Tempt Me at Midnight (11 page)

She swung into the underground parking garage, inserted a coded key card to open the gate, then wheeled her car into the empty guest spot that practically belonged to her.

Spying Quentin’s black Jaguar, she nodded with satisfaction.

Inside the lobby, her stiletto heels clicked smartly on the polished marble floor as she strode to the bank of elevators, the flaps of her belted trench coat blowing open across her legs.

“Good evening, Miss Austin,” the concierge said as she sailed past him with a distracted smile and a wave.

The elevator whisked her up to the twentieth floor in seconds, but even that wasn’t fast enough. When she reached Quentin’s penthouse at the end of the corridor, she pressed the doorbell and waited, shaking with nerves and excitement. When there was no response, she quickly punched numbers into the combination keypad. As soon as the lock clicked open, she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

Then, and only then, did she have a moment’s pause.

Could she really go through with this?

Too late for second thoughts now. You’re already in the lion’s den.

Breathing deeply to bolster her flagging courage, Lexi set her purse on the foyer table and swept a cursory glance around the two-story penthouse, which boasted gleaming mahogany floors, ultramodern fixtures and masculine, contemporary furnishings. A wall of windows commanded a stunning view of downtown Atlanta, now blanketed with glittering lights.

“Lexi?”

Her gaze swung across the shadowy living room, where Quentin was slowly descending a spiral staircase. Her pulse hammered at the base of her throat.

He reached the landing and stepped into a soft pool of light. He’d changed for bed, putting on a pair of long black shorts and nothing else. Her mouth ran dry at the sight of his massive shoulders and wide chest sculpted with hard, sinewy muscle. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him shirtless, but tonight she intended to explore every inch of all that glorious male flesh.

“I thought I heard the doorbell.” He stared at her, his eyes shadowed and heavy lidded. “What’re you doing here, Lex?”

She met his gaze directly. “I changed my mind.”

Silence.

“You changed your mind.” His voice was a deep, husky rumble in the semidarkness.

She gulped. “Yes.”

Another pause. Then came his faintly amused drawl, “Is that why you’re still hiding by the front door?”

An embarrassed flush heated her face. So much for all her bravado.

Quentin started toward her. “So what changed your mind, Alexis?”

He only called her by her full name when he was angry or deadly serious about something.

She licked her dry lips. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know.” His slow, stealthy advance reminded her of a hunter who’s sighted his prey and wants to make certain it doesn’t escape. “Are you sure you don’t know?”

Swallowing, she unglued her feet from the floor and took a brave step forward. “I want you,” she whispered.

He stopped moving. “I didn’t hear you. Speak up.”

So that’s how he wants to play this. Okay. You probably had it coming.

“I want you,” she said in a clearer, stronger voice. “I’ve thought of nothing but you since the night of that damn New Year’s Eve ball. I came here tonight against my better judgment because I can’t seem to help myself. I want to make love with my best friend. But if you’re going to play games—”

As she reached for the door, he lunged.

Her breath whooshed out of her lungs as he hauled her roughly into his arms and crushed his mouth to hers. The kiss was raw and blistering, the heat of his big, hard body scorching her from the inside out. She flung her arms around his neck and opened her mouth, sucking his hot, thrusting tongue with a hunger that staggered them both.

He pushed her back against the door and quickly hoisted her off the floor. She threw her legs around his waist, hiking her skirt up to her thighs as her stilettos clattered to the floor. He grabbed her butt, roughly palming both cheeks as he ground his rigid erection against her sex. She moaned, writhing against him as fingers of electrical explosions tore through her clitoris.

He reared back and impatiently ripped off her trench coat. Her nipples stood out sharply against her pale silk blouse. Nostrils flaring, he bent his head and sucked one into his hot, wet mouth. She arched back, keening with pleasure.

He kneaded and caressed her thighs, the rough heat of his skin penetrating her pantyhose. But it wasn’t enough; she wanted his hands on her bare flesh. As if he’d read her mind, he eased her feet to the floor, then sank to his knees before her. His fingers gripped the waistband of her pantyhose, yanking it past the swell of her hips and rolling it down her legs. She trembled uncontrollably, her breath rushing in and out of her lungs.

