Sex on Summer Sabbatical (5 page)

They just had to.

Tori smiled as she decided to sit for a while longer and linger over her tea.

Chapter Six

The doorbell pealed. Adam glanced around his apartment one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything on his way to answer the door. They’d always spent their time together either at Tori’s or the club or met elsewhere. This was the first time Tori had been to his place and, though it wasn’t much, he wanted to make a decent impression.

He swung it open, a greeting for Tori still on his lips as he froze at the sight of her tight derrière pointed in his direction, shown off by a short skirt he hadn’t seen before that had risen almost to the point of indecency. In addition to her purse, she had a bag over one shoulder that he recognised from training and he was glad that she’d taken his advice and brought swimwear. Right now, though, she had her weight on one foot and was bent over, doing something to her sandal. She muttered a swear word and he smiled.

“Tori, you okay?”

“Oh!” She teetered and he caught her by the arm to help her balance. “Stupid new shoes. I got something in between the sole and my foot.”

“Ouch,” he commiserated then stooped to catch her behind the legs and shoulders and pick her up.

Tori gasped and instinctively clutched at him as he settled her in his arms and turned to carry her inside.

“Can you get the door?” he asked and moved so that she could catch the door handle and swing it shut. “Thanks.” He proceeded into the living room and set her down on the couch.

“Wow, um, thanks. It’s a bit early on to be carrying me across the threshold, isn’t it?”

Adam laughed and knelt at her feet. He began to undo the buckle of her sandal, noticing the new bright pink pedicure she was sporting. “Nice pedi,” he commented as he worked the shoe off. Sure enough, a sharp-looking piece of gravel fell to the floor.

“Yes, well… I bought the new shoes yesterday and noticed that most of the other women I saw had theirs done, and I saw a place, so…” She shrugged and raised an eyebrow at him. “You noticed? Somehow that doesn’t seem like a guy thing.”

“I notice everything about you.” He lifted her foot until he could lightly kiss her toes. “I like it.” He replaced the sandal on her foot and fastened it, unable to resist sliding his hand along her smooth calf afterwards.

“Thanks.” Her voice was a bit breathless and she didn’t move away from his touch. If anything, she scooted a bit closer until he was framed by her legs on either side of him.

He was starting to feel the effects of her proximity and he shifted to accommodate his semi-erection. “This is getting to be a thing with us. Me on my knees in front of you.” He could think of something else he’d love to do to her while on his knees.

Her lips parted and she ran her tongue over the lower one.

He could barely keep back a groan as he continued to run his hands farther up her legs to the silky backs of her knees. “I missed you yesterday. Did you have a good day?”

“Yes,” she answered, wriggling a bit and bringing her legs closer together until she’d effectively trapped Adam in place. Not that it was a hardship being there. Well, maybe that was the wrong way to look at it, because something was hard…

“What did you do all day?” he asked, telling himself he could move away any time now.

She smiled, her gaze locked on his. “Shopped.” She punctuated the succinct answer with a slight squeeze of her knees against his sides.

Oh, she was killing him.

“And what did you buy?”

“All sorts of sexy new clothes…from the skin out…for every occasion.”

“From the skin out, huh?”

“Yep. Wanna preview?” she teased. “A quick sneak peek?” She ran her fingers under the hem of her skirt, which was already high enough on her thighs that it was barely keeping whatever lay under it covered.

Before he could answer or react, she quickly lifted the hem, flashing him a view of something dark blue and lacy, before dropping it back in place and scooting up on the couch. She giggled as she primly closed her thighs and sat to the side with her feet up on the cushions beside her.

He rose to his feet and towered over her. “Hey, no shoes on the couch.” Two could play at this game. Grasping her by the ankles, he gave a gentle tug that sent her off balance and sliding onto one elbow. She gasped with laughter as she tried to regain her poise and also keep her skirt from riding up. He was having none of that. He quickly undid the first sandal then removed it and tossed it aside, followed by the other.

“And I didn’t get a very good look. I think I need another peek.”

