She propped herself up on her elbow and grinned down at him. “I’ve never made love on your living room floor before, either.”
Her humor made him wrap his arms around her and pull her against him. He liked the feel of her naked body pressing into his.
“How do you feel?” he asked as he stroked her from shoulders to rear.
“Good. Better than good.” She sighed. “You were pretty amazing. All that ability to focus on the task at hand. I should have guessed how well it would translate. Now if only my rug burn will fade by morning.”
“Rug burn?”
He started to sit up to look at her back, but she laughed and pushed him back onto the carpet.
“I’m kidding. My back is completely unscathed.”
“Good.”
She turned onto her side. He slid his hands over her hip and felt the prominent bone. “You’re too thin,” he told her.
She glared. “I take back all those nice things I just said. It’s incredibly tacky to criticize a woman’s body at any time, but never more so than after you’d just done the wild thing and while she’s still naked.”
She was being playful, but he didn’t smile. “I’m not being critical, I’m stating a fact. You haven’t been eating enough. Why do I know that it’s more about money than looking good in clothes?”
She sat up and turned so she was facing away from him. “Don’t, Jeff. I don’t want to talk about that. Please don’t spoil the mood.”
Her request answered his question. He hated that money had been so tight for her that there were times when she didn’t get enough to eat. He wanted to fix her life. He needed to make it better. Except he was the wrong person for the job. Nicole had been right when she’d pointed out that he didn’t know how to be like other men. At least he’d given Ashley a good job. As long as she worked for him, she would be safe.
“You’re supposed to say something reassuring,” she muttered.
“I’m sorry.” He touched her bare skin. “I don’t want to spoil the mood. Please come back here and let me hold you.”
She turned toward him. The lamplight filtered through the partially open drapes, illuminating her body. Her breasts were surprisingly full for her slight frame. The nipples were tight. As she moved, her breasts swayed slightly. She was an erotic image brought to life by the night.
Unable to stop himself, he leaned over and took her right nipple in his mouth. She grasped his head and moaned. Suddenly he was touching her everywhere, needing her, desperate for her. He told himself that it was too soon.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he murmured.
“Don’t worry about it.”
She pressed herself against him as they kissed.
He was hard in a heartbeat. Hard and hungry, as if they hadn’t made love less than an hour before. He cupped her breasts and teased her nipples. She ran her fingers through his hair and down his back. He put his hands on her hips and urged her to straddle him. She did so; then in one easy, sexy movement she settled on top of him and let him find his way home.
Ashley couldn’t believe they were making love again. She was generally a once-every-three-or-four-days kind of girl. But with Jeff she couldn’t seem to get enough. The second he began to fill her, she felt herself contracting around him. The first release made her arch her head back in an attempt to catch her breath. The second made her frantic to have him fill her more and more and more.
She raised and lowered herself with a pace she thought might be too fast until she realized that his hands guided her hips, keeping her in place and her rhythm steady for both of them. Every few seconds another contraction filled her. She hadn’t known it could be like this.
Suddenly tension spiraled through her. Tension and need. It consumed her until she had no choice but to shudder with the glory of it all. Just as she reached her pinnacle, she felt Jeff stiffen and cry out. Together they clung to each other as their bodies reveled in the moment of being one.
* * *
Ashley slept like one of the innocent, Jeff thought later when they were both in his large bed. Her even breathing spoke of her rest. He couldn’t find the same solace; he didn’t dare.
When was the last time he’d made love? Not had sex, but actually made love with a woman? He couldn’t recall. Not since Nicole. And with her it had been before things had started to go so desperately wrong. Sex was a bodily function. He understood and respected his body’s need for release. But this was different.
He closed his eyes but didn’t allow himself to sleep because the dream lurked in the world of the unconscious and he didn’t want to have it twice in one night. Not with Ashley sleeping so peacefully beside him. She might think that she understood him, but she had no idea of his real self.
So instead of sleeping he held her close, ignoring the very male part of him that wanted her again. He told himself that the wanting was allowed for this night but no longer, because wanting was dangerous. Wanting made a man weak and careless. Either could get him killed.
In the morning he would walk away without looking back. He would never allow himself to do this again or even to think of it. That would be best for both of them. But until morning there was the night. He closed his eyes and breathed in the sweet scent of her skin.
