Chapter 16 #2
Comprehension dawned in his face. Briefly. And then the frown was back.
“I know it doesn’t matter. They don’t consider me...” She drew in a breath. What? A good prospect? Appropriate for Clint? True or not, she couldn’t say that out loud.
“Consider you what?”
She hesitated. “Please don’t make me say it.”
“Is this about Anne?”
“No.” She understood that might also be a problem.
“Yes. Partly. My lifestyle is...unpredictable. Although, I do have that role in the sequel.” So it wasn’t as if she was chasing an illusive dream.
Her hard work was about to pay off. But she knew far too many people like Anne.
Always certain their big chance was around the corner.
Clearing her throat, she shrugged. “I mean, they know I’m leaving soon, right? ”
Clint tensed. His face. His whole body. Then he relaxed and nodded. “They do.”
Lila sighed. “Well, I sure know how to ruin a party.” She tried to step back, but he held her tighter.
“It’s just beginning,” he said with a thoroughly wicked smile as he backed her toward the bed.
Relieved, she lifted her arms to put them around his neck. He stopped her and gently pushed her sweater off her shoulders.
“Okay,” she muttered, and caught the edges of his shirtfront and yanked. All but one snap popped.
Clint laughed. “Okay, so we’re taking off the gloves.”
“And everything else.” She slid her palms up his strong chest. God, he felt so good. She touched the tip of her tongue to his flat dark nipple.
He jerked, grunted.
“Wow, sensitive tonight.”
Before she could get to the second one, he started unbuttoning her blouse. Slowly, with the utmost care. Probably worried his callused fingers would snag the delicate fabric.
After he’d set the sweater and blouse aside, he picked her up and laid her on the bed. Getting settled, she accidentally kicked out a foot, making Clint jump back.
“Oops. Sorry,” she said. “Good thing you’re fast.”
“Now that might’ve ruined the party.”
She unfastened her skirt. “Can’t have that.”
He just stood there looking at her with an odd smile on his face.
“May I help you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“The whole time we were eating supper I wondered which bra you were wearing.”
She glanced down at the cream satin demi-cups. “And do you approve?”
He flicked the front clasp and bared her breasts. “I do now,” he said, and bent to take a nipple into his mouth. He sucked hard and did something amazing with his tongue.
Warmth spread from her chest to her belly to the dampness between her thighs. She lifted her shoulders off the mattress, enough to reach his ear. She bit his lobe and felt him smile against her breast.
Then he took a slight nip.
“Ouch!”
“That didn’t hurt,” he murmured, taking a long slow swipe with his tongue.
“It surprised me.” She arched her back. “Do it again.”
He straightened and removed his shirt. “And have you think I’m a one-trick pony?”
“That particular trick stays in your repertoire. Got it?”
As he unfastened his jeans, he raked a gaze across her breasts.
“You’ve seen them before,” she said, a giggle bubbling at the back of her throat when his mouth quirked up only on one side. That meant she was in for something naughty. Something she was going to like a whole lot.
After unzipping his fly, he sat on the edge of the bed. Keeping an eye on her, he removed the first boot.
She didn’t like that he hadn’t said anything. She got up on her knees, let the bra slide off, and pressed her breasts against his back and nibbled his neck.
His body jerked, and he laughed.
“Ah...you’re ticklish?” She started in the middle of his shoulder so she could get some build-up going. Her lips barely grazed his skin.
“Lila?”
“Clint.”
“Listen to me.”
“Uh-huh.” She bit down.
He had her on her back, pressed into the mattress, restraining her with a palm against her ribs before she could react. With his free hand he tried to peel her skirt over her hips.
“Lift,” he ordered.
“Take your jeans off first.” The words came out jumbled. She was laughing and hadn’t caught her breath from his sly move.
He released her, and feeling triumphant, she got up on her elbows to watch him strip.
His hand shot out. It locked around her ankle, and she gasped. Her left elbow gave out, and she fell back. He grabbed her other ankle and hauled her to the edge of the bed.
She should’ve known better. So much for enjoying her moment of victory.
Clint didn’t tell her to lift her butt again. He managed just fine, stripping off her skirt and her thong. And then stood there like a conquering pirate surveying his spoils while he shoved his own jeans off.
