Let Me Count The Ways (19 page)

“A woman like me?” Heat blazed in her eyes. Heat and speculation. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

I met her gaze dead on. “It means a woman like you deserves only the best.” And, tonight, that was exactly what she was going to get.

I think something in my expression must have finally gotten through to her because her face, already rosy, turned a warmer shade of pink. ”Oh?” Her tongue peeked out to wet her lips. “Okay, Mike, you’re on. Show me what you got.”

“I intend to.” I didn’t care how many men she’d played this particular game with, my goal tonight was suddenly crystal clear. I was gonna make her forget every last one of them. Starting right now.

I stretched out on the bed between her legs. Sliding my hands beneath her, I tilted her hips toward my mouth--certain that little bit of assistance wouldn’t count against me. I started off with one long swipe of my tongue up the center of her sex, ending with a quick flick across her clit that had her sucking in air.

“Mm. Grape flavored snatch,” I teased. “Like a lollipop, only better.” I then proceeded to make pass after pass along the length of her slit, making no attempt to dislodge the grape.

“You’re not even trying, are you?” Claire’s voice sounded shaky.

I glanced up at her. “Are you complaining?”

“Not a bit.”

“No point in rushing things,” I told her, striving to look serious. “Besides, I think I need something else to practice on first.”

“Practice?” she repeated after me. “Are you kidding me?”

“This’ll do,” I said as my lips latched onto her clit.

“Oh, God,” she moaned as I sucked the little nub. “Oh, that’s good. Don’t stop.”

Finally, when she was thrashing and bucking beneath me, when her pussy was flooded with so much cream it was a wonder the grape hadn’t poured out on the tide, I curled my tongue inside her, scooped up the fruit and popped it out.

I lifted my head, grape between my teeth, and met her gaze. Just to make sure she saw it. Then I swallowed it down and licked my lips. “Well? Any other games you’d like to play?”

Claire’s eyes looked glazed. “Maybe you ought to try that one again,” she suggested, adding a helpful, “There are still plenty of grapes left.”

Not the response I was expecting. “What?”

“Yeah, I think so.” She nodded, her voice tight, breathless. “We don’t want to be too... be too hasty, right? You know it, it
could
just be... beginner’s luck.”

Beginner’s
luck? For an instant, I didn’t know what to think.
What’s she trying to say?
Then my eyes registered the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the greedy, hopeful look in her eyes. I smiled. “If you want more, you just have to say so.”

She nodded again, fingers prodding at my shoulders. “Okay, then, yes. More. Now.”

“My pleasure.” Smiling, I bent once more to my task and then paused. “So how’d that stack up against your crew’s performances?”

“What?” Claire blinked at me as if I’d lost my mind. Probably I had. Even I couldn’t believe I’d asked that. “You think I did stuff like this with the guys on the
crew
?”

I felt my forehead furrow. Hadn’t she said as much? “I was just curious.”

“Why would you think something like that?” Claire asked, her voice wooden. “And is it the whole crew I’m supposed to have done, or just a select few?”

“What do you mean, ‘why do I think that’? You said they’d liked your tricks, remember? All those long days and nights? Bored and lonely? The jungle? You said they’d been good to you. And how am I supposed to know how many? You tell me.” Or, better yet, don’t!

She was silent for a moment, then she sighed, her shoulders sagging, her expression bleak. “Okay, look, Mike, yes, I was bored. A lot. And very unhappy and there may have been a few nights... or more than a few, even... when I was upset and I had too much to drink and things maybe got... a
little
out of hand. But, when I said they were good to me, I meant they weren’t the kind to take advantage of something like that. Trust me, they saw a lot more skin on the set than off. At least where
my
skin was concerned. I didn’t get naked with any of them.”

I must have looked surprised or skeptical, or maybe just confused.

She shook her head, her voice flat. “You don’t believe me.”

“Of course I believe you.” Why would she say that? Belief was not the issue here. Why had she led me to think otherwise--that’s what had me confused.

“For what it’s worth, I was married when I made that film,” she continued bitterly. “And I was still young enough to think that
meant
something. I can’t imagine why. It certainly didn’t seem to mean much to my husband.”

