Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3 (10 page)

BOOK: Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3
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Yet he’d let her make the first move. Let her lead though his natural instinct had surely been to take control, to draw the lines firmly between pursuer and pursued and keep those lines intact between them. He’d brought her here, after all, clearly intending for her to stay. He probably had a hundred women more than willing to play whatever role he wanted—herself included, at least when it came to following his lead as a member of his team.

But she’d pushed to assert herself, to take charge, and he’d let her. Seamlessly and without question, without any apparent blow to his masculinity. And now he was returning to the bed with two full glasses of wine on a tray, setting the latter down on the stand beside the bed before turning to her, his face so full of appreciation and admiration that she wondered for a second if she’d somehow slipped into a dream world.

Maybe he was a unicorn.

“Here,” the unicorn rumbled. Stefan lifted a glass to her, then picked up his own. “To your first command operation,” he said. “May it not be your last.” He touched his glass to hers, and the chime of the fine crystal echoed through the room. Nicki took a healthy gulp, feeling her nerves zing with anticipation.

Far from being ready for a break in the action, Stefan appeared…more than ready to continue.

She glanced hurriedly at his face after that distraction, a blush staining her cheeks. “You didn’t think you could topple me that easily, I hope?” he asked.

“I—it’s not a competition.”

His smile deepened. “And yet I already feel at a decided disadvantage.” He set his glass on the nightstand, taking hers from her unresisting fingers as well. Then he slid closer to her on the bed. “It’s not a position I find I’m comfortable with, I have to tell you.”

“Well what should we do about that?” Nicki blinked, surprised that the husky rasp that asked the question was her own voice—a voice that sounded nothing like her, and everything like the vamp she’d never been.

Stefan didn’t seem surprised, but chuckled as he slid yet closer. “So many things,” he murmured. And he leaned in to kiss her softly on the lips.

No sooner had Nicki sighed against him when he shifted—quickly, grabbing her hands out from their stabilizing position beneath her body and dropping her flat to the bed on her back. His body levered over hers and he stretched her arms out high against the pillows, his legs anchoring her thighs as she arched beneath his hold.

“So many things,” he said again, “But first I want to taste every inch of you.”

“I—”

“Like here.” Stefan dropped his head to Nicki’s lips and kissed her soundly, his grip loosening on her hands so that he could reposition palms to either side of her face, framing her as if she were a cup that he was drinking from. He deepened the kiss, his tongue dipping into her mouth in a sensual assault, then shifted to her cheek, her brow, her temple. When he drifted his mouth along the curve of her ear, he murmured words too low for her to hear. But the tone of his voice warmed her to her toes, making her feel safe, protected, secure in his arms.

Then he angled down, his mouth tracing a fiery line along the curve of her neck to her collarbone, while his questing fingers found her breasts. He cupped them, his thumbs tweaking the already erect nipples, and lifted his face to stare into hers.

He could have any woman, she thought. Did he find her small breasts wanting?

As she frowned, he seemed to read her mind. “You’re perfect. You have to know that.”

“Well, I—ohh,” Nicki was spared the embarrassment of a response as Stefan returned his mouth to her skin, only to place his lips where his hand had so recently been. The soft touch of his lips on her nipple made her back arch, and he rolled his tongue over her breast, teasing the nipple into a tight peak. All the while, this left hand fondled her other breast, the double play of attention splitting her focus and most of her brain cells.

Then he moved further down her body, over her softly rounded abs, and his hands dropped as well to anchor her hips. Nicki couldn’t stop the shiver of expectation, a tight frisson of worry and need that caused Stefan to growl deep in his throat. “Perfect,” he muttered again, only there was such a note of irritation in his voice that she stiffened.

“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he sighed, and the touch of his breath against her most sensitive skin made any coherent thought flee. “Nothing at all.” He leaned forward and touched his lips to her, his tongue snaking out to find her clit, teasing and exploring in the same way he had her breast, mapping her body with his mouth. She gave up trying to pick apart the specific sensations, and let herself slide into a sensual puddle as he laved her folds slick then blew a wisp of cool breath over her, making her gasp.

“Stefan,” she moaned as he ducked toward her again. She held her breath as he traced a new pattern against her skin, shifting, adjusting, learning every curve. She would burst if he kept this up, and she dropped her hands to his shoulders, unsure of whether she wanted to egg him on or warn him off.

“My directions,” he reminded, and his words were spoken against her clit, making her jump. He turned his face into her thigh and kissed a trail up to her hipbone, nipping it until she stopped squirming. “And I direct you to tell me this: are you enjoying what I’m doing?” His teeth came down on her hipbone, pressing in, and Nicki squeaked again.

“Yes!” she said. “Yes.”

“And you’ll tell me if I do something you don’t enjoy?” he pressed.

That seemed more problematic, as she was barely able to breathe at this point, but she managed another shaky “yes.”

“Good. Then otherwise, roll with it. I’ll stop when I’m ready to stop.”

Nicki’s half laugh ended on a choke as Stefan’s tongue snaked out to the key points on the map that he’d clearly already learned by heart. He stroked her long and deep and then flicked her tight nub, alternating between the sensations until she couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. The second she got her bearings however, he moved one millimeter over, and a sudden rush of sensation crashed over her.

“Stefan!” she gasped, and something in her voice must have tipped him off that she wasn’t about to tell him to stop, and his entire body stilled except his head, his mouth, the effect of him focusing so intently on her pleasure starting the long, delirious, inevitable slide toward orgasm.

Her legs seized first, spasming quickly together but blocked by the obstruction of his body. Nevertheless, she locked down against him, his grunt of surprise lost as the maelstrom built within her. He didn’t move from his focused position, however, didn’t give her any relief, and instead redoubled his efforts, somehow missing the growing tide of urgency as she whimpered inarticulate words, unwilling to tell him to stop but unable to keep herself from catapulting into the churning roil of sensations.

