“Can’t sleep?” Cole pushed up on one elbow, his eyes heavy with sleep, his hair askew from her fingers fisting it earlier when they’d made love, and a sexy smile graced his luscious lips.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, touching his whiskers. “I love your scruff.”
He turned and kissed her palm, trailing his tongue over the center and causing her pulse to quicken.
“Yeah? Maybe I won’t shave in the morning.” He pressed his lips to hers, and she moaned with pleasure, her body aching for more of him. “I’m glad you stayed over.”
“Me too.”
Her fingers trailed along his back as he pressed against her. His erection was firm and enticing against her leg. Lust simmered deep inside her as his hand skimmed her hip and tickled across her thigh to the heat between her legs. He sealed his lips over hers as he dipped his fingers inside her, pulling another needy moan from her lungs. He knew just how to touch her, which was so different from the way Chris had been. Chris had seemed to fumble through their intimacy, looking for guidance, approval, while Cole was confident, virile, and eager. She reached for his hard length, stroking its wide shaft to the curve of the sensitive head and using the bead of dampness to moisten the slide of her palm.
He groaned, tugging on her lower lip as he drew back, his eyes dark as night.
“Jesus, what you do to me every time you touch me.” He sealed his teeth over her shoulder and bit down just hard enough to send shocks of want between her legs as he expertly sank his fingers deeper inside her and stroked over the spot that made her eyes slam shut and her hips buck off the mattress.
“Cole—” She gasped as the orgasm rocked through her, tightening her inner muscles around his fingers as he took her in a demanding kiss, keeping her at the peak for so long she could barely breathe.
“Ohmygod,” she said as she tore her lips away. “I can’t…I can’t breathe.” His fingers began their talented movements again, his thumb gliding over her sensitive clit, and she gripped his wrist, holding him still.
“Too much?” He kissed her again, and her hips rocked against his hand.
She groaned at her body’s betrayal.
He dragged his tongue over her lower lip. “Want me to stop?”
“No,” she said breathlessly.
“Thank fucking God.” He sealed his lips over hers again, resting his powerful thigh over hers and trapping her against the mattress as he brought her right up to the edge again.
Her nails dug into the backs of his biceps as she tried to lift her hips, to take his fingers deeper instead of allowing him to continue the exquisite torture he was bestowing on her.
“Does my girl want to come?” he taunted.
“Yes. Hell, yes!”
She didn’t have to ask twice. In a few perfectly placed strokes, she was crying out his name, rocking off the mattress, and mauling his mouth. She needed more of him, all of him. As the last of her orgasm vibrated through her, she pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips. He cupped her breasts, leaning up beneath her to love her nipples with his mouth and hands.
“God, I love your mouth.” She buried her hands in his hair, holding his mouth to her breast as he took her up, up, up again with nothing more than his mouth on her breast and the friction of his cock against her wet flesh. She rocked along his hard length.
“You’re killing me,” he growled. “I need to make love to you. I need to be buried deep inside you and feel you tight and wet around me. I need to feel you come.”
She shook her head and slid down his body, lying between his legs. She stroked his cock, licking the tip, teasing him, enjoying the feeling of knowing her confident, always-in-charge man was hers for the taking. Finally, she lowered her mouth over him, tasting herself, then the overpowering taste of maleness. Of Cole. She stroked and sucked, feeling him swell impossibly bigger in her grasp. He pumped his hips with every stroke, groaning and making her even wetter with his sexy sounds. When she lowered her mouth to his balls, he fisted his hands in the sheets.
“Fuck. Fuck, Leese,” he said between gritted teeth. “You’re gonna make me come.”
She didn’t relent. Instead she moved slowly over his erection, holding it straight up in front of her mouth. With her eyes set on his, she licked him from base to tip. He groaned as she swirled her tongue over the swollen crown.
“See? I can inflict torture just as well as you can.” She stroked him with her hand and moaned just to feel his cock twitch. Oh, how she loved knowing she turned him on so much.
“Leese, you’re playing with fire.”
“I like it hot,” she said seductively, taking him in deep and earning another heady groan.
