All I've Ever Needed (After the Storm) (2 page)

She explored his muscular shoulders and strong back as they continued the all-consuming kiss.
 
She had thought about touching him often and had tried to imagine what his hard muscles would feel like under her fingers.
 
She had even dreamed about it on occasion, but nothing was as glorious as the real thing.
 
The soft material of his grey shirt allowed her to feel the smoothness of his skin beneath it.
 
In repose his muscles were firm not hard as she’d imagined, but as he suddenly groaned deep in his throat, cupped her behind and pressed her harder against him, they tautened into cords of steel.

With her panties and his jeans between them she couldn’t accurately judge the size of his erection.
 
It felt larger than she’d expected but she knew, and fervently hoped, that his underwear and jeans added to it bulk.
 
What couldn’t be disguised though was its rigidity.
 
‘Rock-hard’ was a term she’d read often in romance and erotic romance novels in reference to a male protagonist’s erection and had thought it was a term bandied about by writers to make heroes sound better. Now she realized it could be an accurate description of a man in full arousal.

“I thought Italian Stallions were a myth.”

“No stallion,
cara
, just a man,” he corrected.

Stephano cupped her right breast and found her nipple already erect and distended.
 
With a groan that somehow even sounded Italian, he finally broke the kiss as he slipped both the top and the lace cup of her bra aside to bare her breast to his gaze.

“Bella.
 
Bella, cara mia.”
Instead of bending to it right away, Stephano held Natalie’s gaze for a few heart-stopping moments, making her squirm against his denim-covered crotch.

Impatiently, she tightened her fingers in his hair and urged his head downwards.
 
He obediently let her bend him until he was a breath away from her aching, eagerly-waiting nipple and then took back control.
 
For the next few seconds he let his breath waft over her already sensitized nipple, making it peak further, before drawing it between his teeth and nipping it into an even harder point.

“Suck it!” Natalie demanded, too desperate to care about seeming impatient.

She felt him smile against her flesh before he covered her nipple with his lips and did as she demanded.

“Ah! Ah! Ah!”
 
The pleasure was so intense, Natalie almost pulled herself away.
 
Grasping her head in both hands, she bit her lip to stop further moans escaping.
 
When she had mastered the sensation, she glanced downwards and found him looking up at her.

He held her gaze as he slid his hand up her inner thigh and his finger under the gusset of her thong, as if ensuring she wanted to take things further.

“Yes,” she said simply and watched his eyes darken in response.

***

As her breathing slowed, Natalie once again became aware of her surroundings.
 
Stephano was standing in front of her.
 
Her head was resting comfortably on his broad shoulder and…he was still buried inside her.

Oh God, had she just made love to a work colleague on her
office
desk?

She wished she could keep her blushing face hidden forever and not have to meet his eyes, but Stephano reached across to pluck a handful of tissues from the dispenser on her desk and straightened up.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded but couldn’t lift her head.
 
She was so embarrassed she wished she was a thousand miles away.
 
Books never said anything about the reality of sex in unexpected places.
 
People just had sex, straightened their clothing and then went about business as usual.
 
If Stephano hadn’t had the foresight to have the tissues in place both her hastily-tucked up skirt and her desk would now be drenched.
 
And yet, as grateful as she was that he’d had that foresight, it was a sobering reminder that he was a man with a vast sexual arsenal—one big enough for him to think clear headedly about practicalities only minutes after a seemingly explosive orgasm.

He tilted her head upwards and she was thankful that he couldn’t see the blood warming her cheeks.
 
Because of her dark chocolate complexion few people realized how easily she blushed.
 
She’d thought that she would grow out of the habit once she left her teens, but though she had attended assertiveness training and was no longer the painfully shy child she’d once been, she’d never been able to stop secretly blushing.

“Don’t be shy with me,
cara
.”
 
His words made her feel even shyer because he was the first person in years to recognize that part of her since she had learned to mask it.

“I’m fine.”
 
Shoring up all her inner reserves she forced herself to stare boldly back into his eyes, smile and pull his head down for a quick kiss—giving herself another minute to regain her equilibrium and become the cool, calm professional he knew her to be.

All too soon Stephano was pulling his lips away, regretfully it seemed, but pulling them away nevertheless and saying, “Sorry,
cara,
I have to go.
 
I’m meeting friends from uni and I have to rush home and grab a shower before the limo comes to pick me up.”

“Shit, is that the time?”
 
Glancing up at the office clock, she feigned surprise, pushed him out of the way and jumped off the desk. ‘Jumped’ was a slight exaggeration; she wriggled off the end of the desk gingerly, trying not to wince as the movement set off aching pains in parts of her body she’d been unaware of until the present moment. “I have to go too!”

She rushed to the ladies’ bathroom, wishing that he’d be gone when she returned but knew him well enough to know that he was too much of a gentleman to leave without saying goodbye.
 