She half-heartedly scrambled to try to get away, but he soon had her flat on her back and breathless with laughter as he wedged himself between her legs and knelt on the couch.

“Hmm, where were we?” He raked her up and down with his gaze. She stopped chuckling and swallowed, though he was glad to see that a smile still teased at the corners of her mouth. “Oh, yes, I think we were right about here.” He slid his hands up her outer legs to her thighs and stopped right at the askew hem. It was ruched up almost to her hip on the right side.

Adam slid his hand farther up until he was pushing the material of the skirt up her hip with it…and up and up. His eyebrows rose. He finally got to a midnight blue spaghetti strap about even with her hip bone.

He looked from her exposed hip with the sexy, barely there lingerie to her heated gaze.

“Very nice.” His voice was a bit hoarse. He reminded himself of his vow to not become intimate with her until they’d passed her deadline. This time his groan was aloud. There was no way he was going to make it until September with her bringing out the big guns by making trips to the lingerie store.

Damn it.

Of course, he justified to himself, there were degrees to everything. Maybe withholding
all
sex was unrealistic…

“So you like them?”

He followed the strap with his finger to where it met a miniscule patch of lace then trailed down to the warm crease of her inner leg.

“What I can see of them, yes.”

“Do you need a better look to be sure?”

While he was loving Tori’s increased confidence and pride, it was wreaking havoc with his restraint. From the attraction burning
between
them to the teasing thus far—which was basically the hottest non-contact foreplay he’d ever experienced—he could easily see this concluding with him pressing her into the cushions as he sank deep into the heat of her, making long, slow love to her.

It would be so much easier to let things take their natural course. But the thought of this
encounter
being written dispassionately into her notebook, her goal checked off as complete, was like a dash of cold water. He didn’t want what he seemed to be building with Tori to end when her holiday was over. Adam wasn’t a relationship expert by any means, but he hoped that the longer he could draw things out, building their anticipation, the more time they’d have to grow close in other ways. Then maybe she’d see him as more than a means to an end, more than an affair.

He made his living with his body, so he knew that it was probably his best trait, but he didn’t want to be just a hot bod and a good fuck. He was getting too old for hook-ups and casual dating. He wanted to forge something lasting with someone he enjoyed spending time with, a woman he enjoyed talking to and missed when she was gone. Like he did with Tori.

And he wanted her to feel that way about him. God, he wanted that—just as much, if not more than the physical side of things. Adam had a feeling that when they did finally have sex it would blow anything he’d previously done out of the water. The chemistry between them had been sizzling from the start.

He realised that Tori was now frowning slightly and he mentally backtracked to where they’d left off. Decision time. Did he back off, or change direction?

“I’d love a closer look.” The words came out of his mouth almost before he had thought them, making his decision for him.

Desire warred with uncertainty in her eyes, and Adam smiled reassuringly. Perhaps she’d reached the limits of her forwardness for today. It made it easier for him to clamp down on his own libido in favour of pleasing her.

Time for an old-fashioned make-out session. Adult-style.

His feet were already bare to match hers. He stripped off his shirt and watched as her gaze went straight to his chest. Suddenly he had new motivation to keep him focused during his workouts, if only to always be able to warrant the admiration in her gaze. She reached out then hesitated.

Not wanting her to start second-guessing herself, he grasped her hand and pulled it towards his chest as he knee-walked closer to her. He pressed her hand to the centre of his torso, silently encouraging her exploration, then released her. She kept it in place then ran it up over his left pec and down across his pebbling nipple. The light touch sent a jolt straight to his cock. She trailed her fingertips down his abs then ran her index finger back up the centre to where she’d started.

“You’re amazing,” she whispered and met his gaze directly.

For a few moments, he looked his fill at the sight of her lying on his couch, auburn hair spread beneath her, eyes almost the same reddish hue locked on his, warm with desire. “So are you,” he returned and bent to kiss her.

She lifted slightly to meet him, showing that she wanted the connection as badly as he did at that moment. Her lips moved against his, prompting his deepening the kiss while he curved his hand under the back of her neck to tangle into her hair.

