and he pumped into her harder, faster, driving her climax on until she was coming in deep, shuddering waves that triggered his own mindless surrender.
She collapsed on top of him, all warm and soft and pliant, and nestled her face against his neck, her breath hot and moist on his skin. He welcomed her slight weight, the crush of her breasts against his chest, the fragrant scent of her hair, and the touch of her damp lips on his throat. He massaged his hands up and down her naked back, and after a while she rolled off him with a contented sigh he felt solely responsible for.
She looked at him, all soft and sated, and he couldn’t help the arrogant male grin curving his lips. What he found more surprising was the need to keep her in his bed, rather than his usual compulsion to usher her out of it, as he normally did with the women he slept with. It was a novel sensation, and one he refused to examine too closely.
Instead, he shook those thoughts from his mind. He decided that for tonight, they still had a few more hours to enjoy each other until they parted ways in the morning, and he planned to do just that.
Chapter Five
After a quick trip to the bathroom, Nathan returned to the bedroom to find Nicole no longer waiting for him on the bed, where he’d expected to find her. Instead, she was stepping into her panties and pulling them back on, a clear sign she getting ready to leave.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She bent over and picked up her shoes from the floor, giving him a provocative view of her ass. “I’m picking up my things and getting dressed,” she said, stating the obvious.
He was stark naked and close enough to take full advantage of her bent-over position, and his cock responded to the randy thoughts chasing through his mind, stirring his lower body back to life with a surge of lust. “Why?” he asked, and this time his voice sounded strangled, with desire and the surprising need to stall her departure.
Straightening, she turned back around to face him, thankfully not noticing what a horny bastard he was. Her gaze met his, and a slight smile tugged at her lips. “Because I don’t want to drive home naked.”
Under normal circumstances, he would have laughed at her attempt to crack a joke, but right now he was too intent on enticing her to stay before he lost the chance. “You don’t have to go.”
“Yeah, I do,” she replied softly, though she didn’t look completely convinced by her own words. “It was fun, fantastic actually, but no need to complicate things by me hanging around.”
He witnessed the array of conflicting emotions in her blue eyes, a wealth of uncertainties clashing with a deeper longing she was trying very hard to deny. He didn’t understand the doubts, so he focused on the more sensual aspect still lingering between them. Being with her felt good, a warm and inviting contrast with the darkness of the case looming before him. A few hours of pleasure wasn’t a lot to ask for, and it wasn’t as though he’d be getting any work done tonight.
He gave her an easygoing smile. “Look, I know we both said we weren’t looking for anything long-term, but what’s the harm in you and I enjoying the rest of the night together?”
She sighed, and he could see her resistance crumbling, just a bit. “I really shouldn’t.”
Knowing she was riding that fine line between fleeing and staying, he decided to bring in a heavier arsenal of persuasion. “Yeah, you really should,” he murmured huskily as he stepped toward her. “And let me show you all the reasons why.”
Before she could move away, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her body flush to his. There was no mistaking the stiff erection prodding her belly, and she gasped at the physical proof of how much he wanted her all over again. His free hand cupped the back of her neck to hold her in place, and then he meshed their lips together in an all-out relentless assault to convince her to stay.
His mouth moved over hers with shameless purpose, his tongue stroking hot and deep, over and over, until the tension in her body eased and he felt her melt against him. Letting her shoes drop back to the floor, she entwined her arms around his neck and kissed him back with equal heat and passion.
Triumph was very sweet, indeed.
Grinning, he lifted his mouth inches from hers, just enough to taunt and tease, and she whimpered in protest. He chuckled huskily, knowing he almost had her exactly where he wanted her. “Are you sure you still want to go?” he whispered against her parted lips.
Her answer was to hook one of her slender legs around his hip, so his shaft rubbed against the damp silk lining her panties. “You so don’t play fair.”
He’d take that as a yes. “No, I don’t play fair,” he agreed as he guided her a few steps backward, toward the bed. “Not when it comes to getting what I want, and in this case that would be
She laughed, the sound so sexy it made him ache to get back inside her. “You can certainly try,” she said, all sass and brazen challenge.
With a playful growl, he tumbled her back onto the mattress. Before she could scramble away or switch their positions, he moved over her, holding her down with the weight of his body as he proceeded to show her who, exactly, held all the sexual power this time around. After a while she gave in and let him have his way with her, multiple times-at his leisure and in his own good time, which drove her wild in the process.
He liked that. A whole lot.
Being with a woman had never been so hot, so fun, and so satisfying. He couldn’t seem to get enough of Nicole, though he did his best to sate his hunger for her throughout the night, until he’d wrung every last bit of pleasure from their bodies and they finally collapsed into sexual exhaustion.
Nicole couldn’t stay. Oh, she was certainly tempted to indulge in a sleepover with Nathan. To wake up all warm and snuggled next to him and enjoy lazy morning sex with a man who knew his way around a woman’s body and had awakened all those erogenous zones that had been dormant for way too long. A part of her definitely wanted to have breakfast with him, possibly even spend the day together getting to know him better, and therein lay the problem for her.
Tonight was supposed to be all about a dark, gorgeous stranger, a few hot orgasms-a one-night stand meant to slake those carnal needs that had built over the past six months of celibacy. Nathan had done the job admirably and generously. Except between the shared laughter, the playful teasing, the intimate conversations and lustful groans, he’d become more than a sexual object for the sole purpose of giving her pleasure. He’d become
There was nothing awkward about being with him, nothing to make walking away from him simple or easy. Because somewhere along the way he’d gone from being her temporary fantasy guy to the kind of man she knew she could fall for, given the chance.
And that knowledge scared the hell out of her.
Instinctively she knew spending more than this one night with him would be detrimental to her emotions, and quite possibly her heart. That warm fluttering in her belly when she glanced at him, combined with a deeper yearning for something more, was a complication and distraction she didn’t want or need in her life. For her, it was all about self-preservation, because Nathan had the ability to mess with her head and her goals as a journalist, and she wasn’t about to get sucked back into a situation that consumed her to the detriment of everything else that was important to her.
That’s why she was getting out while the getting was still good, while she could think straight and make the decision without her mind being fogged with the afterglow of phenomenal sex. And right now was the perfect opportunity to make her getaway, since she still had the advantage of being cloaked in anonymity. She hadn’t given Nathan any personal information for a reason. She hadn’t checked his name on the dating scorecard as a match,
