This was supposed to be a “watch and learn” evening. Watch Vanessa Bowen. Listen to her. Learn more about her. See if she was a different breed of cat than the other women in his life. But holy shit! The chemistry between them was strong enough to blow a hole in a mountain. Now it seemed the minute he was within inches of her his cock began sending him urgent messages and the rest of his body begged to follow. Common sense disappeared like smoke. He wanted her, no question about it. Maybe it was just that good old-fashioned pull of sex. That would be best. For him.
She was different tonight, somehow. The chip on her shoulder had somehow been dislodged or at least reduced. But it was more than that. There was something…something floating between them and he had a feeling it wasn’t all juts sexual tension. Although he’d be a dog-dare liar if he said the sex was anything less than of the fireworks caliber.
Wait! After just three days? No way in hell.
If it was, he’d worry about it later. Because right now he wanted to taste her more than he wanted to breathe. He brushed his lips against hers, lightly, back and forth, feeling their sensuous ripeness before pressing more firmly. He kept waiting for her to move, to push him away. Get angry, maybe. But she just sat there, letting him make love to her mouth, her warm breath like a soft breeze on his skin.
He traced the seam of her lips in a gliding motion before slipping his tongue inside the hot well of her mouth. She answered him with her own tongue, welcoming him, dancing with him. Sizzling heat surged through his body and headed straight to his cock and his balls. He moved his hands to cup her head, tilting it first this way then that to give him a better angle, and deepened the kiss even more.
Her hands came up and her fingers wrapped around his wrists. At first he thought she was going to push him away but instead she tightened her grip on him and gave him back as good as she got. Sliding one hand slowly down the slender line of her neck and past her collarbone he palmed one breast, feeling its warmth and the pebbled tip through the thin silk of her blouse and whatever fabric her bra was made of. He pinched the nipple lightly between thumb and forefinger and she moaned into his mouth.
With his lips still fused to hers, he slowly undid each of the buttons and tugged her blouse loose from her jeans. Her bare skin when he touched it was warm, and soft as satin. God, he could spend forever touching her. He broke the kiss and slid his mouth in a trail along the line of her jaw to the hollow of her throat where her pulse beat frantically.
“I think we need a more comfortable setting for what I have in mind,” he murmured, his breathing uneven.
Moving easily to his feet, he lifted her in his arms and carried her along the short hallway to the bedroom.
“Dinner,” she reminded him.
“Hungry, but not for food,” he pointed out, nudging the bedroom door open with his foot and flicking the switch with his elbow.
“Oven. Burn.”
“I’m burning all right, darlin’. But I’ll get it.” He placed her gently on the bed. “Be right back.”
He jogged to the kitchen, turned the oven off and headed back to the bedroom, pulling his sweater over his head. Ness was sitting up on the edge of the bed, her blouse and her bra in a puddle of fabric on the floor. Jesus, he just wanted to get his hands on those luscious breasts.
Ness sat there naked from the waist up, running her tongue over her plump lower lip and reaching out her hands.
“Come here.” Her voice was throaty and edged with blatant desire.
Hoping his control would last he stood directly in front of her, sucking in a breath when she ran her hands over his chest, scraping his nipples with her nails then unfastening his jeans and shoving them down his legs with his boxers. His cock sprang free, hard and thick and long. And demanding.
Ness wrapped her slim fingers around him, leaned forward and licked the drop of fluid from the head with a slow swipe of her tongue. The feel of her tongue was like a velvet caress. A shudder raced over his skin and he had to grit his teeth not to come that instant. When she slipped one graceful hand between his thighs and opened her lips to take him fully into her mouth he had to clench his fists to keep some semblance of control.
Her lips were soft, her mouth hot, her tongue educated as well as her fingers. She massaged his balls rhythmically with the cadence that matched her lips moving up and down his shaft. Oh, god, if this was heaven let him stay here forever. He felt her warm breath dusting over the hair on his groin and her teeth now and then scraping the swollen thickness of his cock.
When he felt his climax threatening he tried to pull back but Ness was having none of it. She moved her hands to grip his thighs, digging her nails into the skin to hold him in place while she sucked and pulled and drove him wild. When he spurted onto her tongue and he could see the muscles of her throat flexing while she swallowed, it nearly undid him.
At last he pulled free of her, still dragging in air, and gently nudged her backward until she was lying full out on the bed.
Ness looked up at Josh, filled with feminine satisfaction at the flushed look on his face, the heat in his eyes, his choppy breathing. Putting her mouth on him was the realization of the fantasy that disturbed her dreams since the night they met. She couldn’t understand why she obsessed about it with him when with other men she could take it or leave it. But she’d enjoyed it every bit as much as he did.
This wasn’t necessarily a tit for tat but she felt at least she’d given him back some of the pure pleasure he’d given to her so unselfishly that first night. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed every minute of what she’d just done. Oh, to the contrary. Taking his cock in her mouth and bringing him to climax had only ramped up her own level of hunger.
And such a great cock it was. Long and thick, the silky skin covering a shaft as hard as steel. And his balls, so warm in her hand. A delicious shiver raced over her body as she licked her lips, tasting his musk.
His face now was taut with barely leashed desire as he eased her jeans down over her legs, taking care with the cast. The panties were next, leaving her naked to his onslaught. He tasted and nibbled, stroked and caressed his way down her body. His tongue drew faint lines down her neck, pausing at the hollow of her throat then moving to her breasts. Each nipple in turn was tugged into his mouth, teeth lightly scraping the pebbled tip.
