Someone Irresistible (23 page)

Holy Christ.

Her eyes, locked with his, narrowed in the realization of his profound shock, and her lips curled up coyly.

Huskily, she whispered, “Surprised, Professor?”

Surprised?
Surprised
?

“That’s… urn…” He swallowed. “That’s quite a threat you promised,”

he remarked in what sounded like a croak in his throat. “I’m…”

“At a loss for words?”

He had no answer for that.

She tossed her hair back purposely, seductively, enticing him.

Amazing, he thought, that she even knew how to do that.

“I thought you might be,” she answered for him, stepping closer.

“Would you like a bath yourself? The water’s still warm.”

He went hard without further taunting. Rigidly hard. She stood close enough to touch, to smell, to stroke, which he controlled by fisting his hands at his sides. God… what bedding her would mean to them when the passion faded, when they were finished with each other, when they shared a permanent ending. It simply couldn’t happen.

“Mimi—”

“I could wash your body for you,” she whispered, gazing up to his face.

Jesus. How could he say no to that?

Her warm breath brushed his chin, her lashes closed halfway over her shining, brilliant brown eyes, beckoning him to go within, to touch and discover. Her skin glowed from dim light reflecting off the dewy moisture that lingered. Her blond hair, combed thick and shiny, hung over her breasts and down her back, stopping at her curved waist. Her moist, full lips parted and begged…

Mimi’s lips.

The taste of them, the smell of her sex on his fingers, pervaded his

mind, drawing him in, summoning detailed thoughts and marvelous memories. Suddenly permanent endings and fading passion ceased to matter.

The room turned dark for him; quietness prevailed save for the snapping fire in the grate. The laughter and noise below stairs disappeared as the outside world faded to nothing.

She waited, watching him, knowing he swayed at the brink of a grave decision. A defining moment. And then her inhaled breath caught on her lips, barely heard, when he reached up with one finger and glided it gently, slowly down her neck, her chest, between her sloping breasts, to the edge of the silken material that covered her nakedness.

“Make love to me, Nathan,” she pleaded in whisper, in heightened boldness, laying her palm directly on his shirtfront and rubbing the coarse material with her thumb.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” he managed to murmur, his voice intense and dangerously low. “What you’re asking?”

She didn’t smile slyly or display a sense of confidence in her ability to seduce him, as he expected. Instead, she pushed her body against his, molding herself to him, flattening his hand at her belly and his back against the door so that he had no choice but to feel the softness of her every gentle curve, every remarkable hint of the woman she was.

Her features showed longing and a deep sense of an inner acceptance, and then she closed her eyes, lifted her lips, and softly spoke against his mouth.

“Yes, I know. Don’t turn away from me now. I’ve been waiting so long for you.”

He groaned as she rubbed her hips against his, as her tongue stroked his upper lip, and that was all it took. No more uncertainty.

“Damn.”

Fisting the belt of her silk wrap in one hand, the hair down her back with the other, Nathan stared at her beautiful face for one final second before claiming her mouth with his in a subtle show of possession, holding her tightly against his solid form.

Swiftly, he coaxed her mouth into a rhythm of its own, playing her tongue against his, noting her supple softness as she leaned against him. They stood like that for ages, his hand in her hair, hers resting on his shoulders. He fingered the tie at her waist until he felt it give way and loosen, opening the wrap enough to expose her to the navel.

He broke free of her lips then, and began a trail of soft kisses from her mouth to her ear, his lips brushing her cheek and jaw and temple.

“I need to see you,” he whispered, skimming her lobe with his lips, tracing it with his tongue.

She whimpered very softly, almost inaudibly, but he knew she reacted to those words of honest need because she shivered in his arms.

Reaching up she ran her fingers through his hair, caressed his neck with her fingertips, rubbed her nose and lips along his jaw. And then she backed up a step and lowered her arms so that she could grasp the sash at her waist.

Her hand covered his, and as she opened her eyes to gaze into the lonely, wanting depths of his, she pulled at the tie with one hand and opened her wrap with the other so that it draped to her sides, exposing her naked flesh to his view for the very first time.

