Veiled Seduction (11 page)

Though he looked surprised, he didn’t stop her. His dark eyes merely skated over her, from her disheveled shirt to his hands on her hips. Then he looked back up at her, waiting.

She leaned in and made him jump by nuzzling his neck. She inhaled. Once she’d heard another woman say that she knew she had to marry her husband, because he was the only man who smelled good to her no matter what. Maira had discounted it then. What man smelled wonderful all the time?

But after hanging around with Sasha, she understood what that meant. Even when he was sweaty from working out, she didn’t mind it, still found his scent appealing. And right now, with that mixture of cinnamon and bay rum, he smelled good enough to eat.

This close to him, all of her thoughts and plans deserted her and she was reduced to her instincts. Following them, she flicked her tongue out to capture the cream at the corner of his mouth. His head turned and his lips opened as she delicately lapped at them.

Their lips melded together. This…this was different from that first time a few weeks ago. Then, it had been all angry, storming passion. Now his lips were softer, gentler. Instead of pushing her where he wanted her to go, he only took as much as she was willing to give.

Everything. I’ll give him everything.

The thought was too overwhelming, so she pushed it away, concentrating on the here and now. Her hands slid up to wrap around his neck, and she deepened the kiss, opening her mouth and shyly touching her tongue to his.

His hands contracted on her hips, and he suddenly pulled her down tight against his engorged penis. She felt the heavy length through his pants and her jeans.

Even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to get off without more stimulation, she shifted and ground against his erection, trying to get her aching clit lined up with him. The effort made her more wild—she rubbed her tongue along his, pulling it into her mouth and sucking on it like she’d sucked on his finger.

He tore his mouth free and pulled her lower body slightly up so she was no longer riding him. “Maira…”

“Mmmm.” Kisses. More kisses. He couldn’t take his cock and his mouth away. She wasn’t a kiss connoisseur by any means, but surely no other man’s lips tasted this good. She drew him back in, making no effort to be coy this time. Their kiss was long, hot, deep.

She released him only long enough to grab one of his hands and guide it to her breast. Two of the top buttons of her blouse had gotten undone. It was a simple matter to push his hand under the cotton fabric until it covered her breast.

He ended their kiss again, blast the man, pulling back until his head rested against the back of the sofa. “Maira. Let’s slow down.”

She stared at him, uncomprehending. His eyes were hot with wanting her, his body tense and ready to go. And he wanted to slow down?

To further confuse matters, his hand on her breast wasn’t exactly running away. As if he couldn’t stop himself, his thumb made one aborted pass over her nipple through her bra. She inhaled, more than ready for more, but he withdrew his hand and quickly buttoned her shirt back up.

Before she could protest, he’d removed her from his lap. She was back in the position she’d been in before, snuggled up against his side. He gave a rough sigh and raked his fingers through his hair before picking up the control and clicking the movie back on.

What was going on? Had she done something wrong? He was still aroused, ready to go. So was she. “Sasha…”

He looked for all the world like he was wildly interested in the movie. Still, he picked up her fingers and gave them a kiss.

“Is there a problem?”

“Hmm? No. Just figured you’d want to watch the movie.”

She’d rather make love to him then watch any movie. “We don’t have to. Did I do something wrong?”

That made him turn to her. “Of course not.”

“Oh. Then don’t you want to…” She trailed off, a blush rising.

“Are you kidding me? More than anything.” His expression softened. “But, Maira, I don’t want to rush you, make you do something you aren’t ready for.”

She stared at him. He was so pretty. Was he also stone-cold stupid?

How could he think she wasn’t ready for it? She’d already thrown herself at him. Twice now, if he counted the kitchen disaster.

“Sasha…I’m ready for more.”

A tender look crossed his face. “I know you think you are. But let’s face it, honey, this is new territory for you. Look, I just want to make sure we do this right.”

Wow. I know you think you are? “That sounds…” she studied his smiling face, smug and confident, “…incredibly patronizing.”

“I’m not being patronizing.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m not!”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You just essentially told me that I don’t know my own mind. I have to deal with male superiority all day at work. I don’t want to deal with it at home.”

