Red Leopard (The Vistaria Affair Series) (23 page)

“Make it quick,” she begged. “Hard.”

“It can be nothing else.” He gripped her chin and turned her lips to his. He kissed her quickly, then gripped her hips and lifted her again. She felt him throbbing inside her, and knew his orgasm was seconds away. She saw it in his eyes, in every straining muscle in his body...and then he pushed into her again and his body seemed to lock, his hips thrust upwards, and his mouth opened in a soundless cry.

She held still, marveling at the power of his climax, at the raw pleasure of it, as she felt his hot seed spill into her. The sensation was as heady as the climax itself.

His hips lowered back to the seat and he fell back against it, his chest heaving, his hands loose on her hips.

She collapsed against him, utterly spent.

In the silence she heard a bird coo, somewhere in the trees above them.

Chapter Eleven

After a moment or two, Calli grew aware of Nick’s hands, stroking her still. This time his fingers swept along her back, following her spine and over the curve of her buttocks. His touch didn’t stimulate but the very pleasant sensation kept her nerves tingling.

Where their flesh touched, she felt heat between them and a hint of sweat. Her cheek rested against the back of the seat, right next to his head. Her arm felt like a deadweight but she lifted it enough to cup his cheek and moved her head to kiss the other one.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“I believe I should be saying that,” he returned. His voice sounded raw. He moved so he could turn his head to look at her. This close, his indigo eyes mesmerized her. “We should get off the open road,” he said.

“We should,” she agreed. “But I think all my bones just melted.”

He gave her a wicked smile. “I thought mine had, but it’s just temporary.” He moved his hips and Calli felt his cock move inside her. She caught her breath at the exquisite sensation. He was thick and hard. “See?” he added.

“You would prefer to drive even in this condition?” she asked.

“I would not have stopped in the first place except that you pushed all good sense from my mind.” He grasped her hips and helped her rise from his lap. When he slid out of her, she couldn’t help the little noise of disappointment she made. He swiveled and placed her in the passenger seat, showing some of the strength promised by his physique.

Then he carefully eased his jeans back over his hips and did up a few of the buttons on the fly. He did not fasten all of them, for even the few he tackled strained to cover his erection. The tip of his cock showed just above the fastened button.

“Besides,” he added as he started the engine and backed up the jeep a little so he could regain the thin strip of tarmac, “The longer I am in this state, the longer I can pleasure you.”

She could feel herself blushing, even though she knew it was ridiculous to react that way. She was also acutely aware of her nakedness. “This is a busy road?” she asked, lifting her voice over the wind a little.

“Pretty busy.”

“How do you pass anyone here?”

“Carefully.”

“Slowly, then?”

“Very slowly.”

She shivered, suddenly nervous. “I should get dressed then.”

“We’ll be turning off in a minute and then the only people we’ll see are farmers. Stay that way. I like the view.”

She studied him. With his bare chest and the jeans not quite covering his cock, he was virtually as naked as she. “Undo the rest of the buttons, though,” she said.

His smile was slow and seemed filled with delight at her command. “As my lady pleases,” he said and reached down to release the buttons once more. His cock sprang up straight.

“That’s better,” she said.

“Hang on,” he warned and turned the jeep into a rough gravel track that seemed to head straight up the side of the mountain. After the initial sharp descent the gradient decreased, although they continued to climb, rounding a dozen hairpin bends along the way.

“How long?” she asked.

“Impatient?”

“Yes.”

“Minutes, that is all.”

The jeep continued to climb, then the road evened out and arrowed straight into the trees, which grew as a shady tunnel over the top of them. Two hundred yards further on the trees thinned out and Calli saw the jagged peak of a mountain directly ahead. Nick turned the car to toward the mountainside. Then she saw the house.

It was a low thing of glass and thick black timbers, bereft of any adobe and nestled into the trees. Behind the flat roof of the house, she saw a waterfall cascading down the side of the mountain.

Nick pulled the jeep up sharply at the front of the house, where inlaid cement flagstones led right to the front door. He climbed out and strode around to Calli’s side of the car and opened the door. She caught only a glimpse of the unfastened jeans barely hanging onto his hips before he scooped her up and carried her towards the house.

“Now who’s impatient?” she asked, looping her arms around his neck.

“Damned right,” he growled. He pushed the door open with his shoulder—apparently he saw no need to lock his house up—and then they were inside a green oasis with raw terracotta tiles and large walls of glass. She saw nothing else before Nick pushed through another door and placed her on a wooden surface. A table.

He moved around the side of the table and bent over and kissed her, while his hand ran across her body, smoothing its way across her ribs, her stomach, to the small patch of hair over her mound.

“You are so beautiful.” His lips brushed against hers as he spoke. “I could explore for a decade and not tire of it.”

She groaned into his mouth as his fingers slipped inside her and stroked up and down the length of her pussy. The irregular shape of his fingers moving against her felt far different than his cock. His thumb caressed her clitoris. It was again the delicate touch that electrified her, yet at the same time made her desperate for more.

“Nick...you...I want you inside me.”

“So do I,” he muttered and moved around to the end of the table. She heard the whisper of denim and knew he’d stripped off the jeans. He lifted her legs over his arms.

“Hurry,” she said.

“Shhh...Such a moment should always be savored.” He paused with the head of his cock right against her pussy, all but entering her.

Calli’s heart trip-hammered with anticipation. “Nick...!”

