Hands On (2 page)

She tried not to smile at his clear
embarrassment, but didn’t entirely succeed. "Are you telling me you never
noticed I was female until you saw my nipples standing up in the cold?"

“I, uh, wouldn’t go that far.” He
carefully avoided her eyes. “I knew you were female. I mean, you’re gorgeous,
Lora, and I’m not blind. I just never thought of you like… well, you know.” His
ears turned redder. “I mean, I was still kind of focused on Ashley at that
point. But since then, I just haven’t been able to stop thinking about…”

She couldn’t decide whether to be
flattered or annoyed. She decided that it was nice that he’d noticed her, for
whatever reason. Even if it was an annoyingly superficial, male reason.

"It’s okay," she said,
fighting back her smile at his chagrined look. "Whatever turns you
on.
But I have to be honest, Mason. I’m really not sure I
want to get involved with you when you’re still so into your ex.”

“You want to know the truth?” He
peered up at her from beneath his dark fringe of hair. “I’ve hardly thought
about Ashley since that day. I mean, yeah, we were married a long time, and we
have a lot of history together. But I haven’t thought of her like that since
then.” He dropped his gaze, looking embarrassed, and his voice fell almost to a
whisper. “I guess I’ve been too busy thinking about you.”

Warmth flooded her at his muttered
confession, and she dropped her hand to his chest and tugged at his shirt
again. "Well, okay then, Mason. Let me take off your shirt."

"Lora. I really don't
think..."

"Let me take it off," she
said softly, persuasively, "and I'll let you take mine off. It's a little
chilly in here. If you're lucky, I might just get cold again."

She heard a sharply indrawn breath.

"Okay," he said.

She tugged the shirt off and tossed
it aside, then looked down at him.
Wow
.
Her fantasies had absolutely nothing on reality. He was built like a pinup,
carved muscles standing out under golden skin, and she wondered why on earth
she'd tried to keep her hands off him for so long. If she’d been smart she just
would have tackled him a year ago, Ashley or no Ashley.

His big hands reached out and
stripped off her pale pink t-shirt. The air was chilly-- it was unusually warm
today, which was why she'd worn shorts, but out of the sunshine there was a
decided nip to the air. She felt her skin react, felt goosebumps pop up all
over—and her nipples hardened. He moaned and reached out like he just couldn't
help himself, running his fingers gently over her abdomen.

Her hands lowered to his shoulders
and began stroking the skin there, very softly. He moaned and dropped his head
back, closing his eyes.

She bent over, noticing as she did
so that his gaze was drawn to the cleavage displayed by her low-cut bra.

She smiled, a little amused. All
this time she'd been hoping he’d notice that she was female. But if she'd
really wanted to catch his attention, all she'd needed to do was get cold.

Her hands slid down across his
chest, and his hands tightened around her waist, digging into her skin gently.
She noticed his coppery nipples had tightened, hardening into little peaks, and
her thumbs itched to touch them. But instead she ran her hands around them in
circles, teasing him, brushing around his nipples but never quite touching
them, and he moaned, dropping his head back. He shivered like he had a fever.

"Lora." His voice was
filled with desperate need. "Touch me there.
Please
."

"In a minute. What's your
hurry?"

She spoke lightly, but she knew
what his hurry was. A glance down showed his bulging erection straining against
his jeans, more obvious than ever. She could actually see the tip of it peeping
out from his waistband, dark pink and glistening with moisture, and she
seriously wanted to grab it.

Later
,
she promised herself.

Her fingers slid around his
nipples, tormenting him, for long moments. His skin began to slicken with sweat
beneath her hands, and his muscles grew more and more taut. At last she finally
slipped her thumbs over the hard pebbles of his nipples, and he jerked and
gasped.

"
Lora
."

"You like that," she said
softly.

"Oh,
yeah
..." His voice was barely a whisper. "Do it
again."

She did, and he twisted under her
hands, rolling his head against the back of the couch and moaning with
pleasure. "God." His voice was soft but intense. "Lora,
please
. I can't wait any longer."

