The Cinderella Seduction: A Suddenly Cinderella Novel (Entangled Indulgence) (13 page)

Chest heaving, he got to his feet. Sliding an arm about her, he looked from her agape dress into her eyes. “And you are even more succulent than your food.”

She reached between them and boldly cupped his groin. “Then stay with me. I promise you won’t be sorry.”

Reaching down, he covered her hand with his. “No, I will not be sorry. I only hope that tomorrow you can say the same.”

…

They made it as far as the foyer. The moment Stefanie turned to climb the stairs, exposing her beautiful backside through the sheer dress, Nick was once again lost, an animal. The taste of her in his mouth, the scent of her clinging to his skin, the echo of her release still keening inside his head—all slammed into him, a sensual swell he was powerless to resist. Suddenly he couldn’t wait to climb those creaking wooden steps to her room. He had to have her—
now
.

He lunged, taking hold of her beautiful buttocks, his fingers sinking into her lushness. Stefanie sank to her knees on the step above. Nick followed, throwing up her dress. He slid his hand beneath and stroked the elegant curve of her backside. Her panties were left lying in the kitchen. Were it up to him, she’d never wear more than a G-string again. Her ass cheeks were pale twin moons, taut and lush, and he longed to sink his teeth into them. He kissed first one buttock and then the other and then gently bit.

“Oh!”

He slid a hand between her splayed legs to the soft, fluttering flesh at her front. Warm and wet, she took his first probing finger without so much as a whimper, arching her back and bucking as if silently begging for a second. Nick gave it without hesitation, without warning. She moaned this time, her back and ass and thighs pearling with perspiration. He withdrew, anticipating her begging. Once again, she didn’t disappoint. She turned to look back at him, her eyes pleading for more.

Nick delved into her again, three fingers parting and probing her without apology or mercy. A strangled sob escaped her. Her fingers clawed the uncarpeted step above. Breathing in her arousal, Nick flexed his fingers, searching out the hidden sweet spot that would allow him to send her over the edge.

A strangled cry confirmed he’d found it. He worked his buried knuckles against it, again and again until…

“Oh my God, Nick!”

Stefanie convulsed, her inner muscles pumping against his buried partial fist, her cream drenching his hand, his wrist…

He waited for the spasms to ebb, then leaned forward and gently bit the back of her neck. “I am taking you to bed.”

Like the nymph Daphne fleeing Apollo, she scrambled to her knees and flew up the remaining stairs. Nick followed, taking the steps two at a time. Gaining the landing, he caught her roughly in his arms. Her dress hung open; her breasts swung free. Her mouth was swollen, her velvety brown eyes filled with wonder and satisfaction, challenge and lust.

He backed her inside the room to the foot of the brass four-poster. Thinking of all the ways those four sturdy posts could be used, he felt his erection firming to the point he feared his zipper might break.

She freed her arms and reached for him. “My turn.”

Buttons sprayed as she tore open his shirt. Her nails grazed his skin as she yanked the shirttail from his pants and peeled the sleeves off his shoulders. She bent her head, licking and suckling and nibbling her way from his neck downward. Her teeth grazing his nipples nearly sent him over the edge. Reaching down between them, she cupped him through his trousers. Nick groaned, covering her hand with his, coaxing her to work him. Only Stefanie didn’t need coaxing. Stroking his cock through his clothes, she lifted her head and kissed him, plundering his mouth as he had hers on the porch, bruising and biting and sucking him deeply into her mouth.

Breaking the kiss, she sank to her knees. Her tongue tasted his belly. Her teeth nipped the flesh sheathing his hip bone. She found the tab of his zipper and tugged it down. Reaching inside his open fly, she guided him to her mouth.

Her sweet lips sliding over him brought Nick to the brink of blowing his control. It had been six months since he’d been with a woman and the past week with Stefanie had kept him in an almost constant state of arousal. Threading his fingers through her hair, he closed his eyes and let her have her way. Stefanie took it, licking and laving and suckling him. Palming his balls, she slid one hand to his ass, her fingers stroking a trail along the seam bisecting his buttocks.

