The Erotic Expeditions - Complete Collection (21 page)

“Lou,” he said again, stroking the side of her face.

Her eyebrows raised and she inhaled.

Her eyes finally opened and she jerked awake.

“Quinn?” she said quickly.

“Here,” he said quietly. “I’m right here. You’re all right.”

He held her close with both arms around her.

She took a deep breath and laid her arms over his.
 

“We’re here,” he said. “At the oasis.”
 

Unlike the well they would have found at Tamikrest, this was a true oasis, a green jewel in the middle of the red and rocky surroundings. The dense palm trees cast their dark shadows over the large pond, dropping the temperature at least ten degrees. Reeds surrounded the far side of the water and a few birds perched in the low shrubs next to them.
 

The camel finished drinking and raised its head.

“Okay,” Quinn said. “Down we go.”

He took the long riding crop and tapped it behind the front right knee. The animal, probably tired, quickly complied. First the front right went down, followed quickly by the front left and then the back. Lou rocked against him as the beast settled down.
 

“Wait here,” he said as he dismounted.

He quickly dumped the backpack and took off his boots and socks. She held onto the pommel but began to slump forward. He grabbed the water bottle and opened it.

“Here,” he said as he raised it to her lips. “Sip.”

She did as she was told this time and managed to just drink a little.

“Good,” he said, supporting her back.
 

When she finished, he tossed it next to the backpack and reached across her. He lifted her far leg over the pommel and turned her so she sat sidesaddle. Then he took off her boots and socks.

“Time for a bath,” he said, and picked her up.

Her arms went around his neck as he marched straight for the pond.

“With all our clothes?” she said, her voice still sounding a bit rough and low.

“Yep,” he said, wading in. “It’s the best way to get the mud and sand off. Even a little bit will rub the skin away. You don’t want to have an open sore in the desert.”

He continued in until he was waist deep.

“Do you think you can stand?” he asked.

She nodded.

Carefully, he lowered his entire body until she was partially submerged. The water pooled over her midriff.

“It’s warm,” she said, smiling.
 

He let her legs go and they drifted down and he felt her take her own weight. The bottom of the pond was smooth, compacted sand, easy on the feet. He rested his hands on her hips as she let go of his neck.

“I think I’m all right,” she said, looking down at the water. “This feels amazing.”

He watched her for a few more moments. The sleep had been good for her and the dehydration had thankfully not gone far. Even so, it’d been a hell of a couple days.

Finally he let her go and she swished her hands through the water. As long as his clothes were soaked, he might as well get them clean. She’d have to do the same. He backed away from her and started to unbutton his shirt. Her eyes went to his hands and she glanced at his face but as soon as he took the shirt off, her eyes went to his chest. He felt her eyes cover him and though he’d intended to rinse his shirt, he paused.
 

Instead, he leisurely dunked himself in the water and stood. He used his shirt like a rag, squeezing water from it and letting it run down his chest and stomach. Her lips parted as she watched. Then he draped the shirt over his arm and reached his hand below the water and undid his belt and pants. One leg at a time, he took them off under the water. As he swished the pants and shirt back and forth under the surface, Lou looked down at her own shirt.

She reached up her hands from the water to undo the buttons but they were trembling.

“Here,” he said. “Let me.”

One by one, he unbuttoned them. She seemed focused on his hands but his eyes were drawn to the widening gap of her blouse. For a moment, he remembered the taste of her. Then, the last button came undone. As he withdrew his hands, she slowly slid out of the shirt, letting it fall down her arms and back until it floated around her. Her entire torso was covered in mud and sand.

He used his shirt to drip water down the front of her. She hesitated, watching him, and then used her shirt to do the same. Suddenly, he realized what he was doing and stopped. He backed up.

“I’ll set up the tent,” he said and, without waiting for an answer, he turned and strode out of the water, wearing only his briefs. He draped his wet clothes over a nearby shrub and went to his backpack. He didn’t dare look back to the water, knowing that if he did, he wouldn’t be able to look away. The water from his shirt had washed away the dark brown of the quicksand to reveal her gleaming, white skin underneath. He stood staring down at the pack and couldn’t remember why he was here.

