Tomorrow's Dreams (41 page)

“Seth,” she moaned, slitting her eyes open to peer imploringly up at him. “Please … more. I need …”

“Oh, no, my wayward reliever,” he chided in an oddly strangled voice. He, too, was flushed and breathing hard. “It's much too early in your discipline to grant clemency.”

“But I ache so badly,” she protested, dragging his hand from his side back to her breast.

Sensual fire flared in his eyes at her confession. “You ache do you? Hmm.” His hand skated from her breast, moving lower. “Shall I guess where?”

Her only reply was a breathy sob. He was drawing tight, looping lines down her torso now; exciting, tickling manipulations that sent molten spurts of desire rushing through her veins. When he paused to tease her navel, her belly muscles convulsed with a violence that rocked her entire body.

“Let me see, now. Where do you ache?” His hand rounded the contours of her belly, gliding down until it brushed the dark triangle of her intimate hair. “Am I getting warm?”

“Hot,” she gasped, a searing ache exploding low in her belly. He dipped lower. “Very … h-hot.” Her thighs parted instinctively.

Her panting breath now punctuated by moans, Penelope waited for him to reach her core, to stroke the pulsating bud of her need. With maddening leisure he inched nearer and nearer. Then he was at her nether lips. His touch delicate, he outlined the needful swollen edges, occasionally grazing yet not quite touching the moist, burning flesh within.

Sobbing her torment, Penelope strained her legs apart, frantically thrusting her hips in a desperate attempt to guide his fingers to the fiery center.

“Please, Seth,” she begged. “I can't stand any more.”

“Tell me what you want,” he purred.

“Touch me,” she moaned. “I'm begging you.”

“Where?” His fingers hovered just over her core.

She reached down and crushed his hand against her. “Here. Touch me here … the way you used to.”

Laying on his belly between her legs, he gently separated her passion slickened flesh and blew on her hardened bud.

White-hot sensation streaked up through Penelope, sending another rush of moisture flowing to her already soaked womanhood. Bucking her hips impatiently, she wailed, “Seth … touch me!”

Ducking his head, he examined her closer. “You're beautiful down here.” He briefly touched her inflamed nub.

She shrieked, her body jerking in savage response.

Moving away to stroke her wet folds, he continued, “You're like a newly unfurled rose with your soft pink petals open like this to expose your nectarous center.” She whimpered with exquisite shock as he returned his finger to her pulsating core.

Over and over again he caressed her, sometimes with unbearable gentleness, others with a firmness that almost drove her over the edge. Just as she mounted the crest of her rapture, he pulled back, leaving her writhing in heated agony.

For a moment he lay motionless between her legs, watching her feverish twisting, his labored breathing echoing hers. When her frantic gyrations had calmed a fraction, he inched his face nearer to the tormenting source of her need.

Fixing her with a smoldering gaze over her womanly mound, he mused, “I wonder if your nectar, like that of a rose, is sweet to the tongue?” He eyed the object of his speculation thoughtfully. “Shall I sample it to find out?”

Just the suggestion was enough to make Penelope moan. Taking that moan for the yes it was, Seth dipped his tongue into her scalding depths, tasting her deeply and intimately.

Screaming her pleasure, she rocked against him, eager to accept every thrilling motion of his mouth. The sweeping sensation of his private kiss was everything she remembered and much, much more. Repeatedly he drove her to the edge, only to retreat and begin again. When her ache was so intense that she wept with need, he at last released her.

Screaming at the rapturous violence of her climax, she shoved hard against his mouth, the stimulation of his tongue against her core heightening a hundredfold as spasm after powerful spasm jolted through her. Never had her climax been so intense, never had she felt so alive. And by the time the lingering bliss of the last contraction faded, she was certain she'd died and gone to heaven.

As Penelope lay in the aftermath, too glutted with contentment to move, she murmured, “That was …” but words failed her. How could she possibly describe what she'd just felt?

Grinning, Seth covered her body with his, drawing her into his embrace. “Learned your lesson, did you?”

She slanted him a wicked look. “For the moment, yes. But I'm certain I'll need frequent refresher courses.”

