How to Love (14 page)

“Okay then.” She didn’t want him to be jealous. Or did she? Shaking her head at her own confusion, she sat back.

She’d been buzzing with hormones all afternoon and now, having just been treated to the sight of an extremely gorgeous naked man, and with another gorgeous half-naked man sitting right beside her close enough to touch, her pussy squeezed hard. She pressed her lips together and stared blindly at her computer screen.

Mike’s hand on her back made her jump a little, then she relaxed into his touch as he rubbed up and down in a warm, almost tender gesture that had her heart tightening.

“Okay, I’m back.” Carlos reappeared, now dressed in loose pair of athletic shorts and a T-shirt, his dark hair gleaming wetly. Jules patted the couch cushion beside her, the other side of where Mike sat, and clicked the mouse to open images.

The men were silent as she clicked through them. She was the only one who said anything, pointing out something she particularly liked about one, the way the light shaded Mike’s body or highlighted a limb. “I put these ones aside,” she said, opening the file with the images that had his face in them. “I won’t use them. But I’ll show them to you.”

Beside her, Carlos made a noise as he looked at the image, one where Mike was looking right at the camera, at her, touching himself. She thought he’d muttered, “Christ.” She gave him a quick questioning glance before moving to the next one. He just nodded for her to go ahead.

When she was done with those, she showed them the five she’d picked out to print and frame. “What do you think?” she asked, a little breathlessly. They’d barely said a word the entire time. Did they hate them? Was Mike embarrassed?

She looked at Mike and met his eyes, and the storm of emotions there caught her by surprise. “What?” she asked.

“Well.” His Adam’s apple slid up and down. “Hard to believe some of those are me. They’re amazing, Jules.”

“Oh.” She let out her breath with a smile. “Thanks.”

“I just…” He searched her face with his eyes. “You…”

What was he trying to say? She stared back at him, feeling a little…exposed. That feeling made her want to run. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “What is it?”

Mike glanced at Carlos, behind her where she sat half-turned to face him. “You’re very talented,” he finally said.

She knew that wasn’t what he wanted to say. For a brief second, she contemplated pushing him, but then with a flash of intuition, she knew she didn’t want to hear what he had to say. “Thanks!” she said brightly, turning back to her computer to close the program. “I’m glad you like them. Tomorrow I’m taking the file into a lab in San Diego that will print them for me. Then I’ll frame them and get them up in the gallery. Thank you so much for doing this, Mike, I really appreciate it.” She knew she was babbling, but she focused on her computer, shutting it down. “If you want any of the images printed for yourself, just let me know, I can do that no problem.”

“Jules.” His hand covered hers. She went still. “Relax.”

She frowned at him. “I’m relaxed.”

“No, you’re not. You’re wound tighter than a two-dollar watch.”

Her lips twitched, but she looked down at his hand on her, his tanned and strong, hers paler, smaller. “I’m fine.”

“You’re hiding,” he said. “Hiding behind your photography.”

“What?” She gave a short laugh. Her fingers trembled a little as she snapped the lid on the laptop shut. “That’s ridiculous.”

Chapter Nine

Mike followed Jules out the front door and across the lawn toward her house.

“Jules.”

She paused and fished her house keys out of the pocket of her shorts. “What?”

“Talk to me.”

“About what?” She unlocked the door and stepped inside.

“I made you mad.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Fuck, she was frustrating!

“Okay, then what? What’s wrong?” He followed her into her living room, lit by the glow of a single floor lamp.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

Gah! Women! Why did he love them so much? And why did this one in particular make him want her so bad? He knew “nothing’s wrong” meant “something’s wrong” with any woman, but with Jules it was even more frustrating because she
never
let on how she was feeling. Other than turned on.

Which was what she was now, apparently, as she set down her computer and turned back to him with a sexy smile.

“Did you follow me home for this?” she purred and pressed her body up against his.

