Beneath the Surface (23 page)

“I know it’s quite a ways off, but I hope you’ll think about presenting at our dinner next year?” Dr. Rubin asked.

“Just send me the information when you’re ready and I promise I’ll be there.”

She hugged him again. “Thank you so much for coming, Mr. Vega.”

“Thank you for having me.”

Tabitha stepped forward as Dr. Rubin left, paused a foot in front of him. “You wore my favorite suit.”

“I knew you’d come.”

“I know you did.” She nodded, tears welling.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He stepped close, wrapped her in his arms, glad for the excuse to touch her, her soft curves fitting next to his hard body as if they had been made for him.

“Like you don’t know.” Tabitha grinned.

“Honestly, I don’t.”

“I’m just…a little overwhelmed. I had no idea,” she admitted.

EJ frowned. “No idea what?”

“That you were such a gifted speaker.”

“Oh, so I was good then?”

“You know you were, smart-ass.” She pulled away a little, playfully punched his ribs.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, steeling himself for her rejection as he took her by a hand and led her towards the coat check, surprised when she willingly followed.

Outside, however, she paused at the curb, pulling on his hand.

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Beneath the Surface

He should have known her acquiescence had come too easily.

“Don’t you have to say your good-byes and rub elbows and all that?”

“I’ve fulfilled my obligation for the night.” He tightened his grip, headed for the garage where his rental was parked.

Neither of them spoke during the entire one-block walk, didn’t say anything as EJ

turned in his ticket, the attendant brought him his car, Tabitha put her luggage in the back seat, then got in up front beside EJ as he got in the driver’s seat.

EJ had gotten several blocks away from the garage before Tabitha said, “I took a cab here straight from the airport.”

“Oh, yeah?”

She nodded. “I didn’t book a hotel room.”

He briefly glanced at her. “No?”

“Nope.” She shrugged. “Technically, I’m homeless and don’t have a place to stay.”

He smiled. “You’ve got a place to stay with me.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

She didn’t say anything else until they got into his suite at the Marriott fifteen minutes later, and then it wasn’t anything EJ wanted to hear.

“Can we just have something to eat and then hit the sack? I’m still kind of jet lagged.”

EJ raised his eyebrows. “Jet lagged?”

“Yes, you know. The condition that occurs when you travel through several time zones.”

Shit, she made it sound like she’d
time
traveled to another
universe
instead of taken a plane to another state. “I know what it is,” he grumbled.

“I was counting on your understanding since you’ve been hopping from state to state for the last several weeks yourself and know how taxing it can be.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’m glad you understand, baby.” She hugged him around the middle and laid her head on his chest long enough for his cock to twitch in recognition and her subtle vanilla scent to waft up to his nostrils. “I’m going to go take a shower while you order room service.” She released him, lifted her bag onto the luggage rack, unpacked and just generally went about making herself comfortable in his Western style room.

EJ stood at the entertainment center/bureau frowning, fists on his hips as he watched her, his erection straining the zipper of his pants and threatening to burst through any minute.

Tabitha turned from hanging a dress in the closet, caught him looking at her and arched a brow. “What’s the matter?”

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Gracie C. McKeever

He sighed. “Anything special you want to eat?”

“I’ll leave that up to you, but something meaty and filling. I’m starving.”

“Meaty and filling coming right up,” he mumbled as he passed her to get to the phone atop the bedside table.

No way in hell was that king size bed going to be big enough for the both of them!

* * * *

She reached up to turn on the nightstand lamp, glanced over at Eric sleeping beside her, and didn’t expect him to stir anytime soon.

She remembered turning over in her sleep and briefly waking during the night at one point around three a.m. to see him sitting up wide awake in the straight-back chair by the suite’s work desk watching the news on television.

Tabitha leaned up on an elbow, resting her chin in her palm to get a better look at him. He looked exhausted and scrumptious with his black hair tousled around his head and she smiled at the idea that he had tried to stay up all night to stay away from her.

