Just That Easy (4 page)

Filling his hands with her hair, he lifted her face to his,
devouring her mouth, his hips pumping harder into her hand. He pulled his lips
from hers and lowered her bottom back to the table, face buried in her neck.

“Teryn…”

“Tell me what you want, Grant. Whatever you want, I want to
give it to you.”

The husky whisper of her voice and the raw openness of her
words pushed him to the edge. “I want you. I need to fuck you. Now. Tell me you
want it, Teryn.”

“God, yes I want you, need you. I need to feel you in me.”
Her voice was whiskey hoarse, deep.

He leaned back, focused dead-straight on her eyes. “Why do
you want me, Teryn? Why me?”

Her eyes widened and she stopped, just staring, the surprise
at his question in them.

“No one has ever made me feel like this. Never.”

He grabbed her hips tighter, hauling her to the edge of the
table to his waiting cock. Just as the tip brushed against her, he stopped,
tensing. Hands still supporting her thighs his head bowed over her and he let
out a deep sigh.

“What?” A mass of emotions overwhelmed her, desire,
adrenaline, and a mild dose of panic that threatened to break the moment.

“Condom.” His chest heaved slightly, but his stance was
deadly still, as if he was afraid to move.

“I’m sorry,” he groaned, real guilt in his tone. “It’s my
fault, I shouldn’t have been so rushed. I don’t have any condoms. I was too
damn obsessed with having you to even think about it. I don’t know what the
hell came over me, I just didn’t expect to, well…
you
.”

A sliver of relief crept in, and she felt the need to try to
wipe the crushed look off his face.

She threw him a wry grin, leaning back casually on her hands
to face him. “I should take it as a good sign you didn’t have an
industrial-sized box then. Kind of tells me you weren’t planning on seducing
me? Or that you aren’t bed-hopping, unless you used them all already?”

“No. Or it could mean I’m a complete asshole and I don’t
care.” His seriousness made her regret her anxious attempt at humor.

“I doubt it, or you wouldn’t have brought it up. Or said
that.”

He closed his eyes and let his head fall back. A sense of
defeat and finality seemed to permeate the situation. She contained the urge to
curl herself away from him, feeling exposed. He hadn’t moved his hands, he
still supported her thighs, his cocked perched just a hair’s breadth from her
splayed-open pussy. The impulse to inch closer to him crossed her mind,
distracting her from the thought that their encounter, so blistering hot a
moment before was on the verge of a complete crash and burn.

His fingers caressed her thighs slowly, and the spark of
longing returned as he opened his eyes and fixed them on her, clearly fighting
his own impulses to ignore the elephant of responsibility that had just dropped
dead center between them.

Common sense failed her, and her mouth engaged the hormones
her body was pumping out. Maybe it didn’t have to be over. “Not that it means
much, but, I am on the Pill, and I, well, you don’t know me but—”

“I trust you, I just don’t want to think I’ve pushed you and
you would regret anything later. Not that I’ve slept with a woman without a
condom in, well…ever, actually. I mean… I’m not asking, but if we do end up
having sex at any point, I would feel better if I gave you a copy of my health
checkup. Just so you know.”

She couldn’t keep the shock from registering, didn’t even
try. “You carry that with you? Uh, for moments like this?”

He grinned. “No. Racing. We get tested every six months for
doping, drugs, whatever. Not all events require it but I do a lot of different
things. Bike races, mountain challenges, whatever. Some want it so I always
keep up on it. They cover everything.”

“Aha.” Disappointment returned. “I can’t say my publisher
requires much like that, so I don’t really have that to offer. I can get it,
though.” If there was going to be any reason to.

“I don’t need it.”

Of course not. Why would he? The words stung but she didn’t
let it intimidate her. “Why not? Not that I have slept with a man with or
without a condom in, well, since I can remember, but still, why not?”

“Like I said, I trust you. I can honestly say that’s never
happened like this before even if that sounds like a total bullshit line, but
it’s the truth.”

“Well if you want brutal honesty I hate the damn things.
Condoms, I mean. What I like, is how you feel.” The hot, pink flush that rolled
over her with that comment felt like prickly heat. Man, she was losing it with
this guy. “That sounded totally ridiculous and desperate.”

