And then Rachel tumbled forward, falling into it, the rush of pleasure, the shocking spasms and the overwhelming satisfaction.
She hadn’t realized that Dec had found his release at the same time until her mind regained some sense of reality again. He was gasping for breath, driving into her, and Rachel sighed, running her hands over his chest.
There had been nothing bizarre or kinky about it. It was perfectly normal sex. But at the same time, it was the most extraordinary sex she’d ever experienced. Because it was with a man who touched her heart and her soul. She was falling in love with Declan Quinn and there was nothing she could do about it.
8
DEC STARED DOWN AT the pile of magazines that Rachel had handed him, his mouth hanging open. “What the hell are you doing with all this porn in your office?”
“We used it for a study,” Rachel said, her eyes fixed on the book she was reading. “I couldn’t throw it away since we bought it with grant money. Besides, those magazines don’t really go out of date that fast. They’re all pictures.”
“You realize what you’re asking me to do?” Dec said.
Rachel glanced up from her book, sending him an exasperated expression. “How am I supposed to get any work done if you insist on talking to me the whole time? I have things to do and since you’re determined to accompany me everywhere I go, then you need something to occupy yourself.”
“So you decided porn would do the trick? That titty magazines would occupy me?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t like porn,” she said.
“Well, I do occasionally indulge, but it’s not a huge part of my life.”
“I’m giving you permission to indulge, so just sit back and enjoy it. I’ve got at least another hour’s worth of work to do and then we can go.”
Dec sat back on Rachel’s leather sofa and picked through the selection of magazines. There were all sorts, from the standard men’s magazines to some pretty raunchy stuff. “What exactly were you studying?” he asked.
“We asked men ages eighteen to thirty-five to choose their fantasy female from the magazine. And then we took the qualities of those women, quantified them and ran them through a computer program to see if there was a typical fantasy object for most American men of that demographic.”
“So you sat around and looked at porn with these guys?”
“No,” Rachel said. “They sat in a room and went through the magazines. They picked out a girl, then brought it out to me or one of my assistants and we logged it into the book.”
“You put a guy in a room alone with a bunch of porn?”
“We asked that they refrain from pleasuring themselves with our porn, but I didn’t ask what they planned to do once they left. I’m studying sexual behaviors, Dec. It would be hypocritical to begrudge them their own pleasures.”
Dec flipped through one of the magazines. “So what did you find out?”
Rachel closed the book in front of her and set it aside. “There was a certain type of woman who appealed to the majority of the men. After we made a composite photo, we gave it back to the men in our study and asked them on a scale of one to ten, how they’d rate the woman as their ultimate fantasy. She scored an 8.7, which was statistically significant.”
“And what does that mean?”
“We postulated that society, through media images in television, movies and magazines, trains men to be attracted to a certain type of woman. Back in the caveman days, these women were sturdy, strong, good gatherers and able to bear plenty of children. And this held true up until the industrial revolution. But now, things are changing. Men don’t take into account how a woman will help extend his genetic line. He’s simply interested in the sexiest fuck on the planet.” She smiled. “Excuse my Latin.”
Dec frowned. “Is that true?”
“Our research proved that. Once a woman was freed from the difficult and dangerous work of keeping a home and bearing children, she was free to be something else-a sexual object. A woman could be incapable of sustaining marriage and a family, yet the strongest men will choose her because she has large breasts and a tight ass.” She frowned. “As you can see, this doesn’t bode well for the future of mankind.”
Dec chuckled at her sarcastic delivery of the last line. “I love listening to you when you get all academic on me.”
Rachel continued her work as Dec paged through the magazines. He found his mind not captured by the sexy images he saw, but by what he and Rachel had shared the previous night. Though he had been guilty in the past of choosing women because of their looks, with Rachel it was different. Not that she wasn’t the most beautiful woman on the planet, but he was attracted to her because of her intelligence, her vulnerability and her honesty.
And then there was the way she made him feel in bed. He wasn’t sure what it was and maybe it was a combination of all the things he loved about her, but when she turned her full attention to making him feel good, there was nothing like it in the world. Every touch, every movement, drove him wild with desire.
He drew a deep breath, the thoughts in his head spinning into further fantasies. He had been in a constant state of arousal since the very moment he’d met Rachel and until last night, there’d been no decent relief. But now, he had every belief that what they’d shared would be enjoyed again.
With a satisfied smile, Dec picked up another magazine and flipped to the centerfold. He held it up, letting the page open into his lap. “Look at this,” he said, turning the magazine so Rachel could see. “You have much nicer breasts than this woman. See, these don’t look real. Yours look…natural.”
“Thank you,” Rachel said.
“And you have nicer hair,” Dec added. “I like your hair. It’s…different.”
“Different good or different bad?”
“Good,” Dec said. He plucked at his own hair. “It’s wavy and thick, so I can sink my fingers into it when I’m kissing you. I like that.”
“Anything else?” Rachel asked, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
“If I had to describe my fantasy woman, she’d look pretty much like you.” He paused. “Well, she’d look exactly like you.” He tossed the magazine aside and stood, then crossed the office to her. Leaning forward, his hands braced on her desk, he kissed her upturned face, first her cheeks, then her nose, then her mouth.
“Do I have to give you something else to occupy your time?” she asked. “I have some nice drawings of sexual positions you might like.”
“I’ll let you know if I need them for reference.” He circled around the desk and pulled her to her feet, then wrapped his arms around her waist. This time, he gave her a long, deep kiss, designed solely to make her forget her work and turn her attention back to him.
“You know pretty much everything about sex, don’t you,” he murmured, his voice warm against her ear. She nodded. “There’s one thing you don’t know, though.”
“What’s that?” Rachel asked.
“Never give a man porn when he’s locked in an office with a beautiful woman.”
“We’re not locked in,” she said.
“Then I think you better lock us in,” Dec countered.
Rachel slowly backed away from him. At first, he thought she’d find an excuse to put him off. He turned around and leaned against the edge of her desk. And when he heard the lock click, he smiled.
The click was like a starter’s pistol and Dec walked across the office and grabbed Rachel, dragging her into a frantic kiss. He didn’t want to spend time with preliminaries. They could do that in the privacy of his apartment later that night. Right now, he just had to have her naked body in his arms.
His hands fumbled with her clothes, stripping them off as quickly as he could. At first, Rachel seemed surprised by his aggression, but then she laughed softly and began to tear at his clothes, too.
Within seconds, they were both naked, their mouths still fixed on each other’s. He couldn’t get enough of her as his hands skimmed over her body, enjoying each sexy curve. Every inch of her skin was so soft and warm, like silk
