Breath of Scandal (53 page)

"My nipples."

He lowered his eyes to them. "Are they?"

She nodded. "When you rubbed your head against me." "Did it feel good?"

-Yes. "

"Have I done anything so far that you didn't Re?" "Yes. "

-What?" "You stopped to chat."

He chuckled softly. "See? I'm slipping back into my old

Breath of Scandal

419

ways. I'm expecting something to go wrong when I want like hell for everything to go right."

As though this were a slow routine that they enacted every night, he raised her arms and laid them on his shoulders. Clasping her loosely around the waist, he drew her closer, until their bodies made contact. As he adjusted them together, Jade couldn't conceal her astonishment.

"Your nipples aren't all that get hard, Jade," he reminded her in a rough whisper. Pressing his forehead against hers, he continued in the same, urgent tone. "It's only flesh. It's me, and you're not afraid of me, are you?"

He waited for her to answer. She finally shook her head, rolling her forehead from side to side against his.

"Please don't be afraid of me." "I'm not."

"Then kiss me." He angled his head back and looked down at her. "Kiss me, Jade."

"I have."

"No, I've kissed you. There's a difference."

She wanted to prove to him that she wouldn't chicken out. More important, she needed to prove it to herself. She slid her fingers up through his hair, drawing his head down as she simultaneously went up on tiptoe. She pressed her mouth against his.

His response was lukewarm at best, and that piqued her. "It would help if you kissed back."

"You're not kissing me. We're touchin lips. That doesn't count. "                                9

Her fear of intimacy warred with her determination to defeat it. On tiptoes again, she tested the line between his firm lips with the tip of her tongue. it gave way, and suddenly she was skimming the inner lining of his mouth with her tongue, rubbing against his, tasting Dillon. She drew his head down farther. His mouth closed upon hers.

Something wonderfully sexy happened. They both felt it. Making a hungry sound, he crossed his arms at the small of her back, bending her against his middle. Because Jade still felt that she was in control, she allowed it. In fact, she welcomed the solid heat of his body.

420

Sandra Brown

Breath of Scandal

421

For the first time in fifteen years, she let her senses run wildly ungoverned. She relished the feel and taste of his mouth. The texture of his hair and skin were new and exciting pleasures to her fingertips. Her ears enjoyed the yearning sounds that issued from his throat with a sexy vibration. His strength didn't frighten her. It felt good where her softness cushioned and complemented it. Explosive sensations erupted at every point where they touched.

The kisses continued. As her desire mounted, she thrust her tongue deeper into his mouth. He responded in kind until each kiss was an act of love, a carnal exchange.

Finally, out of breath, Jade tore her mouth free and leaned against him weakly. "Dillon, can we please sit down?" "Let's lie down."

She pushed away from him.

His eyes were lambent, intent, but his voice was reassuringly low. "Okay?"

The thought of lying down with him made her heart strike loud and hard against her ribs. Apprehensively, she glanced toward the bed.

He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers and drew her head back around. "Side by side, Jade. I won't lie on top of you."

She moistened her lips. They tasted like Dillon-wonderfully like Dillon. "All right. Side by side." Nodding in agreement, he stepped away from her and began unbuttoning his shirt. "I'm not ready to take off my clothes yet," she said quickly.

"That's fine."

Apparently her choice didn't alter his. He peeled off his shirt and dropped it to the floor. He wasn't wearing a belt. The waistband of his old jeans was so bleached out, the threads were almost completely white. It curled outward, away from his body, creating a tantalizing gap between it and his flat, hair-spattered abdomen. Parting the mosquito netting, he dropped to the side of the bed and tugged off his boots one at a time, then removed his socks.

He stretched out on his back, his tanned skin looking

dark against the white sheets and mound of pillows. He extended his hand to her through the part in the netting. With trepidation, she lowered herself to his side. She slipped out of her sandals, but that was the only concession she made before closing the mosquito net.

Without his shirt, he seemed more threateningly male, and his raw masculinity began to overwhelm her. The dizzy euphoria that their kisses had created began to dissipate. The giddy sparks twinkled out one by one, like the embers from a dying firework. She felt the blackness of fear descending on her. Apparently Dillon sensed it, too.

