Kissing Trouble (30 page)

Then, just as suddenly, he changed gears, giving her soft little nips that capsized her heart. The burn was a sweet one that pattered in her chest, weakening her knees and melting her into his arms.

When he finally released her of his spell, she was panting. Her heart was thundering with painful force that hurt her ribs and she was relying solely on him to keep her up. He didn’t seem to mind. He clasped her close and continued to rain tiny kisses across her face, sipping the rain from her lashes and lips.

“I love you,” he whispered into the side of her cheek, close to her ear so she couldn’t miss it.

Julie felt her eyes close as those three little words warmed her straight to the marrow. She would have squealed in delight if she wasn’t too busy trying not to cry.

“You love the fifteen year old you used to know,” she whispered. “I’m not her anymore. I’ve changed.”

His eyes were intense. The light behind them sharp. “Not as much as you think,” he murmured. “You may not look like her, but you’re still her, and I’m still crazy about you, Jewels. I don’t think that will ever change.”

T
he rain had lightened up by the time they found their way back to the house. Shaun was on the front porch, a cigarette pinched between his fingers. Smoke coiled from the red end. It rose into the air, mixing with the plume Shaun expelled from his nostrils like an over enraged bull ready to charge. His eyes narrowed through the thick cloud.

“The happy couple returns,” he grumbled between another deep drag. He expelled. “Sorry, we forgot to put down the carpet.”

“Lay off, dude,” Mason muttered as they started up the steps. “Did we miss anything?”

Shaun shrugged. “That depends on what you mean.”

Mason stopped and faced the other guy. “Are we really playing this game?”

Slipping out from under Mason’s arm, Julie started for the front door, which stood open and dimly lit from the hallway light.

“I’m going to shower and change,” she said, anxious to get away from Shaun. “I’ll see you inside.”

The last thing she heard before she ducked inside was Mason’s voice, tired and frustrated.

“Are we really going to do this again, Shaun?”

Shivering, Julie jogged up the stairs and closed herself up in her room. She shed her clothes in the bathroom, rung them in the sink before tossing them into the hamper and climbing into the shower.

The hot water felt like heaven chasing away the chill stiffening her limbs. She moaned as the spray hit her in all the places that needed it and she all but melted on the spot. She leaned into the sprayer, letting it drum loudly in her ears and echo through her skull. It was why she didn’t hear the knock until the voice broke through her solitude.

“Jewels?”

Sputtering out water, Julie poked her head out of the water and squinted through the shower curtain at the dark silhouette hovering by the open doorway.

“Mason?”

“The one and only.” He kicked the door shut.

She watched him move to the counter, heard the quiet clutter as her bottles and things were lifted and set back down. He hefted himself up on the counter and sat, swinging his legs.

Julie bit back her grin. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting.”

Shaking her head, Julie stepped back under the spray and closed her eyes. “Have you changed?”

“I did.” She heard him sniff. “This smells really good,” he said.

Drawing back the curtains a notch, she glanced into the room at him holding her body spray.

He looked up. “It smells like you.”

Julie chuckled. “Well, I do use it so I guess it’s more like I smell like it.”

He brought the bottle to his nose again and sniffed. He set it back down.

“So I was thinking of grilled cheese.”

Julie ducked back behind the curtain, shut off the nozzle, and twisted the water out of her hair before responding. “For supper?”

She saw him hop down and reach for the towel she’d hung on the back of the door. She hesitated with her fingers on the edge of the curtain.

It seemed silly to play modest now when he had seen most of her naked already and had touched nearly all of her. But stepping out completely in the nude was a move there was no going back from. Yet, she drew in a deep breath and rolled the plastic aside.

Mason stood frozen a full two feet from the tub, towel in hand. He’d changed into gray sweat shorts and a white wife beater that showed off the beautiful hills and valleys of his arms and chest. His hair was still damp and hung recklessly over his brow and into his dark, roaming eyes.

“Towel?” She held out a hand like she stood naked in front of people all the time.

