Masquerade (12 page)

He grabbed her hair,
gathered it into a tail, and started to pull her off him.
But
he was too far gone. He
couldn’t
stand the loss of
sensation, so he nudged her back down.

In only moments, she sat
up,
grabbed for one of the condoms he’d tossed on the
nightstand, ripped it open, sheathed him, and lowered herself all the way to
the base of his rigid penis. Their shudders of pleasure met like ripples on a
pond and exploded as Tony thrust into her, taking control of their movement. In
seconds, he felt the rush of hot semen as he erupted. Reaching for her nipples,
he tweaked them harder than
he’d
planned, but her
scream had nothing to do with pain and everything to do with the release they
both cascaded into.

She continued to ride his
thrusts afterward, the force slowing as they rode the high down and tried to
find their breath.

“Wow,” Beth said. “That
was shattering.”

He pulled her down to
him, giving her quick, gasping kisses. “I agree completely. You rocked my
world.”

Beth lifted off him and
removed the well-used condom. Disappearing into the bathroom, she came back
with a washcloth and cleaned him.
Hell, even that
had
him twitching for more. She settled in next to him, and it felt like nothing in
the world mattered except this moment. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you back,” Beth
said.

They slept, he thought,
although only for a few minutes, until Beth suggested she shower.

“I’ll join you,” Tony
said as she got out of bed.

She turned to him,
holding out her hand. “I hoped you’d say that.”

Chapter Twelve

Warm water shushed over
Beth, washing away the last vestiges of doubt about her ability to turn a man
on, and to
be turned on
by him.

Tony poured shampoo in
his hand and looked at her. She turned her hair to him and he worked it in
methodically, taking his time, both relaxing and invigorating her. Never had a
shampoo felt this exotic and sensual.

After her hair
was rinsed
, she turned to him, feeling like she needed to be
completely honest.

“Steve called me a frigid
bitch.” When Tony’s hands fisted, Beth pulled them to her mouth and kissed them
open. She tried to quiet her heart, knowing this was something
she’d
never told anyone. Steven may have
intuited
it, but she’d never validated his belief. “He wasn’t right about the bitch
part. I know that.
But
the frigid comment was pretty
much spot-on. I couldn’t climax with him, not even once.” Beth cupped his face
in her hands. “Apparently, I was waiting for you.”

Tony turned the shower
off and pulled her into his arms. “You haven’t got any issues, honey. Not a
single one
. I can attest of that.”

Beth smiled into his
chest. “Thanks, but at the time, I thought I did.
I’m
so grateful to fate for bringing us back together.

Tony stiffened, and Beth
looked up at him in confusion. “It wasn’t exactly fate,” he said.

“What would you call it?”

“I’d—
well,
I’d call it an application, not fate.”

“Huh?”

“I saw this ad in a
newspaper. It was very cryptic, saying something about healing, but I figured
what the heck.
Might as well give it a try.”
He
smoothed her wet hair. “I had tried to find you for so long, I’d run out of
options.
So
I filled it out, sent it in, and nothing
for a few months. Figured
I’d
been conned. Then one
day, I got an email saying I needed to start working at Masquerade on a certain
day. Turns out that was the day before your arrival.”

Beth bit her bottom lip,
wondering if she should tell him everything. He took the words from her with a
deep, sensual kiss.

“I owe whoever I sent
that application to one huge debt of gratitude. When you first walked into the
bar, I wanted to rip the mask off my face and show you who I was. It took
everything I had to keep it on.”

“Why did you?”

“A
couple reasons, neither of them good.
First, I
was
told
to.
And then
, I got cold feet, I guess. I
wanted time to make sure you’d return my love before I outed myself.”

“I can understand that.”

“I’m so glad I found you.”

“And I,
you.
I love you, Anthony. More than I could fathom. We’ve lost so much
time.”

A gleam entered his eyes.
“Then we have a lot to make up for.” He proceeded to show her how much he
wanted to make it up to her.

Beth, who had spent too
many years wondering what was wrong with her, learned again, right there in the
shower, that she
wasn’t
frigid. In fact, she had a
very healthy libido, one that had a lot of catching up to do. When Tony turned
her to face the wall and reached around to tweak her nipples, Beth shivered,
not from the cold, but from a need that rose so strong in her, she
couldn’t
control it. She gave in to desire, spread her arms
out along the tile, giving him better access. She arched her back, reaching out
for him with her ass.

Tony had other plans.
Instead of the cock she expected, his hand stroked her.
Slow,
methodical strokes, as if learning every dip and crest.
It was heaven.
Sweet, excruciating heaven.
He
didn’t
stay in one place long enough for her to find relief and she vibrated with
desire. Instead of pounding into her, of giving her the satisfaction of
release, he maintained a maddening pace just shy of satisfying.

She turned, or tried to,
but he pinched her clit, sending rivers of wet need exploding throughout her
body. She rose with the wave, gasping and leaned against the shower wall for
support.

When he knelt, and his
tongue touched her, Beth yelped.
Struggled.
Tried to break free.
It was too much.
But
he held her captive with his tongue. He drove into her over and over until she
screamed her release, then he caught her as she collapsed.

Anthony wrapped her in a
towel and carried her to the bed. Beth curled into him, awash in the aftermath
of revelations and orgasms that had surpassed her wildest dreams. The dry spell
was over, and man was she making up time
with a vengeance
.

She chuckled, knowing no
amount of sex with Tony would be enough.

His arm tightened around
her, and he kissed the top of her head. “What’s so funny?”

“I—well, I haven’t been
completely honest with you,” she said, biting her lower lip to keep from
laughing.

Anthony’s brows crinkled
in confusion. “What’s up?”

“I, uh, didn’t just get
drawn here because of your application.” She propped herself up on her elbows. “I
sort of filled one out myself.”

