Twelve Days - The Beginning (22 page)

“My turn...” he said huskily, running his eyes up and down her body. Belatedly, she realised that although he was only permitted to remove one item of clothing, she was wearing significantly less than him, meaning that she would be naked a lot sooner than him. She really hadn’t thought this through when she had agreed to his suggestion.

He looked at her, head on one side as if considering his options. “Bra..” he pronounced and proceeded to run his hands around her back, lingering when bare skin touched bare skin where he had previously undone her dress buttons. He walked his fingers up the expanse of skin until they found the clasp of her bra and then waited for Elise to lightly nod, remembering the deal that they had made. Elise was intrigued; she couldn’t begin to understand how he was going to remove her bra, her only remaining item of underwear, whilst she still had her dress on.

The dress had a high neck but the sleeves were short and slightly capped and Vaughn took advantage of the structure of sleeves once he had undone the clasp on her bra. He reached up under her dress at the back to each shoulder in turn and taking each bra strap, he slid them part way down each arm. When he had pushed them as far as they would go, he removed his hands and brought them around to her front sliding them up one arm and under the short sleeve where he was able to grasp the strap and pull it down the rest of her arm, bending it to allow the strap to fall free. He repeated the same method on the other side only this time, instead of just the strap, he pulled the whole bra out from underneath her sleeve, the item brushing across her now bare breasts as it completed its journey.

He pulled it out almost with a flourish, a look of triumph on his face, before he examined the object, his eyes darkening and locking onto hers. As she watched, he pressed his nose deeply into the warmth of the garment and inhaled. His eyes closed as he took in her scent and Elise almost stopped breathing – never had she watched anything as sensual. This man seriously had the monopoly on erotic moves and she responded helplessly to every single one.

“Party trick?” she asked shakily, trying to ignore the fact that her whole being had turned to jelly as she had watched him inhale.

“Misspent youth.” He grinned and dropped her bra on the floor to join the growing pile, after first placing a lingering kiss inside both cups. This time she actually did stop breathing.

“So, what are you going to remove next, Miss Grayson?”

Elise hesitated for a moment, trying to work out what would give her the biggest advantage. Shirt was a definite, but she still had to contend with shoes, socks, trousers and underwear. Usually she wouldn’t dream of removing trousers before footwear as it was hideously impractical but she realised that she was going to run out of clothing fast and needed to go in for the kill, in order to leave him as vulnerable as she soon would be.

Usually? As if she did this kind of thing every day? Yeah....right.

Making up her mind, she met Vaughn’s gaze. “Shirt and trousers” she stated, with more confidence than she actually felt.

“Interesting choice.” He murmured, a ghost of a smile hovering over his mouth. He sat back slightly to allow her better access.

She started with the easy one, his shirt, and slowly began to undo the buttons beginning at the neck and working down. As she got lower, her fingers began to shake more and she found she had to exert an immense amount of concentration just to complete the simple task. The
last couple of buttons were hidden, tucked into his trousers, and she had to pull the shirt out first to free those. Finally she had all of them undone, which allowed his shirt hang open. Eagerly, she drank her fill.

She had seen him without a shirt on before when she had stayed over at his house, but his complete perfection still took her breath away. Moving carefully she parted the shirt and pushed it gently to allow it to fall and pool around his wrists. He remained unmoving - allowing her to look - and emboldened, she followed the path of her eyes with her hands, running them up and down the smooth and sculpted expanse of his virtually hairless chest, tracing them around to his back and then returning them to the front again. Unable to resist, she leaned down and placed a kiss on each pectoral and then brushed her lips lightly over each nipple. He hissed in a breath and taking that as a good sign, she proceeded to suck one of his nipples into her mouth, biting it lightly between her teeth. He went rigid and for a moment remained absolutely still but after a few brief seconds, he yanked her head away, not altogether gently.

“Elise...” he warned and seeing the desperation in his eyes she wisely finished removing his shirt and dropped it to the floor.

