Words of Lust (6 page)

“You feel so damned good.”

* * *

She relaxed with a sigh as her hesitancy fell away. He’d go so slow, slow enough to drive her out of her mind with need.

“Let me feel you, sweet Serafina.” The heat from her was like a brand. And she was so incredibly wet. For him. It made his cock stiffen and twitch. It would be heaven to slide right into her, but he was going to force himself to wait. Painful, but worth it to lead her slowly until she was begging. Until he’d shown her how good he could make it for her. Then they’d both fly. She had a soft, desperate look on her face. He couldn’t believe the damned stupid guys she’d dated before, if this small touch was making her so very hot. He paused to slide her panties down, until he was able to stare down at the soft, dark curls as he slid his hand back up, through them, feeling her wetness, seeing the shine of her juices.

“I love the way you look at me,” she murmured.

“Like what? Like I want to dive in? Like I’ll explode if I don’t have you?”

He lazily moved his hand back and forth, testing, teasing her. Sliding a finger between the lips of her pussy, then out again. Lubricating it until he pushed it in deeper, farther, until he could feel the clench of those sweet muscles. Holding back the groan at the thought his cock wouldn’t be buried there yet, he eased another finger in, sliding it out, growing a little bit more forceful with each push and pull, until she was clutching the blanket, her eyes begging him. Her lips parted and she made tiny little whimpering sounds.

“Do you want more, Serafina?”

“Yes! Please!”

He leaned over her, kissed her deeply, hungrily. He kept up the insistent movements with his hand between her legs even as he reached up the other hand and squeezed one breast. Not too hard—but hard enough, his fingers pulling at the nipple standing up, thrusting against her flimsy bra and the thin fabric of her dress. Her body began to shake and she closed her eyes as his fingers slid in, deeper than before. He let his thumb circle her clit, once, twice, then again, and all of a sudden she was gasping, moaning, and her eyes flew open and he watched as she came, her juices flooding his hand. The muscles of her tightened around his fingers, squeezing them with fluttering contractions. She grabbed his arms, and her back bowed, and she gave a long, soft sigh.

He watched her, waited until the orgasm passed, and smiled down at her.

“Nick...” She was breathy and sounded surprised and thrilled all at once.

He slid his fingers out of her and brought them slowly up to his mouth, licking the wetness slowly from his hand. Her eyes widened.

* * *

“Oh, God, Nick.”

“That was incredible watching you come. Your face, damn, and that sweet little moaning sound.”

She didn’t have the breath to say any more, and simply smiled. It should have been an embarrassing situation but, instead, he had made it intimate and erotic. The languid post-orgasm relaxation settled over her and she allowed her limbs to drop. Her knee fell on top of his leg and touched the steely erection in his pants. He hissed, but he smiled so she hadn’t hurt him.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll have my turn next time. I’m going to take it slow and you are going to love every minute of it.”

She would have loved to explore him, return the favor of a delirious climax, but was too sated to focus on anything except the here and the now. He leaned down and kissed her, more softly this time, but she could taste herself on his lips and was crazy with wanting more. This intimacy was something she’d never encountered before. The orgasm had nearly made her insane with its power, and the look of masculine pride on his face spoke volumes. About what he wanted to do to her, about what she made him feel. And that was the most erotic thing of all. His desire for her was blatant. No man had ever been so hungry for her and it was exhilarating knowledge.

He sighed and rolled over on his side, sliding off her and pulling her close.

“Time to go.” His lips pressed against her hair, and his free hand stroked slowly up and down her bare arm, leaving tingling desire in its wake. It was as if every inch of her body had now been sensitized and was ravenous for his touch.

“It seems unfair you get no relief.”

He just chuckled. “I can take it, Professor. Like I said, anticipation makes the cock grow harder. I get the feeling I’ll be well rewarded by taking this one step at a time and showing you how very good it’s going to be.”

“It was rather better than good.”

“And this was just the appetizer.” His whisper stoked the fires of lust anew and she shivered again in his arms wondering how much better was humanly possible.

“I don’t know if I can take better than that. Not on a regular basis. I can’t move as it is.”

“God, don’t make me laugh!” He groaned and lay on his back, chuckling. For a moment there was a comfortable silence. The interlude had knocked down some of her walls and she was relaxed in his company, not afraid of being ridiculed or dismissed. His every word, every gesture let her know his focus was utterly and completely on her.

A few minutes later, he roused her and helped her down from the truck bed. She had a twinge of embarrassment, standing in front of him, despite being fully clothed. His comfortable warmth doused it. He kissed her again, framing her neck with his palms as he savored her with a slow, teasing quality.