A pink tongue poked out and slid over the firm curve of his bottom lip as he continued to survey her from head to toe. Julie could almost feel the force of his scrutiny like the lick of flames along her skin. A shiver passed through her that had the junction of her thighs clenching and her breasts swelling for his attention, which they got almost immediately.

He tossed the towel onto the counter, out of her reach, and offered her his hands instead. Trembling from the cool sweep of air over her damp body mixed with anticipation, Julie accepted and let herself be guided from the tub. She was brought to stand before him, naked except for the droplets of water clinging to miles of pinkening flesh.

“I thought you wanted grilled cheese,” she whispered over the loud cracking of her heart.

“I want you more,” was his guttural response.

Biting her lip, Julie turned to the door. Her fingers curled around the knob, but the thing never opened. It was restricted by the large, toned hand pressing into the wood just above her head.

“I didn’t say I was letting you leave.” Hot, naked skin pushed against her back, driving her forward into the door. It took her a moment to realize he had yanked off his top and it lay at their feet. “Not when I feel like I will lose my mind if I don’t touch you.” His lips grazed the arch of her neck. “Kiss you.” His fingers on the hand not holding the door shut glided along the curve of her side. “Take what you’re so willingly offering me.”

The pit of her stomach seemed to melt into a warm puddle that only added to the tremors coursing through her. Her skin seemed to sizzle with hyperactive awareness of every caress as though he had the power to coax every nerve ending just with his words.

“You said we would wait until tonight...” Her words hitched in her chest when his fingers deftly traced the line of her hipbone.

“And I meant it.” He nipped lazily at the curve of her jaw with his teeth. “When I’m inside you, it won’t be on a bathroom floor.”

Julie caught her breath as her heart hammered wildly in her chest. There was no doubt he could feel the sheer force of every crack when his palm slipped over her breast.

She gasped his name at the burst of heat that vaulted through her. Her back arched into the steady flick of his thumb over the peak, teasing it into a tight point that fanned the ache between her legs until she was shifting restlessly for a reprieve. Her fingers clenched around the knob she was now clutching for dear life.

When Mason released her and began slipping free, she whimpered urgently, unable to bear the idea of him stopping now.

“Shhh,” he whispered huskily into her ear.

His hands returned. They turned her to face him and color pulled into her cheeks when his eyes settled on her exposed flesh. It intensified when he actually licked his lips as if in anticipation of a feast. He drew his bottom lip between his teeth. His hand lifted and he toyed with the right breast, rolling and pinching it until she was panting. It was only the door supporting her limp weight now.

“I’ve waited a long time for this moment.” But he wasn’t talking to her.

His gaze was fixed on her chest and she was slowly going mad as she waited for him to touch her more. It didn’t seem like her subtle hints of pushing into his hand was working. Plus it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She needed more. She would have to make the first move.

“More,” she croaked, her tongue too big for her dry mouth. “Please.”

Eyes that had always been so warm and gentle housed an animal she had never seen when they rose up and met hers. They flickered with a challenge that darkened the color in her face, but she didn’t look away.

Moistening her lips, she reached for him. Her fingers closed around the hard shaft reaching back for her through his shorts. His snarl and the jerk of it in her palms sent a thrill through her that was untamed and feral. It filled her with a drive that should have been frightening, instead it had her lunging at him. Her hand clamped around the back of his neck and she drew his mouth to hers.

It all happened so fast. His mouth ... he was too powerful for her. He kissed her with the forces of a man possessed, a man hell bent on claiming what belonged to him. He was not gentle, nor was he giving her a chance to put together the pieces of her sanity when he, with one deft move, he reached down and snapped the lock into place. The sound sparked a gasp from her.

“Too late to run now, Jewels.” The dark, wolfish growl coursed down the length of her spine in tendrils of fire. “Not until I’ve had my fill of you.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t want to run, but he’d lifted her off her feet and had dumped her on the short stretch of counter attached to the sink. Her knees were parted and she was yanked forward by hands under her kneecaps. Her head struck the mirror, but she took no notice as she was pulled to him.

