A Man Apart (6 page)

Without breaking contact, Justin moved Han
nah away from the wall, through the small dining room and in the direction of the bedroom.

Drowning in multiple sensations, Hannah was only vaguely aware of his arms curling around her waist, holding her entire body tightly to his. But she was fully aware of heat rising inside her at the feel of his hard muscles against her softer flesh.

Entering the bedroom, Justin shut the door with a backward tap of his bare foot. Still without breaking the kiss, he carried her to the side of the bed. Setting her on her feet, he released her, stepped back and brought his hands to the hem of her sweater.

Trembling with need, Hannah raised her hands and the sweater swished over her head, landing who knew, or cared, where. She was fumbling with the buttons on his shirt when an errant but important realization stilled her fingers.

“You need to know that I'm not on any kind of birth control. I haven't used anything for over two years now.”

He frowned at her statement. “That's pretty risky, isn't it?”

“Not at all.” She shook her head, a bittersweet smile shadowing her lips. “I…haven't…er…indulged—” She broke off to shake her head once more. “You know.”

“You haven't had sex in two years?” His voice, his startled expression, hovered somewhere between amazement and disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.” She sighed.

His expression turned pained. “You don't like sex?”

She had to smile. “Well, I don't dislike it.” She sighed again. “It's just that,” she lifted her shoulders in a hapless shrug when his frown deepened to a near scowl. “I haven't felt attracted…that way…to a man, any man, since I ended a relationship a little more than two years ago.”

“Why did you end the relationship?” he asked, in a tone that said he wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

“It was mutual,” she answered. “It simply wasn't working for either of us.”

“What wasn't working?” His gaze probed intently into hers. “The sex?”

“Well…yes,” Hannah confessed, lowering her eyes to the allure of his half-naked chest, suddenly aware of her own near nakedness. “I owe it to you to admit that I fear I may be, uh…unresponsive.” She drew a deep breath before rushing on, “I've never had an orgasm.”

“You're kidding.”

Tired of feeling like a feminine failure, Hannah lifted her head and boldly stared straight into his shocked eyes. “No, I am not kidding. Dammit, do you think any sane woman would kid about something so serious?”

“No, I suppose not,” he agreed. Then he asked, “You said you wanted me. Did you mean it, or were you just experimenting with me?”

“I meant it.” Hannah's tone was filled with conviction. “I do want you.”

“Good,” Justin purred, the flame of desire flaring again in his eyes. Lowering his head, he brushed a taunting kiss over her mouth. “Then let's get on with it, see if we can't give you that orgasm.”

The mere brush of his mouth robbed her of breath, sent her senses whirling.

“What about…um,” she said between quick breaths, “protection?”

Justin smiled. “Luckily for us,” he said, shoving his hand in a jeans pocket and retrieving a foil-wrapped package, “I
do
practice safe sex.”

H
annah lay where Justin had placed her, right in the center of the queen-size bed and watched as he stretched his long length next to her.

“Hannah, Hannah,” he murmured. “What am I gonna do with you?”

She gasped and opened her eyes in wide innocence. “You need instructions?”

Justin laughed gently. “That does it, sweetheart. Now you are really gonna get it.”

“Really, really?” Hannah curled her arms around his neck to bring his mouth back to hers.
She was thoroughly enjoying herself, never before had she teased and laughed while making love. “Will I like it?”

“Let's find out,” he whispered, taking command of her mouth with his.

Deepening his kiss, he slid a hand over her shoulder, down her chest to the rounded slope of her breast. Gasping, Hannah arched her back, seeking more of his exciting touch. Growling into her mouth, he cupped her breast, found the hardening peak with his fingers.

Heat flowed like molten lava from the rigid peak to the core of her femininity. Hannah was on fire. She couldn't breathe but she didn't care. She wanted more and more.

Squirming to get closer to him, she lowered her arms and pulled him tightly against her straining body. Her hands made a tactile exploration of his broad back, his narrow waist, his slim hips, his long well-muscled thighs.

She needed something…something.

“Slowly, sweetheart,” he softly said, his lips following the trail laid out by his hand. “We have all day.” His tongue darted out, electrifying her as it flicked that aching peak. “There's plenty of time.”

That was easy for him to say, Hannah mused,
moaning deep in her throat at the exquisite sensations his tongue sent quaking through her. She was on fire, every inch of her burning for…that elusive something.

Grasping his hips, she urged him to her, arching in an attempt to align their bodies. Resisting, holding himself back a few inches from her he slid his hand down the center of her quivering body.

“Justin.” Hannah cried out as his stroking hand found, delved through her mat of tight blond curls and into the very core of her.

“Justin!” she cried out again, her voice now a near sob, as he parted the delicate folds to explore the moist heat within. “I…I…please!”

“Please what, sweet Hannah?” He delved deeper as he raised his head to her mouth, spearing his tongue between her parted lips, capturing her gasping breaths.

She arched her hips into his tormenting hand, and slid her mouth from his. “I need…need…” she paused to pull some air into her lungs.

