Best Erotic Romance 2014 (20 page)

She sat up so he could pull the shirt from her head and helpfully reached back to undo the clasp of her bra. She leaned back on her elbows and watched his face as he looked her up and down. “God, you're beautiful,” he whispered, and kissed her belly again.

“Hey!” she said, “What about your wet clothes?”

He kicked his shoes into the corner and had his shorts and T-shirt off almost before she finished the sentence. His cock now stared her right in the eye. Jane stared right back, then licked her lips and reached out to pull it toward her mouth. He groaned and held the ceiling of the camper for balance.

Jane liked the way his cock filled her mouth. Just enough, but not too much. She liked the smell of him. As her tongue roamed around the circumference of his cock, his smell made her think of fresh strawberries, and warm rocks and summer sun. Outside, the wind whistled and the leaves in the trees applauded her enthusiasm. Rain began to patter on the canvas walls.

She leaned back to smile up at him. “Sounds like we're getting a thunderstorm,” she said.

As if on cue, the clouds let loose a long, low rumble, and the interior of the camper darkened by half. “We're getting something,” he said in a low voice, and pushed her back. He lay across her and let his cock nudge up against her. The flicker in her belly was now a full, roaring fire, inviting him in.

The ache between her hips grew with want. The wind also intensified, and the camper trembled. Jane lifted one knee over his shoulder, hoping to encourage his entry. But he didn't enter. He slid back, lifted one hand up to hold her calf that had been on his shoulder, and began to kiss her stomach again. He kissed the slight protrusion of her hip bones—first right, then left. Jane moaned, and the wind outside moaned back. The camper shook again.

He kissed her inner thigh and then let his tongue begin a wandering journey. Jane writhed as his tongue dipped in, slid up, circled about, circled about, circled about. The camper brightened with sudden light, followed quickly by a thud of thunder.

He paused to look up at her. “It's very close,” he said.

She nodded, closed her eyes and gently brought his head back
down so his tongue could continue its delightful dance. Lightning flashed again; pleasure flashed through Jane. Thunder rolled, and she rolled her hips against him. The rain rose in tempo, and Jane's passion followed.

“It
is
getting close,” she panted.

“I can tell,” he said.

He kept his hand on her calf, keeping her one leg lifted high. He rose up, positioned himself and then slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, settled into her. He sunk in so deep that it pushed all thought and reason from her mind. Jane's cry was lost in a clap of thunder that seemed to slap the world away.

He began to draw back, paused deliciously and pushed slowly back into her as the rain began to lash the camper in its own passionate rhythm. Jane's head rocked side to side. She fell into a well of incredulous disbelief at the depth of her pleasure. He reached his other hand around, clasping one firm gluteal muscle and pulling her even tighter to him, even as she was meeting every thrust.

Jane relished the building energy in the center of herself. It almost felt sharp, intense as it was. The sharpness of it rose and rose and became almost unbearable. She heard her own voice over the wind and rain, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” It was as if the mantra of her feet two days prior had found a strong voice in her flaring desire. In the flashing light, she saw his face, mouth wide open, fixated on her as he filled her again and again.

His looking was so intense, almost hawk-like in its focus. She wanted his mouth on hers and pulled him down. Their kiss was woven with breath, and tongue and passion. The weight of him met her unbearable need, and she felt herself rising to a new place.

“So close, so close, so close,” she was now panting under her breath.

He stayed true to his form, held his tempo and carried her above and beyond what she thought pleasure could be. It broke over her like water over rocks. It swept through her like wind through trees. Jane shuddered like a camper in a storm. From a distant place, she was aware that he too seemed to be breaking past a barrier, letting loose.

Jane floated on waves of utter release. They enveloped her, like living
Shanti
. Her body sighed from the inside out and the rain outside ebbed to a steady patter. The kettledrum thunder rolled over the next hill, as if telling the trees to the east what a great show they had missed. Beau rested his head on her shoulder.

“
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
,” she whispered.

“What does that mean?” he murmured against her neck.

“Peace, Peace, Peace,” she told him, and let her hand begin to wander up and down his back.

“Do you feel peaceful?”

“I have been at peace ever since I came here,” she said. “There is something about this land that fits me.”

“Except the snakes,” he said, still directing his words to the space beneath her ear.

“Oh no,” she said. “I've decided I love the snakes.”

He lifted up and gave her a skeptical look. “How's that?”

She kissed him. “Wanting to see Tuscarora Creek brought me to you,” she said, “But the snake brought you to me.”

He laughed, and said, “I couldn't wait to get to you…snake or no snake.”

“Even though I'm a heathen?”

“City girl, heathen and strike three…” he kissed her gently, “you've taken up with the Bradford boy.”

Outside, dappled by the remaining raindrops, Tuscarora Creek burbled and laughed and carried their new story downstream.

BIG BULLY

A. M. Hartnett

It was my job to act out, or at least everyone seemed to think so. It was Teal's job to make sure I didn't go too far.

I was in the backseat of his car, his actual car and not the boring sedan he usually chauffeured me around in. I didn't know shit about cars, but Teal's personal ride was a slick red bullet that cornered like it was one with the road.

Not that I expected Teal to drive a shitty car. He worked his ass off for my father and was paid well. Of course, he would have his toys.

“I don't see why you have your thong in such a twist,” I muttered under my breath.