He stilled, gazing down to her in firelight. Then, with suddenly shaking fingers, he grasped the wrap’s edges at her shoulders and pushed at them until they fell down her back and gathered in a pool of white silk at her feet.

He sucked in a breath as he beheld her lovely, perfect female form.

Her breasts were firm, their pink tips aroused to luscious protruding points that he desperately longed to stroke, to suck and kiss and caress.

Her stomach showed the flatness of one who had never borne a child, her waist tapered delicately, her hips spread gently, her lean, graceful legs extended to daintily arched feet. But it was the blond curls at the center of her that drew his undivided attention. He’d never before seen a blond in the nude, and the paleness of her skin, coupled with the glow of fire and dim lamplight, made the hair at her thighs shine like pearls.

Instinctively, he reached out and touched her there, faintly, brushing her intimately with the back of a finger. Mimi closed her eyes and leaned her head back, her breath coming fast as she swayed against his touch.

Nathan’s heart pounded in his chest, his body growing hot as it yearned for completion, yet he didn’t want this single instant, this simple stroking, to end.

He grasped her by the shoulder, rubbing her warm, clean skin with his thumb while he increased the intimacy, placing all of his fingers there and stroking now. She grew wet at his demand, her breasts heaving with each labored breath she took, face flushed beautifully, licking her lips.

It was as much as he could stand.

“You’re more beautiful than I ever imagined.”

She sighed, raising her palms to cup his face, though she never

opened her eyes. “Did you imagine me like this?” she asked in a feather-soft voice.

He almost smiled. “Every day.”

A tiny whimper escaped her and she raised her lashes to peer into his eyes. “Take me to bed, Nathan.”

He needed no persuasion.

Drawing his free hand down her shoulder, he cupped it over her breast, brushing the delicate skin back and forth with his fingers, running his palm across her swollen nipple, never dropping his gaze from hers.

The intensity of the moment increased. She was fully wet between her legs now, her breathing as rapid and shallow as his, and his body ached to claim her. As if sensing the rising tension between them, Mimi lowered her palms and began unbuttoning his shirt.

Her fingers trembled; she faltered at the task and so he released his hold of her and pulled back to help her undress him. She stared into his eyes and he never looked away as he worked through each button, untied his neckcloth, and dropped it and his shirt to the floor at his feet.

She reached for his chest then, her palms closing over his muscles that bunched from the initial contact, massaging them, her fingers grazing his nipples. That did it for him. Immediately he needed to be inside her. Exploration could wait.

He leaned forward and captured her eager mouth again, urgently now, blending his tongue with hers. Then grabbing her hands in his, he began pushing her backward, toward the bed. She followed willingly, never breaking her lips from his, coaxing him onward.

She pulled him onto the soft coverlet when she reached it, and he followed, spreading out beside her, still clothed to his hips. He quickly kicked off his shoes and reached for the buttons of his pants, his breath coming fast now in anticipation, mingling with hers as she teased his lips with her own.

He knew she hesitated to help him undress, but he needed no aid or encouragement to free himself of the barriers between them. Her hands on his face and neck, leaving feathery soft strokes with her nails, convinced him to discard it all quickly, before she changed her mind, before he lost control. At last he lay beside her as naked as she, and he reached for her, his palm splayed across her back, pressing her perfect breasts against his chest, wrapping one leg over hers to draw her in, never wanting to break the contact.

She moaned softly when he lowered his hand to cup her bottom, caressing it gently in slow circles, pressing his erection into her belly,

wanting her to feel what she did to him, how he needed her.

She took the initiative then, brushing her hands up and down his chest, raking her fingers through his hair, kissing him back forcefully in total abandonment, her tongue mating with his, her leg rubbing his as her movements increased with her pleasure.

This was Nathan’s last opportunity to stop. He knew that.

Apparently, so did she because at that moment she pulled back from the kiss, panting, looking into his eyes with a fresh desire and a need he’d never witnessed in a woman before. She held her feelings before him, her expression so serious but open for his view.

