His for the Taking (18 page)

And she felt more than that.

Zoe rubbed against him, building the friction, so wonderful it was almost maddening, and Nick matched her rhythm with his hips. The strokes were long and thrilling and Nick was clenching his teeth, his brows drawn together, his face a picture of a man trying to keep his ecstasy under control. Trying to make it good for her. Like a white knight.

‘What do you feel?’ he gritted.

She stared into his face, his strength and kindness. She knew what it was like to fight for control. Unlike him, it wasn’t her body she had to worry about. She could let her body feel every sensation, grab every bit of bliss.

‘I feel like I’m about to come,’ she said to him, and that wrenched another groan from him. He tightened his hands on her and quickened his movements.

Two more strokes, three, and she gasped as the feeling heightened and then broke through her in waves. She dug her fingers into his flesh and held on to him, the one steady thing in a world that was splashing, dissolving.

She threw her head back against the shower wall, squeezed her eyes tight shut, and groaned out her climax. When she opened her eyes again Nick was looking straight down into them. He’d stopped moving, his erection still pressed tight against her and harder than ever.

‘Wow,’ he said.

‘Tell me about it,’ she breathed, and brought her mouth up to kiss him as wildly and passionately as she knew how. She’d just come and she wanted more. She wanted all of him.

‘I need you inside me,’ she panted when they broke apart.

‘I think I need it worse,’ Nick said, ‘but we need protection, too.’

That brought her back down to earth with a thump. ‘Damn. I haven’t got—’

‘I’ve got some in my backpack.’ He gave her a crooked, sexy grin. ‘Be prepared.’

‘I’ve never been so thankful for the Boy Scout motto in my life,’ said Zoe. She unwrapped her leg from around him. For a fleeting moment she thought about how she’d taken her pleasure and shown him how much she loved it. How she’d been wide open and honest, so honest that it made her a little afraid.

And then she looked at Nick again, his face wet and flushed with desire, his chest heaving with his quick breaths, his penis hard up against his body. No way was she going to be scared now.

She reached down and wrapped her hand around his erection, loving it how he sucked in his breath sharply at her touch. ‘Let’s go get these condoms,’ she said, and turned her body and stepped backwards out of the tub, keeping her grip on his penis, leading him with her.

They didn’t bother with towels but walked, dripping wet, straight into the bedroom and to his backpack. Zoe didn’t take her hand off Nick as he unzipped a side pocket and got out a box of condoms. She noticed his hands were shaking.

‘Now,’ she said, and turned him around with her other hand, backed him towards the bed, and pushed him down on it, tumbling on top of him.

Their wet skin was slick against each other and though Zoe was impatient to have Nick inside her she kissed him again and he ran his hands all over her, their bodies so hot she could have sworn they were making steam.

And then she could not wait any longer. She reached for the box of condoms Nick was holding and he gave it to her.

‘You’re in charge,’ he said.

Zoe knew he was talking about more than the condom.

She smiled, took the box, and sat upright, straddling his naked body. With impatient fingers she pulled out a condom and tore open its wrapper. Then both her hands were on him again, rolling the condom down over his rigid length.

She should savour the feeling, she should experience every inch of him in case she only got to do this once, but she couldn’t go slow. She wanted to get this condom on him as quickly as she could because as she put it on him she heard him groan and she wanted to hear the noise he made when he was inside her. When he was coming.

Zoe raised herself on her knees and positioned herself above him, her fingers still wrapped around his penis. Nick grasped her hips with his hands but he didn’t guide her. Just held her. Because she was in charge.

‘I’m going to give you the ride of your life,’ she said, and sank down onto him.

She was so turned on, so wet and ready that he slid in quickly, big as he was, all the way up to the hilt, and Zoe gasped and heard Nick groan again.

‘Zoe, you’re incredible,’ he said.

He was incredible. He stretched her, filled her, felt exactly right and she rotated her hips just to understand even more how great this was and then Nick’s hands were on her breasts, and she lost control.

With a ragged cry she moved on him. She reared herself up, plunged back down, thrust her body against him and him into her as hard as she could. Below her Nick moved with her, his face tightened with pleasure, all his restraint gone. She could see his muscles tensing as he thrust into her, as she thrust onto him.

