Untitled (12 page)

      "The one thing you could do to make me a very happy man indeed is when I turn over..."

      "Yes?"

      "You could be naked."

      "Really?" I said the word for the sake of having something to say. A placeholder, something to insert into the conversation.

"Yeah. Get that fucking top off."

      "I had to wear something. It wouldn't have done for me to leave the house naked."

      "I prefer my women naked. And if you're wearing a bra, you can get that off too."

      "I would have thought you were the type of man to do that yourself. Tear the wrapper off."

      "Me? Nah. I'm all fingers and thumbs tonight. You saw what I was like with your skirt. Thirty-one years old and spazfingered all to hell. Christ, I need a smoke."

      "You want an ashtray?" I shifted my weight but he lifted his head.

      "You stay where you are. Given the choice between a smoke and you getting naked..." Leo chuckled. "Let's just say I'm glad you're not one of those women who gets pissy about someone smoking in their house but I'm not that addicted to nicotine. Only when I'm—" He paused, lay his head back down on interlocked fingers.

      "Only when you're what?"

      His jaw tightened before he spoke up. "I don't smoke that much. Just socially, or when I'm nervous."

      I ran my hand over his shoulder blade tattoo again while I considered what he'd said and tried not to shift my weight too much as I pulled my top over my head, dropped it over the side of the bed, unclasped my bra and did the same.

      "You're very quiet back there." As his weight shifted I lifted my hips, knelt up to give him room to maneuver. He rolled onto his side, his eyes widening with barely-concealed approval and fell onto his back once more. "Jesus." He pulled my hips down so I was sitting on him properly again. As properly as I could while he was still partially dressed. "I'm beginning to think all my birthdays have come at once."

      "All thirty-one of them?"

      "Jesus." Leo reached up and with his fingertips touched the spot between my breasts, then jerked his hand away as if my skin burned him. And I wondered which of us was the more vulnerable. He jerked his hips, unbalanced me and pulled me down onto him. "So let's even things up," he said, his mouth less than an inch from mine and so, so tempting. "Tell me how old you are."

"Twenty-four."

      "Oh," he said as I kissed him and I didn't know if this was in response to my age or my sudden assault and his hands slid up my back, gripping me.

      My hands on either side of his face and I finally, finally, allowed our bodies to make proper contact as we kissed.

      "So you're seven years younger than me, Piper Holt?" He'd evidently paid attention to the nameplate on my front door.

      "Yep. Seven years, old man...?"

      "Carson."

      "Leo Carson." Rolling the words over my tongue, I smirked. "Leo Carson." Pause. "Wait a minute. I thought you said in Kelleher's that night that my name was almost as unusual as yours. I think Piper beats Leo Carson any day of the week."

      "I was referring to my full name."

      "Which is? I assume you have an embarrassing middle name?"

      "No. Thomas."

      "Leo Thomas Carson?"

      "It sounds so sexy when you say it like that." He wriggled under me, and laughed.

      "But not unusual."

      Leo took a breath so deep his chest heaved. "I can't believe I'm about to tell you this, but my first name..."

      "What about it? God, have you been lying to me all this time, you fiend? It's not Leo at all?"

      "Oh it is, it is, it's just...that's a shortened form of my first name."

      "Leo? Short for...what? Oh, Leonard? Well that's not so bad. Bit old-fashioned, but...no, nothing wrong with it." I stopped in case he'd been named after his father and I'd unknowingly insulted his family tree going back seventeen generations.

      "Ish."

      "Ish? Ish? Define 'ish'. How close am I?"

      I swear he gulped. "One letter away."

      "One...? I don't get it."

      "You owe me one for this."

"I'll give you one any time you like, Leo."

"Leonardo."

"Leo—?"

      He squeezed my thigh. "Shit, I knew I shouldn't have told you that. You're not to laugh. You're not laughing, are you?"

      "No, no, I'm just...uh, well...yeah, I am."

      "Bitch." Another thigh squeeze, and another light kiss.

      "No, seriously, I just think it's a bit, hmm, what's the word?"

      "Sexy? Manly? Laden with testosterone?"

      "Obviously, as it's your name. But an Irishman with an Italian name? It's a bit incongruous."

      "I know, I know. My parents are twisted people. I should go by Thomas."

      "No, no. You look more of a Leo than a Tom. It's more leonine."

      "King of the jungle?"

      "If you say so."

      A huff of laughter against the side of my face and his breathing changed, slowed, went as deep into his lungs as I wanted him in me. His hands went to my sides, pushed up, and his palms moved across my nipples, barely touching but still drawing the air out of my lungs, as if stealing my breath for his own body.

      "You're fucking gorgeous, you know that?"

      With one simple statement he stopped time.

      And with one simple movement, the undoing of his zipper, he started it again.

      Silk boxers – this man had class – glided past his hips. Sure, he'd been inside me; I'd felt him, but seeing his cock like that, so hard and big amazed me I'd been able to take it.

      Made my mouth water.

      He stopped and for a moment I wondered why, until I realized one of us had to move. I'd have to get off him and help him off with the rest of his clothes, or he could swing his legs over the side of the bed to get his jeans off.

      Or...

      Pushing back against his shoulder, I leaned over him again, bent down for a kiss. Or so I let him think. I wanted to see the look on his face, hear the sharp intake of breath as I let my hips drag over his hand, the hand he used to stroke his cock.

      His rhythm sped up as my breasts touched his skin and as his hand moved, it brushed against my inner thighs.

      "Take your hand away."

      "What?" Leo gasped out the word, eyes glassy with confusion.

