Touch Me (13 page)

She slid a hand along his nape. The other clutched the back cushion of the couch as she tilted her head so he could trace the underside of her jaw with his mouth. He nipped the skin beneath her chin and she jumped.

“Shh,” he soothed, rubbing his free palm along her thigh. His tongue lapped at the tiny sting.

The combination of small pain and sweet care sent her heartbeat into overdrive. She crowded closer to him and he helped, drawing her onto his lap.

“I’m not hurting you?” she murmured.

He flexed his hips and his erection pressed against her bottom. “Oh, yeah. In the very best way.”

It made her giggle, and she buried her head against his neck. “You can kiss me, too, cupcake,” he said.

Cupcake! In retaliation, she sank her teeth into the strong column of muscle.

He grunted, and his hand squeezed her waist. “Do that again,” he whispered.

But this time she didn’t bite, she just tasted him with the flat of her tongue, running it upward to then feather her lips over his evening whiskers.

He turned his head toward hers, nuzzling behind her ear. “You make me crazy,” he said, and stroked her arm from shoulder to wrist. “Every day.”

She breathed in the clean scent of his soap and tangled her fingers with his. He brought their joined hands toward her breasts, lightly brushing their knuckles over one of her upstanding nipples. Back and forth. Back and forth.

The teasing sensation made her squirm on his lap.

He grunted again, his hips pushing upward. “Like that?” he murmured, then dropped her hand to slide his to the back of her dress. “I’ve been studying how this works,” he said.

The garment was cut wide enough to pull over her head, but then a fabric string was wound through matching parallel loops to cinch it against her body. A bow fastened the lacing at her waist and he didn’t hesitate to pull it free.

His fingers plucked at the string and the thin fabric of the dress loosened, sliding at the neckline to reveal one shoulder. He bent to kiss the bared slope, his lips hot and his tongue wet. Rose shivered.

And again, when he pulled on a sleeve, causing the dress to pool at her waist.

She’d worn some of her good underwear, thank goodness, a little confidence booster for her potential blind date. But Payne wasn’t blind and he was looking at her transparent bra in pale green and pink lace. The sound of his heavy, indrawn breath was loud in the small room.

Glancing down, she saw the tops of her breasts were quivering.

His palm came up to mold her, and Rose tensed. Instant groping and kneading always turned her off. Payne glanced from her chest to her face and his hand dropped to her hip. “Move, cupcake. Straddle me.”

She didn’t resist. Spreading her legs, she pressed each knee into the cushions on either side of him. The skirt of her dress covered her thighs, but underneath the fabric, her cleft was positioned right over the placket of his jeans. He widened her legs with his hands, silently encouraging her to press her soft and wet place to his hardness.

“Nice,” he hissed out at the contact. Then he bent his head and gently licked her nipple, over her bra.

Rose moaned and she shifted, a small pulse against his erection.

It didn’t divert Payne’s attention. His tongue continued to play with the peak of her breast, until he’d wet a circle on the material and she was gripping his shoulders to prevent herself from rubbing against him like a cat. When he moved to the other breast, he toyed with the nipple he’d abandoned, tweaking and pulling until Rose was moving her hips in more little pulses.

His lashes were at half-mast and there was a flush of color across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Rose ran her hands through his thick hair, allowing her nails to scrape over his scalp and he lifted into the apex of her thighs, shallow thrusts that were torture.

Then he lifted his head and caught her gaze. Rose’s instinct was to bolt, to hide so he wouldn’t see how nearly undone she was. But he put one hand at the small of her back, keeping her right where she was as he used his other fingers to tuck the cup of each bra beneath her swelling breast.

“Oh, my,” she whispered. “I don’t think—”

“Exactly,” he said, in the dark voice of a golden idol, accustomed to having flowers and food and thousands of women’s panties left at his feet. “Don’t think.”

Then Payne, the baddest and blondest of the Rock Royalty princes, brought his hand up to plump her breast. Then he fed it into his mouth, his tongue wrapping the nipple in a thorough caress before his cheeks hollowed and he began to suck in rhythmic, maddening tugs.

A rush of moisture slipped from Rose and she couldn’t help but grind her wet panties onto the hard ridge beneath his jeans. He moved into her, and she jerked against that delicious male muscle, feeling her center clamping down, desperate to be filled.

