A Spicy Excerpt
His smile was soft, the gold in his eyes burnished with wariness even as the green sparkled with affection. “So basically, we put an end to this conversation and reset. Interested in the pool now?” he joked.
“No.” She drained her glass, ran her tongue around her teeth to clear any stray lemon pulp, and dried her hand, damp from the sweating glass, on her jeans. “I’m interested in your bedroom. If you still want to…show me.”
“Yeah,” he said in a low tone. “I want to show you.” He put both glasses in the sink and took her hand again, drawing her behind him down the short hall and into the large room on the left, right after the hall bathroom.
When he flipped the light switch on the wall, a single lamp came on next to the bed.
It was a king, of course, with a navy comforter neatly spread, the dark-red underside showing where it was turned down at the top.
The pillows were cased in the same dark red, the fabric looking smooth even from here.
“Do you make your bed like that every day, or was the housekeeper here this morning?”
He tugged her back in a little spin that brought her into his chest. “Both.”
She spun away again, not done surveying the landscape.
The carpet was cushy beneath her feet, the nap soft.
She dug her toes in, reminded of her living room rug when she first bought it.
It was the highest-traffic area in her apartment, though, and was now only soft under the table. “Is this new carpet?”
“Ish.”
“It’s good.” She looked down, flexed and curled her toes again, and swept the room to take in the rest. Light-wood furniture in a rugged but not heavy style.
Pale cream walls, one of them covered with photos—both the candid and professional variety—and…
“Oh!” She pulled away from Jace to go closer to the obviously child-made drawings and paintings he’d had mounted and framed. “Who did these?”
“My niece and nephew. They like to draw the stuff they think I should make movies about.”
Dragons, stars, soccer, and families. “Eclectic mix.” She straightened, completely charmed by this. He’d not only treated their art with the same respect and importance as everything else on the wall, he’d hung it at kid height. “Your brother’s kids? Or do you have other siblings?”
“I have a sister, but she’s not interested in domesticity. My brother and his husband adopted the two. They’re blood siblings.”
Corin felt bad. “Did we not talk about your family because you were avoiding a sensitive topic?” She didn’t have to ask. She knew the answer.
One corner of his mouth twitched. “No comment.”
“Sensitive for you or for me?” He hadn’t hesitated to share his reason for getting into acting, and she knew his parents lived in middle America somewhere, but he’d steered them away from family things more than once.
She’d been touched at the time but now felt embarrassed.
She didn’t want him to think she was fragile or something.
Flighty, babbly, grating, okay, but never fragile.
He came over and put his arms around her again. “Did you change your mind?”
“No.” She smoothed her hands down his chest, smirking when his muscles flexed slightly. But she had to swallow. Dry-mouth was no longer an issue. No, she definitely hadn’t changed her mind. “I’m just too interested, that’s all.”
“In?”
“All of this.” She waved her hand aimlessly. “Easily distracted, I am.”
“Well, then, let me help you focus.” And he bent to kiss her.
Totally different from before. And the other before. This kiss had purpose. Intent. But it wasn’t rushed or pushy. His mouth explored hers, his hands roamed, and Corin lost herself in sensation, her brain shutting off most of the way.
The rest did its usual busy analysis, but only of Jace now.
He smells like the beach. But we weren’t at the beach.
The ocean moisture probably carries, even twenty miles.
We were up high, after all. Wow, his arms are hard.
So’s his chest. And I can feel the muscles of his back.
They’re so delicious. No, that’s his skin that’s delicious.
Her mouth was on his neck now, her tongue tasting.
His breathing was heavier, his hands more insistent on her skin.
They were under her shirt, tracing the shape of her waist and stroking along her spine.
She shivered and bunched his shirt to push it up and off.
He helped, looping her back into his grasp immediately, but this time she was seared by his body’s heat.
Jesus, he’s hot. All the ways of hot. Skin…
guh. Okay, her brain was stuttering now.
She pressed her mouth across his chest and felt the lines of his obliques.