She hadn’t lied when she’d told him she wanted to hit the sack early, nonetheless, she’d shamelessly teased him, insisting that the bed was more than big enough to accommodate the both of them when he’d refused to come to bed, mumbling something about sleeping on the suite’s sofa.

He must have had second thoughts during the wee hours about being cramped, and finally swallowed his pride to slide in beside her.

Tabitha pulled back the comforter and sheet to check and see if he still had on his clothes. She wouldn’t have put it by him to have gotten in bed with his suit on, armor to protect him against the big bad Tabitha-tease.

Nope, he’d taken off his clothes, clad in a pair of boxers and nothing else.

Yumm-y.

He had nice legs just like she’d thought—long, lean, well-delineated with muscles—and she couldn’t wait to feel them flexing beneath her as she straddled him.

She hungrily dragged her eyes from his feet to his torso, taking in every detail of his athletic form in between.

She liked the way the boxers hugged his thighs and cupped his cock, as if gift-wrapping his package to offer as a present…to her.

Tabitha couldn’t go another second without touching him.

She reached out her left hand, vaginal muscles contracting in anticipation, nipples pebbling and pushing against the soft cotton of her big T-shirt as she gently circled one of his flat nipples with a fingernail and stroked his bronze torso from muscled chest to hard, 130

Beneath the Surface

ridged abdomen. She paused for only a second at the light happy-trail of hair arrowing down from his navel to disappear beneath his underwear.

Tabitha slid her forefinger into his waistband, running it from one hip to the other before she dipped her whole hand in and gently grasped his firm shaft.

He did have a nice package, his size-twelve shoes and the bulge outlined by his trousers not lying. Oh, God yes, she could work with this!

Already he was hard and getting harder, penis warm and beginning to pulse in her hand.

She felt him shift and stiffen before she glanced at his face and met his wide-awake, clear-eyed blue gaze.

“I would ask what you’re doing, but at this point, I don’t care.”

“I’m doing exactly what you want me to do,” she whispered.

“I’m not dreaming, am I? Because if I am, don’t wake me up.”

“You’re not dreaming, and you’re not getting off the hook that easily.” She flung back the covers, rose up on her knees and climbed on top of him.

He instantly put his hands on her hips and she let them stay there until she peeled off her T-shirt and tossed it aside.

Eric’s eyes widened at the sight of her naked breasts dangling over him and that’s when Tabitha decided to get tough, caught him by the wrists, and took his hands off her waist.

She slid his arms up over his head, held them there for a long moment, breasts tantalizing his mouth. “Hands to yourself.”

“You can’t expect me to—”

“I can and I do.” She released his hands and sat astride him.

He peered up at her, wary and silent before he reached up with his right hand to gently pinch her right nipple.

She gasped, clenched her thighs around his lean hips and caught his wrist once more. “If you’re not going to behave yourself, I’m going to have to take steps to ensure that you do.” With this she hopped off of him, left the bed and sauntered over to the bureau across the room. She extracted two of his ties from the top drawer, smiling as she brandished them and returned to the four-poster bed.

He glanced up at her from his back, a cocky grin on his face, dimples in full force.

“And what do you have in mind for those?”

“You know exactly what I have in mind, and if you’re not a good boy, I’ll have to retrieve two more to take care of your legs.”

“I knew you had other reasons for me buying all those ties than to dress up my shirts.”

“You’re the one who gave me the idea.”

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Gracie C. McKeever

He frowned until she reminded him of what he had said in her office. “I didn’t put any ideas in your head that weren’t already there.”

“True enough.” She leaned over him, looped one end of one tie around his left wrist, then leaned over him to loop and secure the other end to the post behind his head.

“I’m curious, did you specifically order a room that had a canopy and four-poster bed?”

“I told you. I knew you were coming.” He stared at her as she repeated the motions she’d just performed with his left wrist on his right. “I actually had something else in mind when I mentioned things to do with a tie that don’t involve slacks and a jacket.”

“I know you did.”

