Intermezzo (3 page)

“We’re even then.” Lily plucked his cell from his fingers
and started entering her information. “Now
you
seem out of
my
league.”
She called herself before handing the phone back to him, to make sure she had
his number as well. Whether they used the information later didn’t matter as
much to her as his willingness to make the gesture.

“I don’t think there’s a league beyond whatever one you’re
in,” Aidan protested, taking her hand and leading the way down the street to
the hotel.

“Smooth, maestro. Very smooth. Your pickup moves have
improved in the last seven years.”

“Hopefully other things have too.”

Lily honestly couldn’t think of an area that needed
improvement with respect to the sex. Any better and she might not survive it.
She realized she was actually living out the “if I knew then what I know now”
scenario, getting a do-over, only she and Aidan
both
knew more this time
around. If it had been fantastic before…

Their restraint and discretion lasted another block before
Aidan tugged Lily into a narrow alley and pressed her up against the wall with
a slightly apologetic fervor.

“I can’t wait anymore, I’ve needed to do this since I saw
you in the theater this morning,” he explained, taking her chin in his fingers
and tipping her face up to his.

Lily didn’t protest, just let him lower his mouth to hers
and take her in a slow, sweet kiss. She had that same sense of inevitability she’d
known in the restaurant, and earlier. Whatever else happened, she
would
kiss this man, and have sex with him, and deal with the consequences later. The
universe had shoved them together too forcefully to resist it.

The slow part didn’t last long. Within moments they were a
hairsbreadth from embarrassing themselves and the blessedly few passersby, and
Lily had only enough thought left to ponder why on earth Aidan’s tongue doing
that
inside her mouth felt so damn fantastic, when most other men’s tongues doing
that
felt merely squirmy and strange?

He kisses like he’s auditioning for oral sex
.

The notion struck her like a thunderbolt, even though they
had never done that particular act in their brief prior acquaintance. In her
mind, she cast him for the part long before the audition was over and they
parted, trying not to gasp too audibly.

The idea stuck with her, clear and visceral, even as she met
Aidan’s stunned gaze and tried to gather her own muzzy thoughts. She could see,
almost feel, his tongue between her legs, agile and wicked. She wanted it so
badly she felt as if he must be able to read it on her face.

“The hotel,” he said a little shakily. “I think we shouldn’t
do that again until we get back to the hotel.”

“Me either. Um, too. Me too.”

“Lily?”

“Yeah?”

They had leaned closer again, angling in for the next kiss
before they had even finished rationalizing the first.

“Damn,” Aidan muttered, and then his mouth covered hers
again.

Lily’s heart beat frantically, making her too aware of her
pulse points, throbbing in sensitive places. She swirled her tongue in
counterpoint to Aidan’s, reveling in the velvet slickness of their mouths
together. A slightly indignant throat-clearing startled them apart, and Lily
blushed with chagrin at the scowl she received from the elderly woman walking
by with a string bag of bread and produce.

As she crossed their line of sight, the old lady turned and
winked, so quickly Lily could have easily missed it. Aidan
did
miss it,
and he gave Lily a puzzled look when she laughed.

“Nothing,” Lily said. The moment was past, and the humor
would be gone by the time she explained. “I like this town.”

“Positive reinforcement. It works fast. Even I almost like
Paris right now.” Aidan rested his forehead against hers and let the weight of his
body clamp her to the wall for a moment. His hardening length pressed against
the ridge of her pelvis, almost painful.

“Hotel,” he said at last, as if reminding himself of the
goal, before stepping away and tugging her back down the street.

“I can’t believe we haven’t been spotted,” Lily murmured
while Aidan grappled with his hotel room key. None of the company members had
been hanging out in the lobby or sharing their elevator. Nobody was in evidence
in the hallway outside Aidan’s room.

He was opening the door when Lily was struck with doubt.
“Crap. What if one of the dancers comes to my room in the middle of the night,
needing something?”

