Slow Hand (4 page)

She sipped her coffee too, and contemplated his words, his actions the evening before, and his kind consideration for her raw feelings.

“I dreamed last night,” she offered.

“No surprise there.
About Philip?”

“I guess. I dreamed of freedom. I was flying at the bow of the
SandJack
. When I woke up, I felt happier than I have in a long time. Philip betrayed me. June betrayed me. Being here and away from everyone asking questions is the best place for me.” She touched his forearm, the black coarse hair springy under her fingertips, the flesh warm and alive. “This charge I feel when we touch is very odd.”

“Yes.” He grinned. “But it’s growing on me.”

“It makes me feel alive. But then, I dodged a bullet yesterday so it could just be relief.”

“Could be, but that doesn’t explain why I feel it, too.” His grin widened. He brushed the back of his hand against her jaw, by her neck. “I’m glad you’re relieved.”

She tilted into the caress, closed her eyes and savored the tingle of understanding that danced between them. This time was apart, separate from her life at home. She’d take these days for what they were. Time to heal. Then she’d go home to begin again.

While Jared showered, Teri took the time to investigate the rest of the cupboards. She dug out some healthy looking grain bread and the toaster. Over the sink she found plates and cutlery and then she got butter out of the fridge under the counter.

The water stopped running so she pressed the lever on the toaster and poured him another mug of coffee. Handing it to him, she saw he’d done the same thing she had. He wore a bath towel tied at his waist. The intimacy of his choice struck her.

They were naked, but they weren’t. They looked like people comfortable with a morning routine, but they weren’t. They looked like people of long acquaintance, but they weren’t.

What they were was attracted.

She decided to cut to the chase and undid the knot at her chest. Her bath sheet dropped, as did his jaw.

“You’re exquisite.” He moved his hand in a slow, palm up gesture that took her breath. She focused on his fingertips, stretching toward her, the supplication in the gesture making her belly quiver and her heart race. She saw the calluses, the evidence of his labor-intensive day, but she already knew the gentleness in them. In him.

Without speaking Jared was asking permission to touch, to feel her skin, to caress, to take her places she’d never been. He let his hand hover near her neck, as if she might break if he allowed the full force of his desire to flow. His fingers actually trembled in her peripheral vision. She knew why.

He knew the arc would come again. They drew sparks of energy from each other, but she was too far gone to care. Whatever it was made her hot and yearn for him. Only him.

“There’s no stopping if I touch you, Teri.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes, tilted her head back to let him see her neck, the way the blood pulsed in a mad rush to her head. “This is exactly what I need.”
And what I need to hear.

When his touch came her flesh burned.

His fingers seared and scorched and sent an inferno down her spine. He cupped the back of her head to hold her when she couldn’t have moved if she’d tried.

His kiss was slow, easy, and undemanding for a long time. He explored her lips, her soft inner skin, and then the ridge of her front teeth. She shuddered against his chest, raised her palms to cup his
pecs, and molded his shoulder muscles.

She squared her hips to his, felt the bulk of his bath sheet between them. But a languid sense of time slowing took her to a peaceful ease. There was lots of time to undo that knot, lots of time to explore and play and be together.
To come together in every sense of the phrase.

The electric charge they felt eased back to a hum, a steady throbbing hum that grew and pulsed with life. Their life-forces joined, melded and captured them.

His skin smelled of the men’s body wash she’d seen in the shower. Spicy, heated by his body. Blood whooshed to her loins, every nerve tingled, every pulse pounded between her legs. That whole secret place filled with moist heat and yearning. She felt herself soften in readiness, ripen for him. Drip for him.

As he also prepared for her.
To enter, to plunder, to take her. His cock rose against her belly, pressing the roughness of the terry cloth into her flesh.

And still, this was just a kiss.
A first kiss, a tentative kiss, an exploration of the attraction between them. A test.

His hands burrowed into her hair, cupped her head, and massaged her scalp as he took and took and took from her lips. She gave, and took back, swept up in the moment, in the exciting electricity that was Jared.

His lips eased from hers, traced her jaw, and skimmed down her neck, back up to her ear. His breath there sent powerful surges down her spine that bloomed deep inside her most private places.

“This is
crazy or, I don’t know what it is, just something.” She stopped talking because she wasn’t sure what to say.

“Right?”
he suggested. He pulled back, searched her eyes, held her loosely, ready even now to step back if she needed him to. “Because it is right, Teri.”

“Yes.” Unbelievably, it was.
So right.

He opened and dropped his towel. His erection, heavy and jutting made her mouth go dry and her clit, plump and rosy, pulse with need.

She pulled herself up to sit on the counter. Arching backward Teri offered herself. She expected him to prod at her entrance, to rush to her core, to plunder where he could, like the pirate he was.

