Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1) (20 page)

“No,” he stopped to slowly take inventory of her once more. He was glad to see some color returning to her face. “I’m not insane. I wanted you to enjoy the meal. And, if I’m not mistaken, you did.”

“Of course I did. The champagne, the caviar, the Chateaubriand- it was all wonderful. No, it was incredible, a once in a lifetime experience. But spending twenty-one thousand dollars on a bottle of wine,” she said weakly. It was as if her mind could not wrap itself around the fact that she’d actually drunk the stuff.

“Don’t you think you’re worth it? I do.” He sat down.

“See, that’s just it. You don’t need to buy me. Some things don’t come with a price tag. I’m one of them.” She took another, bigger sip from her glass. A warm, cozy glow began to spread through her veins.

“We’ve had this conversation, or one very similar before, haven’t we?”

Her eyes narrowed as she looked over at him. She had the distinct feeling he was playing with her. She took another sip of her wine.

“You’re trying to loosen me up, aren’t you,” she wondered aloud. The Shiraz must be going straight to her head.

His handsome face showed nothing. “Do you need
loosening
? There are better ways to achieve that goal. Anger and inebriation will not serve either of us well later.”

“I’m not tipsy. And I’m not mad,” she grumbled. “I’m sorry. That’s not entirely true. I
am
a little miffed.”

“Over the champagne?”

“Over all of… this.” Her hand made a little gesture to indicate she was speaking of the whole place. “Why couldn’t you be some nice easy guy like Trey? He actually told me he’d help me get rid of… well you know what I’m talking about.” She flushed and finished her wine.

“He offered to relieve you of your virginity?” The words were calm and unemotional. The man speaking them was anything but those two things. He promised himself he’d enjoy killing Dunn, the next time he saw him.

“He did. But I’m pretty sure he was just… I don’t know. Trying to do the right thing? Trying to fall in love with me? But he was already smitten with Trinity by that time.”

“Why didn’t you let him?” JD was alarmed to realize how much he needed her answer to that pointed question.

“Because he wasn’t you, blast your dark, evil soul. I couldn’t feel that way about any man after you accosted me on the beach that night.”

“Accosted?” He chuckled. “You sound very much like an outraged Victorian maiden when you use that kind of language.”

“I can’t help it.” Her response was morose. “I hang out with Maude Evelyn too much. She kind of rubs off on a person after a while.”

“Sunny?”

He got her attention immediately by the way the pitch of his voice dropped. “What?” she replied.

“We’re through talking. I want you to unbutton the shirt.”

“You do?” The girl sat her glass down on the table between them.

“I do.”

Without another word she began fiddling with the buttons. She got the first three undone. But that showed him no more than her slinky gown had earlier in the evening. The fourth button was proving more resistant to her clumsy efforts.

“Come here,” he demanded sprawled like a debauched pasha in his chair. “I’ll help you.”

Without thinking, Sunny got up and walked over to stand before him. She wasn’t usually so obedient. She had a mind of her own and a voice she was never afraid to raise. But the wine had done its work. She was feeling not exactly tipsy, but unafraid. And the sight of his bronze body and those half-closed eyes focused on her made her courageous.

Without taking his eyes off hers, JD began to release each button from its setting. Every time he opened a button, he pushed the shirt farther off her. When he got to the last one, the shirt drifted away to settle in a graceful collapsed pile on the floor.

Sunny stood before him. She prayed he would find no fault with her body. She wasn’t extremely well-endowed. Her hips were coltish at best. And her stomach’s concave little dip at her belly button would never be considered voluptuous.

When he didn’t say or do anything for a very long while, she became even more apprehensive. JD McIntyre was a god. He could have any woman on the planet. And not just because of his wealth. Why had she ever allowed herself to believe she would be enough for him? The very thought of them together was ludicrous. She longed for the shield of the big shirt he’d peeled away from her quivering body.

“I’m, I’m sorry… I’ll leave,” she said in awful defeat. When she tried to pick up the garment from the floor, he stopped her.

