The Red Diary (20 page)

Without hesitation, she gripped the chair's back legs.

Then, unable to wait another second, he raked his tongue up her wet center.

The tremor that shook her body quivered through him, as well. He tried to catch his breath, bold on to his sanity, as he licked her again, and again, soon reaching up, using his fingers to open her wider. Above, she whimpered and moaned. and he drank in the intensity of her pleasure.

"Lift your legs," he said, his own voice a little shaky now, and Lauren let him position her just how he wanted. He held the backs of her upraised thighs, supporting them, then stiffened his tongue and pressed it against her moist flesh until it slipped inside.

"Oh," she breathed above him.

He closed his eyes, thrusting his tongue into her slickness, losing himself in the sensation.

"Oh.Oh."

He slid his tongue slowly in and out of her until he feared neither of them could take it any longer, then gently lowered her legs until her feet met the carpet. He gave her a second to breathe, gave himself a second to recover, then looked up at her and whispered, "I'm gonna make you come now."

Still holding tight to the chair, she only sighed, and Nick bent down to delicately lick the sensitive pink nub he knew lay at the core of her desire. Her deep moan sliced through him. and he licked her again. "Yes," she whispered.

Pushing two fingers inside her tight warmth, he rubbed his tongue over her in the same hot, slow rhythm that had driven her to ecstasy each time they'd been together. Her cries grew louder. she moved harder against his mouth, and he knew the pleasure of feeling entirely consumed by her as she sobbed, "Oh God, Nick! Oh God!" her flesh convulsing in quick spasms around him.

When it was done, he slid his hands to her hips as she panted her exhaustion, and simply studied her, her beauty rushing through him like a river. Finally, he said, "I wanna take you to bed."

After he removed her pretty bra and skirt, she lay down naked atop the comforter on the four-poster bed. "Now you. Take off your pants."

He pushed them down, along with his underwear, and let her look at him until her focus eventually settled on his rock-hard erection.

"Nick?"

He lowered himself to the bed beside her. "Yeah?" She bit her lip. "Don't get me wrong. I love foreplay as much as the next girl. But I really want you inside me now."

His groan came from the depths of his soul. "I want to be inside you, too," he whispered, realizing as he rolled onto her that this was the first time they'd actually done it lying down.

She must've caught some hint of amusement, since as soon as he slipped into her warmth, as soon as she issued that hot, accepting sigh. she said, "What?"

He managed a small grin. "Nothing. I'm just ... not usually a missionary position kinda guy."

She wrapped her legs around his back and pulled him tight into her.

"Or maybe l am." he amended breathlessly.

He moved slowly in and out, savoring each sweet thrust, and their leisurely tongue kisses got him so lost in her that he nearly forgot his own name. And her name, too. He thought of it once, who they were to each other, what they were doing-because this wasn't just sex, it was more--but then he shoved it from his mind and drove himself into her receptive body, letting her sexy moan fill him.

After a while, he silently withdrew and turned her over, lying behind her, entering her from the back. After a few gentle thrusts, he leaned near her ear. "Is it good, baby?"

Her whimpered ''yes'' reached all the way to his gut. He soon lost himself again, pounding into her harder and faster until she cried out at every heat-filled stroke. He knew he couldn't hold back much longer, knew that heaven was only a few sweet thrusts away, when Lauren shocked the hell out of him. Reaching between them, she cupped his ballsá in her hand and pulled them toward her, pulled him even deeper inside, and pushed him completely over the edge.

He swore softly, and then he was coming, in blinding flashes of heat and light; he was spilling himself inside her, giving himself over to a release so powerful it drained him of all thought, all energy. "You're so good," he whispered near her ear as he wrapped around her, then exhaustion grabbed hold of him. not even giving him a chance to disconnect their bodies before sleep descended.

She woke him in the middle of the night. She couldn't resist. She was too amazed that he was in her bed, and the way he'd made love to her (she knew Nick would never call it that, but that's what it had felt like) had left her almost fearing it was a dream.

She slid one hand beneath the covers and gently stroked him until he was growing, hardening-and waking. "What ... " he murmured in half sleep.

