Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (42 page)

“What caveat is that?” Trish barely recognized the breathy voice as her own. Her body flinched like she’d touched an electric fence when his hand slid up her inner thigh until most of it disappeared under her jean skirt.

“I want you to say that you
can
in fact have an orgasm. That your body is more than capable of experiencing the ultimate release.”

“I know what you’re trying to do, but positive affirmations aren’t—”

Tony’s words came out in a quiet, but sharp command. “Stop talking unless you plan on repeating what I just told you.”

Her eyes opened wide. Whoa. The amiable school teacher had left the building, and in his place was a man who knew what he wanted and expected to get it.
Holyshitthatwashot.
Her pulse started to race, and the butterflies she’d thought long dead danced in her stomach. It felt so damn good. Like, she-didn’t-remember-it-ever-being-like-this damn good. And she wanted more.

Then, as if he’d read her mind, his fingers—the ones mere inches from her sex—began tracing feather-light designs along her sensitive skin. She held her breath when they got close to the damp silk covering her, but retreated at the last second, causing her to whimper her disappointment.

The sound seemed to test Tony’s patience. With a disapproving shake of his head, he dipped his head and nuzzled along her jawline and the shell of her ear. “You’re thinking too hard, Trish. Say it. Tell me what I want and what I know you need to hear.”

Swallowing hard, she let her eyes drift closed to give her the sense of hiding even as she made herself vulnerable. “I can h-have an orgasm.”

He nipped her earlobe. She gasped. “And?”

“And my body is more than capable of experiencing the ultimate release.”
If only it were true.

“Good girl.” Pulling back slightly, he held her gaze with a soft intensity. Strong enough to prevent her from escaping, yet gentle enough not to harm her. Like one would hold a dove before releasing it to the sky. He made her feel cherished and protected with nothing more than a look. “I know you don’t believe it now, but you will.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“I figured out the problem, and I know how to fix it.”

God, she’d never cared before, but suddenly Trish could think of nothing she wanted more. Not for her, but for him. “What do you think it is?” she whispered.

“That’s for me to know…” His hands came up to frame her face as his lips ghosted over hers when he said the last half of something they used to say all the time growing up. “And for you to find out.”

Then he kissed her deep and long, as though staking his claim, and in the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was on her body, her potential orgasms...or something more.

***

Scents of jasmine and fresh cut grass hung heavy in the warm air. Though it was June, the night had cooled off enough to keep the windows up while driving. But with the heat their bodies were throwing off now, the cab of the truck would be a sauna in no time.

Kissing Trish was ten times sexier than anything he’d ever done with other women. It felt different. Not physically, but the intentions behind it. Her kiss wasn’t edged with ulterior motives or her own agenda. She’d opened herself up, laid herself bare, and invited him in. And nothing could have stopped him from walking through that door. Not a damn thing.

He slid his left hand down to the side of her neck until his fingertips rested along her jaw. Gentle pressure guided her to tilt her head to him, giving him deeper access. As he licked into her hot mouth and swirled around her soft tongue, it made him think of what it’d be like when he tasted and explored her wet pussy in the same way.

Anticipation and the spicy scent of her arousal tightened the noose around his balls, urging him to go faster. His body demanded he ruck up her skirt, hook her panties to the side, and sink as far as he could go inside her slick heat. If she were someone else, that’s exactly what he’d do. But he didn’t want to take her so casually their first time. Besides, tonight he had a mission to prove she wasn’t broken, and he intended to see it through.

After years of playing the hook-up lottery, Tony felt as if he was finally holding the winning ticket, and the grand prize was having as much sex as he could with Trish Howell until she left town. The metaphor was crass, but that didn’t make it any less true.

Whether a guy wants something as innocent as a first date or as carnal as a one-night stand, if he seriously wants something to happen with a girl, he’ll eventually make his move and then pray like hell she says yes. That one little word is enough to make him puff out his chest and bang on his pecs like an ape.

