To Win Her Trust (22 page)

He looked up and winked. “Bang.”

He dipped his head and sealed his hot mouth over her swollen flesh. Blinding colors exploded, and her own keening cry echoed in her ears as she went off like a roman candle on the fourth of July.

* * * *

Tuck pushed onto his elbows. For a moment, his hungry gaze lingered on the dew-glistened flower flaring his nostrils with its sweet scent. With regret, he shifted the material of her silky panties back into place and lifted his head. Eyes closed, ecstasy etched on every curve of her glowing face, CC lay sprawled in sensual abandon. The sexy black dress was bunched around her waist, her slim thighs pale in the low light. A black high heel dangled from the toes of one foot. Her fingers curled around the neck of the wine bottle in a lazy grip.

He smiled and rolled to his feet, rounding the bed to slide the bottle from her fingers. He bent to slip the shoe from her foot. His gaze slid over her sleek thighs to the scrap of black silk between them and he straightened, leaving the dress as it was.

With the corkscrew he pulled from his pocket, he scored the bottle’s foil cover and peeled it back. He twisted the spiral worm into the cork. Her lashes fluttered open, and she blinked at the ceiling.

“Welcome back.” The cork came free with an audible pop.

Her head sagged to the side. For several heartbeats she simply stared, and then her eyes widened comically as if she’d forgotten he was there. She slapped both hands over her face.

A laugh rumbled in his chest as he poured two glasses. Setting the bottle aside, he eased onto the bed at her hip.

The mattress dipped beneath his weight, and she spread her fingers slightly. Her green eyes peeked from between the digits, and the heels of her hands muffled her voice. “Have you ever had one of those moments when you don’t have a clue what to say?”

“Nope.” He held out a glass.

She groaned but dropped her hands and sat up, accepting his offering. “Of course you haven’t.”

He grinned at her grumbled tone and bit back a laugh as she glanced down at herself and nearly bobbled the wine in her rush to shove her dress down in a more modest covering. Tucked beneath her hips, the material refused to cooperate to her satisfaction. Finally, she darted a hand behind her, snagged one of his pillows, and plopped it into her lap.

He arched a brow, and she squinted her eyes as if daring him to comment. He didn’t bother. She’d learn soon enough, modesty and sex didn’t exactly mix. Rock hard and throbbing, his cock twitched beneath his shorts in an urgent demand he begin the lesson immediately, but she’d asked him to slow things down.

He’d give her three minutes.

The expensive vintage, sliding down his throat as he gulped at his glass, may as well have been three dollar plonk. His wine snob friend in city hall would be horrified. Gritting his teeth, he stretched out on his side and propped his head in his palm. “How’d things go with your mom?”

“My mom?” She froze with the wine glass suspended an inch from her lips, and her gaze skittered down his body to where his painful hard-on tented his shorts. She lowered the glass and shook her head. “I don’t understand. Are we done?”

He choked and nearly spewed a mouthful of seventy-five dollar chardonnay across the sheets. “No. We’ve barely started.”

“Then why are you asking about my mother?”

He dragged the back of his wrist across his mouth. “You asked me to slow down.”

“Well, yeah. But that was before you…” She cast a furtive glance around the room, as if she might locate her mother hiding behind the curtains, and dropped her voice to a whisper. “You
licked
me.”

A helpless laugh burst from his lips. Fuck. Her unique mix of sensual innocence and bold curiosity was going to kill him but, damn, what a way to go.

He stretched his arm over the side of the bed to set his glass on the floor, then rolled up on his elbow. He wrapped his fingers around the back of her smooth calf and rubbed his thumb over her kneecap. “I sipped at your pleasure, sunshine, and have never tasted anything as sweet.”

Flaming color erupted on her cheekbones, but she didn’t look away.

“Admit it. You liked it.”

Her lashes swept down, and she dropped her gaze. “You know I did.”

A low purr rumbled in his throat at the sweet stroke to his ego. He pushed up from his elbow, and she lifted her head. Embarrassment shimmered in her eyes, but she didn’t cower as he crawled toward her, bracketing her feet, calves, thighs, and then hips with his hands and knees. Pride swelled in his chest. Little Miss Sunshine might be a novice when it came to sex, but as she had in her quest to overcome her past, she didn’t back down from the unknown.

