Nights With Him(33)

“You must think the Empire State Building is so passé, when you have a friend who owns this building,” she quipped as they neared the balcony.

“No. I’m thinking the balcony here is private, and you can see all of Manhattan when you come.”

She had no retort.

Hot sparks tore through her, lighting her up with more desire than she’d ever known. While she’d dated and had lovers over the years, none had spoken to her like this. None had talked to her as if her pleasure was vital to their happiness. That’s how she felt with Jack. Hard to imagine he was a stranger twenty-four hours ago, yet now, he was a lover on a quest to bring her the best climax of her life.

The balcony circled the peak of the Met Life Tower with a spire above them, a clock right below them. A high fence surrounded the perimeter, and the view of Manhattan was endless, stretching to the rivers and the towns that lay far beyond the city that never slept.

Michelle felt a rush of tingles in her belly that had nothing to do with him at the moment, and everything to do with being this high above her city. She wrapped her hands around the railing at the edge of the balcony, drinking in the view of Manhattan. The headlights from the distant streets below streaked across the dark night; the sounds of horns and music and madness morphed into a quiet radio station din. The dirt and grime was gone, and New York was aerial and beautiful—a darkly gorgeous nocturnal creature, lit up against the night sky.

Jack dropped his hands to her waist, his thumbs rubbing circles against the fabric of her dress at her hips. She murmured something unintelligible, leaning her head back against him, stretching her neck. But then he was gone—he was on his knees behind her, kissing the back of her bare legs, starting at her calves.

“Stay here. Like this,” he told her.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she managed to say.

“Don’t close your eyes. Watch the city as I touch you.”

No wonder he did what he did. He was a man in tune with pleasure. A man thoroughly connected to his senses, which was all the more unusual, given his background as a numbers and logic guy. But he also had some intuitive sense of the physical.

Or simply the physical of her. His tongue flicked against the back of her knee, and she felt her legs wobble. He steadied her, his strong hands tight on her thighs as he kissed his way up her legs, pressing his lips against the back of her thighs now. First one leg. Then the other. Higher and higher still, the fabric of her skirt rose in his hands as he exposed her flesh for him. Soon he’d pushed her skirt above her butt, and his sinful mouth was leaving a hot, wet trail of kisses against the crease where her ass met her legs.

“Light blue,” he murmured as he slid his finger under the edge of her lacy panties. “Gorgeous, sexy, perfect sky blue.”

“Yes. You like?”

“So much I want to keep them,” he said as he returned his mouth to her skin.

Pleasure pulsed through her veins. She gripped the railing tighter as the sensations spread, starting deep in her belly, radiating to her fingertips, her toes, the ends of her hair, as he brushed those soft lips against her body. He kissed her with a kind of reverence, with a deep appreciation for her body. He kissed her as if she were the most sensual person he’d ever touched. As if she were made for passion, for pleasure, for this kind of bold desire that ran rampant through her cells.

Because everything he’d done so far had been a slice of heaven. A heaven for lovers of the flesh.

He ran his nose across her upper thigh, then pressed a kiss between her legs, his lips grazing the soaked panel of her panties. Useless thing. A completely useless piece of fabric, since the way he’d touched her had turned them hot and damp.

“Take them off,” he said roughly.

She obliged, sliding her panties down her legs, then lifting them over her ankles as she stepped out of them.

“Give them to me.”

She handed them to him, and he stuffed them into his pocket.

“You can have them back later. Or not,” he said with a glint in his blue eyes.

“That will probably be a not.”

He stood and gently placed his hand on her chin, turning her gaze back to the sky. “Watch the city,” he told her, as he pressed his chest against her back, his long, tall body aligned with hers.

Anticipation built between them, the tantalizing wonder of what would come next. Only he knew. She was placing her pleasure in his hands, and that’s exactly where she wanted it to be.

A soft hum whirred through the air. At first, she wasn’t sure what it was. Then she recognized the noise. The way it signaled a response in her body. How the sound tapped into her deepest core, a reminder of something she loved.