He turned serious. “Look, I want you, and I definitely feel
pretty desperate about that, so you aren’t sounding like anything. But I do
feel like I should back off so you don’t do something you will hate me for
tomorrow.”

“Uh—” Slightly incredulous, she sat just staring at him for
a second. “I think I am intelligent enough to decide if I can trust someone or
not.”

His grin was back, and he inched closer. “Don’t get your
panties in a bunch, I wasn’t insulting you.” He slid his hands around to her
ass. “Oh, that’s right, you don’t
have
your panties.”

“Grant?”

“Hmm?”

She met him eye to eye, and slid her hips slightly forward,
rubbing the tip of his cock against the innermost skin of her thigh. The
electricity ran through both of them, she was certain. “I trust you.”

With a groan he moved in over her, his chest connecting with
hers, warm skin and his heavy male scent washing over her. His lips took hers
as he brought their bodies together and his cock moved ever closer between the
folds of her labia. Inching in, but not quite going as far as she ached for him
to.

“Please…” she whispered.

“I can’t say no to you.” He groaned against her neck as he pushed
slowly into the sweet, tight wetness. Her back arched, she cried out that
cock-ripping female whimper as her hips pushed harder against his, pulling
another deep groan from him. Then her hands went palm down, pressing hard into
the table, pushing herself even deeper onto him as she let out another moan of
pleasure.

He watched her twist and groan on him. He moved until he was
satisfied with the angle of his thrust, wanting to see her melt into a frenzy
of sex-fueled pleasure. The force she met him with raced through him, felt like
heat washing over him. When she lifted herself almost completely off the table
and wrapped her legs tightly around his hips, her hands again in his hair, he
felt himself start to slide down the slope of oblivion. The pressure of his
coming release building, he was surprised how fast she was pushing him over the
edge.

He put one palm flat on the table this time and wrapped the
other arm around her tight, arching her against him, slamming his cock heavily
into her over and over and feeling her squirm her slick self down farther onto
him each time.

“You’re so fucking tight… God, yes, fuck me, Teryn, fuck
me!” He was completely lost in her, control so far gone he wouldn’t have
recognized it.

As if his words had reached right down into the pit of her
belly, he felt the sudden clenching of the already glove-tight walls of that
sweet pussy pulling at him. Her hands tightened in his hair. Her face pressed
hard against his shoulder, her cries building from husky moans to
higher-pitched gasps.

“That’s it, baby, come for me, let me feel it,” he growled
at her. As if it were possible to fuck her any more deeply, he lifted onto the
balls of his feet, tilting forward, riding on the deep, shuddering cry that
ripped from her lips as she exploded into a frenzy of pulsating vibrations, the
heat of her sweet juice flowing down over him.

Grunting heavily as the force of his own orgasm ripped
through him, he felt the sweetly painful release as pulse after pulse of his
hot cum flowed into her. Panting with exertion, he wrapped his arms around her,
kissing her shoulder, her neck, pulling back a little, searching out her eyes.

“Want to do it again?”

She giggled at him, her eyes sparkling, brilliant green.
Damn if she didn’t back down from anything.

Drained, she leaned into his chest, her face resting against
his bare skin, her hair feeling so soft and whispery against his arm.

“Will you stay here with me? Please?”

She looked up at him for a moment and he saw the little stab
of surprise, then she settled into a small smile, one that looked as if she’d
just been told a really good secret but wasn’t sure she believed it. She
dropped her head back to his shoulder.

“Seriously, Grant, do I look like I’m ready to jump up and
run out the door?” she murmured into his chest.

He felt the need to wipe away that question he’d seen flash
through her eyes. “I was asking mostly so you’d know I want you to. You’ll
laugh if I tell you it’s only ten o’clock. Man I’m good.”

“Obnoxious,
and
incredibly sweet and sexy, what an
awesome combination.”

“I make pretty damn good blueberry pancakes too”

“I’m so there, I love a man who can cook.”

With that, he scooped her off the table. Still half wrapped
around him, he carried her to his bed. Curling around her, he felt her
instantly snuggle deep into the curve of his body, hugging against him as if
being there was the most familiar thing in the world to her. Unfamiliar and unreal
how good it felt, that instant trust, it sent a rather large-sized stab of
regret through him. Regret he had lied, regret that maybe he’d been thinking a
little too much with his dick, and that he was going to miss out on something
better. The last thing he remembered thinking was that he couldn’t wait to see
her lying in his bed in the morning.

