Master of Fortune (9 page)

As they swayed, Henry sang quietly along with the music, his deep voice finding the countermelody to Alan Jackson’s. And despite what he’d said earlier about not really having any musical talent, she could tell that he did.

She tipped her head to say something to him, but his mouth captured her words, and he kissed her deeply while he moved their bodies in time to the song.

He bit her lower lip lightly as he pulled back. Nibbling kisses trailed against her jaw until his tongue brushed at the spot just under her ear.

“This is what I wanted to do to you when we were in the club on Wednesday. Pull you into my arms and run my hands down your back.”

She shivered, loving the intimate sound of the words spoken right into her ear. “Why didn’t you?”

“There were too many people around. I didn’t think you’d welcome a photo in
Ok!
Of the two of us.”

“No, I wouldn’t have.” She’d had enough of tabloids to last a lifetime.

His hands found the back of her skirt and drew it up her legs. She felt his hand on the back of her thigh as the music changed to Bonnie Raitt, burning in the fire of love. A fire built in her with the brush of his hands against her. His hips moved in time with the music. His erection brushing against her lower stomach and the music combined with Henry’s touch seduced away her fears and worries until she was nothing but a bundle of need and want.

And all of it was centered on Henry Devonshire.

She unbuttoned his shirt so she could rub her hands over his chest. He had a light matting of hair and she liked the way it felt against her fingers. She ran her hands over his pecs and then slowly traced her way down his stomach.

His mouth on hers was hot and real. The sting of his five-o’clock stubble against her skin excited her. He found the zipper in the side seam of her dress and lowered it and before the next song came on the stereo, she was down to her ice-blue panties and matching bra. And Henry had on only his pants.

“Let me look at you,” he said, stepping back from her.

He drew her arms out from her sides. “You are one sexy woman.”

She shook her head. “I’m not of the same caliber as the women you usually date.”

“No, you’re not. You are sexier because you are real,” he said. “Will you dance for me?”

She hesitated. She wanted to turn him on. She wanted to make him so hot that he couldn’t wait to get inside of her.

“Yes,” she said.

“Good. Stay here,” he said. He left her standing in the middle of her sitting room, the light from the side table illuminating them in its soft glow. The scent of the coffee filled the air. He played with the remote until the song changed and a new tune started.

“‘Let’s Get It On’?” she said with a laugh.

“Yes, baby. Show me you feel like I feel.”

She threw her head back and laughed. In this moment she felt so damned alive. Her hips moved unconsciously in time with the rhythm of the music, her gaze on Henry. He leaned back on the settee to watch her, and she felt her inhibitions slowly fall away until she was dancing toward him.

With her hands on the back of the settee, she leaned down to sing softly into his ear while moving her body over his.

“You have a sexy singing voice,” he said.

“Do I?”

“Yes. Why didn’t you tell me you could sing?”

She perched on his lap. “Because I’m not good like the singers you listen to all day.”

“You’re better,” he said, “because you only sing for me.”

His hands came up to her waist and caressed their way up her back. She stood up and took a step away from him, swirling out of his reach, only to realize he’d unfastened her bra. She let it slide down her arms and drop to the floor.

Suddenly, she felt his hands on her back open, stronger now, pulling her close until she was nestled in his arms. His body swayed with the rhythm of hers. His hands cupped her breasts. His hard-on nudged her buttocks, and she felt as if she was going to explode.

He put his mouth on the base of her neck and suckled gently while they danced to the music. She couldn’t take much more. She felt achingly empty and tried to turn in his arms. But he held her in place with one big hand on her waist.

The music changed again. This time “Sexual Healing” played, and she couldn’t help but shiver as his hands slid lower until his fingers were sliding between her skin and her panties.

She tried to turn and this time he let her. She pulled his head to hers, her mouth devouring his as passion overwhelmed her. She wanted him. She needed him.
Now
.

She walked them backward toward the couch and he followed her lead. She put her hands between them fumbling for his belt, but he stopped her. “Not yet.”

“I need you, Henry.”

