Chapter 20
20
I t was an absolute crush, but Dean didn’t mind as he gave himself up to the feel of Greer’s body, their gyrations on the mind-blowing side. He felt himself growing, wanting her, needing her. He wasn’t a good dancer. Hell, he’d only ever danced at family weddings.
Greer moved sinuously, her hands in the air, her eyes closed, her body driving him to do wild things. Hands on her hips, he pulled her close, wanting her to feel what she did to him.
When she opened her eyes to gaze at him, he saw a glaze of desire that matched his. Not caring whether she heard his words, he mouthed, “I want you.”
Her arms came down, circled his neck, and as she pressed tight against him, he knew she’d heard. The spaghetti straps of her dress bared her shoulders, and he dropped a kiss on her fragrant skin. Her nipples pebbled against him, and her scent rose like an aphrodisiac.
Keeping his eyes on the girls to make sure they were safe, to do his duty, seemed almost impossible.
The music changed to something fast and maniacal, and suddenly Cynthia and Lisa were right there, the frat boys surrounding them. They all bounced like robots, throwing themselves around the floor, knocking into people and nobody caring. Someone’s drink sloshed down his back, and he didn’t care about that either.
He hated to think how sexual the dancing looked to anyone else. Because these were his damn daughters, and the Neanderthal in him wanted to haul them off the floor.
Maybe he would have. But Greer took his chin in her soft hand and mouthed, “Be good.”
He fell into her sensual moves. Robot dancing was for the young. He wanted this, the exquisite slide of her body against his, the tantalizing tease of their dance. Resistance was futile, and he took her honeyed lips with a slow, sweet kiss, drinking her in.
Lifting his head, drugged with her taste, he realized the girls had returned to their table.
Taking Greer’s hand, he led her off the dance floor. “Playtime over.” He mourned the loss. “I need to get them fresh drinks and get rid of what’s there.” He signaled a server, pointed to the table where his daughters sat, indicating he wanted another round of the same, and handed the woman a tip.
While Greer returned to their table, he headed to his daughters. “Your drinks are on the way.” He circled his finger around the table. “The server will clear away all this.”
The blond kid pointed to Cynthia’s water bottle. “Sir, I swear, we didn’t touch anything.”
“I believe you,” Dean said amiably. “But I think it’s time for a refresh, don’t you?”
Having received a big tip, the server was back at the table in moments, setting down the new order and clearing away the old.
The redheaded kid said, “Thanks, sir. We really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” He watched Cynthia and Lisa chug water, then he added, “If you want to do some more dancing, feel free. I’ll watch the table.”
The young people exchanged looks. If the boys had been planning anything—and he was almost sure now that they hadn’t—then it certainly wouldn’t work after this.
Finally, having downed half her water, Cynthia said, “Thanks, Dad. Just a few more dances, okay?”
The question seemed like a truce, and Dean nodded. “Sure.” Then the girls set off for the dance floor, all five frat boys trailing them like smitten puppies.
“It’s wild and crazy out there,” Greer said as he slid into the seat beside her. “I can’t even see them.”
“Yeah. But I can see all their drinks over there.”
She shook her head, smiling. “You are so cute.”
He leaned in. “Don’t you mean sexy as hell?”
“Maybe,” she said with a teasing glint in her eyes.
“If I wasn’t such a gentleman, I would have done some very naughty things to you out there on the dance floor.”
She fanned herself. “You’re giving me a hot flash.”
Bringing her hand to his lips, he kissed her palm. “That’s the sexual hots, not a hot flash.” He seduced her then, taking her finger into his mouth and sucking.
In the dim light and the loud music, her eyes grew wider and her breath came faster. She leaned in, giving him a sexy view of her cleavage as she whispered, “And I would have let you do anything you wanted.”
Heat raced through his body. He was instantly hard. She was so damn sexy, and he loved the seductive flirtation they had going.
He prayed the girls would want to leave soon. Very soon.
Damn, he’d taken his eye off the ball. But glancing at their table, he noted nothing had moved. Then suddenly, the entire group flopped back into their seats and drank wildly, quenching their dancing thirst.
He didn’t look at his watch; he hadn’t since they’d found the girls. But when the hell would they peter out?
It could have been fifteen minutes—he didn’t check his watch—and finally his daughters stood. Hand in hand, they headed to his table. But instead of speaking to him, Cynthia leaned down to Greer and said, “We’re ready to go home now.”