She propped herself on stiff arms, tilted her head back so her hair hung like a fall behind her, the tips grazing the counter top. She couldn’t make more of an offering than this. Vulnerable, open, her arms behind her, her legs spread to receive, her head thrown back. She could hear his labored breath, feel the arc of pulsing need, smell the arousal of her own flesh,
sense the import of the act of possession.

“Do it.” She was braced and ready.

“Teri,” his voice held wonder, excitement, intimacy. “Look at me.”

She raised her head, opened one eye. He stood transfixed.

“I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman, a more beautiful offering than this. But I need you to look at
me.
I need you to know who’s inside you.”

She nodded, befuddled. “Okay.”

“What’s my name?”

“Jared.”

“Who am I?” The demand in his voice was raw-edged, the words bitten off and harsh.

“Jared MacKay, captain of the
SandJack
.”

“What am I?”

“My pirate.”

He blinked when he heard the words. His face softened. When he looked at her again, she thrilled at what she saw in his gaze. She’d offered whatever he wanted
sexually, made it plain he could do anything he liked.

He dropped to his knees. Oh, he liked
that. . .
. Thank you, thank you, she said in a silent plea. A flash of the actors crossed her mind’s screen and she shivered in anticipation of the touch of his tongue on her moist slit. Would it be powerful like a ravishing pirate or gentle and coaxing like a tentative lover?

His long callused fingers gripped her ankle, held her foot still.

She felt his mouth on her big toe and jerked, startled. But he held her foot still and moved on to the next toe. Fire raced up her leg from each touch of his tongue and set a throb to start inside. Pulsing and needy she bloomed for him as he set sparklers on each toe, giving each equal attention.

“Oh, Jared, that’s exquisite.”

“I’ve wanted to kiss these tiny perfect toes since you took your shoes off at the pier.”

“Just keep moving up my leg and I’ll be happy.”

His fingers slid to her knee. “You mean up to here?” He swirled her pinky toe into his mouth and tugged on it.

Her knee turned into a fireworks display at the same time her toe melted in his mouth.
“Unnnnhh, higher.” She’d implode if he kept up this slow pace.

His fingers swirled behind her knee and probed delicately there, making her croon in desperation for him to move higher, but she knew asking him would only prolong the agony. He wanted to torture her.

“I didn’t know you were a tease,” she murmured.

“Unlike yourself?”
The husky tone held humor, but she was too far gone to get the joke.

She counted the inches he crept. Two, then three, four
. . . . 

This was not what she expected. He ran a finger along her sole, sending shudders up her leg to her heart.

And then it came to her. “Is this payback for my game on deck with the lotion?”

He raised himself to lean over her, desire and deep humor blazing from his eyes. “Did you think I didn’t want my tongue on you? Your finger was less an inch from your clit. You
threw your head back and the sun played across your skin in pink and red and I couldn’t tell if it was my eyes playing tricks or if you really were on fire.”

“I’m on fire now,” she said hoping beyond reason that he’d quench her and do it fast.

But his mouth quirked up into an evil, teasing grin and she knew down to her well-sucked toes, she was at his mercy. The pirate took complete control.

Teri considered being at Jared’s mercy and wasn’t sure she liked the idea. He was so damn
slow
, when all she wanted was to get to it. Besides, she’d decided at first sight the man needed to learn some manners.

She grabbed his head, pulled him down fast and kissed his smile hard. She plunged her tongue into his mouth, sucked his bottom lip, and then licked the tip of his tongue until she couldn’t take anymore. She moaned. It had been so long, and she’d been so lonely.
Lonely in her bed and lonelier in her heart.

She fell back to the counter top, startled by the surge of desire that had her demand more than he wanted to give. Six months.
Six long months since she had felt like this.

Her hands on Jared’s chest, tempted beyond reason, she squeezed his
pecs, wanting him to understand.
To get it.
“I haven’t had sex in six months. Hurry!”

He stopped kissing her neck immediately, loosened his grip. “Excuse me?”

”I was hoping for faster.”

He quirked an eyebrow.
“No can do. I think the wattage on the buzz drops when we go slow.”

She shuddered at the throaty sound of his voice. “I’m so horny I’m squirming.”

He closed his eyes, set his jaw so hard she saw a muscle jump. “If I move faster it’ll be over before you’re ready. Believe me, slow will work.”

Suddenly she realized he wanted fast, too, but he was more concerned with giving her a sure thing. She melted. “You’re in charge, Jared. We’ll go
slow this time.”

Her statement took the edge
off, assuring her that now that they were here together with their bodies ready and their minds set the end would be spectacular. Spectacular beat fast every time.

She smiled to ease him and pecked Jared on the lips. “You should know Philip’s completely gone,” she patted her chest over her heart.

