Page 76 of Solo

I shake my head slowly.

“No, no, no. It’s just that no one’s ever…”

I can’t even get the sentence out before he’s propped up on his elbows, looking down at me. Even in the moonlight I can see perfectly the mixture of concern and horror on his face. What the hell did I do to make him look at me like that?

“Katherine,” he says in a voice that’s both soft and…what? Frightened. “You’re not…you’re not a virgin, are you?” he asks in a whisper. “I mean, I don’t think I can… I’m not sure that…”

I burst into a fit of laughter.

“What? Why are you laughing? This isn’t funny,” he insists, his dark eyes flashing. But his confusion and subsequent irritation just make me laugh harder.

“It is,” I howl, overtaken by a spell of silliness. “It is funny!”

But Drew does not look amused, so I try to get myself under control, taking a few deep breaths, wiping the tears of laughter from my cheeks, and meeting his gaze squarely.

“No,” I say, putting a hand to his cheek. “No, I’m not a virgin.”

“Then what? What is it?”

I give him a bittersweet smile as I reach up and stroke the hair from his forehead. “It’s just that no one’s ever said that to me before. That I’m beautiful, I mean. I’ve never thought I was and then, to hear it from you, of all people…”

And then his mouth is so close to mine that I can practically taste his sweet breath.

“Then everyone else is blind, Katherine, because you are stunning,” he says, putting his forehead against mine. “I’ve always thought so. Since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

My turn to be shocked. I open my mouth to say something about this confession, but his lips are back on mine and all thought flies out the window. His hands are roaming more assuredly now, his palms running up and down the length of my body from my shoulders down to my hips.

I’m both surprised and excited when he reaches down, his thumbs hooking into the waistband of my panties. I arch slightly so he can pull them down my thighs, past my knees, and over my calves until there is nothing between his hands and my skin.

I didn’t lie about not being a virgin, though, I might as well be. I’m afraid that if I tell him that the sum of my experience is a few sticky, unsatisfactory fumblings in the back of my high school boyfriend’s SUV, he might put the brakes on, and fast. I don’t say a word. Because the last thing I want him to do as he’s kissing his way down my body is to stop.

“Oh. Oh my God,” I murmur on an exhalation when his mouth finds my right breast. His tongue swirls gently around my nipple until, without warning, he takes it into this mouth and suckles. “Ohhh, Drew,” I moan.

My breath is coming fast and shallow now as his right hand snakes in between our two bodies. I know where he’s headed and the mere thought of it sends a surge of wetness between my thighs. His mouth has moved from my breast, back up to the crook of my neck at the same time I feel his fingers tracing a slow, tantalizing line along the outside of my sex. It’s maddening. I shift a little, trying to entice him further, but he just snickers softly into my neck.

“Uh-uh-uhhh, Miss Brenner. Not so fast,” he whispers, his tongue finding the shell of my ear.

And still, the maddening movements around and outside and along the edge until…

“Oh! Oh, Jesus!” I gasp loudly as his finger dips unexpectedly into my folds. I arch upward involuntarily, but his hard chest presses me back down into the mattress at the same instant he finds my clit.

I lose all sense of myself. His soft, slow ministrations become the center of my universe. Slow. Slow. Maddeningly slow. He rubs and swirls until I can hear my own wetness. I’m whimpering and he’s nibbling on my neck. My hands are clutching his shoulders with a white-knuckled grip that will most certainly leave bruises. Just when I think I’m going to lose my mind, his clever fingers take on a faster, firmer motion that makes me cry out and arch once again. His mouth covers mine, swallowing my cries as he rubs me harder.

And then, it’s as if the entire world explodes around me. A pressure from deep within my core rises and releases in a single flash so intense that my vision actually darkens for a second.

Now I understand.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Drew

She is the most responsive woman I have ever been in bed with. Her body reacts to my every breath and my every touch, and it’s so sexy I can hardly control myself. And yet, somehow, I know she hasn’t had much experience. Or, at the very least, not much satisfying experience. And when I feel her spasm against the touch of my hand, the intensity of her body, the surprised cry, and her expression of dazed amazement all tell me this was her first orgasm.

Well, I’m going to make damn sure it’s not her last. She’s barely come back to earth when I pull myself up between her thighs, align myself with her entrance, and push myself in with a single thrust. She’s unbelievably tight, but she seems to yield to my presence inch by glorious inch.

She gasps and wraps her legs around my waist, drawing me farther into her than I thought possible.

“Katherine, you feel so amazing,” I murmur as I begin to rock slowly, back and forth, back and forth.