How To Host a Seduction (5 page)

Another finger circled lazily, intimately stoking new sensations to life, feeding her pleasure until she was wild with need, convincing her that Christopher did have something to prove. He would prove he could take her apart at the seams, unglue her until she was a mass of sensation.

Her body played right into his hands.

Ellen exploded, her moan swelling softly between them. He broke their kiss, stared down at her with eyes half hooded by pleasure, as though watching her climax was a wish granted. He held her entire body balanced with only a hand in her hair and another wedged between her thighs as he rode out the echoes of her orgasm with smooth knowing strokes and a big smile.

Only when she'd regained her senses enough to focus again did she follow his gaze to a very unique feature of the room that she hadn't noticed before.

A mirror. The reflection of Christopher standing dark and tall over her, her body arched erotically against his, her skirt wadded up around her waist to expose her parted thighs. Not one reflection, but many, each a little smaller, receding into infinity. She glanced in the opposite direction to see an identical mirror positioned on the other wall.

Ellen had seen vis-à-vis mirrors before, with Christopher in fact, when they'd toured an art exhibit at a New York museum. The interesting effect of multiple reflections had fascinated her at the time, but couldn't compare to the sight of their bodies twined together, as exotic as a living sculpture.

The reflection of the two of them together, forever.

Before she had a chance to react, Christopher drew his hand away, hiked one of her legs around his waist. She followed their reflection in the mirror with her gaze, the way his muscles shifted powerfully as he positioned himself.

The breath stalled in her throat as she watched him arch his hips purposefully, felt his erection searing, stretching as he pressed in, his throaty growl colliding with her gasp as their bodies joined.

Their gazes met in the mirror, his reflecting a longing that surprised her and her own heavy with desire, drugged by the feel of him inside her, the power he commanded over her.

Without one word spoken between them, Christopher proved their bodies recognized each other no matter how much time and space Ellen had put between them. His muscles flexed as he pulled back and thrust again, a deep beautiful stroke that dragged his name from her lips.

She had no balance save what he allowed her, with his hand cupping her head and her leg wrapped around him, but she could arch her hips to meet his thrusts. She lent
her efforts to the cause, because each of his ragged breaths, every drumbeat of his heart meant she savaged his composure as he savaged hers.

With each driving stroke he lifted her, until her sex clenched in huge drawing pulls. His legs began to tremble and then…she was airborne.

In one powerful motion, he lifted her off the floor. He dragged her other leg around his waist, circled the bed and sank to the mattress on top of her, his erection still fast inside, his tongue never slowing a wild exploration of her mouth.

“Oh, Christopher,” she whispered against his lips as his weight pressed her into the mattress. A sound of longing that acknowledged how his body filled hers in all the right places, how his broad shoulders blocked out her view of the world.

She'd forgotten how agile he was despite his size. All those years playing hockey. Speed and quick reflexes while sporting heavy equipment had developed his natural athleticism, a graceful strength that startled her. She wasn't particularly tall, but she wasn't short, either, and something about the way he could physically maneuver her lent an edge of excitement to their lovemaking.

When he smiled, a dashing grin that drove pinpoint dimples into his cheeks, emphasized the smooth definition of his freshly shaven jaw, Ellen could only smile back. Nothing mattered except this man. This moment.

And he knew. That flash in his lightning-blue eyes, that devastating grin proved he enjoyed her wildfire responses, that he'd anticipated her reaction to him completely.

Her first orgasm had only been an appetizer, a prelude to the one building. Three months of deprivation welled up inside her, made each thrust more poignant than the last, made her savor each taste of her mouth on his shoul
der, his neck, his jaw, his freshly scrubbed skin, luscious on her tongue.

And when he rolled to his side, propped up on an elbow to stare down at her while he lazily continued to thrust, Ellen knew he liked the power he had over her, enjoyed this opportunity to wield it again.