Now multiply that “wanting” by about twenty years when the girl—the
perfect game
—says that one little word. Yeah. It was like the scene from
Pulp Fiction
when Vinnie plunges the shot of adrenaline into the guy’s chest, only this syringe held pure testosterone. Tony flew right past the chest-banging-ape phase to stopping speeding bullets and leaping tall buildings in a single bound. She’d given him a cheat code for invincibility, and until it wore off, he planned on running right through whatever the world threw at him.

Except things changed for him when Trish opened up about her previous sex life. He no longer thought she was merely suffering from a bad breakup. People went through those all the time; it was a part of life, like a rite of passage. He’d gone through one himself when his fiancée called off their engagement and moved across the country on a whim three years ago.

But, if Tony’s instincts were right, not only did that piece of shit break her heart, he broke her spirit and her confidence, too.

He’d known guys like Nick before. They tended to belittle their wives or girlfriends. Convincing them using subtle manipulation that the women needed the men and were lucky to have them. Fucking disgraceful.

So instead of riding the wave of thoughts of all the torrid and wild things they would do together, he shoved all of that aside to take a different approach. One that should have been done with her forever ago. He was going to show her how it feels to be wanted. To be worshipped by a man’s mouth, his hands, and yes, even his cock.

More importantly, he was going to make her come. Or die trying.

Tony trailed wet kisses down her neck and moved his hand over her collar bone to settle on her right breast. Her nipple met his thumb in a tight bud straining against the material. He wanted to keep going, but his neck was starting to cramp from turning it to the side. Now that she’d loosened up again and let the mood strip her inhibitions, he’d take her in the house and do things properly. But he couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from her, even for the short distance across his yard to get to his front door.

“Come here, baby.” The order wasn’t needed since he took her by the hips and moved her to straddle his lap. She’d be able to lock her legs around his waist as they got out of the truck, and he’d have his hands on her sweet ass all the way to the house.

But Trish had other ideas. Before he even had the chance pull on the door handle, she lowered herself onto his jeans-encased cock and began rubbing on him in tiny circles.

“
Fuck
,” he hissed, throwing his head back and grinding his molars into dust.

She froze. “Oh my God, did I hurt you? Shit, I’m so sorry, Tony.”

Jesus, she thought she
hurt
him? He didn’t even know what to think about that. She hadn’t had her V-card in a long-ass time, but mentally she was as clueless as a virgin. What kind of a prickless dick—yeah, it was an oxymoron, but whatever, it fit—was her ex that she didn’t even have experience grinding on a man’s erection?

Lightly pressing a finger over her lips, he shushed her until she stopped apologizing. Then he held the sides of her face and made sure she saw the truth in his eyes. “You didn’t hurt me.”

“I didn’t?” she asked in a small voice.

He shook his head before dipping down to lick the spot below her ear. “Not even close.” He kept his lips barely touching her skin and his voice low and slow to let the vibrations light up her nerve endings. “There’s nothing you’ll do that’ll hurt me. Follow your body’s instincts. It knows what it wants, even if you don’t.”

Her hands fisted the front of his t-shirt as her head lolled back on her shoulders. “How will I know when it wants something wrong? Or something you won’t like?”

Tony mentally laughed at the idea of not liking something about sex. Impossible, especially if it was with her. He stopped kissing her neck and brought her head forward again to look him in the eyes. He gave her a reassuring grin as he brushed a curl off her flushed cheek. “There’s nothing I don’t like, sweetheart, believe me. And if I start swearing like a sailor, it’s only because you’re killing me.”

“But in a good way,” she clarified.

“A very,
very
good way.” His gaze dropped to her mouth where he thumbed her kissed-swollen lower lip.
Damn, that’s sexy.

That would’ve been the perfect time to take her out of the humid truck and into the house where he could lay her out and do things the right way. Unfortunately, most of the blood in his brain had flowed south for wilder pastures in his pants, and the logic and common sense areas were always the first to get drained. So when she tugged his t-shirt up his chest, it was no surprise the only thing he thought to do was help her take it off. She rewarded his cooperation with hands that roamed over the ridges of his tanned muscles, and he hissed in a breath when her nails lightly scraped over his flat nipples.

