Picture Me Naked (Stoddard Art School Series) (16 page)

He looked at her for one long moment. Zee reached out and placed her hand on the plane of his chest. She stepped closer and looked at the beautiful shape of his lips. She had drawn them, they were hers. Zee looked up into the rich depths of his chocolate colored eyes.

“I got scared out on the roof and freaked, but it didn’t have anything to do with you. I’m the one messing this up. It’s not you, it’s me. Oh God, that really sounds stupid. You just need to know that... You’re so perfect, and I’m…so…
Dammit.
Just because I’m insecure as hell doesn’t change how I’ve come to feel about you. You’re good and kind and you don’t think I’m insane even though I am. I-I-I’m not looking for forever. I don’t need promises. I need…I mean, you make me want…” She crushed his shirt in a fist. “Dammit, I’m no good at this. I don’t know how to do this the right way. But I know if I let you walk away tonight thinking I-I don’t want to be with you. That’s not true. I…”

“Zee?”

“Yes?”

“Stop talking.” Jagger’s fingers ran up her arm to the death grip she had on his shirt. He pulled her into the corner of the landing until she felt the firm smoothness of the wall behind her. Jagger held her hand to his chest. She could feel the strong, steady beat of his heart. He looked down into her face. God, he smelled so good.

He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. She shivered as his fingertips trailed down the side of her neck. She closed her eyes when the pad of his thumb teased the dip at the base of her throat. His breath fanned her cheek as he nuzzled her temple.

“Zee?” His voice was no more than the rustle of a leaf.

“Mm?”

“May I please kiss you?”

Zee opened her eyes to meet his. She saw the passion in them. A few strokes of his fingers had set the blood racing through her veins. He’d said he couldn’t stop at one kiss. She didn’t want him to. She wanted more. She wanted him. Tonight. The thought thrilled her and terrified her all at the same time.

“Yes.
Please
.”

Jagger’s mouth captured hers in a crushing kiss. His fingers slipped behind her neck and held her head while his lips pulled at her own. Fire raced through her body as he crushed her against the wall.

He surrounded her. His warmth, his smell, his body wrapped about her. She opened her mouth to him at the urging of his tongue. A small moan escaped her as the kiss deepened. Jagger pressed his body hard against her. The firm ridge of his erection against her belly confirmed her effect on him. The realization made her head spin. Please don’t let this be another one of her dreams. If he turned into her cat again, she’d throw herself off the roof. Her fingers tore at his shirt. She wanted him naked.

Jagger growled low in his throat. He pulled her hand off his chest and guided it up around his neck. His touch ran down her side and at the curve of her waist pulled her against him. His mouth laid kisses along her jaw and down the side of her neck. Her breath came heavy and when the tip of his tongue traced a fiery path up to the base of her ear, she gasped at the warm wet rush that dampened her panties. The sensation rippled through her entire body.

“Hey, buddy! Get a room!”

Both Zee and Jagger started and turned as a man carrying a sack of groceries passed them on his way up the stairs.

Jagger looked toward the ceiling, and then closed his eyes and groaned before looking back down at her. Zee couldn’t meet his eyes, though she felt their gaze upon her. She concentrated on the crumpled fabric of his shirt tight in her fist. They were both panting, trembling. Zee tried to smooth the wrinkles from the fabric. Jagger stopped her. He dropped his forehead to rest upon the top of her head as he squeezed her hand.

“Zee.” He breathed her name. His heart pounded beneath her fingers. “I can’t bloody think straight when I’m with you.”

“I know the feeling.”

“No. I don’t think you do. I’m near mad with wanting you. If that bludger hadn’t interrupted us, I’d have taken you right here on the bloody stairs. I’ve lost my mind.”

Zee met his gaze.

“I meant what I said. We can stop right here.” He groaned. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. I have lost my mind. No pressure. It doesn’t have to be tonight. Don’t do something you’re not ready to do.”

“Jagger?”

“Yes?”

Zee leaned in and kissed the side of his neck. She felt him hold his breath. Running her lips up the tender skin below his ear, she whispered, “Ask me.”

Chapter Twenty

They were breathless as they reached the apartment. Jagger closed the door and reached for her, continuing the kiss that had been interrupted in the stairwell. He could barely catch his breath as heat sliced through him. Zee trembled in his arms.

