The first feel of him skin on skin nearly pushed her over the edge. He groaned and pulled her closer, pressing against her belly. She ran her hands over him, learning the lines of his body. The hardness here, the fleshy tautness there. She skated her fingers across a puckered ridge on his side. The anomaly drew her back to it, but before she could explore it further, he captured her hand and brought it to his chest. He turned them, moving them toward the bed. She tripped, her feet tangled in her wet jeans. They fell together in an ungraceful heap on the floor. She landed on top of him, hitting her forehead on his teeth.
“Ow!”
“Damn it!”
“Are you okay?” they asked in unison.
She buried her face in his chest and laughed. His chuckle reverberated against her cheek.
“That wasn’t the seduction I had planned,” he said after a few moments, humor in his tone.
“You
planned
to seduce me?”
“Planned. Fantasized. Daydreamed. Night dreamed. Thought about it every moment of every day.”
“Seriously?”
Seriously?
“I’m a guy.”
She adjusted her position, purposefully rubbing against him to tease. “I noticed.”
With a growl, he rolled them. “Hmm, what else have you noticed?” he asked, brushing the hair back from her face and smoothing a thumb over her forehead where she’d injured herself. He kissed it.
“I’ve noticed that your beard is softer than it looks.”
To prove it, he glided his chin back and forth across the top of her breast. “What else?”
“You feel good. All over.”
He ran a hand over her shoulder, down her arm, brushing across one breast, dipping in at her waist and around her hip, sliding down her thigh then up between her legs. “So do you,” he murmured. “So soft. And wet.”
“Also,” she gasped, widening her legs for him. “I noticed… uh… oohhh… yes… there… oohhh… yeesss…the f-floor.”
“The floor?” he mumbled around her nipple.
She reached down and cupped him. His breath quickened, blowing hot on her skin. She stroked him once, twice…
“It’s hard,” she rasped.
“Mmm.” It seemed to take him a moment to get her meaning, then his head came up and he released her nipple with a pop. “The floor, you mean.”
“That too.”
He leveraged himself off her and pulled her upright by the hand. She tried to stand, but was hampered by her pants around her ankles. They both worked to get her free, finally realizing that she was still wearing her shoes. He tugged too hard, scooting her bare backside across the carpet. She yelped at the burn and he dropped her foot free of the shoe, which came down in his lap. He curled up, half laughing, half grunting in pain. Out of her clothes at last, she moved to try to help him.
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but a kiss would make it better.”
“Is this part of your seduction plan?” she chuckled. “Because I have to tell you, your skills could use some work.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Only if we move to the bed.”
“Race you there.”
They scampered up off the floor and dove for the bed, collapsing into the pile of pillows she had stacked up. Graham pulled at pillows, tossing them aside, until he found her laughing up at him. He looked down at her with a naughty grin that made every part of her keenly aware of him, especially her too long neglected parts.
He bent his head and kissed her, gently, as though this alone was all he wanted. She shifted beneath him, accustoming herself to his weight and the way they fit together. Sliding his hands into her hair, he deepened the kiss. Her body became heavy, languid in the first flush of desire. She shifted again and he settled between her legs, right where she most wanted him. Groaning, he ground against her. She brought her knees up and slid her feet up his legs, locking him to her.
Rocking her pelvis, she brought him right to her entrance. All he had to do was push into her. He was right there. So close. He pulled back, moving away from her. She made a noise of disappointment and followed him, using her feet to bring him back to her.
“God, Erin… I can’t… I’m—”
She reached for him between their bodies. He gripped both of her hands suddenly and pinned them above her head.
“Stop doing that. I can’t take—” His words ended in an incomprehensible grumble as she once again pressed her pelvis up, bringing him against her once more.
She thought she’d die without the feel of him inside her. She wanted him now, hard and fast. No gentleness, nothing slow or deliberate. She wanted a mindless coupling, a crude fucking. There’d be time for finesse later when the need wasn’t so sharp. As if hearing her thoughts, he held her hands in one hand and slipped one, then two fingers inside of her, testing.
“Do it,” she commanded. “Do it now.”
“Stop it or I won’t last two seconds.”
“I don’t care.”
“That’s what you say now,” he murmured in her ear, stroking her. “I want you screaming as I pound into you. Over and over.” He quickened the pace as she writhed against his hand. “Harder and harder. I want you to yell my name when you come.”
Her breath came in short pants. She was so close. He nipped her earlobe, then sucked on it. But she held back. She wanted him with her. He held her hands tight and whispered naughty things in her ear, all the things he’d do to her. She struggled against his hold. Even though she could, she didn’t break it. Her resistance brought her body in constant contact with his. Her whole body was on fire, burning to join with his. He coaxed her on. The filthy things he promised drove her mad as erotic images played one after the other behind her closed eyelids.
Her loud gasps filled the room, nearly drowning out his words as he drove her wild with his dirty mouth and skilled hand. On the threshold of orgasm, she sucked in a stunned breath as he suddenly replaced his hand with his cock, pushing hard into her. Gripping the sheets, she came long and loud, shouting his name. He rocked into her once, twice and then he too reached his climax, muffling his groan in her neck.
His breath puffed against her heated skin, scattering goose bumps. She’d wanted mindless. What she’d gotten was earth altering and embarrassing. She squeezed her eyes shut, reliving the way she’d wantonly begged him to screw her, then got increasingly hotter at the dirty, almost disgusting suggestions he’d whispered in her ear. Is that what he thought of her? Did he think she wanted him to do all of those things to her? Her cheeks heated as she remembered the particular scenario he’d been filling her head with when she came.
