Texas Hustle (17 page)

“Well, no. I didn’t. You’ve shut me down so much I’d pretty much given up. But…” The smile that curved his full lips set her heart racing. “I’m glad to hear it. So you’re attracted to me. You like me. We’re friends. So why the arm’s-length treatment, and why the change?”

She closed her eyes in embarrassment. “I’m older than you.” She waited for him to laugh or agree or just say something. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes. A quizzical expression covered his facial features.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? I’m older than you.”

“I know.” He shrugged, his brows still furrowed. “So?”

She sighed. “I didn’t want others teasing us. You know. You dating an older woman. Me being a cougar, or jokes about robbing the cradle.”

“That’s ridiculous. The only thing that worries me is that you’ll get bored with me, or some other guy will recognize what a prize you are and steal you away. Age…well, hell, Porchia. Age is a number. It’s not a personality trait or really much of a defining factor when it comes to people.”

She rested her forehead on his chest. “I know. I’m even embarrassed that I feel this way. I don’t want it to be but the age thing is there, and I’m worried that it might be one of the ideas that crawls in my brain and eats me up.”

Two of his callused fingers under her chin lifted her head until their gazes met. “All I can say is that I want you so bad my teeth ache. I’m more than a
little
attracted to you.”

“I want to give us a try. That’s what I promised myself. We’re here, sorta alone.”

He chuckled. “Sorta is about right. But we have our own place. There are hundreds of acres around us. There’s nothing stopping us from being alone.”

“But here’s the downside. If we don’t work as a couple, we’ll probably not be friends at the end, and I hate the idea of totally losing you out of my life.”

“It’s a risk, but hell, life’s a risk. You can’t live in a glass bubble protected from anything and everything. Aren’t we worth the chance?”

“Yes and that’s why…” she indicated their position, her lying on her side facing him, wrapped in his arms, their mouths only inches apart, “…this.”

He nodded. “So we give this…us…a chance? That’s what you want?”

“That’s what I want.”

Chapter Thirteen

The only sound was the crackle coming from the fireplace logs. Porchia flexed and re-flexed her abdominal muscles in nervous tension as she waited for Darren to say something.

He didn’t. Instead, he pushed her shoulder away until he could stand. Then he picked her up off the couch and cradled her in his arms. Through her thin lounging pants, his thick forearms pressed into the sides of her thighs as he held her snugly against his well-developed chest. He turned and started walking toward their bedroom.

“Wait. I’m too heavy. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Hush, woman. You’ve agreed to give us a chance. Now we’re going to do this my way.”

His voice was rough and harsh. The guttural tone excited her, sent a sexual hunger through her like she’d never experienced. The man carrying her wasn’t the good-old boy she’d been friends with. This was a highly sensual man who was going to get what he wanted. The realization made her vagina throb and her panties much,
much
damper.

When they got to the bedside, he slowly lowered her legs to the floor, allowing her to slide down his brick-hard body until she was standing.

He stepped away and flipped on the lights. “I’ve waited to see you naked for a long time. I plan to enjoy every second of my viewing pleasure.”

The raw desire on his face jolted her heart and her lungs. She’d never been shy or bashful with previous lovers, but it’d been a while since she’d been naked in front of a man, or make that naked in the presence of a man. Anxious tension made her arms and legs quake. What if his idea of how she looked and the reality were far enough apart to make him regret this?

He sat on the edge of the bed. “Take off your shirt.”

With shaking fingers, she caught the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it slowly up her body and over her head. She had to fight the impulse to cover herself with the now loose material.

“Throw it over there.” He indicated the dresser with a tilt of his head.

When she hesitated, he lifted an eyebrow questioningly, as though asking if she was really sure this was what she wanted. She had no reservations about the sex. Only about him seeing her naked, exposed.

With a deep breath of resolution, she tossed the yellow shirt to the dresser, which left her standing in her bra and lounging pants. She swallowed, but it was damn hard to push down the lump her throat.

“Now the pants,” he said, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his thighs as though studying a prize.

She straightened. Fine. If he wanted to play seduction games, she’d play too.

She caught the end of the tie string with her fingers and slowly, as slowly as she could manage, pulled the material to untie the bow holding up her pants. His gaze fell to her fingers and stayed there. Even though he wasn’t physically touching her, his stare was a hot wash over her. As though being stroked, her nipples hardened and poked at the thin silk of her bra.

As the bow became a string, the waist loosened and she released her hold, letting the soft material glide down her legs and pool about her feet.

Darren’s nostrils flared as he drew in a deep breath.

She lifted one foot out of the mound of material and then used the other one to kick the discarded pants off and over closer to the dresser. Now dressed only in a pair of bikini panties and a barely there bra, Porchia stilled, letting Darren study her.

His sapphire-blue eyes darkened with desire as his gaze rode up and down her exposed skin. She shivered under the intense stare, and at the same time felt pieces of her melt into her core.

“More?” Her voice was thick with lust.

“More,” he growled. “The bra.”

She unclasped the bra and let the straps fall down her arms. For a minute, she continued holding the loose cups over her breasts. She’d never stripped for a guy. As nerve-racking as it was, it was also highly erotic and extremely arousing for her too. She was strung as tight as a bow string. Would she simply explode the first time he touched her?

Gathering up her courage, she tossed the bra across the room to join her T-shirt.

He held out his hands. She laid her fingers on his and he gently pulled her toward him.

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” The gravel in his voice drove a chill down her spine.

