Be Mine Forever (A St. Helena Vineyard Novel) (18 page)

Except there he stood, upstanding guy that he was, with his hands up her dress while she was clinging to him and panting against his mouth, on the patio where anyone could see.

Even though there was no one on the street, he’d promised a secret affair and he was determined to pull through.

“Inside,” he said.

Improper dance hold in full effect, he spun her around and through the front room until he felt the couch behind him. He sat back and took her with him, loving how her skirt rode up her thighs almost as much as he loved how she felt straddling him.

“I thought me naked in your bed was number one on the bucket list?”

“It is, but number three was you naked and often,” he said against her neck. “I figure the best way is to start at the bottom and work our way up. But first things first. Stand for a second.”

She did and he reached up to grab the little bow at the back of her neck, the one that had been teasing him to distraction, and gave a light tug. The straps untwined and the entire top of her dress slid down to pool at her feet, and that was all it took for fucking Christmas in February.

CHAPTER 12

S
ara didn’t move as she watched breathlessly while Trey’s gaze slid ever-so-slowly from her breasts down to her stomach. By the time he got to her red thong, she was shaking with want.

“Come here,” he said, a low rasp to his voice that made her shiver in the best way possible.

He palmed her hips and drew her toward him, spreading his thighs to make room for her. She rested a hand on his shoulders and used the other to take off her shoe.

“Always so proper,” he
tsked
, his strong fingers wrapping around her wrist and stopping her. “Improper rules clearly state that the shoes stay on.”

“Oh,” she breathed, resting both hands on his shoulder. She’d never done anything improper in her life, but she was ready to be courageous. Improper smile in place, she willed the nervousness in her voice to relax. “Then where do my hands go? You know, so that I
know
when I’ve got it right.”

“Right here.” He threaded them in his hair. “Hold tight, sweetheart, because you and I are going to be gasping and moaning all up in each other’s space.”

And then he was threading his own fingers through the back of her new silk undies—
thank you, Bolder Holder
—molding them to her butt, and pulling her so far into his space she could feel him hard against her thigh.

He smelled delicious, and felt even better when he leaned in and pressed a languid, wet kiss right above her belly button. She liked improper. A lot.

“That feels…”

“That feels what, Sara?” he whispered against her stomach, his gaze meeting hers through his thick lashes.

She swallowed, not sure how to explain. All of the loneliness she carried with her was gone and that empty space, the one in her chest that ached so bad it’d gone numb, was warm and full and felt, “Nice. That feels nice.”

“I see we have some work to do, because I know we can do better than nice.” She felt him smile against her skin. “The question is, where do we start?”

She had a few suggestions, some ranked higher than others, but before she could tell him, he moved. It happened so fast she barely saw it coming. One moment she was standing in front of him, the next she was sprawled out over the coffee table and he was leaning over her.

“How about here?” Then his mouth covered hers.

It was startling and moving and she felt lost and found all at the same time. He kissed her as though he couldn’t get enough of her, as though he could never get enough. And that worked just fine for her. Trey was a kissing God and his hands—masterful. They were everywhere all at once, and driving her out of her mind.

So her hands got busy too, working on the buttons of his shirt. She stopped kissing him long enough to slide it off and yank his undershirt over his head. But when he settled over her again, he didn’t fuse himself to her mouth. Oh no, he rested a hand at the small of her back and pulled her so that she was arched off the table and then without warning he kissed the undersides of her breasts, moving up until—time literally stopped.

So he did it again, pulling her deep into his mouth, and scraping the tip of her nipple with his teeth.

“You like that?” he asked against her breast. She wanted to scream
yes,
but he did it again and—good God, why had she gone so long without sex?

He looked up into her eyes and smiled. “I’ll take that as a yeah.” Sara nodded. It was all that she could manage. “I’d like to change it to a fuck-yeah.”

She wasn’t big on talking during sex and had no idea what a fuck-yeah could be, but she wanted to find out. Desperately. So she swallowed and said, “Please.”

“Such manners,” he whispered as he slid to the floor and kneeled between her legs. “We’ll work on that.”

He scooted her to the edge of the table, his mouth inches away from her number one choice in fantasy destinations. Her stomach trembled with anticipation and she found that she couldn’t look away, especially when Trey smiled up at her right before he placed an openmouthed kiss in the center of her silk. And this time she did scream.