He stroked his tongue between her lips as he settled his chest lightly against hers. Their breath mingled as they tasted deeply of each other. Tori brought her hands up to slide into Adam’s, with gentle tugs to increase the slant and deepen the kiss even further. They clung to each other, using their lips and hands to explore.

Adam was rock hard and panting by the time they parted and he trailed his lips down her neck. Never before had he been so affected by this sort of teasing play. She arched back, exposing her throat and he obliged by nipping and sucking lightly down to the sweet spot where neck and shoulder came together. He dipped his tongue into the divot at her throat then nibbled along her collarbone. Before moving any farther down, he lifted his head to ascertain her comfort level.

Seeing only heat in her gaze, her kiss-swollen lips parted to breathe, he sat back and pulled her upright. He gave her a wink before grasping the hem of her shirt. “This okay?”

“More than okay,” came the immediate and reassuring answer.

Adam slowly lifted her knitted shirt until it was just under her breasts, then stopped, lowering his head to kiss lightly at her ribs. He nuzzled the material upwards accompanied by long licks along her abdomen.

With a frustrated sound, Tori batted him away and grabbed her shirt, whipping it up and over her head before sending it sailing across the room. Then she reclined back on her elbows on the couch in just her short skirt and a dark blue, lacy bra that barely covered her areolae.

She arched an eyebrow and smirked. “So, is this a close enough look for you? What do you think?”

Chapter Seven

Tori couldn’t believe she’d just done that, but there was something extremely empowering about how Adam was so intent upon her every move. She’d wanted to take a more active role and surprise him, and by the looks of it, she’d succeeded.

“What do I think?” He reached a finger out and traced the edge of the lace over her breast, sending a shiver through her. Her nipple puckered as though reaching for his touch. The tightness coiled in her breast as her skin seemed to anticipate the contact.

“About the view.”

Adam, the tease, didn’t follow up on the promise, instead tickling a path along the slope of her other breast until it was similarly stirred.

“Adam…” He was driving her nuts with his deliberateness. She wished she could just tackle him and…

Hmm
…

She levered herself up, narrowly avoiding a collision, to a sitting position on the couch.

Looking startled then worried, Adam asked, “Everything okay?”

“No.” Planting both hands on his bare chest and pushing, she managed to get him off balance, then launched herself at him. He ended up on the floor beneath her as she straddled him. His hands automatically came up to cup her hips. She braced her hands on the floor to either side of his head and leaned over him to whisper in his ear, “You are making me crazy.”

His gaze dipped to her cleavage and a groan escaped him. “Very mutual.”

When she glanced down, she could plainly see her nipples from her vantage point. Making no move to adjust her bra, she smiled and shimmied up his torso a bit until she was nearly breast to mouth over him.

“Fuck it,” he muttered and brought his hands up from her hips to hook a finger on each cup and pull down until her breasts had both popped completely free of the material. He tucked the bra underneath them so they were supported and helped forward.

Adam cupped one in his large hand as he lifted his head the small fraction he needed to draw her peak into the warmth of his mouth. The other hand he ran up her back, holding her close to him so she couldn’t pull away. Not that she wanted to. Ever.

“Oh God…” She arched even closer as he suckled her to an even more pronounced point then lightly used his teeth to run along the base of her nipple. After one last long suck, he pulled off with a pop and moved to the other side, laving and nipping until she was squirming with need.

Adam slid the hand that had been cupping her breast down her bare side to the waistband of her skirt then around to the small of her back. A cool waft of air signalled that her skirt was being moved out of the way. Then his questing, warm hand was cupping her bare ass, tracing the crease, and she knew the moment he realised she was wearing a thong…

The world spun as he rolled and changed their positions so he was cradled in between her thighs. The roughness of his khaki shorts pressed against the soft skin of her inner thighs, and she wished she was a genie and could just blink their clothes away. Not that there was much on her part. The lace thong she’d purchased was the only thing between her pussy and his shorts, and it was so thin as to be barely a token.

