Shaken (6 page)

She swallowed once, grabbed her backpack and laptop case, and walked away. He followed her progress through the black metal gate marking her yard.

“Dude, you getting in, or what?” The cab driver’s impatience crept over him, but Tony’s attention never strayed from the sway of her ass as she climbed the six steps to her door.

Get back in the cab, go back to Manhattan and his lonely apartment, and call her later. She’d given him her number at the diner. He could wait to see her on Friday. Avoiding impulsive behavior helped him to avoid potential problems. Planning—he liked planning. Hell, he
needed
planning. His last impulse had been a marriage proposal when Robin revealed her pregnancy. Even when she turned him down, he’d strategized every step he needed to alter as a dad. He’d taken on extra jobs and put away more money.

He’d opened a college fund for their then unborn child. He rethought his business plan, adding a couple more years to the endgame, then focused on making sure Robin and their child would have everything they needed while he still put away toward opening his own club. He’d just turned thirty, and Robin’s bombshell had rocked his world.

But he’d reached into those business funds, revisited that same plan, and found a way to fight for his rights as a dad, rights she’d given him and then callously tried to shred away. He had
planned,
and it helped save his ass. He thought it out so he didn’t have to mortgage his future.

But, when Zip unlocked the door and turned toward him, the last thing he wanted was to see beyond the moment. He didn’t want to go home to his rent-controlled apartment building over Judson’s Coffee House. He didn’t want to leave her.

“Thanks, man, but we’re good.” He grabbed his gear, shut the cab door, and followed. The driver yelled a couple of obscenities after him and pulled away with a screech of tires, but Tony ignored him.

Zip smiled a welcoming invitation, and she walked backward inside, leaving the door open and waiting for him.

He didn’t slow down, he didn’t stop to consider the angles, and he shut off the little voice in the recesses of his mind that suggested he go inside and
talk
.

To hell with that, she made the first move at the bar and the second move here…this one is mine.

Ascending the steps three at a time, Tony crowded into the foyer of her house and shut the door behind him. He turned the locks and reached for the buttons on his shirt. “Anyone else here?”

Zip shook her head slowly, her sweet brandywine eyes widening. She’d already kicked off her heels, and his gaze raked her from the top of her rumpled head to the tips of her delicate toes. She was petite but rounded, with generous curves, both inviting and fragile. His body went on alert from the promise in her eyes. The way she looked at him had him wanting to thump his chest, but he settled for admiring her instead.

He tugged the shirt out of his pants and discarded it quickly. The white tank he wore under it went next. Her tongue flickered out to moisten her lips, and his cock jerked in anticipation.

“You’re wearing too many clothes.” He advanced toward her. She walked backward in slow invitation, playfulness in every step, and shed her jacket. The yellow silk blouse did nothing to disguise the pearled tips of her nipples straining beneath. Tony’s mouth watered at the sight of her curves beneath the soft shirt. She was a brightly wrapped present, just waiting for him to open it.

My present.

When his hand went to his belt, her retreat halted at her bedroom door. The lights weren’t on, but sunlight filtering through the windows gave him a good view of her colorfully draped bed dressed in splashes of blue, green, and purple.

“You sure you want this, Zip?”

She stared at him with wide eyes. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, fast breaths. He almost imagined he heard the mad beat of her heart, or maybe his own echoed too loudly in his ears. Arousal, swift and fierce, gripped him. He’d made his decision on the sidewalk. He wanted her.

She tugged the tie gathering the blouse above her breasts, and it fell open, spilling her cleavage into view along with a very racy yellow lace bra. Possessiveness surged at the action. His buttoned-down accountant had a sensual streak.

“I’ve never had a one-night stand before.” Her whispered words were strained, but he loved the way she didn’t look away. Though he didn’t have the bulk he’d sported in college, he still managed to work out four times a week and had no reason to be ashamed of his body. The flames in her eyes seemed to lick across his chest.

He advanced another step. “It’s not night.” He closed the distance, trapped her between his body and the doorframe, but managed to keep his hands on his belt and off her.

