Winning the Billionaire (Seattle Bachelors Book 2) (14 page)

Her breath caught. She forgot her protests altogether, and her clit throbbed, begging for release. Her hands fisted in the quilt beneath her as she held on against the onslaught. Oh God, he was good at this. Every luscious stroke built her up, had her firmly seated on the edge of release. A final flick of his tongue shoved her over the edge. Her orgasm flooded through her, a luxurious, bone-melting rush of liquids. Her toes curled. Her back arched off the bed. “Sebastian!”

He didn’t stop there. As she came down from the high, he continued to stroke her, licking softly, sucking her clit into his mouth. Too sensitive post-orgasm, the flicks of his tongue bordered between pain and extreme pleasure. She attempted to close her legs, to push him away, but he refused to relent. He pushed her legs flat, holding her wide open.

He buried his face in her heat, nipping, sucking, and licking at her with an abandon that awed her. All the while, he moaned against her flesh. His audible enjoyment sent subtle vibrations through her sensitive clit like the buzz of a vibrator. Another orgasm struck like a lightning bolt. This one scorched her from the inside out. Every muscle went rigid, tightening and loosening in a hot rush. Her scream caught in her throat, leaving her mouth as little more than a strangled gasp.

When she collapsed back into the bed, spent and exhausted and panting, he freed her limbs. He laid his head on her thigh, fingers stroking the insides. Long moments passed as she lay there, eyes closed, trying to catch her breath. She couldn’t stop shaking. Aftershocks, some experienced part of her suggested. She’d never been so vulnerable with a man before, and the aftereffects had her brain scrambled and her limbs quaking.

Sebastian moved up beside her and gathered her to him, wrapping both arms tightly around her. She settled against the warmth and strength of his familiar body. She wasn’t the only one affected by the exchange, either. His heart beat an erratic rhythm beneath her ear. His chest rose and fell at a rapid pace, his breath sawing in and out of his mouth as hard as hers, and his body shook against her side.

He kissed the top of her head, his voice a husky rumble beneath her ear. “You okay?”

She didn’t know how to answer that question. How could she possibly tell him what he’d done for her? He’d given her something no man ever had, and she had to admit, she felt closer to him for it. So she hugged him tighter, buried her face in the warmth of his chest, and inhaled his familiar scent, needing both to root her. “Th-that was incredible, but I c-can’t stop sh-shaking.”

He stroked her hair with one hand, tightening his hold on her with the other. “Good. Sleep.”

She tipped her head back, seeking out his gaze. “But w-what about you?”

For a moment, he didn’t say anything but simply stared. There, in the tiny space, something moved between them, unspoken but every bit as powerful as the pull of the moon to the tide. It settled deep inside, unmistakable and satisfying and terrifying all rolled in one tumultuous tangle of emotion.

A connection. The luscious pull of intimacy shared.

She’d been here before. The relationship hadn’t worked out, of course, but she knew what this moment meant. It was a moment of realization, when the feelings became mutual. His eyes spoke to her,
because
she knew them so well. An unmistakable edge of fear mixed with heavy-lidded heat and tenderness. He’d never quite looked at her like that before. The first night they’d spent together had been about lust. This was something altogether different. Softer. Sweeter. More intense. Those eyes told her he really wasn’t immune to her either. They told her their exchange affected him every bit as deeply as it had her.

Panic beat behind her breastbone, even as the moment settled inside of her, a chest-crushing ache she couldn’t deny, even had she wanted to. Oh, without a doubt when this weekend ended, she’d lose her heart.

He grinned suddenly, breaking the spell. His stomach muscles bunched beneath her as he lifted his head and nipped at her bottom lip. “Consider it payback.”

S
ebastian lay in bed, staring at the shadowy ceiling above him. After curling against his side, post-orgasmic fatigue had taken Christina. She’d fallen asleep in his arms, tucked against his side, her body warm and soft against him, her arm flung casually over his stomach. With no desire to disturb her, he’d been lying there for hours, listening to her quiet, even breathing. With no streetlights and only a few neighbors dotting the area, the house had become so silent every breath she drew and released kept him company.

