Intimate Strangers (8 page)

Nine

I am so out of shape
, Chelsea thought with a huff as she struggled to climb up the last leg of the ridge on Mount Fromme. What normally would have taken a person approximately one hour and forty-five minutes to hike had taken them
three
hours to ascend. A deeply tanned hand entered her field of vision. She looked up into a pair of dark eyes, expectant and hesitant all at once. Tiaan really was a gorgeous man, with eyes one could lose one’s self in. Currently, she knew she was falling deeper for him as she reached out to take his hand and he pulled her up to where he stood.

“Thank you for coming with me.” He moved his hand up her arm, the other sliding over her jaw. The action caused slithering tendrils of heat to descend low in her belly. “Being cooped up indoors hasn’t been fun. I just had to get out of there – away from everyone. Lately, it’s oppressive.”

Only half-listening, Chelsea attempted to understand what he meant by that. Did Tiaan feel oppressed by Ruan? By her? She didn’t mean for him to feel that way. All of this was confusing as hell for her too.

“You’re doing that thing you did in the lift,” his deep and sexy laughter brought forth a deluge of memories from that night. Tiaan pressed a firm, warm kiss to her forehead.

“W-what thing?” Trying to concentrate when the man she’d had so many fantasies about over the past year stood in front of her at this moment was proving to be awfully difficult.

“Over-thinking, over-analyzing. Leave that stuff up to Mac; it’s what he does best,” Tiaan chuckled softly while turning her body around so that her back was pressed against his chest. “Look. Feel. Relax. I’m trying, but I need you to do those things too.”

“O-okay.”

Chelsea forced her body to do what he’d said. She looked out over the city of Vancouver from this incredible vantage point. Having lived in the province of Ontario for most of her life, Chelsea assumed she had pretty much seen everything this country had to offer in her own backyard. Ontario had mountains for skiing, lakes, forests, big cities… But nothing could compare to the city of Vancouver. Sitting on the west coast of British Columbia, overlooking Vancouver Island and the Pacific, this beautiful city was surrounded by rolling mountains covered with a thick layer of evergreen trees.

“I have a suggestion. If you don’t like it, we don’t have to do it.”

Snapped out of her reverie, Chelsea tried to ignore the unintended double entendre of his words and failed. The feel of his hard body against her back brought memories of their night together in his hotel room, when she had tried things she never thought she would – and thoroughly enjoyed them, too.

“But, I do think we should try. For Ruan’s sake.”

She shook the thoughts from her head, though her body didn’t quite get the message. Hyper sensitive, her flesh tingled where he released a breath over the nape of her neck. She felt it all the way down between her thighs. Chelsea squeezed them together, anything to sort out this need she developed in his presence. Her thick khaki shorts bunched up, rubbing firmly at the juncture where her legs met and she moaned softly, rocking her hips to get more pressure.

“Jesus, Chelsea.” Tiaan draped one arm over her collar bone, pinning her to his chest. Breathing ragged and his arousal poking stiffly at her backside, he gruffly asked, “What are you doing?”

Leaning against him, she sighed, shutting her eyes and closing out the stunning, cloudless blue skies above. “It’s you. You’re making me crazy. I-I can’t help it.”

He released a heavy whoosh of air through his nose. “
Jislaaik!
” Tiaan hissed the Afrikaans expression before fastening his mouth at the base of her neck where it met her right shoulder. A succession of hot, open-mouthed kisses later, he came to a rest near her earlobe. “I want to taste you, Chelsea.”

Her knees crumbled like ancient stone at his highly erotic words. She slumped against his sturdy frame and whispered, “Please.”

In less time than it took her to inhale one breath, Chelsea was sitting on top of a large boulder. Tiaan cupped her face, his hard member pressing where she needed him most, and devoured her mouth like it was his favourite delicacies. While his lips were rough and insistent, there was a bittersweet tenderness in the way he framed her face.

