By Appointment Only (10 page)

They had lost their way in the bedroom, and Danita had been desperately counting on this sexual guidance to get them back on track. Deep down she was afraid Shaun might leave her if she didn’t fix whatever was wrong.

She’d had three friends in the past year whose husbands traded in their longtime wives for younger models. Danita was afraid it was only a matter of time before her own spouse found a reason to do the same.

Shaun was an extremely appealing man. Unlike many of his peers, he’d kept himself fit and healthy. His waist was still trim, his belly flat. He was tall and strong, and when he smiled with that dimple in his cheek, her knees quivered every bit as much as they had on their wedding day when she was twenty-one.

Danita, on the other hand, was twenty pounds heavier than when they married. She had stretch marks from giving birth to their twin sons almost two decades ago. Her breasts were still firm, but perhaps not as perky as they had once been. And though her skin was good in general, the fine lines at the corners of her eyes gave away her age.

She winced suddenly when the manicurist got a little too enthusiastic with the cuticle nippers. Danita glanced at her watch. She had just an hour to grab a bite to eat and meet Shaun for their noon appointment. She could tell he wasn’t enthused about going back. But he’d agreed.

Which sometimes pissed her off. Why did he always defer to her plans? Why couldn’t he express a simple damn opinion once in a while?

By the time she showed up at the doctors’ office, she looked as good as she was ever going to get. She’d invested in a horribly overpriced thong that showed off her new wax job to perfection. And though she’d been too nervous to eat, she had downed two glasses of wine in hopes of relaxing herself and avoiding a repeat of yesterday’s debacle.

Shaun was waiting for her and had already spoken to the receptionist. He smiled faintly at Danita as he fit the key in the lock of their assigned room. “You ready for this?”

She nodded jerkily and followed him into the room. The first few moments after he shut the door she thought she might cry. The room was exactly as it had been yesterday. She thought about the money this was costing. She thought about her inability to find satisfaction the day before.

She swallowed hard, trying desperately to get with the program. She forced a smile. “Well, what does the paper say?”

Shaun picked it up, and she saw him frown as he read it. Then his mouth twisted in a wry grin. He looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “It says we’re supposed to spend a minimum of one hour having foreplay. But under no circumstances whatsoever are we to engage in sexual intercourse. And we’re also not supposed to climax by any other means.”

Even as she gaped at him in surprise, the knot in her stomach unfurled. “Really?”

He shrugged and tossed the paper aside. “That’s what it says.”

Danita wanted to laugh and cry all at once. A huge weight she hadn’t known she was carrying rolled off her shoulders. She
knew
how to do foreplay. She was a pro at it. And without having to worry whether or not she was going to have an orgasm, she might actually enjoy this.

She grinned at her husband. “I suppose we could handle that. What do
you
think?”

He kicked off his shoes and faced her in his sock feet.

“I say bring it on.”

Shaun saw the change in his wife the moment it happened. She was
relieved
they weren’t supposed to have sex. And though her response stung his male pride, he was so damn glad to see her smile.

For the past couple of years she seemed so sad all the time. She probably thought he didn’t notice, but he did. He knew her as well as he knew himself. And that meant she wasn’t able to mask her emotions from him.

It started when their boys went off to college. Having twins made it worse, because they both left at once. Danita had been a lost soul for weeks.

But she was a strong woman, and she had picked herself up, found new interests, and carried on. The female problems she’d struggled with hadn’t helped. He’d tried to be sensitive to her health issues, but he had missed their frequent lovemaking.

Things had improved in recent months, but he felt a reserve in his gentle wife that hadn’t been there before. And when she had suggested the sexual counseling, he had agreed quickly, eager for them to find their way back to intimacy and actually having fun with sex. As opposed to twice weekly quickies in the dark.

He slid his hands beneath her hair and cupped her neck. “I like the new dress,” he murmured. The blue matched her eyes and complemented her blond hair. He kissed her, rejoicing inwardly when her lips seemed eager.