Wilder and faster, faster and wilder. Zoe felt the sweat break out on her body and she cried out, pulsing and squeezing around Nick as she came.

And then Nick roared out his own climax and she collapsed on his chest. Both of them breathing hard, bodies wet, hearts hammering in time.

He held her. He pushed back her damp hair and kissed her. He whispered, ‘Zoe.’

She sighed in contentment and Nick pulled the blankets up over them. He curled her into his body, his arms tight around her, and they let their breathing slow and settle into sleep.

Zoe had never felt so safe.

CHAPTER TWELVE

H
E WAS GONE
.

Zoe woke up all at once and sat up in bed, her chest clogged with panic. The pillow beside her still held the indentation of Nick’s head and there was a faint warm patch where he had lain. But he wasn’t there, wasn’t holding her and he had probably seen sense and booked it out of there as fast as he could go.

A scrap of paper on the orange bedspread caught her eye and she grabbed it. ‘Gone to get the truck and breakfast, be back in a few,’ it said. She hadn’t seen Nick’s handwriting before but she recognised him in its economical strokes. It was the way he moved.

She settled back into the warmth he’d left behind, and thought about the way Nick moved. The way he’d moved in the dark of last night, for example, when he’d woken her to have sex again. It had begun slowly, with soft kisses, but then hunger had taken over. Her otherwise-trained thigh muscles felt stiff, because she hadn’t quite practised the exercise of wrapping her legs around a man’s back and urging him to go faster, harder, deeper.

A smile touched her lips. She raised his pillow to her face and inhaled his scent left behind on the fabric. It was warm and arousing. If she’d woken up first, there was no way she’d have had the strength to get up and leave him there in bed without putting her hands all over him again.

Her smile faded. She wouldn’t have been able to leave. But he had.

She swung her legs out of bed. God, what was the matter with her? She’d spent the night having the best sex in her entire life and she was getting all neurotic because she hadn’t gotten laid yet today? Just because she was some sort of horn dog didn’t mean that the man shouldn’t go get his truck.

And it wasn’t as if he would have suddenly seen her by the light of day and thought she was ugly. He’d seen her plenty in the light of day before. It wasn’t as if sex with her would have cleared his vision or anything, like kissing a frog in reverse.

A noise from the corner caught her attention. The pigeon was cooing and shifting around in its cage, which was still sitting on the desk near the door, where she’d put it down last night. Zoe stood, pulled on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans from her bag, and went over to the cage. There was an open bag of birdseed next to it; Nick must have fed the pigeon its breakfast before he went out to find theirs.

Zoe sat down in the chair next to the desk and opened the plastic door of the cage. The pigeon didn’t start or back away. It cocked one bright beady eye at her.

In the morning sunlight, the pigeon’s feathers were a deep, soft grey, barred with black on the wings. Its neck gleamed green and blue, the colour of motor oil in water, but alive. Its eyes weren’t black, as she’d thought, but orange around a dark pupil.

There was food in its dish, but Zoe put a few more seeds in. Then she carefully pushed the dish closer to the bird.

‘Come on and get it, the room service isn’t going to last for ever,’ she whispered to it.

It watched her for a few seconds, and then dipped its head and snapped up a seed with its black beak. Its neck feathers rippled and glowed as it swallowed and pecked for another seed. Every move was sure and almost defiant of her, as if the pigeon knew Zoe was there, all right, but decided it couldn’t be bothered to care about her presence.

‘You’re one tough fella,’ she said. The bird’s rounded head and glowing neck swelled out to a plump, graceful breast and body. She remembered New York pigeons in flight, clapping their wings and soaring above the traffic and noise. A connection between the ground and the sky. She wondered if its feathers would be soft. They looked soft.

‘Nobody thinks you’re very special, huh?’ she said. ‘They think you birds are all alike and you’re all pests. But you don’t care.’

The pigeon made a sound in the back of its throat.

‘The thing is, I care what Nick thinks. I really care. That’s not good.’ She sighed. ‘I even liked sleeping with him holding me. Usually, I hate sharing my space.’