“No.” He got up. He enfolded her in his corded arms. “Don’t go. Don’t ever go.”

“But I’m… not, enough. I’m not pretty enough. My body’s not enough. You should go back to the party and take Leanne home. You and she… you match. You’re both perfect,” she admitted.

“No, you’re not pretty.”

She felt the hot tears gathering in the backs of her eyes at his low intense words. She’d known the truth. But it was agonizing to hear him say it out loud.

“Pretty’s an inadequate word to describe you Elizabeth Sumner. You are beautiful. You are more than stunning. You take my breath away and stop my heart’s beating. You’re so gorgeous, I’m humbled you find me worthy of you. If you want to talk about perfection, you’ll need to go look in the mirror. You are everything lovely, honest, and good.”

Her hungry kiss stopped his next words. She’d felt a shaft of pure joy as she boldly rose up on her tiptoes to capture that hard carnal mouth with her own. Her hands slid down the valley of his spine. She reveled in tracing the defined muscles of his broad back. But the patchwork of ridged scars she felt made her furious. Someone or something had injured him in a horrendous way. She pulled away to ask him what had happened to cause such awful permanent marks. But his forbidding face stopped her.

“I don’t talk about the scars,” he warned her.

“It seems like there’s a whole lot you don’t talk about,” she commented.

“We’ve got better things to do than talk.” He captured her mouth once again. Her hands grasped his shoulders when he easily lifted her into his arms.

For several long seconds he stood there with her cradled against him. The flickers of candlelight turned her lovely body into a sensual map of Heaven. He’d never seen anything more beautiful. He’d never wanted a woman more. He shuddered when she traced his tattoo with an inquisitive finger.

He couldn’t wait any longer to claim her. He carried his exquisite burden to the bed. He stripped off his pants and followed her down into the soft cushion of the linens. He devoured her like a starving man. Every little moan and shiver she gave him, made JD only desire her more. He teased the rosy tip of one breast before sliding his lips over the entire cherry crown and drawing it deep into the blazing fire of his mouth.

With sweet abandon, Sunny arched up to meet him. Her hands reached around his back once again. She explored lower, lower until she was able to caress his solid male curves. His hips pushed recklessly against her. She bucked up to meet his thrust, eager to be one with him.

JD pushed himself up on his elbows. His fingers played in the damp curls springing up around her face. He traced the beautiful contours of her face. His expression was hard with desire when he began kissing his way down the length of her writhing body. He took his time, worshipping her dewy flesh. His tongue circled her navel with a slow deliberateness that had her keening with wild pleasure. Lower and lower his open searing mouth went. When his fingertips began to softly part the honey-brown thatch of curls guarding her mound, she tried to deny him.

“What are you doing?” she gasped.

He lifted his head and gave her a wicked smile. “I’m distracting you.”

He explored with his scorching tongue. He began caressing her with slow rasping slides in a rhythm as old as time. When he was sure she was ready, his fingers moved to the sleek opening of her body. When she softened for him, never breaking the rhythm of his intimate kisses, he went deeper. She was tight, almost too tight to accommodate him.

He knew he was being selfish with her. But he couldn’t stop himself. Sunny Murphy was addicting. And he was relentless in his seduction of her. He was intent upon having her almost mindless with pleasure before he joined their bodies.

As he felt Sunny tensing in preparation for her release, he eased further into her taunt inner passage. JD loved hearing the helpless catch in her breath. He gloried in her generous, unstudied responses to his lovemaking.

He gave her one last intimate kiss before backing away to pull her body close to his. He settled between her open, surrendered thighs. He set the wide pulsing head of his member against her sweet entry. He watched her body begin its descent into rapture.