He said softly, "I'm made out of the same tissue as you are, Jade. It's just shaped differently."

She glanced at his wide, hairy chest, the drastic dip that his abdomen took beneath his ribcage, the mystery of his navel, and the evident bulge in his crotch. "Quite."

With his index fingertip, he touched one comer of her anxious frown. "It's not that bad, is it?"

" It's not bad at all, " she repl ied huskily. " I Re the way you look. I have since I first saw you through the binoculars - "

He frowned with puzzlement. "Binoculars?" From the tip of his thumb to the tip of his little finger, he could almost span the width of her back. He rubbed his hand up and down her spine.

"Remember in L.A., when I recruited you, I told you I had been watching your work for several days. I watched you through binoculars from my hotel room across the street. Several times I thought you sensed me watching you. You seemed to look right at me." Her blue eyes found his and held. "You took my breath."

His hand stopped moving on her back and burned like a brand through the thin cloth of her blouse.

"I didn't know how to respond to the way you made me feel," she confessed in a throaty voice.

"What about now?"

"I still don't know how to respond." "Find out."

422

Sandra Bromm

Breath of Scandal

423

"How?" "Touch me. The promise still holds," he added. "I won't

touch back. Not if you don't want me to."

Warily she regarded his bare chest. "I would rather just kiss some more, if that's all right. "

His smile was only a little strained. "I can stand that, I think." He reached to pull her down to his level, but she bristled. His hands relaxed on her arms. "If we're going to kiss, we've got to get our mouths on the same level. Lie down, Jade."

After several tense moments, she stiffly lay down. He cupped her face between his hands and drew it toward his. Their mouths came together in another deep, wet kiss. It was soft, sensual, sexy. Provocatively, his tongue moved in and out of her mouth. Before long, the kiss wasn't enough. She wanted more.

it was easier to touch him when she wasn't looking him in the eye. Timidly, she laid her hand on his chest. He grunted with surprise and pleasure, but didn't release her mouth from his thorough kiss.

His skin was warm. His chest hair felt springy and alive against her palm. His nipple was raised and firm. She could feel it in the center of her hand. For several minutes she couldn't bring herself to move. But his kisses were potent, pulling from her all her anxiety and imbuing her with a restless curiosity and desire.

She moved her fingertips a fraction. More hard muscle. More hair. Her thumb glanced his nipple. He sucked in a quick breath and held it. Jade's hand froze where it was.

" I didn't mean to scare you, " he rasped     Don't stop. "I didn't expect you to feel so-"

"So what, Jade?" "So ... nice. "

Laughing softly, he buried his face in her hair and hugged her close. He rolled her on top of him. The shift in positions was so sudden and unexpected that Jade didn't have time to prepare for the shock of lying between his thighs. Frozen, she stared down into his face.

"If you don't like it, we can change it," he said solemnly.

After analyzing it, she realized that she was experiencing arousal, not fear. It had been years since she had necked with Gary Parker. Because it had been so long since she had felt like this, she almost hadn't recognized it for what it was.

Yet the adolescent petting they had done couldn't compare to this. Gary had been a boy. Dillon was unquestionably a man and she was no longer a girl. She had been a woman for years, but Dillon was the first man to make her aware of her womanliness. It was a heady, exhilarating awakening.

His erection nestled in the vee of her thighs. Warmth radiated from that point of contact to every other part of her body. Her femininity felt feverish. It pulsed with the sweet swelling of arousal. She was aching, and it was delicious.

"I like it, but I don't know what to do," she said on an anguished whisper.

"Do whatever you want to, Jade. This isn't a test. I'm not grading you. You can't pass or fail. Anything you do is right."

She lowered her lips to his for another kiss. He held her head steady between his hands while his mouth engaged hers in an orgy of kissing that left them gasping. She threw back her head to draw a breath; he seized the moment and nuzzled her throat. He raised one hand to the first button on her blouse.

"What. . . ? No."

Keeping his hand where it was, he said, "This is part of it, Jade."