He turned on the couch to face her, a fierce scowl stamped on his features. “I’m not a chauvinist.”

“Then what gives you the idea that you should be the one to decide what’s best for us?”

“Maira, I think I know a little more about this than you do.”

“A little more about what?”

Sasha made a gesture between the two of them. “This. Us.”

“Oh, I see. You’re drawing upon your years of long-term relationship experience. Since I haven’t slept with anyone yet, I must not know my own mind, right? Gotcha.”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Like what?” She grabbed the control and clicked the movie off, suddenly irritated with the main characters and their love life.

“Don’t use that ice-princess hoity-toity tone.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She did, though. Blowing up and storming out wasn’t her style. She just went frigid.

Unfortunately, Sasha knew how to melt her. He slipped his hand under her hair and massaged the back of her neck. “Why don’t we take a minute and talk?”

Though his fingers rubbing against her skin were getting to her a little, she continued to sit stiffly. “Fine.”

“I told you I don’t want this to be about just sex.”

Just sex and a relationship including sex were vastly different. She opened her mouth, but he continued to speak. “That’s why I thought it made sense to take things slow.”

“How slow?” She shook her head. “Are we waiting for marriage or something?”

Instead of panicking, Sasha looked pensive. “Perhaps.”

Per…what?

She was too surprised to say anything, and he continued talking. “We have time to figure all that out. I thought you’d be happy. I know how you were raised.”

Oh, oh. Blast him, for bringing her family into this.

Because it was true, part of the reason she’d never had sex was due to her conservative upbringing. She knew for a fact that her sister had been a virgin on her wedding night, and she’d had some hazy thought that she would do the same.

Until she’d seen Sasha lying on a hospital bed, that is.

Besides, it hadn’t particularly been a conviction she hardcore believed in. Now that he’d invoked it though…doubts assailed her. Deep down, what if that was the kind of woman he wanted?

She considered protesting. Take off your clothes and make wild monkey love to me. What do you mean you want to take things slowly, focus on romance instead of sex? Absolutely not!

Yeah, it sounded more than a little crazy in her head. What woman wouldn’t appreciate a man who had their best interest in mind, who didn’t mind waiting for sex? What woman wouldn’t jump for a man who was ready to put her needs before his own?

She nodded, trying to squelch the confusing mix of disappointment and anger. “I guess…you’re probably right.”

He looked more than a little relieved. “You’ll see. Don’t worry, I spent a lot of time thinking about this.”

“So…” She hated feeling unsure about anything. “What, exactly, can we do?”

Instant wariness flashed in his eyes. “Do?”

She scooted closer. He withdrew his hand from her neck. “Yes. While we’re waiting. What’s acceptable, physically?”

“Um…kissing.”

“We’ve been doing that.”

He swallowed. “Yeah. It’s good, right?”

“Well. Yes. But is that all?”

He seemed to struggle with something, and then come to some sort of decision. “That was all I had planned on.”

“Maybe we can do a little more?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “How much more?”

It wasn’t her imagination that he eased back. Oddly, his wariness made her regain some of her confidence. She moved closer, until their thighs were touching. “I liked what we were doing before you stopped.”

“I don’t know, Maira. We have so much chemistry, I’m worried things’ll just fly out of control. I was a few moves away from tossing you on the couch.”

I wouldn’t have minded. It did her ego good to hear that she hadn’t been the only one affected. “Please?”

She could tell the exact instant he capitulated. “We’re keeping our clothes on.”

Boo. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

They stared at each other.

The corner of Maira’s mouth kicked up. “I guess this isn’t something we can—mmph.”

She stiffened for a second when Sasha’s mouth landed on hers. Their noses bumped, their teeth clinked. She could feel the curve of his lips as he smiled. She laughed and relaxed, allowing him to gently guide her until her back met the sofa.

She stroked her hand over his face as he kissed her, and then sank her fingers into his hair when he left her lips to nip his way down her neck. He nudged the collar of her shirt aside and nuzzled her collarbone.

