Читать книгу Forbidden: A Shade Darker – The Complete Collection - Leslie Kelly, Kira Sinclair - Страница 12

5

RAND WASN’T SURE who he spoke to, thanked or acknowledged as he left the crowded fund-raiser. He’d been planning to stay until after midnight, but as soon as he’d looked into Emily’s face and heard what she was really saying, he’d been able to do nothing but head for the exit.

Emily had stopped him, asking him to let her go out first, since it wouldn’t be seemly for a hotel employee to leave with the guest of honor. He’d done as she asked, watching her leave and following her two minutes later.

She was waiting for him outside the ballroom, in a side corridor.

“That was the longest two minutes in history,” he said, grabbing her and pulling her into his arms. He thrust his hands in her hair and covered her mouth with his, kissing her hungrily. She kissed him back, just as hungry, just as desperate.

They finally broke apart, and he forced himself to remember that, even though she was no longer on duty, since it was after eleven, this was still her place of employment.

“Let’s get upstairs,” he told her, “I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

“This job’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” she said, a naughty smile quirking her lips.

That was good. Because, if Rand had his way, she wouldn’t have her job for long. One night was never going to be enough, not now that he knew all the feelings and desires he’d carried around for Emily for seven years were still alive and strong. He had every intention of talking her into coming with him when he left here to return to L.A.

But that was for tomorrow, when he finally told her the rest of the story. That he’d really come here because he wanted a whole lot more from her than sex. She hadn’t been ready to hear it earlier, and probably wouldn’t have believed it.

Sex, though—hot, steamy, wild sex—well, they’d both been waiting for that for long enough.

On the way down the corridor, they practically mowed over another couple who’d just entered from outside, bringing in some cold Chicago night air along with them. The guy wore an Army uniform and had a possessive arm draped around the pretty, thirty-ish woman’s waist. Emily seemed to know her. Or, at least, the woman knew Emily.

“Hello. Miss Crowder, isn’t it?”

Emily paused, half tripping Rand with the sudden stop. “Hi, Dr. Blake. I guess you made it home for the holidays. I heard you almost got stuck in New York because of that crazy blizzard last week.”

The other woman laughed softly, exchanging a glance with her escort, who hadn’t taken his eyes off her. “Fortunately, I was able to hitch a ride with an excellent driver.”

The tall, dark-haired man spoke. “We have a soft spot for this event, and wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Rand extended a hand to the Army officer. “Happy New Year, and thank you for your service.”

The other man shook it. “Are you who I think you are?”

“Yeah,” Rand said with a noncommittal shrug.

“You’re taking your life in your hands coming to Cubs country.”

The two men laughed. “Hey, some things are worth the risk,” Rand replied, eyeing Emily.

“Don’t I know it.”

“Well, nice running into you,” the pretty female doctor said, amusement in her eyes, as if she was aware that Emily and Rand were racing out of here to be alone together. “Happy New Year.”

“Same to you,” Emily replied.

The other couple departed, and Emily explained, “She’s my cat’s vet, Ellie Blake. She’s a major supporter of tonight’s event.”

“The fund-raiser was a big success.”

“I’m glad. It’s a great cause.”

“I know. One of my biggest regrets about being on the road so much is that I can’t have a dog. So I try to support as many homeless pets as possible.”

She gave him a melting look, as if touched or surprised by something he considered as natural as breathing. Maybe it seemed a little strange, but Rand wasn’t ashamed to admit he was a softie when it came to anything involving kids or animals

“You did a good thing by coming here.”

Yeah. He intended to do a lot more good things, too. This trip up to his room was taking far too long for his liking.

Funny that they could make small talk as they hurried across the lobby, as if they weren’t both desperate and dizzy with excitement to be alone together. He hoped seven years of waiting wouldn’t make him so anxious that he shot off like an inexperienced kid.

They crossed paths with a few more people as they worked their way toward the opposite tower, which housed the only elevator that accessed the penthouse. He managed to smile and nod when he had to, but didn’t let anybody slow them down or impede their progress. Maybe he was being rude, but, frankly, he’d been waiting seven years and he couldn’t stand to wait another seven minutes.

Passing the front desk, Emily paused to speak to the night manager, the one who’d called him masturbation-bait—and God, hadn’t that been awkward to walk up on—to tell her she was going off duty. The woman gave them both a broad smile, and Emily a not-so-surreptitious thumbs-up.

Finally, though, they reached the elevators.

“I probably should go to my office and...”

“No. You should get up to that penthouse with me. Now.”

She grinned. “You really are impatient, aren’t you?”

