It's A Wonderfully Sexy Life (8 page)

Unfortunately time, even time in reverse, wasn’t prone to standing still. If anything, it seemed to sprout wings and fly by. Josh had been killed shortly after midnight. Glancing down at her wristwatch, she saw it was eleven forty-five. Shit.

“I can’t help noticing you keep looking at your watch. Am I keeping you from something?”

No, but I am trying to keep you alive
. Panic hit her, and she shook her head. If he left the coffee shop without her, he was as good as dead—again. “No, not at all, it’s just a habit I’ve gotten into, a cop thing, I guess.” She lifted her porcelain cup and chugged the contents like a frat boy chugging beer.

“Ouch.” She slammed the cup down, mouth on fire. Damn, but if she hadn’t burned herself—again.

He reached across to wipe whipped cream from her chin, his moist mouth parted in a sexy, half-cocked smile, and there was no denying that he was very real and, for the moment, very much alive. Although it went against all logic, she could no longer ignore or pretend that what was happening to her, to him, to
them,
was anything less than one hundred percent real. By whatever power, she’d been granted her New Year’s wish, thrust into the role of guardian angel with the mission of saving Joshua Thornton’s life.

Watching her set the empty mug down, he asked, “Would you like another?”

She shook her head. “No thanks. I’m good. Any more caffeine and sugar, and I’ll be bouncing off the artwork.” The truth was she was all but jumping out of her skin, but the two large mochas weren’t to blame. “It is Christmas Eve. I guess we should let these folks go home.” She nodded toward the counter where the two employees regarded them with familiar, fuming looks.

“Before they throw us out, you mean?” He got up and turned to grab his jacket off the chair back.

There it was again, an up close view of that incredibly tight ass. Mandy licked her lips, feeling as if the thermostat had just knocked up several notches. Sure, she was on a mission, a lifesaving mission, but the fact was she was hot for him, hotter than she’d been the week before even because now she’d had a week of regret to live down.

Remember, he has a life and, for all you know, a serious girlfriend back in Boston. Do not, under any circumstances, lose your head—or your heart
. Even so, she couldn’t help thinking what a gentleman he was, how eager to please. She’d bet anything he was like that in bed, too. If she had anything to say about it, she’d be finding that out very soon.

And there they were again, standing out on the darkened street alongside her parked squad car, the coffee shop fading to black behind them like the backdrop in a movie set. Only this was no movie, but rather reality on instant replay.

But altering the night’s outcome, and saving Josh, called for her to take a decidedly more proactive approach than she had before. Wrapping her arms about his neck, she crushed her mouth against his, letting loose all the passion, all the
hunger,
she normally kept locked inside.

Coming up for air, she stared into his startled eyes and blurted out, “Take me home with you—now!”

For first time in life, am in no rush to get to “dessert.”

“I thought you said you were shy in crowds.” She searched his face for the telltale signs of deceit.

Sure enough, they were there in full measure. Gaze darting away, he hesitated before answering, “That’s the great thing about working the club scene. It’s too noisy to do much talking.” He took a step toward her. “Speaking of which, you’re doing a lot of talking tonight.”

Heart pounding with anticipation, she said, “I guess you could say it’s an occupational hazard.”

“Yeah?” He reached for her, his big, warm hands enclosing her waist, gently pulling her to him. “I can think of a lot better uses for that amazing mouth of yours.”

Startled, she said, “You really think my mouth is amazing?”

“Uh, huh.” He slid his hands to her shoulders, slipping her coat downward and off. “Perfectly shaped and very, very kissable, it goes with the amazing rest of you.” As if to demonstrate his point, he angled his face to hers, drew her bottom lip between his teeth, and gently sucked.

All in the line of duty
. Flexing her shoulders, she let the coat fall to the floor.

Glancing downward, he asked, “Do you want me to hang that up?”

Lost in sensation, she shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”

Against her mouth, she felt his lips curve into a smile. “Good because I don’t want to stop kissing you or touching you for even a minute.”

His hands went to the necktie at her throat, tugging loose the knot, slipping the fabric free and then off. Behind them was his bed, a metal four-poster that had seen better days. Along with the tie, the spindled headboard set a host of provocative images firing off inside her brain, including her bound to the bedpost and straining to meet him as he moved back and forth inside her.

“Your hair, I want to see it down.” He paused, a hand at the braided bun secured at her nape. “Mind?”

“Nuh-uh.”

He gently pulled out the pins, sending them pinging to the floor.

“Better,” he said, sinking strong fingers into her braided hair, freeing the waves to pool around her shoulders. He turned his attention to the buttons fronting her shirt. One by one, he undid them, laying her bare. Snagging her gaze, he said, “You’re stunning.”

