Ready & Willing (31 page)

 

THEY SPOKE NOT A WORD ON THE DRIVE TO
Nathaniel’s house. They held hands, clutched shoulders, rubbed thighs, stroked hair. Thanks to the early hour, there was virtually no traffic to hinder their journey, and Audrey felt as rushed and impatient as the sleek black car as it cut through the dusky morning. After what seemed an interminable amount of time, Nathaniel turned into his parking garage, then they were in the elevator ascending to his home.

No sooner had the metal doors folded closed, however, than they turned to each other in a scorching embrace. Nathaniel hauled her up against him, turning their bodies so that Audrey was pressed against the elevator wall and he was crowding himself against her. He snatched the elastic band from her hair so that it tumbled free down around her shoulders, burying one hand in the silky mass before splaying his fingers open over the crown of her head, tipping it back so that he could plunder her mouth at will. He tasted her deeply, their tongues tangled in a quickstep dance, then he dropped his other hand to her hip. Lower and lower he pressed his fingers, until he cradled the lower curve of her fanny in his palm and pushed her forward, into the hard ridge of his erection.

Audrey uttered a wild little sound that erupted from deep inside her, then lifted her leg to wrap it around both of his. She writhed against him, reveling in the way he swelled even larger, cupping her own hand over his taut buttocks to propel him harder into herself. For a moment, they mimicked through their clothes the union they would be enjoying later, until a soft chime announced their arrival on Nathaniel’s floor and they tumbled into the hallway beyond. Within moments, they were inside his condo, and he was pushing the door closed behind them and throwing his hand over a switch plate to turn on a light. As pale gold from a nearby lamp bathed them in amber, he pulled Audrey into his arms again.

They wasted no time ridding each other of their clothes. Audrey tugged his turtleneck free of his trousers at the same time he gripped the hem of her sweater and began to yank it higher. She released the buckle of his belt long enough for him to pull her sweater over her head, then he hesitated long enough for her to jerk his shirt over his own. She took a moment to soak in the glorious sight of him half-naked, all broad shoulders and sinewy strength and rock hard male. His chest was a masterpiece of muscle and dark hair, hair that arrowed down over a flat torso, disappearing into the unbuttoned waistband of his pants.

But it was his arms that were her undoing. Where most women considered other parts of a man more compelling, Audrey’s mouth had always gone dry over a nice set of biceps or a particularly salient triceps. And the camber of muscle on Nathaniel’s arms was . . .

Oh, my.

She inhaled a slow breath as she traced the pad of her finger over an exceptionally well formed shoulder, releasing it in a quaver of longing as she followed an elegant line of sinew down to his very nicely achieved forearm. His skin was like silken steel beneath her touch, smooth, hot, and responsive. When she finally returned her gaze to his face, it was to see the longing in her own heart reflecting back at her tenfold.

Reaching behind herself, she flicked open the catch of her bra and let the garment tumble forward over her arms and to the ground, freeing her generous breasts. His eyes darkened when she did, and he took a single step forward, bringing his body nearly flush with her own. But instead of pulling her into his arms, his hand moved to the heavy ring that swung between her breasts. Sean’s ring. The ring she had worn since her husband’s death. The ring she hadn’t removed once, for any reason. Now Nathaniel caught that ring in the palm of his hand and looked at her with a silent question.

Audrey swallowed hard, looking down at the ring, at Nathaniel’s hand, at her naked breasts. She waited for the feeling of guilt she thought she should feel at what was to come. Waited for the awkwardness that should make it feel as if it were Sean, not his ring, coming between them. But in that moment, she only had feelings for Nathaniel. Desire for Nathaniel. Need for Nathaniel. And something else, too. She was afraid to say just what. But it was for Nathaniel, too.

She moved her hands behind her neck and reached for the clasp of the chain. She even went so far as to push the tiny catch that would release it. But she couldn’t make herself go through with it. Couldn’t take that last step that would once and for all remove her from her husband. Instead, she reached for the ring in Nathaniel’s hand and, with a quick, deft move, pushed it behind herself, so that it hung down her back.