“Yes!”

“Now, that was better, but still not what I was going for. Maybe if I tugged these down.” Her undies were gone. “And went a little more like—”

“Oh my God!” she groaned, her back tearing off the table as the slide of his soft tongue covered her entirely.

“Closer. But still not quite there.”

“Yes, there,” she moaned, her hips pushing forward until his tongue was pressing on the little bundle of nerves. “Right there.”

“Bossy,” he mused but got down to business. He didn’t rush her, didn’t even pull back when she squirmed on the table, pressing up to get the right amount of pressure. The man was all patience and practiced grace and he led her closer and closer toward the most sensual experience of her life.

She still wasn’t sure what a fuck-yeah was, so she gripped his head and tried to hurry him along. Which of course only made him go slower, which only made her hotter.

Then, without warning, he slid a finger in and she was beginning to understand. When another finger joined the effort, he picked up the pace and she knew without a doubt that her fuck-yeah was right there, just out of reach. All he had to do was move a little to the left and up—she shifted her hips—and yeah, right there, right there where—

“Oh.” Her head went fuzzy from every nerve in her body giving a standing
O
and a high-five at the same time, and, “Oh. My!”

“What kind of ‘Oh my’ are we talking?” He wanted to know.

It was an,
Oh my, you’re magic and don’t you dare stop because I’m almost there
, but she couldn’t breathe let alone speak. So she just opened her legs further, inviting him closer and he got the picture.

“Yeah, me too,” he whispered against her, his breath on her hot skin.

His fingers were heaven, the way they stroked and pressed. Then his tongue was back in play and her orgasm took her by surprise, everything inside her tightening to the point of pain and suddenly shattering. “Oh my…
Yeah
!”

Holy moly, she understood what he’d been talking about. Only she couldn’t process it quite yet, because her body was still riding out wave after wave of pure Trey-induced bliss, with her half in and half out of consciousness when—

“Oh, fu—” was all she was able to get out when Trey gripped her hips and pushed himself fully inside of her, all of him, stretching her beyond capacity. She didn’t remember him getting undressed or locking her legs around his waist. But there they were, and he felt so good. So good that
fuck yeah
didn’t cut it, but even if it had, all she could do was moan.

“Closer,” he affirmed, and the roughness in his voice brought her as close as a girl could get without spontaneously combusting. “But still not all the way there.”

No, but she wanted to be. She almost was, but he stopped moving and started talking, which was driving her insane. He just stared at her, building the anticipation as he slowly lowered his head, making her heart pound and her body strain to get closer.

“Let’s see what we can do about that, shall we?”

She went to nod but he took her mouth, stroking and teasing her and—
wow
—the man could kiss. She gave a little moan of approval, because this was what she was talking about. Less lip flapping, more tongue action.

With a deep groan, he gripped her hips and gave a little squeeze. Okay, a lot of squeeze, possessive and hot, and it had her going up in flames. He slid one palm up her side, brushing the edge of her breast, before slipping it under her head. His other hand headed south to caress her butt, pulling her toward him, until she felt so full, so complete.

She swallowed hard. “This is…Wow.”

She didn’t know how else to explain it. The way he held her, touched her, kissed her, made her feel adored and treasured—like this moment was as special to him as it was to her.

Trey pulled back, his eyes heavy with lust, but his expression one of awe. Neither of them moved or spoke. She lay on the coffee table naked except for her red heels, which were digging into his ass, her hair a mess and his fingerprints all over her as he took in every detail.

“I know,” he whispered and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

And just like that, casual went out the window. The way he was looking at her shook her entire being and,
oh boy
, this didn’t feel like short term.

Nope, with him, Sara felt alive and somehow whole. A feeling she had missed, and now that she’d found it again, she desperately wanted to cling to with everything that she had.

Afraid that she’d say the wrong thing and scare him—or herself—Sara swiveled her hips and clenched, relieved when his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

“Jesus, Sara,” he breathed. “Slow down or I’m not going to be able to—” she rose up, shoving closer, pulling him in deeper. “Fuck!”

“More?” she panted.

With a smile he said, “Fuck, yeah.”

That did it. She squeezed with everything her legs had left, molding herself to him as he crushed her between the hard wood of the coffee table and the even harder plains of his body. His lips, however, stayed gentle, melting Sara’s heart, as they slowly traveled down her neck to her shoulder until the past two years fell away and all that she could feel was him and the incredible friction.