When he reached her feet, she stepped out of the hose, then watched as he brought the nylon to his nose and deeply inhaled.

“It smells like you,” he whispered thickly.

She groaned, shuddering with arousal.

Setting aside the wad of pantyhose, he leaned forward and brushed his lips to the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh. She moaned, delicious shivers racing to her groin.

Holding her skirt out of the way, he trailed a path of sensual, open-mouthed kisses up her trembling thigh. When he reached her crotch he paused, heightening her anticipation. And then he pressed his tongue to her clit, stroking her through the silk layer of her panties. She cried out hoarsely.

As her knees buckled he caught her, steadying her in his firm grasp.

“Quentin,” she whimpered, writhing desperately against him as wetness coated her sex. “I
need
you.”

He lifted his head and stared up at her. His face was flushed, his eyes bright and gleaming with barely restrained lust.

“Not here,” he growled huskily. “Not for our first time.”

He surged to his feet, then bent and swept her into his arms as though she were completely weightless. She clung to his neck and pressed her hot face against his chest, feeling small and vulnerable and powerfully outmatched.

He reached the second landing in what had to be record time and carried her into his enormous bedroom, where a lamp glowed invitingly on the bedside table.

He set her gently on the floor and slanted his mouth over hers, his kiss as hot and hungry as the sensual needs pounding through her body. His hands caressed her back, stroking the silk of her blouse against her tingling flesh. Without breaking the kiss, he unbuttoned her shirt with a deftness that reminded her he’d had plenty of practice undressing women. But at that moment she didn’t give a damn. She wanted to be naked and joined with him, and the sooner the better.

Lifting his head, he dragged her blouse off her shoulders, then reached for the front clasp of her bra. Her breath caught at the sensation of silk brushing against her erect nipples. Pulse thundering, she watched Quentin’s face as he eased the straps down her arms and pushed the bra from her body. At the sight of her brazenly thrusting nipples, his nostrils flared and he swallowed tightly.

She gasped as his hands cupped her swollen breasts, his thumbs rasping over her distended nipples. Her womb contracted as spasms of pleasure tore through her. She’d never known her breasts could be so sensitive. They never had been before.

Swearing under his breath, Quentin knelt to unzip her skirt and slide it, along with her panties, down her legs. She could tell that he was trying to take his time with her, trying to savor her the way a connoisseur savored a fine wine.

When she stood naked and trembling before him, his gaze raked over her slowly, his eyes smoldering with fierce appreciation.

“So this is what I’ve been missing all these years,” he murmured, low and rough.

“Have mercy.”

Lexi’s knees went weak.

As he lifted her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, shivering at the feel of his bare chest pressed against hers. A moment later she felt him lowering her to the enormous bed and easing over her, his heavy body enveloping her with his heat and strength.

She trembled everywhere he touched her, with his hands and his eyes. He palmed her aching breasts, pushing them together. And then he lowered his head and sucked her nipple into his mouth. She gasped and arched backward.

As his marauding lips closed in on the other nipple, his hand glided down to the apex of her thighs. She moaned as his fingers teased and probed the slick, swollen folds of her sex. She thrust her hips against him, shaking with need. And when he slipped two fingers inside her, she cried out and clamped her thighs around his hand, trapping him there.

“So juicy,” he groaned low, his lips caressing her jaw as he stroked inside her. “So damn sweet and
juicy.
”

She mewled with pleasure, her hips undulating against him as she rode his wicked fingers.

“I need to taste you.” He glided down her body, his lips moving between her breasts and down her quivering belly as she struggled for breath. He settled between her thighs, his massive shoulders spreading them wide.

“So beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely, his lips poised over her clitoris. “All these years.
All these years.
”

He lifted those glittering eyes, his gaze locking with hers. And then he pressed his hot mouth to her engorged sex. Her hips arched off the bed as a strangled cry erupted from her throat. His hand gripped her waist, anchoring her in place, giving her no reprieve from the sensual onslaught to come.