Well. He couldn’t help but respond to that, and his dick hardened as blood flowed to his groin. But still…he kissed her soft, seeking mouth, then lifted his head and looked down at her. “No,” he said.

“Really?” Her hand slid down between them and found his hard-on. Her gentle squeeze made his head go light.

“Really,” he croaked. “I want to talk to you.”

“Let’s not talk,” she murmured, tilting her head to kiss the side of his neck. Tingles shot down his spine.

He grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back. She smiled up at him, and damn, she was so goddamn sexy he could do nothing but stare at her for a moment, his entire body pulsing with lust.

“You’re doing it again,” he managed to say, voice hoarse.

“Doing what?”

“Using sex to avoid talking to me.”

“I talk to you.” She tried to get her face back to his neck, but he held on tighter to her hair. Her eyes darkened and her lips parted. Great, she was aroused by a little hair pulling. Which served to turn
him
on all the more. Christ, he was fighting a losing battle, going down fast, in a burst of flames.

“No, you don’t. Not about real stuff. I ask you about your family and you distract me with sex. I ask about your feelings and you distract me with sex.”

“Are you complaining?”

He groaned. “I love having sex with you, Jules. You know that.”

“So what’s the problem then?” Her fingers were undoing his shorts.

She was good. Dammit.

When her hand slid inside his shorts and closed around him, his head fell back. When she went to her knees in front of him, he gritted his teeth and slid his hands into her hair.

Holy Mary Queen of Heaven.

Her tongue dragged up one side of his cock and down the other, then swirled around the head. He was fucking on fire, huge with need, pulsing in her hand.

They weren’t done talking. Not by a long shot. But what guy was going to turn down a blowjob so they could have an argument? Besides, he could no longer push words out past his tongue which had apparently swelled in his mouth all big and thick. Christ. Call him weak. Call him…

Thoughts spun away as she rubbed his cock over her wet lips, delicately licked the tip of it, then, sweet Jesus, drew him into her mouth and sucked. “Fuuuuck,” he groaned. He held her head gently, just with his fingertips, trying not to pull her in, trying not to fuck her mouth with hard thrusts of his hips. Control…Jesus, control.

He looked down at them, at her mouth stretched around his girth and at the same moment she looked up as if sensing his gaze. Her eyes met his, hers framed with feathery lashes, and they stared at each other for a long moment. His heart pounded in a heavy rhythm, his entire body pulsing with each beat.

Then her eyelids dropped and she began to slide her lips up and down his shaft. Fire raced through his veins, heating his skin, sizzling his brain synapses. He gave himself up to it, the heat of her mouth, the drag of her tongue, the clasp of her hand at the base of his shaft. His shorts dropped to the floor, his boxer briefs next with a quick tug of her free hand, and then that hand slipped between his legs to cup his balls.

Lightning bolts of electricity tore through him. His stomach contracted, and he widened his legs to give her access. Her fingers played with his sac and it tightened, tingles building at the base of his spine. He groaned, his fingertips tensing on her head as she moved on him, her lips tight, her tongue swirling. She sucked him with hungry greed, her mouth fiery wet. Pressure built inside him, fast and hard.

“Jules, baby, Christ that’s good.”

After this he was going to spank her, for being so damned stubborn, and they were going to have a very long talk, and…and…another groan tore from his lips as she let him slide out of her mouth, lifted his dick and then licked his balls. He couldn’t help it, his hands tightened in her hair and she made a little noise that sounded like pleasure.

She loved this. And that was just about the biggest turn on of all. She made little murmurs of delight as she licked and sucked, dragged her tongue all the way back up from root to tip. He never wanted her to stop, pleasure building inside him in wave upon heated wave as her mouth and fingers worked him over, so good, so damn good.

