The Art of Sin (15 page)

     He wanted to please her, wanted to make her come again and again. When he felt her body tensing as his tongue mercilessly circled around her clit, he anxiously waited for her to let go. As she rocked her head back and her delicious scream pierced the air, Grady nipped her clit with his teeth, heightening her climax.

     After she fell back against the bed, panting and spent, he began tormenting her all over again. She was begging for him to stop when she screamed again, her wetness spilling out onto him. He eased his fingers into her, massaging that delicious spot inside of her with hard, fast strokes. Her body was quivering uncontrollably, and he knew she was ready for him.      

      Reaching to the nightstand for a condom package, he kneeled between her legs. Al sat up and took the condom from him.

      “It’s my turn to torture you.”

      Ripping the condom package open with her teeth, she smiled at him as she slid the latex condom into her mouth. When she lowered her mouth over his erection, Grady gasped.

      Her mouth was better than anything he had known. She sucked him hard, teasing his tip with her tongue and then taking his cock all the way to the back of her throat. When he could feel his orgasm rising, she deftly slid the condom over his erection with her tongue.

     
Damn, this woman is like no other.      

     “I can’t wait anymore,” she whispered, guiding him on top of her. “I need you inside of me.”

     He kissed her neck. “I like it when you’re impatient for me.”

     “Just fuck me, Grady.”

     Kissing her lips, he placed her legs around his hips. Grady lifted Al’s slim hips to his and spread her folds apart with his left hand. When he pushed into her, Grady moaned as her flesh enveloped him. He pushed deep inside her, and then slowly pulled out.

     “Yes. Go deeper,” Al cried out.

     Grady thrust into her slender hips again, and his body exploded with pleasure. As he moved deeper, Al’s grip on his shoulders tightened.

     Spurred on by her excitement, he shifted his hips slightly and rammed into her, harder than before. She mewed with pleasure, and he repeated his deep, forceful penetrations.

     “Grady,” Al screamed, and then she arched backward in his arms.

     She bucked against him when her orgasm peaked, but Grady fought to maintain control over his urge to come, wanting to bring her to the heights of ecstasy again. She relaxed, but then he changed his rhythm. He began using short, fast thrusts to excite her. Al’s nails dug into his firm, round ass, begging him to go deeper, but Grady ignored her demands. She raised her hips higher, wanting more of him, but he kept up his quick, shallow movements until her body trembled with the anticipation of her climax. When she finally rolled her head back and screamed, Grady finally drove himself all the way into her. The eruption of release that overtook him was unlike anything he had known. He bit into her neck, straining to stay upright until the last vestiges of desire drained from him.

     Panting into the recesses of her neck, Grady felt her hand gently caress his cheek.

     “I’ve forgotten what it was like to ….” Her voice stilled.

     “To what?” Grady insisted.

     She sighed and lowered her hand from his cheek. “To enjoy myself with a man.”

     He nestled against her side, intrigued by her statement. “You don’t enjoy being with Geoff?”

     “It was never … that great between us. I thought maybe it was me, but now after being with you, I know it was him.”

     “Of course it was him. You’re a beautiful, vibrant woman, who is sexy as hell and needs a man who knows how to please you.”

     “Sexy?” she giggled. “Hardly. My sexy days are far behind me.”

     “You make it sound like you’re ancient.”

     “Well, I’m a good bit older than you.” She nestled her head into the curve of his neck.

     “I could care less how old you are, Allison.”

     “For now.”

     He nuzzled against her cheek. “Your age is irrelevant. Now, or twenty years from now.”

     She did not argue, but quietly settled against him.

     Holding her in his arms, Grady felt complete. It was the first time since his marriage that he had been so comfortable with a woman. He knew then that he would never leave New Orleans. Wherever Al was, he would be. He would do whatever it took to stay with her, even continue dancing.

     “You’re very quiet,” he mumbled into her hair.

     “I was just wondering,” she remarked, as her hand began to stroke his chest.

     “Hmm, what is that?”

     She eased back on the bed, smiling. “How many more condoms do you have in your wallet?”

*     *     *

     Grady awoke to find Al still sleeping soundly in his arms. They lay beneath the blue comforter of his sleigh bed as the sun streamed through his bedroom window. In the distance, he could just make out the rumblings of the city. He gazed down at her face resting against his shoulder and marveled at the delicate curve of her jaw and the way her nose slightly turned up at the tip. He inspected her long, light brown eyelashes, ran his fingers over her silky blonde hair, and finally stroked the creamy skin on her cheek. All the features he had long admired on many different women were all rolled up in one package with her. Her fragile looks, her slim body, and her sharp mind were everything he had always wanted.

     Glimpsing the three empty condom packages on his night table, he reflected on their frenzied lovemaking. Grady found it amazing how she had taken control in bed at times, being the demanding and relentless lover he had fantasized about but never expected to actually meet. Here was a woman with every quality he had wished for. In the depths of his soul, he questioned how in the hell was he going to be able to hold on to her.

     Al stirred next to him, and he smiled when her gray eyes opened.

     “What time is it?” she mumbled, stretching.

     He checked his stainless watch on the night table. “A little after eight.”

     She rubbed her hand over her eyes and sat up. “How long have you been up?”

     He traced his fingers down her back, following the outline of the sleek muscles. “Not long.”

     She turned to him and kissed his lips. “I’m hungry.”

     “I don’t have much here,” he admitted. “We could go out for breakfast.”

     “I’d like that.”

