What a Woman Needs (28 page)

She bit her bottom lip and her eyes fluttered open. “Uh-huh.”

He flicked it again.

She whimpered and arched into his caress.

“I’m taking that as a yes.”

She looked at him then, the look in her eyes nailing him in place. “Oh God, Bryan, don’t stop.”

“This?” He flicked her nipple again.

“That, kissing me, touching me . . . anything else you want to do to me.”

He wanted to do so much more.

“Okay, Beth, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now slide down to the bottom of this bed and let me show you how it’s done.”

H
OLY
moly, did Bryan show her how it was done.

The man could make a songbird weep.

He made parts of her weep. One very tingly, very aching part in particular.

“Oh my God, Bryan.” She gasped moans of sheer pleasure when Bryan lowered his mouth to her thighs. He wasn’t even at her center and already she was on fire. “Touch me. Please.”

“I will, baby. Don’t be so impatient.”

She managed a laugh. Two years. Let’s see
him
after two years of forced celibacy.

She managed yet another chuckle. She highly doubted Bryan had ever had even two
minutes
of forced celibacy.

He hooked his fingers in the waistband of her panties and Beth felt moisture seep into them. She didn’t know how much foreplay she could take because she wanted Bryan too badly, but asking for a quick wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am was just so out of place on this, their first time together.

Next time, however . . .

“What are you smiling at?” he whispered with a sexy-as-all-get-out growl.

“You. There.”

He rocked back on his heels a bit and looked at her.
All
of her. “And look at you. There.” He tugged her panties down. “
Now
look at you.”

He slid them off her legs, then ran his palms up her thighs, over her hipbones, to the curve of her waist, lighting a fire beneath her skin that she hadn’t felt in two very long years.

“God, Beth, you’re even more beautiful than I imagined.”

“You imagined this?”

“This? No. I couldn’t come up with
this
. What I imagined doesn’t do you justice and if I’d known,
really
known, how beautiful you are, I would never have left.”

“But I asked you to.”

“And I should have tried to talk you out of it.”

She smiled. “But you didn’t because you left for the same reason I asked you to go.”

“A reason that hasn’t changed.” He took his hands from her. “Should I leave?”

She grabbed his hands and placed them on her breasts. “Stop talking, Bryan. You’re here and the kids aren’t and we have tonight. And tomorrow if you want.”

“Tomorrow night?” He arched an eyebrow above that sideways grin.

Beth laughed. It felt so good to laugh. “Sure. Tomorrow night. If you think you’re up for it.”

They both looked at his groin. Oh yeah, he was up for it.

“That’s not an issue.”

“I can see that.” Beth sat up. “But not exactly the way I’d like to.” She undid the button on his shorts.

His abs contracted, giving her enough space to brush her fingers beneath the waistband.

“God, Beth, that’s amazing.”

“That’s nothing compared to what I plan to do to you.”

“I should never have left.”

She slid the zipper down. “Ssshhh. What’s done is done. We’re here now. Let’s enjoy it.”

He helped her shove his shorts down his hips. “I intend to.”

He kicked them off, then crawled up the bed, straddling her legs and grabbing her T-shirt with his teeth.

His five o’clock shadow scraped her belly, making her wiggle. “Bryan! That tickles!”

He stopped with the T-shirt between her breasts. “That’s one I haven’t heard before.” He waggled his eyebrows. And went right back to scraping her skin with his chin, back and forth over her breasts. And then her nipples.

Ohmygod, the sensation . . . Beth stopped wiggling. Instead she grabbed the sheets and held on for dear life because if he kept that up, she just might fly off the bed.

His lips replaced his chin.

Oh. My. God. Beth clenched her legs because the throbbing there was just insane.

He tugged on her nipple, then released it. “Like that?”

She opened her mouth but nothing came out. He’d taken her breath and her voice.

“Ah, I’ll take that as a yes, too.” Then he moved to the other one.

