Two-Step Temptation (3 page)

She pressed her palm to his chest, intending to push him away, but her fingers had other ideas, clutching at his shirt, feeling his heart pounding, as affected as she was. He eased back and she opened her mouth to tell him to go, but his lips found that tender spot below her ear, his short goatee adding another layer of sensation to the caress, and her pussy squeezed with anticipation of having him inside her.

Only that couldn’t happen. She had to stop him.

Instead, her hand curved around the back of his head and she tilted her chin to allow him freer access to her throat. More than anything, she wanted to rub along the hard ridge of the erection he’d been sporting since they danced, wanted to make herself come apart in his arms, but she kept her feet flat on the ground, her hips still, willing herself to have some control of the situation, though she was fast spiraling away from that resolution.

“Missed you,” he murmured against her skin, stroking his thumb over her shoulder through the thick terry robe. “Missed your taste, missed your voice, missed your laugh. Missed your body.”

Send him away. Send him away now. You don’t want to pine over him for another eight months.
If only her hormones would heed her head. No, they were already seduced. She huffed a breath. She’d get him out of her system tonight. She wouldn’t have time for him tomorrow in the flurry of wedding preparations. Even if they made love again tomorrow night, they’d part ways Sunday. Not enough time to get attached to him again.

“Just tonight.”

He eased back, his expression wary. “I didn’t just come here to make love to you. I want to talk about—”

She loosened the belt of her robe and let it fall to the floor. With a growl, he gathered her against him, one hand splayed across her hip, the other coursing up her naked thigh.

“God, touch me, Eric.”

He curved his fingers around her breast, the calluses of his palms rough on the tender skin, the sensation making her wetter. Now she tilted her hips forward, seeking satisfaction by rubbing along his cock, still in his slacks.

He set her away from him, hands firm on her hips. “The bed,” he managed as he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt and dragged it over his head, then unhooked his slacks in record time and dropped them to the floor.

His magnificent body was better now than it had been eight months ago, lean, muscular, and God, his penis was long and hard. Suddenly she remembered every stroke, from every time he’d made love to her. Memories were powerful things. She lowered herself to the soft, pillowy bedding without taking her gaze from him.

“Condom?” she asked as he approached, cock bobbing with the movement. Funny how they both seemed to have lost the ability to speak in complete sentences.

“I knew I was going to see you, didn’t I?”

“Mm. We have language,” she murmured, leaning back on her elbows and drawing up her knees. “Get it.” She nodded toward his pants on the floor.

“Not yet.” He braced his hands between her feet on the bed and parted her legs. “It’s been a long time since I tasted you. Christ, Haven, you’re wet.”

“Um.” His breath along the inside of her thighs didn’t help. She wanted his mouth on her more than she wanted to breathe. But, “I want to come with you inside me.”

“You will,” he said with that maddening grin and lowered his head.

But he didn’t put his mouth on her, just parted her and blew softly on her petals. She quivered, anticipation at once delicious and frustrating. His fingers stroked her outer lips, and he touched his lips to her clit.

Just that contact had her bucking her hips, and when he touched his tongue to her, she came in long, shuddering waves, moans tearing from her throat as her nails dug into the coverlet.

He didn’t stop, his tongue a little point that flicked her clit as he pressed his fingers into her channel. Two fingers? Three? Her body stretched to accommodate him and she could feel the ripples of her orgasm around his fingers even as the sensation built, carrying her to a plateau of pleasure.

Then sending her flying again when his thumb joined his tongue on her clit, adding rough to smooth, and his little finger probed her asshole.

This time the pulses of pleasure were endless, rolling one after another through her body, making it impossible to catch her breath, to do more than feel.

He lifted his head and removed his touch from her trembling body to brace over her and kiss her, filling her mouth with her own taste, letting her lick her flavor from his lips and tongue. One of his hands disappeared for a moment. She glanced down to see him stroking his cock, grip loose, the base of his fingers stroking the underside.

“Let me.” Her whisper was hoarse as she reached for him.

“Afraid I’m going to come the minute I’m inside you,” he said, his own voice rough.