Considering that he was ready to howl with frustration because the elevator was taking too long, he’d cop to that.

“You’re lucky I worked the three-to-eleven shift.”

“Even if you had to work until morning, I’d have stalked you through the hotel until I found a closet to drag you into.”

He smiled as he felt a slow shiver roll through her slight body, realizing that she was every bit as excited and eager as he was. Standing beside her, his fingers on the small of her back, stroking the tiny protrusion of her spine, breathing in her sweetly spicy scent, the tension within him ratcheted up even higher. He had no idea how he was going to keep his hands off her once they were alone in the elevator. Heaven help him if anybody else boarded it with them.

The doors opened and he didn’t even wait to see if anyone came out. He simply put an arm around Emily’s waist and ushered her in. Fortunately, it was empty. Equally as fortunately, no one else called for them to wait.

The second the doors closed with a whoosh, Rand eased her into the corner, wrapped her in his arms and hauled her up against his body. He caught her mouth in a hot, wet kiss that held nothing back, loving the slide of her small, sweet tongue and the heat of every breath she exhaled into his mouth.

They tilted their heads, angling deeper, and he groaned as she wrapped one slim leg around his and arched into him. He was unable to resist his body’s demand to thrust and claim, and rocked into the apex of her thighs.

“Oh, yes, Rand, you feel so good,” she groaned, straining against his rock-hard erection.

He buried his face in her throat. “I hate that there are cameras in here.”

“They’re only for show,” she said, her tone wickedly sultry. “The system has some glitches because the hotel’s so new. The cameras don’t work yet.”

Possibilities filled his head as he tried to remember just how long it took the elevator to reach the penthouse. Not long enough for what he most wanted to do. But long enough to tide them over.

He reached for her skirt, lifting it up to reveal the tops of those crazy-sexy stockings. “I have been fantasizing about these things all day.”

“About taking them off me?”

“Oh, hell, no.”

“I see.”

“You will be leaving them on.” Not a request. A demand.

“Bossy,” she said.

She didn’t say anything more, her voice failing her when he slid his hand between her warm thighs and cupped her mound. Her panties were damp, even more than they’d been earlier, and his blood coursed harder through his veins. She might have handcuffed him and walked out the door with a firm proclamation that she wasn’t interested. But her body had told him seven years ago that she most definitely was, and things hadn’t changed one bit.

“Have you been wet for me all evening?”

She dropped her hand to cup his cock. “Have you been hard for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I guess we’re even.”

He imagined they were.

“I’ve gotta taste you, Em.”

He glanced at the control panel, noting the floors ticking by. They could stop at any moment. But frankly, he couldn’t wait. The smell of her, the softness of her, the sound of her little gasps of pleasure all urged him to do what he’d been dying to do since she’d locked him up and stormed out earlier.

He dropped to his knees. Flipping her skirt up, he held it out of the way, gripping her hips, and pulled her toward his hungry mouth. That hot, musky, feminine fragrance of her desire inflamed him and he buried his face in that sweet spot. He breathed her in, inhaling her, driving himself a little more crazy with need.

“Rand, you shouldn’t...oh, God, that’s amazing,” she said, twining her hands in his hair.

He ignored her, aware she wasn’t sure herself whether she wanted to order him to stop or beg him to lick her until time—and the elevator—stopped.

He had only a few seconds. Just enough to lap at her, scraping his flat tongue against those pretty blue panties.

She whimpered, dropping a hand to his shoulder and digging her fingers into his muscles. He lapped again, feeling her legs quiver and almost buckle, until only his hands on her hips and the wall were holding her up.

He had to let go of one hip so he could pull the fabric of her panties away and reveal the pretty, plump lips of her sex. She draped her leg over his shoulder, exposing herself fully, confident and sensual and utterly alluring.

“That’s beautiful,” he said with a groan as he flicked his tongue over her pearly clit. She cried out, her pleasure urging him on. It wouldn’t take much to bring her over the top, and he was dying to taste her climax on his tongue.

The bell dinged.

The door swished open.

If they had stopped on any other floor, they would have been caught with his head buried in her pussy and her leg wrapped around his neck.

But they were, instead, standing directly in front of the door to the penthouse—the only room on this floor. Rising to his feet, Rand swept Emily into his arms, aware that her legs were weak. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as he carried her to the door. He let her down long enough to swipe his key card, and then picked her back up and crossed the tiled living room to the master bedroom.

“I want to do everything with you, Em, but first I want to finish what I started.”

“You are very welcome to do that.”