The last vestige of tension in his gut eased. All he’d wanted this entire night was to get them back to the resort.
And to quench his raging desire for Greer.
Out on the sidewalk, he flagged down a cab. Blondie said, “We’ll make sure they get back to their hotel, sir.” Dean swore humor glinted in the kid’s eyes.
“Not on your life,” he growled.
Which made all the boys laugh. Even Cynthia and Lisa grinned.
Standing by the taxi while they all exchanged numbers, Dean wondered why the hell they hadn’t done that already. Leaned down to Greer’s ear, he muttered, “If they go out again, it’ll be the death of me.”
She bumped him with her hip.
Blondie noticed. He winked. Dean didn’t wink back. But he wanted to. He was starting to like the kid.
Then finally, finally , Greer and the girls climbed into the taxi’s backseat, and Dean took the front.
Once they were rolling, Lisa leaned forward between the seats. “You didn’t need to check up on us. We were totally okay.”
Dean turned to eye his youngest daughter. “I was worried. So was your cousin. And your aunt.”
Greer added the kicker. “It really wasn’t cool to leave your younger cousins to make their way back to the hotel on their own. You two are the oldest.”
Cynthia’s expression changed first, her lips pursing with shame. And Lisa sat back, dipping her chin. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
She guessed ? He didn’t yell. He didn’t even add anything to Greer’s comment. She’d said it perfectly. But he had his own remark to make. “I won’t apologize for being worried. You’re my daughters. I’ll worry about you both until the day I die.”
Lisa glared at him. “I don’t know why you’re so worried now. It’s not like you ever cared before.”
Her words cut him to the bone. That was his daughter’s core belief. And he had given it root inside her. Yet he had to say, “I’ve always cared.”
He was afraid she might never believe it.
After a deep breath, Cynthia looked at him. He was sure sincerity shone from her eyes. “I’m sorry. We weren’t thinking.” She glanced at Greer. “If anything had happened to the others…” She left the thought hanging.
“They were just so annoying,” Lisa said. “Jenny was such a worrywart the whole time.”
Maybe there wasn’t a new slang word for worrywart . It amazed Dean that the younger cousins had more sense than his own daughters. But now wasn’t the time to deal with it. He’d have a sit-down with them tomorrow.
The cab dropped them off at the taxi stand, then they caught a trolley back up to the hotel. They all waited silently for the elevator, and silently they felt it rise once they’d stepped in.
On their floor, he said, “I’ll walk the girls to their room. Then I’ll make sure you get safely to yours.”
Greer nodded, then smiled, and he knew she understood exactly what he meant.
Cynthia and Lisa shared a suite with their female cousins, Jenny included. He was sure they’d hear an earful after he walked away. At the door, he said sternly, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” giving them each a long look.
Then he headed back to Greer, his steps growing faster the closer he got to her. Before she could say a word, he wrapped his arms around her. Pulling her off her feet and tight against him, he took her lips in a deep kiss that fogged his mind with desire.
Still holding her close, he murmured, “I know it’s late. But come back to my room with me?”
Going up on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed him, tasted him, and whispered, “I would have begged you if you hadn’t asked.”
Dean’s room was fancier than hers, with a sitting room, a kitchen, and two balconies.
He opened the refrigerator, retrieving a bottle of champagne. “It’s been chilling. I was hoping you’d come back with me.”
His tone wasn’t sexy. It wasn’t even silky. But it was laced with a depth of desire that made Greer breathless.
“I’d love a glass.” Even if she’d had way too many margaritas tonight. Though with the water and the fear, she couldn’t feel the alcohol now. And she didn’t want to rush this or feel like it was a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.
He’d popped the cork and poured two glasses. “Shall we sit on the balcony? It’s still warm, and there’s a good view.”
She kept her shawl despite the mild night air. The view was as good as he said, tiki torches surrounding the pool deck below, and the deep dark water beyond that, the lights of cruise ships bobbing on the surface.
He pulled his chair over, his arm brushing hers as he sat. Then he clinked his glass to hers and they drank. “Thank you for what you did tonight. I would have made a mess of the whole thing. But you made them see the error of their ways. If I’d said it was unconscionable that they’d left their younger cousins behind, they would have tuned me out.”
She sipped the champagne, closed her eyes, savored the bubbles, the evening, and the feel of his skin against hers.