His hands were bruising on her thighs and continued to tighten the longer he devoured her with his eyes. The intense scrutiny had her skin warming and her self-consciousness rearing its head.

Then, without warning, he bent at the waist. His hands left her thighs to close around her waist, holding her in place as his mouth closed over her breast.

Julie made a sound between a gasp and a whine. Her fingers closed into his hair, holding him to her as he nipped and sucked on her flesh. Each flick of his tongue propelled her a little closer to the edge until she was sure she’d go insane if he didn’t do something quickly.

As though reading her thoughts, and without a shred of forewarning, his hand slid between her legs. His fingers drew apart her lips to the sticky pool in the center and plunged inside.

“Shit!” she sobbed, tightening around the digit as he worked it along her walls.

Lavishing her nipple with a final lick, he started a hot path down the center of her body to where his hand was wreaking havoc on her sanity. She was barely breathing by the time he got to her mound and gave the glistening muscle there a flick with his tongue.

“Oh!” Her breathy moan was followed by another curse and the uncontrolled writhe of her body as he traced a lazy path around her clit. His name squeaked out of her in incoherent pants.

“I want to feel you come apart for me, Julie,” he whispered between licks.

He didn’t have very long to wait. She was so close. So maddeningly close.

His mouth closed over the swollen little peak, the heart of all her suffering, as he exchanged one finger for two and delved up to both knuckles. He sucked at the same moment as he prodded something inside her that had her entire body arching off the counter as she wailed his name and grabbed violently for his hair with both fists.

“I’ve got you,” he soothed, nipping delicately on her. “Let go, baby.”

She did with a guttural shriek of his name. There was just enough sense in her head to muffle the sound by tearing into her bottom lip with her teeth as her body shattered around his embedded fingers like glass. Her ears were ringing and she was pretty sure she would never get the feelings back in her lower extremities, but hell if she cared. Everything was so blissfully numb and she felt so gloriously sated. She never wanted to get up.

“Next time,” he straightened to peer down into her eyes, “I’m going to bury myself deep inside your body when you come.”

He gave a final thrust of his fingers, drawing out the last of her tremors before sliding them out to stroke her sensitive clit, making her whimper and buck into his hand.

“Jesus...” Julie moaned, eyes falling closed.

He drew her off the counter and into his arms, even though she was sure she couldn’t trust the strength of her legs. He kissed her deeply until her head was swimming deliciously.

“Do we have to wait until tonight?” she whispered when he drew back.

“Are you hungry?”

Julie blinked, taken aback by the unexpected change in topic. “Sorry?”

“Are you hungry?” he repeated slowly.

Her hand went to her stomach where she could just feel the low rumble against her palm.

“Yes.”

Mason grinned. “Come on. I’ll make us dinner then we’ll take it to my room and watch a movie.”

Julie’s eyes narrowed. “Why your room? We’re already in my room.”

“I don’t care whose room it is. I just want to get you to myself for a few hours and since Shaun has claimed the rec room sofa as his personal domain ... my room or your room are the only places available. So, what do you say?”

It didn’t really matter whose room they went into. That much he was right on. But she didn’t understand why it was such a big thing that they eat first. Her bed was just on the other side of the door. She was already naked. But he seemed so adamant.

“Fine,” she grumbled, which made him chuckle.

“Don’t worry, love. We’re not finished.”

He made them a taco salad and led her up the stairs to his room. Julie had seen it during her tour the morning she’d arrived, but it felt infinitely different now that all his things were there, taking up room. The whole place smelled like him, soap and spices. The bed was made and the whole place was reasonably neat, except for a small heap of fabric dumped on a chair next to the wardrobe.

Unlike her room which was more feminine, his room was dark blue and the furniture was heavy. The four poster bed sat facing a dresser with a TV mounted over it and there were two nightstands on either side of the bed, but otherwise, it was reasonably sparse.

“Get comfortable,” Mason told her as he set the tray down on the dresser and hurried towards the chair with the clothes. “I’m going to change.”