Riding the Wave (10 page)

T
anner spread his fingers wide over Avalon’s trim waist. Her skin felt like spun silk. He’d never felt a softer woman.

But there was nothing soft about the grip she had on his hair.

Part of him dug it, liked the little bite of pain along his scalp. But most of him got a strangely smirky feeling. He’d soon show her who was really in charge.

The tiny pets and strokes he made over her flat stomach gave away who was the real boss. She twitched under every touch, wiggling in a very appealing way. Her hips surged toward him, silently begging.

The water pattered down around them, combining with the cubicle and the relative dark to provide an impression of privacy. It wasn’t real privacy, nothing that would protect them from the prying eyes of neighbors. Avalon’s feet and his knees between them would be easily spotted in the daytime.

Only the cover of night gave them the slightest screen of respectability. And still Avalon wanted him badly enough to risk it. That rocked him all the way down to
his gut. For his part, he loved the rush. It felt kind of like riding high on a wave three times his height.

But he finally had her under his mouth. Where he’d wanted her. The first moment he’d seen her riding in, he’d wanted to shake her up. And, yeah, maybe he’d realized that she wasn’t near as self-assured as she wanted everyone to believe. But that didn’t take care of this need he had to see her all mussed and wrecked.

He huffed an intentionally humid breath over the lips of her pussy. She was trimmed close, a little patch of dark hair pointing right toward bare lips. The soft gasp she gave went straight to his cock.

The caw of seagulls broke his fascination. They didn’t have all the time in the world.

The first lick made him wish for an eternity. She tasted damn good. A little salt from the ocean, but mostly crisp woman taste. He loved the quiet sounds that broke from her.

He rolled his tongue over her full length at first, then went hunting for her clit. When her hands locked across the back of his head, nails digging in, he knew he’d found the right spot.

His entire body thrummed in response to what he worked out of Avalon. She turned him inside out with only her responsiveness. The choked gasps she gave, the way her hips twitched under his attentions.

The world narrowed to his task, the licking and sucking and nibbling that seemed to be driving her nuts. Mission accomplished.

“Tanner,” she said on a breath. Her voice squeaked upward at the end. “Please, God, Tanner.” The words all poured together, turning into one big smash of pleading.

She tossed her head back, seemingly without even
noticing the water that sluiced over her face. The shower sprayed and gleamed on her curves. A rivulet ran down between her breasts, over the thin line of her swimsuit, then past the plane of her stomach. When it got to the edge of her pussy, he licked it up in one long, slow move, tasting both the clean purity of the shower water and the salty sheen left on her skin by the ocean.

She jerked her feet farther apart, nudging him with her pelvis. “Please. Don’t stop. Whatever you do.”

Fuck, he liked that. Liked having Avalon at his mercy, liked unlocking every bit of her. Liked knowing she was getting everything she needed—from him.

He pulled his mouth off her. The snug channel of her pussy enveloped two of his fingers. He curled them, watching up the length of her body for what made her ribs jump on a huge exhale. There. That was what he needed.

But in response, he had to give Avalon what she needed too. Because he’d be damned if he was done with her. Next stop would be his bedroom. He couldn’t help another lick of her clit.

He wrapped his free hand around her thigh. He pushed up, until she rested half her weight on him. She leaned her shoulders back against the tile of the shower stall, trusting him. Tucking her knee over his shoulder was easy; then he had a free hand that he could pet over her sleek body.

The smooth marble tiles of the shower walls extended to the floor, but the sandy coating was beginning to work sensation through his knees. He’d need to get off them soon, but not until he was ready. Not until Avalon had come all over him.

He reached up to palm her breast, slipping under the barely damp material. Her nipples tightened under his attention.

“Tell me what you want.” He punctuated his order with another lick of her, around the two fingers he still worked in and out of her.

“Come,” she managed to squeak. Barely a word. He’d snatched those away from her. Taken her whole into himself.

“What’s that?” He buried his smile against her flesh. Goddamn, she was soaking him. He loved it. The elation that ran through him had little comparison. He couldn’t help but tease her a little. Not to be mean, but because he felt so damn good. “Use your words, love.”

“Don’t be an asshole.” The tug she took out of his hair didn’t do much to kill his high. “You know what I want.”

“I sure as hell do.” He stroked fingers in and out of her, adding one more.

She gasped, the sound sliding deeper until it was nearly a groan. She slammed her forearm across her mouth. He couldn’t see the lush curve of her lips, but he understood. If she wanted to scream, she’d have to cover it.

And he was going to try like hell to make her scream.

“Yes,” he said. “Keep that right there. Better quiet those noises. Don’t be too loud.” He rocked his teeth against the inside tendon of her slim thigh. “You’ll get us caught.”

She jerked up on her toes, slamming her wet pussy toward him with a moan. But she didn’t say a word.