     He reached around her shoulders and eased her body back against him. “We could even make a day of it,” he added, kissing her ear. “You and me, having a day on the town. What do you say?”

     Her hands held on to his thick arm draped across her chest. “You don’t have to do this, Grady. If last night was all you can give me, then I am okay with that. I never expected—”

     “How could you think I’d ever be satisfied after one night with you? You’ll never be free of me, Allison. That’s a promise.” He held her close. “The only question I have is … where would you like to go today?”

     She was quiet for a moment as she pondered the question. “You know where I would really like to go with you?”

     He held her close. “Where?”

     “The zoo,” she announced with a childlike laugh. “I haven’t been there in years. We could just wander around and enjoy the day and the animals.”

     “Sounds perfect. I love zoos, and I hear yours is pretty good.”

     She cuddled against him. “Audubon Zoo is one of the best in the nation. It wasn’t always that way. When I was a kid, it was a pretty run down place.”

     A knock on Grady’s door startled them.

     “Who in the hell is that at this hour?” he griped.

     Grady climbed from the bed and reached for his jeans on the floor.

     “Maybe Cathy has come back to see if you’re fully recovered,” Al taunted from the bed.

     He struggled to pull on his jeans and scowled at her. “Very funny.”

     When he stepped through the bedroom entrance, he gently shut the door behind him. Padding his way across the living room, he prayed that Suzie was not following up on her note from the night before. But when he opened the door, he was relieved to see a freshly shaved and showered Doug staring back at him.

     “Hey, sorry to wake you,” Doug began. “But I need my gun back.”

     Grady put his hand up against the doorframe. “Now?”

     “Is now a bad time?”

     Grady nodded to the bedroom door. “Yeah, it’s a bad time.”          

     Doug grinned. “Cathy?”

     Grady grimaced. “No, definitely not Cathy.”

     Doug took a step backwards from the door. “Just get me my gun before tonight. I’ve got to work late at Pat O’s and feel better having it with me when I walk home.”

     “Sure.” Grady paused and furrowed his brow. “How’s Bev?”

     Doug shook his head. “Now she wants to hold off on contacting the lawyer until things cool down between her and Matt.”

     “I thought she was hot to get a divorce?”

     “That was yesterday,” Doug clarified with a roll of his dark eyes. “Today, she wants to wait.”

     “What do you want to do?”

     He shrugged his thick shoulders. “Whatever she wants. I can’t help it. I’m in that deep.” He waved at Grady. “Come by after your friend leaves and we can have lunch.”

     “I’ve got plans,” Grady announced.

     Doug pointed toward the bedroom, raising his dark brows questioningly.

     Grady curtly nodded. “We’re going to spend the day together.”

     “She must be special.”

     “She is,” Grady acknowledged. “Very special.”

     Doug was about to turn away when his eyes slowly made their way back to Grady’s face. “You don’t have Al in there? Do you?”

     “I’ll talk to you later,” Grady beamed, while easing the door closed.

     Grady heard Doug’s deep laugh echoing across the second floor as he returned to the bedroom.

     When Grady opened the door, he found Al already dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed.

    “Was that Doug’s voice I heard?”

     “Yeah, he was the reason I was so drunk the other night. He had a problem with his girlfriend and needed a friendly ear. After we finished a bottle of bourbon, he passed out on my sofa. He came by looking for something he had left behind.”

     “Beverly again?”

     Grady went to the bed and sat down next to her. “This has happened before?” He reached for his T-shirt on the floor.

     Al’s loud sigh filled the bedroom. “Lots of times. We spent four hours sitting on the steps outside of my apartment talking one night. He drank whiskey and I listened. I think everyone in the building has heard about his Beverly saga.”

     “I didn’t realize it was that well-known,” he commented after pulling on his T-shirt.

     “He keeps hoping she will leave her husband, but she never will. From the first day Beverly set foot in this house, she made it known that she was looking for a rich and powerful husband.”

     “Beverly was a tenant?”

     “Sure was.” Al nodded. “She was Beverly Lattimore then.” 

     He raised his eyebrows in amazement. “Small town.” 

     “The French Quarter is a little different from the rest of the city. It’s a pretty tight-knit community, and they take care of their own. My father played in damn near every club in the Quarter, so when we first opened the house to tenants, a lot of the club owners who had worked with Dad sent their out of town bookings our way to help Cassie and me pay the bills.”

     Grady ran his hand along her thigh. “When was this?”

     “A year after my mother died. Cassie was the one who came up with the idea. I was in my freshman year at college and the money our mother had left us was almost gone.” She placed her hand over his. “Taking in tenants helped us keep the house.”

     He clasped her hand and held it. “Why do you still do it? Don’t you make enough as a nurse anesthetist to take care of the place without having all these strangers coming in and out?”

     She contemplated their joined hands. “Keeping this house going costs a lot more than I make. If I want to keep my home, I need tenants. There have been times, even with the tenants, that it has been tough to cover the bills. These old mansions are huge money pits, but I could never give it up. It’s my home.”

     Al’s stomach growled loudly and she let go of his hand. “If we’re going to go out to eat, I need to go to my place and change.” She stood from the bed.

     He stood up next to her and put his arms around her waist. “You go and change while I grab a shower.”

     She gently kissed his lips, and then whispered, “About last night ….”

     He tilted away from her, raising a skeptical eyebrow. “What about last night?”

     A big smile lit up her face. “I had a really great time.”

     “There are many more nights like that to come for us, Allison.”