“Soon, baby. But I want you to come first.”

She shook her head, but Henry wasn’t paying attention to her. He’d lowered his head and was kissing her breast. One hand stroked her and then she felt the warmth of his breath against her nipple.

She tunneled her fingers into his hair, holding him to her breast, needing him to continue sucking on her. Everything in her body reacted to the feel of him. It had been a long time since any man had made her feel the way he did.

“Henry.” His name burst from her lips as his other hand slid back between her legs, pushing her panties down her thighs. She moved her legs until the wisp of material slid down to the floor.

Henry stroked her mons and her thighs, with touches that were everywhere, teasing her ceaselessly. Finally his forefinger brushed against her, and she almost screamed with the pleasure of it. But that touch was fleeting. He switched his mouth to her other breast. He rubbed her up and down and then swirled his finger in a light circle.

She did scream then, feeling the beginning of an orgasm ripping through her. She clenched her thighs together and dug her nails into his shoulders.

He lifted his head.

“I like the sound of you coming,” he said. “Almost as sexy as you singing.” She’d never seen anything more beautiful than this man in the flush of sexual need for her.

“No more waiting,” she said.

“No more,” he agreed. He lifted her in his arms and carried her down the hall to her bedroom, setting her gently down in the center of the bed. His clothes were tossed to the floor and he stood next to her completely naked.

She touched his erection, lingering at the tip where a bit of moisture beaded. She swiped her finger over it and brought her finger to her mouth, licking it off.

He growled at the sight. Then he lowered himself until he covered her and they were pressed together, chest to breast, groin to groin. She wrapped her legs around his hips. His mouth ravaged hers. She shifted underneath him, and he rolled over onto his back, drawing her over him.

She’d never been on top. She wasn’t sure what to do and felt so damned exposed, but when he leaned up and took one of her nipples in his mouth, she forgot everything except the sensations he stirred in her.

His mouth found hers. Their tongues tangled, and she felt overwhelmed as his hands roamed all over her body, his fingers rubbing and caressing every inch of her skin while he made love to her with his mouth.

She knelt with one leg on either side of his hips as his hands grabbed her waist. He wrapped his arms around her, and his mouth latched onto her nipple, suckling her strongly.

“Henry!”

Humid warmth pooled in the center of her body and she rocked against him, feeling him against her center. She wanted more. She needed him deep inside her. She needed it now.

This was nothing like the sexual encounters she usually had. It was more intense, more real, and she forced down the emotions that threatened to surface and focused only on the physical sensations. She wasn’t ready to admit that this was anything more than a physical joining. She didn’t want to start to care for Henry—not while she knew her secrets were still buried deep inside.

He was hot, hard and ready between their bodies. She rocked against him, finding her own pleasure as he continued to lick and suck at her breasts. He held her in his strong hands, to control the movements of her hips.

Skimming his hands down her sides, he explored every inch of her skin. She felt raw and vulnerable and wanted to reach for him and turn the tables, but she couldn’t. His hands and mouth were everywhere, making her crave more of his touch.

His mouth reached her mons at last and he rested for a moment, his looking up at her. She wanted him so badly. Wanted to feel his mouth on her and his tongue and fingers inside her.

“Henry?”

“Hmm,” he murmured, turning his head from side to side, caressing her with his entire face.

“Please…”

He moved back up over her body, stretching her arms over her head. She gripped the headboard, wrapping her fingers around the base of it. His strong, rough body brushed over hers in one big caress that brought every one of her senses to hyperawareness. She couldn’t take this slow build to passion. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tried to impale herself on him but he pulled back.

He nibbled his way down the center of her body again, pressing her breasts against his face as he continued on his path straight back to her aching center.

She parted her legs, opening them widely for him, and he lowered his head, taking her in his mouth. First his warm breath caressed her and then his tongue. His fingers teased the opening of her body, circling but not entering her as his tongue tapped out a rhythm against her very center.

She gripped the headboard tighter and tighter as her hips rose and fell trying to force him to penetrate her, but still he held his touch only at the entrance of her body.