“Then we do it again. Come inside me, Eric. God, I want to feel you.” Because as good as those orgasms had been, nothing matched the sensation of his cock stretching her, of his body over her.

After he managed the condom, he knelt over her, probing the opening of her pussy, nudging, sliding, filling. With a shift of her weight, she lifted her legs higher about his waist to bring him deeper, was rewarded with the feel of his groin nestling against her as he filled her completely. She ground up against him, her tender clit chafing against the rough hair at the base of his shaft at the same time sending pulses of arousal through her, slickening her passage. He ground back and began to move, rhythm steady, thrusts powerful, the tendons of his neck standing out as he struggled to hold on to his orgasm.

Since he hadn’t allowed her to hold on to hers, she danced her fingers down his spine to the cleft of his tensing ass. She slipped her fingers beneath his cheeks and found his balls, tight and hard. She played her fingertips over them, scraped her fingernails against them, and he came with a shout, plunging deeply into her and holding himself over her on trembling arms.

“You’re the devil,” he muttered when he could speak, withdrawing from her and dropping onto his back, one arm draped over his forehead as he fought for breath.

“You may remember I like to be in control.”

“Next time, ask to be on top.” He propped up on his elbow, gliding his other hand over the skin of her waist, down to her hip before cupping her breast and toying with her nipple.

“Don’t worry. It’s been eight months. I’ll bet you have at least one other time in you.”

“I was expecting another crack about staying power.”

She snapped her gaze to his. “I knew you heard me talking to Jill.”

“Not something a guy wants to hear, even if I knew you were trying to steer her away from me.” He tweaked her nipple and grinned.

“I wasn’t—” She protested, shoving his hand away.

“Liar. Doesn’t matter, though. Only one woman here I have eyes for.”

Nostrils flaring with arousal, he leaned over and kissed her. She slicked her tongue over his lips as he fumbled between them, discarding the used condom and—hello? Was that the sound of him opening another? Surely not so soon. But then he pushed into her, not quite hard, but still stretching, filling, sending delight spiraling along her tingling nerves, easing part of her desire as he ignited another. She coursed her palms down his lean, hard torso as their mouths battled, teeth and tongues, before she eased her tongue over his lips, soothing.

Her fingers curled over his hard ass as he pumped in and out of her in a rhythm too slow for her growing arousal, but deliberate, the head of his cock rubbing against her inner walls in a delicious rhythm, the sound of him moving in and out of her teasing her senses more.

“Jesus, you’re so wet,” he said against her jaw.

“Make. Me. Come.”

His eyes crinkled in amusement as he lifted his head to meet her gaze and tightened his grip on her thighs. “Do it yourself.”

In one fluid motion, he turned onto his back, bringing her with him.

She was in control. Just the way she liked it. She waited a moment, spreading her fingers over his magnificent chest, feeling the sheen of desire and exertion coating his skin, his heart thudding against his ribs. His smile was so gorgeous he took her breath away, and he lifted his hips against her until she moaned. She adjusted to his cock, deeper inside her now, and clenched around him, eliciting his groan.

When she started to move, her strokes were long and hard, her pussy squeezing as she rose off him. He gritted his teeth and closed his hands on her hips, lifting into her, meeting her strokes, his muscles bunching with effort. Power pulsed through her, partnered with desire. That she could reduce a virile man to this being of need was heady.

“Haven,” he said, his tone guttural, “make me come.”

She bent down, brushing her breasts against his chest as she kissed him, open mouthed. Her thighs burned with each stroke. His palms coursed up to the crease of her hips, his thumbs caressing the tender skin and—God, she needed his touch on her clit. She pushed his hand to her mound and rose up to watch him as he touched her, his thumb circling, making her channel tighten about him so they both gasped, then he gave her that grin that sent a pulse of warmth through her that had nothing to do with his cock inside her. Because that terrified her, she moved into his touch, letting the sensation push away doubt and longing, let the swelling orgasm carry her higher. She hovered on the precipice for a long moment. Finally she let herself look into his eyes, saw the heat, the desire there. Her climax washed her over, her fingers digging into his pecs as she pushed her hips against his, bringing him deep. Apparently not deep enough, because he tumbled her onto her back and drove into her quivering body, his powerful muscles flexing beneath her hands, his breath gusting against her throat, his pulse pounding beneath her lips. His strokes stuttered, and he stilled, buried inside her, as he came.

