"Are you sure you don't want to tell me what had you so upset?" he said, his voice soft, as if he didn't really want to address the issue but thought he should.
She shook her head, her fingers slipping under his shirt again. His eyes drifted close as she caressed his smooth skin and hard muscles. His dark lashes looked sinfully long against his cheeks, every inch of him, even those lashes exuding sex appeal.
Maksim opened his eyes, his lids heavy with desire, but serious, too.
"Have you considered that you are doing this with me, because you are trying to avoid what happened to you tonight? To forget what you saw?"
Her fingers paused on his skin. "Yes."
Maksim stared at her for a moment as if he hadn't expected her to admit her strategy so readily. Then a slow, sexy smile spread across his beautifully sculpted lips.
"I'm good with that."
Jo smiled too. "Good."
Maksim slid back over Jo, wondering what the hell had motivated him to ask her such things. To give her a way out. To be the voice of reason.
Now that was something he tried to avoid.
He kissed her, tasting her instant response, those amazing fingers of hers stroking over his skin, around his sides, up his back. Thankfully, she wasn't looking for reason. Despite his own stupidity in offering it.
This time he broke away only long enough to strip his shirt off over his head. Jo made a noise of appreciation, the low sound as seductive as her fingers on his skin. Then her fingers moved to the button of his jeans, and he changed his mind. Nothing, absolutely nothing beat the feeling of those fingers.
She slipped the button open, then the zipper. Her fingers then disappeared inside, cupping him.
"You have a very nice penis," she said with a satisfied little smile, gently squeezing him. His cock pulsed in response through his shorts.
"He likes you, too."
She laughed. "I can tell."
She levered herself up to kiss him, her mouth soft and sweet clinging to his, showing him what she wanted from him, by the movement of her lips, of her body brushing against him. He caught her head between his hands, taking control of the kiss.
But Jo being Jo, she wasn't about to let him have all of the power. She slipped an arm around his neck and pulled him down onto her, her hand still holding his painfully hard erection. They kissed, their passion building each caress of their lips, their hands fanning their need. A rising fire burning inside both of them.
His hands left her hair, sliding down over her shoulders, tugging down the strap of her camisole top, exposing one breast. His lips latched onto the swollen nipple, tugging deeply on the rosy tautness. She gasped, her hips grinding up against him.
"Sensitive, aren't you?"
"Ohh, yeah."
He abraded the peaked tip again between his teeth, being rewarded by another sharp gasp. So he suckled her gently, soothing the sensitive flesh with his tongue.
But that didn't seem to calm her. Instead, she captured his head and pulled his mouth back up to her.
"That makes me crazy," she muttered roughly against his lips. "They are so sensitive."
Maksim smiled against her mouth. Something about the way she said that made him think that her breasts normally weren't so tender, so responsive. Pride expanded his chest at the idea that she was reacting more to him than she had others in the past.
He pulled back, his fingers brushing her distended nipple, twirling it between his fingers, watching her closely as he did so. Her brown hair spilled around her on the cream-colored sheets. Then her fingers still in his jeans worked up and down the responsive underside of his cock.
Even through his jockey shorts, her touch was almost too much. She drove him wild. How something so tame, given the types of things he'd done in the past with creatures who were far from tame, could almost push him to ejaculation was mind-boggling.
But there was something about this mortal. This slender, stunningly lovely mortal with dark, dark eyes and a guarded heart.
His fingers paused on her breast. Where were these thoughts coming from? He had her lying under him, and he was thinking about her heart. He should be thinking about how tight she would feel around him. How good he'd feel buried deep inside her. How loud he could make her cry out as he plunged into her over and over. How he could get through that guard with every orgasm.
He groaned, frustrated with his own desperate, needy thoughts. And aroused all the same.
Pulling away from her, he stood and tugged his shirt off, then his pants, impatience in his movements. Impatience with himself and with his uncontrollable desire for this woman.
She watched him with a small, smug smile on her lips. She stretched as he watched, her movement sinuous, sensual. Then she wriggled her hips, working down her pajama bottoms, baring herself from the waist down, her legs long and perfectly shaped, the tiny triangle of hair equally perfect. Her hands moved to her top, easing it up slowly, arching her back to toss the small garment aside. Her firm breasts glowed creamy white in the mellow lamplight.
She stretched again, the movement seductive, enticing like a siren basking in the sand, luring men to her.
"Vixen," he said, his voice filled with both frustration and amusement: Frustration that he couldn't seem to check his response to her and amused because she knew it, and she loved it.
"You do realize you are about to get so fucked."
She laughed at his coarse statement.
"Oh, I'm counting on it," she said with another self-satisfied grin.
His muscles tensed, his skin prickled with painful awareness; he groaned, this time with surrender.
Did he care how easily she controlled him?
He crawled back over Jo's delectably stretched-out body. She moaned as his weight came down on her. Her arms pulled her tighter to him. Her legs parted to cradle him, the moist heat there making his whole body pulse with unbridled desire,
Oh, hell no, he didn't.
CHAPTER 19
Jo gasped as his weight pressed her down into the mattress. She loved the way he felt—all hard muscles, all velvety skin. She loved the possessiveness of his kisses, the dominance of his touch.
She kissed him, her lips clinging fiercely to his. Then her hands, which had been stroking his back, came up to brace his shoulders, curling into the latent strength there. She pushed him over, crawling onto him, straddling him.
"You just lay still," she told him.
He raised an eyebrow, but did as she asked. She grinned, even as intense passion surged through her. Passion made all the more sharply intense by being able to dominate this strong, powerful man.
She leaned down and lightly bit his nipple and he gasped, his body jerking under hers. She lapped it, soothing away an hint of pain.
A hand came up, cupping the back of her head, directing her to him. But she caught his wrist and pinned it back to the bed. Her other hand found his other wrist and pinioned it up over his head, the position bringing her breasts level with his face.
"Now, you behave," she warned.
He lifted his head and captured her nipple in his mouth, drawing on her hard.
Pleasure shot through her, puddling between her thighs. Unable to control herself, she ground herself against him, his thick hard shaft slipping between her wet lips, rubbing right where she most needed to be touched.
Both of them groaned.
She straightened slightly, still restraining his arms above him. Watching him, she moved, sliding her hips back and forth like she was riding him in a slow, delicious canter.
His eyes closed and his breath escaped him in shallow shudders. She continued, her flesh growing slicker from their mutual arousal. Her own breath grew more harsh, more broken as her desire rose, taking her over.
A small sob escaped her lips as her head fell back, her orgasm right there, right on the edge of spilling over.