"So don't wait."

His eyes flickered open, and he
stared at her for a second, as if her words had confused him. Then he dropped
his hands to his fly, fumbling in desperate haste, and unzipped his jeans,
shoving his boxers out of the way. His cock sprang free. It was enormous, wet
with precome, and so swollen that it looked painful. With every brush of her
thumbs over his nipples, it throbbed in violent response.

"Take it in your hand,"
she said softly. "The first time, I'm just going to watch."

His ears went red again, but he
didn't argue, just wrapped his hand around himself. She noticed that he was
huge, so huge that as big as his hand was, his fingers barely met.

Wow
,
she thought again. His erection looked like carved marble, except she could see
the life pulsing through it with every beat of his heart, and she imagined it
would feel hot against her palm. She really wanted to find out how he felt, to
touch him herself.

Later
,
she told herself again. Right now she was just going to watch him.

His hand moved up and down, slowly,
like he was struggling to wait, to control himself. She stroked his nipples again,
brushing her thumbs over them lightly but rapidly, and in an instant he seemed
to lose all self-control. He leaned his head back, shut his eyes, and began
pumping his fist up and down, hard and fast. A low, deep sound of need and
pleasure rolled out of his chest, and then his hips jerked spasmodically, and
his voice rose in pitch and volume.

"Oh... God... oh... my...
God
..."

And then he was coming, thick
liquid bursting from him, all over his chest and abdomen, all over her hands
and wrists. It felt hot on her skin, and the earthy smell of it filled her head
and made her physical need sharper and more intense than before. She didn't
stop stroking his nipples, and he sobbed and writhed, his teeth clenched, his
eyes shut tightly. Come continued to explode from him in spasm after spasm,
until his chest glistened with it.

At last he collapsed back against
the couch, sucking in a long, deep breath, and dropped his hands to his sides.
She discovered her back hurt from bending over so long, so she settled down on
the couch beside him and looked at him. He was sweaty and breathless, and his
hair was tangled and disheveled... and he was more gorgeous than ever.

"That was the sexiest thing
I've ever seen," she said softly.

He opened an eye and looked at her
lazily. "Maybe you need to date more."

She laughed and shook her head.
"I don't think so."

God help her. She had to admit to
herself didn’t react to Theodore this way. Hell, she hardly reacted to Theodore
at all. But Mason… She didn’t quite dare tell Mason seriously how hot he was,
because she didn't want him to know how badly she'd secretly lusted for him,
since virtually the day she’d met him. But she was pretty sure there wasn't a
sexier guy on the planet.

Chapter 3

After a few minutes, Mason's
breathing began to steady. He reached for his t-shirt and used it to mop off
his chest, then looked over at her.

"Your turn," he said.

She could still feel the insistent,
desperate burning between her legs, but at his words, her cheeks began to burn,
too. No, she thought. She couldn't possibly do...
that
... with him watching. It was just too intimate.

Besides, she had a boyfriend. Well,
maybe it was more accurate to say she'd
had
a boyfriend, before she'd put her hands all over another guy and watched him
come.

But things didn’t actually have to
change between her and Theodore. He didn't really have to know about this, did
he? It wasn't like she and Mason had totally crossed the line, after all. She'd
just kind of... watched. Her participation had been minimal.

Well, okay, maybe a little more
than minimal. But still.

The fact was, it had all been a
mistake, and there was no way she was going to compound her mistake by letting
Mason watch while she... no. Definitely no.

He watched her intently, his eyes
glittering like emeralds in the dim light as he observed the emotions playing
across her face. "You're wimping out on me, aren't you?"

"I'm not wimping out,"
she answered, rising from the couch and moving toward her shirt, which had been
discarded on the floor. "I just... came to my senses. That's all."

"Hold it." He stood up,
zipped up his jeans, crossed in front of her, and grabbed her up by the waist.
"No way am I letting you go when you're this turned on."

"I'm not turned on," she
said, trying very hard to maintain her air of regal dignity. Considering he was
holding her captive, she guessed she wasn't succeeding very well.