He suckled her clit as his fingers worked inside her, thrusting with deep, erotic strokes. Lexi twisted, dug her heels into the bed and clutched the back of his head, the silky texture of his close-cut hair rasping her palms. Soon she was groaning and shaking, shuddering from the gut-wrenching pleasure of his mouth on her. Just when she thought she couldn’t possibly take any more without dying, he did something with his tongue, something that should be illegal in all U.S. states and territories.

Her eyes flew wide-open, and she screamed his name as waves of violent ecstasy crashed through her, racking her body with such powerful convulsions she seriously wondered whether she’d go into cardiac arrest.

Quentin gathered her against him, his expression both tender and savagely aroused as he watched her come for what seemed an eternity.

When the tremors had finally tapered off, she stared up at him with a look of astonished wonder. She’d always known he was an experienced lover, but she couldn’t have imagined the depths to which he’d master her body, making it weep.

As she watched, he slid his fingers from her vagina and slowly drew them into his mouth. The blatant carnality of the gesture sent ripples of lust charging through her belly.

“Sweetness,” he husked, holding her gaze as he sucked his wet fingers.

“Sweetness.”

Lexi blushed with pleasure, his pet name for her taking on a whole new meaning.

Bending his head, he captured her mouth in a deep, provocative kiss that had her moaning as she tasted herself on his lips and tongue.

Drawing back from her, he rose to his knees and pulled down his shorts. She gasped, her eyes widening as she got her very first look at his penis. It was an absolute thing of beauty. Long, thick and honest-to-goodness
huge,
curving up toward his stomach.

No wonder women keep coming back for more,
Lexi thought as her mouth watered and her clit tightened and throbbed with greedy anticipation.

He retrieved a foil packet from the bedside table, tore it open with his teeth and quickly rolled the condom over that bulging erection. She quivered as he stroked his fingers between her legs, then smeared her juices over the condom. As he slipped between her thighs, a shudder rippled through her as the engorged head of his penis nudged the slippery folds of her sex. She wrapped her legs around his waist, wanting him inside her.

Poised above her, his weight braced on both arms and his hands on either side of her head, Quentin gazed down at her. The piercing, focused intensity in his eyes let her know that he recognized the profound significance of this moment. Just one thrust of his hips would take them from friends to lovers. And there would be no turning back.

But Lexi knew that they’d long since passed the point of no return.

So she gave a slight nod, and something like relief and gratitude flashed across Quentin’s face.

They stared into each other’s eyes as he slowly pushed inside her, stretching her almost unbearably. They shuddered and groaned in mutual ecstasy. Slowly he sank deeper, sheathing himself to the base. The pleasure was so sharp, so excruciatingly intense, that they shared a heated look and whispered at the same time, “Don’t come yet.”

They both laughed, soft, shaky laughs that quickly turned into groans as Quentin began moving inside her. She tightened her thighs around him and wrapped her arms around his back, so broad her fingers couldn’t meet in a circle. He groaned again as she caught his rhythm, her hips surging upward to meet each deep, penetrating stroke.

“Ah, Lex. Lex,
Lex,
” he chanted, his low, raspy voice driving her insane. “You feel so damn incredible.”

“So do you,” she moaned.

“Is it good, sweetness?”

“
Sooo
good.”

As he groaned and thrust deeper, her nails raked his back and dug into the flexing muscles of his taut, round butt. His erection was so hard it felt like hot iron wedged inside her. Passion and hunger blazed in his eyes, matching the currents of electricity tearing through her. No man had ever made Lexi feel this way before. And she knew, instinctively, that no other man ever would.

Soon she was sobbing Quentin’s name and arching her back, her hips working frantically against his as he plunged and retreated. His lips lowered to her breasts, sucking her engorged nipples until she wailed with pleasure. They glided and rocked together, their primal cries and shouts bounding up to the high ceiling and reverberating around the large room.

Framing her face between his hands, Quentin stared down at Lexi with an expression of such fierce possession that tears swam into her eyes. “You mean everything to me,” he growled huskily. “Don’t you
ever
forget that.”