Blushing, she looked down to where her shirt gapped open, revealing the lacy Victoria’s Secret peach-colored bra—sexy lingerie, her secret indulgence. Generous breasts were the upside of being full-figured—okay, overweight. If her luck held, he would switch off the ceiling light before he went any farther—and discovered that big boobs came with a matching set of hips.

When he made no move toward the wall switch, she said, “Turn the light off, okay?”

His gaze zeroed in on hers, and he shook his head. “Not a chance. I intend to see, kiss and lick every glorious inch of you between now and morning.” He ran the knuckles of his hand over the tip of her bra-clad breast, bringing the nipple to life and raising the throbbing between her thighs to an exquisite ache.

She felt a blush burning its way from her cheeks all the way to her scalp line. “It’s already morning, Christmas morning, in fact.”

He smiled, crinkle lines appearing about the corners of his bedroom blue eyes. “In that case, I’d better get busy unwrapping my present.” He dipped his head to kiss her throat and, at the same time, reached behind to unhook her bra.

Her breasts swung free. Josh’s long, sensitive fingers slipped beneath the lacy straps, carrying them down her shoulders to her elbows and then finally off. “So soft, so beautiful,” he whispered, his breath hot against her neck, his hands warm and strong and gentle, almost reverent, as he filled his palms with her. He bent his head to her breast, circling her areola with the point of his tongue, sipping at the nipple, and then drawing it between his lips with a gentle tug that sent her world reeling.

Oh-my-God. Tipping back her head, Mandy told herself she could consider herself off-duty for the present at least. For the time being, Josh was safe. After the holiday, she would get to work rooting out the Mafia hit man before he could make his move (again). In the interim, there was nothing more she could do beyond keeping the quarry, Josh, out of harm’s way, which meant within her sight and occupied at all times. Never before in her life had duty and pleasure been so closely aligned.

“Is that a pistol in your pocket, officer, or are you just happy to see me?”

She followed his downward gaze to her gun belt and blushed. For the first time in five years on the job, she’d forgotten she was wearing her weapon. It was the one article of her attire she would definitely need to remove herself.

“I could ask the same of you.” She touched the pager at his waist, fingers skimming the leather belt to which it was clipped.

Gaze on her stroking hand, his smile dimmed. “Yeah, well, catering is an almost 24/7 business these days. I never know when I’m going to get a call to show up for a job. I’m so used to being on call sometimes I forget I’m even wearing a pager.” He lifted her hand from his belt and pressed a warm, sexy kiss into her palm.

Mandy shivered, the hot tingle in her palm mirrored in the moist heat mounting between her legs. Though she had a pretty good idea why he wore a pager, rather than spoil the moment, she said, “Well, I am definitely off-duty for the night, and I’m taking mine off.” Backing out of his embrace, she sidestepped the bed and went over to the scarred oak dresser. She unbuckled the holster and secured the safety on the pistol before putting it and her pager and cell inside a drawer.

She caught her reflection in the cracked wall mirror above the dresser and stopped. With her long hair streaming over creamy bare shoulders and full breasts, the woman staring back at her was scarcely recognizable as herself. Bold, pagan and sexually free, she resembled the red-haired, full-figured goddess in Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus.” Mandy had first seen the famous painting as a slide in Sister Judith Marie’s eleventh-grade Art History class. The very nude Venus had set off a chorus of snickers and nervous giggles amongst the students, her included, but poised on the brink of new discoveries and new beginnings, she was able to appreciate the work’s innate sensuality as well as her own.

Emboldened, she turned away from the mirror and walked back over to Josh. He’d shed his leather jacket, but considering she was topless, he still wore far too many clothes for comfort, hers at least.

When he started for her pants zipper, this time she pushed his eager hands away. “My turn, I want to see you, too.”

He obeyed, holding his arms out at his sides, and suddenly her bondage fantasy expanded to encompass him lying on his back beneath her, wrists lashed to the bed’s metal posts as she straddled him, driving him deeply inside her and lapping at the sweat running down his straining neck and sides.

Fingers clumsy with impatience, she started on his shirt buttons, following the downward trail of gradually exposed flesh with kisses, the crisp golden hairs teasing her lips and tongue.

“You’re the one who’s so beautiful.” Pushing the shirt down over his broad shoulders and powerful arms, she stood back to admire him.

Indeed, it wasn’t often that reality exceeded fantasy but this was definitely one of those rare times. She’d known from the firm feel of him through his clothing that he would be well-muscled yet lean, but he was even more beautiful than she’d imagined, with broad shoulders, sculpted pectorals and a perfect six-pack abdomen. She found the disc of one flat, brownish nipple with her mouth and circled it with her tongue. Looking up, she saw his eyes darken, and then his lids flutter closed. Taking that as a sign she was pleasing him, she drew him into more fully her mouth, laving the tight nub with her lips and tongue, sucking gently then gradually increasing the pressure until he groaned, eyes flying open and chest heaving.

He sank hard fingers into her hair, pulling her closer. “Oh baby, do you know what you’re doing to me?”