He paused with his mouth an inch from hers and plucked the still-full glass from her fingers and set it aside. She lifted her chin, cutting the distance between their lips by half. He smiled. Time was up.

“There’s more, sunshine. So much more.” He leaned in and covered her mouth with his.

Chapter 18

It was about time.

CC curled into Tuck’s kiss, stabbing her fingers into his hair to keep his talented mouth where it could do the most good. Not that it hadn’t done a whole lot of good earlier but, at the moment, she was eager to experience that “much more” he’d mentioned. The impressive bulge straining the cloth of his shorts said he was too.

The world tilted suddenly as he scooped an arm around her hips and, taking her with him, rolled to his back. With a gasp, she came to rest on a bed of solid muscle. Her lids fluttered open to find his eyes inches from hers. The sensual intent in the piercing blue orbs flamed the reignited fire between her thighs.

“I rushed you earlier and shouldn’t have. But I won’t apologize for wanting you.”

Pressed against the firm plates of muscle that made up his chest and stomach, she marveled at the heavy thump-thump of his heartbeat against her breasts and the solid proof of his desire cradled between her thighs. “I don’t need or want an apology.” She slid her fingers from his hair to cup his jaw in her palms. “I came here of my own accord, Tuck. I want this. I want
you
.”

A shudder rippled through him, and his arms contracted in an iron band about her. “I’m all yours. This is your show. You set the pace. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

“Really?” Arching back several inches, she stared at him. “My pace. Whatever I want?”

He slid his warm palm down her back and over her ass to cup her bare thigh beneath the hem of her dress. The firm cut of his lips softened, and dimples popped in his smile. “Lady’s choice.”

A hum shimmered in her throat. She liked the sound of that. She braced her hands on his collarbone and sat up, straddling his thighs, and crossed her arms. “Okay, then. Lose the shirt.”

His abdominal muscles contracted in a crunch as his upper body rose several inches from the bed. He reached one hand over his shoulder and tugged the T-shirt over his head. The flick of his hand sent it floating to the floor. He tucked his hands behind his head and let her look her fill.

This morning at the beach she’d been focused on the beauty of his back, but his front deserved similar accolades. Roped veins broke from beneath the swell of his pecs to travel over muscled biceps. Unlike the waxed presentation of so many of the male models her art classes produced, a light spray of hair started at his collarbone and shadowed his pectoral wall. Slightly thicker where it swirled around the twin discs of his nipples, the dark blond curls narrowed to a thin line bisecting the ridges of his abdomen to flare around the dip of his belly button. The treasure trail, as it was referred to in several of the women’s magazines she’d read, disappeared beneath his waistband.

Her fingers itched to follow the tempting path, and because he’d said whatever she wanted, she did. His stomach muscles quivered beneath the light brush of her fingertips, and her gaze flew to his face. No smile, wicked or otherwise, rode his lips, and his eyes burned into hers.

She didn’t look down when her fingers encountered his shorts. Encouraged by the heated passion tightening his features, she shimmied lower on his hips, twisted her hand, and burrowed her fingers beneath the waistband to find the treasure she sought.

Wonder filled her mind as she wrapped her hand around the heated column of his erection. The breath hissed through his teeth, and the veins vining his arms bulged in stark relief as if he clenched his hands beneath his head.

“Whatever I want,” she reminded him.

He blew out a short breath. “Even if it kills me.”

A laugh gurgled up her throat. No chance of that. She wanted him alive and hearty. A growing sense of power made her almost giddy. He might not feel like smiling, but she couldn’t help herself. Despite not an ounce of experience in the game of sex, she had him right where she wanted him.

She cocked her head and gave him her most seductive smile, then squeezed gently. “Tell me if I do anything wrong.”

A choked laugh shook his body. “Take my word for it. You’re a natural.”

Waves of pleasure won out over seduction. She giggled like a girl. “I’m having fun.”

“Just as I promised,” he gritted out from between clenched teeth.

He had a point. He’d fulfilled that particular promise, and it was time to repay the favor. She pursed her mouth in a pout. “You don’t look like you’re having much fun.”

“I will if you’ll slide your hand down a little.”