He’d missed this the last night they’d spent together, but he had two hours now to luxuriate in the simple pleasure of her curves against his side. He had to admit getting to watch her sleep had a peace settling inside of him he hadn’t expected. In the darkness, she was little more than a shadowy form, but the subtle floral of her perfume swirled around him, mixing with the aroma of
her
that clung to him. Noticeable only because he wasn’t used to the scent. His bedroom at home smelled like him and occasionally Spike. He’d give anything for his condo to smell like her.

She made an incoherent murmur in the dark. The quiet yawn she let out next told him she’d woken. He stroked her back, unable to resist, but couldn’t bring himself to pierce the beautiful silence by saying anything. She stretched against his side like a languid cat waking from a nap. Her hand slid over his stomach and up his chest, and she rolled toward him, sliding her slight weight on top of him. She didn’t say a word but dipped her head and found his mouth in the darkness. She kissed him softly, a tender tangle of lips. Her body curled against him, and her hands wandered down his torso.

His libido roared to life, his cock hardening behind his fly. He slid his hands down her back, letting them wander over the soft curve of her behind. She had the most incredible skin and he luxuriated in the simple pleasure of running his hands over her, if only because he’d spent so many years wishing he could. The sensation of being a child set free in a toy store beat behind his breastbone. His heart hammered and his blood roared. For the entire weekend, this skin, this woman, was his to touch, to make love to, as he saw fit.

A twinge of pain clenched at his chest, the reminder niggling at the back of his mind. When the weekend was over, though, they were supposed go their separate ways. She’d set firm boundaries, and who could blame her? He didn’t have the world’s best track record. The truth was, though, holding her while she slept and the inherent intimacy it created had lodged in his chest as being so damn
right
. She belonged here, in his arms, in his life.

Christina’s mouth slanted over his, her tongue pushing inside, reaching and searching. Her breath was sweet and hot. She all but purred, her body arching against him, rocking into the connection, pressing her mound into his erection. The harder she pushed, the more he ached and the louder her whimpers became.

He slid his hands down her back to her ass and cupped the supple globes in his hands, pressing her more tightly into the ridge of his erection. She groaned from down deep and shuddered. The rhythm of her rocking grew into a shaky, jerky hitch, and her body trembled against him, telling him her release was close. So he tightened his grip on her ass and rocked his hips up into her, nudging her over and over.

Her fingers curled against his body. Her nails scraped his skin through his shirt. She dropped her head into the crook of his shoulder and let out a low, agonized moan. “Oh God…”

His name rolled off her tongue on a soft cry as she shook in his arms, her hips rocking into the connection of their bodies, her breath a warm, erratic huff against his skin. When her shaking stopped, she let out a contented little
hmmm
and stretched again.

“That was delicious.” She purred against his throat as she molded her mouth to the side of his neck, her lips skimming his jaw.

Desperate to be inside her, to connect to all of her this time, he reached between them, popped the button on his slacks, and slid down the zipper, freeing his cock. Then he reached into the right front pocket of his pants, pulled out the condom he’d only remembered to stash in there before coming upstairs, and held it out to her.

She took the condom from him, and, hands braced on his chest, sat upright. Her gaze burning into him, she pulled her dress up over her head and tossed it to the floor before sliding down his body. Her hot, wet folds slid along his length as she moved down enough to roll on the condom. Protection in place, she moved over him again and sank onto him in one slow stroke.

Sebastian groaned. She was hot and slippery, her body snug around him. In the darkness, he couldn’t see much of anything. She became little more than a shadowy form, which made their lovemaking all the more erotic for it. He could only see shapes, the general outline of her curves rising above him, but he was hooked on what he
could
see. Her slender neck and strong shoulders. The curve of her full breasts and their slight bounce. The flare of her hips. And his cock, disappearing into her.