The tent.
 

In only a few minutes, he had it set up. He left the backpack outside but took the sleeping bag. Her gear was where it’d been dropped earlier when she’d been kidnapped. He’d have to fetch it later. He completely unzipped the sleeping bag and laid it out flat. When he emerged from the tent, he half-expected her to be done but she was…
gone
.

“Lou!” he yelled running toward the pond. “Lou!” He splashed into the water up to his knees. “Lou!”

Suddenly, she rose from the water right where he’d left her. She’d been rinsing her hair. He came to a quick stop as he realized he had completely panicked. She apparently hadn’t heard him because her head was tilted back and she was running her hands through her hair and…she’d taken off her bra. He stared at her. Judging from all the clothes draped over her arm, she’d taken off everything.

Apparently not satisfied with her hair, she submerged again, eyes still closed. Warmth started to flood through his groin and he tensed as he waited for her. Slowly, she rose up again, eyes still closed. Water ran down her throat and over her chest in rolling sheets. As it slowed to a trickle, the narrow rivulets framed the perfect roundness of her breasts and dripped from the tips of the pink nipples. He wondered what it would be like to drink there. By the time he looked back to her face, she was looking at him. Her hair fell to one side, where her hands had been wringing water from it. But now she stood still, watching him. They stayed that way for several seconds. Then, rather than turn away, she slowly came toward him. Her hips began to rise above the water and he stared at their emerging round curves.
 

They rocked back and forth as she approached, rising above the water, until she was only covered up to the thigh. He stared down at the triangle of her mound, at her perfectly flat abdomen, the water dripping from both. He could see her pale reflection in the pool. Even in the shade, her skin seemed to shine. And then, as a light breeze rippled the image, he caught her scent, the delicate perfume he’d come to know. As he inhaled, though, he caught something else and his arousal suddenly flared.

 
As though drawn by the pull of a magnet, Lou placed one foot in front of the other. If the clothes she was carrying weren’t all she had, she’d have let them drop in the water. Quinn’s body from the waist down was as spectacular as the waist up. His thighs were huge below the tight, white briefs. As he’d left to set up the tent, she’d watched him the entire time. His powerful shoulders rolled as the muscles of his thighs and calves worked against the shifting sand. The wide muscles of his back flared as he stretched out the tent. And his chest, as he’d moved the heavy backpack–it was as though he were flexing for her benefit. When he’d ducked inside with his sleeping bag, she’d finally been able to look away. But now he stood in the water with her, only yards away, getting closer with each step she took.

Unmoving, muscles taut, he had stopped in mid-stride. It gave him the look of an animal ready to pounce. Only his eyes moved, up and down her, across her breasts. She was close enough to see his nostrils flare and she watched his lips part as she drew nearer. As she rose higher out of the water, the movement of his fingers flexing at his sides drew her eyes away from his. But instead of his fingers, her gaze settled on the long bulge at the front of his briefs. She stopped, barely two feet from him.

Though she’d forgotten about her clothes, he hadn’t. He took them in one hand and tossed them to the shore. Then, he bent low, grasped her around the hips and lifted. She gasped in surprise at the sudden movement but gasped again as he covered her nipple with his lips. He sucked as much of her into his mouth as he could.

“Oh god,” she whispered.
 

She ran her fingers into his damp hair as he gently gnawed, alternately sucking the nipple as though he were thirsty and then playing with it, making it hard. The tip of his tongue pushed into the nubbin he’d created even as his lips held it in place. She moaned as though he’d found a button. She dragged in a breath as he sucked furiously at it, tugging her forward.
 

The moist warmth of his mouth drew her in even as the stubble of his chin pushed into her breast. His tongue seemed unstoppable, pushing the nipple, lashing it from side to side. The feeling of it was electric, quivering, and radiating outward, as she moaned again.