He pulled away and she protested wordlessly but it was only to return his attention to her breasts. “Beautiful,” he murmured against her skin.

Reaching down with the intent to tug him up so his weight was on her once again, she got sidetracked first by the feel of his muscular shoulders beneath her hands, then she threaded her fingers through his hair. God, his mouth on her… But her core was on fire and she wanted—needed—him back against her. She gave his hair a tug at the same time as she wrapped her legs around his hips and used some of her newfound strength to attempt to move him in the right direction.

“Beautiful…and bossy.” He laughed down at her but acceded to her efforts and moved up so he was once again nestled against her. Oh bliss… He was braced up on his elbows to either side of her head to keep most of his weight off her chest, but she could feel the ridge of his erection pressed firmly to her, right where she needed the counter-pressure.

She rocked up against him, and his head went back, exposing his corded neck. She strained upwards to try to give it a lick but couldn’t quite reach. His neck looked just a touch stubbly and she could almost taste the salt…

He dropped his head back down to rest against her temple, curled around her and she got her chance, dragging her tongue across his Adam’s apple. A bit salty, yes, and the texture and flavour together were wholly masculine and an amazing treat for her senses.

The groan that went through him vibrated against her lips and she smiled. They moved together with a rhythm that approximated deep, slow sex. His hard cock dragged over her swollen clit through their clothes in just the right way. He irregularly thumbed her peak, keeping it taut, while his other hand supported her head. She moved her head towards him and he captured her mouth in a tender, questing kiss. The whole of it was almost too much. Seldom had she been able to climax with another person in her life, but just from this make-out session, she hovered on the edge. How amazing would actual sex be?

That thought had her gasping into his mouth. Adam responded by rotating his hips and the change in motion caught her clit in the just the right way to send her over the precipice. A long moan came from deep within her as she arched, trying to get as close to him as humanly possible. With one last tweak of her breast, he moved his hand under her ass to help her press against him, and she rode out the waves of sensation.

As she came back to herself, she noticed they were both damp with perspiration, their skin clinging together. Far from it being a turn-off, it felt utterly intimate and right. But… Adam hadn’t…

He shifted then onto his side and turned her so that he was spooned up behind her.

How to bring it up? “Adam, don’t you want to…?”

A huff of air shifted the hair along her warm scalp. “Of course I want to, but it’s not going to kill me to wait. Blue balls aren’t terminal,” he joked. “It was amazing to watch you climax, and that’s enough for me for this evening.”

Her cheeks were flaming and she was glad in a way that they weren’t having this conversation face to face. “But if you want to and I want you to… I guess I don’t understand.”

He traced random circles on her bare abdomen with his fingers, sending shivers almost like aftershocks through her. “Anticipation makes everything sweeter. We don’t have any reason to race to the finish line and cross everything off tonight… Do we?”

Her notebooks popped into her mind and a twinge of guilt hit her. “Of course not,” she replied—and she meant that. For the first time, she wondered whether she wasn’t being unfair by targeting Adam, using him to reach a personal goal. No, she argued with herself, she wasn’t
using
him. Looking back on it, it had stopped being about that after their first date. That first night she had come to know him, and she really liked what made Adam who he was—far more than a pretty face, he was a beautiful man inside and out. If only he wasn’t so damn young…

“Something on your mind? I hope you enjoyed what we did. You seem lost in thought.” He gave her a squeeze from behind and she could feel that he was still at least partially hard against her nearly bare ass. He had never even taken his shorts off.

She shook her head. “No. Just feeling a bit guilty that I… Well, you know. And you didn’t get anything out of it.”

He had her on her back faster than she could blink. “Oh, trust me, Tori. I got a great deal of enjoyment out of seeing you come apart in my arms.” He pressed a firm but quick kiss to her lips then rose to his knees. His gaze traced her and she became aware that her breasts were still exposed from her bra and her skirt was up around her waist.

