Playing with Fire (11 page)

“Do you think I care one bit what this jerk town thinks?” She twisted her lips in a bitter parody of a smile. “What has it ever done for me?”

He rubbed his fingers in a sensuous glide against hers. “Last chance to back out, sugar. You’re up here in your bedroom with the town bad boy. My reputation hasn’t changed.” His face was dead serious. “But neither have my feelings for you.”

“Maybe this is what I always wanted, even before our first night together.” She couldn’t believe she was saying this. She gripped his fingers hard. “Maybe you were
my
secret fantasy, and I’ve still been wanting you all these years. You didn’t warn me the last time, or didn’t it mean anything to you?”

“You can’t imagine how much it meant.” His voice was tight. “What about you? Did it mean as much to you? Have other men been able to set you on fire like I did?”

“No one,” she whispered. “Not ever.”

How could she even begin to tell him the way the touch of other men had turned her off, how no one else could awaken that hot flame of desire in her, make her body shiver and tremble in anticipation.

In the next moment, he cupped her face in his hands, leaned down, and kissed her. If she thought his kisses the other night had been exciting, tonight, they made her blood race. Threading one hand through her hair, he pulled her lips tighter against his. She opened her mouth to him, and he explored it with slow sweeps of his tongue, making her respond with hers. This kiss was like a feeding frenzy that went on and on. Weak, she leaned against him, unable to stand on her own.

Lifting his mouth from hers, Griff backed up to sit on the edge of the bed, guiding her toward him with gentle hands, and undressed her. He took his time, not hurrying anything, each piece like wrapping paper exposing another piece of the gift. He held her steady as he dragged her sweater over her head and tossed it aside. Then, with teasing slowness, he traced the tips of his fingers over the swell of her breasts above her bra. He palmed them, the touch of his skin searing hers.

She held her breath as he stared at her, his gaze drinking in every inch of her.

“Damn,” he breathed. “Perfection. Just fucking perfection.”

He grazed her nipples with his thumbs, touching the pebbled surface as if it were crystal. She felt them contact into hard points. She let out a long. choppy breath as he kissed each of them in turn, sucking them until they enlarged in his mouth, swirling his tongue around their tips, then closing his lips over larger portions of the creamy flesh.

She swayed, weakened by the assault of sensations, he held her in place with his hands firm on her hips.

“God, you are so beautiful.” His tone was reverent, almost awestruck. “Cassie, Cassie. You are still the light in my heart.”

He unsnapped her jeans and slid the zipper down, the rasp of it sounding so loud in the room. Pushing the jeans down, he nudged her to step out of them, leaving just the tiny scrap of silk that passed for her panties. Then that was gone, and she was naked before him.

His eyes raked over her as if relearning every inch of her body. He touched the tip of one finger where her thighs met, slid it up into the curls on her mound then down through their silkiness.

Cassie gasped at his touch, almost falling forward. With his knees, he nudged her thighs farther apart and moved his finger lightly between them, seeking the warmth of her folds. He stroked one finger along the length of her labia, probing the outer edges, his touch eliciting a delicious shiver from her. He tightened his grip on her, holding her in place, and held up his finger, wet with her moisture.

“Fucking damn, Cassie. You have no idea how hard it makes me to know you’re slick for me already. Remember that? Remember my fingers touching your sweet little cunt lips? Does it still feel good, sugar? You know it does. And I’m about to make you feel a whole lot better. Sweet, sweet Cassie,” he said in a husky voice. “How could I ever have been so stupid as to lose you?”

Somehow, then, he was out of his clothes, and she was in the bed next to him, cradled against his body. His free hand drifted to the apex of her thighs again, and she opened her legs for him without prompting, urging him to delve even deeper. He pressed his palm against her damp mound while he kissed her eyelids, the tender spot behind her ear, the hollow at the base of her throat where her pulse beat a rapid rhythm.

He touched every outside inch of her sex, teasing the curls, stroking the softness of the slick skin, taking his time with his exploration. When he found her already swelling clit and moved his thumb over it, she jerked as if arrows of lightening had shot through her. She lifted her hips toward him in a pleading gesture, and a soft moan escaped her lips.

