What a Woman Wants (A Manley Maids Novel) (22 page)

Eros.

No real man could compare to a god, but Sean was pretty darn close. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him, a fact she confirmed with all ten fingers. And a set of lips. Her cheeks. And her breasts. Oh, how her breasts confirmed that, gliding over every cut line of his abs as she kissed her way down his body. She moved slightly to trace that sexy line by his hip that she was sure had been designed by those very same gods to tempt women into losing their minds, and she wanted to be first in line.

“Livvy, come here.”

She didn’t bother raising her head. The scent of him was calling to her. She wrapped her fingers around him.

“Jesus.”

“No,
Livvy
. Let’s not forget who we’re with here.”

Sean slid his fingers under her jaw and tilted her head. “Then why don’t you get up here and remind me? Where you are right now? I’m not liable to remember
my
name in another minute or so, so you might want to take it a bit slower or this will all be over before it’s even started.”

She uncurled her fingers from around him one at a time. Slowly. “Can’t have that now, can we?”

Then she scraped her nails gently up his length.

He moaned. “Oh, God.”

“No.
Livvy
.” She kissed her way back up his body, never taking her hand from him, her fingertips circling over the head ever so gently.

He speared his hand beneath her hair, cupping her face, and pulled her in for a kiss that defied description. Every perfect move, every sexy, sensual feeling, started in that kiss. It was a kiss like no other; it asked her, it cajoled her, it told her, and demanded things of her, and all she wanted to do was lose herself in it. In him.

She dragged her lips from his, gulping in oxygen in the vain hope that her heart rate would come down out of the stratosphere so she could hear herself think, but she wasn’t thinking all that much at the moment. She was feeling.

And she was feeling that they needed to move this along.

She looked around for her shorts. There. About four feet to the left. Thank God he hadn’t tossed them too far away.

“Where are you going?” Sean grabbed her ankle as she crawled over to her shorts.

“You’ll see.” She stretched out to reach them, her fingertips crab-walking the last few inches to get them. “Sean, let go. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.”

“I’ll be glad
not
to let go.” His fingers flexed against her skin.

His words warmed her heart and she allowed herself to dream for just a second what that could mean. Where it could go. But only for a second. Dreaming was a big step for her. She hadn’t dreamed of anything like this for a very long time.

She hooked the belt loop with her middle finger and pulled her shorts over, then she scrambled back by Sean’s side. “Here. These are what I was after.”

She pulled two condoms from her back pocket.

“
You
brought condoms?” He sort of chuckled, sort of groaned.

Good, just the way she wanted him: off-kilter but enjoying the moment. “A girl has to protect herself.”

The left corner of his mouth ticked back. “I’ll protect you, but it’s good to know we have these. I obviously wasn’t expecting this to happen.”

“Why not?”

“Huh?”

“Why
not
? It can’t be that big of a surprise. The kitchen countertop was unfinished business. Or was I reading it wrong?”

“What? No. Yes.” He exhaled and propped himself up on his elbows, the rise-and-fall of his sexy-as-all-get-out chest creating a ripple effect across his abdomen that was mesmerizing. She could watch him all day.

All night, too.

“No, you weren’t reading it wrong, Livvy, but it’s one thing to fantasize about, well,
that
. You. But to think it could happen and prepare for it . . . That would presume a little too much.”

“But
I
presumed. I thought about it, and I presumed it, and now we’re here.” She held up the condoms. “So
carpe noctem
and pick a color. Red or Green?”

“What am I, a Christmas tree?”

She looked at his groin. “Well, you’re at least a Douglas fir, and maybe even a mighty oak.”

“I’d go with a giant redwood.”

She really wished she’d mastered the art of raising one eyebrow for this. “Thinking a bit highly of ourselves, are we?”

He smiled. “If I don’t, who will?”

She tapped her lips, enjoying the way his eyes flared when they focused on her finger. “What? There aren’t legions of women lining up to do the honors? A guy like you, I’d think you’d have a harem at your beck and call.”

She said it flippantly, but it was actually something she was worried about. Oh, sure, she knew they weren’t declaring their undying love for each other and swearing monogamy ’til death did them part, but still . . . A woman did like to know she was special.

He sat up and slid his fingers up her arm until he reached her jaw. He splayed them there, his thumb beneath her chin, each one like a torch, starting a slow burn throughout her entire body.

“There’s no harem, Livvy. There’s not even one. Only you. You’re the only woman I’ve been fantasizing about.”

“You’ve
fantasized
about me?”

He tilted her chin up a tiny bit more. “Is that wrong?”

Yes
.

No.

She didn’t know.

He’d fantasized
about her. What if she didn’t live up to that fantasy? What if she let him down? Couldn’t be what he wanted?

What if he never wanted to see her again?

He dropped his hand. “God, I’m sorry. I guess that does sound bad, thinking about your boss that way while living under the same roof. I promise, Livvy, it won’t happen again.”

“I don’t want that promise.”

“Huh?”