“Jagger. I’m not very good at this.”

“You’re doing great so far.” He smiled and cupped her cheek.

“No, I’m serious. I think—”

“Don’t think.” He kissed her again and slipped his hands under the hem of her shirt and across the smooth, soft skin of her back and down into the waistband of her pants. He wanted nothing more than to strip her of every stitch and lower her to the couch, but he needed to slow down. He didn’t want to spook her again. He didn’t want to rush. Now who was thinking too much?

He broke the kiss and looked down into her face. Her lips were kissed pink. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes.” She stroked his shoulders. “Yes.”

He slipped the top button of her blouse out of its buttonhole. “I do like hearing yes from you after weeks of no.”

“I told you, I’m not good at this.” She gave a small gasp as two more buttons were freed and his hand slipped inside to cup the softness of her breast.

He sipped at her lips as his thumb caused another tiny gasp to escape her. “You feel good to me.” Her nipple tightened at his touch followed by a tightening of his jeans. “Will you kiss me if I’m naked in your bedroom?” he teased.

“Oh, yes.” Zee raised herself on tiptoe and erased any further questions from his mind with a searing kiss. She pressed her body to his. Soft curves embraced his hard edges.

Jagger dipped his head impatiently and pulled the tip of her breast into his mouth. He couldn’t release the last two buttons of her shirt while he was busy working on the buttons of his fly. He wanted her. Now. The bedroom was in the back somewhere. He’d scoop her up and find it.

A whimper and an arch of her back spurred him on. She buried her hand in his hair and held his head to her chest. “Jagger…”

Released from his pants, Jagger held his heat in his hand. His lips moved up the pale column of her neck as the urgency of his desire made him clutch at her waistband and tug at her belt.

Zee pulled at his shirt tearing it up and over his head and onto the floor. “We won’t make the bedroom. I’ll kiss you naked in the hall.”

Jagger groaned. Shoes were kicked off and Zee’s fumbling fingers tried to help him with her belt.

Realization carved its way through his sexual fog. “Wait!”

Panting Zee looked at him with wide eyes. His crotch throbbed as he took a step away from her. “What?”

Jagger gritted his teeth. “I can’t. We-we have to stop.”

“What?” She shook her head wildly, “Why?”

Jagger dropped his chin to his chest, and growled. He closed the front of his pants. “I don’t have protection.”

“That’s not funny.” Zee’s held her belt buckle in a fist.

He puffed out a breath. “Do I look like I’m joking?” He stooped and grabbed one of his shoes and looked around the room for the landing place of the other. “If I hurry, I can make it to the pharmacy before they close. Or there’s that 24-hour grocery out on Route 9.”

“That’s the other side of town.”

“I’ll be back before you know it.” Zee stood there with her belt in her hand and her blouse opened to her waist. The smooth path of pale cleavage begged to be kissed. Hell, he’d be back quick as a robber’s dog.

Zee lifted a hand to stop him. “Wait.” She went halfway down the hall. “I think…” She opened the door to a closet and tugged on the light chain and began searching. Her voice was muffled. “Leah gave me something for my birthday.” Jagger watched the tan of her pants tug across the roundness of her behind—her sweet, hot, making-him-crazy behind.

“You have condoms?” Please, dear God, let her have condoms.

“I may have thrown it away. Wait! Here it is. Yes!” Zee pulled out a small brightly colored gift bag with balloons adorning its sides and bright pink feathers decorating its handles. She held it up. “Leah likes to give me gag gifts. I think there might be something we could use in here, if you’re not too particular.”

“Particular?”

Zee rummaged through the bag and withdrew a shiny black box. She brushed off bits of confetti. “These are called A Party in Your Pants.” She read from the back of the box. “Contents include three wildly festive condoms in dazzling bright colors and coordinating flavored love lube which heats on contact. Choose from Passion Pulsing Purple Grape, Hot Rod Fire Cherry Red, or Flashing Flame Job Orange.”

“Flavored love lube?”

She pointed to the box. “That’s what it says.”

Jagger moved toward her thinking suddenly of fruit salad. “Should I ask what else is in that bag?”

“I wouldn’t.” She tossed the bag back over her shoulder into the closet and tugged off the light. “I’m sure the batteries are dead by now.”

Jagger plucked the box from her fingers and kissed her while backing her down the hall. He tore it open. “What’s your favorite color?”