He slid into her slowly, so slowly that she thought she might die of frustration and need. But finally he rested, buried to the hilt. The heat and size of him made her groan. “Good,” she said thickly.

“Very good,” he agreed.

He pulled out of her at the same unhurried speed.

“You’re killing me!” she cried.

“You have to feel it, with every inch of your body. Focus on every little sensation, every quiver, every spasm. Delight in it.” Despite his words, he sounded strained and under pressure. His eyes were half-closed, watching her. A bead of sweat formed at his temple.

He pulled all the way out of her, then just as slowly pushed back in again. This time Calli tried to extend her senses and focus on the sensations. She could feel the ridged head sliding into her and opening her up, the touch of his pelvis against her clit when he was fully inside her. She could hear his breathing, rough and ragged.

Despite the slow, slow thrusting, her heart was thundering, her body pulsing, every nerve end a sensitive live-wire triggered by the slightest touch. Her head rolled to one side and her eyes closed as Nick pushed into her once again. He paused and she could feel him quivering against her, the little shifts that said he neared the limits of his control, too. That pushed her excitement up a notch and she swallowed on a throat gone dry.

“I can’t stand it,” she pleaded, her own hips moving restlessly, her legs quivering against his arms.

The rate of his thrusting picked up speed. Just by a small amount. After a moment he swore, his voice hoarse. “Again, too much,” he gasped. He thrust hard and quick, his fingers digging into her thighs, the tendons in his neck showing the strain.

The pressure against her swollen and sensitive clit, the quick little pushes, sent tremors of pleasure bursting through her already quivering, desperate body. Her climax slipped over her like a hot wave of electrical light. While her heart and mind hung suspended, every nerve flared in response.

Nick slammed into her one last time with a choked cry. She felt him pulsing inside her and the hot spill of semen, even as her own body clenched around him in orgasmic pleasure. For a moment he sagged over her. He lowered her legs, then propped himself up with one trembling arm and gave a deep, gusty sigh.

Then he slid his arms under her shoulders and lifted her up off the table. Calli twined her legs around his hips instinctively as he turned around. He surprised her by sitting on the table and settling her legs around him, so that she sat in his lap. His cock was still buried in her.

Nick stared into her eyes and brushed tendrils of hair from her face. “Welcome to my home,” he said gravely.

She gave a tiny laugh. “That was quite a welcome.”

He smiled. “It is a better welcome than most Vistarians extend and we are known for our warmth and generosity.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she said.

He still stared, still studied her. The humor faded from his face. “If I considered myself a superstitious man, I would say you have bewitched me, Calli Munro.”

“You are not superstitious?”

“I thought I was a realist, but you are teaching me otherwise,” he said. Before she could respond or even begin to untangle his meaning, he hugged her very tightly, holding still for a breathless moment. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his scent and the heat of his flesh against her cheek and chest. It was a moment she knew would stay with her forever.

Then he let her go and lifted her up and onto her feet. She sighed at the loss of contact.

He stood and picked up her hands. “Realism says we must eat soon and I’m sure you would sell your soul for a shower, yes?”

“Yes!”

He tugged on her hand. “Come.”

She followed him from the dining room, more than happy to watch his tight tanned buttocks work as he walked. His wide shoulders were complemented by a lean, muscled back and tight waist and hips. She marveled again that his clothes had hidden such delightful details so well. He did not have the distorted size and shape of a dedicated body builder, but he clearly worked his body hard.

The house seemed to be made almost entirely of glass between the black pillars and beams. Natural light flooded the house, warming the tiles underfoot and feeding the tubs of plants everywhere.

Nick led her into a spacious bedroom. A thick Persian carpet covered the tiles, and a low bed with a dark green quilt nestled right up against the glass wall. The floor of the room lay at the same level as the ground outside, making the room effectively part of the glade.

On the other side of the room another door was set in the only solid part of the wall. Nick crossed over to open it. A bathroom, she realized, when she stepped inside. But a bathroom with a difference. The wall with the door held the essential plumbing and equipment—sink, toilet, cabinetry. Opaque glass blocks, that had a showerhead and taps inset, made up the far half of the wall to the left. The rest of the room, all of it, had clear glass walls. Thundering down the mountainside, directly outside the wall, was the waterfall she had seen earlier. It was close enough that some spray landed against the wall from the impact of the water at the bottom of the stream.

Nick turned on the shower, then tested the water.

“It’s...stunning,” Calli finally managed.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I never get tired of it,” he admitted. “I built the house with this one room in mind and the rest just formed around it.” He flicked water at her. “Nice and warm,” he promised.

She undid the leather thong that held her braid and shook out her hair.

Nick watched with narrowed eyes. She had seen that expression before, when she had done something that jolted him into a new perspective that gave him pause for thought.

“God, you look wild, with your hair loose,” he said. “Why do you tie it up all the time?”

“At home, it’s to keep a professional image. Here, it’s because of the color.” She stepped into the spray of water and gasped at the heavenly warmth.

Nick frowned.

“Too much realism for you, Nick?” she asked.

His frown deepened. “For this moment, yes,” he said. He stepped into the water and wrapped his arms around her and she felt his head rest against hers. He sighed.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I shouldn’t have been so practical.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m being a fool, trying to leave the world at the door.”

“You can do that,” she assured him. “We can be what we want, no limits, just for this short while and the rest of the world can go hang. Then after, you can get on with your life and I’ll be safely back in the States.”

“Okay,” he said heavily.

* * * * *