Page 29 of Take Me Tender

Worry?

“Baby, is this good?” He knew it was, because she was arching into his hand, yet still, that concerned expression pricked him. His thumb circled the hard nub, then slid away.

She made a little sound of protest.

“I won’t touch you where you want me most unless you talk to me.”

A gleam of light showed between her lashes and her lower lip slid out in her trademark sulky frown. “You talk too much.”

“Some of us can accomplish two things at once.”

“Not your cover bimbos.”

“Damn.” He shook his head. “I’m not doing my job if you’re still thinking of other women.” His hand roved to her sleek back again and to the bow that was at her waist. He yanked it free and started unlacing the corset ties of her top. “How about I loosen things up?”

He pulled the fabric completely from her body. At the sight of her naked breasts, the material slipped from his hand to the floor. Firelight flickered over her creamy skin and warmed the peachy-pink color of her stiff nipples. He had to touch, and as his hand reached for her, he saw it tremble.

Startled by the sight, he stilled, trying to wrap his head around a man shaking so hard just at the idea of such a rudimentary move. But then she gulped a breath, pushing those sweet handfuls closer to him and he went all-guy, giving up the thinking to another part of his anatomy.

And that throbbing part of him was only sending one thought chugging through his bloodstream. Taste taste taste. His hand curved beneath one soft breast, plumping it for his mouth. He bent his head and touched the velvet berry in the center with the tip of his tongue.

She gasped, pushing that bud against the rasp of his tongue and he obliged the silent request by closing his lips around her nipple and sucking her into his mouth.

God. His belly clenched, lust striking a match inside of him. Driven forward by the fire, he sucked harder, pushing her nipple against the roof of his mouth to caress it with the flat of his tongue. Nikki’s hands flew to his hair.

Jay froze, cold caution dousing the sudden blaze of heat that had overtaken him. Did she want him to stop? Had he frightened her?

Instead of letting go though, he merely eased up, holding her gently in his mouth as he breathed in the scent of her skin—vanilla and heat. Her fingers relaxed and he started sucking again, not so wild, but not letting up either. His second hand shifted to her other breast and he indulged, there, too, running his thumb over the hard crest and rolling it between his fingers.

Then he switched places, plucking her wet nipple with his fingertips while taking the other into his mouth. This time he kept his suction slow and steady, but ratcheting up the pressure at intervals until he was sucking as hard as the first time and she was moaning with the pleasure of it.

When he lifted his head, his belly clenched again. Her nipples gleamed in the firelight and she must have licked her lower lip because it was wet, too. God. He kissed that little pillow, running his tongue over it until she opened for him.

Her trust was blowing his mind.

And now he needed to see how much further it would go. With hands on her shoulders, he laid her back on the cushions. Her lashes were dark crescents on the flush-pink of her cheeks. He rubbed at that bothersome worry line on her forehead with his thumb.

She caught his hand, and eyes still closed, brought it to her mouth. She kissed the pad, and something inside him jerked tight, pulling his heart toward his throat. “Cookie, cookie, cookie,” he said, his voice rough. “You have some lethal moves.”

She made a little sound—a laugh? a protest?—but then turned voiceless as he pulled his hand from her mouth to draw his damp thumb along the waistline of her skirt, an inch below her belly button.

Her muscles quivered, and her bottom shifted on the cushions. “I’ve been wanting this since the first moment I met you,” he said.

“No way,” she whispered. “The first moment you met me you wanted to go back to bed.”

“With you.”

“That came later.” Her hips shifted as he traced that line across her belly again. “After I made coffee.”

“You make me sound so easy,” he complained, locating the zipper at the side of her skirt. It made a little hiss as he slid it open.

He saw a sliver of her eyes again between her lashes. “But are you hard, Jay? Are you really hard?”

What she was asking was obvious. He slid her skirt off her legs and tossed it to the floor. Silky green panties covered her pussy, and he stared at the magic vee while he yanked off his shirt. Then he insinuated himself between her thighs, loving the feeling of them widening for him. He pressed his jean-covered cock to her sweet spot and rocked.

“What’s that tell you?” he asked.