And then she was over the edge and her body fairly jackknifed in the bed, the violence of her orgasm bouncing her up and back again as her hands sought Stefan’s shoulders and she tried to push him away and pull him close simultaneously, her fingers so weak that she could gain no purchase to do anything. She gasped his name again as her entire body went rigid, before one final, explosive convulsion made her sight go bright white for one heartbeat—then two.

The best climax of her life, bar none.

“My God,” she moaned as her legs fell open, leaving Stefan to trail a swirling line of kisses toward her knee.

He finally lifted his face to regard her, and she blinked at him, dazedly.

“That,” he said, “makes me feel so much better.”

Stefan reveled in Nicki’s contented sigh as he moved back up her body, retracing his path with his hands and his mouth until he was once more face to face with her. Her lips were full and open, her eyes nearly glazed. And when he pushed at her gently, urging her legs open once more, she complied with another deeply contented sigh.

He took that as a resounding yes to his next stage of the operation.

Leaning forward, his questing fingers found the other item he’d carried over on the tray. He slid the foil packet off the nightstand and sat back on his heels as Nicki watched, her eyes now wide and fascinated. He knew she’d watched a man sheathe himself before, so her interest wasn’t in the generic act—but the fact that it was
his
cock being readied to enter her,
his
shaft accepting the tight constriction of protection. She watched as he leaned back over her, caging her in, but her expression held a curious mix of delight and excitement—the best combination he’d ever seen on any woman, ever.

Mentally berating himself to maintain control, he nudged between Nicki’s legs with unerring precision. Her deep moan of approval did nothing to help his iron lock on his own reactions, and as he found her center and pushed in, he gritted his teeth against the sudden shock of wet heat surrounding him.

“Oh…my,” Nicki muttered, and he blinked his eyes open, unaware that he’d closed them. Nicki apparently had been suffering the same level of eyestrain, because her lids remained resolutely shut, her mouth opening a tiny “o” of pleasure as he pushed in another quarter inch, allowing her body to get used to his sensual intrusion. He could feel the moment she relaxed, welcoming him in deeper. He pressed into her in one long slide, watching as her eyelids fluttered open, her unfocused eyes a mixture of pleasure, satisfaction and new, deeper need.

His favorite combination.

“Ah,” she sighed as he slid home, her body moving with his as he rocked into her, finding the pace that fit her natural rhythm beat for beat. She shifted with him, angling her knees up so he could sink even more deeply inside her, reveling in the new sensations that shuddered through him at the intimate access to her body. She was unbelievably tight, surrounding him with wet heat, and every muscle on her upper body was pulled taut as she stretched up to meet his. Sex with Nicki Clark clearly wasn’t going to be a relaxing activity—ever. At least not until after they’d both reached orgasm more than once.

Stefan could practically feel his eyes dilate at the thought of bringing Nicki to the brink again. And again.

He plunged deeper into her and something in her manner gave way, her body suddenly going nearly limp beneath him as she breathed out a long, gratified moan. Her surrender pushed him inexorably closer to that goal. She stretched out beneath him languorously, allowing him to sink further still, and her eyes fluttered open.

In that moment, he realized he had never known anyone like this woman. Her masks—and there were multiple ones he realized in a flash of clarity—had fallen away, and there was nothing left in her expression but an aching, raw need.

“Kiss me,” he whispered, and Nicki’s lips twitched into a smile, her neck arching to meet him as he bent toward her. She offered up her kiss as a benediction, and he drank in her absolution, unsure of why she was blessing him, but knowing that he craved it more than air. At the touch of her lips a renewed strength poured through him, lighting his blood on fire. Then one of her hands came up and slid behind his neck, another over her shoulders, and she broke his braced-arm position and dragged him down to her body, so they were fused together, inch by perfect inch.

Nicki ran her hands down his back, pressing the heels of her hands into his muscles until her fingers reached the curve of his ass. She panned her hands wide and pulled him in as she surged forward, actively stroking him with her body, her hand, her mouth all at once. The combination of pressures built within him an impossible force, and he grit his teeth to maintain his concentration. He was not going to give up this sensual assault anytime soon, not even for the unbearable pleasure he knew that release would afford him.

Then Nicki was pushing against him, her leg lifting to brace against the bed. “Roll over, you big ox,” she muttered and he did so willingly, their bodies separating for a head-clearing moment until she was on top of him again, her legs straddling his hips, her hands on his chest as her breasts swayed forward, tantalizingly out of reach. She didn’t give him much chance to recover as she positioned herself over him, her toned legs taut as she took him into her body again, only a bare inch, then slid free.

“Nicki,” Stefan growled.

“What, you don’t like to play?” she teased. “All that racing we’ve done, the swim competition, the climbing—you can’t tell me that’s true.”

As she spoke she dropped down further over him, her abs knotting to hold her position for a bare moment before she slid up to the tip of his shaft again.

Stefan glared at her as she continued the sensual assault, sliding up and down with a disruptive rhythm, clearly enjoying herself as she teased him. All the while her efforts had the exact opposite of what he was sure she intended. She wasn’t slowing him down, not at all. She was driving him to a fevered pitch.

“Nicki,” he managed and she finally sank home, clenching around him as she swayed forward.

“Better?” she asked, and he grimaced, but his gaze was filled with her. Her beautiful red gold hair cascaded around her shoulders. Her hands were positioned on his chest to frame her small, rounded breasts. Her face now angled down as well, her eyes lidded, her mouth slightly open as she rocked into him, focusing intently on his face.

BOOK: Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3
11.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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