She'd have to take him down a little, shift the balance back in her favor, but right now, she let him grin, too caught up in the feel of him inside her. There was no escaping the sensual indulgence of his hands on her skin, the strength of that smooth erection stretching, filling, driving deep, blinding her with the strength of her need.

Hiking one muscular thigh over hers, he anchored her hips against him, reared back until he almost completely withdrew. Then he plunged in. A thrust that made her gulp air, made her skin tingle. She'd played into his hands…and she didn't care. She'd been gifted with another chance to experience this man and the magic they made together, no matter how high the price she'd pay later. And she'd definitely pay.

He wasn't
the one.

But as her muscles gathered and tightened again, her sex throbbing in time with his thrusts, Ellen could only hang on as another orgasm swelled inside. She went over the edge again with a throaty moan.

Christopher smiled, clearly very,
very
pleased.

Ellen closed her eyes, unable to face him, not with her sex gripping him greedily in the aftermath of orgasm, not with her chest heaving and her breasts quivering and her skin hot and wet from exertion. He still felt magnificently erect inside her, and she wanted him to say something—
anything
—to give her an anchor to latch on to.

But he didn't say a word. Maybe he didn't want to invite reality in on the moment. Or maybe his silence implied
that what they shared was beyond description. Ellen didn't know. She only knew that his touch was oh so tender when he brushed away the damp hairs from her temple.

Damn him, he wasn't
the one.
Why wasn't he
the one?

The disappointment that had dogged her for so long reared up inside, and she wrestled it down. Christopher might take apart her senses. He might eradicate her will when his hands were on her, but she wouldn't let him take apart her emotions. Not after the long months of beating them under control.

She wouldn't give him that. Not when he was playing her, holding himself back just to watch her go to pieces. And she was annihilated, barely able to lift an eyelid, while he toyed with her nipple and waited for her to catch her breath.

She remembered this feeling from their night together, too, and didn't have to open her eyes to know he looked all smiley and happy as though everything was just dandy in his world. But she was going to wipe that smug look from his face to prove he wasn't the only one with power here.

She opened her eyes and one glimpse into his smoldering expression told her he'd been counting on her to do exactly that. And seeing that look, knowing Christopher's need was as great as her own, was all it took to infuse her with new energy.

In an inspired motion, Ellen disconnected their bodies and shimmied away. Christopher groaned as his erection bobbed wildly, but she bit back her smile, shielded her expression beneath the fall of swingy hair as she rose to her knees and surveyed the tangle of fabric around her waist.

A visit to her dry cleaner would definitely be in order
before wearing this skirt again. But she decided making love to Christopher was worth any expense.

The emotional cost would be another matter entirely.

Dragging a pillow beneath his head, Christopher settled back, his body spread out before her, his erection draped across his abdomen, primed and ready. Ellen wondered if a skirt and panties were enough to make a good show, and decided she'd find a way to make a Broadway-worthy performance of nothing but earrings and a wristwatch if it meant earning that hungry look in his eyes.

Tossing her shoulders back, she reached around for the clasp of her skirt and twisted it around. Her back arched, breasts lifted high for his pleasure, and the motion made them sway heavily, eagerly, taut with her arousal and still swollen from his touch.

Working the clasp at her waist, she unfastened the zipper slowly,
slowly,
letting the fabric fall open to reveal more bare skin as she rocked her hips back and forth to the soothing jazz music. The skirt slid over her hips and fell into a filmy puddle around her knees.

Sinking back to the mattress, she drew the skirt along her calves and past her feet, leaving her clad in only a thong.

It wasn't much of a prop, but it was all Ellen had to work with and she was determined to make it go a long way. Rolling to her side, she slid off the bed, rose in an easy motion. The sultry air caressed her skin. Her short, full hair swung jauntily around her neck.

Keeping her shoulders arched, she turned just enough to give Christopher a shot of her in profile as she hooked her thumbs into the strings of her panties, began a leisurely swaying of her bottom to drag them down…down. With her own arousal damp between her legs, she moved lan
guorously, her every motion, her every breath designed to hold his attention.

