Best of Three (Counting on Love) (26 page)

He did.

“And the tie.” She leaned back, bracing her hands on the mattress behind her and crossing her legs.

He undid his bow tie and tossed it to the side, imagining his tongue running up the inside of those gorgeous thighs—finally.

He went ahead and toed off his shoes and unbuttoned his shirt, but when he tried to shrug it off she said, “No.”

Nate cocked an eyebrow, but let the shirt hang open.

“Now the pants.”

This was getting good.

He unbuckled his belt and slid it free, tossing it in the direction he’d thrown his tie. He unzipped and pushed the tuxedo pants to the floor and kicked them to the side. He’d worn black silk boxers and he stood watching her look at him, his blood heating and his cock swelling for her.

He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of the boxers but paused. She hadn’t said to remove them yet and he knew all about how important it was to follow directions.

Emma took her time looking him over. “This is going to be so good.”

“What’s next, Em?”

Her gaze flew to his. He was as aware as she was that he’d never called her Em before. It was what her sisters and her close friends called her. It felt intimate.

He intended to call her Em a lot from here on out.

“Lose the boxers.”

The leg that was crossed over the other started bouncing, the telltale sign of her adrenaline levels climbing.

He pushed the black silk down, his eyes glued on her expression.

She didn’t disappoint him. Her eyes drank him in and she pulled her lower lip between her teeth. Her leg bounced even faster.

She looked at him for so long that he finally cleared his throat.

She smiled without looking away from his cock. “Patience, Nate. Patience.”

“You’re the one who said we’ve been involved in foreplay for three years. I’m thinking we could jump ahead here a bit.”

Slowly her eyes traced his body back up to his eyes. “I shared that sentiment a few nights ago in your truck. And in the park.”

“And now here we are.”

“And
I’m
in charge.”

The look in her eyes made him groan. “And this is payback.”

Her smile widened. “Something like that.”

He stepped closer. She was looking very interested. Surely she wouldn’t…

“Back it up, Nate.” She didn’t lean away, she didn’t put her hand up, but she knew her words would stop him.

It was such a damned turn-on when she let him boss her around that he decided to give her some of the same in-charge thrill.

He took a step back and stood in front of her naked but for his unbuttoned shirt, fully aroused and at her mercy.

She nodded with approval. “Touch yourself.”

The same words he’d said to her in the truck. And damn it was hot.

Her lips fell open as he encircled his cock with his fist.

“Like this?”

“Very nice.”

He grinned. Also words he’d used with her.

He stroked up and down the length of his cock. The way she watched him made him even harder. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted, her breathing fast.

“Faster. You need more than that.” Her voice was husky.

Had she memorized everything he said to her in the truck? How many times had she replayed it in her mind? Had she’d used her hand again as she’d remembered? Or the finger vibrator? Or a bigger vibrator?

“I told you not to play with yourself,” he said.

Her eyes flew to his. “What?”

“How many times have you gotten off thinking about that night in the truck?”

Emma opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, shaking her head.

Nate continued to stroke himself. “Twice for me.”

She frowned. “Only twice?”

He chuckled. “I told
you
not to do it at all.”

“It wasn’t hot enough for you? Remembering all of that isn’t enough to get you going?” she asked.

He stroked up and down, squeezing more firmly. “Does it look like I’m not going?”

She licked her lips slowly. “You’re going
now
. Because you’re pretty sure this dress is coming off at some point.”

“That dress
is
coming off at some point,” he said firmly. “But trust me, honey, that night was enough to keep me going for a long time.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely. The sight of you laid back, your skirt hiked up, your fingers busy on your clit… I think about that every time I even hear your name. And after that night in the park I can replay the sound of you coming and the feel of you clamping down around my fingers.” He stroked faster, reliving the feel of her sweetness on his fingers.

Emma sat up straighter on the end of the bed. “I’m positive that you know how to get yourself off,” she said, again repeating his words.

“I sure do, honey. Especially when I’ve got you fueling things.”

“You think you’re going to do that right here, right now, like this?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“I kind of do.”

He’d prefer to be inside her but if this was what she wanted he had no hesitations about it. “I’d love to mark you like this, Emma,” he said gruffly, his cock swelling as he worked it.

She sucked in a quick breath, her gaze riveted on his hand.

A few more minutes and he’d be done. But then he’d be able to start on her. His hand worked faster. The way she was looking at him was enough to produce some major dirty dreams. Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing fast, her lips pressed together.

Then she pulled in a long deep breath and looked up at him.

She gave him a slow wicked smile. “No.”

“No?” No what? She was playing with him. He stopped moving, but did not unhand anything. “What do you want?”

“I want you to drop your hands.”

He did.

She stood and reached behind her, unzipping her dress and letting it fall from her body.

She was completely naked underneath.

“No wonder I didn’t feel a panty line.”

She smiled as she stepped out of her dress, then sat back on the bed. She leaned back, her beautiful breasts bouncing slightly, spread her legs and stroked her finger up and down over her clit.

“Holy—”

He started to step forward, but she shook her head.

Fine. He put his hand back on his cock. They could do this together. No complaints from him.

“No, Nate.” She lifted her hand to her breast, playing with the nipple. “No hands.”

He groaned. “Come on, Emma.”

“No.” She circled her clit and dipped inside, thrusting her finger deep, then pulling back out to circle again.