Sunlight teased her eyes open. That or the distinctly hard
flesh poking into her left thigh expectantly, attached to an entire body of equally
hard-muscled flesh pressed warmly against her. Either one was okay with her,
they both sent a little tingle over every inch of her body. That and the
instant memory of what that amazing piece of anatomy had done to her a few
hours ago. She smiled, remembering that somewhere in the middle of the night
he’d quietly slid inside her while he was curled behind her. He used his
fingers to tease her into sweet, long, rocking orgasm while he stroked her slow
and steady until he came into her again in a shuddering release. She remembered
him falling asleep against her, still burrowed inside her.

“Don’t go anywhere.” The whisper came in her ear just as the
enticing feeling of all that warm hardness left her.

She gave out a little whimper as his heat left her side.

“I’ll be right back.”

Him answering her barely voiced complaint made a tiny trill
in her belly.

“Didn’t you promise me cappuccino?”

“And chocolate.”

She heard him in the bathroom. The comfortable sounds of a
man in the next room—even one using the toilet—made her squirm with delight.
Then the sounds of something odd in the kitchen was followed the most delicious
smell of coffee. Really, really good coffee.

Faster than she expected, as she lay lazily daydreaming of
the events of the night before, he appeared next to the bed. One cup filled
with frothy, warm, rich-smelling cappuccino. Another tiny cup with thick black
liquid. Espresso. Then there was the tall, dark-colored squeeze bottle, the
entire label in French.

“What kind of man has both a cappuccino machine and French
chocolate?”

“Hopefully the kind you like.” He sat down beside her,
setting the coffee on the table next to the bed. He moved comfortably in his
skin, completely naked and not hiding the fact that he still had an erection
like an iron bar, he just settled in next to her as if they did this every day.

“Open your mouth.” His eyes were intense. The blue so vivid
indigo in the morning sunlight it almost took her breath away. They were deep,
dark, and they were looking at her expectantly, the promise of all that
passion… She obeyed, parting her lips, opening her mouth wide.

He lifted the chocolate and drizzled some on her tongue, the
rich, dark flavor sliding down toward the back of her throat. Before she could
give in to the urge to swallow the deliciously bitter-sweet concoction, his
tongue was on hers, spreading the chocolate everywhere. He kissed her deeply, a
body-shocking, devouring kiss. Over all too briefly, with one last lick of her
bottom lip, he handed her the cappuccino.

She sat up, leaning against the pillows, crooking one knee
and pulling it toward her chest to balance her cappuccino, the sheet slid down
her body, leaving her bare. Her nakedness nagged at her for only a moment, but
his obvious enjoyment of seeing her breasts slip out from under the sheet, and
his own comfort, the free feeling of just being naked with him, won over.

Sipping the expertly made cappuccino, she eyed him over the
cup. “Who the hell are you, Grant?”

“I’m just me. Why? You think there’s something wrong with
me?”

“Ah, no, that’s the problem, there is absolutely
nothing
wrong
with you. Not a damn thing. You’re an unbelievably attractive freak of nature,
who managed to pull me into your bed with barely an effort. You make your own
espresso, sweet-talk me with that in-your-face way, you have French chocolate
for god’s sake, and, well, you’re smart enough to be a librarian and about ten
other things. How the hell does that happen?”

“Speaking of ‘in your face’, I don’t think I’ve cornered the
market on speaking my mind.” He chuckled. “I like that about you. As for me,
ahhh, I don’t know. Good genes? Small dose of insanity, likely. Totally
puritanical and rigid parenting probably too.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. Intensely Lutheran, through and through.
Everything we did was bound to some scripture, some dogma. Rigid.” His face
took a different cast when he said it, as if he hadn’t really meant to go
there. At all.

“You.
Your
parents? Wow.”

“I know, right? Oh, reminds me. Check this out. I promised
you a tour of my ink.”

The guarded look was gone, his cheerfulness shifted to
boyish. It defied his command of himself at the bar last night, his very
masculine confidence. And the way he’d mastered her body in just minutes.

