Too Darn Hot (15 page)

His mouth moved lower, closing over a nipple through the layers of fabric. He nibbled at it, the scrape of his teeth shooting a flaming arrow deep within her. She arched and cried out, stifling her sounds with her hand, as she’d done on the beach. And as he’d done on the beach, he seized her hand, pulling it from her panting mouth. He looked into her eyes.

“I want to hear you, Lina. Don’t hold back.”

Don’t hold back? She wasn’t sure she could oblige him. Not after eleven years of holding back. She felt painfully shy about this.

“I...all right.” Her face grew hot at the thought of letting Eric hear the effect he had on her.

He peeled the sheet down until it pooled at the foot of the bed. His eyes scorched her through the thin cotton of her nightgown. They lingered on her breasts, her belly, her thighs. And between them where she knew the dusky triangle was tantalizingly visible.

“You are so very beautiful,” he murmured. “I’ll try not to go too fast. Pull in the reins if I forget myself, okay?”

You’re asking me to pull in the reins?
Lina thought.
Good luck.
She was nearly jumping out of her skin herself. “I’ll try,” she laughed.

Eric pulled off his light blue T-shirt. His torso in the gentle light washing through the curtains was magnificent, a gloriously male landscape of shifting shapes, the muscular contours enhanced by a dusting of dark copper hair.

She sat and reached for the zipper of his jeans, his penetrating gaze following her every movement. She urged him to stand and pulled the jeans down over his hard thighs. He stepped out of them, his erection stretching his white briefs. The sight caused her belly to tighten with anticipation. She caressed his chest, his nipples, the shingled plane of his abdomen. She pulled his briefs off.

“You’re beautiful, too,” Lina whispered as her fingers closed over his penis.

He groaned; his features tensed as he closed his eyes and gripped her shoulders. She relished the way his hot flesh leaped under her fingers. His entire body strained toward her. When he looked at her once more, she was startled by the raw hunger in his eyes. His chest rose and fell quickly, every muscle tense.

He pulled her to her feet, lifting her gown and tossing it aside. He held her by the shoulders, just looking at her. The heat of his gaze pooled between her legs, making her dizzy with longing. He crushed her to him and claimed her mouth once more. Through the drugging wonder of his deep kiss Lina felt the pressure of his hair-dusted thigh sliding between her legs. His fingers etched a whisper-light path on the curve of her bottom and lower.

The light touch of his fingertips there, where her hunger pulsed like a heart, sparked a flare of breathtaking sensation nearly too acute to bear. She could no more restrain her cry of pleasure than she could stop breathing. Her body bowed as she reflexively tried to close her legs, but Eric’s thigh pressed harder, increasing the sweet torment.

Too late, she bit her hand to smother her vocal response.

His fingers closed over her wrist, dragging her arm down. “Don’t, honey. I want to hear you. I need to hear you.”

“Eric, I...” She averted her face. He turned it back.

“You sound beautiful. Beautiful, Lina. Don’t keep this part of yourself from me.” Something in her expression told him more than she intended to. He relaxed his hold. “It’s Steve, isn’t it? He made you self-conscious.”

She shook her head.

He studied her intently. “Sure he did. Don’t lie to me. What did he do, make fun of you?”

She shot him a quick look. How could he know that?

His expression softened. “Honey, there’s a reason you divorced the guy. He’s a class-A jerk.”

“Yeah, well, he’s all I know. I mean, he’s the only man I’ve been with.”

“Well, now you’re getting to broaden your horizons. I’m not like Steve. I want to hear how I make you feel.”

He slid his fingers between their bodies and into her damp curls. He gently parted her, explored her. She gasped and clung to him, grateful for the unyielding support of his other arm around her back. Her hips rocked in time to the rhythm of his caress.

“Eric...” she whispered, awed.

“My God, you’re beautiful.” His voice was smokier than she’d ever heard it. His fingers slid deeply into her.

Little sounds of pleasure rose unbidden from her, and automatically she bit her lip. Ruthlessly he intensified the assault, varying the play of his fingers, the depth and pace of his stokes, until she gave herself over to the breathy cries clamoring for release.