Determined not to lose control and cheat them both of the ultimate pleasure, he reached down, easing himself away to a saner space. Catching her bewildered look, he stretched out a hand and hauled her upright. Clearing away her clothes was the matter of a moment. Stepping back, he pushed her dress the rest of the way down, taking her unclasped bra with it. Naked, she stood before him, a dark-haired Aphrodite with satiny skin and bottomless eyes. A supple waist flared into generous hips and long legs that were both muscled and pleasingly slender. And her breasts, dear God her breasts… Despite his earlier feasting, Nick doubted he’d ever be truly sated.

He reached into his pocket and took out a condom packet. Eyes on hers, he shucked off the rest of his clothes, then tore open the foil and sheathed himself. Sitting on the side of the bed, he reached up and tugged her onto his lap.

She went willingly, winding her arms about his neck and wrapping her legs about his waist. “Are you really here or am I dreaming?” she asked with a sigh, her dark, disbelieving eyes shining into his.

He scooted them to the edge of the mattress and slid a buffering hand beneath her bottom. “You are not dreaming, sweet Stefanie. We are both here, and I intend to worship every exquisite inch of you. Only this time when you come, I want to see your beautiful face.”

He reached down and fitted himself against her. She was still very wet, easily as aroused as he, for all that she’d climaxed twice already. He thrust, sharp and sure, deliberately grazing her clit as he entered her. Stefanie drew a shuddering breath. She drew back and bore down on him again, driving him as deeply as he could go.

Nick groaned. “The kitchen
and
the bedroom,” he muttered to himself, his hands firming on her backside, his fingers sinking into flesh that was both generous and firm.

She blinked. “Sorry?”

Holding her securely, he shook his head. “A…story for later.”

They fell into a mating dance of advance and retreat, their movements as perfectly matched as if they were longtime lovers. She was beautifully responsive, a dream seductress in every way. He fed her passion with deep kisses, questing caresses, and copious praise. “My beauty, my goddess”—the heartfelt compliments tumbled from his lips.
My love
nearly slipped out as well. In the midst of his passion, he managed to stifle it.

Wrapping her arms about him, she rocked against him, fisting him with her warm flesh, using her inner muscles to milk his member.

Only Nick wasn’t yet willing to surrender.

“Hold onto me,” he said. Standing, he brought them both off the bed.

Still inside her, he carried her across the room to the wall. Bracing her against it, he pulled out and sank back into her, faster and harder, slamming into her again and again, marking her with kisses and bruises, claiming her with his hands and mouth and cock, determined that whatever the next few days brought, they would both remember this night, these moments, this joy, for the rest of their lives.

For the time being, the world reduced to their mutual moaning, to the slapping together of damp flesh, to the fevered look in Stefanie’s eyes just before she threw her head back against the wall and screamed. One word. His name.

“Nick!”

Her legs slackened around him. Holding her in place, Nick pulled out and sank in, releasing all the past week’s hopes and dreams and desires in one final, cosmically splintering thrust. Closing his eyes, he rested his forehead against Stefanie’s and let his climax claim them both.

…

Tuesday, July 8

Lying in Stefanie’s bed, covered by her quilt, Nick pulled up on one elbow and looked down at her. Her head tucked into his shoulder and her curvy body molded to his side, she was the picture of innocence and sexual satiation.

It was a compelling combination.

She looked like a Greek version of one of Mara’s fairy-tale princesses, lips softly parted as if in preparation for true love’s awakening kiss, silky, dark hair spilling over the snowy-white bed linens. Unable to resist, he reached out and smoothed the pillow crease on her cheek.

Her eyelids fluttered and then lifted. “Hi, you,” she said with a smile, her voice raw from sex and sleep.

He smiled down at her. “
Kalimera,
” he answered, though the sky beyond her sheer curtains was still pitch-dark.

Her sleepy look vanished. She pushed up on one elbow, her gaze going to the window. “But it’s still dark out,” she protested, turning back to him. “Stay.” Wrapping her arms around him, she hauled him back against her, her breasts brushing his back—a temptress determined not to take no for an answer.

“It is almost three in the morning.”

“Three! But what about Mara?”