Downing the entire espresso in one shot, he stretched out
next to her on the bed. Turning onto his stomach, he gave her the first view of
his very well-formed, very tanned, and very tattooed back. She counted four
tattoos, so there must be two someplace else, he’d said six in all. Resisting
the urge to straddle his hips and feel the rock-hard flesh of his ass between
her legs, she focused instead on the tattoos, looking them over one by one.
Running her fingers over them. It struck her that she had no reserve about just
reaching out and touching him. At all.

They weren’t bright, some color but mostly dark, and they
looked ruggedly sexy against that deep chestnut tan. There was some sort of
Celtic knot on his left shoulder. Just below the base of his neck, between his
shoulder blades was a phoenix. The one just below his right shoulder blade was
the most interestingly odd one, it seemed to be a tree of life, but wound
around it was a Celtic-looking symbol she didn’t recognize.

“Your family must love all of these.”

“I’m going to burn in hell. Want to go?”

“Already there with you.” She turned so her back was facing
him. “Left hip.”

“A triskelion. Whaddya know.”

She grinned, leaning into the pillows but keeping her back
to him. The comfort of facing away from him made it easier to keep her mind on
the conversation.

He traced small circles over her hip with his fingers as
they talked. So much for keeping her mind on the conversation.

“You are a smart girl. Most people like to say it, but only
live it if it suits them. Usually the people who profess to be the most pious
are the ones who have the darkest secrets, least the ones I know.”

His voice gave away that he had a lot of experience with
that, and it didn’t seem pleasant.

“I understand. I went through a phase of trying to figure
out if I had any faith in anything.” It was the truth, and she was still trying
to figure it out.

“So do you?”

“Not much, no.”

“Hmm…I’ll have to work on that.” His voice dropped to that
deeper level that implied a rush of adrenaline, arousal.

“You do that.” It would be amazing to see him try, but she
wasn’t about to get her hopes up.

The night had been incredible. The crazy rush of him
convincing her they should just be together, natural as anything. How right
he’d been with arguably the best sex she’d ever had, followed by this big,
dark, powerhouse of a man curling himself sweetly around her for hours. This
morning had been even sweeter. He didn’t seem to want her to leave.
Unexpectedly he seemed to be true to his word, wanting to know more. His
interest made her crave trusting the good feeling this gave her. Instead it
made her do the complete opposite.

She could feel him tracing her other tattoos.

“Speaking of other tattoos, you said you had six. Where are
the other two?”

“Oh, forgot. I have an idea, why don’t you see if you can find
them?”

“Going to play hard to get, huh?”
Geez that sounds
desperate,
she thought.

“No, not really. But, thanks for the great lead-in for what
I need to say.” He put his hand on her arm, rolling her toward him to look
directly in her eyes. His look was too dead serious and it unnerved her.

“We made a choice last night, but I’m not so sure the
decision wasn’t a total asshole move on my part. I should have stopped, let you
get your bearings, have a chance to think about it.”

His concern melted her nerves for a moment, until it bloomed
in her mind that his assumption was a bit condescending. Arching her brow, she
launched back.

“So you think I didn’t make a conscious choice? I was
paralyzed with your greatness and I had no power but to spread my legs for you
without a thought for my own preservation?”

He looked slightly shocked and the corner of this mouth
curled into a slight grin. “Uh, no, hellcat, that was
not
what I was
trying to say. I meant to take ownership for our lack of being responsible.” He
rubbed his chin and shook his head. “Yeah, just digging deeper, aren’t I?”

His sincerity killed her indignance and she smiled. “Look
bonehead, I get it. But we both made a choice. Grown up, adults, and just
because we only spent a brief time on making the decision doesn’t mean we were
irresponsible. I stand by my choice. You’re the one who said you don’t have to
spend a week contemplating whether you are going to engage in life or just
watch it, right?”

“I guess I am, nice paraphrase, by the way.”

Poking him in the chest, she let herself exhale. “Thank you.
And I like this just how it is, don’t make me regret thinking I made a smart
choice.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I, uh, I like it the way it is too.”
He lowered his head, grinning almost like a kid who had got caught stealing
cookies. “I haven’t felt anything that good, hell, can’t remember if I ever
have. We’re out on a limb here kind of anyway, aren’t we? I guess we have to
trust each other to keep from falling off.”

“Mmm…true. Besides, if you want brutal honesty I hate the
damn things. Condoms, I mean. What I like, is how you feel.” The hot, pink
flush that rolled over her with that comment felt like prickly heat. Man, she
was losing it with this guy.