“Glad to hear it.” His eyes glowed relief and happiness. “Now that there are only two of us here, let’s move to the bed.” He slid his hands down her arms to her hands and tugged.

She moved off the counter and felt the dip as he swung her up into his arms. She’d never been carried before. “I like this,” she said, “My pirate’s carrying me off to ravish me.”

“Prepare yourself, then. I’m definitely not stopping now.”

She laughed and set her lips to his earlobe as he walked.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she breathed into his ear. “Ravish me, take me, all of me, all over.”

He followed her down onto the bed and she fell into a warm cocoon of heat and desire and longing where for the first time in too long, she wasn’t alone. “Before things get any more interesting, I have to leave you here,” he said. “I put the condoms away in the bathroom cabinet.”

Jared had another reason for going slow. She was tiny in spite of her taut athletic build. He was far too aroused for her comfort.

Seeing her timid expression when he returned, he knew he would have to ease into her. But, he would get into her, of that he was sure, because under the timidity he read hunger that matched his own.

She rolled to her side, propped her head on her elbow and patted the bed in invitation. He settled next to her. He slid his arm under her head so she could snuggle into him then slowly petted her smooth warm thigh. He traced her flushed skin from knee to crotch, where he found her dewy curls. He finger combed through them.

She bit her lip. “That’s nice. The buzz goes straight inside.”

Smiling, he kissed the top of her head.

She ran a palm from his waist to his shoulder. “Take me somewhere hot, Jared, somewhere steamy,” she said. “But take me slow.”

He shuddered at the thought of having her for a week. Of all the things he’d do to make her want to stay. Stretching her arms over her head, he held her wrists by one hand. He coaxed her to lie flat, set out for him like a feast.

He fed.

He fed on her neck, her ears, licked her collarbones, making sure to dip into the hollow at the base of her throat. Her neck was warm and smelled of heaven and promise. Her breasts were full and lush, tipped with nipples that tasted of candy and sugar. He sucked on her deeply, coaxing her to stay still by weighing her down with a leg thrown over hers. When she moaned low in her throat, he stopped.

“No, no sounds, no movement, Teri. If you want slow you have to help me. If I feel you respond, if I feel you want me, I’ll go too fast, too hard, too soon. I’ll take, Teri, I’ll take and take and take. And you’ve given enough.”

She nodded, but didn’t speak, although her eyes spoke volumes. She wanted him, but he put the thought out of his head. This had to be about Teri receiving. As much as she said her heart was free, she’d been through a shock and she needed time.

When she’d been filled up again, when she felt whole again, he could take. She would be strong enough then.

He slid down her body and kissed her thigh. Working his way down past her knee, skimming along her calf he spent considerable time licking her fine-boned ankle. Then he moved on to the arch of her instep. It was when he licked her big toe and took it into his mouth that she squealed.

She thrashed on the bed until he quieted her by placing his palm over her vulva. She was wet, nearly dripping. When he pressed lightly, she moaned.

“Let it go, Teri. You need to come, deep and hard and I’ll take you there now.”

“Yes, please.” She opened her legs wider to accommodate the full width of his hand.

He pressed against her clitoris and rubbed gently but steadily. A sigh of satisfaction signaled her acceptance of the attention. Her thighs tightened and her knees bent as she began to press up into his hand.

Gauging her ready for more, he slid his thumb into her cleft and felt her inner walls clasp him tight. If she was this snug on his thumb she’d be heaven on his shaft. He eased his thumb halfway out and her hips responded by following, reaching for him. He obliged and slid back in with a circling motion that made her croon encouragement.

His erection burned like fire so he pressed himself between the bed and her plump, soft ass. He wanted to push to ease himself a little, but her skin felt so good on his he was afraid he’d shoot if he moved.

Teri began to pump in response to his thumb movement, the scent of her nearly making him crazy. He heard the slick sounds from her cleft, felt the sticky juice of her sliding across her turgid clit and knew he had to taste.

“You’ll come now.
In my mouth.”

She moaned and nodded. “Yes, yes
.”

He slid to his knees in front of her, lifted her ass and buried his face in her incredible pussy. Wet, open, ready, Teri tasted like pearls of delicious ambrosia. Her delicate inner lips quivered on his tongue while her clit plumped and protruded from her hood. He sucked on her heavy clit and swirled his tongue around it while she squirmed and bucked and with a sudden cry, came.

Her thighs trembled, her juices flowed and her back arched pressing her up to his face for more and more and more.

He held her there until the quivers subsided then lapped at her gently to bring her back down to earth.

When he looked at her face, he saw tears tracking down her cheeks. She swiped at them, not wanting him to see and then she reached for his face to bring him to her for a kiss. He didn’t mention the tears. They were hers and hers alone.

