The Secret Wife (23 page)

“You first,” he said, barely breaking their kiss.

Her first? “Talk about performance pressure,” she muttered.

He laughed. “You’re all grown up, Elissa. I like it.”

“Me, too.”

He dipped his head and pressed his mouth against the side of her neck. At the same time his hands moved to the front of her dress and began unfastening the buttons.

She held on to his shoulders, using his strength to stay upright. Her knees were still weak, but this time from anticipation, not nerves.

As he nipped at her skin, tiny electric bolts zinged through her body. Heat flared between her thighs, radiating out until all of her glowed. The back of his hand bumped her right breast. Not hard, just a small point of contact that made her gasp. She wanted his hands there, on her breasts, touching her, stroking her, doing all those things she’d read about. She wanted to feel the sensations the books talked about and she wanted to feel them with Cole.

When the last button was undone, he drew the dress down her body, slipping her arms out of the sleeves and pushing the fabric over her hips so that it pooled at her feet. Then he took her right hand in his and brought it to his mouth.

With her standing before him in nothing but a pale pink bra and a pair of panties, he licked her palm. More heat, like a tongue of fire, swept through her. The ache between her thighs intensified. Slowly, as if they had more time than any two people could need, he nibbled on each of her fingers. First he drew them into his mouth, then he tasted them from tip to base.

She hadn’t thought of her hands as being especially sensitive or erotic. But if he stopped now, she would sob in protest. So when he reached for her other hand, she offered it eagerly. It didn’t matter that her thighs trembled or that she couldn’t catch her breath. Nothing mattered but how he made her feel.

When he’d finished loving her hands, he began a sensual assault on her arms. He traced a line from the inside of her wrist to the inside of her elbow, tasting and kissing and nibbling her into a sensual fog. He nipped at her shoulders, suckled her earlobes and traced random lines between her breasts.

Then, when she thought he was finally going to touch her throbbing nipples, he sank to his knees and pressed his mouth into her belly.

Her legs started to collapse. She had to hang on to his shoulders to maintain her balance. Shudders racked her body. She was alive with unbelievable sensation, lost in a world she had never experienced before. Everywhere he touched was magic. Perhaps she’d never fully been alive before. Perhaps she’d passed on and this was the reward of the afterlife.

He kissed her stomach, teasing the sensitive skin, moving close to her feminine secrets and up toward her breasts, but not touching her in either place.

“Cole,” she breathed, not sure what she asked for.

Yet he knew.

He stood and led her to the bed. Before lowering her to the waiting sheets, he unfastened her bra and let it fall to the floor.

Her back touched the sheet at the same moment Cole’s mouth closed over her right nipple. The combination of cool cotton and moist heat made her arch toward him. She clutched his head as if to urge him to do it again, to keep doing it.

He read her mind. While his tongue mated with her erect point, he used his other hand to stroke her full curves, discovering sensitivities she hadn’t dreamed existed.

Over and over he loved her breasts, alternating his hands and his mouth, making her squirm and sigh and moan.

When he raised his head, she nearly shrieked in protest, then he brought his mouth to hers and cupped her breasts with both hands.

Yes! she thought, savoring the feel of his body against hers. She shifted, then wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. His thumbs and forefingers teased her tight buds, his lips clung to hers. She felt his arousal against her hip and nearly laughed with the joy of being with him. This was so simple, so fun. Why had she resisted so long?

She barely noticed when he drew back far enough to tug at her panties. She was vaguely aware of kicking them off, then wiggling close to him again. But he got her full attention when he moved his hand between her thighs.

She blinked as she considered the situation. She was naked, he was not. They were sprawled across her bed. He was kissing her and had one hand on her breast and the other “down there.”

“This is the most amazing homework assignment I’ve ever done,” she said, hoping her apprehension didn’t show in her voice.

Cole knew her too well. “Don’t be afraid,” he said.

“I’m not. I’m just—” She bit her lower lip.

“Nervous?”

She nodded.

He moved his fingers slightly. She jumped as pleasure swept over her. Her eyes widened. “Do that again,” she said.