“Easy, sugar,” he told her, almost whispering. “We’ve got all night, and I’m in no hurry. Open your legs wider for me. Come on.”

When she did, she was rewarded by the thrust of his fingers into her hot, hungry sex. She couldn’t stop the little cries of passion erupting from her mouth.

He moved his fingers in and out of her in an easy glide, stroking the nub of her clit with his thumb. He seemed to know when to slow down, when to speed up. He brought her to the edge again and again before backing up then driving her to the point where every inch of her body quivered with hot need.

He kissed her abdomen, his lips open and hot against her skin. Reaching far inside for her most sensitive spot, he curled his fingers to rasp against it then drew back. With his touch and the sound of his voice, everything came flooding back to her, every touch, every caress, all the secret yearnings in her dreams all these years.

“Do you remember this, Cassie?” His words rumbled low and deep in this throat. “Do you remember how it felt? Talk to me, sugar. Tell me what you like. How it feels. Tell me what you like me to do.”

Cassie gasped in remembered pleasure. The pain she’d worn like a hair shirt was gone, dissipated in this one moment. Just like that, the past six years disappeared, and she was back in his bed with him, consumed by an uncontrolled passion. This was where she should be, no matter what.

She moved against him, hungry, needy, wanting him closer. Her hands roamed over his chest, pulling at the crisp chest hair. He groaned with pleasure as she found his flat nipples and teased them with her fingernails. Heat spiraled through her, pooling between her legs, and an insistent throbbing pulsed through the wet muscles of her heated channel.

“It’s all right, Cassie. I can wait to hear you say what you want. Right now, your body’s doing all the talking I need. God, how it’s talking,” he whispered. “I love you, Cassie. God help me, I love you more than my life.”

Her eyes glazed, and her movements quickened. His fingers danced over her, slid into her, teased at every sensitive spot.

“Griffin.” She could barely get the word out.

“Yes, darlin’? Tell me. Come on, tell me that you want this. And this. And this. Come on, Cassie.”

She pulled at him, sliding her hands over his hot skin. She couldn’t stand it. Her mind whirled.

“Tell me. Did anyone else make you feel like this?”

“No, no, no.” She thrashed about, tossing her head back and forth, rocking against him. “Nobody. Just you.”

“You know it, sugar. Just me.” He put his lips to her ear, stroking the inside with the tip of his tongue. “You’re mine, Cassie. No one else’s. Say it,” he commanded her. “Say it now.”

“Yes. All right. I’m yours. Please, please, please.” She begged him, almost sobbing with need. Her body shook with frustration, reaching for that elusive peak of fulfillment, the moment when her womb would contract, her vaginal walls would clench, and spasm after spasm would roll through her body.

He laughed, a low, throaty sound. “All right, then. Here we go. Come for me, Cassie. Just like before. Let me feel you come. Now.” When she pushed against him, her body arching toward him, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I love you, Cassie.”

That was all it took. Rockets went off in her head, and she thought for sure she would fly apart. The tremors deep within her went on and on and on, convulsing around his fingers, her body straining against his touch. Wave after wave of ecstasy washed over her. Small tremors like aftershocks fluttered inside her. Her release consumed her, as if it would never reach conclusion. Then, at last, he brought her down and the tremors slowed.

She lay back against the pillows at last, panting, her heart racing so loud she thought he would hear it. Pleasure still pulsed through her. She looked up at Griffin, and his face held a satisfied look. But, with his next words, she could feel herself responding again.

“I want to be inside you,” he whispered in her ear. “I want to feel you around me, feel your hot wetness on my dick. God, Cassie, I want to bury myself in your soul.”

“God, Griff.”

“I want to taste you, feel my tongue stroking those hot, wet walls of yours. I’ve never forgotten how sweet you tasted.”

She tried to mold her body to his, her legs clasping around him as she urged him to enter her. Panting, vibrating from the intensity of her orgasm, still she was ready for him again. She wanted him at the very center of her body, penetrating her vagina, the tip of his penis touching her womb. She wanted to feel him convulse inside her like that night so long ago.

“Hold on a minute, darlin. Don’t move.” He slid back from her and fished a condom from his pocket.

