Burned Deep (17 page)

“I didn't hurt you, did I?” His look was a grave one.

“Of course not. I'll be sore in the morning, but in a really good way.” I already felt it coming on. The throbbing within me didn't abate and my inner thighs burned. My stomach ached, too, as though I'd just done a million crunches. It all felt exhilarating. Like a nonstop reminder of how much we'd wanted each other. A constant memory that he'd been so very deep inside me. That he'd fucked me hard—as I'd wanted him to do.

Yet he didn't seem pleased with my answer. “You're incredibly tight. Small. And—”

“Dane.” I crossed to where he stood and gazed up at him. “Try to understand. This is the first time I've actually had earth-shattering sex. I mean, I always thought that term was such bullshit, such an exaggeration. Now, I get it. And the fact that I can
still feel
everything you did to me…” I might have worn a silly expression. “Like, my body is just—”

My fists balled at my sides. I couldn't explain how unbelievable it felt to have every inch of me singed by his touch, his thrusts, his kisses.

“Trust me when I say, you gave me exactly what I needed.” I stretched on tiptoe and pressed my lips to his.

He quickly took over the kiss—apparently I was too tentative. And Dane knew exactly how to turn something sweet and spicy into something scorching hot. I loved it.

When he eventually pulled away, he whispered, “Touch me, Ari.” His breath blew against a few strands of hair on my temple. “Anywhere. Everywhere. However you want.”

My fingertips grazed the corrugrated grooves of his stomach, up to his stonewall of a chest.

“I've never actually seen anyone this cut in person,” I told him. “How do you find time for the gym?”

“I started working out with a trainer when I was a kid. I've always kept with it.”

“You're unbelievable,” I simply said. There really wasn't a better description.

Slipping out of his shirt, he laid it across the back of the sofa. Then he gathered me in a tight embrace and delivered yet another passionate kiss. Leaving me breathless.

His hands slid under my shirt and caressed my sides, before one slid to my butt. He palmed my ass cheek and gave it a titillating squeeze.

“It's too bad I only had the one condom.”

I frowned. “That is too bad. I don't have any, either.”

“I should have considered that before I sent the driver back to the hotel. He could have made a drugstore run for us.”

I started. First at the thought of the chauffeur picking up condoms and bringing them back here. And second … “You're staying?”

His eyes bore into me. “I told you very specifically this wouldn't be a fast fuck in a hotel room before you bolt for the door. I believe those were my exact words.”

“Actually, I think I'm mostly surprised you'd want to sleep over, knowing we won't be having sex again.”

“This isn't just about sex, Ari.”

Wow.
Not only was he a literal man, he also clearly wasn't one to look for the easy way out of a tricky situation. Because his staying
did
make things infinitely more serious between us.

“Just so you know,” I felt compelled to say, “this is something else I've never done before.”

“I suspected that. Which is why I provided the simple solution of sending my driver away.”

“Now who's the clever one?”

With a smug look on his devilishly handsome face, he said, “You still haven't told me which bedroom is yours.”

I pointed to the one closest to the patio.

He scooped me into his arms and carried me to my bed, where he set me gently. I watched with bated breath as he stripped down to his black briefs. He was just so fantastically built, I feared there might be drool forming at the corner of my mouth.

That wasn't the only thing I feared. He climbed in beside me and pulled me to him. His arm draped over my shoulder and he coaxed me into resting my head on his chest. My hand splayed over his stomach.

“Relax, baby,” he whispered in the dark. “You're much too tense.”

It'd hit me suddenly, invading my post-sex serenity. “How long can I lay here before your arm falls asleep?”

“That's what you're worried about?”

“I told you. I've never done this before.”

One hand stroked my hair. He also twined his fingers with mine as they lay against his abs. “You're very endearing.”

“Is that a polite way of calling me naive?”

“I don't think that at all.” He kissed my forehead. “You gave me valid reasons for why you've avoided intimacy. The truth is, it makes me happy that you haven't shared yourself like this with anyone else.”