Aidan glanced up and down the hallway. “Get in while the
coast is clear,” he suggested, shooing her into the room and following quickly
so they could close the door. “We can stay here for a while then go to your
room. If anybody knocks, I can hide in the bathroom or something.”

It was a measure of Lily’s arousal that this sounded like a
responsible, reasonable plan to her. Aidan was already kissing her again, and
she didn’t stop him. She’d made her choice, and abandoning herself to it was
blissful mindlessness.

The nondescript room could have been in any hotel in any
country, she thought when they finally surfaced for air and she had a chance to
notice her surroundings. In the United States, it would be over-air-conditioned
and smell faintly damp. Here in Paris, it wasn’t air-conditioned at all but it
still seemed damp. The fittings and furnishings were recent but the building
was old.

Aidan had turned a lamp on and was now rummaging in his
suitcase, which sat open on the webbed stand next to the bed. “I’m looking for,
um…damn, how long do condoms last, anyway?”

“Oh. Good idea. I’m on the Pill though. Have you really not
done this in—how long ago was your divorce?”

“A year. The last time was a few months before that. I
haven’t wanted to, I haven’t met anybody that—shit! I thought there were still
some in here.”

Lily almost laughed but managed to keep it in. Aidan was so
tense he was trembling, and she tried to put herself in his place. Waiting so
long, unexpectedly getting the chance to get laid, thwarted at the last minute
because he couldn’t find the condoms he vaguely remembered putting in his
suitcase over a year ago. He seemed on the verge of epic disappointment but it
was sort of adorable.

“Aidan, it’s okay,” she reassured him. “After that long in
your luggage they’d probably be shot anyway.”

“It’s okay?” He turned to her with almost manic hope in his
eyes. “You’re sure?”

Lily nodded. “As long as you don’t have any nasty infections
you need to mention.”

“No.”

“Okay then.”

The lull that followed would have been awkward if it had
lasted any longer. Aidan saved it by closing the few feet of distance between
them and taking Lily’s face in his hands, looking down at her in wonder for a
moment before bending to kiss her again.

It was different this time. They wouldn’t have to stop this
time. Lily blushed when Aidan slid his hand under her shirt, skimming it over
her lacy bra and letting his thumb catch on her nipple. The bra had a front
clasp, easily undone, and Adrian flicked it open with decided expertise before
backtracking to unbutton Lily’s gauzy blouse.

She helped him impatiently, then yanked the shirt and bra
off together before realizing he might have preferred to do that himself.

Breathe
, she told herself. Even her mental voice was
trembling.

Aidan looked drunk on need, his eyes heavy as he studied
her.

“Can we turn the light off?” Lily asked shyly, but Aidan
shook his head.

“No. No way. I have to see you.”

He made short work of her skirt, leaving Lily in scanty lace
underwear and a pair of black jazz shoes. She had barely toed them off when he
pulled her close again, his mouth lingering on hers while his hands explored
the angles and curves of her body. He seemed to approve heartily of everything
he found. Soon Lily noticed the solid evidence of that approval, poking her
lower belly as Aidan petted her. She reached for him boldly, cupping her hand
around the rigid bulge in his slacks and exploring its dimensions.

Aidan hissed and let his head drop back, struggling to
control his breath for a moment before he could speak. “Ten seconds of that
will do me in right now, I have to warn you.”

“I’ll stop at five,” she assured him. She made it seven,
grinning as he swallowed hard and opened his eyes again to glare at her
ravenously.

“Get in the bed,” he ordered in a low, edgy voice. He took a
step forward and she backed up automatically, then squeaked as her knees hit
the edge of the bed and buckled, tipping her onto her back before she could
recover. Aidan smirked down at her and took a second to divest himself of his
shirt before kneeling next to the bed.

Lily pointed her toes, searching for the floor to steady herself,
but Aidan had already shifted between her thighs and raised her legs to his
shoulders, depriving her of even that small amount of grounding.

