Now and Forever (24 page)

Gasping in astonishment, she wasn’t prepared for the close-up view Tanner gave her of his protruding and impressive manhood.

A crooked grin dusted his lips. “This is what you can expect.”

Uh oh.
Once the genie was released…

There were no words to describe the emotions swirling through her and dividing her at that moment. Then again, there were too many words, including fear, longing, and amazement. Not to mention the strong inclination to feast on him from top to bottom like a buffet. Beyond the sudden inability to think straight, her heart pounded in her chest at an alarming rate. His shaft was so big she wondered if it would fit inside her tight space. After years of celibacy, she struggled to convince herself mating him would induce pleasure, instead of pain. Dare she breathe? Dare she speak? Yes and yes. With rubbery nerves, she said, “You…could really hurt someone.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

*

Tanner had reached his limit. His body was yearning, calling and aching for all of Grace. Their show and tell session stirred him in unimaginable and inexplicable ways. However, he had been the one putting his assets on display for her eyes to behold and her fingers to caress and her lips to taste. His body had been hers for the taking. Besides the glimpse he caught of her breasts through the flimsy material of her bra, he’d barely seen anything. Too much was definitely wrong with this situation. However, it was nothing he couldn’t correct. “I’ve shown you mine. Now I want to see yours.”

Before she could register what occurred, her bra, pink shorts and black thong were in a pile on the floor next to Tanner’s clothes. Without any fuss or resistance, he had smoothly peeled away her garments like an expert. He was the boss. He drank in the sight of a bare, naked and nude Grace. Beholding her complete and immaculate beauty was akin to walking on streets of gold. Joy leapt in his soul. Red hot passion made him burst at the seams. Grace aroused him mentally, physically and spiritually. No doubt, he loved her. However, lust had reared its lovely head within him. The beast had spoken.

Placing one hand on her back, he pulled Grace to him. With the other hand, he gave some much-needed attention to her swollen breasts. The glorious globes exuded heat at the slightest touch. Pressing into his touch, her body demanded more. And he obliged. Once again he dipped his head. This time around, he found the treasure he sought. His warm lips captured a taut nipple. Nibbling, sucking and licking, he tortured her aching bud mercilessly.

Grace quivered and rocked in his arms. “Tanner…”

When she moaned his name fervently, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. The woman was serious hot stuff. She made him feel equally so. She clung to him like a second layer of skin, urging and begging and commanding. More she wanted. More he would give. Ministering to her other breast, he felt her melt in his arms.
A sweet and delicious pool of passion and desire.
He aimed to sop up every bit of her. Fine dining at its best, he deemed.
Quite tasty.

A sudden onslaught of razor sharp, spine-tingling sensations sliced through him, derailing his train of thought. Grace had slipped her hand down his waist and between his legs, coiling her impassioned fingers around his erect member. She stroked the length of him slowly and gently at first. Then, she picked up the pace. She resembled a seasoned vixen. At that moment, she dominated him.
Twisted his mind.
Shattered his senses.
The sound of his own muffled groan filled his ears. She knew how to turn him on. He almost lost it. Taking the power out of her hands became his objective. It was the only option, unless he wanted to die a quick and explosive death where he stood. Looking into her heavy-lidded eyes, he said, “Are you ready to receive me?”

Yearning blazed across her face. She flung her body onto the bed and brought him with her. Wrapping her anxious legs around his waist, she breathlessly uttered, “I’ve been ready and I’m tired of waiting.”

“Well, they say good things come to those who wait.”

She raised her head and cocked a brow. “Mister, as long as I’ve been waiting, I deserve something phenomenal.”

Her wish was his command.

He disengaged himself from her embrace. With lightning speed, his head disappeared between her thighs. Seizing her hips, he drew her feminine core to his mouth, rediscovering her flavor, which seemed to be even sweeter than he remembered. Her aromatic scent drove him crazy. Feasting liberally and completely, he couldn’t get enough.

Grace was able to contain herself. When his tongue connected with her tender and sensitive flesh, stroking and licking, she whipped about his mouth in a total state of frenzy. Her propriety had flown out the window. Her emotions and body were indecently exposed and she was enraptured. Lifting her hips, she encouraged him to push her to the limit. She was in maximum overdrive. As he feasted on her with a tribal need, she squirmed and quivered and called his name at the top of her lungs.

“Tanner!”

He made it his duty to please her. She was his ultimate fantasy and he wanted to be hers. Claiming her feminine treasures with his mouth over and over again elicited wild and sultry responses from her that he’d never forget. Fireworks exploded in his head when her trembling body vibrated against his mouth. He felt a powerful climax rock her like an earthquake. A strained moan pervaded the room just before she shuddered and collapsed.

Seconds later, he snatched a glance at her languid figure before he leaned over the edge of the bed and opened the nightstand drawer. From it, he retrieved a condom. He felt Grace’s hot gaze sweep over him, watching and waiting. Her flavor lingered on his tongue. A desperate desire whirled through him with the force of a hurricane. Longing to make love to her had torn him apart like a natural disaster. However, he wasn’t so broken that he couldn’t bring himself to sink deeply and repeatedly into Grace’s gateway to heaven. He rolled the condom over his stiff shaft before settling between Grace’s welcoming legs.

He hovered over her, an eagle preparing to swoop down on its prey. But Grace wasn’t a poor helpless creature. She was vivacious, captivating, sexy woman who had taken him to great new heights. She was the angelic vixen who beckoned him with her eyes, lips and hips. This was woman he planned to commit himself to, formally.
Legally.
Together, they would move mountains. Forever, they would create a beautiful future filled with offspring who would always know the meaning of love.