She rained tiny kisses across the dark dusting of hair on his chest, her hand now wrapped firmly around him below. It struck her how comfortable she felt this quickly, touching him so intimately, waking up beside him. It wasn't like her, and it should feel foreign, strange. But the fact that he'd stayed had somehow changed everything.

"Mmm," he said.

"1 want you again," she whispered in the darkness. "Then take me," he breathed.

Soon she sat astride him, gently impaling herself on him. Not long after, they were coming together, hard and furious, and she was collapsing on his chest and feeling the heaven of his arms falling around her, just before sleep captured them both again.

Nick lay with his hands behind his head, watching the ceiling fan turn in slow circles. Although the blinds were closed, sunlight filtered through the half-moon window.

"You're still here."

He shifted on the pillow to find the beautiful blonde next to him flashing a playful smile. She looked good in the morning. "Yeah," he said. "Was it so bad?"

"Not so bad." He wasn't sure it had been wise, but it certainly hadn't been bad. In fact, waking to find her naked body next to his beneath the sheets was even better than he'd expected.

"Do you want breakfast?"

"Ah," he said, tipping his head back lightly, "staying comes with perks."

'That's right. Now go down to the kitchen and make it."

He let out a small laugh as he reached for her, the gesture automatic, unplanned. "I worked hard to keep you happy last night, woman, and you expect me to go make breakfast?"

Her voice dropped to a coquettish whisper, their faces only inches apart. "I worked pretty hard on you, too around three in the morning.Remember?"

"Mrnrn, you did do all the work that time."

"I'm glad we agree then," she said in the same confident tone. "There are some cinnamon rolls in the fridge you can heat in the microwave, and juice glasses are in the cabinet by the sink."

Conceding the loss, he slowly eased himself out of bed. He didn't bother putting on clothes-the house was secluded enough that he didn't worry about being seen through the windows. And as he moved naked around her kitchen, he realized the last time he'd done anything like this for a woman was ... never. Nick was used to women fawning over him. And sure, the princess fawned in ways, but sometimes she also expected things in return. He wanted to hate that expectation--but at the moment, all he could really do was ask himself how the hell he'd ended up making breakfast for her.

When he carried a tray of rolls and juice back into the bedroom, he found Lauren sitting up, the covers at her waist. "You look good like that."

"Like what?" ''Topless.''

She laughed. "You look good like you are, too." "Naked?"

She grinned. "Naked and serving me."

"Sounds like I'm fulfilling a fantasy here or something." He lowered the tray table over her lap, then made his way to the other side of the bed.

Her expression turned wistful. "Lots of them, actually," she said softly. and his heart beat harder. When he'd brought the rose and other hints of her fantasies into their relationship, he' d been trying to surprise and arouse her, but now it seemed much more pleasurable to just do what he'd said, fulfill her fantasies. The very idea made his blood run hot, but it also reminded him-a huge secret still lay between them.

Plucking a cinnamon roll from the plate, he used his finger to stop a drop of warm white icing from dripping onto the covers. On impulse, he leaned over and dabbed it onto her pert pink nipple before bending to lick it off. "Mrnrn, more perks," he said, a fresh thread of desire stretching taut inside him.

She giggled and sighed, and as he looked into her pretty eyes, he had to admit waking up with her was much easier than leaving her. Of course, she probably thought it meant something, his staying, when it didn't. Couldn't. For one thing, she was Henry's daughter, and she always would be. And for another, Nick didn't do relationships with women. If that was next on her list of expectations, she'd be sorely disappointed.

Despite those thoughts, however. he couldn't fight letting things go where they wanted to, just for the moment. Especially since he'd just watched her dip one long, tapered finger into the icing on her own roll and paint it onto her other beaded nipple. "Have another perk," she nearly purred at him.

A growl escaped his throat as he leaned to lick her clean, letting his tongue linger and circle until she released a light moan. "How'd that taste?" She lowered her chin provocatively.

"Damn good," he said, wondering when the princess had become such a vixen.

An inquisitive smile made its way slowly to her face.

"So tell me, Nick, do you sleep with a lot of girls on the job or just me?"

Where had that come from? "Why?" "Just wondering."