His hungry gaze followed her as she stretched out the moments, savored the feel of his gaze, arousal pumping a flush of heat into her skin, making her sex tingle with the memory of his hard thrusts, inspiring her to new boldness.

And when that little scrap of fabric fell to her feet, Ellen breathed deeply…and bent over to grab it.

Once upon a time, her long hair would have shielded much of her body during a move like this, played a sexy game of peekaboo she thought he would have enjoyed. But now her hair just swung forward onto her cheeks, leaving her exposed to his view—his
pleasure,
if the breath he sucked in was any indicator.

Grabbing her panties, she slung them off her finger like a slingshot aimed at his head. Quick as ever, he caught them, shooting her a wicked grin as he brought the scrap of lacy white fabric to his chest, pressed it directly over…his heart.

Damn him!

Everything inside her melted like winter's first snowflakes hitting the pavement. Why did he try to turn a sexy game into something more? He was the one who couldn't play by the rules, who'd been perfectly content to let her get away. No coming after her. No fighting to keep her.

This was just sex, damn it.

Diving for him, she straddled his hips before the surprise faded from his face. Slipping her fingers around that hot erection, she took aim…and sank down, taking him all the way inside her moist body in a sleek stroke. Gratified by his loud grunt and the way he bucked hard at their joining, she arched her back and rode him.

Of course he wasn't content to let her control the game. Fastening on to a nipple, he drew her into the rough-velvet
recesses of his mouth with a hot pull. She moaned, her whole body shuddering in reply.

This man and the effect he had on her was undeniable and utterly amazing, and she pressed a kiss to the top of his silky dark head, a stupidly tender urge she shouldn't have given in to.

She couldn't help herself. Not when his mouth drew on her nipple, first one and then the other, unfurling crazy ribbons of sensation inside. Not when he lifted his hips to meet her strokes, his heat branding her, making her drive down a little harder, a little faster to increase the friction.

And when he drew away from her breasts, leaving her nipples peaked and wet and tingling, he slipped his hands under her bottom, drove his fingers deep with his eagerness to quicken her pace. His thighs began to vibrate. His hips came up off the mattress, and he speared into her with a force that sent pleasure straight to her core.

His ridiculously thick lashes shuttered over those piercing eyes as he sucked in a hard breath and pressed his head back into the pillows. Ellen watched, unable to lift her gaze from the sight of his features sharpening with pleasure, that strong jaw clenching tight, the thick cords in his neck compressing as his body bucked hard.

He reached his own fulfillment with a low growl, and the sight and sound and feel of him coaxed another impossible climax from her, a liberation of senses that should have been depleted but were almost painfully intense.

Then Ellen collapsed on top of him, lay draped across his body, clinging, remembering the feel of his heartbeat throbbing against hers, the way her face fit perfectly into the curve of his neck, the way he smelled of their passion on his damp skin.

Why, oh why, couldn't he have been
the one?

And when he ran his strong hands over her body as if
memorizing her, as though he'd been deprived for too long, she acknowledged that he'd broken her heart, that she'd wanted him like she'd never wanted another man in her life.

He wasn't
the one.

When he pressed gentle kisses into her hair, Ellen knew the time had come to make her escape. Before she went to pieces right here. But Christopher wouldn't let her. He held her close and toyed with her hair, her breasts, her sex.

When she resisted, he moved in for another assault, pinning her on the mattress and raining hot kisses over every inch of her skin, proving that he hadn't forgotten any of the sensitive spots he'd discovered during months of foreplay.

When she tried to regain her senses, he simply pulled out the big guns. Wedging his shoulders between her thighs, he reacquainted himself with her most intimate places, his mouth and tongue curling into her heat sensuously, decadently, making her cry out with such heady attention.

The light faded beyond the French doors. The music continued to play, a sultry combination of songs that filled the quiet, worked into her subconscious. Christopher's touch blurred sound and sight and taste and pleasure in a way only he had ever done. He inspired her to unrealized boldness. He devastated her with his tender touches and caring kisses.