“This is just the beginning, Grace,” he whispered. “From this day forward, I never intend to let you go.”

“Tanner McGregor, I will hold you to that promise.”

Before she could utter another word, his hardened tip met her damp, moist feminine petals. She
arched
against him in a frenzy of need. He fed her yearning by embedding himself deeply inside her with a driving thrust. She was tight just liked he dreamed she would be. Ripples of ecstasy crashed through him with each thrust. He rode the waves of her love, while she held him tightly, matching him stroke for stroke.

The tempo of their mating altered repeatedly. There were moments he would glide in and out of her at a slow and steady pace, locking eyes with her and reading the intense emotions written in them. Just when bullets of fire shot through his veins, catapulting his nerves into outer space, he increased his movements like a raging bull. Red hot lights flared in his mind with each earth-shattering plunge. Sinking deep into her valley, he took her at every angle, losing control. Not holding anything back. She accepted each thrust, mimicking his rhythm.

Perspiration formed on his head. He rode Grace long and hard. Her firm hips gripped him, clinging for dear life. Heat produced by the friction of their bodies swirled throughout the room. Tanner nearly suffocated. The hot kisses Grace randomly planted on his face, neck and torso did little to cool him. His blood boiled and bubbled in his veins. He was overwhelmed and outdone by his own feral emotions. Swimming in Grace was both heaven and hell. The sweetest pain he ever endured.

He glanced down at her. Washed in pleasure, her skin glistened. Eyes closed, she writhed beneath him, purring his name, clawing his back. This luxurious sight would forever be etched in his mind like a tattoo. Burying himself deeper, he watched her body quake as a power spasm overtook his muscles. Bucking roughly, he grunted and pressed her into the mattress hard. She didn’t seem to notice because she had reached the pinnacle of her ecstasy. Her whole body had exploded in a billion different directions.

“Tanner!”

Hearing her scream his name and climax had a profound effect on him. A powerful, jarring, mind-twisting orgasm shattered his insides. Violently, his hips jerked. Tidal waves of immaculate sensations rushed through him. A constellation of brilliant lights flashed behind his eyes. He squeezed her tightly after barricading himself inside her sacred core, spent and satisfied.

Leaning down, he kissed her with all the passion he could muster. She reigned supreme in his soul. Shrouding him, her rare essence filled him with softness and warmth. Deep, abiding love resonated in his heart for her. From the instant he laid eyes on her, he knew this woman was irreplaceable. His greatest hope, utmost wish, was that Grace Michaels now believed he was irreplaceable, too.

Chapter 12

The morning after.

Tanner couldn’t think of a better way to start the day. A thousand golden rays spilled through his open window, spotlighting the nude and slender frame of the woman he loved and considered the eighth wonder of the world. It made him want to shout just seeing her next him in his bed after they had spent the better part of the night and early morning rolling in the sack like a couple of horny teenagers whose parents had gone out of town for the weekend.

It made him want to kick up his heels remembering how Grace had goaded him, teased him and tempted him to devour her from the inside out. The sensual games she had played with her tongue and lips and hands had been exquisite. She had rocked his world. Never before had a woman sent him over the edge. Then, she cradled him while they both recovered from the skyrocketing experience.
So hard to contain his plethora of emotions.
Too difficult to remained civilized. He was overjoyed and totally in love, and it made him want to shout.

Tangled in the sheets, he felt the heat of her body. Her arms and legs draped across him limply. Periodically, she feathered his collarbone with light-as-air kisses. From the way she clung to him, he believed her heart was jubilant also, turning cartwheels in her chest. Their whispered discourses before, during and after their intimate mating sessions had revealed a great deal. Her words had been laced with endearment. The tone of her voice had been soft, but her expression had been ardent and sincere. He had been swept away by her tenderness. Remarkable gratitude skated through him with every syllable, consonant and vowel she pronounced. The feeling that he must have done something good in a former life made him sense he was worthy of the sublime gift the gods had delivered him.

He threaded his fingers through her hair, thinking how much Grace had changed. When they first met, she kept her emotions safely guarded behind an impenetrable wall. She had deflected his attempts to get acquainted with the best part of her, the inner being that harbored deep, profound feelings. Back then, the smiles she had tossed his way never reached her eyes. Only sadness had dwelled in her eyes. Even when she had begun to develop feelings for him, she had fought against them with the strength of a warrior princess. Every atom of his body had reacted positively once she freed them both by opening her mind, body, heart and soul to his love. Without a doubt, he had to scale the rough side of the mountain in order to win her love. Looking back, he wonders how he made it over. Smiling, he decided Grace was correct in her assessment after all: magic was involved.

“Why are you smiling?” Grace asked, caressing his cheek gingerly and tracing the contours of his jaw line.

His eyes brushed over her flawless face and his heart faltered. Affection reflected in her stare and his bones rattled in response. She was embedded in his system. Nothing would change that fact.
“Because I’m a lucky man.
I have the most intriguing woman God ever created in my bed and in my arms.”

Grace blushed. However, his thoughts should come as no surprise. He’d been telling her how remarkable she was for hours. In fact, he ears had better perk up since there were still more hours that remained. “You don’t have to flatter me.”

“I’m not. You asked me a question and I gave you an honest answer.”

She sucked her bottom lip between her straight, white teeth. Studying his face, she appeared to be considering his words. Her breathing altered as the wheels turned in her mind. A hint of the fragile bird she once had been surfaced. Quickly, it disappeared. Strength, independence and ebullience replaced it.
Also, acceptance.
She had sifted through her feelings and found the support she needed to be his woman. She snuggled closer to him. “Thanks for your honesty.”