A Perfect Storm (27 page)

No freaking way. “What, with you all uninvolved and stuff, and me being some sort of a sacrifice?” He had to be joking. She shoved against his chest. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

He caught her to him. “It wouldn’t be like that.”

“I want you inside me, damn you. I want you with me all the way.”

Breathing harder, he locked his jaw. “I can hold off, Arizona. I can do what’s right—for both of us. But not if you…”

“Well, I
am!
” Humiliation washed over her. She gave him another hard shove and finally freed herself. “I’m not a damn project for you to work on!”

“I didn’t—”

“I’m not playing this stupid game of yours. Either you want me, or you don’t.” Thumb to her naked chest, she shouted, “I’m an all-or-nothing woman.”

More than a little aware of her nudity, she turned to depart on a dramatic exit.

Before she’d even taken a full step, he pulled her back around and scooped her up against him. His own measure of frustration deepened his voice, sharpened his tone. “Your stipulations mean you
aren’t
all-or-nothing.”

“So instead of calling them stipulations, just call them a fetish.” She went on tiptoe, leaning into his anger. “Lots of people like to take control in bed.”

“It’s not the same thing and you know it.”

Deflated, hurt, she muttered, “I wanted to feel you inside me. I wanted to be a part of you.” Tears burned her eyes, scalding her with humiliation. “Thanks for nothing.”

He breathed hard, his nostrils flared, his eyes bright. “I tried, Arizona. God knows I did.”

She started to tell him to go to hell, but his mouth landed on hers, not tentative, not gentle, but hungry and demanding.

Suddenly on fire, she groaned her approval and clenched her hands on his shoulders.

He stroked down her back to her rear, lifted her up and pulled her in snug against his erection. Against her lips, he said, “I need you, Arizona. Right now.”

Ah, now
this
was what she’d wanted. She could handle the overwhelming physical stuff better than all that knee-weakening emotion or, God forbid, his nobility. “You have a funny way of showing it.”

“I’m sorry.” He lifted her completely off her feet, and she just naturally wrapped her legs around his waist. “Arizona…”

“I’ve got you now.” She knotted her fingers in his damp hair and said with carnal demand, “Kiss me again.”

“I will.” He licked her neck, drew her skin in against his teeth. “But, remember, you have to trust me.”

“I do.” She moaned, squeezed him tighter.
When had her neck gotten so damned sensitive?
“If you even think about—”

“I won’t.” And then, resigned to his fate: “I can’t.” He kissed her mouth again, devouring her, his tongue bold.

He tasted so incredibly good that Arizona didn’t realize he’d headed for the bedroom until he stretched out on the mattress, her atop him. Since her legs had been around him, she ended up straddling him, her knees pulled up along his sides.

Keeping one hand on her head, he moved the other down her spine—and into her underwear.

Startled, she made to straighten her legs, but he said, “No, leave them open. Let me touch you.” And then with a growl, “I
need
to touch you.”

Everything inside her clenched. “Yeah, okay.” But because the idea of him touching her
there
excited her so much, she took his mouth again.

Nothing could be as nice as kissing Spencer.

And true, she did have a few twinges of trepidation. But they were nothing compared to the searing urge to get closer to him, to taste more of him, to learn his body and
feel
him, all over.

He kept stroking her bottom, leisurely touching her as if he enjoyed her skin—right up until he delved down, his fingertips playing between her legs, over her sex.

Gasping, she freed her mouth and arched her back.

He murmured, “You’re wet.”

“Yeah,” she said with wonder. When she looked down, she found him staring at her intently. Gazes locked, he pressed in one finger.

Oh…wow.

Who knew? She all but panted, amazed at how that felt. “That’s…” But she didn’t have words.

Spencer slid his free hand over her thigh, pulling her leg up higher along his hip. “Scoot up so I can get to your nipples.”

Um…she didn’t think she could do that. If it weren’t for her stiffened arms keeping her over him, she’d collapse in a boneless heap of sensation.

“Arizona. Come on, baby. Scoot up here.”

“I can’t.”

“I’ll help.” He took his fingers from her, making her moan, and clasped her waist. “I sort of cut corners on this anyway.”

“This?”

“Enjoying you. Doing things right.” He gave her a crooked and very sexual smile. “A man should always start at the top and work his way down. But you threw me off, standing there in the doorway all but naked.”

“You
are
naked.”

“Because you stole my towel.” He cupped one breast, ran his thumb over her stiffened nipple. She felt the jolt of it all through her body. “Since you want to be on top, this is how we’ll do it,” he told her while watching the play of his hand at her breast. “Come here.”

On a groan, she slowly leaned forward, closer, her body tensed and her heart thundering. Knowing what he would do and so eager to feel it, she leaned in—ahhhh.

Without teasing, with no prelude, his hot mouth closed over her, drawing her in, sucking on her gently. Her lashes sank down and her lips parted. “Oh, God, Spencer. That is so…”

“What?” He licked, circling his tongue around her, kissed her nipple one last time and switched to the other breast to start sucking again.

“Awesome.”
No wonder people chose to do this. Okay, so she’d expected it to be nice, but she hadn’t expected this.

When his hand went back into her panties, his fingers back between her legs, it was almost too much.

The intensifying ache built, growing and ebbing like a tide, making her gasp and rock against him. Tighter and tighter, until she thought she might break—and wanted to.

Eyes squeezed shut, teeth clenched, she groaned in mounting frustration and acute need.

Suddenly Spencer moved her back.

It startled her, his abrupt withdrawal, and she inhaled a broken breath. Confused, she stared at him. “What’s the matter?”

“I need a condom, honey. Now.” He lifted her off him and sat up to rummage in the bedside drawer.