“Like that idea?” He wanted to push her, to pressure her. Wanted some sort of admission. “Want to be caught? Want everyone to see me on my knees, licking you? Driving you crazy?”

“Please, make me come,” she finally said. Half whisper and half gasp and all pleading. She’d own him with sentences like that, if only she knew. He’d do anything to get more of them. “Please, Tanner. Make it worth it.”

Fuck, how could he pass up on that? He fucked her with his fingers, adding his mouth back to the mix. Long, hard flicks and the barest nibble. Until finally he locked his teeth around her clit and sucked it deep.

And felt her break apart all over him. Her pussy clenched over his intruding fingers. The soft keen she gave wound upward into a flat-out scream muffled only by her arm. Her legs shook and her stomach jumped.

Tanner felt like the goddamn king of the mountain. He’d done that. Worked her over until she’d come so hard she’d probably seen stars.

He kept up the attention, letting her draw her knee down off his shoulder. He soothed her with deep, sure touches, petting her stomach as he rocked back into a squat.

His knees protested the move. More proof he wasn’t the kid he used to be, with salt water running through his veins instead of blood. By morning, he’d probably be regretting this.

But he couldn’t make himself care right now. And he’d be damned if he was done.

Avalon’s eyes had gone cloudy, unfocused but pinned on him at the same time. Her tongue slid over her lips and she gasped one last time.

Deliberately, he lifted his fingers to his mouth to lick them clean. He loved the way she tasted, and the gobsmacked look on her face was worth it. Her lips parted. The pulse at the dip of her clavicles pounded.

He rose to his feet. Now that he didn’t have his face buried in Avalon’s pussy, the water pattering over them became an annoyance. He snapped it off, then pushed Avalon’s wet hair out of her face.

“You still with me?” He liked the delicate lines of her
cheeks, the soft curve of her jaw. And he really freaking liked the way she nestled into his palm.

“Where else would I be?”

He brushed his lips over hers, needing to taste that relaxation. Needing a way out of his own head. And nothing had worked as well as when he’d been driving Avalon out of hers.

Even holding her bikini bottoms out for her took on a fun edge. She stepped into them and the move brought her even closer, so he could smell her skin.

He laced their fingers together, then led her back to the quiet house. The white rush of waves blended into the background, the only noise beyond the slam of Tanner’s blood in his ears.

Avalon’s hand was unbelievably warm in his. Small enough too, to make him feel like a big ol’ manly man. It was a feeling he didn’t get that much, but there was something about this whole night that already had him standing taller.

An overwhelming sense of protectiveness mixed with guilt dogged his heels. He knew he was using her on a certain level, to avoid the messiness and unpleasantness of the next few days. He was staring down a bit of a shit storm.

But as he led Avalon through the silent house, up the stairs to his bedroom, he pushed it all away. She had told him she was using him too. They both needed to forget.

As they stepped inside the bedroom, his bare feet dragged to a stop on the plush carpet. The place looked like an expensive hotel room, even though it wasn’t. The walls were covered with watercolors of some stretch of beach that was certainly not San Sebastian. The
headboard of the bed was an anonymous white-cane deal, but it was king-sized and spread with a dark gold blanket.

Because he’d had less than a week in the place, he still fumbled for the light switch. But a second later the room was flooded with light.

Tanner blinked against the sudden glare, glancing at Avalon. This was definitely going to be different from dropping to his knees in the shower.

There were only the two of them and whatever they could make.

So he wanted to make sure he gave her everything, gave her enough of an experience to make up for the fact that they had no future. He couldn’t permanently take up banging his sister’s best friend, and that wasn’t even taking into account how often he was gone. He spent such a large portion of time on the circuit, maintaining a girlfriend was an impossibility. Kristin had made that more than clear when she called him five times a day and cried every time he left.

Not that he’d cared before.

Did he care now?

He didn’t have the fucking
time
,
to be perfectly honest. Avalon was an awesome chick, and she’d be able to give some lucky man everything he wanted. Everything he needed.

His hand folded tighter around hers at that thought.

Any bastard who got a chance with Avalon would have to appreciate how amazing she was. Tanner would have to make sure of it.

She tugged on her hand. “Getting a little intense there, Tanner?”

He pushed a smile up to his lips. This was the time they
had. In a little more than two weeks he’d either put the cap on a decent career or be halfway to burying it. Either way, he was obligated to finish out the rest of the year’s World Championship circuit. He’d be moving on whether he had a San Sebastian trophy or not.

“Do you blame me?” He spun them around until he could sit at the end of the bed. When he tugged on her hands, she stepped between his knees without even hesitating. “This whole night has been one level of intensity after the other. I like what we’ve got going now much better.”

He skimmed his thumbs over the ridge of her hips. When she shivered, her body shimmied along with it. The apples of her cheeks weren’t so high now, not when she stared at him with dark depths of her eyes.