Delaying her exit would make him realize that her earlier performance: the checking of the time; the feigned surprise; the lie about needing to leave urgently and then the rush to the bathroom, were all one big act to cover the fact that she had hoped the night would have ended differently—in his bed or hers, replete from a sumptuous meal they had cooked together or ordered in and several glasses of wine, continuing the lovemaking they’d started earlier, but this time at a slower pace.

After checking her reflection back and front in the full length mirror to ensure no evidence remained of their encounter except her kiss-swollen lips and over-bright eyes, Natalie left the bathroom.

The office was empty and though it was exactly what she’d desperately wanted, embarrassment flooded her from head to toe.

Slam
,
bam!
she thought angrily as she marched to her desk and grabbed her purse.
 
He hadn’t even had the decency to at least say,
Thank you, Ma’am!

“Hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”
 
Stephano’s voice startled her as she reached for her thick winter coat.

“No, I’ve just came back to the office myself,” she admitted, turning to face him with a smile of relief.

He held her coat open and she slid her arms quickly into the sleeves so she didn’t delay him further.
 
As he reached for his, she noticed that he had fully repaired himself in the bathroom.
 
He looked ready for a night on the town with the boys…or innocent enough to fool another woman into thinking all he’d done at the office today was work.

Natalie wondered a little resentfully if he had used the luxury handwash the agency supplied to wash away all traces of their earlier activity.

Quickly shrugging into his coat, Stephano took her into his arms and kissed her hungrily.

“Have a good weekend,
cara
.”

Weekend?
 
It was only then that Natalie admitted to herself she’d hoped he’d suggest that they do something over the weekend.
 
She hadn’t expected him to change the plans he’d made with his friends for the evening at the last minute, but surely he could find time for her no matter how busy his weekend was…unless he was spending it with another woman?

Quickly glancing around the office to ensure that all appliances had been switched off, Stephano indicated with his left hand that Natalie should precede him out of the office.

Head held high, she sashayed in front of him, deliberately moving her hips in a manner that overemphasized the slenderness of her waist in contrast to her hips.

This is what you could have been getting all night tonight!
 
Her hips taunted.
 
Your loss, buster!

As if he had received the message, Stephano groaned and wrapped his arms around her from behind, pressing himself against her.

“You have such a sexy bottom!”

Natalie smiled in triumph as she felt the imprint of his erection through their clothing.

Mission accomplished,
she thought with a mean sense of satisfaction.
I hope you’re thinking of me when you’re with someone else this weekend.

“I must go.”
 
Slipping free she ran to the curb and hailed a conveniently-empty passing taxi.

Stephano stood at the unlocked office door, a look of surprise on his face, as she waved goodbye, but the feeling of triumph lasted only until the vehicle moved away from the curb.
 
Perhaps he would have kissed her one last time before they parted.
 
And as lame as it made her sound, knowing that he was probably on his way to meet another woman and not friends from university as he’d said, she would have still welcomed that kiss.

WHSmiths, here I come!

Natalie she sighed as she settled into a more comfortable position on the backseat of the taxi.
 
Usually, she looked forward to the excitement of browsing the bookstore’s shelves, finding the most exciting romance novels and then spending the weekend reading.
 
Occasionally she watched her favorite romance movies—old classics such as
Splendor in the Grass
and
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
or newer ones,
Sleepless in Seattle, Love Actually
and
Never Been Kissed
, which was the one she related to the most even though she had been kissed and wasn’t a virgin.

But nothing watched or read this weekend—no classic movie or interesting book—would eclipse what she’d shared with Stephano this evening.

***

Damn!
 
Stephano swore as he hailed an empty taxi.
 
Why did you have to choose to get married this weekend of all bloody weekends, Harry?

He and Natalie usually caught the Tube together from the nearby station, Knightsbridge.
 
She then changed at Earl’s Court for the District Line to Fulham Broadway, while he continued on to Barons Court.
 
Pressed for time this evening, he’d planned on taking a taxi with her to Earl’s Court, explaining why he was in such a rush as well as swapping mobile phone numbers on the way.
 
She’d completely surprised him by jumping into the taxi.
 
Needing to secure the building, he had been powerless to do anything but watch it drive away.

He had to get home, quickly have a shower and be ready with his overnight case and his ‘best man’ tuxedo when the Hummer limo arrived to collect him.
 
He would have blown the guys and the stag night off, and traveled to Sheffield with his mother and father for the wedding tomorrow, if Harry’s bride-to-be Cheryl Jones had promised to ‘gut him like a chicken’ if he didn’t get her man to the church on time for the wedding.
 
Having grown up with her and her two younger sisters, first in a shared house and then as a close family friend, Stephano knew how crazy the Jones sisters were.
 
How the British-born Jamaican woman had fallen for Harry, a quiet Englishman and his best friend since university was beyond Stephano’s comprehension.
 
Yet strangely, they complemented each other.
 
Stephano knew firsthand that Cheryl wasn’t as ‘fierce’ as she liked to describe herself, but he didn’t want to run the risk of letting her down to see whether or not she meant her threat.