Her next task was slightly more tricky; to remove his trousers without taking off his socks and shoes. She elected to have him to kneel up so that she could undo his belt relatively easily and then once his trousers were undone, she figured she would get him to swing his legs off the bed and then hope that the trouser legs were wide enough to pass over his shoes.

Berating herself for making this more difficult than it needed to be, she began the task of unbuckling his belt, being careful to avoid direct contact with the erection that she could see bulging behind his zipper. Her mouth was watering at being so close to the essence of him and the temptation to touch him was overwhelming but she wanted to do this properly, like they had agreed, and so she tried to focus on the task at hand, staying her hands each time they seemed about to stray of their own free will.

Once his belt was free, she let it dangle from the loops and undid the two small clasps on the waistband of his trousers. By now, her hands were well and truly shaking and as she touched the top of his zipper it was impossible for her hand not to brush against the forbidden area. She heard him inhale sharply again and looking up she could see that he had his eyes closed and his jaw was ticking, suggesting that he was having to exert a serious amount of control.

It was now only the zipper that remained and cautiously, she eased it down, all the while aware of his breathing becoming more and more ragged. Once she had opened the cool metal as far as it would go, she paused for a moment to steady herself before clasping the top of his trousers again, ready to push them down and remove them fully.

Slowly she eased the waistband apart and moved it slightly lower, halting when she realised that she had not come into contact with any underwear so far. Thinking that maybe he was wearing briefs rather than shorts, she continued on with her quest inch by slow inch until his zipper opened fully, and finally allowed his erection to spring completely free.

All of it.

The whole length of it.

The whole huge length of it.

In all of its naked glory.

Minus any sort of underwear at all.

Nothing whatsoever.

Nada.

Zilch.

Oh shit!

Immediately, she dropped her hands away from his trousers and sat back on her heels, briefly closing her eyes. The man wasn’t wearing any underwear; she hadn’t been mentally prepared for that. Instantly her bravado vanished and she kept her eyes firmly closed, trying to deal with the fresh wave of nerves that now assailed her. It was fine, it was fine - she could do this. She was a grown woman; she had seen it all before. Well - maybe not technically.

Slowly she opened her eyes to see that Vaughn had also dropped back to sit on his heels, his eyes now level with hers. As she focused, she became aware of two dark eyes regarding her in confusion, a hint of laughter around their edges and she quickly slapped her hands over her face in embarrassment.

“Hey...” he said gently, removing her hands so that he could look at her. “Why are you hiding? Look at me Elise – please.”

Reluctantly she lifted her gaze and met his eyes. “Sorry...I....Oh God, this is so embarrassing.”

“What? What is so embarrassing?”

The silence built as she tried to formulate the words.

“You.... “She said eventually, “You’re not wearing any underwear and....I....I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve never known a man not to wear underwear before – I kinda freaked out for a second – sorry. I feel like a right idiot; it’s not like I’ve never seen it before......”

She was rambling nervously, no doubt making things even worse. She kept her gaze lowered. She didn’t want to see the look in his eyes - the point when he realised that she really was incredibly naive and that all of this was going to be too much hard work. She also needed time to process the visual images that her brain was receiving; he was beautiful all over, and she was embarrassingly aware of how much she paled in comparison.

Lightly, Vaughn chuckled, “Hey...Now you know why I told you removing my trousers was an ‘interesting choice’. You’ve nothing to be embarrassed about. If anything I should be sorry – I could have warned you but I figured it would be much more enjoyable to let you find out. Sorry.”

Suddenly realising that he had wanted to see her react in just this way all along, she quickly recovered her composure, all nerves hastily disappearing as irritation took their place. The devious bastard!

“You......” she threatened, lunging towards him and aiming her trademark light punch at his arm. Having seen this move countless times before however, Vaughn pre-empted it and grabbed her hand before she could make contact.