She glided her closed fist over him to the base of his cock.

“Now up.”

She complied.

“Down again.”

She stilled her hand and arched a brow. “I think I get the picture.”

“Thank God.” His eyes slid shut.

“Maybe this will help.” Grinning, she slipped her hand free of his briefs. His groan of disappointment was cut short as she curled the fingers of both hands beneath the elastic band of shorts and briefs, and tugged the cloth down to his knees. His erection sprang free, and the breath caught in her throat.

A virgin she might be, but she wasn’t a green kid. She’d studied anatomy and, thanks to sex education classes supplemented with romance novels, she knew the fundamentals, but holy shit. He and Too Long Tucker had more in common than just a name. Okay, Tuck wouldn’t match up to L.A.’s premier adult film star in a side-to-side comparison, but it was close. Her newfound sense of power fizzled like a deflating balloon.

The bed shifted as he rose onto his elbows, and she looked up and swallowed. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see how that thing is going to fit.”

His laughter grated against her embarrassment. She lifted onto her knees and climbed off him. He kicked the shorts free of his feet and jerked forward. Grasping her hips, he lifted her as if she weighed nothing and dragged her up the bed to deposit her by his side.

“It’s not funny,” she grumbled when he continued to chuckle.

“Yes, it is.” He leaned over her and brushed a curl back from her forehead. “We’ll fit perfectly. You’ll see.”

“I don’t see how.” With his engorged penis nudging insistently at her hip, it was impossible to relax, but neither did she want to call a halt. She sighed. “Obviously, I suck at lady’s choice. Maybe you should take over.”

“My pleasure.” He dipped his lips to her neck, and shivers chased up and down her spine. “But I meant what I said. If I do anything you don’t like, if I go too fast for you, let me know.”

She murmured her agreement and arched her neck to give him better access. He took full advantage, depositing tiny love bites down the sensitive cord on one side. His lips reached the strap of her dress and paused.

He fingered the thin silk. “Why don’t we get rid of this?”

She rolled her shoulders upward as his fingers went to the tab in back. The material loosened with the rasp of the zipper, and he peeled it away, dropping a kiss to her shoulder before rising up onto his elbow. She lifted her hips to aid him, and he drew the dress down over her hips and legs. He tossed the silk to the foot of the bed.

The heat of his gaze, starting at her feet and traveling to her face, brought goose bumps.

“Damn, you’re beautiful.”

He looked at her with a mix of admiration and desire simmering in his eyes, and she believed him. She shimmied an inch away, enough to leave a small gap between them, and dropped her gaze to his straining erection. Now that the initial shock had begun to fade, she could appreciate the perfection of his male form. All of it.

She looked up. “So are you.”

His grin made her smile.

“Well, you are. I’ve never seen a fully erect penis in person before. Only relaxed ones. I guess I overreacted.”

“There’s my girl.” He cocked his head suddenly. “Wait. How many penises have you
seen
?”

“Twelve.” She jerked a shoulder in a defensive shrug. “I’m an artist, remember? Male models have them, but they don’t usually have a hard-on when they’re posing for a class. This one guy did, though.” She scowled at the memory. “Sort of, but he was a weirdo. None of us were impressed.”

He dropped his forehead to the crease of her neck. His shoulders shook with silent laughter.

God, I’m babbling.
She squeezed her eyes shut and mentally cleared her throat. “I’m going to shut up now.”

His shoulders shook harder.

Great, here she was, on a bed, wearing nothing but a bra and panties, and the naked sex god with her was laughing. At this rate, she wouldn’t need Kris’s super-duper condoms. Which might be a good thing. Considering the size of him, they probably wouldn’t fit anyway.

She shook her head and refused to admit defeat. If the condoms didn’t work, she’d march down the street to the drugstore and get the biggest ones they had, but after the stress of coming here in the first place, she wasn’t going home to her empty bed without having carnal knowledge of one well-hung wide receiver.

It was her own fault her first foray into the world of sex had derailed so badly, but she knew a sure-fire way to start the train running again. She slid her hand over her belly to her thigh and dragged two fingertips from the base of his cock to the head. He stiffened and jerked up his head. Pleasure glimmered in his eyes.