Chapter Twelve #2
To complicate matters, her brain was getting fuzzy.
She didn’t want to think anymore. She just wanted to feel.
She wanted to do all the things she’d read about.
She wanted to feel his body on top of hers, wanted him to touch her breasts, perhaps even to kiss them. She wanted him to touch her down there.
That last thought made her blush return. Stone didn’t seem to notice. He cupped her face in his hands and pulled back enough to trail kisses across her forehead, then her cheeks.
“I want you,” he breathed in her ear. The warm air made her shiver.
He followed the breath with a soft kiss that made her want to melt right there.
“I want you,” he repeated. “Naked, in my bed. I want to be inside of you. I want to fill you up and pleasure you until you can’t think about anything but how we are together. ”
His words created an erotic image that both aroused and terrified her.
He was a strong man, extremely focused on whatever he set his mind to do.
She hadn’t realized that when they made love, all that attention would be centered on her.
She wasn’t sure she was up to it. But she was willing to find out.
“Cathy,” he murmured, and kissed her mouth. “Sweet Cathy.”
His hands dropped to her shoulders, and he eased her suit jacket from them, then tossed it over the back of a chair.
As his mouth teased hers, his fingers reached for the first button on her blouse.
She felt her breathing increase, although not all of her reaction was from passion.
He was going to touch her breasts. She just knew it.
She was desperate for that. Maybe he could ease the aching there.
But she was also terrified. What if he hated them?
What if it hurt? What on earth had she been thinking?
This was all a hideous mistake and she was going to tell him, too. Just as soon as they stopped kissing.
Because while the rest of it was frightening and something she was beginning to think she could do without, the kissing was still very nice.
So she concentrated on that. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the kiss and almost managed to not notice when he finished unbuttoning her blouse and pulled it free of her skirt.
She was so successful that she actually jumped when warm male hands settled on her bare rib cage.
He broke the kiss and moved down to her throat. Cathy wanted to protest, then he licked the sensitive skin under her left ear and she found that was nearly as nice as kissing. She would insist he stop doing that in just a second or so.
His mouth moved lower, down her neck to her shoulder. He nibbled along her collarbone. She was vaguely aware of her arms falling to her sides and her blouse sliding down before drifting to the floor. It seemed so unimportant.
He kissed down her chest until he reached the swell of her left breast. Her breathing quickened, but there wasn’t any fear now. Just the wild hope that he could soothe the ache, that he could somehow give her what she’d just realized she needed.
He licked the valley between her breasts.
She shuddered and whispered his name. But then he was gone.
She opened her eyes. He walked to the window and drew the drapes partially closed.
There was still plenty of light, but it wasn’t so bright.
Cathy wasn’t sure if Stone was doing that for him or for her and she found she didn’t much care.
While his back was to her, she slipped out of her pumps and her panty hose. In all her romantic imaginings, she’d never once figured out an erotic way to remove panty hose. But she left on her skirt.
As he returned to her side, he pulled his shirt free of his jeans, then sat on the edge of the bed and removed his shoes and socks. When he held out his hand to her, she took it and joined him on the bed.
He ran his fingers through her hair. “How scared are you?” he asked.
“Somewhere between very and petrified.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “That’s honest.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “For what it’s worth, I haven’t made love in a very long time. There’s every chance that I’ve forgotten how.”
“Don’t even expect me to believe that,” she told him, but his confession made her feel a little better. Maybe he wouldn’t notice how awkward she was.
He chuckled and pressed his mouth to hers.
Even as she parted to admit him, she felt his fingers against her bra hooks in back.
She fought against the need to fold her arms against her chest to keep the undergarment in place.
This didn’t seem the time or place for modesty, she thought.
After all, she’d been the one to initiate their lovemaking.
So when he slipped a finger under the shoulder strap of her bra, she relaxed and let him pull it down and toss the undergarment aside.
The air felt cool on her breasts. At least her eyes were closed, and they were kissing. She couldn’t see what he was doing, and he probably couldn’t stare at her and kiss her at the same time.