A little lost, turbulent sensation still churning through her, Arizona rested there on her knees. Spencer had his broad, muscled back to her as he took care of business, and then he turned toward her again. “Let’s get rid of these panties.”

She swallowed hard. “Okay. Sounds like a plan.” She started to push them down, but he moved her hands away.

“Let me.” He eased her to her back on the mattress, saying, “I know you don’t want me over you, so don’t worry. But I’m going to enjoy removing them a lot more than you will.”

She didn’t understand him. How could he be so calm when she was so urgent? “Will you get on with it?”

“No.” Lazily studying her everywhere from below her chin to above her knees, he opened his hand over her belly. “You are incredibly stacked, Arizona, without a single flaw anywhere. I’ve never seen a woman so damned…perfect.”

She snorted at that. She knew she was about as far from perfect as a human being could get.

He ignored her sound of disagreement, saying, “But even if you weren’t so gorgeous, I’d still want you.”

“Really?” Then why wouldn’t he end the frustration?

Palming each breast, he toyed with her nipples, making her crazed. “Absolutely.” He went back to her belly, then lower, cupping his hand between her legs. He closed his eyes a moment. “You’re appealing in ways you don’t even realize.”

She’d have asked for details, but with his fingers touching her, she couldn’t think straight, much less talk.

He opened his eyes again. “But seeing you like this now, how drop-dead sexy you are, is a nice bonus.”

“I think you’re pretty damned sexy, too.” She twisted under his teasing hand and gasped out, “I guess big alpha studs really do it for me.”

His gaze flickered up to hers for just a moment. “All alphas, huh?”

No way. Was he actually comparing himself to Jackson? “I can’t see me being drawn to a wimp. But the fact that I bullied you into this says that you’re different, right?”

“I guess it does.” Staring down at her, his gaze intent, he moved her thighs farther apart. “Will it bother you if I bend down to here—” he traced a fingertip around and over the crotch of her panties “—to kiss you?”

Her toes curled again, her throat tightened in expectation. Shaking her head, she gasped, “Knock yourself out.”

Another crooked smile, and then, “Thank you. I think I will.” Bending, he nuzzled his nose against her, breathing in deeply of her scent before opening his mouth over her.

Through the thin barrier of her panties, she felt his hot breath and then the press of his hotter tongue. It made her a little crazed. Her thighs fell open more. “That’s… Yeah.” Biting off a ripe moan, she tipped back her head and stared at the ceiling, happy to absorb this new experience.

“I’ve been dying to taste you,” he said in a guttural voice thick with need.

“I didn’t expect…” What? Any of this? Or more to the point, the impact of it on her senses.

He drew his teeth carefully over her, and her back arched on a sharp ache. He soothed with his tongue, and the moan broke free.

Turning his face, Spencer took a soft love bite of her inner thigh. “I think we better put this on hold.”

“Damn you, Spencer.” Only half jesting, she said, “I own both a knife and a gun, you know!”

He disregarded her implied threat. “Sorry, but with you, now, I’m high on need and short on control. I can’t do this.” With a growl, he kissed her thigh, her hip bone. “Not without ending up over you, and possibly dredging up a bad memory.” A second later, he whisked her panties down and off her legs. “And not while I need you so much.”

Bummer. She should have kept her big mouth shut about that little issue of hers. Maybe it wouldn’t even have mattered. Maybe with Spencer—

In a rush, he sat up against the headboard and caught her wrist. “Ready?”

She turned her head toward him. “For what, exactly?”

“You laid out the rules, honey, so I need you to ride me.”

Oh. Right.
Boy, that sounded super-sexy.

She licked her lips in anticipation and moved up over him again. She’d been so close, all that pulsing pleasure escalating toward something monumental. But she didn’t begrudge him this.

Of course he wanted to get off. When it came right down to it, he was still just a man.

He helped her to settle over him.

Heart rapping madly, she braced herself with her knees outside his hips, her hands on his hard shoulders.

Opening her with his fingers, he guided himself to her.

Thinking of his size, she swallowed, preparing, knowing he’d thrust up into her, bracing for it…

But Spencer stopped. When she opened her eyes to look at him again, he gave her a tender smile. “Arizona?”

Her throat tightened more, but she managed to say, “Hmm?”

“Will you kiss me?”

Yeah, kissing would help. Sometimes, when she kissed Spencer, she forgot everything else.

“Okay, sure.” She leaned down to him. Any second now he’d be deep inside her. Would it hurt?

She didn’t think it’d be too bad, because seconds after that he’d be done.

A little pain? No big deal. She couldn’t wait to have him fill her up. But she didn’t want it to end, not yet, not so soon.

Taking her mouth in a deep but gentle kiss, he began slowly rocking into her. She would have gasped, but he had his tongue in her mouth, one hand on the back of her head keeping her close, the other on her hip, guiding her.

He took his own sweet time about it, too, easing into her, teasing her with the slowness of it, making her want him deep, forcing her to groan again in frustration.

Yup, as a really big guy, he was…proportionate in all ways.

But it was actually pretty wonderful, more so than she’d ever imagined. No pain, just sweet, sharp pleasure.

As he filled her up and then some, she squeezed without meaning to and drank his groan of pleasure. Deeper, deeper, until he’d buried himself inside her.

Indescribable.

Unfamiliar. Exciting.

New and hot.

She freed her mouth and whispered, “Ohmigod, that’s…” She breathed hard.

Spencer kept his dark, glittering gaze locked on hers. “I want your mouth, Arizona. Don’t stop kissing me.”

“Okay. But don’t you want to—”

“Not yet.”

His mouth was wonderful; he kissed her in ways she’d never known, in ways that…involved her. Pleased her.