Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CORMAC
This is almost certainly a mistake.
I should be giving Nora the space and time to figure out what she wants.
But I don’t care about logic right now. All I care about is the sweet taste of her, and the way she moans into my mouth as I back her against the granite countertop, our mouths moving together. It’s only been a week since the first time we kissed, but it feels too long ago.
I lift her up onto the counter, my dick hard and throbbing. It’s been hard since the second I watched her lick that ice cream, her mischievous gaze locked on me like she was issuing a challenge.
She gasps but lets me guide her where I want her.
“Why don’t you eat your ice cream?” I get down on my knees in front of her. “I’ve decided there’s something else I’d rather lick.”
“You broke the cone,” she says with a sexy smile, already shimmying out of her silky underwear. Fuck. Fuck. It’s hard to believe she’s really here, that this is actually happening, but I want it so badly. I need it. I need her.
I skim my hands up her thighs, her skin smooth and inviting. “Would you like me to make you a new one?”
I spread her legs apart, and a gasp of pleasure escapes her. “Maybe later. You’re busy.”
“Not too busy for you.” Inspiration strikes, and I grab the cracked cone off the counter.
She watches me with parted lips. “What are you doing?”
“Would you mind if I try something?”
She angles her head. “I’ll agree to be your test subject for the night.”
For the night.
I’m disappointed it’s not an open-ended invitation, but it’ll have to do for now.
“Experiencing cold and then heat awakens the nerve endings,” I explain. “It might make you more sensitive.”
“Thank you, Dr. Cormac,” she says, her eyes dancing. “But I’ve always been more of a show-learner than a tell-learner.”
“Of course. You don’t like being told what to do.”
She gives me a look that could kill a man more surely than any weapon. “Sometimes I do. Now, show me, Doc. I promise I’ll pay good attention.”
My dick gets harder, demanding I do something about this intriguing situation I’ve landed myself in.
I dip the cone toward her flesh, spreading ice cream over her heated inner thigh. She gasps, her fingers digging into the counter.
“Fuck, that’s cold.”
I don’t say anything. I just set it aside, then look up at her as I follow the trail of melted ice cream with my tongue on either side, sucking and licking my way to her center. She swears and presses into my mouth.
I pull her closer, needing more, and drape her legs over my shoulders so I can have full access to her.
One of my hands grips her thigh and the other is pressed to the cool door of the cupboard for balance.
She releases the counter and weaves her hands in my hair, squeezing so tightly it hurts a little as I lick and suck, savoring the taste of ice cream and her.
But I won’t be hurried along. This might be my only chance to taste her. To lose myself inside of her. I’m not going to waste the opportunity. So I slowly learn the taste of her and the ways and places she needs my tongue.
Before long, I can tell she’s getting close—she pulls my hair tighter, and her whole body thrums with need.
I look up to watch her come, needing to see it happen. Desperate for the knowledge that tonight, at least, I’m the one who helped her feel pleasure.
She throws her head back, pressing against the cupboards behind her as I suck harder.
She comes apart beneath my mouth, and it’s the most glorious thing that’s ever happened to me.
I memorize everything—the murmuring sounds she’s making, the way her legs lock around me, the taste of her, and the feeling of pride.
After a moment, she tugs me back lightly by my hair. “Get a condom.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, even though my dick is throbbing and desperate. If an appendage could think, it would be telling me that I’m an idiot.
“Now,” she says, her tone bossy.
I’m grinning as I hurry down the hall to my bedroom and grab one from the dresser drawer.
When I come back with the condom, Nora’s waiting for me on the counter, giving me a saucy look.
I stride across the floor so quickly I stumble over the leg of one of the chairs and nearly face-plant.
She laughs at me.
I smile back. “Don’t give me a hard time. I’m in a hurry.”
When I get to the counter, she reaches down and pulls me to her by the band of my shorts. Dear God. I’m going to have to think bleak thoughts to avoid coming immediately. It’s been a while—I don’t even remember how long—and this is her.
I kiss her, and she still tastes like the ice cream. Sweet and decadent.
“I don’t know how long I can last,” I say honestly. “I really fucking want this.”
“I can tell.” Her eyes gleam as she rubs her hand over the front of my shorts—the sensation driving me nuts.
Fuck. Nope. Can’t wait.
I grab the condom packet in my teeth and push my shorts and boxers down. Then I tear the packet open and roll it on.
I have a second to reflect that I’m doing this all wrong.
I should have invited her into my bedroom, which is surely more comfortable than the kitchen counter.