Then she leaned in to kiss him, tasting the sweet champagne on his lips. “You would have handled it perfectly. I just had a different way.”
Maybe his way would have worked. She didn’t know. Right now, she didn’t care. That was over. And now, there was just the two of them.
“I love the way you dance,” she said softly.
He laughed. “You mean my shuffle?”
“It felt just right to me.” She gave him a seductive smile. “Even better than last night.”
“And it felt so right to me.” His voice dipped to a husky note. “I actually wanted to pull up your pretty little dress and touch you. Or lift you high till you could wrap your legs around my waist. And then I would have tasted your beautiful breasts.”
Everything inside her turned to flame. Her nipples peaked against her dress. Her body liquified. She wanted him. Bad. “And didn’t I tell you I would have let you?”
He nodded, his gaze scorching her. “What will you let me do to you now?”
In the office, she took charge, told them what to do, berated them when necessary, and never let them get away with disrespecting her. But with the men in her life? She’d agreed with everything her father said. She’d let her ex walk all over her. She’d allowed Conrad to dictate all the terms.
But now there was Dean. And she wanted him so badly she could drop to her knees and taste him right out here on the balcony. Or she could…
Standing, she hiked her dress to the top of her thighs and climbed on top of him. She felt him hard between her legs, and he groaned as she moved on him. Then she framed his face in her hands. “I want to kiss you so deep we can taste each other.”
He pulled her down, let her take his mouth, let her caress his lips with her tongue, and delve deep. He tasted like the yeasty beer and the even sweeter champagne. She held his face in her cupped hands while she devoured him. Fingers on her hips, he tugged her closer, until she could feel every inch of him against her core. Hard, long, thick. And wanting her.
Her hair fell over them like a curtain, and the air turned sultry with desire. His hands were beneath the dress, molding her bottom. And still she kissed him as he rocking her gently on him until she was sure he could feel her moisture and her heat against him.
Pulling back, she pressed his face to her breasts, his warm breath turning her nipples to tight beads that ached with need.
And she asked for what she wanted. “Taste me,” she whispered, slipping the straps of her sundress down her arms until she bared her breasts for him.
He gave her what she craved, sucking her nipple into his mouth, teasing with his tongue, his teeth. She tipped her head back and moaned with the pleasure that streaked to her center. His hands on her bottom, he rocked her, making her hotter, wetter, crazier.
And she begged. “Touch me.”
Easing a hand to the front of her panties, he slipped inside, his finger sliding over the hot button between her legs.
He lifted his head to look at her with dark, sexy eyes. “Christ, you’re so wet.” Then he took her other nipple between his lips, turning her completely mad as his fingers worked inside her panties.
The explosion hit her like a thousand shards of light. She’d never come so fast, never come so hard. Throwing her head back, she cried out as the pleasure rocketed through her body.
He was saying something, but she was beyond understanding. For endless moments, there was just the thrill of his touch and the bliss of release. Until she came back into her body and he whispered, “I want to make you come over and over and over.”
For him, she would.
Dean carried her into the bedroom, her legs still locked around his waist.
He’d never felt a woman open up like this for him. He couldn’t say he knew Greer well, but he knew enough to realize that her cries of pleasure out on the balcony were an indulgence she rarely allowed herself.
He laid her gently on the bed, and she raised her arms above her, eyes still closed, her satisfied smile pumping up his ego.
She stretched sinuously, like a sated cat. “I haven’t felt that good in ages.”
He wanted to crow. Her words meant that her boyfriend, her live-in lover, or whatever the hell the man truly was, hadn’t done for her what Dean could do. Maybe he should have been too old to feel that kind of gratification. But he let the feeling ratchet up his sexual tension and his desire for her.
Leaning over her on the bed, he kissed those luscious, smiling lips. “Did I tell you I want to make you come like that over and over?”
She opened her eyes, gold-tipped in the room’s soft lighting. “Please. I want it over and over,” she said in a breathy timbre that he felt as if it were her fingers on his skin.
Shoving his hands up her dress, he snagged his fingers in her panties. “Then let’s start right now.” He dragged the sexy confection down her legs, silk and lace as soft as her skin. Tossing them, he went down on the rug beside the bed, pushing her dress over her hips.
For the first time, she seemed self-conscious. Going up on her elbows, she murmured, “Maybe if I should get under the covers first.”