“Let’s get you home. It’s going to be midnight before we hit the city and I know you have work to do, right?”

She nodded, though she wanted to hold on to the intimacy that the solitude, and the night, enhanced. She didn’t want the humdrum reality of her world intruding on this sultry magic.

“How about, if you work really hard like a good girl tomorrow, I pick you up Sunday and we have dinner with my family?”

She stood up straighter. Dinner? With his family? After a single date? She panicked. And it must have showed, because he shushed her, chuckling.

“Damn, you’re going to be a tough nut to crack, aren’t you? What has you so panicked? My folks? Forget it. They’re pushovers. If you can handle Gia, the rest of the family’s a piece of cake.”

“This is crazy! We’ve only had one date.”

“Is this like one of those top-secret dating rules you girls have? So we have six or eight or ten dates, wait an appropriate amount of time and then I take you home to present you to the family?”

She nodded tentatively.

“Spare me. Rules are for guys who don’t know what they want. Maybe those losers you dated like life in predictable little boxes, but that’s them. This is me. I want more. Got it?” He kissed her briefly, hard, leaving no question in her mind he planned to get what he wanted.

“I’m going to take you to dinner, you’ll have too much wine and too much food, and my parents will make you crazy, and then I’ll take you back to my place and make you crazy my own way. Tell me you want more too. Tell me yes.”

“Yes.” Her lips curved in a smile at the certainty in his words.

“My favorite word. It’s a plan.”

They were both quiet on the drive back. Since the roads were fairly empty, they made good time back into Manhattan, and she admired the easy way in which he navigated the city streets and told him so.

“Don’t you drive?”

“I can drive, yes, but I’ve lived in New York all of my life and never owned a car. I’ve got my license, but I’d be terrified driving here. The only time I ever did drive was on weekends when my parents were alive. I used to take the train out and then rent a car in Southampton to visit them at the beach house. Since they both passed away, I haven’t been back at all.” Her mood dipped momentarily, but she banished the sad memory quickly, as always. It was futile to dwell on the past. Especially when her future had suddenly exploded into a bold new world she had never imagined she would experience.

“You’d get used to it in a hurry. So tell me this. How old are you, Professor?”

The question came out of the blue and she blinked. It hadn’t even occurred to her they’d never discussed age. Except for the fact he’d had his tongue down her throat and his fingers inside her, they were pretty much strangers. “Strangers with benefits” popped into her head and she grinned.

“Why?”

“Why? C’mon, it’s a perfectly reasonable question. We are going to get to know each other, and that’s as good a place as any to start, don’t you think?”

“Fine. You’re right. I’m twenty-four.”

“What?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. How old did you think I was?”

“I thought—hell. Now if I say it you’re going to be insulted.”

“Probably not. It happens to me all the time. Let me guess. You figured since I’m a professor, I had to have been through college and grad school, and you added the years up and came up with what, thirty?”

“I wasn’t sure. I figured thirty or thirty-two? Even though you look about sixteen.”

“Check with Gia so she can tell you why that is not a compliment. But it’s a reasonable assumption and you aren’t the first to make it. I graduated high school at fourteen, undergrad at seventeen. I got my master’s at twenty and I’m completing my doctorate now. I took a year off when my mother died.”

“Holy crap. You aren’t just smart, you were a child genius.”

“Yes. And it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so let’s drop that line of discussion. Now, your turn. How old are you?”

“Thirty-three. Which means I’m a hell of a lot older than you.”

There was a note of concern in his voice. “Don’t let it bother you. I’m very mature for my age.” She shrugged. “Most of the time.”

He laughed at that, and then they reached her building.

He walked her to the door and checked to see the doorman at his post. “Would you like me to walk you to your apartment?”

“That’s sweet but not necessary. This is a very secure building.”

He leaned down and kissed her. “We are going to have fun, Professor, count on it.”

“Maybe we should fill out applications or something so we have all the pertinent biographical details on each other. Since the whole age thing kind of threw you?” Teasing him was delightful. Companionable. Another first for her.

“How about we enjoy the mystery? Find out about each other one layer at a time? Sort of like stripping ourselves bare...so to speak.” He whispered against her lips before dipping in for another chaste kiss that nevertheless made her lower anatomy tingle.

Then he kissed her again and it was anything but chaste and she hoped the doorman hadn’t been watching when Nick cupped her ass with one hand and squeezed. He released her and she swayed, off balance, before she stepped inside and watched as he jumped into his truck and then drove off with a salute.