“The
same application?”

She nodded. “Saw it in a
women’s magazine. One I never buy, but felt compelled to that day. So maybe
fate really did have a hand in this.”

His face said it all. He
was as amazed as she had been when
he’d
said he wished
for her. “You wanted to find me?”

Embarrassment flooded her
face with color. Beth could feel the heat. “Not exactly,” she said.

“Then what, exactly, did
you apply for?”

“I kind of said I wanted
to learn how to have an orgasm.”

He shook his head. “You
always were able to surprise me.”

“I know, I know.
It’s
so not me. But after years of trying, and Steve calling
me frigid, I just really needed to get past whatever block I had.” She curled
her fingers through the hair on Tony’s chest. “Prior to, well, today, the only
time I’ve ever climaxed was when we, you know...”

He smoothed the hair off
her face, and when she looked at him, his eyes were full of love and wonder. Then,
a gleam entered them as Tony nudged her back onto the pillow.

“Then I guess, we’d
better make sure that block of yours is completely gone.”

He gazed at her with an
intensity that wrapped itself around her heart and spread out from there until
her entire body felt infused with energy and love.

Beth reached up to brush
a lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead, running her hand along cheeks
she’d
dreamt of, across lips she tried so hard to
remember. “I’m glad you found me, Anthony.”

He smiled that crooked,
endearing smile of his. “I think we found each other.”

“I love you,” Beth said.

“You are the only woman
I’ve ever loved.” Tony lowered his head, touched his lips to hers. The power of
their kiss, so full of promise, started a thread of desire that only Anthony
could quench.

“Make love to me.”

He looked into her eyes. “I
like how you think.”

Anthony renewed the kiss,
his lips brushing hers with a sweetness that made her feel cherished. With gentle
pressure from his tongue, he asked to open to him, and Beth answered willingly.

Unhurried kisses from him
were her reward. His lips trailed along her cheek and down, setting the soft
skin of her throat on fire. He sucked the vee between her neck and shoulder.

Beth giggled. “You’re
going to leave a mark.”

He raised his head, and
Beth saw the need in his dark eyes. “Good. I want the world to know you are
mine, Beth.
For now and for always.”

She went instantly wet as
the giggles disappeared.

Tony pulled the cover
back, baring her breasts. His light brushes turned her nipples into tight,
aching tips and sent shards of electricity through her.

“You are so beautiful,”
he whispered. When he pulled a taut nipple into his mouth, Beth cried out at
the exquisite pain, and Anthony groaned.

“You are making it
impossible to hold out for long.”

Watching him struggle to
gain control of his cock was a heady feeling. She
couldn’t
believe she had this kind of power over a man. Of course, he had the same power
over her.

Anthony rose over her,
entwining his hands with hers and drawing them up and over her head. When he
released her
to once again wander
her body, Beth
wrapped her hands around the rails of the headboard, arching into his mouth as
his tongue devoured a rosy nipple. His fingers pinched her other nipple and
Beth moaned at the sweet torture his continued caresses brought her.

Her skin became dotted
with goose bumps as he left wet trails along her stomach. Then he settled
between her legs and Beth closed her eyes, waiting, yearning for that touch she
had come so quickly to crave.

“Look at me,” he
whispered. “Watch as I show you how much I love you.”

She gazed down her body,
watched as he separated her moist lips with his fingers and blew soft breath on
her clitoris. Beth shivered as he kissed her. Then his tongue touched her and
all thought fled.

He laved her from clit to
rosy hole and Tony groaned. “My God, you taste good.” Then he drove his tongue
into her and she gasped, arching into him, closing her eyes, begging for more. His
finger flicked her clit as he used his tongue to bring her to the brink of
orgasm.

Then he stopped and backed
away, moving Beth almost to the point of tears. “Please, Tony, don’t stop.” She
opened her eyes and saw the foil packet in his hands, heard the rip as it
opened.

“Oh, honey, I have no
intention of stopping,” he said, sliding the condom over his cock with record
speed. “This time, though, I want us to climax together with my cock buried
deep inside you.”

He used his cock as he
had his tongue and slid along her slick folds before plunging into her. Beth
gasped as he hit the spot that only he could reach.
The spot
that could send her flying off the cliff.
He backed off,
then
drove again. Relentless, time after time taking her to
the edge,
then
backing off.
Until
finally, her entire body tightened with her release.

The growl of Anthony’s
climax pulled her with him over the top.

“Anthony,” Beth cried out
as the love-enhanced climax rolled on, over, and through her. It kept going.
She felt every shudder of Anthony’s body. He was an extension of her own in
this
long, rolling climax.

Both of them were sweat-soaked
and gasping for breath when Anthony eased to his elbows. He grasped a nipple
between his teeth and rolled it.

“Oh,
God, Anthony.
Enough.
You’re
going to kill me. Please, give me a break.”

He chuckled. “Just like
to make sure my woman’s satisfied.”

Beth pulled him to her
and peppered quick kisses across his lips. “Ah, you know full well I’ve never
been more satisfied. I love you so much.”

After a quick cleansing
that involved more foreplay than
anything
, they
snuggled together under the covers, and Beth let a sex-induced drowsiness she’d
never felt before overtake her. With Anthony’s arms around her, she drifted
off, feeling safe like
she’d
never felt before. Safe,
cherished, and loved.

Chapter
Thirteen

Tony and Beth paused
outside Masquerade’s door. Now that
he’d
accomplished
his heart’s goal, and Beth was, once again, a part of his life, the full weight
of what he’d done had settled on his shoulders.

He’d
broken the agreement. Hell, it
wasn’t
just an
agreement. It was an ironclad contract. He could lose everything.
And
Beth did not yet know what price he’d paid for this.