Still wearing his boxers, he spread her legs and stroked the skin of her inner thigh. A slight shiver passed through her. When he dropped to a crouch, she held her breath.
“You’re not laughing,” he said with a cocky grin, and kissed the sensitive flesh close to her sex.
She’d never felt more vulnerable, more exposed in her life. Swallowing, she lifted her chin. “Never figured you for a sore loser.”
“I’m the loser?”
“Who’s going down on whom?”
He let out a loud laugh. “Good point,” he muttered, still laughing when he pressed his mouth against her core.
Holy crap!
The slight vibration of his lips felt amazing. She squirmed, causing him to look up. “Don’t stop.”
His mouth was damp, his eyes darker than a moonless night. “I win either way,” he said with a sexy smile.
“Me, too. Please, feel free to go to town.”
Again he covered her with his mouth and used his tongue to make her squirm. And yowzah, did it feel good.
Lying back, she gasped and writhed. And clutched at his hair at the first signs of a climax. But she didn’t want to come yet. She moved back, and managed a quick trick reversal of her own so that she was in a position to take him in her mouth.
He groaned and almost jackknifed when she sucked especially hard.
She glanced up. “Was that a good groan or an ouch groan?”
“It was too good.” He pulled her upright and kissed her hard. His tongue chased hers, stroked it, flicked it, then thrust in and out, mimicking everything he’d already done and would do again soon.
Finally they both gasped for air.
“If you’re looking for my tonsils, I had them out at seven,” she said, barely able to breathe. Laughing didn’t help. “Hey.” She saw him rolling on a condom. He’d worked fast.
“What?”
“I wasn’t finished.”
“I’m not either.” He picked her up and moved her to center stage. “Two or three pillows?”
“Depends. Where are you putting them?”
Leaning over her, he licked her left breast and tucked a second pillow behind her head. He stacked two under her butt.
Lila grinned. “I’m going to like this, huh?”
Clint’s eyes were intense. He was on a mission. He spread her thighs wider and got between them. Before she could take her next breath, he’d found her clit and rubbed it with his thumb.
“Oh,” she said with a soft gasp. A jolt of electricity shot up her spine. “You might want to wait on that.”
He kissed one breast, then sucked the other.
His thumb increased the pressure.
“Uh, Clint.”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Clint,” she practically yelled and arched off the mattress. “I’m not kidding.”
He stroked the hair away from her face and kissed her neck. And then he whispered, “Neither am I.”
He entered her, driving in quick and deep, still thumbing her clit. Oh, God, he really had to stop. She drew in the musky male scent of his skin and moaned.
Everything happened at once. The shooting stars behind her eyelids. The fevered rush of pleasure, so familiar, yet new and different. She writhed and begged, and he wouldn’t let up.
She started to calm down just as he withdrew. He pulled her legs tightly around his hips and plunged inside her again, then kept moving back and forth, picking up speed, plunging deeper. She liked the angle; he was hitting lots of sensitive places. But he stopped.
Her protest was cut short when he put her legs over his shoulders. He rocked gently against her. “How’s this? Okay?”
Panting, she just nodded.
Holding her gaze, Clint leaned down. His eyes were so dark, even this close she couldn’t make out the pupils. “I should punish you for wearing that skirt tonight,” he said, his voice a hoarse whisper.
“I thought you liked it.”
“Your legs are indecently long and very hot.” He pushed in farther, and she clutched the sheet.
“So what’s the problem?”
“I had to sit through dinner, across the table from my parents, harder than a rock thanks to that damn skirt.”
“Well, I’m glad I had nothing to do with it.”
A faint smile curved his mouth. He leaned close enough their lips touched, and embedded himself so deep inside her it left her breathless.
She managed a weak whimper. “Please.”
Clint pressed his lips against hers. The angle and pressure hit a hot spot that set her insides on fire. He started thrusting and pumping, his face taut, eyes locked with hers. She dug her fingers into his shoulder muscles, clinging to him, as her body roared toward a second release.
They climaxed together, both moaning and murmuring incoherent words. Her hands slid from his sweat-slick skin.
Slowly he moved one leg off his shoulder, kissing the inside of her ankle before lifting her other leg and letting it down.
Clint collapsed beside her, falling hard, as if he had no energy left. Then he pulled her into his arms and cradled her with his body, keeping her close, safe and warm.