Tiaan ground himself against her, mimicking the same motions they had acted out many times during that night so long ago, and the memories of their encounter, coupled with his persistent rubbing at her engorged clit had her screaming into his mouth shortly after their frenzied actions began.

In the next moment, Tiaan had broken away from her mouth and he worked at the button to her shorts. Not even bothering with the zipper, he yanked the fabric down to her ankles where they pooled above the hiking boots she borrowed from Hannah. She watched him kneel down slowly, wincing as he did, until he came to a halt. The pained expression he wore altered as his eyes swept over her cotton-covered entrance.

“Christ,” he hissed, “you’re absolutely drenched, Chelsea.”

She couldn’t respond when he rested one hand on the inside of her thigh and used the other to trace the soaking wet fabric covering her folds. This small amount of contact with where she wanted him most sent her careening to the edge of bliss and back again.

Then he did something astonishing. With eyes wide as cappuccino mugs, Chelsea watched him lean close to her and inhale deeply. Tiaan’s own eyes rolled back in his head, as if the scent of her was something intoxicating. What stunned her the most was seeing him slip one finger beneath her panties, gathering her juices, and bringing that digit to his mouth. He sucked greedily, mimicking the actions of a person enjoying an exquisite meal.

“Damn, you taste heavenly, my darling,” he growled, eyes darker than coal as he glanced back up at her.

Her breath caught halfway between a hiccup and a moan. A switch had been thrown and suddenly, the man she had been trapped in that elevator with just over a year ago had returned.

Tiaan licked his lips, gaze flicking back to her parted thighs. “I don’t care how loud you scream, Chelsea, I just want you to come for me.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he descended, pulling aside the fabric of her panties to suck the throbbing bud at the top of her folds between his teeth, rolling it gently. A strangled sound
exploded from her throat, echoing around them on the vast forested mountain. He feasted on her, that talented tongue of his lapping up every drop, and as release shot through her body, a typhoon of flames prickled across her flesh.

In the aftermath of his delicious torture, Chelsea feared she would only want more from him. More than he was willing or able to give. However, in light of their recent truce, she pushed these depressing thoughts aside and accepted his kiss when he offered it. She tasted herself on his tongue and was surprised to find how much she enjoyed it. Then she remembered the joy she had felt in watching his expression while she pleased him and it was the only thing she wanted to do now.