Just like that, he was hard, and though he sensed that he was in for some real frustration, he ignored the need and concentrated on his wife. Her skin was soft and fragrant, her lips lush and sweet. She had kicked off her sandals, and now the difference in their heights was magnified. She seemed infinitely small and precious to him.

His tongue dueled lazily with hers, causing them both to breathe more quickly. He found the zipper at the back of her dress and lowered it slowly, pausing to stroke the curve of her spine.

She stopped him when he had the zipper down to her waist. “Wait, Shaun. Let me undress you first. Please.” Her eyes were filled with bashful entreaty.

He dropped his hands to his sides. “Be my guest.” Danita rarely took the lead in their lovemaking, and though he was taken aback by her unusual assertiveness, he was pleased. Sometimes he felt like she tolerated his touch, no more. He’d approached her for sex less and less over the past few years, dreading the possibility that she was humoring him even more than the possibility of rejection.

Her hands hovered over his chest and then settled in to unfasten the buttons on his shirt. He’d been at work when she called him. His first reaction had been to say no. Yesterday was hell on his ego and his general frame of mind. But he’d never been able to deny Danita anything, so he excused himself to his staff and made tracks across town, still wearing nothing more interesting than khaki slacks and a white cotton shirt.

Her head was bent as she went about undressing him. When she was done with the buttons, he shrugged out of the shirt. Danita still stood in front of him, her head bent. She put her hands on his chest, almost tentatively it seemed, and lightly stroked the dusting of hair that covered his pecs and arrowed down to his waist.

The feel of her warm hands on his skin was infinitely arousing. It had always been that way with Danita. Sometimes nothing more than one of her smiles made him hard. He’d known the first moment they met that he was a goner.

His heart began to thud beneath his ribs with jerky beats. He cupped her shoulders between his hands and tried to steady his breathing. This was a long-distance race—not a sprint—and he had to keep himself under control.

When her hands found his belt buckle, he wasn’t sure he had the guts to do this. He felt like he had been hungry for her forever. It had been years since the days when the two of them had tumbled together in bed like playful puppies . . . eager and horny and completely unconcerned with the world outside their bedroom.

Life had gotten in the way. They had grown up. They had grown apart.

She had his zipper down now, her fingers brushing his throbbing erection with painful results. He sucked in a breath when she sank to her knees and untied the laces on his dress shoes. With her help, he stepped out of them and his socks. Even the touch of her fingers on the arches of his big, ugly feet made him squirm with lust.

She stood up again and slid her hands inside his pants and boxers, shucking them to his thighs and down to the floor. She stepped aside as he kicked out of them. Now he was buck naked.

Her eyes were riveted on his penis. It bobbed as if it had a mind of its own, and a bead of clear fluid oozed from the head. He cursed when she closed her hands around him and gave him a most unorthodox massage.

He gritted his teeth, moaning softly beneath his breath. Her gentle touch sent a raging current of hunger zinging through his body from his cock to his spine and then sliding everywhere else along the way in electric connections from head to toe.

He panted helplessly as she cupped his balls and tested their weight. His knees trembled. After several long minutes, he caved. He shoved her away and backed up to the door, his bare ass hitting the cool wood. He held up a hand. “I can’t take any more. We’re not supposed to come. Remember?”

A succession of emotions flitted across her face as he escaped her grasp and retreated like a scared soldier. Hurt. Dismay. Sudden understanding. And then what was most assuredly smug satisfaction.

She grinned. “Men are so easy.”

He snorted. “Just wait. Your turn will come. And I’ll have you begging for mercy.”

He was teasing her. Trying to get his own recalcitrant hormones under control. But his lighthearted words had an unusual effect on his wife.

Her pupils expanded as her lashes widened. Her hand went to her throat. Her mouth opened as though she wanted to say something, but she remained mute.

When he thought he could touch her without pushing her to the bed and mounting her in a frenzy of insanity, he walked toward her slowly, holding her gaze with his.