But he laid his hand on her belly. “I want to see you. Every inch of you.” He grabbed a pillow. “I want you to watch me. So prop yourself up with this.”
In the lamp’s light, her cheeks turned pink. “It’s not that I’m a do-it-only-in-the-dark kind of woman. It’s just…” She didn’t finish.
He said it for her. “—that you don’t feel like we know each other well enough.”
She nodded.
“But I do know you.” He held her down, hands on his hips, her sweetly scented sex beckoning him. “I felt your body tremble in my arms when you came. I heard you cry out. But more than that, I’ve seen you with my family for days. I’ve seen how sweet you are to my mother, how you good you are with my girls. I see my family open up to your friendship. And I’ve felt your pain over your breakup. All of it tells me who you are.”
“And I know you.” Stroking his stubbled jaw, she looked deeply into his eyes. “I’ve never seen a son more adoring than you or a father who tries harder to make things right with his children. I’ve never seen a brother who’s sweeter to his sisters or a CEO who’s more compassionate.” Then she reached for the pillow and stuffed it beneath her head. “And I want to watch you make me come so hard I scream with the exquisite pleasure of it.”
Her words filled him up in a way he hadn’t felt in so many years. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d experienced such belonging, certainly long before his divorce had taken place. And he repaid her for the exhilaration, parting her thighs and putting his mouth to her.
She arched, moaned, tangled her fingers in his hair as he worshiped her with his lips, his tongue, lapping at her sweetness as he relished the gasps and moans of pleasure she made.
Thrashing her head on the pillow, she chanted his name. “Dean, Dean, Dean.” Her eyes squeezed shut in abandon, she didn’t watch him. Lost in what he did to her, she couldn’t watch him. And that was how he wanted it, taking her back to the ecstasy she’d felt on the balcony.
She was so deliciously wet as he slid two fingers inside her, his tongue on her hot little button at the same time. Her body clamped down, and her legs quivered, then shook, harder, faster. Until she cried out, “Oh God. Don’t stop. Oh God.”
As her hands fisted in his hair, the slight pain was good, so good. Her taste, her body, her scent, everything made him hard, needy, and wild to be inside her. But he kept her riding that wave, until she pushed her head back into the pillow, crying out as her body milked his fingers.
And this was how it would be when he was inside her.
In the throes of her climax, she rolled up, curled over his head, grabbed his ears, and held him right where she needed him as she rode out the wave of pleasure crashing through her.
He savored every moment.
Finally spent, she collapsed on the bed, her legs around his shoulders going lax.
He knelt over her, waiting for her to open her eyes. When she did, her voice was barely more than a croak. “Oh my God.” Her breath whispered harshly from her throat. “So good. No. Good isn’t good enough. It was…” She gestured in the air. “Dazzling. Stunning.”
He laughed softly, joyously. “I’m happy to serve in any capacity you want me.”
He wished he’d already taken off his clothes so he could slide right into her. But there would be time enough for that.
As if she had the same thought, she tugged at his shirt buttons. “I need you out of these clothes. I want to see every inch of you.” She rose up, kissed him, quick and sweet. “And then I want to taste every inch of you.”
“Whatever you’d like.” His erection twitched.
He shucked his shirt, his shorts, his deck shoes. Until he stood naked before her. As she sat up on the edge of the bed, her dress fell down to cover her thighs. “You’re beautiful.”
Stroking her cheek, he whispered, “And you’re gorgeous. Dazzling. Stunning.” He used her words, feeling again how she’d trembled beneath him. “And I want to see all of you.”
She raised her arms for him to tug the sexy dress up and over her head, and he reached to take one of her luscious breasts in his hand. “Flawless.”
Her hands on his hips, she framed him. He felt powerful, hard and ready as she looked up at him. “May I taste?”
“I might die if you don’t.”
She bent her head to him, sliding down, down, down, taking him deeply. It was enough to make his head blow off, and it took all his control not to let himself go.
She slid him into her mouth, then a slow, agonizingly perfect glide all the way back up, ending with a hard suck on his crown. Exactly the way he liked it. He wanted to come in her mouth. But even more, he needed to come inside her.
He took the delicious feel of her mouth on him until he couldn’t stand another moment without losing it. Pulling her to her feet, he pressed her body to his, skin to skin, his hardness to her softness, his heat to her warmth. “I am so far from done making you come.”