He leered back. “Which I always stand ready to provide.”

“So I've noticed.” She grasped his taut buttocks and gave the bulge in his trousers a significant rub with her pelvis.

His breath exploded from his chest in a moan. “Don't, sweetheart! I can't—” he choked, frantically trying to squirm away.

She tightened her grip on his backside, stopping him. “A deal is a deal,” she reminded him. “I kept my end of the bargain. Now I expect you to do the same.”

Without waiting for his reply, Penelope shoved her small body against his powerful one, pushing him until he rolled helplessly over onto his back. On top now, she straddled his hips. Eyeing his magnificent body with lascivious intent, she laid her palm over his erection, scolding,

“Careless man! You're so aroused I can feel you throbbing all the way through your trousers. Now unless you want to further endanger your sanity, I suggest we relieve you immediately.”

Seth snatched her hand from his hardness, his pink flushed face darkening to a hectic red. “Not … yet. I need … just give me a few minutes to”—he sucked in a whistling breath between his gritted teeth—“compose myself.”

“Compose yourself? But why? I'm going to relieve you.”

He closed his eyes, his face twisting in a way that perfectly conveyed his discomfort. “Because I've yearned for this moment for over two years, and I don't want to ruin it by losing myself the second you open my trousers.”

Penelope stared down at him in amazement. “Are you really that close? I mean, I haven't even touched your ‘thing' yet.”

“You don't have to. It's been so long since I've had sexual relations, that the mere idea of having it fondled is almost enough to drive me over the edge.”

“A long time?” She shook her head skeptically. “But what about that saloon girl I found you with your first night here?”

His flush deepened to burgundy. “Nothing happened. I just led you to believe it had. I wanted you to think that I was a heartless bastard and that I no longer cared for you.”

“But—”

“Oh, at first I intended to make love to her,” he admitted, deaf to her interruption. “I was desperate to spend my lust so I wouldn't get aroused every time I looked at you. But I couldn't do it. All I could think of was you”—he turned his head away, as if ashamed—“and I simply couldn't get excited enough over her to do anything. In truth, I haven't been able to bring myself to have relations since I fell in love with you.”

Penelope was speechless. Never had Seth done or said anything that touched or pleased her as much as this softly uttered confession. That he loved her so much as to deprive himself in such a manner was more than she'd ever dared to believe possible. When she finally spoke, her voice was as strangled as his. “You haven't had relations since our last time in New York?”

He nodded, his cheek still pressed against the carpet. “Nor did I have any for almost two years prior to our engagement.”

“Two years before?” Her brow furrowed. “I don't understand.”

“Remember the ball your brother gave the night before you left for your first musical tour?”

“Of course. How could I forget an occasion like that?”

“It was then that I realized I loved you. From that point on, aside from the three times we were together, I've been celibate. Before our engagement, I forwent relations out of respect for my feelings for you. Afterward it was because no other woman could measure up to you.”

Tenderness swelled in Penelope's chest, making it difficult to draw a breath. Never in a million years had she expected to find a man who would love her so completely. Especially not an extraordinary one like Seth Tyler.

Resisting her almost overwhelming urge to take him in her arms and demonstrate the depth of her emotion, she lay her hand against his cheek, murmuring, “No wonder your control is so frayed. It's a miracle you've managed as well as you have.”

“After waiting and wishing for so long, I want our lovemaking to be perfect. I want to hold you and hear your cries of pleasure as we find our release together.” He implored her with his eyes. “But I won't be able to last long enough to do that if you don't give me a few minutes to regain my control.”

Penelope pressed a kiss to his lips, then crawled off him. “I won't touch you again until you say you're ready.”

For a long while they simply lay there sharing dreams for their future; he on his back with his head pillowed on his folded arms; she on her belly beside him, her chin propped up on her hands. As they were deciding how to furnish the still empty mansion he had built for them in San Francisco, Seth announced, “I'm ready to continue now, provided you take it easy on me.”

“I won't torment you any worse than you did me,” Penelope joked. Grinning at his responding groan, she rose to her knees beside him, her gaze admiring as she scrutinized his supine form.

