Cupid's Mistake (15 page)

He licked the hollow of her throat and couldn't help the
satisfied grin when goose bumps rushed over her skin, making her shiver.
Placing hot, open-mouthed kisses toward the underside of her chin, he slid his
tongue along the strong bones of her jaw, absorbing her flavor. Honeyed and
salty and irresistibly female. She quaked in his arms, her breaths coming in
short, choppy gasps.

Had he ever been more conscious of his own size than at that
moment with her slim body quivering in his enormous hands? He knew her
strength, yet the slide of his fingers over her narrow ribcage reminded him of
her fragility. In her lower-than-usual heels, she didn't quite reach his chin.
All the more reason to go slow, to cherish and protect.

Stroking the long fall of her gypsy hair, he fisted his
hands in it. Luxuriously soft, wild with curls, he wanted to wrap himself in
its glorious length. With one hand bracing her back, the other traced a path
from her collarbone, sliding down to rest over her bounding heart in the valley
between her breasts.

Her fingers, still clasped behind his neck, flexed hard, but
her gaze stayed steady on his, crystalline pools he'd happily drown in for the
rest of his life. He claimed her mouth in another drugging kiss while her heart
continued to beat against his palm.

"Let me in, Allison," he murmured, nipping her
full bottom lip with his teeth. "Let me in."

She mistook his meaning, one hand sliding into the front
pocket of her jeans to fumble for her keys, when what he wanted was the key to
her heart. He'd have to find that one on his own. But Allison, who'd twisted
unsteadily toward the house, seemed to be having difficulty with the lock.
Amused, he loosened his grip on her to remove the keys from her hand and dealt
with the door himself.

Once opened, Ben tossed the keys toward the wooden bowl she
kept on the entryway table for just that purpose, but with his eyes on Allison,
he missed it by a mile. The keys clattered to the tile floor in a jangled heap,
and the sound seemed to work on Allison like a gunshot at the start of a race.

The dreamy quality in her eyes sharpened, went dark with
desire. Before he could react to the change, she'd pulled him over the
threshold and clawed her way up his body. Slow and steady died in the fever
rush.

If she'd been a sweetly purring kitten before, now she was a
hungrily growling tigress, and he her willing meal. Sweat sprang across his
body and his already racing pulse went to warp speed. Every nerve in his body
sat up and howled. He wanted. Needed. Now.

Wrapping her long, long legs around his waist, Allison
clamped her hands in his hair. Her mouth was a fury on his, stealing his breath,
his will, draining every high-minded idea out of his head in an instant.

Slow, sweet, tender—the words lost their meaning under
the onslaught of her lips and teeth, and his cock surged inside his stifling
jeans, straining against her where their bodies clashed, core to core.

"God!"

He rasped the word into her voracious mouth, stumbling
blindly toward the hallway with her writhing over him like quicksilver. Her
body hummed beneath his hands, a high-voltage energy source disguised beneath
velvet skin and fragile bones. Even her hair seemed to crackle with the
electricity they generated, a swirling red tornado wrapping them together.

"Let me—" she said, her hands racing over
his body, leaving him breathless.

"Wait," he said, "I can—"

But she'd solved the problem by grasping the panels of his
shirt in both hands and tearing them apart.

Buttons flew. She yanked the tail of his ruined shirt out of
his jeans, shoving the sleeves down his arms. He clutched her body with first
one hand, then the other, to free his arms as she tore the material all the way
off, then sank her teeth into the flesh over his collarbone. He jerked in
surprise, the whip of lust branding him with her fire.

The feel of her hands and mouth on his bare skin almost sent
him over the edge where he stood. He stumbled backward into the wall, holding
himself on his shoulders to protect her legs where they wrapped around his
waist, and knocked his head into a shelf. Something crashed, the musical tinkle
ringing with Allison's wild laughter.

"I need—" he said.

"I know," she panted, "just let
me—"

"Skin. Skin, Allison, I want you naked."

"Yes-yes-yes," she chanted as he whipped her
sweater up and off with one hand, the other glued to her back to hold her in
place. She cried out when their torsos met, and pleasure skyrocketed through
his system.