The pain in her voice struck at my heart. In that moment, she looked and sounded very young indeed. Young and forlorn. I pressed a kiss against the soft skin of her inner thigh, wishing I could somehow take away the hurt, longing to protect her. “I’m sorry I brought it up. I didn’t realize it was a painful subject. I guess it’s gotta be tough on a marriage, what with one of you being gone on location for so long. All the separations, that can’t be easy.”

She sighed. “That’s what I thought too. That’s exactly why I fought for the project in the first place--despite my agent’s objections. I thought it would be good for us, good for our marriage. We weren’t separated, Mike. He was directing the film.”

I stared at her in surprise. Her husband was there? Through all those long days and drunken nights, he was there? What the hell? No wonder she’d divorced the loser.

“Anyway, I don’t know why we’re even talking about this.”

“He must have noticed how unhappy you were.”

Claire’s eyes flashed. “Did I
say
he didn’t notice? Of course he did! Everyone noticed.” Then she stopped and shook her head, looking even sadder than before. “No. No, you’re right. I don’t suppose he did notice, come to think of it. Either that or he just didn’t care.”

“Impossible.”

Claire stretched out on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Not really. He was... busy.”

“Doing
what
?”

She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, you know. Director stuff. Lighting, camera angles, thousands of details I know nothing about and probably couldn’t even understand if he tried to explain them. Movies don’t just happen on their own, you know.”

“Claire?”

She sighed. “He was screwing his PA, Mike. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

His PA. “The girl with the earrings?” So that was why--

Claire’s mouth twisted. She shrugged. “Easy come, easy go. I warned her about that, but girls in lust rarely ever take the wife’s advice. Guess she found that out too.”

“Stupid,” I growled angrily, wishing there was something I could do; something to make her feel better, something to make it up to her, just
something
.

“Hey!” Claire sat up, scowling. “I hope that’s her you’re talking about and not me? I mean, at least
I
didn’t have
kids
with him. That would have been really stupid. Bad enough to have him as a husband, at least you can walk away from that. But as a father, he’s been a total disaster.”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t talking about either of you. I was talking about him. About me.
You
didn’t do anything you should feel stupid about and her--Her I’m not interested in.”

She frowned at me, curiously. “So what did
you
do that was so stupid?”

“I misjudged you. Horribly. When you told me about the earring, I should have known you wouldn’t have done something like that without there being a reason--a good reason--for it. I thought you were just young and spoiled and acting irresponsibly. I should have known better. I’m sorry.”

“Mike.” Her gaze softened. Her eyes glistened with what might have been tears. “I
was
young.
And
irresponsible. And probably spoiled as well. That thing with the earring--you were right about what you said. It was a lousy thing to do. It was spiteful. Mean.”

“No.” I shook my head again, more firmly this time. “You’d been hurt. You had every right to be upset. They were wrong to treat you so callously. If I’d have been there...” But it was foolish to even think it. What could I have done to protect her, even if I had been there?

“I see.” A teasing smile had curved Claire’s mouth. “So now you’ve decided to see me as perfect? Is that it? Well, that makes for a nice change. Thank you.”

I met her gaze. “I’ve always seen you that way. Don’t you know that? To me you’ve never been anything less than perfect. Right from the start.”

The smile disappeared from her face. “Mike, I... I...” Her voice trailed away. She stared at me for a moment. A very long moment. And then, “Come here,” she murmured brokenly, reaching one trembling hand toward me. ”Please.”

I surged up the length of her body, thrilling to the sweet caress as her hand found my shoulder and then my back. Sighing softly in regret as I bypassed all the interesting places I’d planned to linger along the way--her navel, the swell of her hip. Pausing only to kiss the tip of one breast, the curve of her neck, before settling above her. Her eyes were hot on me as I bent to kiss her cheek, my hands clenching in the silky waves of her hair.

“Love me, Mike,” she whispered and I felt my heart stall.

I raised my head to stare at her. “Claire?”

“Now.” She tugged at my shirt. “Right now. I can’t wait. Make love to me now.”