He murmured, “Yes...that’s it...” in a steady litany of encouragement.

For the first time ever Lina allowed herself an uninhibited response to lovemaking. She could scarcely believe the wanton sounds filling the bedroom were coming from her. She was nearly there. Her climax was in sight. She was a wild thing reaching for the pinnacle when he withdrew his hand.

“Eric!”

He was already easing her down to the bed. “I know, honey—trust me.”

She understood then and knew she wanted the same thing he did: to be joined with him when her body reached its flash point. Lina was in an agony of wanting, cursing the heartbeat of time it took him to roll on the condom.

He fell on her as she reached for him, two parts of a whole eager to become one. Eric showered hungry kisses on her face and throat. He parted her legs and she opened to him unreservedly. He began to press into her, and she closed her eyes on a shuddering gasp. It felt too good. It had never been like this with Steve.

He stilled. “Lina. Open your eyes, honey.” His hand swept over her forehead, brushing back her hair. “I want to see your eyes.”

Her lids fluttered open. Her eyes locked with his, and he filled her with one deep thrust. His cry of elation matched her own. He tilted her hips and drove deeper still and she cried out again, her senses overwhelmed by the sharp, searing pleasure of total fulfillment.

He kissed her eyes and her mouth. He remained still, letting her adjust to him, until her own restless movements spurred him on. He retreated. He plunged. She rose to meet him, every delicious thrust wringing a moan from her, each more breathless than the last.

The promise of release rushed in on her once more, all the more intense for having been delayed. Her cries became sharper, her movements more frantic, her head whipping back and forth. “Eric...!”

He threaded his fingers over her scalp to hold her head still. His eyes burned into hers. The instant the glorious tension in her body reached its crescendo, he lunged with single-minded intent, holding her suspended on the razor’s edge while the awesome power of it blossomed and exploded within.

Lina’s body was not her own, bowed under the force of her orgasm, nor did she recognize the keening cries that pierced the air. She hovered just this side of darkness for a long moment before snapping back to full awareness. Still her body pulsed around him.

As Eric pounded headlong toward his own climax, she stared into his expressive eyes, which held nothing back. And she thought,
God help me, I’m falling in love with you
.

His deep-throated groans were intensely erotic, urging her to reach for the pinnacle once more. The moment came with soul-shattering intensity and they rode it out together, meeting and melding somewhere outside themselves, clinging to each other as they slowly floated back to earth.

*

Eric shifted onto his back and let his arm drop off the side of the bed. Lina heard a scrabbling sound. What’s he up to? She smiled. Maybe he just wants to find out if he can still move. They’d lain entwined for—well, who knew how long?

“What’re ya doin’?” she asked, her voice a well-loved mumble.

His hand appeared, brandishing a bagel covered with tiny black poppy seeds.

“I see.” She accepted the offering, and he began blindly digging for another.

“For stamina,” he explained.

“Oh my.”

“That’s what you said before.”

“When?”

“Right after. `Oh my.’ You said it a few times.”

“I did?”

“Would I lie?” The hand came up again. “All right! Sesame. Want some cream cheese?”

“You have any olive cream cheese in there?”

“What is it with you women and olive cream cheese? Joy almost didn’t let me in without it.”

“What can I tell you? We women are hard to please.”

“Not that hard.” He kissed her lightly.

Not for you,
she thought. “Would it sound hopelessly trite if I told you I never knew it could be like that?”

His smile turned tender and heated at once. “Neither did I.”

Something gritty scraped her, and she looked down at the sheet, now dusted with poppy and sesame seeds.

He said, “I believe that’s one of those bad habits women are supposed to break men of. Eating bagels in bed.”

“Could be worse. You could have brought in spaghetti.”

“Now, there’s an intriguing thought. Doing the wild thing on a bed of
spaghettini alla carrettiera
. So warm. So slippery.”

She tried to brush the seeds off the bed, an exercise in futility. “And making love on poppy seeds?”

“Depends on whether you’re into pain, I suppose.” He went to work delicately plucking seeds off her body, popping each into his mouth.

She laughed. “I thought only gorillas groomed each other.”