Sliding down the rock and dropping to her knees, she watched his face as she tugged his belt undone, pushed the button through the islet of his shorts, and pulled them down over his rigid manhood straining in their cotton prison. Chelsea licked her lips while her fingers traced the outer edges of him and she reveled in the hiss of air he forced out at her touch.

~~~

“Jesus,” he all but moaned, “Chelsea if you do that again we’re going to have a repeat of what happened in the shower.”

Kneeling before him like an offering to a god, her lips curved back and upwards as the breeze blew her cinnamon waves loose from her messy and sexy as sin up-do. “Remember what you wanted to try, that night in the hotel, but I was too afraid to do?” her sotto-voce words were highly teasing – not unlike the palm of her hand, rubbing against his erection.

Head thrown back, he struggled to focus his mind back to the night they spent in both the elevator and his hotel room. She hadn’t been against him restraining her, they definitely did that. At one point, he had stripped the top sheet from the bed and used it to secure her legs wide apart while the pillow covers were used to hold her wrists against the headboard, and Tiaan had teased her mercilessly until she sobbed, begging him to take her.

“You said you wanted to…” She paused both her speech and the firm stroking along his painfully hard manhood. “Have my throat.”

“
Jislaaik,
” he expressed in utter shock again, pulse tripping and breath faltering. Tiaan never would have imagined those words coming from Chelsea but if she was offering, he wouldn’t turn that chance down.

“I…I want to try it. With you.”

Hastily, he met her gaze, just to be certain she wasn’t making this up. He saw honesty and sincerity in the depths of her turquoise eyes, along with a willingness to please. That she wished to please
him
so greatly as to offer herself in such a way only went further to ensure him that his earlier thoughts were justified.

“We’ll go slowly,” he vowed, hoping it wasn’t a promise he might inadvertently break.

Showing again that she was submitting herself to him, Chelsea bowed her head to remove his boxers and gazed reverently at what she released. Then, in the single sexiest action he had ever witnessed, she turned her eyes back up to meet his while licking her lips. He nearly expelled himself on her chin right then and there.

She started to reach for him but Tiaan stopped her, taking her hands in his and guiding them to the fronts of his thighs to show her how to steady herself. At an alarmingly unhurried rate, Chelsea moved closer and then, mercifully and dreadfully at once, dragged the tip of her tongue up his entire length. Tiaan’s eyes rolled back in his head which dropped onto his shoulders. The
memories he had of her taking him into her mouth were not even
close
to how it actually felt. Yes, it was wet and hot, but it was so much more. She sucked, drawing him closer to her, and released the plum-shaped tip with a pop. His body shuddered in response to her erotic torture – the only kind he ever wanted to suffer again.

“I…” she was breathless. “I want you to…to take my throat, Tiaan,” she repeated.

Jesus it was too damned difficult to keep a level head when she spoke like that.

Eyes heavy-lidded, he gazed down at her, open, willing, wanting, and ready for him. Her lips were parted, slick with saliva. She flicked out her tongue again, lathing it across his throbbing shaft. Finally, the last shred of his resolve snapped, a rusted wire bent to breaking-point.

“
Fok
.” He clasped her head between his hands and took the offer she presented him with, sliding into her willing mouth. Tiaan hissed his approval of her tongue wiggling along the bottom of him as he slipped deeper.

Chelsea moaned, the vibrations causing his body to ready itself for climax.

Not yet
, he thought, gritting his teeth, sliding further still.

He met with some resistance at the back of her throat but she opened for him, taking a deep breath. Holy hell. So tight.

“Not going…to last…very…long,” he spoke through clenched teeth.

Those eyes were watching his, an almost pleading look crossing them. Tiaan held on for as long as he could when Chelsea was impaling her mouth with his hardened length. He was meant to have been driving but was shocked to find he was unable to move. With each thrust, she pushed him further back, sending him deeper, until he emptied himself in thick spurts down her throat.

“Chelsea,” he whispered reverently, fisting her hair.

She sucked until there was nothing left to suck and then released him gently from her mouth, keeping eye contact the entire time. Then the little vixen grinned, placed a kiss to the top of his left thigh, and stood up, bringing his shorts with her.

“Was that okay?” She licked her lips. Actually licked them, catching the last of his seed with her tongue and bringing it inside her mouth. Impossible to believe, but he began growing hard again.

“Okay?” he gasped, fixing his belt. “It was bloody incredible.” Framing her flushed face, Tiaan claimed her mouth, thoroughly enjoying the way her body felt against his. It was right, her with him, and he didn’t ever want to let go. “
You’re
incredible.”

Later that evening, after they had arrived back at home to find that Ruan was asleep, he began broaching one of the many subjects that had been on his mind all day. More than that, as soon as he had signal on his phone, he was online and checking flight times. Then, perhaps foolishly, he purchased three tickets to Toronto airport for tomorrow morning. If she said no, it didn’t matter to him, but he wanted her to try and deep down, he secretly hoped that her parents might push aside their stupid row and accept their daughter back into their lives.

Not saying a word, Tiaan clasped one of Chelsea’s hands in his and led her out into the backyard. Mackenzie had done an incredible job with the place since he’d been here last. An in-ground pool was placed in the far left corner, completely fenced in, as he would only expect of the paranoid man, especially now that he was a father twice over.

To his right, Tiaan located the two-tiered deck. The top tier was for entertaining, with a large table and chairs, a barbecue, and even an outdoor refrigerator. The second tier was smaller and cozy, with loveseats and an outdoor fireplace. It was here he took her too and sat Chelsea down next to him.