By the time he was ready to move on to her collarbone and her neck and her jaw and a whole host of other delicious spots, Beth could barely keep a grip on her sanity, never mind the sheets. Somehow, her fingers had migrated to his hair and she wasn’t letting go. Especially when he maddeningly refused to kiss her.

“Bryan.” She tugged his hair.

“Mmmmm.” He mouthed it against her throat, his lips and tongue and hot breath not driving her wild nearly as much as that vibration against her pulse.

“Bryan, kiss me.”

“I am.” He sucked on her neck.

“Hey!” She twisted. “No hickies!”

He rested on his elbows and looked at her. “Why not? Hickies are fun.”

“Except that everyone will know where I got mine. Or they’ll wonder and that’s almost as bad as them knowing.”

“Ah.” More waggling eyebrows. “You’re ashamed of me.”

“Don’t tease me, Bryan. I’m serious.”

His face lost that teasing look. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I was just having some fun. I wasn’t going to give you a hickey.”

“Oh. Okay, then.”

“Well, at least not there.” He lowered his lips to the underside of her breast. “Not where everyone can see. But here . . .” He sucked her skin into his mouth . . . and kept sucking.

Oh God, the tug she felt low in her belly . . .

Desire flooded through her and she cradled his head against her. God, yes, she wanted him to mark her. Only they would know, and she’d have a physical reminder of tonight, if only for a little while.

He slid his thigh between hers and she clenched it. “Oh, Bryan . . .” She couldn’t keep from moaning his name. He just felt so damn good on top of her. Between her legs, kissing her, holding her.

“Say my name again, Beth. I love the way you say it.” He kissed her nipple again and worked his way back up to her neck, every skin-shivering inch he traveled making her gasp out his name.

He kissed the hollow below her ear, then drew his tongue along the rim and Beth re-clenched her thighs.

“Want me?” he whispered in her ear.

She made some sort of response, half moan, half mew, and she felt his smile against her cheek.

“Hold that thought,” he whispered before he pulled away.

Completely
away. As in, climbed-off-her-body-and-the-bed sort of way.

“Where are you going?” Dear God, he wasn’t going to leave her like this, was he?

“Right here, baby.” He picked up his shorts and pulled something out of the pocket that he tossed on the bed beside her.

Condoms.

“That many?” Either he had a very high opinion of himself or he had an amazing idea about
her
.

“Don’t you worry, Beth, we’re going to use every single one.”

“Bryan, there’s at least a dozen there.”

“Uh-huh.” He crawled back up the bed, straddled her again, his cock jutting out right over the very spot that wanted it so badly inside, and ripped a condom package with his teeth. “Want to do the honors?” He held it out to her.

Beth’s hands trembled as she rolled it on—awkwardly.
Figured
. She couldn’t be smooth in the moment, but she and Mike hadn’t used those in over a decade. It wasn’t as if she had tons of practice.

“You don’t have to be shy with me, Beth.” He covered her hands with his and worked it on the rest of the way. “I like that you’re not used to doing this. I like knowing I’m the only man other than your husband who’s been in this bed with you.”

“I thought you said you weren’t as generous as he was? You’re willing to share the so-called honors?”

“Baby, just being with you is an honor. Anything else is a gift and I’m so humbled by you allowing me to be here like this with you. For wanting me enough to welcome me in. I know you aren’t the casual kind of woman and I’m so touched by this gift.”

He kept talking about gifts and generosity as if she were making some sort of sacrifice, but the reality was, she wanted Bryan with a passion she’d thought she’d lost.

“Make love to me, Bryan.” She opened her legs and her arms. And her heart.

Because Bryan was right; she wasn’t the casual sort and for her to do this, to be so open and so welcoming and accepting, and not feel self-conscious or shy or nervous, that meant that she cared for him. More than just his public persona, more than a man who could take her to physical satisfaction, she
knew
Bryan and she liked
that
man. Wanted
that
man.