''Well ... I can't say it's never happened. But it's not common." As the words left him, he realized it would have been simpler to lie and claim total innocence, but it was better to be honest, better to remind her what type of guy he was. "And that condom you had with you the other day ... you had it because ... "

"Because I'm always careful, like I said." Then he winced. "Before you, I mean."

She tilted her head. "I was the only time you weren't?"

He nodded, and was glad she didn't pry into the why part of that, since he didn't have an answer. "Speaking of the other day on the sink-"

"I was hoping," she interrupted, "we could avoid mentioning the sink." She lowered her eyes as the color in her cheeks deepened.

"Why?"

She peeked up at him. "It was just ... a first for me, that's all. In the same way you're not a missionary position kind of guy, I'm not a sink kind of girl."

He let a slow grin spread across his face. "You just smeared icing on your nipple for me, but now you're gonna play innocent?" He felt a curious heat fill his gaze when he added, "How would you answer Carolyn's question? Where's the most unusual place you've ever done it?"

She smiled. ''The sink."

"Before that," he said with a scolding expression. Her cheeks darkened again. "Nothing all that unusual, I'm afraid Carolyn was exaggerating. Cars, back in college ... and a tent, once." She shook her head. "That's really about it prior to the sink. Pretty boring, huh?"

"Trust me, you don't bore me. But back to the sink ... what were you doing when you hurt your thumb?"

An abrupt change in topic, he knew, but he ignored her questioning expression as she replied, "Cutting some roses." "And before that?" He supposed he just wanted to know, had wondered ever since he'd met her ...

"Pulling weeds," she laughed. "Why?"

He gave her a slight smile. "No reason, really. Just wondered if rich girls did that sort of thing."

Her mouth dropped open playfully, as if shocked by the implication. "Nick, just because I have money doesn't mean I'm not human."

"No," he said softly, "guess not." And as he sat gazing at her in bed, he realized maybe that'd been his problem all along-he'd forgotten she might be human underneath the money, underneath the Ash name. Beneath the killer body and long blond locks, she was good and kind, and sometimes the expression in her eyes turned so sweet that, despite himself, it gave him the urge to kiss her. It was like that right now, in fact, so he leaned over, lifted one hand to her silken neck, and drew her into a long, warm kiss laced with cinnamon.

When it ended, she was smiling. "I like when you're like this."

"Like what?"

"When you talk to me."

Damn. He guessed he had been talking. He hadn't even thought about it, hadn't kept things at that comfortable surface level like he usually did with women. "I'd rather kiss," he said, then slanted his mouth over her sweet lips once more. "We've kissed a lot," she said afterward. "We've only talked a little."

His chest tightened. He wasn't at ease with the idea of sharing his thoughts and feelings-and with Henry's daughter, no less. "I'm ... not much of a talker." He slid back down in the bed until his head found the pillow.

Her blue eyes shone on him from above. "Sometimes you are. If I hadn't pointed it out just now, you might have talked to me all day."

He shook his head lightly. What was it with women and talking, anyway? "Just what do you want to talk about so badly?" "Anything. Your business. Your family." She thoughtfully bit her lip. "You could tell me what happened to Davy." He shook his head and replied softly. "No." That was one story he'd never be able to tell. to anyone.

"I remember him, too-though not as well as I remember you. I think he threw sand in my eyes at one of the company picnics, and your mom yelled at him."

Nick laughed lightly-that sounded like Davy in those days. "He was kind of a troublemaker when we were kids," he told her. "It's funny-he's still as much a little boy as he was then, but he'd never do something like that now, never hurt anybody. He's always trying to save things, always bringing home injured animals and driving my sister nuts."

"Your sister?"

"Elaine. Davy lives with her."

Lauren nodded, apparently remembering. "Is Elaine married?"

He shook his head, and though he'd never thought about it before, it struck him as sad. He wasn't the sort of person who wanted that kind of commitment, someone to share your whole life with, but Elaine would probably like that.

"What kinds of animals has Davy brought home?" "He has a knack for finding birds with broken wings or broken legs. and one day a year or two ago, he spotted a dog that had been hit by a car on Alt 19. Made me stop and get him, but we didn't know what to do with him. We ended up taking him to a vet and spending a lot to get him on the mend. But Elaine didn't want to keep him, so we gave him to a little girl on their street."