A Kept Man (17 page)

“I’ll do my best.”

“That’s all I ask.”

She waited a moment, as though considering where she wanted to start.
His eyes never wavered from her face. This time, though, she could
sense his tension. She suspected it had less to do with what she was
planning than whether he believed he possessed enough self-control to
remain passive through her exploration. They’d probably find
that out together at the same time.

Finally, she moved closer. Instead of walking right up to him though,
she slowly circled him. His head started to turn to follow her
progress. She immediately stopped and gently clucked her tongue.

“If you’re going to lose focus that easily, we might as
well not even bother.”

“Sorry,” he muttered. His face returned to a forward
position.

She allowed another long moment to pass before beginning again. She
stopped behind him, admiring the strong line of his shoulders, the
smooth musculature of his back. It wasn’t what she intended,
but she couldn’t resist reaching out and stroking his firm,
round buttocks as she passed by. The touch was so soft it couldn’t
have felt like more than a brush of air against his body. She could
almost see the physical effort he had to expend not to react.

At last she came to stand in front of him again. Their eyes
connected. She smiled. “You are very impressive. But you knew
that, right?”

He didn’t say anything. His eyes held a challenge, as though
daring her to throw her best at him. That only made her smile more.

“I’m trying to figure out what it is I like most about
you though. Is it your eyes?” She reached forward and traced
the line of his brow. “Is it your nose? Or your cheekbones?”
She curved her palm to his cheek and ran her thumb across the bridge
of his nose. “Or your mouth…”

Maybe it was the closeness, but she lost her concentration and found
herself staring at his lips for far longer than she’d intended.
She rubbed her thumb over the indentation at the top of his upper
lip, then along the wide length of the lower. He had such a sensual
mouth. Finally she couldn’t resist. She pushed herself up on
her toes and caught his lips with hers.

To his credit, he didn’t kiss her back. She knew how hard that
must have been. She could almost feel the tension bubbling beneath
the surface of his skin, threatening to break loose. She probably
shouldn’t push her luck, not when there was so much left to
cover. She just took a long enough kiss to get the taste of him on
her mouth. She drew her face away fast enough to see him take a hard
breath, his Adam’s apple bobbing wildly. His eyes locked onto
hers like lasers. When she was sure she had his full attention, she
slowly licked the wetness, the taste of him, from her mouth. Her
tongue moved over her lips in long, slow strokes. He watched for a
moment, his eyes heavy-lidded and slumberous, before returning his
gaze to hers.

“I’m impressed,” she said. “I didn’t
think you had it in you.”

He somehow managed to keep silent. He was practically biting his
tongue.

“Then there’s the way you smell.” She leaned into
him and pressed her face against his neck. The warm, undeniably male
smell of him filled her nostrils. He didn’t wear any cologne or
aftershave. The scent was pure Charlie. It was intoxicating. Her
whole body reacted to the smell of his musk. The urge to lean closer,
to wrap her hands in his hair and breathe him in, was overpowering.

The feel of his bare chest against her breasts broke the spell. She
pulled away, pressing her hands against the defined planes of his
upper body. His body was so hard, yet so soft at the same time.

His skin yielded beneath her touch, but beneath it lay hard muscle.
She could feel the coiled strength beneath the surface. The
impression was only increased by the tension pulsating through him.
His whole body was stiff as a board. She glanced at the stoic
expression on his face in amusement. He didn’t fool her one
bit. He couldn’t. She could feel his heart thudding heavily
beneath her palm.

“You feel so good,” she whispered, letting her breath
tickle against his ear. She felt the tremor rock through him. “You
really do have an amazing body. I want to touch every inch of it.”

Even as the words left her mouth, her hands were already sliding
around him. She curled her fingers around the sides of his abdomen,
dragging them down his body to his hips and bringing them back over
his abdomen. His stomach jerked once, but he didn’t move. She
let her hands play in the hard ridges of his belly, tracing the
outline of his defined abs. “Amazing,” she said, tracing
lower and lower, until her fingers met the divot of his belly button.