Loved
that man.

The admission crept over her as he slid inside her and to Beth it was the most natural thing in the world, both to be with Bryan so intimately and to acknowledge her feelings for him. There was no panic, no worry, no indecision. The act of loving him emotionally was as natural to her as loving him physically, so the two became one.

Now where had she heard those words before?

 • • • 

B
RYAN’S
breath caught in his throat as he slid inside Beth. God, how he wished he didn’t have to wear the damn condom. She was the one woman he wanted to be skin-to-skin with. But that was a whole other level of trust and emotion and he was just thankful she was open enough for this.

She clenched around him as he started to move and Bryan had to squeeze his eyes, the pleasure was so intense, the emotion so powerful that he was afraid it was bringing tears to his eyes.

He slid his hands into her curls, those soft, silky curls that’d been teasing him for so long. He couldn’t have imagined just how perfect they were. Not like this. Not without touching them and inhaling the scent of her shampoo and feeling the fine strands caress his face. He kissed her jaw line, then along her hairline, wanting to kiss every inch of her face, but being drawn so strongly to her lips that he had to forcibly restrain himself or he might scare her with the passion he wanted to claim them with.

“Kiss me, Bryan,” she whispered as her hands gripped his lats and slid down over his ass, clenching him as her inner muscles clenched him. She wrapped her legs around his thighs and he felt her lock her ankles, her thighs widening, allowing him to sink deeper inside her, and the symbolism wasn’t lost on Bryan.

And he not only didn’t care, but he welcomed it. He wanted to be so close to Beth, so caught up in her, that he couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. It truly was a gift, her allowing him to be like this with her.

It was also hot as hell. Especially when she pretty much forced his lips to hers—not that he was unwilling, but he’d wanted to kiss his way there from her earlobe again and she wasn’t having any of that.

So Bryan let her have him.

Beth kissed him with a passion he’d dreamed of and then some, because he hadn’t wanted to
let
himself imagine it being like this. But Beth was everything he wanted her to be. Sexy and giving and willing and wanting and taking everything he had to give.

He thrust inside her, wanting to be as close as two people could be physically, wanting to feel her around him, taking him in, wanting him, needing this contact between them, and when she called out his name, her neck arching as her fingernails scored his back, her thighs clenching him with each thrust, meeting him motion for motion, sweat slicking their skin as they glided against each other, Bryan felt a rush of emotion roll over him as if it were a wave on the shore, and he couldn’t contain the shudders that raked through him or the pounding he had to do inside her, to feel her, to bring her the same pleasure she brought to him, and it was all he could do to keep from coming until he felt her start to shiver, her breaths coming in short, quick gasps, his name lost among them. Bryan pushed them both a little further, a little higher, until at last, he couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t halt the ride that was better than any of the roller coasters they’d ridden. The sensations overwhelmed him, and for a few seconds there—for a brief moment unlike he’d ever had before—Bryan thought he could see his future stretched out before him, as if heaven was giving him a glimpse of what could be.

And then he came. That stomach-twisting moment when it rushed upon him and Bryan couldn’t see anything but the insides of his eyelids as he had to pound into her to feed this unbelievably, amazingly intense ache that he never wanted to end.

It doesn’t have to . . .

He wasn’t sure if she whispered it or he’d thought it, but the idea stayed with Bryan as he felt the tremors shudder through her, heard her call out his name in a way that was guaranteed to prolong his orgasm—which it did—then wrapped his arms around her so tightly to stop them both from coming apart at the seams in the aftermath, until he spooned himself around her, kissing her cheek, her ear, her shoulder, his fingers intertwined with hers against her breasts, his foot rubbing her smooth legs as he curled his leg over them. For a moment, just a tiny one but it was there, Bryan almost said the three words he hadn’t thought he’d ever say.

Almost.

But he didn’t.

Idiot
.