She squeaked again when he pressed his lips firmly against
the soft skin at the top of her inner thigh and sucked hard. The little bite of
pain was a sharp contrast to the flood of needy heat that rushed to her sex as
Aidan traced the line between her hip and pelvis with the tip of his tongue.

Lily had planned to be cool, worldly about the whole
encounter, as she had failed to be the last time. Instead she found herself
whimpering, grinding her hips against nothing in the hope of more contact.
Shameless. Possibly pathetic.

She didn’t care. She just wanted more, more of Aidan’s mouth
and fingers. She wanted the hard cock she had groped so brazenly through his
trousers. Lily no longer cared that it was a bad, bad idea to get involved with
him. When Aidan hooked a finger around the sodden lace of her underwear and
pulled it aside to expose her pussy, Lily cared only about how close his mouth
was to where she craved it.

And once he began tasting her, licking slow lines along her
slit while his fingers pulled her folds wider, she only cared about coming. He
had reduced her world to that one issue, and that single need consumed her.

“You taste incredible,” he whispered into the trimmed curls
that covered her mound. His tongue flicked out to find her clitoris, and Lily
thought she would explode if he teased her any more. She had imagined him
talented at this, but her imagination hadn’t come anywhere close to the
reality.

She didn’t explode. He continued to tease. His tongue played
her clit like an instrument, his fingers dipping farther into her pussy. Lily
keened, pleading in a stream of almost incoherent words for him to make her
come, and Aidan chuckled heartlessly.

“Where’s the fun in that? No, I want to make you wait. I
want to be inside you when you come.”

Lily opened her eyes and looked daggers at him. “That’s
cruel.”

“I like to think of it as goal-oriented,” he said with
maddening calm, and pressed a fingertip lightly against her clit as he stroked
two fingers of the other hand in and out of her drenched cunt.

“You’re a tease.” Her heart wasn’t in the insult and she
knew he could tell that. He could see right through her at the moment. Seldom
had Lily felt so deliciously defenseless. “Oh, right there. Harder?
Please
?
”

“If you really wanted it harder, you’d be doing it yourself
already instead of lying here with those amazing legs spread out so I can eat
your pussy.”

“This whole thing is crazy,” she whispered.

“Admit it. That’s a huge part of the appeal.” He dipped his
head down and licked her again, wresting a moan from Lily’s lips before she
could stop herself. “I want to fuck you. I’ve wanted to fuck you since before I
recognized you. I want to feel you come all over my cock. I want to make you
scream, Lily.”

He was close to doing that already, she thought. But he
seemed to know exactly how far he could push it and still keep her from tipping
over the edge. His fingers pumped smoothly into her, too well lubricated by her
own arousal to give her the friction she craved. He had eased up on her clit,
giving her a flicker of pressure every so often, only enough to keep her
arousal painfully high.

“You couldn’t scream that night we did it, remember?” A
lick, a thrust. Lily whimpered and Aidan chuckled in an all too knowing way
before he continued. “We had to be so quiet, so we wouldn’t get caught. But
listening to you try to hold back was so hot, it didn’t matter. Now I want to
hear it, though. Will you do that, Lily?”

“Please.” She couldn’t believe she was actually begging. She
knew she must sound pitiful.

“Oh, that’s nice. Beg some more. I love it.”

“God, you’re mean!”

His evil snicker resonated against her pelvis, prompting a
whimper from Lily. “But you like it.
Interesting
.”

She covered her eyes with her hands. “I’m going to regret
this, I can already tell.”

“Did you the last time?”

She didn’t answer. He moved away and Lily could hear the
rustle of his clothes, the soft whirr of his zipper. She thought if she refused
to look, things might seem less real. Consequences might fail to apply.

Lily wanted him in the worst way. It was the first time
she’d ever connected with the idea of specifically wanting
cock
, but she
had to acknowledge that was part of it. Aidan’s was long, she remembered, and
she had thought of it as thick back when her experience was more limited.