“Thank you,” she said after a long exploration of his mouth. “You have no idea how much I needed that.”

She ran her hand down his chest and finally set her fine delicate fingers to his cock. She circled him and slid from the base to his tip and he felt the squeeze as she sought to measure him. Her eyes went wide at the fullness of him.

“I’ll ease in slowly. I’ll be careful.”

“Like hell you will,” she said and playfully pushed him to his back on the bed.

She moved smooth as a mermaid in water as she rose over him, hand still grasping him, sliding and building tension that threatened to spill all over her hand.

She wet her lips and gave him a glance that burned through to his heart. She dipped her head and all he could see was the top of her blonde head, all he could feel was the silk of her hair spreading across his thighs and low belly.

Teri moved her hand lower to cup his sac and he nearly shouted with the exquisite heat of her weighing him. He knew his cock was near her mouth, but he couldn’t see anything. He lifted her hair away, twined it in his fingers until he got a great view of her perfect, wet lips as they descended on his straining head.

Just before contact she squeezed more pre-come from him and he watched her tongue as it reached out to taste his slickness.

“Mm, that’s delicious,” she said when she drew her tongue back into her mouth to swirl his flavor across her taste buds.
“Oh, yeah.”

She tilted back down to him and he had to slam his head back and arch off the bed with the intense, gradual taking of his cock into her mouth. She paused and he felt her open more as she slid down his length.

After that, he lost track of how far into her throat he went, amazed at her talent for head. Such a little woman, such a deep throat.

She sucked and nibbled his length before going back to his sac, but eventually he had to tug her away. “I don’t want to come this way. I need to be inside you this time.”
The first time.

Teri smiled and surprised him again by straddling him. Then she raised herself and squatted over him. From this position he could see her pussy, open and streaming moisture. He looked so big in comparison to her tidy, tight opening.
Too big to fit.

Damn
.

She reached for a condom packet and tore it open, taking the decision out of his hands. He wanted to go slow, he wanted more than anything not to hurt her, but she made him crazy with need.

He loved that the tip of her tongue came out in a delicious little point as she focused on rolling the condom on. “There,” she said, “safe now.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, are you sure you can manage this?”

She circled him and squeezed, measuring his girth. “I’ve never been so ready in my life.”

The exquisite sensations Teri felt as she pressed herself onto his immense erection made her inner muscles quake. She leaned forward over him so he could suckle her breasts as she slid down the length of him, slowly opening and accepting him. As Jared laved each of her breasts and sucked them into his mouth she began to rock against him. Her clit finally made contact with his pubis and she could go no farther. She settled for a moment, allowing her channel to accept the fullness of him before she moved on him again. Rockets of desire rolled through her, right out her legs and arms, down to her fingertips and toenails.

She shuddered and closed her eyes to better appreciate and thrill to the sensuality of his cock. Jared had no idea how far the magnificence of that first filling could take a woman.

Exquisite tension built as she slowly accepted the length and width of him.

She gave an experimental roll and buck and shook with the erotic pleasure that volcanoed up from her low belly. Another roll, another shot of pleasure. She planted her hands on his shoulders and moved faster. “Oh, yes!”

Jared’s neck arched as he tried to slow her quickening pace, but she didn’t want control. She wanted wild abandon so she let loose with a cry of ecstasy.

“Fast!” She pleaded.

Suddenly she was riding a rocket as Jared responded with a loss of control that thrilled her. He pushed and strained up into her. Then he grabbed her ass and lifted her to slide up and down his cock, setting an even faster pace. She squealed with the joy of finally getting what she wanted, needed, craved.

His wild bucking took her over the edge. With another keening cry, Teri came again, arching and rocking over him.

Just as the stars receded from her eyes, she felt Jared pump and flex against her inner walls as he spurted into her, hot and streaming.

She milked him by squeezing and releasing her thighs to ride him out. His orgasm brought on another for her so she pressed against his pubis and held on, straining.

Jared pressed slowly, oh so gently against her vulva with his thumb and helped carry her along. This orgasm built into an exquisite peak in such a measured way that when she came, gushing against his hand, she was nearly taken by surprise.

The sensation wracked her body and she knew no one but Jared would ever make her feel this way.

Teri lifted her arms in a victory stretch. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew it could be great. I knew it!”

Jared laughed with her, rolled her beneath him. The deep affection she read in his gaze before he kissed her gently, completely, left her breathless and wondering.

A goner, that’s what he was. His life as he knew it was over. Having Teri had been awesome and he wanted more. He wanted all of her. The charge from touching her had settled permanently around his heart.

He mentally tallied the days he had left.
Five. But it was still too soon to talk about longer. He had to give her the honeymoon she craved, the time she needed and most of all he needed to help her see that her life had changed as well.