He was such a beautiful man, both inside and out. And he deserved to be loved in a manner that would bring him the same kind of ecstasy he'd brought her. Her smile slowly faded. But how? What did she know about this pleasuring business?

Admittedly, nothing. She looked helplessly at the man before her. Wherever did she start?

Where had he started? Her gaze skimmed his impressive length as she tried to recall, finally halting at his hair. Remembering the sensual feel of his fingers combing through her own locks, she gently followed suit. He closed his eyes, sighing.

He looked so handsome lying there, his thick golden mane haloing around his head and a peaceful smile curving his lips. Thanking her lucky star, ribbon, and the being above for giving him to her, she leaned down and pressed her lips to his. Moaning, he dragged her into his embrace, deepening the kiss.

“Oh, no,” she chided, pulling away. “We'll have no more of your lustee wiles. You'll lie still, as promised, and let me have my way with you.”

“Oh, and what is your way?” he inquired, his grin roguish as he obediently returned his arms to his sides.

“This,” she murmured, swooping down to reclaim his lips. This time she pinned his hands to the carpet with hers, forcing him to lie submissively while she plundered his mouth.

As she caressed his tongue with hers, he pulled away, gasping, “You … promised to take it … easy … on me.”

Smiling down into his passion-flushed face, Penelope lightly ran her thumb across his lower lip, murmuring, “If I take it any easier, I won't be touching you at all.”

Seth jerked his face away, an explosive groan ripping from his throat. “I can't—”

“Ssh, love,” she soothed, tracing the strong angle of his jaw with her fingertips. “Relax. Let me make this experience everything you dreamed.”

Seth tried. God only knows he tried to bear up manfully beneath her caresses. But when she began to tease his ear, at first fondling and then licking the ticklish inner contours, the resulting sensations were so sensual that he was unable to endure the torment. Yanking his head away, he groaned, “I can't do this! I just don't have enough control.”

She lay a firm hand on his heaving chest. “Just calm down. I won't let you take your release before you're ready.”

Seth slit open one eye to shoot her an incredulous look. He doubted if anything short of an act of God could stop him from spilling himself if she continued her erotic ministrations. When he said as much, she laughingly replied:

“You said that I was able to bear more lust than I knew, and you were right. I suspect you're equally capable.” As if to prove her point, she leaned down and began kissing his chest.

Her tongue was warm and moist as she trailed licking kisses from his collarbone to his bandaged ribs, her lips soft yet insistent as she suckled on his nipples. Now and again she paused to nip at his chest hair, her tugging motions blatantly erotic in their gentleness.

Writhing in helpless urgency, Seth again broke. “Please stop. I'm about to …” To his everlasting relief, she did.

“All right, love,” she agreed, sitting back on her haunches. “I'll stop and let you compose yourself, but only for a moment.”

Seth grunted and closed his eyes, too entrenched in his lustful misery to do more. As he lay struggling to subdue his passion, certain his manhood would pop his trouser buttons at any moment, he felt Penelope lay her palm against his bandaged ribs. “No … not … yet,” he gasped, his stomach muscles tightening in involuntary anticipation. “I need a minute longer. I—”

“Ssh. I'm not going to touch you like that yet. I was just wondering if your ribs are all right. Looking at you just now, I realized how careless I've been. All my hugging must have hurt.”

He made a strained, raspy sound that was meant to be a chuckle. “When a man is as badly aroused as I am, no pain in the world is severe enough to distract him from his need. Lust is better than morphine, I always say.”

Penelope eyed the swathe of white linen beneath her hand thoughtfully. “In that case, I'll have to keep you in constant lust until you're completely healed.”

“Unless you kill me with an excess of it first, in which case I won't be feeling anything anyway,” he muttered.

She laughed. “Well, since we don't want you coming to an untimely end, I'd better relieve your lust before it reaches a lethal level.” With that she swooped down and pressed slow, shiver-inducing kisses to the narrow strip of exposed stomach between the bottom of the bandage and the top of his trousers.