A Will and a Way (13 page)

“You did. You thought about me.” Lifting her gaze to meet his again, she offered a slow, smug smile. “Today wasn’t the first time you got off on me.”

He didn’t flinch or look away. “Sweetheart, I did it again when I came home to shower and change because I was afraid I’d never make it through dinner.”

Arousal rocketed through her as she pictured him wet and hard. And she kept right on picturing it while he shed the rest of his clothes, only rousing from her fantasy when the real deal plucked a condom from her collection then knocked the rest to the floor. A nervous laugh tangled in her throat as he planted one knee on the edge of the mattress and gently propelled her back.

“Later,” she whispered.

Will cupped the back of her thigh and drew her leg high on his hip, his gaze fixed on the sight of his cock pressed against her pussy. “Hm?”

“Nothing.”

His chin jerked and his eyes snapped up to meet hers. Jaw tensed, he nodded once, letting her know he completely understood. The tear of the condom wrapper almost made her sob with relief. She pressed her head into the soft give of the comforter as he pressed the head of his cock to her tight entrance. His fingers skittered along her thigh, but the firm caress of his palm kept her grounded.

Holding her gaze, he dropped to one elbow. “You mean everything, right?” His voice vibrated through her, low-pitched, husky, and utterly uncompromising. “Later. Later we’ll do everything, not nothing.”

Her eyes opened wide as he surged into her, pressing deep and sure with a single thrust that nearly drove her over the edge. Will held himself still, a groan rumbling through him as she pried her fingernails from the backs of his upper arms. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

With excruciating deliberation, he drew back to the very brink. The breath she hadn’t realized she was holding exploded from her lungs when he plunged again. “Oh, yes.”

His hand grasped the back of her leg, pressing it snug against his hip. The crisp hair on his chest abraded her nipples. The air hummed, electrified by the soft sucks and slaps of flesh meeting flesh. His grunts matched her squeaks. Tiny mewls and moans filled her ears. Subconsciously, she knew they came from her, but the sounds were so piteous, so primal, it was impossible to reconcile those pathetic little noises with the roaring pleasure building inside her. A simmer segued into a rolling boil. Bone-deep shudders rippled the muscles in his back. The cords in his neck stood in sharp relief as he shifted his weight, thrusting into her harder, deeper, driving her toward the opposite edge of the bed.

“So tight.”

His eyelids slid shut. The muscle in his jaw jumped, compelling her touch. She brushed his cheek and the veil lifted. Blue eyes locked on hers for a moment before he turned into the caress. Warm lips on the center of her palm. Hot, ragged exhalations skated over her skin, slipping through her fingers and spilling down her wrist.

“Betty.”

He whispered her name as if she created the heavens and Earth. He stared deep into her eyes as he pinned her to the bed, burying himself in her, making her the center of his universe time and time again. Her climax hovered just out of reach. Each stroke of his cock pushed her closer and closer, but not quite…there.

Until his mouth covered hers.

The kiss was nothing more than a glancing blow, but it concussed deep inside her. Waves of pleasure ransacked her body. His lower lip clung to hers. The tenderness in the second kiss left her feeling bruised, battered, and utterly bereft. Gasping for breath and grasping for release from the exquisite torment, she grabbed his ass in both hands and held him tight against her. A low, guttural groan signaled his capitulation. His mouth found hers once more, and Will blew her sky high with one last lingering kiss.

* * * *

Betty ran her fingernails through the hair on Will’s stomach, tracing lazy patterns that threatened to push him to the brink of insanity. Utterly content for the first time in God-only-knew-how-long, Will gathered her hand in his and carried it to his mouth. The wordless gesture stifled the torment but not her drowsy chuckle. “Shh. Sleep,” he murmured against petal-soft skin.

“I’m a little keyed up.”

Her whispered words bounced off his back, but a trickle of awareness tripped down his spine. Heaving a sigh, he blinked away the post-coital laziness and pulled her closer still. She tipped her chin up in blatant invitation, and Will was more than happy to oblige. The kiss melted into a simple mingling of breaths, but neither of them moved to break the connection.

Holding her gaze he asked, “What can I do to help?”

“Me.”

He chuckled and gave her another nuzzling kiss. “I’m not as young as I once was.”

Her eyes danced. “Isn’t that a country song?”