If what she was doing felt anywhere near as amazing as the attention he’d given her own breasts, she had a pretty good idea. Changing tacks, she laved warm, wet kisses along the line of V-shaped breast bone and then downward, following the path of dark-gold hair leading like a very adult Yellow Brick Road from the center of his taut midriff to the waistband of his jeans and beyond.

She settled her hand over the hard bulge at his crotch and gave it a gentle squeeze. Feeling deliciously wicked and wholly alive, she lifted her gaze to his and asked, “What about you? Is this a pistol in your pocket or are you happy to see me?”

In answer, he covered her hand with his and pushed hard against her palm. “I’d say I’m definitely happy to see you. Feel how hard I am for you, how much I want you?”

The way he kept saying “you, you, you” had her almost believing he wasn’t just horny in general, but hot for her in particular. Even if that wasn’t strictly the case, it made for a pretty steamy fantasy.

And that’s what this was, a fantasy. She was actually living the previous week, so in a way none of this was really happening. The sense of suspended reality brought with it enormous freedom—the freedom to say and do and feel things that until now she’d only said and done and felt in her fantasies.

“Yes, you certainly do feel hard, only…” She let the sentence trail off unfinished, a deliberate sensual tease.

“Only?”

A frown marred his high forehead and he looked desperate, a bit wild-eyed even, like a little kid afraid his candy might be snatched away—only there wasn’t anything “little” about him. Judging from the bulge crowning his jeans, he was well-endowed, possibly enormous. At one time, that might have caused her some concern. In this case, she was so wet, so utterly drenched, that she was confident that no matter his size, he’d slide right inside her.

“Only I don’t just want to feel you. I want to see you. And smell you. And taste you.” Massaging him through his jeans, she almost purred the words. “Hmm, I especially want to taste you. I’ll bet you taste incredible.” To emphasize the point, she ran her tongue along the curve of her bottom lip, watching his pupils pop, darkening the irises of his blue eyes to black.

Gaze riveted on her mouth, he reached for her. “Oh, baby, where have you been all my life?”

Though it wasn’t really a question, Mandy paused to consider it. Where
had
she been? Camping out in her childhood bedroom rather than risk striking out on her own again. Hiding her hopes and dreams and yes, desires behind the extra flesh she’d accumulated since high school, using her weight as an excuse to watch life from the sidelines instead of crossing the line and really living it.

Kissing, they backed across the room until her backside bumped up against the low lying bed. Sitting on its edge, she reached for his jeans zipper and very slowly, very deliberately, slid it down.

Josh sucked in his breath. “When I asked you out, I figured I’d be the one doing the seducing.”

She anchored her hands to his narrow hips, pulling him closer. “Hmm, do you mind?”

“Mind?” Letting out a laugh that was part groan, he shook his head. “Not at all, seduce away.”

He wasn’t wearing underwear and when she opened the fly of his jeans, his erection poured out into her hands. He was large as she’d suspected, but what she hadn’t counted on was how beautiful he would be. Perfectly shaped and fragrant with musk, he literally made her mouth water. She wrapped the fingers of her right hand around him, moving slowly up and down, learning the feel of him, experimenting with what pleased him.

He pushed against her palm, rock hard and ready for her. That something so silken to the touch could also be so hard was a wondrous thing to behold and hold. Only Mandy wanted to do a good deal more than just look at and hold him. She wanted to take him inside her, all the way inside, starting with her mouth.

“I’m dying to lick you and suck you and make love to you with my mouth. Pretend you’re inside me. Inside my…” She hesitated, vestiges of her outward good girl warring with the sex goddess within, the one who’d waited thirty years to break through that prison wall. “Pretend you’re inside my pussy, Josh.” There, the p-word, for the first time ever she’d said it out loud. Another milestone made.

Angling her face to his groin, she guided him into her mouth, savoring him inch by precious inch. At the same time, she slid her free hand beneath to cup the firm fruit of his testicles, giving them each a gentle squeeze.

Licking her lips, she looked up into his feverish gaze. “Hmm, you do taste amazing.”

Muscular chest rising and falling, he shook his head. “It’s you I can’t wait to taste.”

He tried to tip her back on the bed, but she backed away from his reach. Still wearing the bottom half of her clothing, she felt sexy, femininely powerful. Taking off her trousers to reveal her rounded belly and full thighs and, worst of all, her big butt would burst the bubble of fantasy and quite possibly Josh’s libido, too. She wasn’t yet ready to come down to earth and be that vulnerable, not just yet anyway.

“You’re going to have to wait for a little while at least. I’m just getting started, and I have a feeling I’m going to take a very long time.”

She flicked the pad of her thumb over the moist slit crowning his cock, drawing his shudder. Biting his bottom lip, he ground out, “I’m not sure I can last all that long, not with you doing…that and…well, that.”