“Know what I like? You. I like that you just blushed all
over. Guess what else?”

“What?”

“Time for me to go to work.”

“Guess we should get dressed.” She couldn’t hold back the
sigh that followed.

“Yeah, we should. Or maybe you should come take a shower
with me.”

He leaned in, lazily running his tongue down the curve of
her hip.

The thought of him in the shower, wet, soapy… Her nipples
sprang to attention instantly at the thought. Whatever this man had, her body
was attuned to it like nothing she’d ever felt. “I think I can’t say no to
you.”

“That’s so, so good.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“What does that mean?”

She hadn’t held back yet, why start now? “It means I’m still
not sure what I’m getting myself into. I don’t usually jump into bed with just
anyone.”

His confident, devilish grin returned. Along with that
self-possessed presence that was so pronounced it could almost be felt. “But
I’m not just anyone, sweetheart. And you’ll know it. Eventually.”

“You are so unreal, Grant.”

“I thought I was weird.”

“That too.”

“Mmm hmm. Come on, my little tightly wound freak.” He stood,
taking her hand to pull her along with him.

“Who’s a freak?”

“We are, my dear.
We
are.”

* * * * *

He led her into the tiny bathroom, and as he turned the
water on she took stock of the maleness of the sparse room. The only thing that
looked as if it was a nod to comfort was a stack of really big, fluffy white
towels. She pictured one of them wrapped around his tight waist. That little
ridge of muscle that ran from hip to groin was so tempting. Nice.

She pulled her thoughts back to the room. There was the
requisite can of shaving gel, a couple of razors, toothbrush. That was about
it. Simple. Easy to move on.

He took her hand, pulling her into the cloud of steam with
him.

Wrapping his arms around her, he ran his lips over her hair,
pulling her close to his chest. “I know it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours
yet but I have no intentions of doing wrong by you, okay? I’m just saying
relax, let’s enjoy each other and it goes where it goes. If you want to know
what I’m thinking, I’m all in as it stands. That sound good to you?”

“What, do I look like I’m freaking out?” If she wasn’t
before, she was now. Man, he pushed hard.
Slow down on the convincing there,
bad boy, I’m in the damn shower with you already.

He leaned back, looking down into her eyes. “Yeah, you do
about half the time. You just did while you were sizing up my bathroom. The
other half of you is bold as anything. You do have this tendency to kind of get
the scared-doe look, except of course when you were squirming around underneath
me last night.” His grin was contagious.

“Wow. I think I have to work on that.”

“That’s the plan, sweetheart, that’s the plan. But I do like
you squirming around underneath me. A lot.”

His lips closed over hers, softer this time, taking time to
really kiss her. It was one of those slow, tantalizing moves that made her ache
to have him just let go and devour her. He started by barely brushing his lips
across hers, nibbling softly on the top, then the bottom until she was parting
them, panting for him to slide that warm tongue between them. The flavor of
espresso and his warm male taste flooded her mouth when he finally did. A flash
of heat flew through her, even hotter than the steam and water. A kiss had
never felt so damn sexy.

His hands slid softly down her back, gliding over her skin
under the hot spray. He pressed his thick erection hard against her belly, the
water making it slick and smooth as it slid heavily against her.

His voice was like a deep vibrating bass note humming
through her entire body as he whispered in her ear. “Take me in your hand.
Stroke my cock. I love how it feels in your hand.”

She did exactly what he asked. Eagerly sliding her fingers
over him, she curled them tightly. Sliding her hand smoothly up the entire
length of him reminded her how velvet and delicious he had felt in her hand the
night before. How much he had responded when she just touched him. Now he was
wet, pulsing with the blood rushing beneath the skin. She loved how thick he
felt in her hand. She hadn’t taken the time to really look at him last night
but she’d felt how large he was. Looking at him now, she was almost shocked how
long. Thick, long, straight as an arrow. The head of his cock a deep ruddy-red
color, the thick vein running the length of him dusky, almost purple. The vein
stood out in relief against the deep-pinkish tone of the rest of him. A soft
mass of black hair curled around the base, as thick and silky as the hair on
his head. Her hand stroked him softly, then harder, feeling every inch of him.
He groaned into her shoulder.