into her thigh.

Aunie raised up on her elbows. “James?” she whispered. God, she looked so decadent with her legs sprawled open, the bend of her knees caught on his round shoulder muscles. She blushed. Only her gynecologist had ever seen her that close up.

“God, this is pretty,” he murmured hoarsely, staring at the luxuriant little black pelt, the flashes of pink. He felt her legs trying to close around his neck, saw her hand creep down to cover herself. “No, don’t hide it,” he whispered, rolling his big shoulders to unlock her grip. “It’s so pretty, Aunie; don’t hide it from me.” And he bent his head to probe around and between her concealing fingers with his tongue.

“Oh, my gawd, Jimmy!” As if scalded, she whipped her hand away. That suited James just fine, since it left him a clear field. Lazily plying his fingers and tongue, he proved to her that when it came to this particular game, he was a professional player.

Her hips were straining high in search of satisfaction, thigh muscles standing out tautly, when James finally rocked back on his heels and reached for his wallet. He fumbled on a condom, then rose and planted a knee on the mattress. “Put your ankles on my shoulders, Magnolia,” he commanded, and once she’d complied, he pressed a thumb against his erection, pushing it down to align with her body. His hips pressed forward and he sank into her a short way.

“Oh, God, Aunie.” Feet planted on the floor, knees braced on the bed, he propped his hands on the mattress next to her shoulders, arms stiff and head thrown back. “You’re so tight.” He pressed a little
further. He’d never had a virgin—had never desired one. He had the craziest feeling, however, that it must be a lot like this. Gritting his teeth, he eased back and then pushed a little harder, gaining another inch. He tilted his head down to look at her. “Are you all right?”

She had to struggle to accommodate him, but it wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as she’d half feared it would be. In truth, it felt good and she wanted all of him. “Yes,” she whispered and bent her knees a little, planting the soles of her feet on his collarbone. She angled her hips, pushing against the fullness inside her. “More,” she pleaded.

He swore under his breath and pressed forward. Suddenly, the tight muscles gripping him gave a little and he sank into her fully. He groaned. Eyes closed, he pulled back and then thrust forward slowly. Pulled back … thrust forward. His eyes slitted open and he looked down to where they were joined. He sucked in a deep breath and pumped his hips, watching blond hair mesh with, then separate from, black. Then his eyes trailed up her body. He had her bent almost double, her knees pressed back against her chest. “Oh, baby,” he said repentantly, “you don’t look very comfortable.” He lifted one hand off the bed and slid her leg over his arm, replanting his hand once her leg was hooked around his waist. He repeated the gesture on the other side. “That better?”

“Um,” she agreed dreamily and he felt her inner muscles grab him when she locked her ankles behind his back. “Magnolia’s favorite position,” he murmured and commenced a slow, steady rocking.

Her fingernails dug into his forearms and she raised her hips to meet each thrust. “Oh gawd, Jimmy,” she
panted, licking her upper lip. “Oh gawd. It feels so … um … feels so …” She raised her locked ankles higher up his back and pressed her head into the bedspread, arching her back. Her breath caught in ragged little moans in the back of her throat.

James thrust harder, withdrew a little further, pumped a little deeper. “Feels so?” he prompted.

“Goo-o-od,” she moaned, dragging the word out endlessly. “So good.”

“Oh Christ,” he muttered and began to slam into her. He was close, God, he was so close. But he needed to hang on … had to get her over first. He bent his elbows, bringing his upper body lower, and tucked his chin into his neck, his tongue extending to lap a pink nipple. He knew that would probably get her off. She seemed to have the world’s most sensitive little tits.

A frantic little whine rolled out of her throat and, as before, she thrust her breasts up for closer, rougher attention. He was happy to oblige her, drawing strongly on her nipple while his toes dug into the carpet and the muscles in his buttocks contracted, pounding into her with all his might.
“James?”
Her voice climbed beyond its normal soft contralto. “Oh gawd,
James!
I’m gonna … Uh! … Oh, pleeeze, I’m gonna …” And like flipping the switch on a detonator, she felt his large shaft touch something deep inside of her and she exploded into a million fragments, whimpering and raking her nails down his back as her hips slammed up to impale her on that delicious source of pleasure. Inner muscles contracted crazily and she cried out as rapturous sensations, such as she had never known could exist, grabbed her senses and shook them from their moorings.

James lost control. The sight of her lost in her
orgasm, the feel of her—hot, damp skin, raking nails, the slick, gripping sheath milking him for all it was worth—pushed him violently over the edge. He slammed into her one last time and stiffened all over, buttocks clenched to keep him deep, arms locked, head flung back, teeth gritted. A low, animal growl climbed from deep in his diaphragm, rumbled in his chest, rattled in his throat. His teeth unlocked and he roared her name to the ceiling. His entire body jerked convulsively.

The pulses beating in their eardrums gradually slowed and James’s head dropped forward. Suddenly he surged against her, sending them both sliding more fully onto the bed. He collapsed atop her, driving the air from her lungs in a loud whoosh.

Head hanging, he pushed up on his forearms just enough to let her breathe. “Sorry,” he muttered. He wondered if now was when she’d realize just what she had done … and with whom.

Aunie knew exactly with whom and what she had done, and she reveled in it. “James?” she whispered as she dug her fingers into the muscles of his back and massaged. He arched against her hands like an overgrown house cat.

“Yeah?”

“That’s never happened for me before.”

That brought his head up in a hurry. He brushed her hair away from her flushed cheeks and forehead with gentle fingertips and studied her face. God, she was so pretty. “You’ve never come?” he asked incredulously.

She didn’t even blush at his blunt language. “Not with Wesley. Not ever.” She wasn’t about to offer the fact that she’d helped herself to a few orgasms. One simply didn’t speak of such things. Well, Jimmy probably
wouldn’t hesitate to do so, but most people didn’t. Anyway, it wasn’t the same thing at all. Her ankles unlocked from his hips and she rubbed the sole of one foot up and down his calf.

“And there hasn’t been anyone except Wesley?” He didn’t know why the idea should make his heart pound, but it did.

She shook her head. “There wasn’t even that much of Wesley.” She hesitated, then confessed, “I’m sorta like those cars that the salesmen all swear were only driven on Sundays by little old ladies.”

James laughed. She could always do that to him … say or do something that caught him off guard and tickled his funny bone. It was more insidious than even the best of sex. “Yeah,” he agreed dryly, “except they’re usually lying through their teeth. In your case it’s the truth. Low mileage, high performance.”

The smile that broke out across her face made James’s breath catch in his throat. She looked so pleased that he’d been pleased.