“I like it too.” She nodded. Her hands fluttered a moment before coming to rest on his shoulders. But once she landed, her grip became firm. More intensity. Her fingertips gouged into the muscles behind his neck.

He wanted to groan, it felt so good. Hard spikes of goodness arrowed down to his shoulder blades.

“But the question remains.” She scratched over his shoulders with her thumbnails this time. An entirely different sensation. This woman was going to flip his world as much as he wanted to flip hers. “What’s the
next
level?”

A
valon’s knees were still weak. Wobbly. Her pussy throbbed with the aftereffects of the orgasm Tanner had wrung from her.

And she was still greedy for more.

The question had slipped out of her mouth almost unchecked. What’s next, indeed. Most girls would have been thrilled with what she’d already gotten.

In the fall of her junior year of high school, she’d started dating her first boyfriend, Jeff Deveraux. They’d been together most of the year, until two weeks before prom when she’d had her first lesson in being used. As in, he dumped her once he didn’t need a ride to swim practice anymore.

But she figured she’d actually come out pretty lucky in that relationship. There’d been plenty of her friends who’d told her they didn’t come when they’d lost their virginity. She had.

It had made her kind of greedy. She had a high bar and men didn’t always make it.

Tanner had made her come so hard she’d thought she’d stop breathing.

And she still wanted to climb him like a monkey.

She scratched her nails over his thick muscles. The way he arched up into it was a little bit of a rush. He was a beast; all power and strength. She’d seen some surfers who were nothing but ligaments and bones. They tended to flick over the waves in tiny, liquid moves.

Not Tanner. He’d always owned the wave. Owned the moment.

Now it felt like he could own her if she wasn’t careful. She’d have to give so much of herself to be worthy of that sort of attention.

She simply didn’t know if she had that kind of effort to give at the moment.

When he buried his face against her stomach, it sent a hard shudder up through her spine. His hair tickled her bare cleavage until she pushed her fingers through it, shoved it back.

“The next level,” he said against her skin, “is anything you want it to be.”

She couldn’t help the little laugh that burbled up from her chest. “Here I am, again. Telling you that you’re freaking insane. Is this going to be a trend with us?”

“In the first place, no, it won’t be a trend.” He grabbed her by the hips, then flipped her and gently lowered her to the bed in a move so slick her head spun. The man was certainly practiced.

But she liked being on her back, looking up at him. His blunt features had a kind of hard-edged sincerity she liked. She traced his top lip with a single finger, feeling the barely noticeable ridge of his scar.

Her mouth went dry. She managed not to ask if he meant because there was no “us.” She already knew the answer to that one. Of course there wasn’t. Tanner needed
the type of girl who could wait at home for him. There was too much Avalon still needed to conquer. Not to mention she couldn’t afford to have her name permanently linked with Tanner’s in a romantic way. It’d be bad enough if even one word of this one night got out.

People would say she was trying to ride Tanner’s coattails into the ranks of surfer photogs. The whispers about family connections would be nothing compared to the outright mocking she’d catch if anyone knew they’d slept together.

So she only smiled. Her toes trailed up the back of his calf. She liked the rough texture of his hair. “And the second?”

“I’m not freaking crazy. You name it, I’ve got it, it’s yours.” He settled onto his elbows, one big arch of muscle over her. The plank of his body was solid enough to make her feel protected.

“You’re so full of shit.”

“Am not.” The childish words took on a sensuous lilt based only on his wickedly quirked smile.

“You’d go down on me again?”

“Why not?” He brushed a kiss over her mouth, trailing his tongue over her bottom lip. Then he sucked it into his mouth to nibble. “You tasted so goddamn good, I think I could lick you for hours.”

The dirty words sent a rough shiver through her. But she didn’t buy it, either. The hand she flattened over his chest found rock-hard muscles, pulled firm with tension—tension she was causing. She could get behind that program.

But when she swept her hand down his stomach, skimming her fingers over his barely damp board shorts, she smiled. The cock she’d felt pressed against her earlier had
definitely perked up to play. “And this? Won’t bother you any?”

He surged into her grip, but that was it. The ends of her hair tangled around his hand. “Blue balls are a myth. I figured you’d have known that one.”

She grinned. Weird, to have this sort of happy buzz when she’d otherwise be oh so drama. She flat-out liked spending time with Tanner, no matter what was going on. “Of course I know that, numb nuts.”

“Actually, no. Not numb. That’s what we’re discussing at this very moment.”

The fingertips she drilled into his ribs had only one purpose—to tickle. But he didn’t budge. “Nonticklish people are no fun.”

“Then you’ll be relieved to know there’s exactly one spot on me that’s ticklish.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Where?”

“If you think I’m telling you, you’re the freaking insane one.”

“Nice. Real nice, Wright.”