Sunny felt the approaching cataclysm. Her eyes were shut in ecstasy. She felt a gathering of stars tighten the center of her core. They exploded in a shower of sparks, sending her hurtling off into the abyss. A frenzy of sensations began to jerk her frame. Wave after wave of sweet agony swept through her. When she was sure the storm was ebbing, she felt JD enter her body with one slow, solid thrust. She felt a sharp pinch as he tore through her maiden’s veil. Then he went completely still, buried deep within the fire of her tight channel.

“Did I hurt you?” he demanded hoarsely.

He had, but she shook her head, unable to speak. Sensation and emotion flooded her with an almost painful bliss.

“Open your eyes Sunny. I want to watch you find your first woman’s pleasure.”

She was unable to do anything but comply. She slowly opened her eyes. His face looked stricken as he lowered his mouth to hers. She tasted her own essence on his tongue. The intensity of this ultimate shared act, as their bodies were fused together, brought forth her helpless moan.

“I can’t, I can’t take anymore.” Her feeble gasps were lost in his mouth.

“You can. You will. Fly with me Sunny.”

JD began moving in her sheath with deep, sure strokes. He canted his hips to press his body against her most sensitive spot. Awkwardly, she rose to greet each thrust. She struggled to somehow get closer to him. He growled with satisfaction. His large hands slid beneath her to guide her movements so they matched his own. They moved together in a writhing, sweat-soaked quest for completion.

He felt her passage seize him. He knew her second climax was close. He forced himself to stave off his own release to ensure hers. He relentlessly delved into her sweet depths. When he watched her pupils begin to dilate, he drove them both to the very edge of madness. He grunted, deep in his throat when the conflagration owned him.

She felt the first hot spurt of his seed as her consciousness began to cloud. The exquisite contractions in her core made her body jerk helplessly as wave after consuming wave of ecstasy poured liquid fire through her veins. Her last thought before she plunged into darkness was that she loved him. She loved him. She would always love him. And she would never, never regret this night and what they’d shared. No matter what the dawn brought.

JD gently withdrew from her body. He frowned when he saw the bright smear of her blood. He’d never had a partner give herself so completely, with such honest abandon. Sunny moaned in oblivion as he moved to the edge of the bed. And he’d never felt quite so dirty and unworthy. He hadn’t even thought to protect her.

Years ago his father had tried repeatedly to beat the devil out of JD. Apparently the old man hadn’t succeeded. JD got up and strode to the bathroom. After he’d purged his body of the last vestiges of her lost innocence, he soaked a cloth with warm water. He carried it back to the bed. He carefully and gently began washing the crimson stains from Sunny’s lax, replete body.

She woke to his tender ministrations. She smiled up at him sure of her love. Then she saw his deep, awful sorrow. Her fear of disappointing him rushed back.

“I’m so sorry. I can make it better next time. I promise I can.”

Her husky, apologetic voice shattered the last of his hard-won reserve. “If it was any better Miss Murphy, we’d both be dead.”

Her relieved little laugh lightened the tight place in his heart. The hard, unfeeling kernel that knew he’d still have to let her go. The part that accused him of polluting her purity. The accusing conscience that cursed him for allowing his dormant emotions to awaken. The cold hard reason that called him an idiot for not using a condom.

“Just the same, next time will be better,” she said smugly. Sunny was so glad she’d pleased him. He’d certainly taught her about the giving and receiving of pleasure. She was eager to use that new found knowledge.

“There won’t be a next time Sunny,” he said in a sober tone.

“Sure there will. You said it yourself earlier, we’ve got all night.” She shook her head denying the finality in his voice.

“Your night is over, sweetheart. It’s going to take a few days for you to heal.”

“No you’re wrong, I’m fine,” she lied. She winced in pain as she tried to move. She felt a fresh wash of blood trickle from her torn body. “I’ll be fine. I just need a bath.”

“A bath will ease the soreness. But you can’t take me again, not tonight.”

“I can. I will,” she answered him.

“Sunny, I hurt you. At the end I lost all control. If you claimed I raped you, I wouldn’t contest the charge. You’ve got plenty of evidence to prove I acted like an animal.”