She tugged him back to her. “No,” she said, defiant. “Just like before. Nothing between us.” She was possessed with the need to feel the nakedness of his cock against her drenched inner skin. And, even more, to bind them together, skin to skin. How could she possibly have denied to herself what she felt for this man?

He spoke through gritted teeth. “Cassie, I’m in no position to start an argument with you now.”

“Then don’t,” she told him. “Please. Just do it.”

He leaned over her. “When you’re in this all the way, sugar, then we’ll talk. Right now, I’m about to forget my own name, so just let me do this before I lose any shred of control.”

“No. No. No.” She tried to wrap her legs around him again and pull him back into position, hardly able to believe what she was saying. Somehow it was important to her that there be nothing separating the contact. The specter of pregnancy didn’t frighten her. “This is what I want,” she cried. “Please.”

“Ssh, darlin’. We’ll have plenty of time to think about that. But not now.”

He unwrapped the condom and sheathed himself, teeth still gritted. Then, with a groan, he pushed her hands aside and mounted her again, positioning himself between her legs.

Cassie reached down to take him in her hand, guide him into her

“Okay, Cassie,” he told her, his voice unrecognizable. “Now.”

With a slow movement he slid into her hot, wet sheath. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead, and she wiped them with her fingertips. Needing more, she rocked back and forth, urging him on.

“That’s it, sugar,” he rasped. “Yes. Oh, God, Cassie.”

He thrust hard against her, grinding his pelvic bone against her sensitive nub, pulling her hips tight to him. Their sweat-slickened bodies moved together, faster and faster. She tensed, clutching at him, clenching around him. Cassie felt his hot, thick shaft filling every inch of her channel, stretching her tight vaginal walls, damp flesh clutching steel-hard flesh.

And just like that, the explosion caught them again, whirling them into a space filled with fireworks. Their climax was so intense it shook both of them. Cassie convulsed violently, arching wildly, pulling him deep into her body. Slick skin slapped against slicker skin, sliding against the cool, cotton sheets as his shaft pulsed again and again inside her.

At last, they collapsed together, Griff’s head on Cassie’s chest, both of them gasping for breath, their rapid heartbeats thudding in union. She tangled her fingers in his hair and whispered his name over and over.

“I love you,” he said again, feathering light kisses on her cheeks, her forehead, her eyelids.

The words were so soft, for a moment she wondered if she had imagined them.

“I love you, too, Griff.” How good it felt to say it. After all the years she had denied it to herself, now she could tell him without reservation.

Time seemed to expand as they lay there, twined together, his hand stroking her with infinite tenderness. When he tried to move, she held him in a tight embrace, her grasping muscles refusing to let him pull out of her body.

“Condom,” he whispered, and pulled out to dispose of it before trouble came calling.

Then he was back beside her, pressing his mouth close to her ear.

“I’m back in your life now, Dewdrop. And I plan to stay.”

As she drifted off to sleep, she managed to smile and say, “Good.”

Cassie opened her eyes and stretched like a cat then felt the warm body next to her and smiled. She hadn’t been this happy in a long time. She turned on her side to run her fingertips over the man who owned her heart. It was still dark outside, the moonlight shining in through the window.

“Can we do it again?” She kissed his shoulder, wondering where her boldness was coming from.

“Cassie.” With obvious effort he turned and faced her. “Look at me, sugar.”

“What is it? I’m not sure I can think right now.” She gave him a sleepy smile. “Someone wore me out.”

“We have to talk about this.” The expression on his face was serious.

“About what? Why are you always wanting to talk?” She tensed, not sure she wanted to hear what he had to say even as she stroked a finger along his arm. “I can think of better things to do.”

“Because we have things to discuss.” He shook his head. “You almost convinced me to do something crazy, and I have a feeling that subject isn’t closed with you. How could you be willing to take such a chance? What if you got pregnant?”

“I want to.” The words just popped out of her mouth like jumping beans.

Whoa, Cassie. Take a step back.

But she wasn’t sure she wanted to. They had so much lost time to make up for.

“Cassie, honey, you don’t know what you’re saying.”