He chuckled at her almost prissy tone, seeing the mischief in her eyes. Pressing a quick kiss on her mouth, he dropped her onto the bed, but didn’t let her lie down. Instead, he pulled her to the edge of the mattress, shoving the skirt out of the way, and tugging those panties down and off. Pushing her thighs apart, he knelt between them, pausing to admire the perfect vision of her femininity.

“Please,” she whimpered, arching toward him.

He smiled at her, licking his lips, aware of how desperately she wanted him to take her over the edge.

He bent to the delicious task, loving the scrape of her silky-smooth stockings on his cheek and the brush of her soft curls on his lips. Like a starving man, he opened his mouth on her. He slipped his tongue deep within the folds of her sex until he was able to dip into the utter core of her body, savoring the flavor that was so uniquely Emily.

He lost himself to everything but giving her pleasure. Rand positively drank from her, making love to her with his tongue, going back and forth between her hot channel and the sensitive clit that he flicked and gently sucked.

“Good lord,” she cried, her body arching toward him as she became helpless to anything except sensation. “I can’t...I have to...”

The intense pressure that verged between unbearable and unforgettable had her in its grip and only he could give her what she craved. Another long, firm stroke of his tongue around the base of her clit, and she finally cried out her ultimate pleasure.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she groaned, her whole form rocking as her orgasm gripped her.

He continued to kiss and taste her, not moving up her body until she’d collapsed back onto the bed in a boneless heap.

And then, when he was over her and gazing down into her eyes, he said, “Well, we’ve finally gotten all the way around third base and it’s about damn time I slid into home.”

* * *

EMILY WAS WEAK after the powerful orgasm that had shaken her to the core. She’d never had a lover perform such incredible intimacies before, never been the focus of so much intense attention. The climax had been stunning and unforgettable, but the idea of finally taking that last step, of having Rand buried inside her, revived her with the sheer anticipation of what was to come.

“Yes, please,” she ordered.

He laughed, obviously noticing her renewed energy level. He stood beside the bed, shrugging out of his tuxedo jacket. His tie followed, then he slowly unfastened the buttons of his shirt. Every bit of skin he revealed was toned and smooth, the chest was broad, with the delineated muscles of a true athlete. A faint furrow of hair twined around his flat nipples and trailed down to a tiny patch on his taut, rippled stomach.

“You take my breath away,” she admitted, watching him shrug the shirt off to expose strong shoulders and powerful arms.

“Hmm...you have too many clothes on.”

“You’re not exactly naked, buddy.”

“I’m down to one item of clothing and you’re still wearing all kinds of stuff.”

“One? Aren’t you wearing underpants?”

He barked a laugh at the fussy word. “What do you think?”

She sucked in a breath, her attention dropping to the tented front of his trousers.

“Considering what I’ve been carrying around all night, I couldn’t even get them on. It was hard enough to get my zipper up.”

Remembering that Rand was incredibly well endowed, she didn’t doubt his words. She quivered, both at the sensual pain in his voice, and at the knowledge that his desire for her had caused it. “Poor baby. I’ll have to take care of that for you.”

“You’ll rub it and make it better?”

She smiled wickedly. “I’ll rub it and stroke it and kiss it until...”

“Until all the blood in my body is in my cock and I pass out from sheer want.”

“Okay.”

“Naughty girl. I always liked that about you—that you’re so sweet and nice on the surface, but really bad just beneath.”

Had he? How funny...she’d always believed he must have hated her for the wicked things she’d done that final night, when she’d invaded his room and his bed and sabotaged his relationship with her brother.

“Don’t,” he ordered.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t dwell on the past. It’s done, it’s over and I just want to enjoy the present.”

She caught her lip between her teeth.

“Please, Emily.”

“Have you really forgiven me?”

He smiled broadly. “Forgiven a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl I was absolutely crazy about for climbing into my bed, naked, begging me to take her virginity? Uh, yeah. I think I’ve forgiven that one, sweetheart.”

Crazy about?

“But if you really want to make it up to me, why don’t you get the rest of those clothes off.”

She was still focused on the crazy about. But Rand had unbuttoned his pants and begun to drop them, and soon she couldn’t think anything but mine.

He hadn’t been kidding. He’d been commando at that fund-raiser...commando and as hard as a baseball bat. All huge and smooth, a picture of utter male power and desire.

Her whole body quivered and every spare ounce of fluid inside her rushed to her sex as she imagined taking all of that into herself. Half of her wondered if it was just as well that Rand hadn’t taken her virginity; she might not have been able to handle him. Of course, the other half was convinced that it would have been the best night of her life, even if she hadn’t been able to sit down for a week and it had spoiled her for sex with anyone less, er, blessed.