Trish lifted her eyes to meet his. He was surprised to see hints of wonder and amusement. “Would you be insulted if I said that you’re beautiful?”

A wry smile spread over his face. He’d never been so glad that he stayed faithful to his grueling workouts as he was right then. “Not at all,” he said. “But I draw the line at cute or adorable.”

She pretended to think about it while unsuccessfully keeping a straight face then nodded. “I’ll take your request under consideration, but I make no promises.”

Tony raised an eyebrow and grunted in response. Her short laugh caused her full breasts to brush his chest and that was the end of any thoughts of retaliation. The caveman switch had been thrown, cutting everything down to a single-minded desire--no,
need
--to see, touch, and taste.

He lowered his chin to home in on his targets, the anticipation nearly choking him to finally see them bared. His hot gaze flicked up to hers from beneath his lashes and dropped the tone of his voice to set her on edge. “Now it’s my turn to play.”

She swallowed hard, but otherwise hid her anxiety well.
Challenge accepted, sweetheart.
Letting his knuckles graze her soft skin, he grabbed the hem of her tank and slowly lifted it up her flat stomach, her ribs, and stayed bunched above her breasts. He’d be able to pull it down quick if anyone came by.

At last he allowed himself to look...his Neanderthal faltered, causing his inner monologue to leak a raspy “
Fuck me
” through his lips.

Sheer white cups trimmed in lace easily displayed the dusky color of her nipples, making his mouth water and his dick a steel rod. It was exactly the sort of bra he’d pictured her in hundreds of times over the years. But even his vivid imagination hadn’t conjured up the perfection of reality.

She was an angel, both inside and out. For any man to treat her as less or let her think otherwise for even a second was a sin. He wanted to pamper her, shower her with affection, and make every day her happiest. But going to those extremes under the terms of their current situation would overwhelm her and push her away. The thought of her changing her mind about whatever this was grated on him in the very marrow of his bones.

If the mental stuff was too much, he’d channel it all into the physical. He’d make her come every time, multiple times. Muscle memory would set in, and whenever she got aroused in the future, her body would want
him
.

The temperature had jacked up to sweltering in the cab, and a light sheen of condensation pooled on her skin. Or maybe his mind was conjuring the erotic image out of a need to trace his name on her chest with his tongue. He
would
mark her as his, in time. With restrained urgency, he rubbed her nipples with his fingers, lightly at first, causing a heavy exhale to shudder from her lips. Then, he experimented with more pressure and even a pinch. He paid attention to her responses, her body language, and learned what she liked and what drove her fucking insane. He wanted her on level with him, and he’d lost every shred of his sanity the minute she’d started dry humping his cock.

Needing more of her, he bent to lick and tease a nipple through the thin fabric of her bra until his wetness soaked through. Unable to torture either of them any longer, he pushed the cups up to join her shirt, then drew as much of her succulent flesh into his mouth as he could. He ate at her, sucked hard, and flicked the tip of his tongue over the hard nub.

Her back arched until her shoulder blades hit the top of the steering wheel. Fingers tangled in his hair and fisted in frustration. The sting at his scalp shot down his back and wrapped his spine in a pleasure pain he craved. Hinting at his intentions, he gave her a rough scrape up her puckered areola with the edge of his lower teeth. When she moaned and spread her thighs farther apart so she could rest more firmly on his cock, he nipped the hard bud, turning the moan into a sharp intake of breath and ended with a soft whimper as he licked it all better.

“The sounds you make are incredible.” He pivoted his hips to punctuate his words and to stimulate her everywhere at once. “Every moan. Every hitch of your breath. It’s like you’re fucking my mind. I could come just from listening to you.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed. “That’s so hot.”

Laving his tongue over the swells of her breasts, he repeated everything on the other side. She was rocking her sex across his now, even more responsive than the first time, and she scratched lines across his upper back and whispered unintelligible prayers with his name mixed in.