      "I said, take your hand away. Now." The vehemence with which I spoke surprised even me, as did the fact he obeyed. Clasping my hands over his above his head, I kissed him deeply but slowly and rocked my hips back and forward, only allowing the tip of his cock to slide along the V at the top of my legs. Nowhere near my pussy and definitely not inside me, the perfect way to give him a taste of what was to come.

      "You..."

      I stopped. "What?"

      "You're...Jesus." His hips jerked upwards but so did mine, away from him. "This...you...it's making me crazy."

      "Good."

      "How can you...aren't you...too horny to play me like...Let me touch you."

      Such desperate longing in his voice. All I could do was punctuate his words with a kiss.

      "Let...me..." Struggling against my hands. I kissed. "Let me...touch you..."

      "What's the magic word?"

      "Now." Using his brute strength to break one hand free, in a flash Leo forced two fingers inside me, but didn't force; they slid in easily because I was ready for him. "I thought so," he groaned. "I thought you were as turned on as I am."

      "I...I..." The rapid circling of his fingers confused me, made me stutter, pause, forget what I intended to say.

      "Now I'm really pissed off that I let you take over when I coulda been doing this with my cock all—"

      I laid my hand on his arm, forced his fingers out of me, frowning as I did so and he complied, probably wary of hurting me. I hated the feeling of being empty, not having part of him inside part of me, but I loved the look on his face. The startled confusion, the frustration, the irritation, the knowledge he couldn't have what he wanted, at least not yet.

      Clothing still tangled around his legs so he couldn't move or fight or topple me without the risk of falling off the side of the bed, he simply took it when I wriggled down his body, touched his cock, wrapped my fingers around and stroked once, upwards, then again, down. As I gripped him, his entire strength rose up through my clasped hand.

      Leo groaned and grabbed the slats of my headboard with both hands to lever himself up further, so he could thrust himself more forcefully into my grasp. "You...fucking hell, you stopped. What the—?"

      The tension in his abs lessened only slightly as he let go of my headboard, the cords which had previously stood out on his arms no longer pronounced. Shallow breaths made him sound like an animal in pain. "I am going to get inside you and you're going to stop messing with my head." He made an attempt to move his legs but I laid a hand on his thigh. Stopped him. Left him still tangled in his own clothing, not naked just yet.

      Listening for the low moan in the back of his throat as I took the head of his cock in my mouth, easing my lips over it, I held on to his hips and didn't know whether his resistance turned me on more, or the breathy moans he released.

      His skin tasted faintly salty, of perspiration, of me. With one hand I stroked him while I tongued the tip of his cock, slowly at first until he pushed himself further into my mouth, his rhythm accelerating.

      His hands were in my hair then, guiding me, and he whispered, "Harder. Suck it harder."

      So I deliberately slowed, resisted his guidance and the hands in my hair tightened, tried to force me down onto him but I wanted to savor the taste and the fact his hips quivered with my every movement.

      His breathing more shallow, more rapid, he whimpered with desire and when I tasted the tang of the droplet of precum at the end of his cock, I considered stopping. But I couldn't resist. I sucked harder and-

      "Stop," he groaned, pulling at my hair. "No, stop." He jerked my head away and I looked him straight in the eyes. As his arousal grew, so did my confidence. And I didn't want this to stop. "I don't want..." Breathless with the effort required for restraint.

      When I licked my lips, I tasted him there.

      "I want to be inside you and you're getting me so damn close. I want to be inside you when it happens."

      Somehow Leo shed the rest of his clothing. Perhaps I helped. And at last he sat on the edge of my bed, clothing pooled at his feet as if it had melted off him under the heat of lust. He gripped the covers as if needing something with which to steady himself. His chest rose and fell and as he turned to look at me, he licked his lips. Stared. Said not a word. His quietude unnerved me.

      He lifted a hand to my face, gripped my jaw but not to the point of causing pain. A frown flickered across his brow and then his lips were on mine in a violent, passionate kiss. His free hand pulled me onto him as we fell back onto the bed. With nothing to separate us but skin, we clawed at each other, scratched, pulled hair.

      "Oh Jesus!" he cried out and it sounded nothing like the desperation of a man in the throes of desire.

      I froze. "What? What is it?"

      "I left my jacket in the hall," he said, his breath against my face. "Now I've got to get up and I'd rather be getting inside you."

      "Huh? Oh..." Enlightenment dawned on me. And I couldn't resist a smile. "You might want to try the top drawer."

      "The top...?" Now it was his turn for the penny to drop.

      "Of my bedside table."

      A dimpled smile, and he ran his thumb over my bottom lip. "I could kiss you."

      "Please do."

      "I meant, I could kiss you, but I'd rather fuck you first." He turned to my bedside table, pulled open the drawer and rummaged around frantically. He ripped open the packet and looked over his shoulder. "Fancy helping me out here?"

      "Oh no, I'd tear it."

      "Nerves?" Leo raised his eyebrows before seeing to it himself. It took seconds, if that.

      "Yeah, something along those lines." I lay down and he turned to me, hooked my leg over his hip but didn't push inside, just teased my wetness with the tip of his cock.

      "I really, really want to get inside you but I enjoy the look on your face too much when I do that. Did you know you inhale when I do this? And when I pull away you try not to bite your lip but you do."

      I leaned in but instead of touching his face, I laid my hand on his shoulder and pushed.

      "Oh no you don't." He shook his head, half-laughed.

      "Yes I do. Don't want you getting carried away, do we? I mean...you were so close earlier when I-"

      "Do you think I have no self-control?"

      "If I'm on top we won't have to worry about that, will we?" I continued pushing against him. I knew he could easily overpower me, taller, heavier, stronger, more muscular as he was, but maybe if I resisted he'd give in. There was male brute strength but there were also feminine wiles.