He eased his hands behind her and urged her to stretch out on the bed. Unfortunately that meant they had to stop kissing, but she tried not to think about that. Before she could well and truly panic, he placed a hand flat on her rib cage.
Here it comes, she thought, hoping she didn’t do anything stupid and that it wasn’t horrible and—
His hand slid up to her right breast. She braced herself, not sure what to expect. Then he touched her. A gentle, sure caress. A warm palm cradled the fullness of her curves while thumb and forefinger teased her tight nipple.
The pleasure was as intense as it was unexpected.
She’d thought it might be nice—at least alone in her bed when she’d imagined it, she’d thought it would be very pleasant.
In the past couple of minutes, she’d assumed the worst. But now that he was touching her, she didn’t know what to think.
And then it didn’t matter and she didn’t want to think.
She only wanted to feel how wonderful it all was with him stroking her like that.
He dropped his hand, and his mouth touched her other breast. Hot breath warned her of what was to come, but even so she gasped with the wonder of it.
Lips closed over her nipple while his tongue brushed against the very tip.
Unable to control herself, she grasped his head as if to hold him in place. It was too perfect, she thought.
“Please,” she whispered urgently, not sure what she was asking for. But Stone seemed to know. He chuckled low in his throat.
“I knew it would be like this with you,” he said, raising his head enough so that he could look into her eyes. “I knew we would be good together.”
Are we? she wanted to ask, but didn’t. If he said it, she would believe it.
All will had drained away and she didn’t bother to protest when he stripped off her skirt and panties.
Her skin was hot, and everywhere he touched, she felt fire.
Her body trembled as he stroked her thighs, across her belly, then over her breasts.
She grew wanton and drew him up for a kiss.
They arched toward each other, and as he gripped her hair to hold her still, she felt the pressure of his arousal against her hip and was filled with a sense of feminine power.
She had done this to him. He wanted her. Nothing had ever been so right.
Still his hands moved over her. At last one of them slid between her thighs. She was too weak to stop him. She wanted it all and she wanted it with Stone. Her legs fell open.
He stroked the insides of her thighs, moving higher and higher with each caress. At last his fingers sought out her most feminine place.
“You’re so ready,” he said as he lowered his head to her breast and suckled her. His tone was reverent, his body taut. She assumed this was a good thing.
He moved slowly, discovering her, allowing her to discover what he was doing.
He slipped one finger deep inside of her, and she caught her breath as she imagined his hardness filling her.
Then he withdrew and began circling around, searching.
She wanted to help but she didn’t know what he was looking for. Right up until he found it.
It was as if someone had connected her to a source of pure pleasure. His fingers produced magic sensations, feelings, heat and desire that she hadn’t known she was capable of. Every cell in her body focused intently on that single point. She half rose into a sitting position.
“Don’t stop,” she gasped as she clutched his arm.
His smile was slow and satisfied. “I won’t. I promise.”
She sank back onto the bed. The world was spinning. She wanted to reach, but she didn’t know for what. The tension was unbearable…and she never wanted it to stop.
He touched her and spoke to her and urged her on. She followed his voice, trusting him to know where they were going.
“Give in to it,” he whispered. “Now.”
She didn’t know how to give him what he obviously wanted. “I don’t know—”
And then she did know. Her body tensed as she felt herself pushed up higher and higher until there was nowhere to go but through the clouds. She felt herself flung into nothingness. Into the most exquisite pleasure and peace she’d ever experienced in her life.
She knew she spoke. She heard sounds, but she couldn’t have said what they were.
She thought she might have cried out Stone’s name.
She clutched at him and gave in to it all, as he’d requested.
Then, when her body relaxed and the last of the aftershocks had faded, she pressed her head against his chest and asked him to hold her for a little while.
Stone wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close. She was still trembling. “I really want to take credit for what just happened,” he said, “but you are obviously a very responsive woman.”