“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Trying not to come in my pants,” he said, his voice coarse and gravelly.
She almost laughed at how good those words made her feel. “I don’t want it slow—”
He put his hand over her mouth. “Woman, I’m hanging on to my control by a thread,” he admitted.
Piper licked the palm of his hand and watched his pupils dilate as he moved it and brought his mouth back down on hers. She felt his hand stroking down her body, sliding underneath her to undo the clasp of her bra, and then she felt it being shoved down her arms. A moment later, she pulled them free to tangle her hands in his thick hair.
She shifted, parting her legs to try to rub her aching center against his hard-on. He groaned again and she felt his hand between their bodies working at the button fly on his jeans. She brushed his hands away to take over the task.
Brian shifted out of her grasp, though, pulling her pants down her legs and cursing when they got caught on her shoes. He turned to take them off and she sat up, gliding her fingers down his spine. Then she reached around his front to feel his erection. She stroked him, undoing the rest of his buttons before pushing her fingers into the opening of his jeans and taking him in her hand. He was hot and hard.
Brian shifted around, moving delicately to make sure that he could get Piper’s hand out of his pants and not harm himself. He hadn’t been this horny since he’d been in his early twenties. She got to him faster than he wanted to admit. He shifted around and looked up her body. She lay back against the cushion, her arms up above her head, her thighs slightly parted. Watching him with that direct gaze that almost seemed to dare him to look away. He couldn’t.
He wanted her totally naked and she was, except for that tiny pair of red bikini panties. Lifting her with one arm around her waist, he slowly drew the silky material down her legs and tossed it aside. Then he stood up next to the chair and toed off his boots. It took longer than he wanted it to, but he didn’t want to stop looking at the goddess in front of him.
He looked down at his shirt. “You’ve ruined one of my favorite shirts.”
“I’ll buy you another one,” she said with a wink. “It was kind of your fault for being so ripped.”
He shook his head. “Fair enough.”
He’d never had a woman compliment him so often on his physique, and while he admittedly worked out to relieve stress and to keep his mind focused, from now on he thought he’d always think of Piper when he did. Brian tossed his shirt aside after undoing the buttons at the wrists and then pushed his pants and underwear down his legs, stepping out of them.
“Are you on the pill?” he asked. His voice was gruff again because she’d reached out to cup his balls as soon as he was naked.
“I am,” she said. “I use it to regulate my period.”
“Great.” He was glad he didn’t have to use a condom, unless she wanted him to. “I don’t have a condom, but I’m clean.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “I am too.”
It was a conversation that he never felt awkward about having. They were in a new relationship, and it was the responsible thing to do.
“Now that we have that out of the way... I’m going to learn every inch of your body,” he rasped.
“I like the sound of that,” she said. “As long as I can explore too.”
He realized he was going to have to keep himself under control because he wanted that, as well. Mutual pleasure had always been his goal when making love to a woman and tonight was no different. He crawled back onto the double lounger next to her after snagging one of the thick fleece-lined blankets, draping it over them so she didn’t get cold.
Turning on his side, he drew her into his arms, kissing the side of her neck and slowly moving his way down the curve to her shoulder. Her cinnamon-scented perfume was a bit stronger there and he licked at the spot, tasting her skin. Then he moved lower, realizing that she had a tattoo on the inside of her forearm that he’d never noticed before. He shifted back so he could see it more clearly.
It was roman numerals in a classy font. He struggled to convert them to numbers but soon realized they were for the year 2001. “What is this for?”
As he ran his finger over the tattoo, gooseflesh spread down her arm and her nipple tightened.
“My annus horribilis. Just a reminder to myself that I made it through a year that I thought would kill me.”
He turned his head, saw the shadows in her eyes and kissed her. “I’m glad. I bet it made you stronger.”
“It did,” she admitted. “Every time I see it, I stand a little taller, knowing I can handle anything that this crazy life throws at me.”
Brian traced it again—he’d seen the steel in her more than once and knew that she’d have been shaped by her experiences. He wanted to know what had happened, but didn’t ask. Instead, he resumed making love to this woman who was consuming him, body and soul.
Turning her on her side, facing away from him, he drew her back against his chest. He kissed her shoulder again, his hands cupping her breasts as he rubbed his erection between her butt cheeks. She shifted her legs, draping one thigh over his and pulling his top hand down her body and between her legs.
Brian cupped her in his hand, tracing over her center until he parted her and felt the tiny nub that was her pleasure center. He tapped it and she moaned a low deep sound and pulled his hand back, but she pushed herself against him.
“I liked that,” she breathed.
He did it again, lazily plucking at her other nipple while dusting kisses along her back and tapping her clit. She writhed in his arms and he shifted his hips, rocking himself against her, causing her to gasp in pleasure. Then she reached up to push her fingers into his hair, and he brought his mouth hungrily down on hers as he drove her toward her climax.
Her nails rubbed against his scalp as her hips gyrated faster against his hand and his hard-on. He wanted to shift and enter her but he also wanted her to orgasm first. Wanted to see her body go tight and as she came.
She started making tiny sounds, quick and fast, and then she tore her mouth from his and screamed his name as her body spasmed in his arms. He held her, stroking her between her legs until she turned in his arms and pushed him onto his back, straddling him.
Brian felt her hand rubbing up and down his cock. He jerked forward and realized his control was more slippery than he’d imagined. Watching her orgasm in his arms had almost sent him over the edge. He was trying to make this good for her, but he wanted her so badly that he only had to think of the moisture between her legs to feel himself careening over the edge.
He had been laboring hard to get his own law firm off the ground. Working cases and overseeing the construction of his building had consumed his time and hadn’t really left him with the chance to do more than hook up. But this was way more intense.