She made her way slowly up to her apartment and once inside could only drop onto the chaise and lie there in a state of stupefied wonderment. She’d left the apartment that morning filled with trepidation and returned home with every emotion topsy-turvy. He had kissed her senseless, left her body vibrating with need and given her an incredible orgasm. He’d made her laugh. Most startling of all, she’d engaged in an erotic flirtation with a man and he’d invited her home to meet his parents for their second date. She’d divulged her IQ and bizarre formative years, yet he hadn’t run screaming into the night.

Would wonders never cease?

Chapter Four

Nick grinned throughout the day on Saturday. He’d woken with a killer hard-on from dreams of Serafina and fired up with anticipation for their date the next day, he’d decided to put that energy to good use by heading to his north Jersey property to put in a full day of work on his cabin. He couldn’t wait to tell her all about the place. It had been his pet project for the last five years and the place was livable now, but there were still lots of embellishments and improvements in his plans.

He’d found the property while driving to a work site one weekend and it had been love at first sight. The half acre wasn’t a large piece but it was lakefront property in a quiet area, on a small lake with only a few homes scattered around the perimeter and it was close enough to the city he could run up for just a day if he wanted. The price had been sweet because there were no buildings on the property. A few trees had been cleared by the prior owner in the hope of development, but for whatever reason they’d abandoned both the project and the property, which served his purposes perfectly. He had no desire to raze the land so he’d designed the house to fit in the allotted space and kept all the remaining trees. He loved the privacy. Maybe, like Gia, he needed a break from the chaos that was the Stellato family. All seven of them had lived in the Forest Hills house and it had been mighty cramped when they were screaming kids. Privacy had been nonexistent and now he relished those times when he could relax in his own space that allowed escape from the wonderful insanity that was Manhattan.

He was working on the front steps of the cabin, a broad set leading down from the full porch that ran the entire circumference of the house. He’d already built the base of the staircase and now laid the steps. That job kept him busy until lunch and he drove into the small nearby town and grabbed a ready-made sandwich. It wasn’t tasty, but it was filling, and in the afternoon he drank a couple of beers while he worked on the path leading down toward the water. He’d purchased wide slates and was setting them in randomly, not wanting a fastidious look, but a natural effect, while still creating a serviceable walk. By hustling beneath the warm sun, he was finished, aching, tired and sweating, by six. He took a quick dip in the lake before pulling on clean jeans and shirt, and set out on the hour long trip home, satisfied with the amount of work he’d gotten done. Most of the rest of the chores were finishing touches. He was still working on interior fine tuning as well, but within a few months, unless he got booked up on a job, he’d be completely done.

As he drove, an image of Serafina sitting on his porch came to him. He imagined her on a warm, sunny day, walking down the path he’d just finished, that slow intoxicating sway of her hips, and wondered if she’d like the country. His place was in a rustic area with few other cottages on the lake. He’d taken a date with him one weekend and she’d hated it, refusing to set foot in the lake because she whined it was icky. She complained about the bugs and had been astounded he’d expected her to rough it without amenities.

He hoped The Professor was as sensual as he thought, because his place was made for her. She seemed to enjoy food and nature, and she sure as shit enjoyed sex. That kind of woman should like his place in the woods. She’d mentioned a cottage in the Hamptons, but they were a big place and he had no idea if they had one of those multi-gazillion-dollar beach houses or a little cape somewhere off the beaten track in the Pines or Amagansett. The former were generally populated by folks who liked things plush and comfy. He wanted to watch her walk barefoot, with that incredible hair blowing in the wind. Maybe in the soft summer rains that turned the dirt road muddy, then they’d come back and make love in the cabin on the massive king-size bed. Afterward they’d swim naked beneath the stars.

Crap. The woman was definitely getting to him. And faster than he could believe. She was a surprise on many levels, not just her age, though he’d been thrown for a minute. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter, because she was obviously more mature than any of his siblings, and except for Gia, they were all older than she was. He planned on finding out a lot more about her and he’d make the right moves so he didn’t scare her away. It was incredibly appealing that she was so open and amazing, and he was determined not to blow it.

* * *

He got home after some serious traffic had backed up at the GW, stiff from sitting in the truck for nearly two hours. He took a hot shower and threw some pasta in a pan, carved up some vegetables and sautéed them quickly before eating a huge plateful and drinking a beer. He’d called his mom to tell her he was bringing Serafina for dinner and he knew from her satisfied cat-ate-the-canary tone that Gia had been telling tales. For which he would get his revenge. He called Cara to see how she was feeling, and to make sure there were no new dire developments with her complicated pregnancy.

