Ignoring all the confusing bits for the moment in favor of the orgasms I was sure would be forthcoming, I crawled up my bed, putting a little more swing in my hips than normal. He might be the one smacking my ass, but I didn’t have to look back at him to know that I had the power to hypnotize with it. Or at the very least to catch and hold his attention.
“Fuck, woman.” His voice sounded rough, and I didn’t bother to hide my smile as I glanced back over my shoulder at him.
“I thought that’s what we were doing,” I said, feigning an innocence I hadn’t owned for over a decade.
“Back against the headboard, Charlotte. Hands over your head and keep them there.” He commanded as if he assumed he’d be obeyed, and part of me, the smart-ass lawyer part, wanted to tell him first to fuck off and then to make me. The other part of me knew he could. Not in the creepyoverpower me with brute forcekind of way. We’d never have gotten this far if I’d felt even a hint of that from him. It would be in thetease me until I’m crazy and begging for itkind of way. I wasn’t entirely sure that wasn’t where we were going to end up anyway. I wanted at least a couple of orgasms out of this deal. I didn’t need to throw gasoline on that particular fire.
Careful not to let my heels snag the 700-thread count duvet Elena chose, I leaned back on the pillows propped against the headboard. Meeting and holding his gaze because there was no way on God’s great green earth I was backing down, I raised my hands over my head and gripped the iron bedframe.
“That’s perfect. Keep them there.”
“Or what?” The challenge was out of my mouth before I considered its impact on myorgasms for Charlottegoal.
“Notorwhat.Andwhat.”
He watched me like he was a cat, and I was a bowl of cream. Or we were lion and gazelle. That was probably a closer but less comfortable comparison. I didn’t like feeling like prey. At least I hadn’t before I met Ford. Who knew what the fuck I liked now? I’d already stretched outside my comfort zone, and he didn’t show signs of stopping any time soon.
“Keep your hands above your head,andI’ll keep touching you.”
It was another one of those places where I probably should have told him to fuck off,but if my goal was orgasms—and it was—having Ford’s hands and mouth on me seemed like an excellent place to start.
“Do your best, darling,” I said, dropping theRin imitation of his accent. I tipped my head to the side and smiled at him, throwing down the gauntlet and waiting to see him pick it up.
His answering grin warmed something inside me. Then I let my legs fall open, baring my lace-covered sex to his hungry gaze, and the heat between us skyrocketed a couple hundred degrees. The way he looked at me, like I was a combination of puzzle and treasure and he wanted both, made it hard for me to breathe. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Fucking between two people without more of a connection than the promise of a climax at the end of the night. I wasn’t supposed to wonder what he thought or care about how he looked at me. And I wasn’t supposed to end up chest tight and frozen in place because he watched me like I was a present he couldn’t wait to open.
I watched as he toed off his shoes and socks. When he slipped the buttons open on his dress shirt, I arched forward to give myself a better view as he bared his chest. The man had abs that practically begged to be traced first by my fingers and then by my tongue. He tossed the shirt aside and reached for the buckle of his belt. Instead of simply undoing it, he pulled it free of his pants with a snap that made the breath catch in my throat.
Then he unbuttoned his slacks and slid them down over his narrow hips, and I sucked in some air. The outline of his erection under his black boxer briefs made my mouth practically water. I gripped the iron bar tighter to keep from reaching for him.
I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth in anticipation and watched his lips curve in a wicked grin. With slow, fluid movements that reinforced all my big cat predator fantasies—the ones I hadn’t realized I had until that night—he climbed onto the bed. Holding his body over mine, the muscles of his biceps bunching and skimming my arms, he kissed me, soft at first and then like my mouth belonged to him. I white-knuckled the headboard, determined not to give in to the urge to touch him. Arching to get closer, I tugged at his bottom lip with my teeth and felt more than heard his answering growl.
He pulled free of me and kissed his way along my throat and down my body, pausing with his lips in the valley between my breasts. I drew in an unsteady breath as he laid a trail of kisses over the lace, exhaling on a sigh that was part moan when he pulled my fabric-covered nipple into the heat of his mouth. If it felt this good with a layer of lace between us, I couldn’t wait to feel his mouth on my bare skin. I started to reach down to pull the cup of my bra out of the way and caught myself just in time. I wanted his mouthon my nipple, his tongue stroking the puckered flesh, and I didn’t want to have to wait for it. But not enough to risk him stopping and not enough to lose the implied bet we hadn’t quite made.
“Charlotte.”
My name murmured against my sensitive flesh held a hint of warning, and I knew, without asking, he realized how close I’d been to letting go of the bedframe. Then he scraped his teeth over my lace-covered nipple, biting just to the delicious edge of pain, and I stopped thinking about anything but what he made me feel.
He repeated the process with my other breast, leaving damp patches of fabric over my nipples before nibbling his way in a line down the soft mound of my stomach. It tickled in the best possible way and I squirmed underneath him, unable to stay still but not letting go of the headboard.
“That’s it, beautiful.” His words felt like praise and I wanted more, which made no sense.
I shouldn’t care what Ford thought beyond the orgasms I planned for both of us. I sure as hell wasn’t going to crave his approval. That way led to madness. It wasn’t a path I’d ever traveled with a man, and I wasn’t about to start. He nipped at the lace edge of my panties, and I shoved all those thoughts into ato be considered laterplace. When I didn’t have a man with strong hands, a quick mind, and a clever mouth making himself at home between my legs.
He ran his nose over the lace of my panties, his breath hot against my sex. The gesture made it feel like I was something delicious he wanted to take his time enjoying. There was no hint of artifice. I’d been with men who talked a good game about cunnilingus and even ones who’d read the right books, bless them, but I could tell they were doing it for me or as part of a larger goal. I’d been fine with it; it fit my goals too. That wasn’t the case with Ford. He breathed me in, that cocky grin tugging at the corner of his wicked mouth, and I had no doubt he was enjoying this as much as I was. And then he bit the fleshy part of my mound, catching and holding my sex with his mouth and the scales completely tipped. In my favor.
Pinning me in place with his hands on my hips and his teeth on my sex, he flicked his tongue over my aching clit. The fabric, wet from his mouth and my arousal, barely provided a barrier to his touch but it was still too much. Too much between us.
“More, please. I need more.” I had no problem asking for what I wanted. If it sounded like begging, I could live with it as long as it meant I got his mouth on my clitwithout my panties in the way. Preferably with an orgasm following shortly after.
“We’ll get there, cher.” He murmured against my sex, the words a delicious vibration.
He tightened his grip on my hips and I wondered for a moment if I’d have marks from his fingers in the morning. Then he nipped at the crease between my thigh and my sex and my entire focus narrowed and shifted to his mouth on my skin. He slid his tongue under the lace edge of my panties, and I held my breath, desperate for him to travel the few inches between my labia and my clit. I strained against his hands, trying to move into his touch, but he kept me pinned in place.
“Greedy girl.” He nipped again, this time tugging on my lips, so close to my clit and so far away.
“I’m not a girl.” I might not have control over much of anything at the moment, but I was nobody’s girl and I hadn’t been for a long damn time.
“No,” he said, looking up my body from between my legs to meet my gaze. “You’re not, but you are greedy. It’s one of your best qualities.” Pushing himself up to sitting, he stroked his hand down my leg, and I worked hard to keep from demanding he put his mouth back to work for my pleasure.