She picked up one of the seeds and bit it. It didn’t taste like much. No wonder pigeons liked picking through the garbage. She’d rather have an old hot dog bun herself.

She was absent-mindedly raising another seed to her mouth when the lock rattled and Nick walked into the room.

‘Boy you must be really desperate for breakfast,’ he said.

This morning he looked even more gorgeous than he ever had before. Maybe it was because she’d slept with him, and seen and touched every part of his body. Maybe it was the extra-sexy glint in his eyes as he looked at her.

She closed the pigeon’s cage and stood up. ‘That’s not all I’m desperate for,’ she said.

Nick dropped a paper bag on the desk, came over to her, and took her in his arms. He was cold from the morning air. It felt wonderful.

‘I’m so relieved to see you,’ Nick murmured, stroking her hair with one hand and letting the other trail over her back and buttocks.

‘Where was I going to go?’ She kissed him on the side of his jaw. He hadn’t shaved for two days, according to her count, and the stubble was beginning to get soft. ‘And how? You were getting the truck.’

‘Knowing you, you’d go anywhere and any way you could.’ He kissed her forehead, her eyebrows, the tip of her nose. ‘I broke the speed limit all the way back here from the garage because I was sure you were going to be gone when I got back.’

So the whole time she was worried about why he was gone, he was worrying about her leaving? Zoe shook her head and unbuttoned his shirt to feel his bare skin.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said. ‘After all this, I have to see your father with my own eyes. Besides, you wouldn’t be able to get into Xenia’s house without me.’

Zoe finished unbuttoning his shirt and let out a low moan of delight at the feeling of his naked chest under her hands. There was a special bliss at being skin-to-skin with Nick.

‘I hope you stayed for me, as well as my dad,’ he said to her.

‘Well, you have your uses.’ She kissed his collar-bone and let the sparse hair on his chest tickle her nose. His nipple, erect and dark brown, looked so tempting she licked it, and she felt him shudder.

He took her head in his hands and lifted her face so she was looking at him. ‘I’m glad you’re here. I haven’t been able to think about anything except for last night, you and me together. I knew it was going to be good, Zoe, but not that good.’ He dropped a kiss on her lips. ‘You completely blew my mind.’

Likewise. ‘Being on that island really made you desperate, huh?’

He shook his head. ‘It’s you, Zoe. I’ve never been to bed with a woman like you.’

And was this a good thing? Or was this just a little excursion into unknown territory, a little walk on the wild side, before Nick went back to his normal life and his normal women?

And why should she be worried about that, since she was planning on going back to her normal life herself?

‘And what kind of woman am I?’

He slid his hand down from her face, over her neck and curled it around her breast. Zoe inhaled sharply and arched up into him. His erection, through his jeans, pressed against her stomach.

‘Someone who takes charge,’ he said. ‘Who knows what she wants and goes for it.’

‘I know what I want right now.’ She slid her hands between them and tugged open his jeans. The fingers of both her hands wrapped around his penis, rock-hard and hot. He jerked against her, into her hands. The memory of him inside her made her groan at the same time that he did.

The future didn’t matter; what mattered was right here and now, Nick with her, his sex in her hands, their bodies burning. He liked her being strong. And she felt strong and free and wonderful.

And this was good. This was better than good. Being with Nick, even though it made all of her doubts and fears crowd into her head, even though it made her more desperate and wanting than she’d ever been before, made her feel the best she had ever felt.

She smiled and slowly sank down, letting her body rub against his, until she was on her knees in front of him. He still wore his jeans and his boxers, but his penis in her hands protruded from his open fly, at the level of her face.

She loved the sight of his erection, hard and long and deep red at its sculpted tip. She could feel the heat from him on her face.

Zoe licked her lips, and she heard him hitch in a breath and saw his penis jerk in anticipation. Then she couldn’t hold back any longer; she touched him with her lips and tasted him with her tongue. The textures were incredible, smooth skin stretched taut over hardness that throbbed with his heartbeat. She held him with both hands and sucked him deep into her mouth, swirling her tongue over the tip.