After that first frantic bout in the office, they’d scarfed down some dinner then taken a good run at the everything he’d promised her, but Toby Keith’s tongue-in-cheek lament about his lost youth wasn’t far off the mark. A non-committal hum served as acknowledgment of the joke. Silky gold tresses sifted through his fingers. Something edgy shone bright in her aquamarine eyes. Will searched her face, looking for a clue as to the root of her restlessness. It sure as hell wasn’t a lack of satisfaction. He’d made damn sure it wasn’t that. “What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing. I just….”

The unfinished thought hung suspended between them. With a huff of frustration, Betty tried to wriggle from his grasp, but he wasn’t about to let her go. Rolling onto his side, he hooked an arm over her waist and held his ground. “You just....”

He stared at her, prompting her to finish the thought. When she didn’t pick up the thread, he launched into problem-solving mode. “You’re hungry? Thirsty?”

She shook her head, a faint frown of annoyance etching a line between her brows.

“The pillow’s too soft? The bed too hard?”

“Too crowded.”

The widening of her eyes told him she was as shocked by her response as he was. Apparently he’d found the one woman in the world who didn’t care to cuddle. Glancing back over his shoulder, he could gauge nearly three feet of unclaimed real estate available in the king-size bed. Chuckling at his own assumptions, he relinquished his hold on her and moved an arm’s length away. “Better?”

Betty blinked and a puzzled frown tugged at her mouth. Her thoroughly kissed lips opened, but no sound came out. A blush colored her cheeks as she peered over the edge of the bed. “Sorry. Maybe I should go home.”

He wet his lips, buying a moment to tamp down the howl of protest that rose inside him. “If you want to go, I’ll take you.”

“I think I’ve just gotten used to sleeping alone.”

“Me, too.” Nodding, he reached across no-man’s land to brush her hair back from her temple. “I hate it.”

A sad smile crept over her face. “Do you? I love it.”

The green-eyed monster snarled inside him. He wanted to yank her to him but managed to resist. Barely. Instead, he settled for running his fingers through her mussed hair. His doing. Every outdated, old-fashioned, borderline chauvinistic notion he’d ever entertained ganged up inside him and threatened to come roaring out. He clamped his mouth shut until the urge passed. He had her naked in his bed. How much would it take to keep her there? “You do?”

“I’m not interested in being tied down.”

The image of Betty strapped to his bed wearing nothing but a blush flashed in his mind, scorching a few synapses and downshifting his autonomic system for the span of a few sluggish heartbeats. A hoarse laugh escaped him. “Bullshit. I saw you eyeing up my tie. You’d love it.”

His thoughts must have shown on his face because a slow, sultry smile stretched those sweet lips. Her eyebrows arched, making a mockery of the innocent light in her eyes. “Being tied up or tied down?”

Sighing, he sidestepped the quicksand but mentally added both options to his wish list. “Do you regret it?”

“Regret what? This?”

He thought about his best friend and the years Greg had wasted married to someone he didn’t love. Then he remembered the dopey look on Greg’s face when he got himself hitched to the woman he did. Will couldn’t help but wonder where Betty fell on that scale. There was certainly something about her late husband that haunted her. “Getting married.”

Surprise flared in her eyes. Her siren smile faded to a rueful shadow of its predecessor as she reeled in the bait. “Regret my marriage?”

He nodded.

“Yes and no.”

Heaving a sigh that outstripped his, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling as if the deeper answer were hidden somewhere in the cobwebby corners of his bedroom. The sheet slipped down, exposing the tops of her breasts and clinging to the very tips of her nipples. His palm itched. His fingers stretched and flexed. All the muscles in his arm tensed, prepared to carry out his brain’s order—up or down—whatever it might be.

“I don’t regret it.” The statement jerked him from his blatant ogling. A wry gleam lit her eyes. “Much.”

The crinkle of her nose tugged at him. He reached across the abyss to rest a comforting hand on her stomach. The much-abused bed sheet was nearly as soft and pliant as her skin, but not quite as warm.

“We had a nice house, a good business.” Tucking her hand under her cheek, she offered a lopsided smile. “Donald was the mayor, though there wasn’t much power in that job in a town as small as Percy. But there was respect.” Her voice softened to a wisp. “I was very respectable.”