His cock was already standing at full length, jutting upward from the
thatch of hair between his legs. The very tip pointed up at her. She
couldn’t lower her hands past his belly button. His penis
blocked the way, swaying gently as it throbbed, begging for immediate
attention. All she had to do was reach down and take him in her hand.
She wanted to do it, to feel the hard, silken length of him that had
been inside of her yesterday in the palm of her hand. She was damn
well sure Charlie wanted her to touch him too. His stomach muscles
were clenched so tight his six-pack had practically become a twelve.

Instead, she let her hand waver there, the palm hovering so close he
had to be able to feel the heat of her skin on his cock. All he had
to do was push his hips forward and he’d be able to brush the
sensitive tip against her hand.

He didn’t do it. She admired his restraint, even as she planned
to break it.

She moved so quickly he didn’t have a chance to prepare. She
drew her hand back at the same instant she dipped her head forward
and caught his nipple with her teeth. They bit down and twisted it
gently. She released it a second later, thrusting her tongue out and
licking from his nipple halfway up his chest with one long stroke.

His body jerked again. The tip of his cock was practically dripping.
She gave no indication that she noticed his reaction. He tasted
salty. She smacked her lips together a few times as though savoring
the flavor. “You even taste good.”

Her tongue had left a wet streak where she’d licked him. She
traced the mark with the tip of her finger, the touch feather light.

“Yesterday, when you were drying off, I was thinking about
licking the water from your stomach. Would you have liked that?”

His eyes bored into her, his pupils dark with the answer.

She idly ran her finger down his abdomen. “But you’re all
dry now. There’s nothing at all to lick off. What a shame.”

She waited a moment, then fell to her knees. His cock bobbed in her
face. She ignored it as best she could—no easy feat.

“Then again, maybe there doesn’t need to be anything on
them. Maybe I should see how you taste clean.”

Before the final words were out of her mouth, she was already leaning
forward. Her tongue stroked over his belly from his naval to his
sternum. The contours of his body felt even sexier under her tongue.
When it reached the very end of its journey, she threw her head back
and admired her work. The wet streak glistened. His body trembled
with barely suppressed tension.

“Very nice,” she murmured. Her gaze dropped to the
inevitable. She fell back on her haunches until she was looking
straight at his cock. It was pulsing even more anxiously now, seeking
release. He looked ready to come at any moment. Part of her was
surprised he hadn’t already.

“Do you want me to touch you, Charlie? Do you want to feel my
fingers wrapped around your cock? Or should I use my mouth? Would you
like that? Or what if I just licked it, all around?”

His hands were balled into fists at his sides right at her eye level.
He didn’t say anything, but she watched as he slowly uncurled
his fingers, his knuckles practically cracking as he straightened the
digits, then curled them again until the knuckles turned white.

“No preference, huh? I guess that means it’s lady’s
choice.”

She scrutinized him for a long moment, not sure what her preference
was either. This part of him was just as perfectly formed as the rest
of him. She wanted him in her hands. She wanted him in her mouth. She
just didn’t know which she wanted more.

Did it even matter? Whatever she didn’t choose now, she could
try later. She doubted he was going to give her any arguments.

Then she remembered last night. He’d used his mouth. She might
as well return the favor.

She reached around and grabbed his hips, digging her fingers into his
buttocks, then bent forward, dipping her head forward until it was
clear she was about to take him in her mouth.

But she didn’t. She stopped just before her lips reached the
straining tip of his cock and exhaled slowly, letting her warm breath
wash over him.

His abdomen clenched again, harder. His cock jerked. She fought a
grin, a rush of adrenaline surging through her at just how thoroughly
he was under her control, at her mercy. She didn’t move,
waiting for him to steady, leaving him to wait to see what she would
do next.