He did. The pleasure bolt returned.

“I’m impressed.”

He smiled. “You’re also wet as hell and it’s driving me crazy.”

She started to speak. He stopped her words with a brief kiss. “Wet is good. It means you’re getting ready.” He moved his fingers again. “I’m going to circle around and you tell me where it feels best, okay?”

“Ah, sure. It all feels really nice.”

Passion flared in his eyes. “We want something a little better than nice. Close your eyes and concentrate.”

She drew in a deep breath and tried to relax. He wanted her to concentrate on what he was doing. Hardly a difficult request. As his fingers moved, circling through her most secret places, she found herself parting her legs and raising her hips to urge him on.

“It’s all great,” she said as wave after wave of sensual excitement swept through her. “I really don’t think—”

His finger brushed over something magic. Barely realizing what she was doing, she clutched his forearm. “There!”

He touched it again. Elissa had to swallow back a scream of sheer delight. She hadn’t known feelings like that existed. Nothing in life had prepared her for the amazing sense of pure joy.

He continued to touch her, circling that one spot, teasing it, moving quickly, then slowly. She lost her grip on this dimension and allowed herself to float freely in a place where there was only one exquisite sensation after another. Pressure built, but she ignored it. She wanted Cole to keep doing this; she would be his slave for life.

He shifted and she parted her thighs more. One finger slipped inside her. He slid in and out, matching rhythms. She clutched at the sheets. Tension increased.

Her breath came in gasps. She couldn’t focus on anything but what he was doing to her. Somewhere in her cloud of mindlessness she heard him whisper her name, heard him urge her onward. But she had no control of the journey. She could only experience the perfect pleasure, could only feel and be.

He moved faster. She became caught in a vortex. Time, space, some force she couldn’t define, pulled her onward, pushing her toward the tension, toward the building pressure.

For a heartbeat she hung suspended. Then her world shattered. Not destructively, but with purpose. Like a cloud making rain, she thought. It was her last thought as the spasms took hold of her, carrying her back through the vortex, back through time, returning her to the bed and Cole’s loving embrace.

Chapter Fourteen

C
ole held his wife in his arms and listened to her sigh of contentment. Already the flush of arousal had faded from her skin, but he remembered seeing it. Without even closing his eyes, he could picture her as she’d looked at her moment of completion. Head back, mouth parted slightly, hands gripping at the sheets, a blushing patch sweeping across her breasts, chest and face.

“The books weren’t lying,” Elissa said, her voice laced with wonder. “I just sort of figured they had to be.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He brushed her bangs off her face and kissed her forehead.

“Enjoyed is a very weak word. I was transformed and transfixed.” She laughed. “I’m too stunned to think up any more T words. Otherwise I would.”

He touched her cheek, her neck, her shoulders, almost as if he had to reassure himself she was really here, with him, and that she’d just climaxed for the first time in her life.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, gazing up at him. “You look funny. Not sad exactly, but… What is it? Did I do something I shouldn’t have?”

“Never,” he said, bending over her and forcing himself to smile. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was great.”

Her mouth twisted in concern. “You’re not just saying that?”

“Elissa, touching you, knowing that I was making it happen, was about the best thing in my life. With my fingers inside, I could feel the contractions.”

She blushed bright red, but didn’t turn away. “So you know I wasn’t faking it.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Then why the mysterious expression?”

Her hair fanned out on the bed, a blanket of golden-blond silk. He stroked the soft curls as he considered her question. “I’m sorry for all the time we wasted. I should have tried harder.”

“No!” She wrapped her arms around him and shifted, easing him onto his back, then pinned down his arms and stared into his face. “No, Cole. I won’t let you ruin this with self-recriminations. The past is over. We need to let it go. Tonight we’ve created a miracle. Enjoy that. And while you’re doing that, you can answer another question for me.”

Her generosity only increased his feelings of self-loathing. He should have made it better for her. When she’d resisted being touched, he could have…

What? Forced her? Damn, why wasn’t there an easy answer?