“I’m sorry, Nathaniel, but it’s the best I can do,” she said softly.

She waited to see if he would stop, if he would pick up her bra and sweater and hand them back to her, telling her he’d take her home. Instead, after only a small hesitation, he reached for her again, pulling her into his arms, covering her mouth with his. The feel of his naked chest against hers was almost more than Audrey could bear. He warmed quickly against her, opening his hands over her shoulder blades, splaying his fingers wide across her bare back. Then she felt his fingers skimming downward, toward the waistband of her trousers, over the contours of her fanny, her hips, and back to the dip of her waist.

As if of one mind, they parted enough to undress each other the rest of the way, moving slowly as they did toward the center of the living room. The furnishings were utterly male, darkly paneled walls and floor, rich, jewel-toned Orientals, oxblood leather chairs and lushly upholstered forest green sofa. An oil-on-canvas hunt scene hung over the fireplace, and the mantel boasted more masculine trophies—wooden ships, a heavy clock, an abstract marble sculpture. The view beyond the veritable wall of windows across the room was of nothing but fragile morning sky made barely pink by the first creeping rays of sunlight.

By the time they reached the sofa, they had shed the remainder of their clothes. Without ceremony, Nathaniel sat, pulling Audrey into his lap to face him. After kissing her again, he hefted her breast in one hand, rubbing his thumb leisurely over the stiff peak of her nipple. She gasped when he did, and he plunged his tongue deeper into her mouth, then moved his other hand behind her, slipping into the crevice of her ass. At that, she moaned, rearing her head backward, so he pulled her breast to his mouth instead. He sucked her deep inside, laving her nipple now with the flat of his tongue, then teasing it with the tip, all the while tracing his finger leisurely along the elegant line of her derriere.

Audrey gripped his shoulder with one hand and dropped the other between her legs, petting herself to increase her pleasure. When Nathaniel realized what she was doing, he slid his hand around to her front, joining her fingers in the damp folds of her flesh until she thought she would come apart in his hand.

And then she was on her back on the couch, and his head was between her legs, and he was tasting her there as deeply and as hungrily as he had been devouring her mouth. Again and again he lapped at her, pushing her legs wider to give himself better access, then darted the tip of his tongue against that most sensitive little part of her. She cried out as she felt her orgasm building in her belly, gasping for breath, groping for something to hold onto. She tangled the fingers of both hands in his hair, holding him insistently where he was. Loving her orally was something Sean had refused to do, thinking it unseemly. It was something she had missed
so much
. More and more greedily Nathaniel consumed her, and more quickly her climax built, until she was crying out his name, again and again and again, and her body was trembling with her release.

And then Nathaniel was beside her, holding her, whispering words that both soothed and aroused, touching her in ways that both pacified and excited her. She moved her own hand between their bodies and palmed the damp head of his cock, then lowered her hand and closed it snugly around him. He was so big, so hard, so ready for her, and her breath hitched in her chest at the thought of what was to come. She tilted back her head and kissed him, then leaned forward, urging him onto his back this time. Then she assumed the position he had held for her, taking him into her mouth and savoring him.

This, too, was something she had enjoyed giving to her lovers in the past, and it was something with which Sean had never been comfortable. Audrey had forgotten how powerful she felt when pleasuring a man this way, how much she enjoyed knowing he was at her mercy, and how incredibly intimate such acts could be when shared. As she pulled him more deeply inside, Nathaniel sifted his fingers through her hair, curved his hands over her shoulders, sucked in one deep breath after another. She relished him for long, erotic moments, until he tightened his fingers in her hair and murmured that he was close to coming.

Reluctantly, she withdrew, covering him with her hand again, stroking him softly as she rose and extended a hand toward him, helping him back to sitting. She started to straddle him, but he excused himself for a moment, whispering that there was one not-so-minor detail to see to. For a moment, she couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. But when he returned with a condom, she smiled.

“Oh, yeah,” she said softly as he took care of that not-so-minor detail. “It’s been so long, I forgot about—”

“You didn’t forget much,” he replied with a grin. He reached for her, helping her back into his lap, until she was sitting astride him, her hands on his shoulders, her legs parted wide.