He was in movie-star shape but not cut in that impossible-looking, obsessed way.
Just strong. So…fucking…strong. She held on when he lifted her up and carried her closer to the bed, then lowered her back down to her feet.
His turn to remove her shirt, and she immediately pressed her body against him, wanting as much contact with flesh as possible.
Hunger surged, and she reached up to grab his face, pulling him back to her mouth, stroking his tongue with hers, reveling in the small groans he gave every time he changed the angle of their kiss.
His fingers were light on her skin, leaving a burning trail that curved and swirled all over.
He kept brushing the edges of her bra, along the top of the cups, teasing.
Her nipples tightened until a sweet, piercing pain shot through her.
“Jace,” she begged, kind of, but he ignored her.
Well, not ignored. He kissed her neck, behind her ear, down to her shoulder, and his hands lowered to the button of her jeans, hesitating for only a second until she returned the favor.
A few seconds later they were on the bed, naked except for her black bra and bikinis and his also-black boxer briefs.
The hair on his legs tickled the recently shaved skin of hers, and everything got warm and soft inside her.
Jace pushed up on one elbow, his body aligned with hers, gaze roaming from neck to toes and back.
“You are perfect,” he decided.
Corin laughed. “I am not.”
His eyes nearly glowed, mostly green now. “I beg to differ.”
“Seriously!” She lifted her knee and poked at the bulge of her inner thigh.
“Total cheesiness here. And this isn’t exactly hard-core.
” A light slap on her belly, jiggling too much flesh.
“And my arms—” She raised her right arm, starting to show him with her left how loose it was, but he knocked her upraised arm to the bed and rolled onto her with a growl.
“You. Are. Perfect.”
Nose to nose, her laughter melted away. “Okay,” she sighed. “If you say so.”
This time the kiss was next level. Heat flashed, igniting an ache between her legs, a prickling in her breasts, and a thumping pressure in her chest that drove her to arch into him.
He still held her arm down overhead so that he was pressing her into the mattress, his other hand on her waist, angling her hip while he rolled against her.
His erection was hot through the fabric of his shorts, and she wanted it out.
Wrestling her left hand out from between them, she thrust her hand through his hair, pulling his head tighter to her, then sliding down to tug at the waistband of the briefs.
He let go of her arm and brought his hand to her breast, pulling the cup of her bra away so he could tongue her nipple.
She cried out at the pleasure zinging to all relevant parts and arched, panting.
Jace slid his hand under her to unhook her bra and slip it off her arms without moving too far away from her.
Then his hand was on her breast, rolling her nipple under his palm while he drove his hips into hers, rubbing between her legs.
She wrapped them around him, trying to reduce the effectiveness of the friction, then giving up and chasing it.
Jace groaned and buried his face in her neck, thrusting hard once before holding himself still. “Slow down a second,” he said. “God, you feel good.”
“So do you. But we don’t have to slow down.” Her body refused, anyway, rubbing against him, his solid chest exquisite pressure on her breasts, his hard cock a perfect fit in the groove even with two layers of fabric in the way.
“If you don’t hold still.” He released her arm and grabbed her hip in a relentless grip, trying to make her stop. “I’m going to come like this.”
“Me, too,” she said breathlessly, fighting his hand.
The whole thing was turning her on and up and…
She cried out, tipping her head back, and that was apparently too much for Jace.
He thrust faster and faster until she went up and over in a sweet, sharp orgasm that was about ten percent of what she knew it could be.
Jace shuddered and then pulled his hips away from hers.
“Jesus Christ, Corin.” He rolled away slightly. “What did we just do?”
“The appetizer.” She wriggled out of her underwear and tossed it on the floor. “I want more, Jace. I want it all.”
“But I just…” He motioned helplessly, and she shook her head.
“It’s okay. Appetizer, remember? What do you need?
” She rose up on her elbow and cradled his jaw with her hand.
“Time? A washcloth?” She flashed a grin.
“Fuel? Or just more perfection?” She said it teasingly, undulating her body.