He did not go any farther south. She shifted beneath him. “Sasha?”

“Hmm?”

“Can you…maybe do what you did earlier?”

He scraped his teeth along the skin of her neck. “What?”

“Touch my…touch my breast.”

He didn’t move for so long, she began to feel unsure again. “I mean, if you don’t want to…”

Before she could finish her sentence, his hand was softly stroking over the side of her right breast. “I’ll always want to,” he growled.

He went back to kissing her as he petted her breasts, shaping the mounds while avoiding the aching center. The layers of cotton between her skin and his palm drove her mad. Her nipple was dying to be rasped by the rough calluses of his hand. But he kept his touch light, almost comforting instead of sexual.

An itch started in her belly and crept upward, her nipples rubbing against the cotton of her bra. Without thinking, lost in his kisses, she raised her hand and undid the top few buttons of her shirt until it was open to just under her breasts.

He pulled his lips a hairsbreadth away when she guided his hand inside. “Maira…”

Feeling more than a little naughty, she hushed him. “My clothes are still on.”

She dropped her hand away, curious to see what he would do next. His hand remained over her bra for a second. Then, he rubbed the flesh in a tight circle. She arched her back, trying to get a deeper touch, wanting to feel his skin on hers.

“Under the bra?”

He cast her a skeptical look, which she interpreted correctly. “Technically, unless you take it off, it’s still on.”

He laughed. “You rationalize better than a teenage boy.” His smile faded. Exhaling deeply, he rested his forehead against hers. They both watched as his long, elegant fingers slid below the thin material of her bra.

Her head fell back against the cushions as his right hand manipulated her nipple perfectly, as if it remembered the last time it had been in his hand almost a month ago.

His touch became more demanding, his fingers more certain, his other hand coming up to cup her other breast. He gave a little growl and licked and kissed his way down her chest, shoving the bra and shirt out of the way until her breasts were mostly bared.

Breaking the rules…no, her shirt was still on, right? And her bra too.

Then she forgot all about rules because his mouth enveloped her nipple and sucked strongly. He seemed to know the exact right amount of suction to make her eyes cross in need. While he laved one nipple, he manipulated the other with his fingers until her hips were bumping up from the couch in a hungry, needy way.

She didn’t realize she was whimpering until his lips left her breast and he was whispering in her ear. “Shh…it’s okay.”

“Sasha, please…” Her hands clutched his shoulders, his taut biceps. “I need—”

“I know.” He hesitated.

“We could have oral sex,” she said hopefully, her lust completely eroding her shyness.

His crack of laughter broke through the tension in the room. “Oral sex is sex.”

“Well, actually…”

He cut off her words with a hard kiss. “I know, I know you can get around that somehow.”

“I can rationalize like a teenage boy, remember?”

He chuckled again, and she smiled despite her need. Then she strained closer to him. “Please, Sasha, I hurt.” Surely he wouldn’t leave her in this state.

His jaw firmed, and then his hand was sliding down her belly to the fly of her jeans, unbuttoning and unzipping to reveal her flowered pink bikinis. She couldn’t even feel any embarrassment about the adolescent nature of the underwear. One, she was too excited to care, and two, he wouldn’t look down.

Keeping her gaze locked with his, he went solely by touch, as if it was somehow less illicit if he didn’t see his hand moving under the cotton. His hand slipped under the elastic, his fingers gliding over her mons until his forefinger rested directly on her clitoris.

She knew the anatomy of a female, had touched herself before, but it felt completely different to have a man’s hand, Sasha’s hand, there. She closed her eyes to break their intimate connection, but opened them again when the calloused forefinger rubbed against the bundle of nerves.

She’d thought a man fingering her would be intrusive and not very exciting. She’d been wrong.

He thrust one finger lazily in and out of her, and then added a second, twisting and widening them in a little move that made her heart pound.

“You’re so damn tight,” he growled. As if breaking the silence snapped his control, he glanced down to watch the activity below her waist. She followed his gaze, her thighs tensing at the erotic sight of his hand visible beneath the fabric of her panties, framed by the open fly of her jeans.