His pants fell to the floor and he was naked and beautiful and desirable, and she was definitely overdressed.

She reached for the buttons of her blouse. Rand gently pushed her fingers away, taking over the task, flicking each button. “Your hands are shaking,” he explained.

“So are yours,” she said, realizing it was true. Rand, one of the sexiest men alive, was nervous. Or maybe he was just overwhelmed with excitement as he unbuttoned her simple white blouse and pulled it open to reveal her equally simple white bra.

He licked his lips and stared down at her.

“It’s been a long time,” he finally explained.

A long time since her? Or a long time since anyone?

“I’m not a saint,” he said, reading her mind, “but I haven’t been seeing anyone for several months, and I haven’t done the groupie/casual sex thing in years.”

His words warmed her. She had no doubt that Rand was far more experienced than she, but it was nice to be reassured that he wasn’t the typical playboy most athletes were made out to be. She didn’t really want the details. It was enough that sex meant something to him, the way it did to her.

But, wait. It’s not supposed to mean anything. You have to at least try to keep your heart safe in all of this.

That was Nora’s voice she was hearing in her head. She quickly shushed it, determined not to allow anything to spoil what was fast becoming the most magnificent night of her life.

“I haven’t, either,” she said.

“Had groupie/casual sex?”

She giggled. “Nope. Not for a very long time. Seven years, in fact.”

He stopped undressing her and studied her face, the humor fading from his eyes. It was replaced by intensity and utter seriousness as he said, “You were never a groupie and there was nothing casual between us.”

She nodded once, telling him she believed him. Their stares met and locked, and in the strongest nonverbal communication she’d ever experienced, they explained, understood and forgave.

“I’ve thought about you a hundred thousand times since that night,” he admitted.

“Really?”

“Really.” He pulled the straps of her bra down to reveal her breasts. The tips were tight and hard, aching with need. Rand didn’t toy with her. Instead, he bent and sucked a nipple into his mouth, hard and deep, and she felt the powerful pull of it all the way through her body, especially between her legs.

He squeezed her other breast, plumping it in his hand. Playing with the nipple, he stroked and plucked her into a frenzy as he suckled. She was writhing beneath him, arching toward him, silently urging him to claim and possess her as he’d promised to.

“Please, Rand,” she insisted, twisting her way out of her navy skirt and kicking it off. She now wore only the thigh-high stockings, which she wasn’t about to take off. Not when she was aware of how crazy they made him. “Take me now. I can’t wait any longer to have you inside me.”

He got off the bed long enough to grab his pants and pull a condom from the pocket. She hated that there would be even that much of a separation between them, but since they hadn’t progressed into the safe-sex talk, she knew this time they had to be careful.

This time? Isn’t this supposed to be the only time?

She shoved that thought away, focusing only on the delight of watching Rand tear open the packet and carefully roll the condom onto his rigid flesh. She reached out to help him, letting her fingertips glide along that smooth skin, such softness encasing such steel.

Her legs wide, she reached for him, drawing him onto her, arching up to meet him. There was no fear, no trepidation, nothing except desire and trust.

As the tip of his erection slid into her wet channel, she licked her lips and closed her eyes, focusing all her attention on the sensations that battered her. Inch by inch, he slid into her, filling her, possessing her. Her body accepted him as if she’d been made for him, taking all that delicious power and making it a part of herself.

“Oh, Rand,” she whispered, opening her eyes and looking up at him as he slid all the way home, burying himself entirely within her.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I’m perfect.” She squeezed him inside, loving the heavy fullness of him—the weight on his body, the scent of his sweat, the scrape of his skin, the thickness of his cock deep inside her. Everything about the moment was perfect, and the utter delight of it lifted her to a level she’d never experienced before in her life.

Then he began to slowly pull out and thrust again, and she flew a little bit higher.

“Yes, oh, God, yes,” she groaned, thrusting up to meet him, her hips undulating as she wrapped her thighs around him.

He caught one of her legs in his hand and lifted it higher, then higher still, until he could drape it over his shoulder. The angle was incredible, the intensity soul-shattering and the pleasure beyond anything she’d ever known. He filled her to the depth of her being...and then he filled her a little bit more.

The pace increased, his thrusts growing more powerful and her answering ones even more demanding. They rocked together, swayed together, gave and took together. They twisted, pounded, clung, and, when at last they reached the pinnacle of human pleasure, shouted it in unison and collapsed into an utter heap of satisfaction.