Chapter Twenty-One

By the light of a small lamp burning on the dresser near the door, Zee led Jagger into the bedroom. Even her over-the-top desire for him couldn’t ease the feeling of self-consciousness. She turned the lamp off, dropping the room into darkness.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to see if these condoms glow in the dark?”

“No.” How could she explain it to him without making herself sound foolish?

“But I can’t see you.”

“I’m still here.” Zee moved behind Jagger and ran her hands over the smooth strength of his back. “I don’t need to see you. I’ve drawn you. I know each and every part of you by heart.” She laid a kiss on his shoulder. “I know you have a small scar.” Her fingers traced the crescent shaped mark. “Here.”

“Vicious five-year-old.”

“What?”

“Mick bit me.”

Zee laughed. Jagger turned to face her. “It was my fault. I was teasing her.” Zee continued to touch him. Her hands caressed the smooth muscles beneath the skin. Jagger moaned as her thumbs brushed across the flat of his nipples.

“I’d have bitten you too.”

Zee kissed his chest and slipped her arms around his waist. Jagger held her to him. His chest rose and fell beneath her cheek. She could hear his heart. He kissed the top of her head and then tipped her chin up and found her lips in the dark. This kiss was different from the desperate kiss in the stairwell. It was different from the heated kisses in the living room. This kiss was a tender urging. It was a gentle comfort that made her feel safe and cherished. She pressed against him.

Jagger’s hand finished unbuttoning her blouse. A thread of unease tugged through her. He lazily stroked her back as her shirt dropped to the floor. His hand slowly moved to cup her breast. Zee held her breath. She was helpless to stop the words, “barely worth the effort” as they echoed in ugly remembrance in her head. She fought the urge to cover herself, even in the dark.

His thumb brushed across the sensitive tip of her nipple. “You feel beautiful.” Hands stroked and petted. “So soft,” Jagger murmured as he ran kisses along the top of her shoulder. She released a shuddered breath and felt herself succumb to the heat of his touch. “You fit so perfect in my arms.” His voice was low, husky, sexy against the side of her neck. In the dark he found her mouth.

Jagger tugged at the fastening of her khakis. Zee wished she wore something sexier than white briefs underneath, but with an expert sweep of his hands, both pants and panties soon joined her blouse. Where his pants ended up, she couldn’t have guessed. But when he drew her back into his arms the feeling of skin against skin, hard against soft, heat against heat, Zee was lost to everything but him.

He broke away from the kiss. His breath fanned her cheek. “I’d sweep you into my arms and carry you off to bed, if I could find the bloody thing in the dark.”

Zee dropped her head to his shoulder and smiled against his neck. “You already found it. It’s right behind me.”

“Good thing I’m part tracker.”

Zee slid her hand lower. “Which part is that?”

“This part.” Jagger pushed her back until they both fell onto the bed.

Zee gasped as wet heat sliced through her. His deep kisses bruised her lips and left them both breathless. Jagger had her pinned beneath him, the length of his erection hard against her. With a groan, Jagger rolled away. Zee heard him open the wrapper of a condom. She smelled oranges and smiled.

She drew up next to him and kissed the flexing muscles of his arm. Her hands needed to touch him. She couldn’t see him. The condom didn’t glow. But she knew his body. She sketched it, painted it, and dreamed about it.
It was hers
. She laid claim to it each time she captured him upon a page or canvas. But still, this was where the line of artist to model ended, and where the intimacy of lovers began.

Jagger stilled. The only sound in the dark was their breathing. Zee laid her hand to Jagger’s face. The faint prick of his evening’s beard tickled her palm. “You are so beautiful.”

“I’m supposed to say that to you,” he whispered.

“I’m not. You are.”

He shook his head. “You’re wrong.”

“You can’t see me, remember?”

“No, but I know how beautiful your gray eyes are. I know when you’re angry they shoot silver sparks.” He stroked her hair. “I know your hair shines like new pennies in the sun. And when you’re soaking wet it falls in perfect spirals around your face.” He touched her mouth with his fingers. “Your bottom lip dips right in the middle. It’s so bloody sexy I’ve thought of nothing else for weeks.” His fingers burned heated paths over her breast and clutched at her hip and down one thigh. “I can feel the firm curves of you and all I want to do is touch you, taste you, make love to you.”