He held himself over her a moment before he pulled out and dropped onto his back.

“God, Haven,” he muttered, hooking his arm over his head and gazing at the ceiling. “Even better than I remembered.”

Panic tried to raise its head. She’d opened a door she’d determined to keep locked and she needed to shove him back through before she lost her heart.

He swept his hand down her arm and toyed with her nipple. The familiar glint in his eyes warmed her and she reached for him before she could stop herself. In a moment she found herself snug against his body, listening to his heartbeat slow, his breath come out in a satisfied sigh.

Maybe it wouldn’t matter if she lost her heart, since it seemed she’d already lost her mind.

Chapter Two

Haven was incredibly loose as she came downstairs the following morning. Three times they’d made love, start to finish, not counting the blowjob she’d given him. She’d forgotten how resilient he was, how funny, how good he made her feel, not just in bed.

He was already in the dining room when she entered. She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face when their gazes met. Oh, dear. There was no point in her sending him out of her room at four in the morning if they were going to be discovered exchanging knowing glances. She schooled her features to a more civil smile as she joined Jill and the two other bridesmaids at a table. He matched it, though his eyes still glinted as he set a cup of coffee in front of her.

“Non-fat soy, two sweeteners,” he said, and sat two chairs away.

Warmed that he’d remember, she tapped the spoon on the rim of the cup, then tasted. “Perfect.”

“How did you know that?” Jill asked Eric.

“Know what?” Eric asked, smile in place, though Haven could see the realization of what he’d done in his eyes. Not panic, precisely, but caution.

“How she takes her coffee.”

“I—um—I heard her order it last night.”

“You weren’t sitting by her when we were in the bar,” Jill pointed out. “And she didn’t have coffee last night.”

He frowned. “Are you sure? I had to have heard it. How else would I know?” He turned to Haven, the corner of his mouth quirked daringly. “How else would I know?”

Haven scrambled for an explanation. “I came down and got some when I couldn’t sleep.”

“Right. And I was in here.” Eric sat back, relieved. “Drinking a beer.”

“You got coffee when you couldn’t sleep?” Jill asked.

“Decaf. Still tastes the same.”

Jill regarded Haven carefully. “Well, it seems to have done you good. You look well rested.”

“Yep, ready to go.” She would not look at Eric as she said that, because they’d barely slept at all. God, she was going to blow it. Though if she was honest with herself, she’d admit that the secrecy added to the thrill. She popped out of her chair. “I think I’ll see what they have at the breakfast bar.”

Eric, damn him, followed her like a puppy.

“You’re not really one for discretion, are you?” she chided as she picked up a plate from the end of the buffet.

“I don’t care if everyone knows.”

She plopped a bagel on her plate. “Because you’ll be leaving and I’ll be the one who’ll have to answer all the questions about when you’re coming back, and if it’s okay to invite you to things, and why you don’t call. I don’t want to deal with that.”

His lips thinned. “So if someone does find out, so what? You think Jared and Christine are going to hate us forever? You know they won’t.”

“No, of course they won’t.” Honestly, she got the idea that Christine would be pretty happy. But that didn’t stop Haven’s desire to protect her heart, and shielding the happy couple from their drama was the best reason she could come up with. Funny that she’d been able to be honest with Eric last summer, but was having difficulty now. How could she tell him her feelings had been deeper than she’d intended? She couldn’t, that was the answer.

“So what does Jared have you guys doing today?” she asked brightly when one of the other bridesmaids, Colleen, joined them at the buffet.

“I think we’re going to play a few holes of golf.”

Haven rolled her eyes at Colleen. “Isn’t that just like men? Going off to have fun while we get our hair done and pedicures and all that.”

“I think that
is
fun,” Colleen protested. “Besides, we want to look our best, right?”