“Don’t move! This one’s trying to get away.”

Lina bopped him on the head with her bagel, causing a shower of seeds to rain down on her. Eric grunted his approval in proper simian fashion and proceeded to lick away the bounty.

They didn’t get out of bed for another two hours.

*

“I can’t walk,” Lina laughed.

“Then sit.”

“I can’t sit either.” Carefully she eased herself onto a wooden barstool at the high kitchen counter where she and Joy ate most of their meals. “Gotta get cushions for these things.” She adjusted the sash of her white terry robe.

Eric filled the coffeemaker with water and rummaged around, locating the coffee and filters. “What can I tell you? I’m a selfish lout.”

“You waited long enough. I guess you have a right to be selfish.”

He came up behind her and caressed the front of her robe, his breath hot and teasing on her neck. “You’re very understanding, you know that?” His fingers started to slip under the terry cloth.

She laughed. “And you’re insatiable. Make me coffee before I go into caffeine withdrawal.”

“Cruel woman.” He kissed her neck and moved away to measure coffee grounds into the machine’s basket. “Brace yourself, Lina. I’m about to ask you out on our first date. A little belated, I know.” His grin was unrepentant.

She’d known this moment had to come. “Eric—”

“The Fourth of July is a little over a week away. You are to accompany me and my kin—that would be the loony Reid clan, in case you’d forgotten—when we swarm on a park out east for our annual Independence Day clambake, followed by a mind-blowing fireworks display.” Her expression stopped him short. “You already have plans.”

“Well, no, I don’t.” She pushed her hair behind her ear, a gesture that wasn’t lost on him.

He said, “You’re not ready to face my family, is that it? I’m rushing things.” He switched on the coffeemaker and leaned against the counter. “I just thought it might be fun for you, that’s all. You could meet my folks. It’s not important.”

Meet my folks.
Lina swallowed around a dry lump in her throat. “Eric, we have to talk.”

A guarded look came into his eyes. “You told me you’re not involved with anyone. Well, no, you didn’t actually say that, did you? I guess I just assumed—”

“Eric, for heaven’s sake, I’m not involved with anyone else. Do you think I’d have...” She gestured toward the bedroom.

He relaxed fractionally. “What is it then?”

She took a deep breath. “Conflict of interest.”

He seemed taken aback. “Where’s the conflict of interest? You’ve already evaluated The Cookhouse. You’ve written your article. Objectively, I assume.”

She stiffened. “Of course I was objective.”

“Relax. I know that.”

“You know that, but everyone else doesn’t. Or they won’t when they realize we’re seeing each other. What I mean is—”

“What you mean is, you care more for the way it looks than the way it really is.” He pushed off the counter and paced across the small room, shoving his fingers through his hair.

“That’s not fair,” she snapped. “You don’t understand this business, Eric.”

He gave her a sardonic look.

“I mean, I know you understand the business,” she hastily amended, “it’s just that I don’t think you realize how important public perception is. You know what happened to Mercy.”

“Mercy was taking bribes.”

She flinched.

He closed the distance between them. “Listen, honey, I know you were close to her, but come on. You can’t compare the two situations. She crossed the line. She was taking payoffs in exchange for glowing reviews. You’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing even questionable.”

“I slept with a chef whose restaurant I reviewed.” She pulled her bathrobe tighter around her throat, feeling suddenly vulnerable. “Etsuko will go off the deep end if she finds out. She’s a stickler for appearances.”

He threw up his hands. “You handed in that article weeks ago. As of that moment, our business relationship was officially over. Kaput. It no longer impacts our personal relationship. Don’t you see the logic in what I’m saying?”

“Logic has little to do with this kind of scandal.”

“Scandal? I’m sorry, I don’t see what we have as any sort of scandal.”

She reached out to him. After a moment he took her hand and brought it to his lips. He frowned. “My God, you’re trembling.”

She said, “Try to understand. The general public won’t know when our business relationship ended and our personal relationship began, and they won’t care. If we were to start seeing each other, it would appear that I was exercising favoritism.”

“
If
we were to start seeing each other? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we passed the
if
stage around the time I was getting poppy seeds ground into my knees.”