For now.

“It’s not just going to be once.” He crowded her and drew in a lungful of her sweet, spicy scent. “So, tell me yes or no right now. No regrets. No upset.” His body protested, giving her the out, but, with his control slipping perilously close to making him shove her skirt up to peel away her lacy undergarments and take her at the wall—he had to be sure. He was already imagining her head bobbing while she went down on his cock. He was so stiff, he had to wonder if the zipper on his pants would give.

“Yes.” One word whispered so damn quietly, he nearly missed it. But, when she touched his chest, her pale fingers splaying like a brand on his darker skin, the word began to sink in.

He pressed even closer, dipping to nuzzle her neck. Her skin was softer than he’d imagined. Bracing an arm on the wall next to her head, he explored the juncture of her neck and shoulder. The silk shirt glided aside easily as he kissed along her collarbone. She fisted her hands on his chest, and her head tilted, allowing him greater access. The slender column of her neck convulsed once, and he kissed a path to her ear lobe.

He rolled his tongue around the diamond stud, teasing her. Her nails scraped against his pec and grazed over his nipple, leaving a path of tingles racing over his skin. Tracing the curves of her ear lightly, he savored the little mewling sound she made, somewhere between a groan and a moan.

“You still have too many clothes on.” He whispered the words, punctuating each one with a gentle lap along his path to her earlobe and then to the pulse point just below her jaw. Her fingers fumbled away from him, but the whisper of fabric teased him while she worked the buttons to her blouse and tugged it impatiently from her skirt.

The need to feast on the view filled him, and he paused to watch the silk open. The lacy bra shaped her simple curves and pushed them up, ripe and full. Her pebbled nipples strained under the lace, dark and rosy. To his delight, her blush really had deepened her skin to a bashful shade.

“Beautiful.” He exhaled the compliment and skimmed his fingers over her chest to trace each curve. A shiver rippled over her as he lingered over the outline of one nipple. The hard, little tip stiffened more, if possible. Tony continued to explore, shifting his grip to her thighs and lifting her. Bracing her partially with the wall, he settled her until he could close his mouth around the hungry, taut bud. She let out a startled gasp and grabbed his shoulders for balance.

Her body went rigid when he drew hard on the tip. The skirt rode up her thighs, allowing him easy access to her rounded bottom. Instead of panty hose, she wore stockings, and the lace brushed his skin. Instead of panties, he found satiny skin and a thong. The intimate knowledge filled him with craving.

Groaning at the fierce need, he jerked upward, sucking her nipple between his teeth.

****

Zip’s breath locked in her throat. Arousal burst through her, setting every nerve alight until she imagined her synapses short-circuiting. She thrust her fingers into his hair and strained under the heat of his mouth teasing and tormenting her. Every touch of his body to hers turned her into a creature of pure want. The grooves in the doorframe dug into her spine, but the pressure only added to the escalating demand in her system. His hands closed on her ass, and she shifted, gripped her legs to his hips.

Tony smelled so good, rough and earthy. His teeth nibbled the line around her nipple, dragging across the swollen tip. Every caress sent another electric surge through her to explode in her center. Already on sensory overload, she banged her head on the wall when he abandoned the sensitive peak to assault the other.

He rolled his hips forward, the weight of his belt buckle biting the soft skin of her tummy, but the slow grind of his stiff erection against her damp thong pushed her toward the edge. Tension ached in her belly. They still wore too much clothing, but the only way to get rid of the barriers was to let go of him.

The last thing she wanted to do was let go.

Every hormone in her body sounded the alarm—his caresses were too much. And not near enough. Demanding more, she clenched his hair. He obeyed her tug, lifted his head, and crashed his mouth over hers. The first brush of his lips bloomed into something far more carnal. He explored every hidden crevice, teasing her palate with slow, devastating strokes, and sucking her tongue as she ventured it along his. He stole inside of her, demanding everything, and she surrendered to him.

