Bring It On (15 page)

Walking outside together, they were greeted by Mikhail, who grinned knowingly. Colt felt the urge to knock the expression right off his face, but fought against it. Instead, they followed him down a path and out onto the beach.

A white canvas tent had been set up along the deserted stretch. Colt could hear the laughter of other guests farther back toward the resort, but here the place had an untouched, primitive quality that appealed to him.

Beside him, Lena twined her arm through his. He could feel the way her whole body quivered. He wondered if she was nervous and then realized nerves had nothing to do with it when she looked up at him. Her eyes glowed with anticipation, excitement and a knowing expectation that he had every intention of fulfilling at the first opportunity.

Mikhail slipped ahead of them. Colt held the flap open so Lena could enter. Marcy, Mikhail and his crew waited.

He had to admit that Marcy had gone above and beyond the call of duty. The tent was made of lightweight canvas. Even if she’d had it up all day, it wouldn’t have absorbed as much of the sun as some other fabrics might have. Piles of pillows were thrown around the intimate space that centered around a low table barely a foot or two off the ground.

A sea of silver-covered dishes sat on the table, waiting to be revealed. He wondered what was inside and figured he’d find out soon enough. He expected stuffed grape leaves and dripping baklava. Instead, when someone from the crew stepped forward, she exposed trays of tropical fruit, shrimp, oysters, skewers of chicken and beef with sweet-smelling chili sauce and an assortment of finger-size desserts that made his mouth water.

Lena dropped to her knees in front of the table, staring in wonder at the spread before her. Looking over her shoulder at the woman standing at the entrance to the tent, she said, “Marcy, you didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

“Yes, I did. The shot has to be perfect. I want to feature it in a two-page spread.”

Some of the wonder disappeared from Lena’s eyes and Colt wanted to admonish Marcy for ruining the moment for her.

Apparently realizing what she’d just done, Marcy took a step forward, reaching out to Lena. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out the way I meant it to. I didn’t do this just for you, but I do want you to enjoy it. I’ve seen some of the preliminary pictures. Trust me, you’ve earned it. They’re amazing and people will be flocking to Escape in no time because of them. I owe you.”

Lena smiled up at the other woman. “Well, this is certainly a great way to start. This is wonderful, Marcy. You’ve thought of everything.”

Even double-layering a soft rug across the bottom of the tent so that neither of them would end the night rolling around in the sand. For that, Colt was eternally grateful.

“I try.” Marcy’s cheeks flushed with satisfaction. “I’m going to let Mikhail get to work. He has instructions to leave you alone once he’s got what he needs.”

Colt dropped to the pillows on the opposite side of the table thinking about how perfect this was and hoping Mikhail would finish quickly.

Mikhail entered as Marcy left. He surveyed them both, asked Lena to angle her legs differently and positioned Colt’s shoulders more squarely toward the camera. But on the whole, he seemed satisfied with the scene.

Colt looked down at the food and realized for the first time that there weren’t any utensils. Everything on the table was designed to be eaten with their hands. Marcy really had thought of everything.

Shaking his head in awe, Colt reached for a morsel of something and held it out toward Lena. She paused for a second, reaching for her own bite, but instead leaned against the table and opened her mouth. She sucked the food from his hand, her pink tongue licking across the underside of his fingers. His eyes narrowed as a spike of need stabbed straight through him.

Picking up a shrimp, he reached for her hand, closed her fingers around it and brought it up to his own lips. Two could play that game. He relished the way her eyes flashed as his tongue lapped the sauce from her fingers. He practically swallowed the thing whole, grateful it was small, so that he could chase a drop as it slipped down her wrist.

“So good,” he breathed against her skin. He licked across the sensitive veins there, enjoying the way her fingers curled and her pulse jumped.

In the background, Colt could hear the whir of the shutter and the click of the button as Mikhail caught shot after shot. He ignored the other man, instead focusing solely on Lena and building the tension and desire between them.

He slipped around the corner of the table, moving closer to her. She was up on her knees, leaning toward him, waiting for him to feed her something else.

He picked up a pastry shell filled with a spiced rice mixture. Tipping it to her mouth, he waited for her to take a bite. The crunch of the broken shell echoed through the space, but his eyes were drawn to the curve of her neckline and the dark hollow between her breasts. A few grains of rice had slipped free, rolling down her skin to disappear.

Colt leaned forward, ready to dive in after them but Mikhail’s loud throat-clearing stopped him. Instead, Lena wiggled her body and dress till the stray grains fell free. He had to admit watching her gyration was almost as good as retrieving them himself.

They fed each other, drank sweet wine from crystal flutes and laughed at the mess they both made of the beautiful meal. Their fingers grazed, their bodies touched and while they started out on opposite sides of the table Lena was soon practically sitting in Colt’s lap.

Colt wasn’t sure when Mikhail left. He was aware of the man’s departure in some foggy corner of his mind because at that moment he’d been freed to do everything that he wanted, no longer obligated to hold back in deference to the audience or the lens. When he’d left, Mikhail had had the foresight to close the single flap to give them some privacy. Colt was glad the other man had thought of it, because he was too far gone.

One hunger slaked and another stoked so high that both of them feared being consumed by the flames. They pushed back from the table and rolled together onto the pile of soft pillows.

Lena’s dress twisted around her thighs. He wanted to see her, all of her, spread out before him. Lifting her up into his arms, he peeled the garment from her body.