With a final tug and smacking sound, he reared his head back and immediately clamped down on the other breast. She cried out as his tongue found the already sensitive nub, made ready by his treatment of the first. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and scraped down his back. Her legs and feet dangled somewhere below, while her hips remained pinned against his chest. With her nipple firmly clasped, she could hardly move. But she needed to move–badly.
 

She had to find some way to respond to the mounting ecstasy but Quinn held her tight. Inside his mouth, her other nipple had been teased to the point of pain. His stiff tongue buffeted it from every direction. His teeth grazed the sensitive skin of her breast. Each tender bite came closer and closer to the pulsing tip. Her other nipple, swollen and red, throbbed with her racing heartbeat. Her hips tried to move but they couldn’t. Her back tried to arch but the tug on her nipple was too much. Then his tongue speared it.

“
Quinn!
” she whimpered, her voice rough and breathy. “
Please
.”

At that, he turned to the shore and carried her the short distance to the tent. But he didn’t release her nipple. Slowly, he let her slide down his chest, only releasing her breast at the last instant. No sooner had it popped from his mouth, than his tongue slid over her collarbones, and up her throat as her feet touched the ground.

“I love the taste of you,” he breathed into her mouth.
 

And then he kissed her.
 

His arms drew her against him, curving her back as she pressed into him. The hardness of his arousal jabbed into her abdomen. And her hips, finally free to move, ground against it. In response, a low growl immediately filled her mouth and vibrated her lips. She clawed at his back, desperate for him, needing more than just his tongue in her, as warmth began to spread between her legs. He must have sensed it as he separated from her, ducked back through the tent flap, and tugged her in after him.

• • • • •

As Lou twisted around to close the tent flap, Quinn had been enjoying the feel of her waist revolving between his hands, when he saw the bruises on her wrists. As she turned to him, his fingers lightly touched the areas around them. His jaw instantly tightened.

“It’s just a bruise,” she breathed quickly, coming toward him. Then she stopped. “Please don’t do that.”

He blinked at her.

“Do what?”

“Curl your lip like that and grind your teeth.”

He had already scooted back onto the sleeping bag and now she knelt next to him. The sight of the bruises had taken him out of the moment and put him back at the quicksand but now he focused on her. The muted light of the tent was soft and the temperature was perfect. She was perfect. Her breasts were rising and falling with her heavy breaths. His nostrils were filled with the smell of her arousal, the perfume of her skin. Her hair was already drying and falling over her smooth shoulders.

But something he should have thought of long before now suddenly occurred to him.

“I don’t have any condoms,” he said, still staring at her naked body.

“I’m on the pill,” she whispered, coming nearer. “I started the minute I saw your report.”

He looked into her eyes, not sure he’d heard that right.

“What?” he said.

“
You’re
my type, Quinn,” she said, lowly. “I thought that was–”

In one fluid movement, he grabbed her, laid her on her back, and hovered over her.

“…obvious,” she finished breathlessly.

He lowered himself to one elbow.

“From the first time I saw you,” he rasped. “This is how I wanted to be with you. This is how I wanted to touch you.”

He took her by the nape of the neck and kissed her hard.

She inhaled sharply through her nose as his mouth completely enveloped hers, possessing it, forcing her jaw to drop as his tongue drove into her. The weight of his body pressed her into the sand beneath the sleeping bag. As her hands slowly slipped up his back, she tried to kiss him. But he quickly tilted his head the other way and stilled the writhing of her tongue with his. Suddenly, he drew in his breath in a great heaving rush, through his nostrils and through his mouth. Her eyes fluttered at the sensation of air leaving her lungs but he held her there as his senses waded deeply into her smell, taste and feel. He quickly tilted his head again and did the same thing. Her fingers tugged the hair at the back of his head but he barely noticed.

His tongue thrust deeper, sweeping over hers, invading her until a muffled cry spilled into his mouth. At that, he released the firm clamp over her lips.

She convulsively sucked in a lungful of air, gasping, gripping his hair. With his hand still behind her neck, he used his thumb to turn her head sideways and immediately began to devour her earlobe and the tender skin all around it.