“Please, Henry. I need you. Now.”

He caught her between his lips and sucked her into his mouth. At the same time he thrust his finger deep into her body. She screamed as her body spasmed. She rocked her hips against his finger and mouth as he kept up the pressure, not letting her come down from her orgasm, but building her up once again.

He’d drawn out this lovemaking, because he’d wanted to explore every inch of her passion, find out what it took to turn this woman on. He wanted to know her intimate secrets. And he refused to stop until he knew them all. Tonight was just the tip of the iceberg.

“I don’t want to come without you again,” Astrid said.

“Me, either. Are you on the Pill?” he asked.

“I won’t get pregnant,” she said.

“Good, because I don’t have a condom,” he said.

“You don’t?”

“Why would I carry one around?” he asked her.

She just smiled up at him. “I guess you didn’t plan this.”

“Not at all,” he said.

“You make me feel special,” she said.

The words were honestly innocent as she wrapped her arms around him rubbing her hands over his skin. He loved the feel of her long cool fingers on him. When she found the sensitive area at the base of his spine, tracing her finger in a small circle, awareness spread through hers in waves, and a shudder went through his entire body.

He drew her hand away from his body and linked their fingers together, tasting her with long slow sweeps of his tongue against her neck and her collarbone. She smelled heavenly…sex and woman…his woman.

Was she his?

He lifted himself away from her, kneeling between her legs. She touched his thigh, the only part of his body she could reach.

Her fingers were cool against his hip. He needed her under him now. The teasing had gone on long enough—now he needed to be inside of her. To claim Astrid as his. Because whatever else happened between them, tonight she was his.

He tumbled her back on the bed. She held his shoulders as he slid up over her. He tested her body to make sure she was still ready for him. He held himself poised at her entrance. Felt her silky legs draw up along his and then fall open. Anticipation made the base of his spine tingle.

She shifted under him. Her shoulders rotated until the tips of her berry-hard nipples brushed against him.

He lowered himself over her, settling into place between her legs. She skimmed her gaze over his body, down to the place where they met.

He looked down at her but her eyes were shut. “Don’t close your eyes,” he said, wanting her to see this moment when she became his.

He lifted her hips and waited until their eyes met, then slid into her body. She was a tight fit and he eased inch by inch until he was fully seated inside her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, her ankles resting at the small of his back.

She closed her eyes for a minute, her arms tightened around him. He couldn’t breathe anyway as he started to move over her, found her mouth with his. She turned her head away from him, kissed his shoulders and his neck, scraped her nails down his back as he thrust slowly, building them both back toward the pinnacle.

He caught her face in his hand, tipped her head back until she was forced to look at him as he rode her. Her eyes widened and he felt something shift within him. He wanted to go so deep that the two of them would never be separated again.

She gasped his name as he increased his pace, feeling his own climax rushing toward him. He changed the angle of his penetration so that he would hit the G-spot inside her body.

Her mouth opened on a scream that was his name as her orgasm rolled through her body. He continued thrusting, driving himself deeper and deeper until he came in a rush, shouting her name.

He wrapped his arms around her, letting his body relax for a moment. He felt the strength in her arms as she hugged him, and he knew he couldn’t let this be a mistake. Not just because of the work situation but because this woman meant more to him than he’d realized.

He got out of bed and went into her en suite bathroom. He had to search to find a flannel, then he wet it and brought it back to the bed where Astrid waited. He wiped her tenderly between her legs.

“Stay with me tonight?” she asked.

He couldn’t deny her. He got into bed next to her and pulled her into his arms. Astrid was different than every other woman he’d dated, something he’d felt from the beginning, but in this moment he understood why.

He couldn’t sleep as he held her. He knew that his life was complicated and he didn’t know where Astrid fit into it. He stayed awake all night puzzling over what to do with this woman who was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman and nothing that he knew what to do with. But there were no easy answers where she was concerned.

When the sun started to rise, he rolled her over and under him, making love to her again. He left her dozing to shower and dress and when he came out of the bathroom she was no longer in her bed.