It would never be like this with anyone else; I was sure of it. There was something so mesmeric about Dane that had me easily caught up in the connection we'd made. Not just the physical one, but the emotional side of it as well.

“It's late,” he said. “Try to sleep.”

“You did wear me out tonight.”

“I did everything you asked.”

“And then some. It was pretty damn sensational.”

“So take a few deep breaths,” he told me in a low voice, “and know that I'm perfectly content right here, whether my arm falls asleep or not.”

“You're really very sweet when you're not looking as though you want to rip Kyle's head off. Or you're scowling at me.”

“Hmm.” Apparently, that was all he intended to say on the subject.

So I did as he'd recommended, slowly inhaling, slowly exhaling. I tried not to think of insane things like how heavy my head might be on his chest. How erratic my pulse was—could he feel it? How noisy my breathing could possibly be.

Damn it.
I should have turned on music. For that matter, why the hell wasn't it raining, when I needed the camouflage sound now more than ever?

“Ari,” he whispered against the top of my head. “Baby. You're squirming like crazy.”

“I am?” I forced myself to still.

“Nothing to be antsy over.”

I swallowed hard. “You'd feel differently if you were in my shoes.”

He chuckled, a sexy rumble that reverberated throughout my body. “Fine. I have a better thought.”

Gripping me around the waist, he hauled me onto him, so I lay against his hunky torso, propped on my forearms at his pecs, my legs between his.

“Dane.”

“Shh.” He swept my tumbling curls off my shoulders. Then his hands skimmed down my back to my ass. “I like you on top of me.”

“You can't sleep like this.”

“Obviously, neither one of us is interested in sleeping just yet.”

My stomach fluttered. “You do make me restless.”

His hands shifted and he clasped the hem of my shirt, pulling it up and over my head, then working it off one arm at a time.

“Mm, that's nice,” he mused. “Your nipples pressed to my chest. And they're hard.” His fingers skated along my skin, on either side of my spine, down to my tailbone, making me shiver with delight.

He let out a primal groan. His erection pressed to my belly. “So am I. So quick.”

“You're insatiable,” I said playfully.

“It's you.” His tone was serious, sincere.

I stared at him, his beautiful emerald irises shimmering with heat in the soft, silvery moonlight that filtered through the vertical blinds covering the sliding glass doors.

He gently kneaded my ass cheeks as his thick cock throbbed against my stomach.

“You're not at all what I expected when I met you,” I confided.

“What did you expect?”

“I don't know. You were so intense. Still are. Still electrifying. But also … tender.”

He gripped my ass more firmly. I let out a soft laugh.

“And so wicked.”

He kissed me, then said against my lips, “Be wicked with me.”

Lust shot to my core. But I reminded him, “We don't have a condom.”

“We don't need one. You've been celibate for a year. You must have a vi—”

“Dane.” I cut him off, instantly knowing where his devilish thoughts were headed.

He teased my lips again with his and then glided his tongue over the bottom one before nipping at it with his teeth. “Let me watch.”

“What?” I stared down at him, excitement and shock warring within me.

“You heard me,” he said. One hand remained splayed across my ass. The other smoothed up to my shoulder and then around to my front to slip between us. He palmed my breast, massaging and whisking his thumb over my puckered nipple.

He was seducing me again, and he was so damn good at it.

The hand on my breast slid to the lace covering me and he pushed my panties down my legs as he rolled us so I was on my back. He tossed aside my lingerie. Kissed me senseless.

His hands were all over my body, as though he couldn't get enough of me. I was on fire, his fingers and palms blazing a trail along every inch of me. Teasing, caressing, tempting me to do whatever he asked of me.

His head dipped and his tongue fluttered thrillingly over my nipple, making it unbelievably hard. Making my breasts ache for more.

“Dane,” I whispered in complete surrender. I reached above my head, to the nightstand, and jerked the drawer open. I fumbled through paperbacks, tissue packets, and throat spray for when the air got too dry.

Stretching beyond me, with a longer arm span, Dane grabbed my vibrator.