I probably should have lit a candle or something too.
Although I’ve never really understood why people light candles, there must be something to it if so many people agree it’s romantic.
But Nora kisses me, hard, and runs her hand along the length of my dick, and suddenly all I’m thinking about is sinking into her.
“God, you’re hard,” she says, her voice sultry.
I am. Hard enough that I feel like I’m about to explode in her hand.
There are other places I’d rather be when that happens.
I run my fingers between her legs, feeling how wet she is for me, and don’t hesitate any longer. I line myself up, and claiming her mouth in a kiss, I thrust in.
She wraps her legs around me, and I have to stand still for a moment to avoid completely humiliating myself.
My body is begging me to rock against her, to sink in deeper.
Again and again until I forget every word in the English language.
But I take a deep breath before pulling out partway and thrusting in again, Nora’s crossed legs urging me on.
Groaning at the sensation, I bow my head to kiss her.
I kiss my way down her face, her delicate throat, and am then foiled by the top of her dress.
But it’s loose, and it can’t hold back a determined man.
I nuzzle my face into it, kissing the soft swell of her breasts, running my tongue over the mesh material of her thin bra—all while I move inside her.
I use one hand to tug the fabric lower, and I wrap the other around her ass, bringing her closer, burying myself in deeper with each thrust.
“You feel so good,” she says, the purr of her voice propelling my thrusts. “Yes, just like that.”
I take off my glasses and whip them at the counter.
“Oh, now he means business,” she says with a breathy laugh, which is probably the only time anyone has teased me while I’m actually inside of them.
“You’re fucking right, I do.” I grip her hair as I kiss her hard, timing it with my thrust, and she makes a sound of approval in my mouth. Her heels are digging into my back, and I like it. God, I like everything about this moment, even the ice cream melting on the counter, sticky against my hand.
Every sensation is adding up, building higher and higher, and when I feel her tightening around me, her legs cinching tighter too, I know I’m about to come tumbling down.
I break our kiss, panting, as I thrust in again. And I watch her eyes flutter shut as she arcs her neck back and pushes into me, as if she’s as desperate for my dick as I am for her. She gasps, and her body clenches in a way that makes it impossible for me to do anything but follow her.
As if I mind. I’d follow her anywhere. Into the woods. Off a cliff. Into a big box shop.
It feels like we’re free-falling through the air, everything around us gone except for each other and the feeling that everything has just changed.
And the worry that perhaps nothing has.
I kiss her again, more softly, and then pull back, feeling foolish suddenly, because I didn’t even fully take my damn shorts off. Feeling euphoric too.
I laugh.
She nudges my arm, smiling, her dress drooping in the front where I tugged on it.
“Would you like that ice cream now?” she asks, her eyes shining.
“Yeah, I think I might.” I lean in and kiss her on the cheek. “Do you want to use the bathroom first?”
Her eyes lower to my still partially hard dick with the full condom on it. “I think your need is greater.”
“I’ll be right back.”
I pause for long enough to reclaim my glasses, which are covered in a film of melted ice cream. She smiles as she watches me.
I clean myself and my glasses up in the bathroom, and when I return to the kitchen, Nora’s scooping ice cream into bowls. The melted ice cream cone has been cleaned off the counter.
“Oh, you didn’t need to do that.” I can feel myself flushing as I point to the place where the cone had been tossed aside.
Dammit, I’m never going to be able to make myself toast without thinking about fucking Nora in this kitchen, am I? It’s not a bad problem, but the yearning might drive me around-the-bend crazy if she won’t let me touch her again.
“Were you planning to save the melted ice cream for later?” she asks, those fierce eyebrows arched. “You seem to have a taste for it.”
“I have a taste for you.” I hesitate, not wanting to ask for what I want, or at least not all of it.
But I need to know what she’s thinking. “I realize you’re confused, and I get that.
I’m not trying to put pressure on you, but was this a one-time-only thing?
I need to know if I should start adjusting my expectations. ”
She smiles at me, but there’s a raw, wounded look in her eyes.
“No, the damage is done. We might as well continue fucking each other for now.” Her teasing tone doesn’t match the expression on her face.
I don’t like the sound of the first part of her pronouncement, although the second is more promising.
I close the distance between us, placing my hand just inches from hers on the counter. “I’d like it if you’d stay for a while.”
She nods to the bowls. “Good, because I’m not leaving yet. I was promised dessert.”
“If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I keep my promises.”
“I already knew that.”