I moved behind Jimmy, ran soap over his broad back. He tolerated it for a minute, then turned, reached for me again. I gave him one brazen kiss—all tongue and teeth—while my hands indulged in the planes of his chest, the ridges of his abdomen, moving downward.
“Thea…”
I dropped to my knees and took him in my mouth while I stroked the immense, hard length of him.
He groaned. “Ah, fuck…”
The water fell over us, warm and clean. I tasted every inch of his cock with my tongue, then took him deep. His hand smacked the tile above me, bracing himself, and the sound spurred me on. I wanted his release for myself. Greedy for every sound, every low moan. He found my hair, his fingers tangling.
“Harder,” I managed.
His hand tightened in my hair, pulling, holding me there.
Yes, oh God, that.
Jimmy tensed and then spilled his release into my mouth. I drank it down, sucking and stroking to take every last bit of it, because it was mine.
“Jesus, Thea.”
Jimmy’s head dropped, the water streaming across his face to rain over me. It ran in rivulets over the cut planes of his body, the muscles of his arms and shoulders. Sheer masculine perfection. His eyes opened and found mine. My heart thudded at the pure, raw want in his expression.
“Come here.” Still breathing hard, he pulled me to my feet. The intensity in his eyes sent shivers dancing over my skin, despite the heat of the water. “My turn.”
His words dropped between us, deliciously menacing in the promise of what he was going to do to me. Desire coalesced in a heavy ache deep inside me.
“Oh God…”
He captured my mouth in a searing kiss, while his hand slipped down between us, between my legs. He rubbed circles over my flesh, and then he slipped two fingers inside me.
I trembled, arching my hips into his touch.
“Yes…” I clung to him, my arm wrapped around his neck. “God, yes… Please…”
He pressed me to the wall, pinning me with his body, his mouth, and his fingers that took me to the edge before he pulled back.
I let loose a little mindless cry at the loss. It echoed in the bathroom and morphed into a gasp as Jimmy went to his knees and put his tongue on me. He kissed me with that same sucking pull and I came almost instantly—the ferocious ecstasy tearing through me. I scrabbled to hold on to him, my nails digging, starbursts firing behind my closed lids.
Jimmy rose and held my jaw in one hand. He took a kiss from me, sucking it from my lips with wanton greed. His other snaked out and shut off the water. Without a word, he lifted me out of the bathroom and laid me down on the bed. He stood over me like a warrior, ready to conquer.
And then he did.
He slid into me with one hard thrust. I stretched my arms over my head and arched my back as he braced his weight on one forearm and hooked my leg over the crook of the other, taking me hard and deep.
I gave myself up to him completely—my body and my heart naked and his for the taking.
Chapter 31
Jim
Thea nestled into me and nuzzled my neck. “Morning. May I take your order?”
“Surprise me,” I murmured sleepily.
She kissed below my ear, my jaw, my lips, then disentangled herself from my arms. I yawned and watched through half-closed lids as she padded naked to the bathroom. After these last three days, I had her morning routine memorized by sight and sound. She’d use the bathroom, brush her teeth, take the Hazarin. Then she got dressed, grabbed her bag and slipped out the door, blowing me a kiss on the way.
I rubbed my eyes and settled in to wait. I was getting better about letting her do things for me, like buying me coffee in the morning or picking up the—very—occasional tab at dinner. Lancing the wound of my childhood and letting her see the venomous details had loosened the grasp of a lifelong fear.
But I’d never fall asleep while she was out there alone.
Fifteen minutes later, Thea returned with two cups of coffee and two sausage-and-egg sandwiches from the shop across the street. She sat cross-legged on the bed beside me while we ate.
Thea sighed happily between bites. “I love this city. We could go to a different restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for years and never eat at the same place twice.”
“What’s the plan for today?”
Thea’s phone rang. Right on schedule.
“Hold that thought.” She wiped her hands on a napkin and answered her phone. “Hi, Delia.” She climbed off the bed and went to the window to talk to her sister. Their relationship hadn’t improved during our time in New York, but Thea never let a day go by without telling her sister she was okay. In return, Delia stopped threatening to have me arrested.
A fair trade.
“I will,” Thea said at the window. “We’re having an amazing time. The time of my life… Okay… Okay. Bye. Bye, Delia.” She came back and dumped her phone on the bed beside me. “I wish she’d just marry Roger and leave us alone.”
Thea’s eyes betrayed the hard words. I knew she hated the estrangement, but Delia couldn’t be trusted. She still hadn’t rescinded power of attorney.
Thea blinked away her sadness and smiled brightly at me. “Where were we?”
“Today’s plan,” I said through the last bite of my sandwich. “Empire State Building?”
“Not yet,” Thea said. “That’s last. I figure I have enough cash for a few more days. And don’t tell me you got it. You have rent to pay and no job.”
“I have savings.”
“We can’t drain them down. I don’t want to make anything harder for you.”
I reached and pulled her on top of me. “You’re making it hard for me.”
She settled against my groin, grinding on my growing erection. “I see what you did there.”
I kissed her, tasting the salt of her breakfast and the sweetness of coffee that was more cream and sugar than anything else. The kiss deepened, and all thoughts of food were forgotten for the next hour. I could’ve happily remained in the hotel for the rest of the day, losing myself in sleep-sex-talk intervals, but Thea had more New York-ing to do.
“I’d like to wander through Greenwich Village,” she said. “No plan. No agenda.”
“No oysters,” I put in and laughed at Thea’s sour expression.
Two days ago, we went to Grand Central Station, where Thea insisted on splurging at the Oyster Bar because it was a very “New York thing to do.” When the plate of raw oysters arrived, her eyes widened at the gelatinous goop and her nose wrinkled at the smell. But Thea being Thea, she clinked an oyster shell against mine in a toast and tossed it back. She immediately looked like a beautiful woman who’d knocked back the worst thing she’d ever eaten and was trying desperately to pretend it wasn’t so bad.
I can’t remember laughing so hard in my life. I chuckled again now, thinking about it.
“You’re still laughing at me?” She held up her pinched thumb and forefinger. “I was this close to barfing.”
“Is barfing in the Oyster Bar a very New York thing to do?”
She gave my bicep a playful punch. “Shut up. Anyway, I’d like to walk around Greenwich, have a late lunch, maybe do some shopping, and then have a cocktail at a jazz lounge or something. Sound good?”