But she really didn’t want to get
away. His hands felt good against her bare skin, strong and warm, and at his
touch she felt more moisture well from the recesses of her body. Geez. Her
panties were soaked.

"Crap," he answered
flatly. "You're totally turned on, Lora. I can tell by the way you’re
breathing. You practically came when I did."

At the blunt words, she felt a
spasm deep inside her body.
Damn it
.
He was right. She'd been right on the edge of orgasm for a while, and she
needed release very, very badly.

But she could take care of that
herself. She didn't need Mason for that. She didn't need Mason at all.

He didn't seem to agree. His hands
moved over her, and within thirty seconds she was totally naked. To her own
surprise, she did nothing to stop him. Then again, she hardly had the chance.
He was damned efficient, she thought, feeling the cool air from the open window
against her skin, sending a rush of goosebumps over her body and hardening her
nipples to aching peaks. She heard a low growl and knew he'd noticed.

He pulled her toward the couch,
then lifted her bodily and sat her on its back. She lowered her feet to the
cushions and blinked at him, puzzled.

"Ordinarily I sit on the
cushions."

"Not this time." He
looked at her with hot eyes. "Spread your legs."

She thought about snarking that he
ought to say
please
, but decided she
wasn't in any mood to play Miss Manners. Obediently, she parted her thighs.

She realized that he had a much
better view when she was sitting on the back of the couch than he would have if
she'd been sitting in her customary seat. He seemed to enjoy the view, because
he stared at her for a long moment. His eyes flared with a sensual heat.

"Spread them even wider,"
he said softly. "And put your left foot up on the arm of the couch."

She did as he directed. Suddenly
her body was so exposed to his hungry stare that it was embarrassing, or would
have been, if she hadn't been so damned turned on. She could feel how wet she
was, could smell her own scent, sweat and female arousal mixed with the odor of
Mason's come that still clung to her hands. She shivered in the cool air, and
her nipples grew even harder.

She heard his sharp intake of
breath. He stepped toward her, and she could see his erection beginning to
swell in its denim confinement. His hands caught her thighs, pushing them apart
even further, and he stared at her most intimate flesh like it was the most
beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"Touch yourself there,
Lora."

His voice was a bare whisper, a
seductive rasp that brushed away the last of her resistance. She slid her hand
up her thigh, ran her fingers through her moisture, and slid her finger over
the hard, aching bud of her clitoris.

Sparks exploded through her body, like every
nerve in her body was somehow firing at once. She dropped her head back, closed
her eyes, and shuddered. Part of her still didn't want to do this in front of
him, and she kept the movement of her hand slow, trying to control her own
responses. To stay in control of the situation somehow.

He knew her well enough to
understand her reactions. He must have recognized that she was holding back,
because he took a step forward and wrapped his hand around hers.

"Stop trying to fight
it," he whispered in her ear. "Just let it happen."

She looked down at their hands. His
hand was so much bigger than hers that it seemed to engulf hers, and it looked almost
as if he were the one touching her. She shuddered at the thought of his big,
blunt fingers stroking her flesh, wanting him to touch her there so badly she
almost begged for it. But she somehow managed to bite back the words.

His big hand pressed on hers
gently, forcing her to move her fingers a little harder, a little faster. It
felt so incredible that she whimpered and squirmed and might well have fallen
over backward if he hadn't thrown his other arm around her waist and caught
her.

She couldn't believe how
desperately she wanted him to touch her. But he didn't, except for his hand
holding hers, and his arm wrapped protectively around her waist. She forced her
eyelids open and saw his hot, intense eyes watching their hands moving together,
watching her body grow wetter,
watching
her skin flush
with heat at the same time it erupted with more goosebumps.

Self-consciousness flooded her
again, along with all her anxieties. She'd never done anything quite like this
before with any guy, let alone Mason. They were friends, and she had a
boyfriend, and this was just going to make her life so unnecessarily
complicated. Things had been going along just fine the way they were, and she
really shouldn't...