Disappointment crashed over me. I shook it off, swallowed hard and nodded my consent. I’d been asked to make love to a goddess. Disappointment was the last thing I should be feeling.

I levered myself up on one arm so I could unbutton my shirt, but again Claire stopped me.

“No. Leave it on. Leave it all on. All your clothes.”

“What? Why?”

“I want it like you said the other day. Fast. Hard. Like you’re too hot to wait. Like you want me so badly you can’t take the time to undress.”

Fast?
I nearly groaned aloud.
Again?
She was giving me my fantasy, or something close to it--as though just making love to her at all wasn’t fantasy enough! It was a gift I couldn’t refuse but it wasn’t at all what I wanted. “Not slow this time?” I teased hopefully.

She shook her head. “Like you need me, want me, have to have me. Now.”

Well, that was easy enough. I unzipped my pants and slid hot and needy into her slick, wet passage. It was easy because it was true. “I do.”

Need her. Want her. Love her.

Slipping a hand beneath her, I tilted her hips up to meet my thrusts. Pounding hard and fast, just like she wanted it. Hard and fast, to match the pounding of my heart.

She moaned soft and low as her body contracted around me. As she crested below me, her nails dug hard into my shoulders through my shirt and I ached to feel more. I longed to feel her, skin to skin, and mourned the loss.

I looked into her face, watching it go taut and blissful as her body spasmed and she came undone.
For me, all for me
.

“Claire.”

She opened her eyes and, in the instant when her gaze met mine, I knew.
She
was my fantasy--here, now, always. Fast or slow, it didn’t matter. Making love to her was all I’d ever need or want.

I bent my head, kissing her fiercely, as I felt my balls tighten, as I felt my muscles seize.
Mine!
I pumped my hot seed into her waiting pussy and pulled her tight against me as I claimed her and came.

Need her. Want her. Love her.

Yes.

“I do. I do. I do.”

A moment later, I was rolling off of her to lie on my back, sweaty and uncomfortable in my clothes, cum soaking through the front of my pants. She rolled to face me.

“Will you hate me if I go to sleep now?” she asked.

I smiled at the absurdity of the question, while I used a tired hand to brush the hair back from her face. Hate her? Impossible. “Of course I won’t.”

“I’m so tired, Mike, and it’s been such a long week. Now I just want to curl up in your arms and sleep until morning. Right here with you. Is that okay?”

I nodded. “Anything. Whatever you want.”

“Thank you.” A brief smile glimmered on her lips as she stretched up to kiss me good-night. “You’re very sweet.” Then she rolled again to spoon with me, her head resting on my outstretched arm, the soft curve of her ass pressing against my open fly and my softening cock.

I slid my other hand up her bare thigh, coasted it over her hip, until she stopped me. Until she grabbed my hand and pulled my arm snug around her. Until she clasped my hand in hers and pressed it to her chest.

Perfect
. I sighed as I folded my other arm around her. As I rested my chin on her head, swung my leg over hers, wrapped myself around her and held her tight.

I wanted to stay like this forever. I wanted to lay my body down for her--be her pillow, her blanket, her shelter, her shield. I wanted to protect her against anything or anyone who might hurt her.

She tightened her grasp on my hand--the one that covered her heart--and I smiled.
Just perfect
. I wanted to protect her, every part of her. Now and forever. But that part most of all.

Claire

I woke up early the next morning to the soft scratchiness of a bearded cheek rubbing along my neck. To warm lips pressing kisses against my shoulder and a firm hand that slid around my waist and then down between my legs. To these tender words whispered in my ear: “Are you awake?”

Groaning a little--because I was, but I didn’t want to be--I turned my head and looked up into Mike’s face. “I am now.”

“Good. Turn over.” He prodded at me until I’d rolled into his arms, then he cupped my face in his hand and kissed me. His lips--warm, wet, demanding--moved over mine with increasing urgency until I pushed him away.

“Okay,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath while my heart fluttered out of control. Heat pulsed in my pussy to the point where I was almost ready to hump his leg to get some relief. “Okay, now I’m
really
awake.”