“We can go as slow as we need to, since we took the edge off.” She said that, but she was lying, at least about herself.
The edge was right there, the hunger only changed, not diminished.
“Did we, though?” He stroked his fingers down over her breast, where the nipple was still super-tight and super-sensitive.
He was watching her face as he continued down over her abdomen, sideways to her hip, then slowing when he reached the crease of her thigh.
“I don’t think you actually can slow this down, can you? ”
She moaned and lifted her hips. “Maybe not. But—”
“Just give me a second.”
Cold air rushed into the void when he got off the bed, disappearing through the doorway.
Corin lay still, sucking in air as she listened to the noises coming from the bathroom.
Rustling, water running, the slide and bump of a drawer.
She remembered the compression glove and worked to peel it off, not wanting anything between them anymore.
Then he was back, still hot, still hard—actually, somewhere in the middle of the range of “hard.” His cock rested on her inner thigh, but he stayed at her side, resuming his exploration but this time finally reaching between her thighs to stroke her.
The pleasure had been waiting and now it rose up to meet his hand, the ache and throb and sweet, sweet waves making her lightheaded.
“Don’t,” she managed. “We should wait until…”
“Until?” He nudged with his hips so his penis bumped her pussy. Not the raging erection he’d had before, but definitely more than she’d expected this soon. “I am dying to be inside you.”
“Yes.” She reached over and wrapped her hand around him, squeezing, then stroking, registering the beautiful combination of silk over steel—a clichéd description but so accurate.
He hummed in the back of his throat and lazily kept his fingers moving, brushing her clit, spreading her moisture, but his eyes were closed and he was obviously enjoying her hand on him.
Corin shifted slightly, turning more toward him so she could reach him better, stroking down, then up, then squeezing, then three quick strokes, then brushing down to cup his balls, a squeeze there, then another stroke.
He pulsed in her hand, his groans coming more frequently now, until he rolled to kiss her and, at the same time, thrust a finger inside.
She would have cried out again if he wasn’t filling her mouth just as thoroughly.
Her whole body was one writhing mass of sensation, and when he hardened further in her grip, she encouraged him to roll on top of her.
She had no idea where he’d had it, but he produced an unwrapped condom, and together they rolled it on before he pushed up over her, positioned himself, and slowly pressed inside.
“Oh, God.” She squeezed him, her hands on his ribs—oh, crap, his ribs! She had to loosen her grip—her head back, body arching. “Oh, Jace. Ungh. Is this okay?” she panted, palming his ribcage lightly. “Your injury—”
“It’s fine,” he said impatiently, eyes closed, not a hint of discomfort in his expression. “You’re so tight.”
He kept the pace steady, not slow, not fast, just hard enough to keep her fire burning.
Rising. She couldn’t stop touching him, squeezing his shoulder, his ass, his neck, his hair.
He let out a gasp and took her mouth again, his whole body settling more heavily onto hers, the angle sharpening so every stroke rubbed her clit and deep inside, and pleasure rose, and rose, and rose, and burst over her, pulsing intensely, and then suddenly he was going fast and hard, chasing his own orgasm but serving to catch hers and drag it back up into another tightening, tightening, ohmygodthat…
she couldn’t… This time she screamed, a quick sound that was lost in the burst of light behind her eyelids.
It took a while to return to herself. Mainly because she didn’t want to. Holy fuck. That couldn’t have happened. She didn’t think she’d ever in her life come more than once, and he’d just given her three. That wasn’t real life. Not for her.
This was bad. Really, really bad. She’d wanted the sex to be good, of course, but a tiny little part of her had hoped it would redirect all those feelings they’d been having, like releasing a pressure cooker.
Or whatever you did with a pressure cooker.
She’d never used one. It had valves, right?
And you turned it, and the tension bled out after it cooked the stuff in it.
So this should have been like that. All the intensity should have been valved out with their physical release.
But it wasn’t gone. Not even a little bit. And she was in big, big trouble.