“You really have to quit trying to hit me, you know!” he said, wry amusement written all over his stunning face. “I know I should probably have warned you but to see your expression...it was just too tempting.”

“Vaughn Granger! I can’t believe that you spend so much time torturing me – you must get real pleasure from it considering that’s all you ever seem to do!”

His dark eyes bored into hers, “Oh Elise, believe me – if I was torturing you, you would definitely know about it.” He paused to let the meaning sink in. “And I wouldn’t be the only one getting pleasure.”

The unmistakable significance in his words turned her insides to mush and immediately the tension in the room built again leaving Elise to respond in the only way that she could.

Taking advantage of the element of surprise, she landed the punch to his arm this time and he rolled back onto the bed, momentarily caught off-balance.

“You will pay for that.” He warned before grabbing her wrists and pulling her over on top of him. “Now, where were we?” he asked and without even waiting for her to respond, he grabbed her tightly to him and proceeded to kiss her as if his life depended on it.

The atmosphere in the room was now heavily charged and this time they both knew that there were no more games, no more hiding and they each moaned as the kiss deepened, hovering on the edge of control.

Vaughn began to run his hands down her back and over her backside where he gently squeezed before running back up and underneath her dress, taking advantage of the back section that was still laying open. As Elise was pinned tightly to him, she was little more than a passenger but she didn’t think that she had the strength to move anyway and just relaxed, revelling in the sensations as he began to slip his hands further underneath her dress, upwards, reaching around the side and the front, brushing along the swell of her breasts.

She sucked in a sharp breath as his fingers grazed close to her nipples and Vaughn abruptly ripped his mouth from hers, gently pushing her off him and helping her to stand at the side of the bed. He remained seated on the edge of the bed, watching her with hooded eyes, heavy with desire.

“Elise...” he dragged out, “Take off your dress for me – slowly. Let me watch you.”

Elise complied, no longer in any doubt that this was what she wanted. There was no need for hesitation; it was as if she had always lived for this moment. Slowly she pulled the neck of
her dress forwards and then the sleeves, allowing them to drop down her arms completely. The front of the dress was still covering her breasts – just - but she knew that as soon as she moved, it would drop down to her waist and she would have nothing left covering her.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and dropped the dress the final few inches until it bunched at her waist, revealing her breasts to his hungry eyes.

He was silent although she could hear him drawing in ragged breaths, and she could feel the heat of his gaze poring over her. Mustering her confidence, she opened her eyes wondering if he would still think she was beautiful now that he had seen her nearly naked.

She was relatively proud of her breasts as they were ample and still well shaped but she had more ‘curves’ than she would have liked around her stomach. Her dislike of exercise and love of chocolate had put paid to her ever having a flat stomach and because it was only ever Dale that saw her like this – and he was usually drunk – there was never any need to do anything about it. A couple of years ago they had decided that they were going to go abroad and she had fanatically indulged in a ‘bikini’ diet so that she wouldn’t embarrass herself too much on the beach. The weight had started to come off but sadly the holiday hadn’t, so she had turned back to her trusted old friend and the ‘curves’ had returned.

Vaughn was still staring at her breasts, an unreadable expression on his face, the silence drawing out for what felt like an eternity. Eventually he raised his eyes up to hers and swallowed.

“Jesus, Elise – you are so beautiful, so fucking beautiful. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined......” he stopped and held out his hand to pull her forwards. Relief flooding through her, she allowed him to direct her until they were standing toe to toe, her breasts now level with his head.

Gently he skimmed his hands along and up to the side of her breasts before moving across them, brushing her nipples gently with his knuckles. Immediately the nubs hardened and she saw the flash of desire in his eyes as he watched her body’s reaction to his touch. Almost reverently he continued to stare, watching as his hands lifted first one and then the other breasts; taking them in his hands, testing their weight, feeling the curves and the softness, tracing around the nipples and lightly pinching them to even sharper points.