She felt the teasing brush of fingers against her cunt and
uncovered her eyes. Aidan was leaning over her with his weight on one hand,
watching her, touching her. She wondered if she looked as sick with lust as he
did. As if they would both die if sex didn’t happen very, very soon.

“Lily?”

It was the first time he had seemed uncertain in all of
this. She almost wished she hadn’t looked. He was at the starting gate, but he
was poised to stop if he needed to. Reaching for him, she whispered, “Now.”

He just ran his fingers over her slit again, dipping in and
out at the center of each circuit. “Did you regret it the last time?”

“No.”

“Me either.”

He looked ready to say something else, but then he shook it
off and bent down to kiss her. Tender but urgent. Lily felt his silky,
unsheathed cock brush her pussy and lifted her hips in silent agreement as he
pushed his way inside. Still thick, even by her more informed standards, and—
oh—
still
long. In this position, with his weight behind each thrust, he struck deeper
than she remembered. It hurt a bit at first, until she lifted her legs to his
waist.

They both groaned as the angle shifted, and a deep shudder
passed through Aidan’s body the next time he ground against her. So deep now,
and his belly slapped gently against hers as their hips worked. Sweat, heat and
the gentle sound of bodies colliding.

“Fuck,” he whispered, “so good. Too good.”

Lily murmured an agreement. She had been turned-on to start
with, so ready to come that even those first few thrusts had been nearly enough
to tip her over the edge. Nearly. Now the pressure was different, and it always
took her time to adjust and get the moment back. But not long, at this rate.
Already the hot thrill had started creeping through her veins again.

Now that they had started, she didn’t want it to end so
soon. Aidan was so close to her, the sharp angles of his face slicing through her
field of vision. His smoothly muscled stomach felt delicious against hers each
time they moved together, and Lily ran her fingers over his skin in delight.
His body was so firm, so real, so hot where it slid into her with increasing
speed and determination. Her own body was on fire with longing, the need to
come warring with the need to feel exactly what she felt at this very instant.

When they were finished, that would be another thing. But
what they were doing now, this precise sensation, was something Lily had been
missing for seven years. She hadn’t realized it until she felt it again.

Aidan smoothed a hand over her hair, caressing the side of
her face, and looked into her eyes. “Lily…”

That did it. Her control flew off in wisps, blown away by
the shock wave. The climax started hot and burned hotter, until Lily lost her
sense of place and only knew Aidan, his body over hers, his throbbing cock deep
inside her as he came, his strained voice saying her name again as they
struggled through the aftershocks together.

She came back to Earth slowly, because she wanted to stay in
heaven. Aidan was kissing her, his lips grazing hers as their breaths mingled.
He was still semi-hard inside her and when she clenched around him, he let out
a chuckling groan.

“I think I grayed out for a second there.”

Lily grinned, still punch-drunk. “Me too.”

Aidan sighed and rolled to one side, pulling her with him
and arranging her leg over his hip so he could stay inside her. “Paris is
really growing on me.”

Laughing, she nestled her head into the crook of Aidan’s
shoulder. “I’m glad I could help.”

“What’s with our timing though?”

She shrugged, too sated and happy to ruin things by
overanalyzing them. Idly she trailed her fingers through the crisp black hairs
at the center of Aidan’s chest, trying to remember if they’d even been there
seven years ago.

* * * * *

When Lily returned to her room, Aidan insisted on coming
with her. He pulled on sweats and running shoes, the better to make a discreet
morning escape. They took another lucky, unobserved trip through the halls and
arrived at Lily’s room unseen. Once there, she was immediately nervous all over
again, unsure of the etiquette. Should she put pajamas on, wash her face? Was
it a given that they’d have sex again before going back to sleep? Was it too
domestic to ask him which side he wanted to sleep on?

Stalling for time, she picked up her hairbrush from the low
dresser. When she looked into the mirror, she saw a flushed, rumpled girl
staring back. A girl with kiss-reddened lips and eyes that were a little too
sleepy. Almost sultry, which wasn’t a word Lily would have ever applied to
herself.