His gaze glided slowly from her face to her breasts, which swelled and grew heavy under his intense look. Her nipples tightened and her areola puckered. His study of her body slowed at her abdomen, where she sucked in her gut as much as she could, before he again stilled on her mons covered by her thin, peach-colored silk panties. Leaning over, he put his mouth on her mons and gave her an open-mouth kiss. With a groan, he drew in a deep breath.

“I love how you smell, how aroused you are right now.”

He was right. She was so turned on, and yet he’d barely touched her. He held her hands as though holding her in place, as if she could walk away from this…from him. Impossible. Her legs were trembling. Her knees were weak. How long could she remain standing before she melted to the floor in a heap?

“Spread your legs.”

The command sent a gush of arousal fluid to her panties. He knew what he was doing to her and he was loving it. But then so was she.

As he’d ordered, she separated her legs. Her knees shook just a little. Her heart pounded so violently against her chest she was sure he could see it.

Placing her hands on his shoulders, he said, “Leave them there.” He looked at her, his eyes so filled with desire she felt an old-fashion swoon coming over her. “I am so crazy about you, Porchia. I want nothing more than to show you, make you believe in me, in us.”

And then, just when she thought she couldn’t be any more turned-on, he put his hands on the insides of her thighs, pushed her stance as wide as she would go, and put his mouth on the crotch of her panties. He sucked, pulled the silk with all her fluids into his mouth. She looked down and was so overwhelmed with the vision she had to shut her eyes. Darren between her legs, sucking on her as though she possessed the only life-sustaining fluid, had to be the most erotic view she’d ever had in her life. She moaned and arched her hips forward to give him better access.

He must have liked that, if his low growl was an indication. His reaction only spurred her on. Using his shoulders for stability, she moved her hips, grinding her aching groin into his mouth. He tongued her, shoving the silk and his tongue inside her. She swayed, her legs shaking.

Then he bit her, just a nibble through the silk, but hard enough to catch her vulva lips in his teeth.

She hissed in a breath. “Payback will be a bitch, cowboy.”

He laughed against her sex, blowing hot air on her. “Oh, honey. We’ve just begun to play.” He gave one long lick along the crotch of her panties. “Let’s get these off you.”

Pulling her legs together enough to release the tension, Porchia reached for the elastic holding the bikini panties up. He knocked her hands away and grabbed the material to jerk it down her legs. Once she’d stepped free of the material, Darren pitched them in the corner.

His gaze dropped to her feet and crept up her body, slowing when it reached her sex and again at her breasts. A thick blanket of warmth rode up her body along with his gaze. Trickles of fluid ran down her inner thighs.

“Damn, Porchia. Just damn.”

His gaze moved on up to meet hers.

“Get on the bed, on your knees. Face the headboard. In fact, hold on to the headboard.”

She climbed onto the mattress and rested on her knees. As he’d instructed, she grasped the headboard.

His broad, hot hands wrapped around her ankles. She caught her breath, waiting to see what he was going to do. At first, he made no movement, but she knew he was studying her ass, could probably see the glisten from her arousal as liquid continued to dribble down her thighs.

He traced his thick fingers along her calves to her knees, followed by the palms of his hands up her inner thighs.

“You’re so wet, so turned on.” He tongued the watery secretions from her thighs. “Honey. You taste like the sweetest honey imaginable.”

He pressed on her thighs. “Open wider for me.”

She did, moving her knees to spread her legs.

“What a beautiful sight. You’re so pink and so swollen. That I get to taste you is my best fantasy ever.”

The tip of his tongue dug between her vulva lips, separating them, licking a long path between the sides.

As suddenly as his tongue was there, it was gone. The bed shifted with Darren’s weight, and for a minute Porchia feared he’d stopped. But then something tickled her thigh. She glanced down and almost collapsed from the sheer eroticism of seeing his face sliding between her parted knees. He’d turned to lie on his back and position himself under her, his mouth below her sex.

Using the flat of his tongue, he stroked it down her center.

“Spread your knees for me, babe. Bring yourself to my mouth.”

She did. He stabbed his tongue into her vagina, as deep as it would go, moving it in circles and taking it out long enough to lick her clitoris. He moved his hands to her ass, holding each cheek in the palms. He used his hold to move her, angle her in different ways, hold her still so he could torture her again and again.

Her legs began to quiver. It was impossible for her to move her gaze from where he was licking and nibbling on her like she were ice on the sidewalk on a hot day, which was a fitting thought given she was sure everything inside her had melted and was now flowing down to her center.

He put his lips on her clit and sucked on it. She groaned and, if as of their own mind, her hips began to move and grind on his mouth. With his teeth, he bit her labial lips, licked the bite and did it again. Over and over, he would lick, stab into her canal and suck various pieces of flesh between his lips.

For her part, she couldn’t remain still. She humped, grinded and gyrated against his mouth. She was dying from all the tension inside her. Her muscles were tightened to the point of near cramping. At the headboard, her fingers were white from the pressure of her grip. The bed banged on the wall as she pulled on it for leverage.

“I can’t stand this much longer,” she said in a strained voice. “I’m going to come, Darren. And soon.”

He didn’t reply, only tongued her clit with circular swipes. He walked his fingers down her ass until both hands were between her legs, then he pulled his hands around her legs. He massaged the underside of her thighs while using his thumbs to spread her labia wide.

“What a view,” he muttered. “So pink. So swollen. So wet. Gorgeous. So mine.” He pushed one thick thumb inside her while his mouth worked her nub.

That was all she could take. Every muscle tensed and he pushed her over the edge. Her climax shook her, sent her muscles into spasms. She cried out, arching her back, banging the headboard on the wall.