She actually blushed at his comment. “Actually, any memories of . . . that . . . are even more distant. Sean would never . . .” She let her voice trail off, hoping her meaning was clear, dropping her gaze to his chest, where she traced a slow circle around his heart.

He lifted both hands to her breasts, holding them gently, palming them lightly. “Sean would never what?” he asked quietly.

She was surprised to realize she was naked with another man discussing her husband. Even more surprising, the situation didn’t feel at all strange. Nevertheless, she hesitated a moment before continuing. “Sean was pretty . . . traditional . . . when it came to sex. Woman on top was about as exotic as he would ever go. So we never . . .” She sighed. “Oral sex was out of the question.”

She looked at his face again, but his expression revealed nothing. “You and your husband never had oral sex?”

She shook her head.

“Never?”

“No.”

“So this is something you never shared with him?”

She shook her head again. “There’s a lot I didn’t share with him sexually,” she said.

Nathaniel said nothing in response to that, only lowered his gaze to her breasts before bringing one to his mouth and sucking it deeply. He moved his other hand between her legs and stroked her, gently tapping the tender bud of her clitoris. Audrey closed her eyes and threw her head back, clutching his shoulders, squeezing her thighs against his to lift herself higher. When she lowered herself again, Nathaniel guided himself inside her, and she filled herself with him, shuddering at the depth of his entry. Never had she felt so full in her life, so replete, so whole, so ready to explode. And then he urged her upward, moving himself inside her, and she realized there was still so much more to come.

She lowered herself on him again, and he seemed to plunge even deeper this time, so she rose and fell again. With every new plummet, he seemed to fill her more than before, until she wasn’t sure where her body ended and his began, or if her body ended at all. They seemed to fuse into one sensuously moving, sexually responsive being, all heat and damp and utterly arousing sensation. Nathaniel gripped her hips harder as he increased his thrusting, and Audrey slid her arms from his sweaty shoulders to circle the ample biceps she’d admired before. Just as the hot coil inside her began to curl tighter, he turned their bodies so that she was on her back with her legs circling his waist, and he was on his knees, pummeling into her again and again and again.

And then they were coming together, crying out as one their completion, their bodies colliding one final time before he was collapsing beside her, pulling her close and kissing her again. This time, though, the kisses lacked the ferocity and hunger of those first ones. This time, the kisses were gentle and sated and long.

“We never made it to your bed,” she finally said softly against his mouth.

He chuckled low. “Oh, we will, Audrey. We will. We have all day.”

 

WHEN HE’D TOLD AUDREY THEY WOULD HAVE ALL DAY,
Nathaniel had meant it. Even after darkness fell Sunday night, he and Audrey still lay in his bed, their naked bodies twined together, basking in the aftermath of a third coupling. Of course, for this last, the coupling had come in the form of oral satisfaction, but it had still been precisely that: satisfying. He couldn’t believe her husband had denied her something she took such unmitigated, uninhibited pleasure in doing. But he’d be lying if he didn’t admit he enjoyed the fact that he and Audrey shared something she hadn’t with Sean. Maybe that was selfish, but there it was all the same. There was something he could give her that her husband had not. Something more than his love.

Because he was beginning to suspect that his feelings for Audrey went that deep. He wasn’t sure when it had happened or how or why. Maybe it was because she was the first woman he’d had to rely on, or the first woman he’d spent time getting to know, or the first woman with whom he’d shared something other than a physical attraction. For all he knew, his feelings for her had taken root the moment she stepped into his office and stood up to him. Then, when he’d learned more about her, discovered what kind of person she was, she’d started to creep into places inside him that had been cold and empty for a long, long time. Many of them had always been empty, but Audrey walked right in and started unpacking and made those places cozy and warm.

Warm,
he thought. That was indeed how she made him feel. But she’d rescued him from more than just the physical cold that had plagued him for the past two weeks. She’d rescued him from the emotional chill that had been part of him for longer than he could remember.