His breath backed into his throat when he realized she wasn’t wearing anything beneath. All night, she’d been naked under the thin layer of fabric and he hadn’t known it. He was still sane enough to realize perhaps that was a good thing. If he had known, he might not have been able to control himself long enough to let Mikhail get what he needed.

“What have you done with my practical Lena?” he asked as his fingers glided down the smooth expanse of her inner thigh.

Her eyes smoldered, an intensity that drove deep down into his soul and twisted. “I didn’t put on any panties, Colt. It’s not like I organized a bra-burning or chained myself to the door of some industrial giant. I figured why bother if they were just coming off.”

His lips trailed across the dip of her stomach, his tongue swirling into her navel. “There she is.”

“What’s wrong with practical?” she stuttered as his knee nudged against her own. He relished the view of her swollen flesh as she opened for him.

“Nothing,” he growled. “Practical is good, especially if it makes touching you easier.”

The heady scent of her arousal swirled around them. He took a deep breath, holding it inside so he could remember this moment forever.

With one hand he parted her folds, sinking in and swiping his tongue across the warm surface of her sex. She tasted like heaven, and he wanted more.

She bucked beneath him, pressing against his mouth. She was so hot and wet. Her sex burned around the invasion of his tongue as he drove relentlessly in and out. His lips clamped tightly over the jutting nub of her clit, sucking hard in a way that had breath bursting from her body in frantic pants.

Before he could spear a finger inside and suck her to orgasm, she reared up beneath him, bucking him off. Colt sprawled backward into the pillows. Lena rose above him, the tangled mass of her dark mahogany hair running riotously down her back.

Her eyes smoldered. A tempting smile teased across her lips. Colt tried to sit up, but a single hand on his shoulder pressed him back down.

“My turn,” she said, pressing her mouth to the flat plane of his stomach. Colt enjoyed the happy leap of the muscles where she touched. Her mouth slid close and his cock jumped.

She laughed, a low-throated sound that had air brushing torturously across him. She didn’t keep him suspended in misery long. Her tongue quickly followed, licking slowly from tip to base. Her hand teased across the swollen orbs below as she sucked him deep into her throat. The moist heat was maddening, but not nearly as perfect as being buried deep inside her body.

She slid back and forth and he let her play, until he couldn’t take anymore. Pulling her away, he spun them both, pressing her hard into the soft floor.

“Please tell me you were practical and brought condoms,” she panted.

Her nails scraped down his chest, leaving red welts as he reached behind her to grab the condom he’d stuffed into the pocket of his pants. She flicked one of his erect nipples, making his stomach contract with pleasure.

Snatching the packet from his fingers, she tore through the foil. The combination of her warmth and the tight latex as she rolled it down over his aching cock had him hissing through his teeth.

He pulled from her grasp. Spreading her thighs wide, he plunged deep inside. She was so hot and ready, welcoming. Her gasp of pleasure blasted through him even as her sex wrapped so tightly around him that he could barely breathe.

“Oh g-god…” she stuttered as he moved inside her.

He pulsed in and out—quick, shallow, deep. Lena’s head thrashed against the pillows. Incoherent whimpers fell from her parted lips. Her hips pumped, grinding against his.

One second she was straining, reaching for the same exquisite moment as he was. The next she was wild beneath him. Her body, poised on the edge, flew apart. Bucking, quaking, sobbing, her orgasm was more than he could take. Her milking muscles gripped him in a hard fist, refusing to let him go.

The power of his own release crashed over him in warm waves, blocking everything but the feel of her from his brain. Each time was stronger, better, more powerful than the last, than anything he’d experienced before.

How was he ever going to live without this? Without her?

Lena collapsed beneath him. Her legs and arms sprawled uselessly. He had just enough brainpower left to realize he was going to crush her. Rolling them both one last time, he draped her spent body across his.

Her hair spilled over his chest and her nose buried deep into the crook of his neck. She burrowed against him, as if she were trying to get inside his skin as the last and only joining they hadn’t actually been able to accomplish.

And he was happy to have her there. As close as they could possibly get.

Colt wrapped his arms around her and held on. He didn’t want to let her go.

But he would have to. Because everything ended, even this.

10

A BRIGHT BEAM OF SUNLIGHT sliced across Lena’s face, pulling her from the most delicious dream. Sometime during the night they’d stumbled back to their bungalow. Grumbling, she cursed their preoccupation and lack of foresight—neither she nor Colt had thought to draw the curtains.

“What time is it?” Colt croaked out, his head buried beneath a pillow.

Squinting against the glare, Lena rummaged on the bedside table until the bright red numbers on the clock came into view.

“Nine.”

Colt sat bolt upright in bed. “Crap! We have to get ready.”

Lena frowned at him. “Ready for what?” If her memory served, they didn’t have anything planned until later in the day. She had to admit that while she’d been a little trepidatious about the whole photo-session thing, it actually hadn’t been that bad.

A smile Lena couldn’t hold in stretched across her lips. Especially last night…

“I have a surprise,” Colt said, his lips and words brushing across her naked shoulder.

She narrowed her eyes. “You know I don’t like surprises.” Her whole life,
Surprise!
was usually followed by
We’re moving to…
fill in the blank. L.A., Chicago, London, Geneva, Bangkok, whatever. No, she didn’t appreciate surprises. The word alone had the ability to send dread and panic through her body.