She rose and sank on his cock at a lazy, steady rhythm, constantly making that sound, the little purr of satisfaction that did nothing but ramp up his libido to explosive heights. Unless he was mistaken, she enjoyed herself. Christina worked his cock like she owned it, which, he had to admit, she did.

The moment sank inside of him. He couldn’t deny it—he
was
all hers. The truth was, he always had been. He didn’t think she knew. At least, she didn’t believe him. He’d always been that guy who flitted from woman to woman, having his fill with many but settling down with none. He’d had no desire to play the fool to some woman who’d drag him around by his cock, then shatter his heart. He’d been determined never to be his father.

Christina, however, was something else. Now, more than ever, the developing closeness between them made him long to have her on a permanent basis.

He leaned over, reaching blindly for the lamp on the bedside table. His fumbling fingers hit the edge, sending it teetering. Luckily, he managed to catch it before it pitched to the floor, then settled it and found the switch. The space flooded with light. He wanted to commit every second of his time with her to memory.

Christina’s eyes fluttered open. She squinted against the light before her gaze caught his. Something shifted in the small space between them. The same connection that hit him earlier pulsed again. Hands braced on his chest, she began to move over him, lifting and sinking to a slow, steady rhythm. She never once looked away and he lost himself in her beautiful green eyes. He soaked in every moment, every breath and sigh and quiet moan.

He had two days to convince her he loved her. When, exactly, he’d made the decision, he couldn’t be certain. He only knew Christina was the answer to everything wrong with his life.

He sat up, wrapped his arms tightly around her, buried his face in her throat, in her scent, curling his body around hers as much as he could, and let himself go. His orgasm erupted through him in a luxurious rush. He groaned into her throat, shaking helplessly in her arms. She followed quickly on his heels. Her body trembled against him, his name leaving her lips on a litany of pleasure-filled cries that filled his soul.

When the spams ended, he buried his face in the fall of her hair, more vulnerable than he’d ever been and crushed her to him. The emotion rushed up and the words left his mouth before he could stop them. “I love you, Tina.”

He waited, shaking, in silence for her to react, to say…something. Once out, he couldn’t be sorry he’d said them. The words had left his mouth on a need to set them free. Where they’d take him, he didn’t know. Only that he needed to say them, to give them a voice.

Christina’s body stiffened, so tense her awareness of him all but crackled in the air around them. She pushed at his chest.

“Let me go.” When he didn’t—couldn’t—release her, she shoved harder against his shoulders, struggling to free herself. “Damn it, Sebastian, let me go.”

Her voice filled with panic, and he released his hold on her, forcing himself to give her some space. She scrambled off his lap as if he’d caught fire, and hightailed it out of the room without so much as a backward glance.

He flopped back onto the bed and flung an arm over his eyes. His pants lay undone. The room smelled of sex and her. He was pretty sure her sweet, feminine scent had imbedded itself in his skin, because her aroma, that luscious mix of her perfume and her own natural scent, filled his nostrils every time he inhaled, sweet and alluring.

Yet the sound of her bare feet thumping down the stairs drifted through the silence. The house and the night around them became so quiet, even the creak of a door opening drifted up the stairs.

He released a heavy breath, letting his arm flop to the bed beside him. He’d done it now. He couldn’t take the words back. Truth was, he had no desire to. He might have scared the hell out of her, but he couldn’t be sorry he’d said them. He wanted her. If it took him the rest of his life to earn her trust, then so be it, because he would
not
let her get away from him again.

Christina thumped down the stairs as fast as her shaky legs would carry her and strode through the living room toward the double French doors leading out to the beach. She snatched the afghan off the back of the sofa on her way through and hit the doors at a full stride, only wrapping the blanket around her naked shoulders once her bare feet hit the cool, damp wood of the back deck. Her heart pounded, and her breath lodged in her throat. She halted at the railing and drew in deep, gulping lungsful of the cool night air.