Gently, he traced her flushed cheek and brow with his lips. “I can’t hold back any longer, Mimi.”

“I know,” she whispered.

He felt her warm breath on his jaw, heard the certainty in her reply, noticed how she shivered beside him with her conviction. Of course she knew. She’d been with her husband, knew what it felt like to have a man inside her. In that one second, Nathan experienced an overwhelming ache in his chest from something he could never claim as his, a part of her she had given to someone else. Of treasures lost.

Mimi noticed the reservation in his eyes, understood his restraint, however minimal. But she also saw the look of a man charged with lust and caring and eagerness, and she refused to allow sensibilities to interrupt them now. Not while this most incredible time was finally upon them. Not with Nathan.

“Love me,” she pleaded, holding his face in her palms, pushing her hips into his, feeling his hardness against her belly and relishing in it.

He responded to her insistence not by putting his hand back between her legs, as she so fervently yearned for him to do, but by lowering his head and taking her breast inside his mouth.

Mimi nearly jumped from the bed when his roughened tongue expertly swirled over her nipple. He grazed it with his teeth, then began to suck, making her gasp and bite down hard to keep from crying out.

She clutched his hair with her fists, pulling him in, lifting her hips to meet his probing erection that he moved ever so rhythmically against her. She wanted to touch him there, to take hold and caress him, but indecision held her back. As did his amazing hands and mouth.

Suddenly his fingers found the cleft between her legs and again he began to entice, to lightly probe, to stroke her slick entrance. She arched her back and pushed into him, whimpering. Nathan breathed hard against her, his lips to her chest, mouth on her breast, teasing, torturing, licking, his face between them, rubbing back and forth, then

kissing them reverently as his fingers began to move in rhythm between her thighs.

Mimi matched the tempo, hands on his head, fingers in his hair, her heart racing with each step closer to that wonderful, satisfying edge. She could feel it envelop her, feel it coming, without him even inside her, where she wanted him.

“Nathan—”

He didn’t stop. He tormented and teased with his mouth and tongue and fingers. Then unexpectedly he grabbed one of her hands in his and placed her palm on him, shocking her, silencing her, thrilling her.

He was so hard, so hot there. She rubbed her thumb across the tip, feeling a bead of liquid escaping it, and he moaned his pleasure, possessing her heart.

His breathing grew shallower still, as did hers, and he reached again for her mouth, capturing it and kissing her ardently as his fingers stroked the heat between her legs, faster and harder as he brought her closer and closer still to climax. And then it happened.

She opened her eyes as a scream tore from her lips, taken by him with his penetrating kiss as she rocked against him and shoved her hips hard against his fingers that moved and stroked and caressed her intimately. She gripped his erection until she felt him jerk back and grasp her wrist, pulling her from him. Quickly, he positioned his hips between her legs, running his tongue along her lips, playing with her mouth, kissing her cheeks and jaw and temple, opening her with his fingers to accept him.

She lifted herself slightly, and closed her eyes to the feel of him hard against her cleft. Gently he probed the entrance and began to insert himself, inch by inch.

Mimi gasped as he filled her; Nathan groaned heavily and tucked his face in her neck. He reached down and lifted her legs, bending them at the knees to give him deeper access, and she complied.

He whispered her name, over and over, as he began to move, to rock his hips into her. She kissed him softly, curved the tip of her tongue along his ear. He reached for her breast, licking the hard nipple, sucking it. Mimi arched back and found his rhythm, grinding her hips into his.

He exhaled through his teeth, pushing harder, thrusting deeper, taking her up once more with him.

Mimi felt it all again. Nathan touching her intimately. Nathan filling her. Nathan grabbing her breasts, thumbing her nipples, claiming her mouth with his, moaning. Nathan ready to climax in her arms.

It put her over the edge.

Suddenly she gripped him tightly, her nails to his back. Then, with his name on her lips, she reached her crest once more, this time feeling each muscle contraction around him, legs jerking against his, a sob tearing from her throat.