Arousal booted her inhibitions out of the way and she was rocking on Payne’s lap, shuddering as she strained for the completion that was gathering in her belly. He switched to her other nipple, sucking with even more heady abandon and she was moaning low in her throat as he slid his palm beneath her dress at the small of her back and massaged there, splintering her attention between the pull of his mouth and the growing tightness in her groin.

She wasn’t going to get there, she thought, in sudden panic. As good as this was, she needed more, and like every man before him, Payne wasn’t going to be able to help her detonate. Sixteen times nine was scribbled across the whiteboard in her brain, but before the answer appeared, he bit down on her nipple, pushed his hips up to meet hers, and slid two fingers beneath her panties and along the cleft of her bottom, grazing over nerve-rich flesh once, twice.

Pleasure was gathering.

Almost there. Almost there!

“Oh, G—”

The second syllable was lost in her
urp
of surprise as pulled his hand from her panties, then lifted her off him and dropped her back down onto the sofa. “Shh,” he said, getting to his feet. “Stay here.”

“What?” Rose blinked and blinked again as he strode from the room.

Awareness immediately set in and she quickly jerked up the cups of her bra, grimacing at the clammy wetness in their center. Then she shoved her arms through the sleeves of her dress and put her hands behind her, trying cinch the string there.

She did a half-ass job, but at least she was decently covered as she ran from the room in Payne’s wake.

Chapter Eight

Payne swiftly made his way to the front entry of the building, his head reeling. He’d been immersed in the headiness of Rose in his arms when the sound of a car braking outside the yard had made its way to his consciousness. When he heard the engine turn off, he knew he had to check it out, despite still being horny as hell.

It wasn’t the right moment to leave Rose, but it wasn’t the right time of night for visitors, either.

He’d left the front room was darkened. A window, covered by old and dusty Venetian blinds, overlooked the street. The slats were closed, so he tweaked one at eye-level in order to peer through. Sure enough, a car was parked at the end of the broken cement walkway that led from the asphalt to the entry door. There was no sign of the driver.

Was someone right now skulking at the entrance? Or were they perhaps prowling the cyclone fencing surrounding the yard, looking for a way in?

Rose. The image of her half-dressed on the couch in the next room galvanized him. Like hell was he letting anyone get near her.

In two steps he was at the front door. With a twist of the lock, he flung it open.

Two figures stood on the step, the security light washing their faces to an eerie greenish-white. One screamed and they both jolted backward.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

The two visitors were already retreating to their car, stumbling in their haste.

“Stop,” he yelled. “It’s just me.”

Behind him, garish brightness flooded the room, the neon tubes buzzing to life. He glanced over his shoulder. “You were supposed to stay put,” he told Rose.

Her wrinkled dress hung crookedly on her shoulders. Her gray eyes had never looked bigger and he could see a pink mark on her throat that had surely been made by him. Thoughts of the unexpected company fled his mind.

“Go back to the sofa, baby,” he said, his voice soft. He was desperate to strip her bare and begin where they’d left off.

Ignoring him, she peered around his shoulder. “Is that Lucy and Jeb?”

Oh, shit
. Lucy and Jeb. “Yeah.” Shaking his head to clear it, he turned back to see them frozen by their car. “It’s Payne, kids. And Rose. What’s going on?”

They approached again slowly, squinting against the light. At sixteen, they were a handsome pair, with their sister Honey’s golden-brown hair. Jeb was a few inches shy of six feet. Lucy was just over five. They were both in jeans, hoodies, and flip-flops.

At the doorstep, Jeb glanced at his sister, then spoke for them both. “Uh, hi. Sorry to startle you.”

“I think it was the other way around,” Payne said. “What are you doing here?”

The boy lifted a shoulder. “We were just, uh, riding around and thought we’d check on the place. You know, because of the security trouble.”

“On a school night?” Rose asked, coming up behind Payne. “It’s almost eleven o’clock!”

Payne nearly smiled at her expression of concern. Trust Rose to worry about the conventions.

“We were out to get something to eat,” Lucy offered. “Then we got the idea to drive by.”