"I know, but-"

re "I want to see you. Let me touch you." Their eyes mained locked. Finally he said, "Okay. If you don't want me to."

"No, wait." She hesitated only a moment longer before walking her hands backward over his chest and stomach. Sitting back on her heels between his thighs, she drew Dillon into a sitting position and guided his hand toward her chest. "Don't hurt me."

424

Sandra Brown

"Never. I never would. I want to show you how good it can feel to be touched."

She nodded assent and released his hand. He undid the first button and moved to the second. His movements were unhurried. When he was finished with the buttons, he eased the hem of her blouse from the waistband of her skirt. Then, reaching inside the loose blouse, he bracketed her ribcage. "Can I touch your breast, Jade?"

His hands felt cool against her skin. They were callused and rough, but his touch was gentle.

" Yes. "

He cupped her left breast. "Tell me if I hurt you. Tell me when to stop."

"I'm not afraid you'll hurt me. I'm afraid I'll be unable to stand it. I'm afraid it'll make me remember, and the memory will ruin it."

"Don't think about anything but now. Concentrate on the sensations." He kneaded her gently through her brassiere. He lightly rubbed his knuckles across her nipple. It drew taut. Involuntarily, she made a small purring sound. "I'd like to unfasten your bra."

She nodded.

Reaching behind her, he undid the hook, then slipped his hand into the loose cup and took her breast in his hand. She gasped his name.

"Do you want me to stop?" Soundlessly, she shook her head.

His hand moved over her breast experimentally. It defined and reshaped. She bit her lip when his caress finally focused on her nipple. It was hard and distended even before he began fondling it. "Jesus, you're perfect, Jade." He continued to sweep his thumb across the rigid tip, barely touching it, eliciting chills and heat waves.

Jade, made weak by his caresses, bowed her head forward and rested it on his shoulder. She put her arms around him. Her nails sank into the supple flesh of his back.

"Jade, I want to put my mouth on you. Here. " He pressed her nipple. "Can I do that?"

Breath of Scandal

425

She gave her consent with a small movement of her head against his shoulder.

He parted her blouse and worked down the cups of her bra. She felt the night air from the open window on her exposed skin. It felt cool against her flushed breasts. His first kiss was soft, tender, affectionate. His lips flirted with her skin. His tongue teased. He brushed the raised tip of her breast with his mustache until she thought she would go mad from the unbearable pleasure.

Then his lips drew her in and surrounded her with the hot, sweet, sucking motions of his mouth. Each gentle tug plucked corresponding chords of response deep within her womb. They were glorious, mind-boggling, compelling. Reflexively, she came up to a kneeling position, making herself more accessible. Dillon cradled her breast between his hands as though he drank from a life-giving chalice. When he withdrew his mouth, he nuzzled her with his nose and rubbed his hard cheek against her, before taking her into his mouth again.

Her clothing kept getting in his way, and it aggravated her as much as it did him. "If I slide your blouse off your shoulders, will you pull your arms out of the sleeves?" he asked hoarsely. "Please, Jade."

She nodded.

He peeled her blouse from her shoulders and guided her arms out of the sleeves. Suddenly losing her nerve, she clasped her bra against her breasts. They gazed deeply into each other's eyes. She noticed that a vein in Dillon's temple was visibly ticking and that his jaw was clenched.

"Are we going to stop here?"

"I . . . No, I guess not." She removed her hands, and her bra fell forward onto his lap.

"Oh, God, thank you," he said on a deep exhalation. Using both hands, he touched her hair first, the individual features of her face, then her lips, which were swollen and rosy from his many kisses. His fingers combed down her throat, chest, and the slope of her breasts. He stared at her as though she were a miracle creation.

426

Sandra Brown

"Show me what you want me to do, Jade."

Taking his face between her palms, she guided it to her breast and watched as his lips sank into her flesh. Her nipples grew stiff against his caressing tongue. His mouth gave her unbearable pleasure.

With a groan, he fell back onto the pillows, brushed her bra off his lap, and groped for the buttons of his jeans. Jade's eyes widened with alarm.