She lost herself in the slow withdraws, and even slower thrusts. She loved that sex with Trey was like a steady climb, not a sprint to the finish. He wasn’t the kind of guy who could be rushed, he wanted her to enjoy every moment, ride out the pleasure for her. But then he whispered her name, almost absently as though he hadn’t meant to, and that, combined with the weight of his body on hers, inside of her, pushed her over the edge, his name exploding from her lips.

Trey rocked a few more times and then followed her with an explosion of his own. His entire body was still shaking when he rose up on his elbows and, oh God indeed, he was breathing as hard as she was.

“So?” He grinned, breaking the spell and lightening the mood and, most important, making her laugh. Which was a whole lot better than what she felt like doing: crying.

“I thought it,” she admitted.

“I guess then we need to move this lesson to the bedroom so I can really work my magic.” He raised a brow. “Since you were
almost there
.”

Sara’s hand flew to her mouth. Had she said that out loud? The smug factor in his expression told her that, yes, in fact, she had screamed it.

Trey leaned down and playfully nipped her fingers. She had barely moved them when he snagged her lower lip between his teeth—and a phone rang in the distance.

With a defeated huff he collapsed into her, burying his face in her hair. “Is it too much to hope for that my family would leave me alone for one night?” He lifted his head and pouted. “Just one night.”

She leaned up and kissed him. “I think it’s my family.”

“Let it go to voice mail.” His lips were back on her neck.

“It could be Cooper,” she said, shoving him until he rolled off of her with a grunt.

Giving herself a second to get her land legs back, she grabbed her purse off of the couch and pulled out her phone.
Great.

She walked to the kitchen area before answering. “Hey, Roman.”

Trey sat up, his gloriously naked chest puffed out, and his pout turned into a full-on frown. On his feet, he quickly disposed of the condom—at least someone had been thinking—and stalked naked toward her. She shook her head and held out a hand to stop him.

She was so busy taking in the full-frontal view, admiring the delicious contours of his body that she almost missed what Roman had said.

“What?” she said, taking one last look at Trey and his pecs before mommy-mode went into full effect. “Cooper’s sick?”

With a single nod, Trey began gathering up her things.

“I think it was too much pizza and roughhousing, but yeah, you should come and get him,” Roman said into the phone.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Sara ended the call and found Trey in front of her, fully dressed in a pair of dark-washed jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.

“Here.” He handed over her dress, which was wrinkled, and her purse. No underwear. “I’ll have my car brought around. We can be there in five minutes. Tops.”

Sara tied the straps to her dress and caught his hand before he could pick up the hotel phone. “You don’t need to do that.”

“What? And drive your car?” He smiled, but it was tense. “I still need time to regroup from the minivan before I drive a station wagon.”

“You can’t come.”

“Why?” He sounded genuinely concerned, and confused. So was Sara, but this was the hard part of their arrangement. The part that was going to save her heart—and Cooper’s.

“We promised to keep this between us.” Sara placed a hand on his chest. “You showing up with me dressed like this on a Friday night doesn’t say friends without the precursor of benefits.”

Trey released a long breath and stared at the ceiling. His defeated expression proved her point. Even though it shouldn’t sting, it did. The truth was, as long as he was leaving, friends with benefits was all that they could ever be.

“We could say that your car broke down and I happened to drive by.”

“Used that with Heather and it was true. She still didn’t believe me.” She leveled him with a gaze to show just how serious this was, but he was too busy staring at her mouth to notice. “Plus, you what? Drive me there to grunt at Roman, pick up Cooper, and then go back to my house where three minutes after Cooper falls asleep we wind up on the couch? Naked?”

His hands slid around her hips and he let go a lethal grin. “Works for me.”

“And when Cooper comes out asking for a glass of water and, whoops, sees us,
you’ll
spend next week explaining the mating habits of humans to him, because I’m not ready for that talk yet.”

Trey released a breath. “Right. Just be careful. This could be Roman’s way of getting you over for his ‘night under the stars.’”

“Even if it was, I wouldn’t do that.” Sara rolled onto the tips of her toes and pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth, then put some serious heat behind it. “
You’re
my February, Trey. And as long as you’re here, the only person I want to spend time with is you.”