“Me?” he whispered enticingly, slipping the tip of his tongue into her ear.

“Yes, I need you, your body…now!”

“At your service, sweet Hannah.” Continuing to tease her by gliding his tongue to the corners of
her mouth, Justin settled himself between her thighs.

Hannah immediately embraced him with her legs, urging him closer, closer. She gave a hoarse cry when he thrust his body deeply inside her. He set a quick, hard rhythm. Holding on to him for all she was worth, she arched back her head and strove to match his deep strokes. It was a very short ride.

The fire inside her blazed out of control. Hannah felt the unbearable tension quiver, then snap.

“Justin!” Her voice was raw, strangled as her body convulsed around him. In reaction to the sheer pleasure pouring over her, and without conscious direction, her nails scored his buttocks, thrilling once more when he attained his release, growling her name, over and over.

Pure ecstasy. Hannah wanted to tell him, thank him, but at first she couldn't find the breath. Then, when her breathing evened enough to speak, before she could put the thought into words, she succumbed to the sleep that had eluded her during the long night.

 

“Hannah?” Getting control of his own breathing process, Justin lifted her sweat-slick head from
her equally moist breast to look at her. Her eyes were closed, and she looked serene, disheveled but serene. She was breathing at a normal sleeping rate. “Knocked you clear out, did I?”

Smiling, he disengaged, lifted his depleted body from hers. Stretching out beside her, he drew her soft, pliant body to his, pillowing her cheek on his chest.

“Ahhh, Hannah, sweet Hannah,” he murmured, not wanting to wake her. Well, with the swift response of his body to the satiny feel of hers, he actually did want to wake her, but he held himself in check, letting her rest.

She'll need it, he thought, rubbing his cheek against the silken, tangled mass of her hair, his body growing harder at the memory of her long blond tresses spread wildly on the pillow in the throes of passion.

And Hannah was passionate. Justin could still hear the echo of her voice pleading with him, her nails raking his skin, crying out to him in the intensity of her orgasm.

Her response had triggered the strongest, most shattering orgasm he had ever achieved, he thought, aching to repeat the experience.

Good grief, were Hannah's former lovers complete idiots? How could they not be as fired up—
roasted, in fact—as he had been to her quick, passionate sensuality?

A shot of sheer male satisfaction flashed through Justin as he realized he was the first man to bring Hannah to ultimate completion.

And ultimate was the only way to describe it. She lay thoroughly satiated and relaxed in the protective cradle of his arms, one of which was growing numb. Justin didn't care. Ignoring the sensation and the discomfort of his hard body, he closed his eyes.

“Sweet, beautiful, Hannah,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head as he drifted into a light doze.

 

The afternoon sun rays were slanting into the room when Hannah woke. She felt good. No, she mused, yawning. She felt wonderful…but hungry. No, that wasn't quite right, either. She felt famished, in another part of her body as well as her stomach.

She made a tentative move in the confines of Justin's caging embrace, sliding her body against his.

Justin. A thrill skipped up her spine at the memory of what they'd shared. With his mouth, his hands, that strong hard body, he had given her a
gift beyond her wildest imagination. Not only in her delicious release, but by freeing her fears of being frigid.

“I was beginning to think you had died.”

His breath tickled her scalp, his low, intimate tone tickled her libido. “For a moment there, I think I did.” Tilting back her head, she smiled up at him and nearly melted at the tender expression on his handsome face. “Isn't that what the French call it. The little death?”

“Yeah.” His mouth curved invitingly, a flame springing to life in the depths of his eyes. “Wanna do it again?”

“Yes, please,” she said, sliding her free hand up his chest to toy with one flat male nipple. His response was so swift it was breathtaking.

Grunting like a caveman, he heaved himself up and over her, settling her flat on her back. Precisely where she wanted to be at that moment. She opened her legs for him.

“Not so fast, sweet Hannah,” he said, laughing down at her as he lowered his head to hers. “You had your way with me the last time. This time it's my turn.”

She pouted at him. Still chuckling, he crushed her pouting lips with his hungry mouth.

 

This time the little death was even more intense; the release, mind and body shattering. Never had Hannah expected to feel as if she were soaring above the clouds. Talk about a natural high! Justin's slow, fantastic loving had brought her to the point where she had actually screamed in response to the sensations of joyous bliss.

Hannah might have been embarrassed by her uncontrollable outcry, if Justin's shout hadn't almost immediately followed her own. Still buried deeply inside her, he lay, spent and relaxed, his head pillowed on her breast. Moving beneath him, she rubbed her leg over his buttock and down the long length of his muscular thigh.

He murmured something against her breast, letting her know he was alive, if not altogether awake.

“I'm hungry,” she said, sliding her fingers into his hair, combing through the sweat-dampened, long, tangled strands.

“Are you trying to kill me, woman?” he muttered, raising his head to stare at her in feigned as
tonishment. “I'm in my thirties, you know, not my late teens.”