He eyed the battery-operated device. “Not one for bells and whistles?”

“Totally utilitarian,” I said.

He let out a
humph
, then handed it over. He went back to expertly massaging my breasts, rolling and lightly pinching my nipples, until I writhed beneath him and flames danced through my veins.

I turned the knob on the base. The low buzzing that suddenly filled the quiet room made me nearly heave the thing back into the drawer and slam it shut. Heat burst on my cheeks.

This was crazy. What the hell was I doing?

Dane kissed the tops of my breasts, then along my collarbone and up my neck. His teeth grazed, then nipped at my sensitive skin, just below my ear. That drove me wild. Spurred me on. Made it impossible for me to stop what he'd started.

I pressed the length of the shaft along my slick folds and a moan escaped my parted lips. I absorbed the tingles along my clit. Dane's mouth wreaked havoc on my throat, finding the most delectable places to lightly bite and tease, heightening my arousal.

My eyelids drifted closed. Heat burned through me. I slid the vibrator back and forth, over my swollen, dewy flesh. Dane's hand covered mine, adding a bit more pressure.

He murmured, “I want you to come again.”

I was amazed I could be so sexually charged. Fascinated by it as well.

Dane kissed me while coaxing my hand beneath his. The shaft penetrated my opening and he pushed it in deep. Pumped slowly.

The toy was narrow and not nearly as filling or gratifying as Dane's cock inside me. But he worked me with faster strokes now, hitching my breath. He must have known some creative way to maneuver it between the V of his fingers and his palm, because his thumb was free to rub my clit.

He drew one of my nipples into his mouth and suckled deep. My fingers plowed through his hair.

I'd honestly thought I was too much of an intimacy-phobe to get into this, but Dane had me frantic for another release. My hips rolled and my hand at the back of his head kept him locked to me as his tongue and mouth did the most amazing things to my breasts and the taut peaks that begged for more and more of his attention.

I was a bit crazed.

“Fuck,” I mumured. “This really shouldn't feel as good as it does.”

My vibrator couldn't hold a candle to Dane, of course—and I felt his erection against my side, taunting me. But good Lord, he knew how to send me straight to the edge.

“Slips and slides nicely because you're so wet.”

“You make me this wet.”

I didn't bother giving credence to the blush crawling up my neck to my cheeks. I'd never been a prude, but with Dane, I was downright shameless. An addictive sensation.
He
was addictive.

More throaty moans fell from my lips as he worked me skillfully. My inner walls clutched tight and though I knew precisely what my body sought—Dane—I couldn't deny the tension mounting within. He did the most incredible things to me.

“I thought you wanted to watch,” I mumbled as the breaking point neared.

“I am watching. But I need to be the one who makes you come.”

That did more insane things to my body.

“You're so good at everything you do,” I said.

“Come for me. Now.”

“Yes. Oh, God … Yes!”

My hips raised and I let go under his talented command, whimpering his name as tremors rolled through me and exhilaration consumed me.

“Oh, God!” There were plenty of aftershocks to keep me charged.

Several suspended moments ticked by, with me not quite catching my breath. Dane withdrew the vibrator and managed to jerk a tissue from its packet and set the toy on the nightstand, all with one hand. His other arm remained wrapped around my waist.

“Oh, Christ.” I could barely breathe. “Now
that
was nice.”

I saw his smirk in the pale moonlight. “Just
nice
?”

“Downright deviant?”

He laughed quietly. “Hardly.”

“Well, I will admit you're much better at that than I am.” Yet I still ached for him. How was that possible? And what did it mean?

I'd crossed a number of personal lines this evening. Since I'd met Dane, really. I couldn't seem to help myself. He was good at guiding me and I was hooked on following.

But similar to him needing more when he was touching me, when he was inside me, I couldn't find a satiable medium. I literally craved more of him. So much so, my private companion for years had been reduced to an impersonal substitution for the real thing—for the only thing, I feared, would ever fulfill me.
Dane.