God, the heat. Waves of it shimmered off her bare skin, pale
as milk in the dim light of the hall, smooth as cream. Dainty scraps covered
her breasts, but not for long.

"The bed," he began, but she shook her head
wildly.

"No time," she gasped, "no time. I need you,
Ben, now. Now-now-now, please!"

She pushed her hands and feet against the wall, shoving them
away from its support and bearing him down, half sliding, out of control. They
landed hard with him on his back, her knees digging into his sides, the center
of her heat pressed tightly against his belly.

"Ben-Ben-Ben," his name fell from her lips like a
prayer.

Dropping forward, Allison sucked his right nipple into her
mouth and bit. His back arched off the carpet, and his hands clutched the
halves of her ass, digging his fingers into the damn jeans still covering her
softness. She dragged her tongue up his chest, his neck, his chin, then dove
inside his mouth, plundering the way he wanted to plunder her body. His hips
already pumping beneath her, he tangled his tongue with hers, fighting for
dominance while he fought the button at her waist.

"I want these off," he said, his voice guttural,
rough, scoring his throat.

Her hands, fisted again in his hair, snaked between their
bodies, making short work of the fastening of her own jeans, as well as his.
She trailed little bites along his lower lip, stopping just short of pain, then
licked her tongue along it before diving back into his mouth.

Ben undid the clasp of her bra, something pretty and
feminine he ignored completely, then scraped the straps down her arms. With one
helpful wiggle, she was free of it and her breasts pressed their pebbled,
scorching tips against him for the first time. It was heaven and hell combined,
the most amazing sensation and the most agonizing. It would never be enough. He
wanted to absorb her into his body, to make them truly one. He rubbed against
her naked flesh like a giant jungle cat, her panting moans of pleasure sending
his own arousal to new heights.

He couldn't take much more.

Grasping her by the waist, he hauled her up his body and
sucked first one then the other breast into his mouth, rolling each throbbing
tip between his teeth in turn. Allison threw her head back and keened high in
her throat, her hips rocking uncontrollably against him. Why the hell were
there still clothes between them?

As if reading his mind, she pushed one hand against his
chest to lever herself to standing, her free hand going to the unbuttoned
fabric. Chest heaving, she stared at him. His eyes raced over her, over the
glistening tips of her breasts, wet from his mouth, over her satiny skin and
half-opened jeans. Sitting up, he delved his right hand inside the material and
down the smooth, brief expanse of heated skin before he found her silky panties
and the already drenched mound of curls. He slid his fingers inside, finding
her wet, sultry, ready, as she cried out his name.

Yanking the jeans to her calves, he used his teeth to drag
her panties down and finally, finally, she stood bared to his gaze. Clasping
his hands on either side of her hips, he pulled her forward and sank his mouth
into the glistening folds of her sex, burying himself in the scent and heat of
her desire. She quaked above him, her hands clutched in his hair for balance as
he ran his tongue down either side of her mound, then slowly, slowly up,
trailing over her center to plunge inside.

Over and over, he nibbled and bit and sucked, sending his
tongue deeply into her body, making her his. Allison writhed in his hold,
whimpering her submission to his mouth and tongue and teeth. When he swirled
his tongue over that throbbing bud, then sucked it hard into his mouth, she
came apart, her cries echoing down the hallway.

Allison's knees gave, and she collapsed, but he supported
her down on top of him. His heart bursting with love and smug satisfaction for
pleasuring his woman, Ben stroked his hands over her back and sides and down to
cup her buttocks while she shuddered out the aftershocks of her orgasm.

But they weren't finished.

"I want you inside me, Ben," she whispered against
his skin, echoing his own desire, her breaths still rattling in her chest.
"I need you."

On shaky arms, she pushed herself up to drop a kiss on his
mouth that sent a fresh wave of need pulsing over his body. Sliding down his
torso, she pulled her own jeans and panties the rest of the way off, then
grasped the opening of his jeans and worked the fabric down, freeing his
erection from their confines.