Hannah giggled. “I thought I felt something stir awake inside me,” she lied, laughing into his teasing eyes.

“You thought wrong. It's out for the count.” He grinned, rather leeringly. “It'll take a while before I'm ready to spring into action again. Do you think you can bear the wait?”

“I guess so.” She sighed, then grinned back at him. “But I don't know how much longer I can bear your weight.”

Justin groaned and rolled his eyes. “Give me strength. The woman's tossing puns at me now,” he groused, lifting his body to roll over, sprawling next to her.

Hannah gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. “That's better.” Arching her back, she stretched the stiffness out of her arms and legs. “I'm hungry.”

“You said that.” He grinned and looked down at the front of his body. “And I explained that—”

“For food,
man,
” she taunted, getting back at him for twice calling her woman. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “So drag your so depleted carcass off this bed and help me get something together to eat.”

“Slave driver,” he complained, laughing as he practically leaped from the bed. “I'm not doing another damn thing, bossy
woman
until I shower and shave.” Circling the bed, he scooped her body up into his arms and headed for the door. “And you, sweet Hannah, are going into the shower with me.”

Smothering yet another giggle, Hannah curled her arms around his neck and rubbed her face against his shoulder. “I've never showered with a man before,” she softly confessed.

Justin stared down into her eyes. He shook his head, his expression compassionate. “You've never done a lot of fun things with a man, have you?”

“No.”

“Did you enjoy your, er, first thing?” He arched his brows, then wiggled them.

Hannah laughed, feeling her cheeks grow warm. “Immensely,” she admitted. Darn it. What was it about this man, anyway? She hadn't blushed since…hell, she couldn't recall ever having blushed.

“Then, trust me, sweetheart, you're going to enjoy this, too,” he promised.

He was dead right. Hannah thoroughly enjoyed
every minute of the playful splashing, lathering, caressing, kissing beneath the spray of warm water. Who knew how long they would have remained there, if not for the audible grumbling sound of hunger from her stomach.

It was almost as much fun drying each other off.

Clean, but still naked as a newborn, Hannah dove back under the covers while Justin shaved. When he walked boldly naked into the bedroom, she unabashedly watched, admiring his lean, muscular and magnificent body as he stepped into briefs, jeans and pulled a cable-knit sweater over his head.

“See anything you like?” he asked, arching a dark brow over laughing gray eyes.

“Actually, I like the whole package,” she readily admitted. “You're a very attractive and nice man.”

“Boy, that last compliment is a relief.” He heaved a deep sigh. “For a minute there, I thought you wanted me only for the pleasure of my body.”

“Well,” Hannah said teasingly. “There's that, too.”

“Thanks. Hey, aren't you ever coming out from hiding? I thought you were hungry.”

“I am. But I have no clean clothes here.” She
made a face at their clothing scattered around the bed. “I'm waiting for you to be a gentleman and fetch my suitcases.”

“I knew you were a slave driver,” he muttered.

Justin was back in moments. He set the bags next to the bed, then stood watching her.

“Out,” she ordered, flicking a hand at the door.

“But I wanna watch,” Justin said, in tones similar to a petulant little boy.

“Are you some kind of voyeur?” Hannah asked, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at his head.

He ducked. The pillow missed him by inches. “No.” He grinned. “But you watched me. Hell, I could feel you watching me. It was like a touch. And now I want the privilege of watching you.”

“You don't have time to watch me,” she countered, enjoying the banter. “I told you, I'm hungry.”

“Then I suggest you get your tush in gear and get dressed.” He moved back to prop himself indolently against the door frame. “Because I'm not budging.”

Giving him a narrow-eyed glare that only brought a wolfish grin to his lips, Hannah flung back the covers and stood. “All right, then, dammit. Watch your fill.”

Laughing softly all the while, Justin did watch, his appraising look missing nothing as she dug through the largest of the cases. Secretly thrilling to his caressing gaze, Hannah took her sweet time stepping into almost-there panties, fastened the front closure of her bra, wriggled into hip-hugging jeans and shrugged into a turtleneck sweater.

“You are one absolutely stunning woman from head to toe, sweet Hannah,” he said in near reverence.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Feeling her face grow warm again, this time with pleasure, she turned away, opening the other bag to search out footwear. Like him, she didn't bother with shoes, slipping into satin ballerina slippers.

In the meantime, Justin moved to open a dresser drawer, making do with a pair of heavy-duty socks to keep his big, narrow feet warm.

He held out his hand to clasp hers. “Now, let's go rustle something up for lunch—” he shot a look at the dark beyond the window “—or supper.” He laughed. “Hell, for all we know, it may be a midnight snack.”

“Not quite,” Hannah said, letting him lead her from the room. “I looked at the clock. It's only nine-fifteen.”

“Only, she says.” He groaned, and fumbled for the light switch as they entered the kitchen. “We haven't eaten since early this morning. We're both ravenous…and the woman says it's
only
nine-fifteen.”