“I said, I don’t want that promise. I want what you said earlier. About wanting me. About the here and the now and fantasies. You don’t get to take that back.”

He was the only man—the
only
man—to ever tell her he’d fantasized about her, and as a fantasizer herself, she knew just how powerful those fantasies could be and just how good. Now that she had the chance to make one of her own come true, she wasn’t going to stop. And neither was he if she had anything to say about it.

She tossed the red condom onto the grass and tore open the green one with her teeth.

Sean looked at it, then at her.

Those ripples increased in tempo across his abs.

She sat back on her heels and very purposely, very determinedly, rolled the condom down. “So what did we do in your fantasy?”

S
EAN
gave up. He gave up trying to hold back, he gave up trying to stop what she so obviously wanted—what he wanted—and he stopped trying to figure it out. The will and the clues and the property . . . Hell, he’d sell the only property he had left if that’d fix the situation, but he’d deal with it later. Right now, there was only Livvy.

“This.” He splayed his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her to him, tasting those lips with an intensity that shocked him.

She tasted amazing. She looked amazing and she
was
amazing, sitting there so proud and sure of herself, with the moonlight cascading over her amazing body, and the whole thing was just, well, amazing.

He groaned into her mouth, wanting this.

He cupped her breast, his thumb finding her nipple and he circled it. Rubbed it. Smiled against her lips when it hardened for him.

Smiled more when she groaned.

“Like that?”

She nodded, her breath catching.

“And this?” He cupped her other one. “Do you like this, Livvy?”

She nodded, nibbling her lip.

He swept her up in his arms and lowered her onto the grass, this time needing no invitation to lie on top of her. No moment of indecision, no questions. This was where they needed to be, and the rest would work itself out.

She wrapped her legs around him. “I want you, Sean.”

He buried his face in the sweet curve of her neck, inhaling the scent that was all Livvy. Apples and lavender and something else. Something indefinable that reached out and wrapped around him, inviting him in.

He couldn’t say no. “God, I want you, too.”

“I keep telling you, it’s
Livvy
.” She gasped when he nipped her shoulder, and cried out his name.

“I’ll call you whatever you want just to hear you say my name like that again.”

He nipped the other side and she said it again, a shot straight to his soul.

He was in a lot more trouble than he’d ever thought possible and right this minute, he couldn’t give a damn.

He slid his hand down the curve of her body, over her perfect hips, and slipped it beneath her thigh. He was going to run his tongue up that thigh at some point, but right now, there wasn’t any time. “I have to have you.”

She lifted her leg. “Then take me.”

He did. She opened for him and he slipped inside her and it was as if everything was right with the world. As if it’d been off-kilter and suddenly it was level. Even. Coherent.

Which was more than could be said for him. Especially when she looked up at him, her eyes blinking . . . Oh, no. He’d never been good with a woman’s tears. “What is it, Livvy?”

She smiled, a soft smile, tinged with so much emotion that her bottom lip, the one she nibbled on so provocatively, was trembling. “This is so much better than any fantasy.”

“
You’re
better than any fantasy.” He pulled back then, wanting—needing—to move.

“Don’t go.” Her amber eyes darkened as she tightened her arms—and her inner muscles—around him.

Nothing would make him leave. “I won’t.” He tilted his hips and sank back into her—in more ways than one.

She relaxed her hold a little and the corners of her mouth tilted up. “Do that again.”

“With pleasure.” And it was.

She closed her eyes and arched her back, her neck curving so enticingly that he had to taste it again.

He kissed a path from her ear to her jaw, down that sweet soft throat, feeling every beat of her heart with his lips. His own matched it.

He moved inside her, reveling in the feel of her body accepting his, of her taking him inside her and caressing him, clasping, wanting him. He quickened the pace, the night air warm against his back, the grass smooth beneath his legs, and Livvy so soft and silky and perfect beneath him.

She wrapped her legs around him, her heels digging into his ass, her nails scoring his back, and Sean couldn’t go slow any longer. He had to have her. Had to drive her as crazy as she was making him. Had to give her the same pleasure he was feeling.

He kissed her again, long, drawn-out, pouring every ounce of want and need and feeling into it as he surged inside her.

“That’s it, Sean. Don’t stop.”

As if he could.

He thrust into her and it felt so damn good he didn’t ever want it to end.

He slipped a hand around her waist, then down to cup her perfect backside. He stroked her, smiling when she sucked his tongue into her mouth on a gasp.

She liked that.

He stroked her again and Livvy shifted, and it was as if the entire universe converged on that one spot where their bodies were joined. Heat and need and want and sheer unadulterated pleasure ricocheted through him, and Sean had to grab hold of her butt with both his hands and press her against him as he tried to, well,
absorb
her.

“Oh, God, Sean, yes. Like that.” She grasped his back, his ass, his shoulders, her knees clenching him, and Sean couldn’t hold back.