“Yeah, suck me, just like that,” he groaned, pushing into her mouth just a little deeper. “Ah Jules…”

And she took him deeper, deeper still, right to her throat, her expression one of dazed ecstasy. He couldn’t hold back, flames building in his balls, sensation sizzling up his spine, shorting out his brain. He needed to tell her… “Jules…gonna come, baby…” She might have nodded, he wasn’t sure, but she kept sucking him, and he went rigid as a hot stream of pleasure erupted from him into her with a guttural shout. Sensation poured through him in burning waves, her mouth clinging to him through it all, his back bowed, his hands in her hair.

He felt her swallow and a spasm shook his body again. Slowly she withdrew him from her mouth, then tenderly licked around the crown, making his nerves jump with too much sensation. When she lifted her eyes to him again, they sparkled and a smile curved her sweet lips.

With weak legs, he bent and hauled her to her feet, then crushed her up against him. He stood there, wavering a little, eyes closed, then picked her right up and headed for her bedroom.

He flicked on the lamp. “Your bedroom still surprises me,” he said, tossing her onto her bed so she lay crossways. “Take your clothes off.”

“You never did tell me why that is.” She sat up and reached for the hem of her T-shirt. When she pulled it off over her head, he stood there, struck dumb by the beauty of her slender torso and the way the apricot lace of her bra cupped her breasts so sweetly.

Her room was becoming familiar to him but still surprised him with the messy, girly feel of it, with old-fashioned faded cabbage roses on the bedspread, a curvy, gilt-framed mirror on the wall above an old oak dresser, dripping with necklaces and scarves. Photographs and framed art postcards covered the walls and an antique coat rack in the corner held a collection of handbags. “I didn’t expect your bedroom to reveal so much about you.”

She frowned, holding her T-shirt in both hands, then cast a glance around the room.

He grinned and pointed at her. “Your shorts.” He stripped his own T-shirt off, his shorts and underwear lying in a heap in her living room. Still with a faint crease between her eyebrows, she lay down and lifted her hips to drag her shorts off. She looked at him, and he nodded for her to take her panties off too. His mouth watered, watching her, and then he took them from her and tossed them over his shoulder. He stepped between her legs, grabbed hold of them and yanked her until her bottom was at the edge of the bed, then he dropped to the floor so he was at eye level with her sweet pussy.

She braced her heels on the edge of the bed and he studied her shiny pink feminine secrets, breathed in the singular scent of her, sweet and tantalizing. He touched her with a fingertip, so gently. “Wet,” he murmured. “Very wet. You love giving head, don’t you, Jules?”

“Yes.” Her voice was a sigh.

“I could tell. I loved how enthusiastic you were, how much you liked it. Christ, Jules, you make me feel so incredible.”

“Good.”

“Wanna make you feel good now.”

Her response was a throaty moan. He bent his head to kiss her. He pressed his mouth to her thighs, her folds, the dark triangle of hair, before he let his tongue taste. Her fingers tunneled into his hair, scraping over his scalp, setting every nerve ending on fire. “Mmm, so good,” he murmured as his tongue dipped deeper, into liquid heat. He licked her so slowly, so gently, savoring her sweet taste, thrilled by the pale cream that oozed from her. His dick, spent only moments ago, came back to life, filling with blood, swelling.

He lifted his head to gaze up her body. Her arms, stretched down to his head, plumped her breasts together and her nipples had tightened into hard points. Her eyes were closed, her teeth sunk into her plush bottom lip, her head turned to one side. He got even harder. He buried his face between her thighs then, impatient for more of her, hungry for her taste, her pleasure. His tongue stroked up and down, in and out, then flicked over her clit, making her twitch.

Her small noises of pleasure filled his head along with her scent and taste, and he licked her again and again, tongued her swollen clit from side to side, then drew it into his mouth and sucked. His cock pulsed with the need to be inside her, Christ, already, but he wanted her pleasure, wanted her coming in his mouth, and then she gave it to him. Her hips lifted off the bed, her body taut, a long moment of stillness as she pulsed into his mouth, wet, hot and delicious. He almost came himself, kept sucking on her until she tugged his hair and said, “Stop, stop, stop.”