She tried to disentangle herself from him, but he was still inside her. At her movement he stirred, sliding deeper into her until he hit her most sensitive spot. He pulled out, then in again, still hard within her. She attempted once more to get out from under him, but he gathered her to him.
“We did it your way, Babe,” he whispered. “Now we’ll do it mine.”
He stroked into her, nearly all the way out, then deep. His movements were languid and deliberate as though he were learning her from the inside out. Her body reacted, flushing hot. Pleasure rippled through her. She ran her hands over his sweat-slickened body, down his back, clutching his bottom as he seated himself deep. The play of muscles beneath her hand thrilled her so much she moved to grip both cheeks as he plunged into her once more.
~*~
Smoothing her hair back, Graham kissed her as he’d intended to from the start, taking his time. But the tension was already building, pushing at him to plunge hard and fast into her. Sweet Jesus, the sounds she made. She wasn’t quiet in her pleasure. He was quickly learning which touches brought her to the edge. How his mouth could make her squirm and the surprisingly naughty side of her that had shocked them both. He liked it all. He’d barely made it into her before it was all over for him. He’d take his time this go around and wouldn’t let her push him.
But even as he made the vow, she gripped his ass, her nails sinking into his flesh. Her cries urged him on, yanking on the leash of his control. Everything she did, every sound, every movement was maddening. He could have her a thousand times and never experience all the ways in which she could drive him wild. He picked up the pace, sweating with the effort to last longer this time. Bending his head, he sucked her nipple. She rocked into him, meeting his thrusts. But she held back.
He hit into her harder, faster. Her screams filled the room and yet she held out. He hooked an arm through her leg, then the other, pushing her into the bed. He’d meant to go slow, but she’d challenged him. Her pleasure was a goal he chased now with a single-minded determination that blotted everything else out, including his own impending orgasm. He fused his mouth to hers, muting her cries. Their panting and the hard slap of flesh on flesh filled the silence.
And then she broke, her back arching. He stiffened, his own release crashing into him. Releasing her legs, he collapsed down next to her. His mind blank, his heart pounding, he sucked in air. The room came into focus inches at a time, beginning with Erin’s face, which was turned away from him. The long line of her neck beckoned for a kiss if he could only move. His gaze drifted down to her breasts, rising and falling as she too regained her breath. He’d had fantasies about those breasts. None of which he’d gotten to fulfill. Damn it.
“You have control issues,” he said. Or at least that’s what he’d intended to say. Only it came out more like
Thew haff conthrol isthues
as he still couldn’t quite feel his tongue.
She turned toward him. “Is this more of your crappy seduction technique? Actually, I guess it would be your post seduction technique.”
“My technique is not crappy. It got you off. Twice.”
“Hmm… Well,” she hedged.
“I never would have pegged you for a screamer.” He grinned at her, stupidly pleased with her and, not to brag, himself as well. “A dirty girl, too.”
“Shut up.”
He chuckled and followed her as she tried to move out of his reach. With his lower body still pinning her to the mattress, she didn’t get far.
“I liked that too,” he said, nuzzling her neck.
“You’re a degenerate.”
“Hmm, maybe. I had to really stretch to come up with some of that stuff though.”
“Not that far.”
“No, not that far. I’m going to do some of that stuff to you, you know,” he said, circling her nipple with the tip of one finger.
She swatted his hand away. “I’m not interested.”
But she broke out in goose bumps, her nipples tightening, giving away just how interested in some of that stuff she really was. His dick twitched at her reaction. With more encouragement like that and some time, she’d have him hard and ready for yet another round. He grinned at her.
“You’re very pleased with yourself.”
He shifted to lie next to her, yawning. “No, just you.”
She rose from the bed. He stacked his hands under his head and sighed, watching as she padded to the bathroom, her violin curves pale in the moonlight. Erin was his. He shouldn’t feel guilty about that. So why when he closed his eyes, still smelling like Erin, did Patricia’s image come to haunt him? He tried to push it away. Put it back in the box of things he didn’t want to look at. But instead of Erin’s curling brown hair and toffee colored eyes, he saw Patricia’s long black locks and deep brown eyes. And why, when he inhaled, did Erin’s light scent mix inexplicably with Patricia’s heavy perfume?
He pressed the heels of his hands into his stinging eyes. The thought of her still got to him even now, months later, in another woman’s bed, fresh from another woman’s body. Patricia was always there at the fringes of his consciousness, like the scar on his side, a constant reminder of his failings.
Erin came back to bed and slipped in beside him. He wrapped himself around her, breathing her in, trying to chase away the demons of his past. Lethargy blanketed him, heavy and warm. But even as he felt the tug of sleep, the specter of shame called him what he was…murderer.
~*~
Graham knelt by the bed. The morning sun set the room aglow, casting soft light over Erin’s prone form. She lay on her stomach, face turned toward him. Her curls spread out around her. Unable to resist, he smoothed back the lock that lay across her face. Her nose twitched. He hated to leave her, but he’d put off questioning her ex-boyfriend too long. For her. He’d much rather strip back down and slip into bed beside her. Maybe make love to her once more.
He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then the hand that hung off the edge of the bed. Her lashes fluttered and then she nailed him with her very direct stare.
“Hey,” he said, caressing her cheek with the back of his finger.
She leveraged up and turned, tucking the sheet around her. “Hey.”
“I have to go.” He didn’t want to tell her the reason and bring the outside world into the space that had been theirs. He’d already brought too much in and would have to find a new way to deal with that.
“Oh.” She seemed to catch his meaning anyway with her one word response.
“Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?”
“I don’t know. I have to check on my dad and go back to the hospital.”