The briefest flash of nerves shone in her eyes as she
scanned his width and length before it was replaced by pure female
satisfaction, but he'd seen it. His hands and feet weren't the only oversized
appendages on his body.

Tamping down the stallion's urge to plunge inside his mate,
to take, and take, and take some more, he schooled himself to go slow, to let
her set the pace. The torture would be sweet.

"Ben." She sighed his name as she ran one hand
firmly down his cock, cupping him beneath when she dipped her head to lave her
tongue around the head and down the length of his shaft in one long stroke.
"You're beautiful."

Her touch, her words. . . He almost came that instant.
Fishing a hand into his jeans' pocket, he ripped through dealing with the
condom while she watched.

"Take me, Alli," he said, trying not to beg.
"Take me now. I can't last much longer."

Allison took his mouth in a kiss that curled his toes and
rolled his eyes back in his head. She poised herself above him, and he fought
to focus, wanting to watch as he disappeared inside her, as he became one with
her for the first time.

Dark blue eyes glued to his, Allison lowered herself onto
him until just the tip slid inside her wet, wet heat. She teased him, holding
there, pulsing around him. He ground his teeth, his restraint in a chokehold.
Every muscle rigid.

Slowly, slowly she lowered a fraction more, moaning as he
stretched her, her sheath so tight he wondered if she'd truly be capable of
taking him all the way.

Then she began to move. Still slowly, working him a little
more deeply inside with each lifting and lowering of her silken hips. She
rocked over him, driving him insane by inches as he slid deeper, disappeared
more fully into her body. It was the most erotic sight he'd ever witnessed.

He pressed his hands over her breasts, helping to hold her
in place as sweat beaded and ran down her torso. She was keening again, or
maybe it was him, their pleasure locked together in the dance. Her heart sped,
a high-performance engine revving beneath his palm.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she closed her eyes
and seated herself fully against him, his shaft buried within her scorching
heat to the very hilt. She was panting, as was he, their bodies fused into one,
and she crowed her victory.

Allison held there, flushed and quivering. Ben traced her
breasts, plucking her nipples with his fingers and watching the rippling
shivers racing over her skin. She smoothed her hands up his waist, over his
chest to his shoulders. Digging her fingers into his muscles, she held on as
she once again began to move, her head tossed back, her hair swirling over his
thighs and adding another layer of erotic torture.

Faster and faster, deeper and deeper, she took him away with
her. He clasped her hips and rose to meet her, thrust for thrust. The pressure
built, almost past bearing. At the last moment, he swept his fingers into the
inferno, finding the core of her pleasure, and she shattered above him,
screaming his name as his own shouts of release melded with hers, their voices
creating their own private symphony, until they collapsed, heaving, wrapped
together. Mindless, spent, shivering with pure bliss.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Untold centuries later, too weak to stand, they crawled to
the bedroom, rolling over each other and giggling like drunks. Allison's heart
soared, a hawk set free of its hood and jess, unfettered by doubt. They might
not have shared the words yet, but the emotions were there, all around them,
shimmering in the midnight darkness.

She'd already promised him exclusivity, a vow she hadn't
made in years. Before the sun rose in the morning, she would give him those
all-important words. Benjamin Turner was her soul mate. The stories handed down
by the women in her family had turned out to be amazingly, beautifully true,
and she would never let him go.

Someday, when they were ready, there would be a wedding.
Children. A future.

Now, though, she wanted nothing more than to add to the
store of shared memories they were already creating. To make love to him again
and again until neither of them could see straight.

Reaching the bed, Ben whipped the covers back and dragged
her up with him, snugging them together in its warmth and softness. He tucked
her head beneath his chin. She pressed her ear over his heart. With their arms
wrapped around each other, their legs tangled, he stroked her hair until she
sighed her pleasure. He tipped her chin up for a kiss of such aching sweetness
it nearly brought tears to her eyes.

With lavish care, he moved over her body, and in his hands
she was reborn. He guided her across new continents of pleasure. In his arms,
she discovered new depths of lovemaking, an emotional connection she'd never
experienced nor imagined. Something spiritual and sacred.