“Em,” he said, low, using that voice that always got a response.

“I’m planning on giving you something that will make you unable to keep from jerking off seven nights a week.”

He couldn’t help his grin. That bothered her. Did she honestly think that he wasn’t affected by the memory of her? It wouldn’t leave him. She’d been driving him crazy for a week. Longer really.

And it wasn’t only her gorgeous body or her candidness about sex, it was how funny she was and how smart she was, and how she didn’t let him get away with anything and how she was impressed by the right things—not money and fancy parties, but things like people being loyal to one another and the joy of seeing her sisters happy and Shannon and Michael laughing together—and that she was able to have as much fun in the middle of Carl-Mart as she did at Trudy’s or even here in the hotel ballroom.

“I’m ready, babe,” he told her.

“Now
you’re
in charge.”

He hesitated, his chest tightening. “What?”

“That’s what I want you to do,” she said. “Take control. I’ve been fantasizing about this for a long time, even before I knew that being in charge is what makes
you
hot. And it makes
me
really hot.” She dropped her voice to a sexy almost-whisper. “Please, Nate. Boss me around in bed.”

He wasn’t going to have her ask twice. “Look in the right hand pocket of my pants.”

She didn’t question, she didn’t hesitate. She leaned over and grabbed his pants from the floor by the bed and withdrew several condom packets. And the finger vibrator he’d taken from her the night in the truck.

Her eyes were wide, as was her smile, when she looked at him again.

“Lie back,” he commanded.

She did, parting her thighs.

For a moment, Nate couldn’t look away from all the delicious pinkness. He couldn’t wait to lick and suck and plunge… He pulled in a breath. One thing at a time. She was all his, as was this room, for the night. They had lots of time.

Emma’s hand hovered over her clit with the vibrator but Nate stepped closer, his knees bumping the bed, her legs spread on either side. “Put the vibrator on my finger,” he told her.

She licked her lips as he stretched his hand toward her and she slipped the plastic ring over his index finger.

“Now turn it on.”

Once it was humming Emma squirmed on the bed and Nate smiled.

“Now put my finger wherever you want it.”

She took his hand but instead of pressing against her clit, she moved the vibrator to her left nipple. She ran the soft plastic head back and forth over the hardened tip, humming in pleasure along with the toy.

Nate almost forgot to breathe.

Then she moved it to the other side. He leaned in, letting her direct the motions of that hand, and braced his other hand on the mattress beside her. Then he took the extended tip she’d just pleasured into his mouth. He licked gently, then sucked, then licked again before biting gently.

She groaned and arched closer. So he did it again.

As he sucked, he felt her move his hand lower, the tip of the vibrator trailing over her ribcage, her stomach, her mound and finally to that sweet spot he’d been waiting for. He needed to see this. He moved back, putting one knee on the mattress between her legs, watching as she brushed his hand and the vibrator over her clit. At first she moved in small, gentle circles, but she quickly picked up the rhythm, pressing harder and harder.

She was in charge of his single finger, but that left three others and a thumb free. He relaxed his hand, his second and third fingers resting against the hot wet entrance that he couldn’t wait to thrust into. His teasing touch made her moan again.

She was breathing hard, her unoccupied hand clenching the comforter beside her hip, but her eyes were wide open and locked on his face. Watching her eyes, he pressed his middle finger into the hot sheath of her pussy. Her muscles clenched around him and he withdrew and stroked in again deeper. She widened her legs and pressed harder with the vibrator on her clit.

“I don’t want you to come,” he told her.

“Then you need to stop looking at me like you want me to come,” she said breathlessly.

Smartass. Even as he had her legs spread wide, a finger deep inside her, a vibrator on her, she still sassed him.

He added a second finger. “I mean it, Em. No coming until I’m filling you up and thrusting hard and deep.”

She sucked in a long, shaking breath. “Then let’s get after it.”

“I want to see if you’ll listen to me in
this
at least.”

She shook her head, the comforter tousling her hair, making her look disheveled and sexy. “The chances are not good. I think you know that.”

“Try.” He said it firmly—the way he knew made her hot.

“Nate,” she gasped, arching her hips closer to his hand.

“Hold on,” he ordered her, thrusting his fingers deep and fast a few times, feeling the beginning ripples. Her breasts bounced, her bottom lip pulled between her teeth and her eyes slid shut.

She was almost there.

And he wasn’t going to miss feeling this for anything. He tossed the vibrator toward the pillows, slid on a condom, put a hand around each thigh and pulled her to the end of the bed. He paused for a second to absorb the moment, the final moment before Emma Dixon was completely his.

Then he thrust forward, sliding into her slick heat. Her eyes opened and locked on his and his name spilled from her lips.

She was the perfect fit.

Her body sucked him in, bringing him as deep as he could possibly go. He was buried, hugged on all sides, her muscles massaging his length as her orgasm started to build from ripples to waves. He moved only slightly and she clamped down, her body resisting any attempt on his part to leave.

There wasn’t a thing in the world that could have taken him away from this. He withdrew in spite of her body tightening around him, then thrust forward, hard and deep.

“Nate!” She cried out this time.

He pulled back and thrust again and again, her climax building quickly, gaining strength as he moved. But he definitely kept moving. He pumped into her, taking in every detail from how her earrings swung to how she arched her neck to how hard her nipples got to the way her inner thighs trembled.