He didn't answer me. Eyes on the road. I shifted the blanket around my shoulders. I'd only been damp when he'd showed up, but I was still freezing. Swimming in the Atlantic in mid-November will do that.

“Those were my friends,” I went on to break the silence. “None of them would sell me out.”

”
All
your friends would sell you out,” he said.

“Is it so hard to believe anyone would just like me enough to keep their cameras in their purses?”

“Stop talking. You're slurring. You know how that gets on my nerves.”

You'd swear from the way he talked to me I was the employee and he was the employer. No one talked to me like he did. I was accustomed to getting my way, and Teal was the only person who never let me get my way.

Teal had come into my life when I was eighteen, right after my first and only DUI. It was a stupid thing to do and my apology to my fans was genuine, but it put me on the list of former child stars spiraling out of control. I wasn't half as bad as the press made me out to be, I swear. I was drug free, but I didn't have the discipline to stop myself when I started drinking. It wasn't the booze, it was the letting go that booze let me do. This usually meant I ended up in embarrassing situations, even if they did seem like a good idea at the time.

Isn't that how it always goes?

Usually when I was having a bit of fun and Teal had to come collect me, he'd have to ram through a wall of photographers to get to me. It was something else to watch him. He'd grab me and just shoulder them out of the way like King Kong playing high-school football.

“So who tipped you off? You're the only one who showed up.”

“One of your friends called the press. I have connections that make sure I get most calls first.”

I didn't say anything as the sting went deep. I didn't really think those people were my friends. I had three friends I could count on. Everyone else was just an accessory or an employee, at least until they sold my location to the tabloids and got Teal on my ass.

Still, I preferred the illusion that my hangers-on adored me. I sure as hell didn't like Teal quipping about it.

I sucked in a breath and peered at him in the semidarkness. When he was first introduced to me he'd been a scary mountain of a man wedged inside a suit and tie, his head shaved and his gray eyes hard. He'd since grown out his salt-and-pepper hair and had abandoned his enforcer uniform for a less conspicuous jeans and T-shirt combination. It made him no less menacing.

Tonight he looked like a combination of his old self and new, matching the jeans with a button-up shirt and jacket over the top.

“You smell good,” I said.

“I was on a date.”

“Get the fuck out.”

His look was poison. “My entire world doesn't revolve around pulling you out of your shit.”

“So you just took off on her? Classy.”

His mouth hardened, and he reached forward to turn on the radio.

Teal rarely took a night off, so I had taken advantage of his absence to get into some trouble. No one to stop me from doing those shots, no one to stop me from stripping down to my bra and panties for a swim, no one to stop me from being the bad girl.

The winking lights coming from the homes in the hills soon gave way to the incessant neon of the city. Thank god. My feet were like ice. I didn't dare ask Teal to turn the heat up. I sat in shivering silence until we reached our exit and he just drove on past.

“Shit,” I said, sitting up. “You're not taking me to Dad's, are you? I don't think he'd be too happy if we knock on his door at three o'clock in the morning.”

He shook his head. “I'm taking you to my place.”

“Are you kidding me? Why?”

“Because it's my day off and I want my own fucking bed, that's why. You can be uncomfortable on my sofa for a change.”

Wow.

I'd never heard him so pissed off before. If it was anyone else I would have flicked the diva switch and thrown a fit, but I knew from experience that it would never work on Teal. Nothing worked on Teal. I couldn't con him the way I had conned his predecessors.

“How many shots did you have tonight?”

I'll admit it: his tone was a little scary. “I don't know.
Lots
.”

“So you had
lots
of tequila and decided it would be a smart move to jump in the ocean?”

“I guess.”

“For fuck sake, Charlotte, at what point do you fucking grow up?”

I didn't want to cry in front of him, but I couldn't help it. My eyes burned with tears. I felt smaller and smaller, but I guess that was the point. His animosity was alive inside the car.

Sniffling, I turned to him. “I'm not as bad as I used to be, you know.”

“Only because I'm around just about every waking hour.”

Which was mostly true. I couldn't take too much credit for having kept my nose clean, especially not after proving I would get into shit the second I was out of Teal's clutches.

I stared down at my cold toes and shook my head. “I'm sorry I ruined your night.”

It seemed to me as though he was working on his next words. He did this thing when he took a time out, pressing his lips together and twisting his mouth at the corners. It ended when
he swiped his hand over his face and sighed. It was how he got rid of his anger and kept in control.

He didn't do it this time. He was going to remain pissed off.

When we rolled up to a stoplight, he met my gaze and held it. I couldn't tell whether it was the shadows or exhaustion, but I could see the years spent at my beck and call etched on his face.

Was it time, or had I done that to him?

The tension ended when the car behind us laid on the horn. Teal faced forward and shifted gears. The car rocketed forward. Neither of us said anything more for the rest of the ride.

I need to give up drinking
, I thought, as we arrived at his condo and the underground parking swallowed us up. I didn't like how funny the booze had made me feel tonight.

His car rumbled as he swung into a spot marked with the number
934
. I didn't make a move to get out after Teal did. I sat there until I realized he wasn't coming to open my door as usual. Leaving the blanket behind, I hopped out and rushed after him, bare feet slapping the concrete. The car chirped as he armed it.

I caught up with him at the elevator.

“You don't seem like a condo kind of guy, Teal,” I said as we waited. “You seem like the survivalist type who has a camper down by the beach.”

“There's a lot you don't know about me,” he said, and I could have sworn he smiled a little.