Her breasts flattened on the hard plane of his chest. The bra cups rubbed her engorged nipples, until the sting added another layer to her hunger. When Tony pulled back, they both panted. He pressed his forehead to hers. She sucked in a noisy, shuddering breath, and her heart stammered when she met the smoky blaze in his dark blue gaze.

“Tony?” She whispered, barely recognizing her own voice.

He’d stood silent save for the harshness of his breath. Hunger was a bone-deep ache in her that had nothing to do with a Magic 8 Ball or his flirtatious smile. He’d awakened a raw need in her she didn’t think she possessed. She’d never gone for the strong, silent type. Tony’s easygoing nature seemed to have burned away sometime between the door and the kiss. His raw, undisguised desire fed the lust thrumming through her body.

She wanted to peel her clothes off and present herself to him. But he held her so firmly, every inch of his rock-hard body an unrelenting pressure, increasing her desperation for the final thrust that would drive him into her body. Her sex clenched around another flood of moisture.

God, she wanted him.

She didn’t think she’d ever wanted anyone the way she wanted him. But, instead of pursuing their passion, he stilled until only the muscle in his jaw flexed.

“It’s okay,” she murmured, swallowing a cry of frustration. She would not cry or sob or behave needy. They were moving at warp speed.

“What is?” he growled, the words heavy and dark with feeling.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to go any further.” It hurt to give voice to the words. “I know we’re going fast.”

Rubbing his forehead to hers lightly, he shuddered. The action added to the pressure of his erection against her sex. The clothes between them increased the friction. “Zip, can you feel that?”

The slow roll of his hips pushed the length of his cock against her—teasing her, but there were just too many clothes. Too many layers between them. His fingers dug into her ass, and he changed the angle, gliding her along his length, until she thought she might come right then and there.

“Oh, yeah.” The last escaped on a low moan. So much better than she’d imagined—could have imagined—and she wanted to hold on and never let go.
Slow down….
But Tony erased her common sense and left her a visceral bundle of need.

“You can’t fake arousal in a guy.” His voice hoarsened, thick and raw. “I’m just trying to not blow all at once here because you’re so fucking beautiful and real.”

The coarse language scraped over her senses. She drank in the view of his deep blue eyes gone dark. His pupils had dilated. He was right; men didn’t fake arousal. She let out a little laugh that drowned in a gasp. He wanted her, maybe even as much as she wanted him. A crazy collision of emotions rioted through her, and she brushed her lips along the seam of his mouth. He opened fully to her, tongue thrusting out to dance with hers, and the rest of the world faded away.

Chapter Five

She licked her lower lip before swooping in to kiss him again. There was nothing tentative about the way she demanded her pleasure. A woman who knew what she wanted was the sexiest aphrodisiac he’d ever experienced, and Tony barely held onto his control. His cock pulsed and twitched inside the confinement of his pants. But they were on the same page, and he needed to get her to the bed before he embarrassed them both.

Counting down from ten, he concentrated on her mouth and the taste of her. Zip was a slice of sweet heaven. He could dine there for hours and never get tired of the little catches in her breath or the sweep of her tongue as it curled around his as though she were burrowing into his soul and making herself at home.

His heart was in serious trouble, but he ignored the warning bell in his mind. Abandoning her mouth, he shifted her again and damn near came in his pants as her damp panties caught against him. Her butt clenched under his fingers, and he teased the line of her thong where it disappeared between her cheeks. It took every ounce of his will to pull her away from the wall and take the slow, grinding walk toward her bed.

Every step was pure torture. He tucked a finger under the T-strap of her thong; it would take nothing to rip it off, jerk down the zipper of his pants, and plunge into her. She peppered his throat with little kisses and tiny, whispering bites and ran her fingers through his hair. Every step rubbed her breasts on his chest, her hard little nipples begging for his attention. At her bed, he dropped her lightly to bounce on the mattress.

Zip’s breathless little sounds tightened around his cock like a fisted caress and jerked his soul.

“Take the rest of it off.” He managed the order around the raging need blooming through him, but, if he didn’t get some kind of control, he’d thrust into her like a wild man.