She wet her lips. “What are you doing?”

He grinned. “You have to ask, Danita? After all these years?”

He held her waist, keeping her at arm’s length as he kissed her lightly. It was sweet, chaste, slow, and lazy. And it wasn’t enough. He peeled her dress halfway down, stopping to admire the hot-pink bra she wore. It was made of delicate, sheer lace in the front, and he could see her dark, pointy nipples.

He ran his thumb over one, then scraped it with his thumb-nail. Danita trembled violently and closed her eyes. He bent his head and wet the lace with his tongue. He sucked the nipple and areola into his mouth and bit gently.

Now she whimpered, twisting restlessly in his embrace. He reached behind her and unfastened the bra, releasing the catch and tossing the delicate garment aside. He stared down at her tits. They were a guy’s most incredible wet dream, full and bouncy and perfectly curved.

She was still covered from the waist down. He figured that was necessary if he was supposed to hold out for an entire hour. A man could only withstand so much temptation. He kissed her cheeks, her eyelids, the side of her throat. Danita’s arms hung at her sides. Her eyes were closed now, and her chest rose and fell.

He deliberately took each nipple between his fingers and pinched. She gasped. He twisted and tugged and then sank his teeth into the tender skin just above her collarbone. Danita went rigid and her hips pressed restlessly toward his. The skirt of her dress brushed his cock.

He gripped her wrists and tucked them behind her back, bringing her body in full contact with his. He muttered in her ear, “You are so damn hot. I want to fuck you here. Right now.” When Danita groaned and struggled, he licked the tiny set of teeth marks on her fair skin. “But I can’t. We’re not supposed to, right?”

Her eyes opened, blank with shock and hunger. “Why not?” she cried, clearly having forgotten their surroundings.

He bent her backward over his arm and sucked her nipples one at a time. She struggled to free her wrists and he allowed it. Her hands clenched in his hair. He blew on the wet skin of her breasts, and Danita made a keening cry.

He froze and thrust her away, holding on only long enough to make sure she had regained her balance.

She reached for him. “Please,” she whispered, her cheeks flushed and her breathing ragged.

He held up his hands. “Foreplay only . . . remember? You were about to come.”

Danita stared at him in shock. She glanced at the small, discreet clock on the bedside table. They had been in this little room for only twenty-five minutes. And she’d been on the brink of an orgasm already. What did that mean?

Her head was reeling. There had been nights in the past year when Shaun had stroked her patiently—for hours it seemed—and she’d never been able to find release.

And now in no time at all, she was a seething cauldron of want and need, so close to an orgasm she could taste its shimmering allure just around the corner.

“They’ll never know,” she said wildly. “Please.”

Shaun stared at her soberly. He was as hungry as she was, the evidence impossible to hide. But he shook his head. “We’re going to follow the rules, my love. Or why else have we come?”

She hated him for his self-control when she felt like shattering into a million ravenous pieces. How could he deny her when she needed it so much?

She frowned. “We still have at least a half hour.” Then she took a deep breath. Torture went both ways.

Before he could protest, she went to him, knelt, and took his cock deep into her mouth. It was like sucking on stone wrapped in thin velvet. But the taste and smell of him made the experience come alive.

She’d been making love to the same man for many years. She knew the infinitesimal body signals that heralded his release. Before he could come, she squeezed hard at the base of his shaft and kept the pressure in place until his orgasm retreated. She’d never done that to him before, but she’d read about it in a magazine, and the alarming technique had stuck.

Shaun cursed and moaned and dropped to his haunches when she released him, his face red and his skin slicked with perspiration. “God Almighty,” he muttered.

She kicked off her sandals and crawled onto the bed, still dressed from the waist down. With her back resting against the headboard, she spread her legs, keeping her skirt modestly in place. “I can hold out if you can,” she taunted. For a split second she paused to wonder if she looked fat in this position, and then she pushed the self-defeating thought aside. She crooked her finger. “Let’s see how far we can go without cracking.”