“I want to make love to you.” He eyed the open box of condoms on the bedside table.
She crawled over him in what she hoped was a sexy, catlike move, and retrieved one. After she’d sheathed him, he lifted her easily, and she felt every inch of him fill her as he lowered her until she was fully seated.
“Come here, angel.” He gathered her against him and kissed her passionately as she gyrated her hips. He rocked in time to her efforts, and her breathing hitched with the immense pleasure rolling through her.
“So…good,” she said between kisses.
Cole moaned in agreement. His hands clutched her hips, guiding her, quickening her efforts. Lust coiled low in her belly, circling her waist and climbing her spine, spreading like sharp pricks in her nipples, and finally—Lord, finally—she shattered around him. Cole thrust in deep, clutching her hips, keeping her tight against him as he found his release. She collapsed atop him, their bodies slick with sweat, each gulping for breath. He gathered her hair over one shoulder and pressed a kiss to her heated skin.
“You do me in, Annalise Avalon. You totally, completely destroy me.” He lifted her chin, and the look in his eyes was overwhelmingly alive with emotion. He swallowed hard, as if he were trying to push past the strength of his feelings.
Without another word, he swept her beneath him, cocooning her body within the powerful confines of his. He brushed his thumb over her lips and searched her eyes. She wondered if he saw how full her heart was.
“You’re feeling it, too, aren’t you?” He pressed a tender kiss to her lips.
“Am I that transparent?”
“Like a window,” he teased. “I feel it more than see it. The look in your eyes is still cautious, but the way you’re holding me…”
She realized she’d wrapped her right leg around his, and her hands were splayed on his back, holding him tightly to her. She trapped her lower lip between her teeth to stifle her guilty smile.
“Don’t tell anyone,” she whispered, only half teasing.
He moved to her side and gathered her in close. Just as she began to dose off, he whispered, “I want to tell the world.”
Chapter Fourteen
THE NEXT FEW days Cole and Leesa spent every minute they could together. They took walks on the beach, had dinner by candlelight, and Cole taught her how to strum a few chords on the guitar, but that usually led to them kissing, which led to touching and much, much more. He tried to get over to Mr. B’s during his lunch hour, when he had one, so they could steal a few minutes together during her breaks, and thankfully, she’d been spending the nights with him, too. She’d become less cautious with him, but the haunted look in her eyes when they were out remained.
It was Friday afternoon, and he and Leesa were planning to take his boat out overnight. He hoped that being away from people would help her relax. On the water, there was no one to worry about but the two of them.
He was reviewing charts in his office when his cell phone rang. Hoping it was Leesa, he smiled as he picked it up, and that smile turned to a stiff line when Mackenna’s name appeared on the screen. If there was one person savvy enough to dig up dirt on Leesa out of spite, it was Kenna. It was time, once and for all, to deal with her.
“Kenna,” he said flatly when he answered the call.
“That’s hardly a kind greeting to the woman you dated for two years.”
He sighed. Was she really going to push this, even after the other night?
“Can we please stop this game playing?” he asked. “Why are you suddenly interested in me again after all these years?”
“It’s not sudden, Cole. I’ve never stopped being interested in you. But I knew I had to get things out of my system before you’d even consider seeing me again. And I have.” Her tone softened, and he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that the tightening in his gut did, too. He felt bad for her and her delusions. There was no way in hell he’d want to go out with her again, whether he was seeing Leesa or not. But he’d probably always have a soft spot for Kenna, a sense of feeling sorry for her, really, because she was obviously searching for something that had gone unfulfilled. Although that soft spot was no longer in his heart and would never be again.
“Kenna, there’s nothing left between us. I’m sorry.”
She sighed loudly. “You’re still hung up on my wanting an open relationship? Cole, we both needed that time to get the wildness out of our systems.”
Maybe she was right. He’d thought about that over the years. Even thought she’d done him a favor. And now that he was with Leesa, he knew she had. Leesa filled him with emotions that Mackenna never had, and more than that, to Leesa he wasn’t an afterthought. Even if she wasn’t ready to admit it yet, he knew he was quickly becoming her everything, just as she’d become his.