His touches ran over her skin and through her bones like she could float away on them. The heady rush threatened to drown her even while they teased. He could easily take everything she had to give and still want more. Still need more.

She’d run out of pieces to give him. Better they had only this time, then move on.

Lifting her mouth to his for more kisses was easier. Bodies she knew. The rest of it . . . She’d rather not even think about the rest of it.

Thank God he sent her spinning in a way she understood. Her body arched into his, her breasts rubbing over
his skin. The thin material of her bikini top was too much and not enough at the same time.

The fast, methodical way he stripped it off her was a relief. The artificial air-conditioning breeze had only a second to send goose bumps over her arms before Tanner’s nearness was back to warm her. His breath tingled her nipples; then he sucked one tip into his mouth.

He was good. Almost too good if she stopped to think about it, but she wouldn’t let herself. There was only the way his hands glided and stroked over her skin, the easy way he slipped off her swimsuit bottoms.

The way he cupped her pussy had ownership written all over it. A full hand, fingertips barely cresting the curve of her ass. Until his thumb delved surely between her lips, slicked her moisture all over her skin.

She gasped, grabbing hard to his shoulders. Her eyes flashed open to stare at the plain ceiling. With the things he did to her, she ought to have seen stars, moons, something entirely more exciting than white plaster. The man was a fucking genius; that was for sure.

“Now, please.” The words flew out on their own. How the hell did he make her beg so easily? This could be a problem.

He pressed openmouthed kisses along her shoulders, trailing up her neck. A spinning excitement made her curve her spine toward him, but she couldn’t get much closer. Not with the heavy thigh he pinned across her legs.

“Nope,” he said into the sensitive skin of her neck. His words were like rasping strokes along her flesh. “I’ve decided you need to come again first. Let me do what I need to.”

“Lie back and think of England?”

“I didn’t think Prince William was your type.” He grinned against the top curve of her breast. The glance he flicked up at her sparked pure laughter up from her center. “But don’t let me stop you.”

She tucked her laugh against the inside of her arm, but that didn’t help. The cough she forced didn’t help her failing-to-be-serious face. He was going to get tired of her soon. Matthew had hated how she couldn’t keep her “mind on the prize,” as he said. “Keep calm and carry on. I can do that.”

He flat-out laughed, mouth open against her sternum. The rumble sent dark pleasure through her.

“Can you?” He punctuated the words with a hard thrust in her core. The pleasure slammed up through her in one hard rush. “I think I might be doing this all wrong, then.”

“Oh God, you’re not. You’re right. Do that. Do that more.”

Her arms went over her head, fingers twining in the expensive duvet. The next breath she let go eased trembles she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding back.

“Right here.” He spread his free hand low over her stomach. The weight of his hand pushed through to her center. “Let go right here.”

Her gaze locked on his. All their humor leeched out at the last second. She gasped on a sudden rush. There was no way she’d gotten that close that quickly. But she was there. Her head spun. Through it all, there was only him. Tanner filling her mind as she came.

That was all it took. Her hands got greedy and she filled her mouth with the taste of him. They crawled over each other, and Tanner produced a condom from God
only knew where before he kicked off his board shorts. But then the protection was on, and, fucking Christ, then he was
in
her. Either he was ridiculously big or she was ridiculously turned on, but either way, it worked.

So freaking well.

He surged over her, his arms locked straight and his palms planted by her head. She was overwhelmed by him. She was overwhelmed by who she was with him. Everything else dropped away, until there was only their minuscule corner of the world.

The way he moved in her, made her feel. Her eyes drifted shut, the better to run from the crackling-fire rush. She wanted to close her arms around it, hold the smoldering blitz close. Hide away.

But she felt his grip across the back of her neck. A thumb stroked hard over her jaw. “Here. Look at me.”

She slicked her tongue over her bottom lip. The muscles of his back played under her wide-spread hands. Blinking took way too much effort, but she tried it. Bit her lip when a hard fuck stole her breath. “Yeah. I’m looking.”

His hand slid up her neck, to the base of her skull. Wound through her hair. Tugged. Hard.

The sudden snap of pain didn’t distract from the pleasure building deep in her body. If anything, it added.

“No. Look at
me.
” His eyes were so bloody bright. A neon kind of blue she’d never seen in them before, all of it focused on her.

She wasn’t sure she could handle that kind of responsibility. Wasn’t sure she could give him enough in return. And the higher he lifted her, the farther she’d have to fall when he didn’t need her anymore.

But she couldn’t look away from him, either. Together they might explode.

It felt almost like she came in self-defense. The whipcord passion that released her muscles freed her. She let the power draw her head back, let her eyes drift shut on a long moan.

She locked her wrists behind his neck, hitched her leg higher over his hip. Let the last few strokes as he came draw out her own orgasm, but only from behind the dark safety of her closed eyes.

It was better that way. Safer.