Lastly he decided to call Serafina. Permanent hard-on aside, he wanted to find out how her day was, and tell her about the work he’d done.

She hadn’t given him her cell number, so he called on her landline. It was nearly ten, but he figured she’d be up working on the new class she was going to be teaching.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Professor.”

“Nick.” She sounded delighted to hear from him.

“How’s your day been?”

“Oh, well, fine. Good. I did some work on my doctoral presentation and got a lot done on the class work so I’m feeling comfortable about Monday. My own three classes are completely full, though, so I’ll be drowning in papers pretty soon. I may ask the dean for a TA to help, but they’re rare animals these days.”

“I’ll cross my fingers you get a teaching assistant of your very own, then.”

“How was your day?”

He launched into a brief description of his property and the cabin and what he’d been up to that day, listening carefully to judge her responses. She seemed genuinely interested and told him a little more about her parents’ beach house out on Long Island.

“It wasn’t a huge Hamptons place. Just a homey little cottage far enough back we didn’t often worry about hurricanes. It was wonderful to fall asleep at night to the sound of the ocean and sit out on the sand watching the sun go down.”

“Sounds great. Expensive but great.”

“Actually my parents set up a trust to handle the costs, taxes, upkeep, that kind of thing, and I inherited some money from my mother. I have a caretaker who takes care of it throughout the year, but I haven’t been out since they died.”

“Maybe if I play my cards right, I can bum a weekend rolling in the sand with you.” She’d gotten that quiet voice again at the mention of her parents. He’d like to give her some new memories at her cottage to replace the sad ones.

“That might be arranged.”

“Now that the weather’s great, when you aren’t so busy you’ll have to come up to my place some weekend too. Maybe after the semester lets out, when it’s nice and warm. Good weather for skinny-dipping and having wild monkey sex on the front lawn.” That little intake of breath said she was a bit shocked but intrigued. Yeah, she was going to love his country house.

“I think that would be great. I love the city, but I love getting away too. The peace and quiet makes me appreciate the electricity of Manhattan when I come back. But seriously, are you trying to sweep me off my feet or something? Your parents, now a weekend in your woodland hideaway?” There was that tone of incredulity beneath the lighthearted voice, and he took note.

“Hmm. Sweeping you off your feet sounds like a definite plan, Professor. Thanks for the idea. Whittling away at that insecurity of yours is going to take time, finesse and a lot of attention to that gorgeous body. A dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Lucky for you, I love getting down and dirty.”

“What are you doing now?” It sounded like she was choking.

“I’m sitting here with a beer and a dirty book by one Henry Miller. I’m just up to a good part.”

“With Miller they’re all good parts.”

“Really? Good to know. When you’re not so busy you’ll have to share some of your favorites with me. What are you teaching these days?”

“We’ve just finished our discussion of the
Story of O.
It’s an erotic classic of a young submissive’s sadomasochistic journey of obsession. Feminists hate it, of course, but all the girls read it anyway because, as Gia says, it turns them on, so I finally decided to add it to the curriculum and put it in the context of some other writings.”

“How about you? Does it turn you on too?

She sighed deeply and hesitated. “It has its moments.”

“Add those moments to the list for discussion, Professor.”

“You enjoy throwing me off balance, don’t you?”

“Best way to sweep you off your feet.”

“I cannot think of a single thing to say to that.”

“Good.”

They chatted for a couple more minutes before he said he’d pick her up at two-thirty the next day to head to Forest Hills.

“Two-thirty? For dinner?”

“That’s not a problem, is it? Dinner won’t get going until around four, but you can meet everyone and we can start off noshing on some antipasto and hang out in the backyard. With all of us and Cara’s kids, well, it gets a little wild. This way I can break you in gently.”

“It’s not a problem at all. I guess I didn’t realize dinner was so early.”

“Sunday family dinner? Babe, it starts early and goes on for hours.”

“All right, I’ll be waiting for you downstairs at two-thirty, then.”

“Great. See you tomorrow. Sweet dreams of me, Professor.”

He didn’t know about her, but his own wild and weird dreams were anything but sweet and she featured prominently in them. In one he was fucking her on a table in a bar, surrounded by tall piles of books and a hard driving rock band performing a song called “Fucking the Girl From Nantucket,” which sounded like a great idea. He wanted a lot more from Professor Serafina Luca, but he’d already figured out she would take finesse and he was going to go slow with her if it killed him.

Judging by his cock, it just might.