The buzz of the fluorescent tubes and their harsh glare was starting to give Payne a headache. He wanted quiet and the dark and Rose once again in his arms. “Thanks, Lucy, Jeb, but you kids don’t need to be concerned. Go on home and…” He glanced at Rose and decided to earn some points from her. “Make sure your schoolwork’s done.”

She gave a little nod.
Bingo!
Payne thought.

“You probably should call your parents and tell them you’re on your way,” she added.

Jeb shook his head. “It’s our night at Dad’s. He had to work late and then was meeting his girlfriend for drinks. There’s no one waiting for us.”

“Go straight there, though,” Payne said, trying to sound adult and responsible, again to impress Rose. Shifting his attention to her, he sent her a silent message.
And we’ll go straight back to the couch where I’m gonna make you come.

But she wasn’t looking at him. Instead she was frowning at the teenagers. “Hold on a second. I’ll get my purse, then we’ll lock up and Payne and I will follow you to your Dad’s.”

Oh, crap. He frowned too. “Is that really…”

But “necessary” didn’t come out of his mouth when Rose touched his hand. “I’ll feel better if we see them home.”

Okay. Fine. Payne was all about Rose feeling better. And then the both of them feeling better once they returned to his house. Feeling the best.

At the thought of her straddling his lap, the heat of her sex pressed to his cock, the sweet bow of her body as he sucked on her nipples, he had to make a quick about-face before his erection made an embarrassing spectacle of itself. “Let’s get going,” he said, his voice rough.

Though he was aware of Rose on his heels as he made his way to secure the alarm near the back exit, he was obliged to discreetly adjust himself in his jeans. Christ, he was hungry for her.

Back in Rose’s sedan, as they followed the teens out of the commercial district, it became clear Rose’s mind was on something other than sex. “Jeb and Lucy’s parents are divorced?” she asked.

“Separated, I think. Heading for divorce.”

“It sounds like their dad has moved on already. They said he had a girlfriend.”

Probably the man had the girlfriend all along, and that’s what led to the ending of the marriage, Payne thought. But he didn’t want her coming to that conclusion herself, since infidelity was a hot button for her. To redirect her mind, he drew a fingertip down her arm and was gratified to see her shiver. “I like making you moan.”

She shot him a quick glance. “I’m driving.”

“Mmm.” Tucking her hair behind her ear, he felt her hot cheek. “Are you blushing?”

“There are teenagers in the car ahead,” she said, her voice a little thin.

He laughed, enjoying her fluster. “They can’t see us in the dark.”

“Still…” She jumped when he drew a pattern on her leg, underneath the hem of her skirt. “Payne, what are you doing?”

“Keeping you warm.” Stirred up. Desperate for more of his touch. “Tomorrow I’ll fix your heater. Tonight I’m going to use my other talents.”

“I think…” Her swallow was audible. “I think you’re wicked.”

“Mmm-hmm.” His fingers slid into the narrow space between her thighs and he moved them along the smooth flesh, toward her pussy.

“Oh, boy,” she whispered to herself. “I think this car is entirely too small.”

“We can do something about that.” He brushed his thumb over her panties, right about where her clit should be throbbing.

“Like…what?” He saw her fingers tighten on the wheel as she fought not to squirm.

“I’ll teach you to drive my stick.”

It choked a laugh out of her. “Payne Colson, you’re terrible.”

“So I’ve been told,” he said mildly. “I don’t care much for limits.”

“Rule-buster,” she whispered.

“That, too,” he agreed. Now he could feel the small, hard knot of nerves pulsing under the gentle, caressing stroke of his thumb. “Are you a prude, Rose?”

Her legs shifted. “Maybe.”

“There’s a treatment for that.”

“Oh, God,” she muttered. “I don’t think I want to know exactly what that is.”

He laughed again. “Rose.”

“Stop,” she hissed, finally pushing at his hand. “Look, they’re pulling into the driveway just ahead.”

“Still dark.”

“We need to walk them to the door. Make sure they get safely inside.”

Sighing, he rolled his eyes, but removed his hand with a final squeeze to her thigh. They both climbed out of the car as the teens looked on in surprise.

“Don’t mind me, kids. Rose has it in her head that trouble might find you.”

When the teenagers exchanged a look, he felt suddenly ancient and turned to mock-glare at his companion. “You’ve officially made me part of the anyone-over-thirty generation,” he complained to Rose.