She sighed, her legs opening more. “That I’m not your pity…you know.”

“The only pitiful one has been me.” He smoothed his palm up the inside of her thigh, pulling it up and out so it rested against the back of the couch. “Thinking for so long you wanted another woman instead of me.”

A smile flickered over her mouth and he bent his head to taste it. The kiss went hot and deep, one of those day-long things that he didn’t remember giving to or getting from any other woman but Nikki. It made heat roll down his spine and then spiral around his ribs, constricting his chest until he couldn’t breathe.

He tore his mouth from hers and then, laughing at himself, dove for another taste of the same. He palmed the sleek skin of her inner thigh, then snaked his forefinger beneath the elastic leg opening of her panties. She was wet.

Oh, thank God. She was swollen and hot and very, very wet.

He kissed the corners of her mouth, then her chin, then he dipped lower to bathe each nipple again. Nikki was flushed and panting and he had to chuckle when she yanked him up by the hair so that they were chest to chest once more. She rubbed her breasts against him, twisting side to side.

The scent of vanilla and the creamier fragrance of her aroused sex rose in the room as his head fell back and he slid his finger into her body. It was a tight fit as her inner muscles clamped on his intrusion and he stilled, looking quickly to her face. As before, her eyes were closed.

Her lip pushed out in that irritated pout. “Jay, Jay, I want to feel more of you.”

He rubbed his chest against her body, circled his finger inside her snug channel. “Right here, cookie.”

“Right now. I told you I like it fast.”

Since she couldn’t see him, he rolled his own eyes. “Nik—”

“Look, sometimes I’m a little slow to warm up…”

He was pretty sure she was smokin’ now.

“But then when I want it, I want it.”

Safe place, safe partner, he reminded himself with a sigh. “Your wish is my command.” He would do it her way. And since there had to be steam coming off his own skin, he pushed away to shuck the rest of his clothes. From the back of the drawer in the coffee table, he pulled a stash of condoms from a cardboard playing cards case. A bachelor’s trick in a home often visited by family.

Rolling on the rubber, he glanced over and saw she’d somehow dispensed with her panties. There was nothing, now, between him and heaven and the sight sent more flames licking over his flesh.

He lowered himself to her body again and her arms came around him. Her palms swept along his back and he shuddered against the soft touch. Her knees lifted and he slid farther into the cradle between her thighs.

“Now, Jay,” his chef with benefits ordered. Her hands pulled on his hips.

And Christ, what was he waiting for? Lifted on his elbows, he placed his cock at the entrance of her body, and let her arousal bathe the throbbing head for a moment. “Ah, cookie, this feels so good.” Then he bent his head for another kiss as he let his weight carry him in.

The fit was tight at first—too tight. He shifted back, shifted in, and this time she opened to him on a gasp and a groaning sigh that sent an answering arrow of heat rocketing up his spine. Her hot inner walls closed around him and his cock pulsed against the wet, velvety tissue as he breathed through that first blaze of pleasure.

But there was more to do. His hands cradled her face as he took up a gentle rhythm. He watched Nikki’s expression—those eyes of hers still closed, that worry line still present—but the deeper flush across her cheekbones and her clutching hands gave away her growing excitement.

She bit her bottom lip and lifted her hips to his, fueling the lust inside him. He tamped down the urge to move with more speed and more roughness by mentally chanting his new little mantra. Safe place for Nikki, safe partner for Nikki. Safe place for Nikki, safe partner for Nikki.

Even with those words at the forefront of his mind, his hips pistoned, each stroke driving deeper. Nikki’s legs twined around his hips, her inner thighs sleek and hot against his skin.

He gritted his teeth, holding on.

Safe place for Nikki. Safe partner for Nikki.

The words rolled around in his head, but desire was having its way with him, driving him toward release. On his next downstroke, he nipped at her bottom lip and she jerked upward, seating them together that last crucial bit. They groaned together.

The heat between them burned. Nikki was breathing hard now, her eyes squeezed so tight there was a fan of lines at each corner. That unease poked at him again, jarring him out of his rhythm. He glanced down, saw the flush of pre-orgasm spreading across her pretty breasts.

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