Rather than worrying about it, he looked at Elissa sprawled naked across his chest. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders and bare breasts. She looked like a pagan goddess.

“What’s your question?” he asked.

“Why do you have so many clothes on?”

At her words, the need between his legs tightened painfully. His blood heated and his mouth went dry. “Hell if I know,” he muttered, and reached for the buttons on his shirt.

“Uh-uh.” She brushed his hands away. “I’ll do it.”

She was as good as her word. While he lay there, she opened his shirt and rubbed her hands up and down his chest. It was only when she repeated the actions with her mouth that he began to worry about losing control.

In a matter of minutes she tossed aside his shirt and trousers. Now she tugged at his briefs, urging him to raise his hips so she could free him of his last article of clothing.

As the material slid down, his arousal sprang free. He was large and hot and faintly embarrassed by the fact. But instead of recoiling, Elissa knelt between his thighs. She tilted her head to one side, studying his maleness.

“It’s much nicer than the line drawings,” she said, and rested her hands on his knees. “Does it hurt?”

“Yes, but not in the way you think. More pressure than pain.”

She nodded. “Sort of an aching. That’s what I felt. It’s deep inside, but on the surface, too.” She slid her hands up his thighs. “I want to touch you. Show me what to do.”

“Just—” His muscles quivered in anticipation. When she reached the crown of hair surrounding his maleness, his breath caught in his throat. Warm, sure fingers encircled him. She began to move up and down.

“Like that,” he gasped.

Her technique was faulty. She kept stopping to explore, running her fingers over the sensitive head, dropping kisses on his upper thighs and belly, once kissing the very tip. But he didn’t correct her, or show her the quickest way to please him. That would be for later. For now, it was enough to have her touching him there. It was, he realized, a first for both of them.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. There were tears on her cheeks. Startled, he sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She wiped her face on her shoulder. “I love this. You’re warm and silky. It’s not scary at all. I could touch you forever and I never bothered before. I never wanted to see you naked or take you in my hands.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Or my mouth.”

He shuddered with pleasure at the thought.

“I was a horrible wife. I don’t deserve forgiveness, so I’m not going to ask for it.”

He reached down and took her hands in his. “What was it you said to me? Don’t ruin this with self-recriminations. That applies to you, too. Come here and let me love you.”

She came willingly into his arms. He kissed her mouth, then her breasts. When her breathing had increased and her eyes were glazed with passion, he slipped on the protection she’d left on the nightstand, then moved to enter her.

Her tight body stretched to accommodate him. She welcomed him with a sigh, then caught his hips and pulled him closer.

Pleasure swept over him in an uncontrollable wave. “I can’t hold back,” he muttered. “Dammit, Elissa, I’m sorry.”

She smiled at him, then drew her knees closer to her chest, urging him deeper. “Don’t hold back. Give me everything right now.”

“But I wanted you to have another turn.”

“I will. Later.” Her smile turned impish. “I was hoping we could try that special kissing thing. You know, kissing down there?”

That image was all he needed to lose control. “Yes.” He ground out the word, plunging into her twice more before passion overtook him, ripping through him with the fury of a firestorm, leaving him sated and cradled in his wife’s loving arms.

* * *

Cole tossed his pencil in the air and leaned back in his chair. He wasn’t getting any work done and he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Not after last night.

They’d made love three more times, discovering each other, bringing each other mindless pleasure, sharing in ways he’d never thought possible. He had a feeling he was going to spend the entire day grinning like a fool.

That didn’t matter, he told himself contentedly. He refused to dwell on the past or the future. What was important was the present. Elissa in his bed and his arms.

There was a danger that she would creep back into his heart, too. The sensible plan would be to back off. But he knew he wouldn’t. Last night had been everything he’d ever dreamed his marriage could be. It was a miracle, for both of them.

He didn’t doubt that their fundamental problems remained the same. In time, Elissa would leave him. Until then he would enjoy all that she offered and give back as much as he was able. When she left him, he would survive. He wasn’t sure how, but he’d never heard of anyone dying of a broken heart. If nothing else, he would have his work. It had always been his salvation.