He looked at her, suddenly turning serious. “Shit, Tabitha,” he growled, trying the stability of his bonds before stopping in frustration. “You wouldn’t ask me to do this if you knew how much I want to touch you, hold you.”

“I’m not
asking
you to do anything, Eric.” Tabitha draped her body over his, luxuriated in the feel of his hard chest against her breasts, the light sprinkling of soft hair tickling her nipples as she pressed against him. She closed her eyes and inhaled remnants of the cologne he’d put on yesterday, sandalwood and lustful male infiltrating her senses.

She sat up to stare down at him, licking her lips as she remembered how powerful and forceful he’d sounded at that podium last night, how elegant and sexy he’d looked in her favorite charcoal suit, vest and black T-shirt beneath.

God, it had taken every ounce of self-control in her not to fling herself across the lectern, a willing sacrifice to his erudition and raw charisma.

But she didn’t have to use any restraint now, except what she used on him. She could do what she wanted with him, to him and she knew he’d love it.

Tabitha closed her eyes and groaned, felt him shudder beneath her and peered down at him, resting her palms on his chest as she shifted her pussy against his hard cock.

“Shit, you’re killing me, woman!”

“Not yet.”

He gritted his teeth and hissed as Tabitha slid down his body, grasping the waistband of his boxers in both hands and slowly pulling them off.

He lifted his butt and legs to help her completely divest him, and his penis jutted toward the ceiling, long, thick and fully erect.

Tabitha stared at him, every gorgeous hard inch, and licked her lips again.

He scowled. “What are you thinking?”

“Of how I’m going to do to you what I said over the phone.”

“Tabi—”

She bent her head and crushed her lips against his, nibbling his full bottom lip for a long moment before thrusting her tongue into his mouth to tangle with his.

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Beneath the Surface

He writhed beneath her, straining against his ties.

She slid a hand down to his cock, gently fondled his balls, testing their weight, liking their naked springiness.

Tabitha swallowed his groans, dragged her mouth away from his, primed and ready to hunt up other pleasures to occupy her lips. She moved her head down to his groin, peeked up at him through her lashes as he panted beneath her.

She dipped her head to tease the tip of his cock, stuck her tongue in the slit and lapped the pre-come liquid that had collected there before closing her mouth over the head of his penis and suckling.

He pitched his hips towards her. “Oh, God, please…”

She gripped his firm ass, pulling him close, holding him still as she took him deep into her mouth, using her tongue to tickle the underside of his penis before sliding back up to taunt the head, circling her tongue around it several times.

“Tabitha, untie me. Please.”

She had to admit he sounded cool when in fact she knew he was about to lose it, his legs trembling beneath her as he tried to hold back his climax.

She smiled around his cock, glanced up at his face, saw the desperate silent plea in his eyes right before she deep-throated him.

God he was huge! She was barely able to reach the base without gagging. She closed her eyes, concentrated on relaxing her throat muscles to accept him, then licked the base of his penis as she freed a hand from his ass to gently grasp his scrotum and stroke the soft flesh.

She felt him holding himself still through sheer force of will, his struggles as heady and hypnotic as his masculine scent, simultaneously lulling her into comfort-mode and exciting her.

She didn’t know how long she stayed down on him, holding him deep and pulling hard on his shaft as if an extra thick milk shake were at the other end, but she soon felt him throbbing in her mouth, ready to burst.

“Tabitha…God…I’m going to come!”

She wanted him to, pussy soaking her thong just thinking about his fluid filling her mouth; chest expanding at the thought of her innate feminine power that had rendered him helpless, his complete surrender imminent.

She watched him strain against his body’s needs and his bonds, face drenched in perspiration as he squeezed his eyes tight, clenched his teeth and worked his jaw muscles.

She stroked his balls more insistently, soliciting his release and with a low and urgent moan he finally let go, extending his legs, thigh muscles contracting around her as he gushed into her mouth.

He tasted salty and rich like the meatball and spaghetti dinner they’d had last night, but far more appetizing and wholesome.