It was a bit embarrassing, but more than that she had to laugh. “It’s like we’re a couple of teenagers or something, making out on the couch with our clothes still on.” She sat up and adjusted her bra and smoothed down her skirt as best she could. She could feel the fibres of the carpet under her ass. She’d been a bit leery of trying a thong, thinking it might be uncomfortable, but it wasn’t bad at all. She’d sort of forgotten it was there, and the reaction Adam had had to discovering it had made it so worth all the time she’d spent trying on lingerie and looking at her forty-something body in the mirror of the extremely well-lit dressing room.

At least the working out she’d been doing had started to pay off in the end…
her
end. She giggled at the double entendre.

“Now that’s what I like to hear.” Adam grinned at her, stood and held his hands down to her. She clasped them and he levered her to her feet then pulled her into a hug. Tori was beginning to cool down now and feel a bit sticky. She couldn’t help a grimace as their bare torsos separated.

“Yeah, I agree.” He nodded. “I’m thinking we go for that dip in the complex pool before dinner. I’m planning to grill anyway, and it’s warm enough that we could just stay in our suits while we cook and eat. Kind of like being in Hawaii.”

“Hawaii. I’ve always wanted to go there,” Tori confessed. She’d never been, but a lot of her co-workers took annual trips there.

Adam stared at her with an odd expression. “You’ve never been to Hawaii? It’s only a five-hour flight from here.”

She squirmed a bit. “Yes, I know. I told you I don’t get out much.” She was irritated, but more with herself than him. She shrugged, trying not to get defensive. “I’ve just never taken many vacations, and I’m not sure who I’d go with anyway.”

Adam put a soothing hand on her shoulder and walked with her towards where they’d dropped her bags earlier. “I didn’t mean that, necessarily. I just thought that since you’d grown up in California you might have gone with your family at some point.”

She snickered at the image of her parents in Hawaii. “That’s just funny. I’m sorry. No, they’re not the tropical holiday types. My mom is way more of a redhead than I am and she’s terrified of the sun…and of anything out of the ordinary routine, for that matter. And when Dad’s not at work, he’s glued to his laptop, tinkering with his experiments. They’re pretty much homebodies.” She shrugged again, knowing that she’d probably inherited the worst possible combination of traits from both parents. The non-adventurous part of her mom and the workaholic part of her dad.

Adam handed her shirt, purse and bag with her suit in it to her. “No siblings?”

“No, just me.” She looked at him curiously. “You?”

“God, yes. Two of each, but we’re all over the country. We all try to get together—as many of us as possible, anyway—at least once or twice a year, usually in the summer somewhere fun, then at Dad’s or my oldest sister Becky’s for one of the holidays.”

“That sounds like fun,” she said wistfully. She had no idea what it would be like having that many people around while growing up. She thought about her quiet upbringing, and guessed that Adam’s would have been completely different.

“It was, but look at how well you turned out. I’m sure yours was good too.”

She turned to him, grateful for his attempts to set her at ease. “Thank you.” She rose on tiptoe to peck him on the cheek. “Okay, I’m going to get changed, and we can go pretend like we’re in the islands.”

Adam smiled at her then indicated the hallway off the living room. “You can change in the bedroom or the bathroom, up to you.” He snorted self-deprecatingly. “I’d give you the grand tour, but it’s hard to get lost in an apartment this small.”

“It’s very nice, even if it’s not big,” she said truthfully. “Sometimes I wish I was in one more this size again, especially on cleaning days. But I bought it mostly for the proximity to the beach, that and the fact my co-worker had the inside scoop on how low the seller would go. Ex-boyfriend,” she explained.

“That was nice of her.”

“Him, actually.” Tori laughed at Adam’s expression of chagrin.

“Oops. That’s what I get for assuming. Sorry. That was nice of
him
.”

“Yes, it was, and until then—about five years ago—I was in an apartment almost exactly this size.”

“All right, well if you use the bathroom, I’ll get changed too and I’ll meet you on the patio for our trip to paradise,” he teased.

She smiled, loving their camaraderie.

And she couldn’t wait to get his reaction when she showed him her new swimsuit.