Love Me Tonight - Four Erotic Romance Stories for Valentine's Day - Boxed Set (11 page)

She brought in the food, a simple beef stew in red wine sauce. Andrew rubbed his hands with eagerness. There he was, this confident, kind man, and he was rubbing his hands like a schoolboy about to get chocolate pudding. If she hadn't already fallen in love with him, she certainly would have now.

“So good,” he said around a mouthful of the fragrant stew.

She passed him the basket of rolls.

His blue eyes shone in the candle light. “Tessa, are you trying to fatten me up?”

“Yes. I plan to make soup with you.”

“I knew you had an ulterior motive for inviting me over.” He licked his lips.

She blushed and sipped the red wine he'd brought for dinner. She'd used a very good wine for the stew, but this bottle was even better for its age.

The conversation throughout dinner continued in the vein of their previous dates, with the exchange of biographical details and commentary on what garbage was on the television these days, and which of the guilty pleasure shows they most enjoyed watching.

After dinner, they retired to the sitting room with thimble-sized cups of espresso.

They sat next to each other on the sofa, and he held her hand.

Andrew squinted and leaned back, head tilted. “Would you say blondes have more fun? Now that you've been one for a month or so?”

She glanced down at the floor and tapped her red shoes on the floor nervously. “I'd say these last few weeks have been more fun than most of the weeks I was a brunette.”

“You're beautiful with any color hair.” He tucked some hair behind her ear and leaned over to plant a kiss on her neck. He murmured, “You're the most beautiful woman in the world.”

She turned to meet his lips, and reached for the buttons of his shirt as they kissed.

With his shirt undone, she ran her hands up and down his torso. The man could use a few more meals of beef stew, by the way she could feel his lower ribs, but the rest of him was lean and muscled. His nipples were small and hard as pebbles, the thatch of chest hair between his pectoral muscles soft and welcoming to her fingers.

“Oh, Tessa,” he murmured as her hands swept around to his back, under his shirt, massaging and digging in to his back muscles.

She sighed into his mouth and kissed him harder, but he didn't move from his spot on the couch, and his hands didn't stray from his sides.

She pulled back. “I'd like to take you to my bedroom.”

“I don't know if I can,” he said, his eyebrows tenting up with worry.

“Just hold me,” she said. “That's all you have to do. Lie there and hold me and love me.”

His eyelashes fluttered at the word
love
, but he didn't comment as he took her hand and stood up.

She led the way to her bedroom, the doubts racing ahead of her like a cold wind.

They stood at the foot of the bed, and she flicked on the gas fireplace so the room would be toasty.

Facing her, Andrew removed his shirt and let it drop to the floor. He wore no undershirt beneath the black dress shirt, so he was shirtless, his lean body half exposed.

Tessa turned her back to him and pointed to the zipper.

She sensed his hands shaking as he pulled the zipper down all the way. He ran his hands up and down her bare back, pausing to unfasten her bra.

“Tessa, I want to love you,” he said. “Be patient with me, because I don't know if I can, but I want to.”

“Andrew, there are medications.”

He laughed at this, and used his hands to turn her around. He took her hand and placed it on the front of his trousers, where he was firm and erect.

“That's not the problem,” he said.

“Apparently not!”

He stopped laughing and pulled the dress so it fell away to the floor, along with her bra.

He cupped her breast in one hand and closed his eyes, his breathing audible and strained.

“Andrew?”

His breath choked in his throat, and he grasped her to him in an embrace, his face against her neck.

“Andrew?”

“It's going to be okay,” he said into her neck, seeming to be reassuring himself more than her.

“We can wait,” she said, her doubts swirling around them both, cackling that she should have known better than to rush.

“I don't want to wait,” he said. “I wanted to make love to you the moment I saw you. Did you feel my hands shaking when I washed your hair? Being so close to you, touching you, I didn't know I could feel that way about another woman.”