Nick hesitated. “Back in the restaurant when you excused yourself to use the ladies room, I er…texted the babysitter and asked if she could stay the night.”

Stefanie slanted him a look. “You were that sure of me, huh?”

“No, but I was…hopeful.”

Banking his pillow against the headboard, he settled back, bringing her with him. “Still, I do not want Mara to wake up and find me gone.”

She turned to look up at him, the motion causing the sheet to slip. “I understand. Of course you have to go.”

“I will…in another few minutes.” He spotted the faint blue bruise blooming atop of her left breast and quietly cursed himself. Reaching over, he touched it tenderly. “I am a beast. I was too fierce in my passion. I have hurt you.”

She caught at his hand. The press of her lips to his palm moved him deeply. “No more than I wanted you to. And you didn’t exactly escape unscathed, either.” She reached up, trailing fingers along the side of his neck. “I hope you don’t mind hickeys.”

Knowing he was branded with her love bite made him smile. “You can mark me as you wish, but in the future I will take care to be gentler.” Belatedly it occurred to him that their “future” was now fewer than two days. Unless, of course, he could come to a reasonable resolution with her father.

A shimmy of creamy shoulders answered the promise. “I’d rather be treated like a woman than a china doll.”

He studied her face, scoured of makeup and unbelievably beautiful. “How is it you are still unmarried?”

Her gaze shuttered. “I was engaged for a while but it…didn’t work out. There hasn’t been anyone since, or really anyone I was serious about before. What…what about you?”

“I have never asked a woman to marry me but there have been…relationships.”

“I know, mostly with models and actresses.” She hesitated and then admitted, “I read your Wikipedia entry.”

Though hardly surprised, Nick didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or amused. Blogs and articles on his past life seemed almost to describe another person, a stranger.

He leaned over and kissed the frown furrowing her forehead. “Those other women, they are as ghosts to me now,” he said with feeling.

She drew back. Earnest eyes looked into his. “But you brought condoms with you.”

So she still didn’t trust him, not completely. Nick didn’t blame her, but whatever happened or didn’t happen between them after Thursday, he couldn’t bear that she might look back on him as a player.

“I bought them yesterday from the hotel gift shop…for
us.
” It was the absolute truth.

Lifting her head from his shoulder, she asked, “The hotel gift shop sells condoms?”

He nodded, fighting a smile. “With the shaving cream and toothpaste.”

“So you really were sure of me!”

He hesitated. “
Hopeful
—and feeling most unfortunate at the moment.” He bent and pressed a kiss atop her shoulder.

Her expression softened. Threading her fingers through the hair on his chest, she asked, “Do you really have to work today?”

“Alas, I do.”

The answer came with real regret. The teleconference had been arranged before he’d decided to make this trip and involved several powerful influencers in the international development community. As much as he might wish to reschedule, doing so would be beyond irresponsible.

“But we still have this evening,” he added. It would be his last chance to woo her before the Wednesday meeting, and he had every intention of making it count. “I would very much like to take you out again, that is, if you do not have other plans,” he added, not wanting her to think that because they’d slept together, he took her for granted.

She brightened. “Yes, I’m free, and I would love to go out on a
proper date
with you. But what do you call last night,
this
?”

Leaning over, he lightly touched his lips to hers. “I call it practice.”

…

For the first time in years, Stefanie didn’t set a wake-up time. When she awoke again, it was noon.
Noon.
She bolted upright, belatedly remembering there was no need to rush. Staying put, she stretched, deliciously sore in all the very best places. Her rumpled bedding smelled of Nick. She buried her nose in the pillow he’d occupied and closed her eyes, replaying the night in her mind.

The sex had been incredible, mind blowing. For the first time in her life, she’d forgotten to fret about the circumference of her waist or the cellulite dimpling the backs of her thighs. She forgot to worry about any of those things because Nick had made her feel utterly cherished, breathtakingly beautiful. Already she was counting the hours until she would see him again. Once their evening began, however, it would be hard not to will time to stand still. Tomorrow was Wednesday, the day set aside for the meeting with her father. As much as she wanted to stay positive, Stefanie didn’t see how there would be any more dates, proper or otherwise, before Nick flew home on Thursday morning.