It was a beautiful night, all things considered. The sky was clear and bright, the stars twinkling above her. It was unusual to see the stars around here. The constant cloud cover always hid them, and they reflected on the surface of the water, diamonds in a midnight sky. The water lapped at the shore, quiet and serene, but the calm dark water and the beauty of her surroundings did nothing to soothe her frazzled nerves. Not this time.

Her mind reeled, going in a thousand directions at once. Sebastian’s words repeated in her head.
“I love you, Tina.”
Every time they replayed, her heart clenched a little harder and the tears she tried desperately to hold in pricked at the backs of her eyelids.

Memories flitted through her mind faster than she could stop them. A cruel man’s idea of a game. She’d played the part of the fool for Craig. They’d dated for a year. He wooed her, made her fall in love with him, asked her to marry him and convinced her to elope. Stupid, hopeful fool that she was, she fell for his lies hook, line, and sinker. A silly girl with a romantic dream. The lonely ache had gotten to her. The desperate need for someone to see
her
.

She’d left that Las Vegas wedding chapel feeling like a damn fool. That was the day she’d realized in stunning clarity what her future would look like. Lonely and empty. Love apparently wasn’t meant for her and men appeared to only see her as a means to line their pockets or their beds or any combination of both. She’d decided that night to stop trying, to dive into taking her company straight to the top.

Sebastian made her want it. She longed to believe his sweet words, but was he even capable of giving her all of himself?

Another memory lodged in her mind’s eye. A heart-to-heart conversation between women. Jean had confided in her, two years ago now, after she’d ended her relationship with him. Even now the pain in the other woman’s voice rose as sharp as it had then.

The door leading onto the deck creaked open behind her and Christina straightened her shoulders, trying to prepare herself for the confrontation to come. She was a businesswoman, damn it. If she could deal with men in the boardroom, Sebastian ought to be a cakewalk.

Except as she whirled to face him, the sight of him took her by surprise. Having taken off his shirt, he leaned against the doorway, arms folded, eyes hooded. His bare chest tormented her with the memory of falling asleep in his arms. Stray strands of his hair stuck out from his head, as if someone had run their fingers through it, which she knew damn well someone had. Those were
her
finger tracks in his hair. He looked exactly what he was, well and thoroughly fucked, and God, he looked sexy in it. That she wasn’t still wrapped in his arms and drifting back to sleep made her chest ache.

She straightened her shoulders and pointed a finger at him, determined to regain her equilibrium. “Don’t. Don’t toy with me, Sebastian. I’m not one of those flighty little floozies who eat up anything you tell them.”

He didn’t say anything in return but pushed away from the doorway and crossed the deck, coming to a stop in front of her. She clutched the blanket tighter around her, the only defense she had against him. Nobody made her as vulnerable as he did. With all her cards laid out on the table, he had the power to break her.

Sebastian, however, didn’t appear to be listening. He backed her against the railing and pressed his long, lean body into hers.

“You think too damn much, Christina.” He slid his hand into her hair and pulled her mouth to his.

A surprised gasp escaped her, but any form of protest she might have had became lost in his assault. Sebastian didn’t have a timid bone in his body. He kissed the same way, bold and possessive. He wrapped his body around her, until there wasn’t an inch of her not surrounded in him. His lips moved over hers like a hot brand. His tongue thrust into her mouth, searching out hers, and God help her, she reciprocated. The sensual slide of their tongues tangling had her forgetting her name.

When her head fell back on a helpless sigh—because what woman in her right mind could defend herself against Sebastian Blake in seduction mode?—he finally released her.

Now at his mercy, all she could do was shake her head. “What are you doing, Baz?”

“Not giving up on you.” Even in the moonlight, the heat in his eyes scorched her. His chest rose and fell at a rapid pace with his harsh, erratic breathing.