He groaned, tearing his lips from hers so he could arch into her, the moment fraught with anticipation, and he hung there for all of about two nanoseconds before the feelings poured through him, and he surged into her over and over, the climax building inside him. And in her, as she closed her eyes and arched her back and oh, God, yes. There. Once more—no twice—and then . . . and then . . . she cried out his name, taking him over the edge with her.

He was in so much trouble.

S
OMETIME
in the middle of the night, or maybe it was more toward morning since it was no longer dark, Livvy came awake in Sean’s arms.

The only place she wanted to be.

She brushed her cheek against his, loving the raspy feel of his stubble, the steady beat of his heart, and the taste of him still on her lips, half afraid that she was loving
him.

Wait.
Love
? Was she out of her mind? She couldn’t be in love with him. She barely knew him. It’d been all of what? A week since they’d met? People didn’t fall in love in a week. And they didn’t do so after one night of making love. Sure, it was amazing, hot, sexy, intense love, but still
one
night?

Her mother was perfect proof that she was misinterpreting last night’s emotions and what they meant. Illogical hormonal reactions weren’t love; they were chemistry. Love was
emotion
. It was shared hopes and dreams. Liking each other, being friends. The sex was just an added bonus.

And what a bonus it was with Sean.

“There’s a bird staring at us.” Sean’s arm tightened around her.

“What?”

“A bird. There.” He nudged her.

She opened one eye.

A beady black one stared back at her surrounded by jeweled teal and aqua feathers.

“Oh. The peacocks.”

“Peacocks?” Sean stiffened beside her.

She glanced down to see if something else had stiffened.

Darn. He’d covered himself with his hands.

“I don’t think the peacock cares that we’re naked, Sean.”

“I don’t, either. I just don’t need it pecking at me.”

She giggled. “Pecking at your pecker? Peacocks eat grain, not meat.”

“You didn’t just say that.”

“Oops, I think I did.”

The peacock strutted closer.

“I don’t know, Livvy. That thing looks like it might want to go for my eyes.”

Its yellow, pointed beak could be dangerous. Peacocks could be aggressive. She couldn’t think of a worse ending to their night together than to be running around with a peacock nipping at their private parts.

Livvy sighed and sat up. The bird backed up just a smidge. Cheeky bugger. Though could she expect anything else from Merriweather’s affectation?

“Shoo!” she flicked her hands.

The bird just blinked.

“Go on! Get out of here!” This time she ripped some of the grass and flung it at him.

He still didn’t move.

Sean got to his feet, dropped his hold on his precious package, spread his arms, hunched his shoulders, and . . .

Squawked
.

The bird ran around the base of the fountain screaming its shrill cry as if it were running for its life. Livvy had the hiccups when she finally stopped rolling on the ground in laughter. “
What
was that?”

Sean sat down beside her cross-legged, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to be sitting in the middle of an English-style maze in northeast Pennsylvania bare-ass naked, squawking at a peacock. “I did what you’re supposed to do with threatening animals. Act bigger and more ferocious so they fear and respect you and do what you tell them.”

“Please tell me you don’t apply that to human animals.”

He arched an eyebrow. The look was entirely too sexy on him for her to take offense. “You’re saying you weren’t an animal last night?”

“Oh my God. I can’t believe you said that.” She smacked him on that very toned, very smooth muscular shoulder. “That’s not very gentlemanly.”

“You weren’t into me being a gentleman last night.”

Damn, she blushed. She hated that she blushed.

“I love when you blush.”

Or maybe she didn’t. “Why?”

He brushed his hand over her shoulder. “Because you get this look on your face. It’s almost shy, but not. It says so much with so little. I love that you’re not afraid to show your reactions. Most people behave the way they think people expect them to, to fit in and be valued. But not you. You stand behind your convictions. You don’t go along with the crowd. Do you know how rare that is? How rare
you
are?” He brushed her hair off her face. “How special you are?”

Special. She’d never been special before.

She got to her knees and cupped his
face. Ran her
thumb over his
lips. No way was she going to be able to walk away from Sean when her sentence was up. Somehow, they were going to have to work out the logistics.

Or maybe, just maybe, she might consider keeping the place and living here. He’d keep his job, her animals would keep their barn, and she could have what she’d always wanted. A home. And someone to share it with.

The thought, for once, didn’t make her wince. For Sean, she could live here. There was no law saying she had to sell it right away. She could stay here for a while. Figure things out.

That was sounding more appealing by the moment.

“You make me feel special.” She traced his face some more. His gorgeous, sexy face that was every bit as perfect as his movie-star brother’s, but infinitely more precious because of the person behind it. The person she’d . . .

She couldn’t go there. Not now. Not yet. She was only willing to cop to wanting him more than she’d wanted anyone before, and for Livvy, that was a big admission.

“Livvy.” He groaned her name when her fingers feathered over his lips.

“Yes?”

“I want you.”

She looked down. He definitely did.

Livvy smiled. “And you, Sean, shall have me.”

All of her. Inside and out.

Because no matter what she tried to tell herself, no matter how she couched it, it all came down to one thing: she was falling in love with Sean Manley.