He pulled back and gazed down at her breasts, and suddenly she knew. He'd glossed over most of the details of his wife's battle with cancer, but in that moment, she knew it had been the type of battle that robbed the woman of her breasts and then her life.

Tessa crossed her arms over her chest. “I can put my bra back on. Or I can wear a shirt, if you'd prefer.”

He pulled her arms away and dropped to his knees before her. He kissed her stomach, and the space between her breasts, and then he gently mouthed the nipple of one and then the other.

His touch sent a spark through her network of nerves, and she was covered and uplifted by a web of light. He grew more bold, more insistent with his hands, touching her legs and back and even between her thighs.

The ghosts, the memories, the fears—everything fell away.

When he looked up again, he was smiling, and his eyes were gleaming.

She ran her fingers through his silver hair.

“I nearly left the hair salon when I saw it was you,” she said. “I was afraid to be touched by you. But I'm not afraid anymore.”

“Good.” He made a funny growling sound and grabbed for her underwear with his teeth, pulling them down that way as she giggled.

He tossed her back onto the bed, whipped his gray slacks and underwear down together, and crawled up, grinning.

Tessa sighed as he aligned his body on top of hers and sank his weight down upon her. She'd forgotten how good that weight felt, how reassuring and constant.

They kissed, breathing more heavily from excitement, and she wrapped her legs around him.

He shifted his body down, so the head of his erection was at her opening. She had some drugstore-brand lubricant ready in the side table, but they had no need of it.

With a push, he was inside her, and giving her a coy look, as if daring her to ask for more.

“Give it to me,” she said. “Don't hold back.”

He pushed his hardness in further, and her mind and body flooded with pleasure.

They moved together in rhythm, with him on top until she was nearly there, and then they rolled, and she was astride him.

She rocked her hips, grinding her aching nub against his lean muscles and pubic bone, his cock hard and urgent inside her.

He grimaced and moaned, starting to come, and she focused on the sensation of his cock pulsing inside her, surrendering his gift.

With three more thrusts, she was also coming, gasping at the shock of those bright stars all around her, and the feeling of everything falling away, leaving only goodness.

They curled into each other, their connected parts pulsing, embracing like reunited friends.

After a moment, they rolled to their sides, sated.

He started to laugh, and nodded down at their feet. “You're still wearing those fuck-me shoes!”

She looked down at the red, high-heeled shoes. “Fuck-me shoes?” She laughed even harder, putting her face in her hands. “I guess they did their job, didn't they.”

Andrew traced her body with his fingers. “You didn't need the shoes, but I can't say they didn't hurt.”

After Valentine's Day, Tessa nestled the shoes back into their tissue paper, inside their box, and put them in her closet.

She brought them out once a year, every year after that, and the two of them celebrated Valentine's Day together. The next year, it was in a new house they shared. The following year, they were on a cruise.

And so love blossomed and grew and lasted, for Andrew and Tessa.

She never let another person touch her hair, and he never let anything stop him from loving her.

Author's Note - Mimi Strong

I hope you enjoyed Andrew and Tessa's story in
Falling Away
. This couple really brought out my tender, romantic side. If you'd like to sample more of my romance stories, check out the series 
Her Teddy Bear
and
The Ice Cream Shop Boy
. (Both are quite steamy.) For a great chick lit book with plenty of laughs, check out 
Kissing Coach
, a stand-alone novel.

I also write some very wild, very erotic stuff, full of kink and alpha males. So, if you like that sort of thing, check out my series,
Borrowed Billionaire
and
Billionaire Novelist
.

I'm always writing new things, so please
visit my page on Orly Press
 or
my personal page on Facebook
to see what I'm up to right now.

About the Author

In 1973, Mimi's parents had sex, and this led to Mimi's birth. She started out as a baby, but grew larger, and as she did, she changed cities and careers many times. Her heart has been broken, which made it stronger. She currently lives with her teddy-bear husband and cuddly cats in a creaky, old house. Mimi wants to be an author when she grows up.