The last bit startled him. “Was that important to you?”

“I thought it was.”

He ran a hand over the swell of her hip. “And now you’re thoroughly debauched.”

The description earned him a laugh.

“Debauched? Where’d you get a word like that?”

“Sister Laurent,” he answered without hesitation. “She’s always hoping to expand my vocabulary.”

“Ah, well, she should know, right?” She turned to face him. “May I ask you a blunt question?”

His whole body tensed, but he forced a small smile. “Considering the thoughts I’ve had about your mouth, I’m not liable to mind anything you want to do with it.”

“My mouth?” She touched her fingertips to her lips, making him want to kiss every one of them as well.

Clearing a rasp from his throat, he returned her curious stare. “What did you want to ask?”

“So, I was…good?”

The question jolted a laugh from him. He could tell by the thunderclouds darkening her blue eyes that laughter wasn’t the right response, but he couldn’t help himself. She was so damn sweet. And sassy. All brass balls and Bambi eyes.

She sat up, but he caught her before she could escape. He scaled the laugh back to a chuckle as he fell to the pillows, hauling her over on top of him. She scrambled until she sat straddling his hips, a vision with sex-rumpled blond waves and indignant eyes.

“I fail to see what’s so funny.”

“You are.” That answer didn’t seem to be enough to appease her. Letting his hands slide up her hips, he mapped the nip of her waist then growled low and deep as he skimmed over her ribcage to her breasts. Real breasts with big, smooth pinkish-brown nipples that contracted into points the moment he touched them. “If you were any better, you’d be dialing nine-one-one right now.”

Her smile was like rays of sun breaking through the clouds. Basking in the warmth of it, he found himself sending up a prayer of thanksgiving for fast storms and sultry women. She smoothed her hair back from her face then ran a hand down the center of his chest. He tightened his abs even though he knew they were about as flat as a guy his age could expect them to be.

“I just wanted to be sure.”

Her slow, husky drawl added a little ‘uh’ to the end of each sentence. It made him think of mint juleps, slow-moving ceiling fans, and men in seersucker suits. It also made him hot as Hades. Before he could respond, she wrapped those manicured fingers around his dick and began to scoot down. He closed his eyes, willing his worn-out body to rise to the occasion just one more time.

He was only semi-hard when she drew him into her mouth, but he caught up fast. He tangled his fingers in her hair, not in an attempt to control her movements, but more to hang on. Her tongue was quick and soft, teasing his head, wrapping around him, cradling him in warm, wet welcome as she took him deeper.

One hand fell to the sheet when she adjusted to accommodate his full arousal. His dick nudged the soft spot behind her palate and his balls drew up tight. She applied extra suction as she drew back and paused, her lips pursed in a chaste kiss on the tip of him, her eyes seeking his.

“So good,” he whispered.

Two words. That was all the encouragement she needed. Betty plunged down on him, licking and sucking with greedy abandon. He watched as those pretty pink lips enveloped him. Her cheeks hollowed. Her hands gripped his thighs. Silky hair spilled over her shoulder and puddled on his hip. The short, sharp exhalations bursting from that pert little nose were just one more sanity-shredding sensation added to the mix.

When she moaned around him, he spread his hands over the back of her head to keep her there. “So good. So hot,” he panted, meeting the eager pulls of her mouth with fast, shallow thrusts. He felt her hand on his balls. Gentle pressure. The soft, soothing skin of her palm. She pressed the tip of her tongue to the slit in his dick and he bucked. “I’m gonna come.”

That was all the warning he gave. It was all he could manage. Two mind-numbing pulls later, he was shooting into her sweet mouth, pumping his come down her throat, and roaring with the pure animal pleasure of it. And she worked him over like a pro. He felt her throat muscles convulsing. Her lips remained wrapped tightly around him, the seal they formed unbreakable. He touched her cheek and his fingertips came away wet. Rousing himself enough to lift his head, he spotted twin trails streaking from the corners of her eyes.

“C’mere.”

Will tugged on her arms, urging her to abandon her plunder. She disengaged with an audible pop. He pulled her over him like a blanket, tucking her head into the crook of his neck as he curled his shuddering, spent body around her. He pressed a kiss of pure gratitude to the top of her head. “Good isn’t a good enough word.”