His breath was soft and warm against her stomach as he moved his lips over her skin, so slowly she wanted to scream at him to hurry, hurry, hurry. When he moved his lips back to her nipples she tried to push his head lower. But he grabbed her wrists with one hand and held them in place over her head.
The feel of his hard body against hers, the roughness of the hair on his legs against her smooth ones, the pressure of his hardening shaft against her thigh fed the hunger inside her. She inhaled his scent, so spicy and male. Little cries drifted on the air and she realized they were hers.
More, more, more.
When he finally closed his mouth over her clit her body quaked in response, the muscles of her pussy trembling. He sucked and pulled until she was nearly out of her mind with need. When he slid two fingers inside her she clamped down on them hard, squeezing with her internal muscles. He moaned against her flesh, the sound vibrating through her body.
“Inside me,” she urged. “Please.”
But he simply added a third finger to the other two, sliding them in and out while he continued to tease and torment her swollen nub of flesh. Lust swirled inside her, coiling like a band of steel low in her tummy, tightening and sending jolts of fire through every nerve.
When he slipped his fingers from her and lifted his head she whimpered in protest. His laugh was low and husky, sending shivers through her.
“Impatient?” He moved off the bed. “Good. Hold on just one second.”
Foil crinkled. Ness opened her eyes to see him suiting up with practiced haste then kneeling between her thighs again.
“Oh, now,” she breathed. “Please.”
Finding the best position for them, he pressed the head of his cock to her opening and with a smooth roll of his hips drove into her.
Ohgodohgodohgod!
He filled every inch of her and then some, bumping up against the mouth of her womb.
“Look at me, Ness.” The same husky voice, edged thick with passion.
She looked into his eyes, now a dark navy blue, bottomless. Eyes she could sink into.
And then he began to move, slowly at first then faster and faster. He inched one hand between them to find her slit and massaged it in cadence with his rhythm. Ness lifted her uninjured leg and locked it around his waist, digging her heel in the small of his back as she tried to get even closer. Pull him deeper.
He pounded into her again and again, each thrust pushing her closer to that exciting edge. The orgasm bloomed within her, like a flower just dipped in water. A surge more than an explosion, expanding into every nerve and muscle. In that instant she felt Josh’s release pouring into the latex, his cock pulsing inside her, and they tumbled into erotic space together.
In the aftermath he cradled her against him as they both lay there shuddering, dragging air into their lungs, hearts thundering.
It was a long time before they ate the warmed-over lasagna.
Chapter Six
Josh took a sip of his bourbon on the rocks and looked around at the people filling Alex’s living room and spilling out onto the patio. He hated these business parties and was thankful Alex was comfortable hosting them. All he and Tyler had to do was show up and be pleasant for a couple of hours. Tonight they were celebrating a contract with Waverly Enterprises to build a large, mixed-use development, the biggest project McMann Development had undertaken to date. It would definitely put them on the A-list of developers and builders. He watched as Alex effortlessly introduced Chuck Waverly and his wife to the different people sipping high-ticket drinks and nibbling on fancy hors d’oevres.
As he watched Ness chatting with a couple near the fireplace, he was startled to realize six weeks had passed since the night they met. The cast had finally come off her leg and tonight she looked particularly elegant in a black dress that made the most of her curves without being blatant. He knew how pleased she was to be able to wear decent shoes again. He hoped the sparkle in here eyes was as much for him as for her little victory.
They’d been spending a lot of time together, more than he’d anticipated in the beginning. It occurred to him that they’d done a lot more than dinner and sex over the past few weeks. Once that first frantic explosion of chemistry had settled down to a manageable level, they discovered how much they really had in common. They flew to Houston for a football game. Went to an art festival on the Riverwalk. An oyster bake at a friend’s house. Even movies at his place or hers with hot dogs and buttered popcorn. He found himself relaxing with her as he hadn’t with any other woman in a very long time.
She seemed a lot more at ease in his company as he did with her. Although the chip on her shoulder was still there, it had shrunk from the size of Texas to maybe Rhode Island. The sharp edges were smoother and it no longer took mind-blowing sex to relax her. But there was still a fine tension running through their relationship. He kept watching her, waiting to see when and if the mask would fall away and she’d start making subtle demands. Demands that included large expenditures of cash on his part. So he didn’t completely trust her yet. She seemed almost too good to be true.
He had a feeling the situation was mutual. He often caught her studying him with a strange look on her face. And he still remembered that morning she’d snapped at him because she thought he was sneaking out. He could guess she’d had a bad experience on the same scale as his—maybe more than one if her attitude was any indication—but they had yet to address the issue—or issues—still hanging around.
Tonight, he told himself. It was increasingly obvious to him that this relationship was going somewhere, although he wasn’t yet sure where, and they needed to unload their baggage. And he needed to make sure they were both headed in the same direction. He was pretty sure by this time that his bank account was not his main attraction for her. She not only made a damn good living on her own but she hadn’t developed the little annoying “gimme” habits that seemed to come out in other women after a few dates.
Just looking at her gave him a funny feeling, a sense of possession that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He wanted to be very sure of where they stood with each other before he gave in to it.
The couple she was talking with moved on and he noticed Tyler slide in next to her. Kiss her on the cheek. Tyler the charmer. But Josh wasn’t worried. The brothers didn’t poach on each other’s territory. He’d introduced her to both Alex and Tyler the day he decided for some strange reason to give her a tour of his offices. He saw at once the approval in their eyes and he’d been busy deflecting their questions ever since. Mostly because he still didn’t have any answers.
Asking her to come to this shindig with him tonight had been spur of the moment but he wondered if it wasn’t an indication of the direction in which they were already moving.
He sipped at his drink again then moved away to speak with one of the Waverly executives.