When he was finally still again, she slowly counted to ten. Once she
had, she opened her mouth and extended her tongue to gently,
carefully lick the very tip of his cock. This time she sensed the
shudder that rocked through him. She didn’t stop, working her
tongue around the mushroom-shaped head and the top of the shaft,
flicking it lightly, breathing on him, teasing him, tormenting him.
His body tightened, his cock somehow growing even harder, extending
farther, as though straining for more.

Just when she thought she’d toyed with him enough, just when
she could sense him truly struggling against the effects of her
ministrations, she pushed forward without warning and took him fully
in her mouth. Almost immediately, she drew back again without pulling
off all the way, dragging her moist lips along his shaft, then
plunging forward again.

He came with a guttural groan that filled the air, in long, pulsating
spasms that went on and on, ripping through his entire body. His hips
jerked in her hands. She had to hold him tight.

Finally, when he was done, she withdrew, pushing back to look up at
him.

His eyes were closed tight, his head thrown back, his mouth open. He
finally closed it, his throat working hard as he swallowed sharply a
few times. She waited for him to look at her.

When he did, the liquid desire was still present in his eyes. His
face was dark with the flush of satisfaction.

“I’m impressed,” she said. “You must have a
lot of will power.”

“I don’t have any when it comes to you.”

“You could have fooled me. You lasted longer than I thought you
would.”

“Only because it was so damn good I didn’t want it to
end. I have to admit, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“You’d be surprised what I have in me.”

He offered her his hands, palms up. “Maybe you should let me
find out.”

The book now entirely forgotten, she reached up and grabbed his
hands. “Let’s go.”

Chapter
Twelve

The afternoon sun cast long shadows over the bed, where she and
Charlie lay in a tangled heap, breathless and drenched in sweat.
Still coming down to earth from their last go-round, Jess let her
head flop down on his shoulder and turned her face to the window.
Panting hard, she noticed how low the sun hovered in the sky.

“What time is it?” she whispered, barely getting the
words out.

It took Charlie a moment to catch his breath enough to say anything.
“I don’t know. I’m not wearing a watch.”

That made her smile. “I know. You’re not wearing
anything.”

She rolled over and leaned back against him, curling her body into
Charlie’s. He threw his arm over her and pulled her closer to
him. Despite them both being drenched in moisture, being pressed to
him wasn’t uncomfortable. She could feel his heart beating
against her back. It took a moment, then her pulse fell into rhythm
with his, beating in perfect syncopation. She listened to the sound
as her breath returned and smiled.

She’d never felt this way before. It wasn’t too
surprising. She’d experienced a lot of things in the last week
that she hadn’t felt before. This was different though. The
sense of fulfillment that came over her was completely new.

“I could stay here all day,” she said when her voice
returned.

“There’s no reason you can’t,” Charlie
murmured against her hair.

“Yes, there is.” She sighed and pulled away. “There’s
a very big reason I can’t.”

He didn’t immediately release her. “Tell me you’re
not thinking of going back to work.”

“I have to.”

He threw his head back against the mattress and groaned. “I’m
starting to hate your book.”

She grimaced. “You and me both.”

“Are you ready to talk about it yet?”

Jess pushed to a seated position, giving her head a vehement shake.
“No.”

He caught her hand when she would have stepped off the bed. “You
need to, you know. You need to deal with whatever is keeping you from
writing. Otherwise it doesn’t matter how much time you spend in
front of that computer. You still won’t get any writing done.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’m just saying. It won’t do any good. You might
as well stay here with me.” He started to pull her closer. “On
second thought, let’s go with that.”

“I can’t.”

“Then talk to me.”

“You don’t really care about that.”

“I care about anything that keeps you away from me.”

She gave him a rueful smile. “Another good line.”

He stared back, his expression perfectly solemn. “It’s
not a line. Talk to me. It can’t hurt, can it?”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“Then we’ll start with something easier. Why did you
become a reporter?”