Damaged Goods (21 page)

enough to keep it from getting too intense, but nowhere near enough to let my

orgasm recede. He kept me going for the longest time, coaxing wave after wave of

unbelievable ecstasy from my clit and G-spot until I begged him to stop.

“Oh, my God,” I murmured as he withdrew his fingers. “That"s amazing.”

He grinned and kissed me lightly. “You"re not the only one with a little magic

in the hands.”

We both laughed. After another gentle kiss, we parted long enough to get rid of

our clothes. Then we got back into bed and turned on our sides, and Austin pulled

the sheet up over us. Facing each other, we didn"t speak for a long time. He watched

his fingers run through my hair, probably oblivious to the fact that the two creases

between his eyebrows may as well have been a neon sign that said I"M THINKING.

“What"s on your mind?” I asked.

He shifted and rested his hand on my arm. “Thinking a little. About why I

came here tonight.”

Something in my stomach flipped. “You wanted a massage?”

He laughed. “Apparently. I just didn"t know it at the time.”

“So, why
did
you come over tonight?” I grinned. “Not that your company"s

unwelcome, of course.”

Austin smiled. “Because I wanted to see you.” He brushed the pad of his thumb

across my cheekbone.

“And you didn"t want to wait until tomorrow?”

I half-expected him to laugh and make a playful comment, but his expression

remained completely serious when he whispered, “I couldn"t wait until tomorrow.”

I swallowed hard and absently trailed my fingers up and down his forearm.

“You…couldn"t?”

“No.” His eyes lost focus for a moment. “I guess I"ve just been doing some

thinking, and after…” He paused. “After this evening, I needed to be with you.”

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Lauren Gallagher

“Why?” I raised my eyebrows. “Did something happen?”

“No, no, nothing like that. It was just like any session with any client.” He ran

his fingers through my hair. “That"s just it, actually. I do this all the time, but the

longer you and I do this…” He pursed his lips and his eyes lost focus. Finally, he

took a breath and looked at me again. “You know, there are people who think with

what I do, I"m just giving away something that should be kept between two people.”

He touched my face. “And that couldn"t be further from the truth, honestly.”

“How so?”

Austin moistened his lips and watched his fingers play with a strand of my

hair. “Yeah, I have sex with other women. But there"s… It"s…” He released a

frustrated breath. “It"s just not that simple.” His brow furrowed. I didn"t speak,

instead letting him find the words that eluded him.

Finally, he took a deep breath.

“There"s sex, and there"s…this.” He met my eyes. “Just being with someone

like this. This isn"t something that can be bought or sold, and I couldn"t

manufacture it for someone no matter how much they tried to pay me for it.” He ran

the backs of his fingers down my cheek. “That"s why I"m here tonight. Because I

needed this. And here, with you, is the only place I can get it.” He swallowed hard.

“Or give it.”

My heart pounded. “So, intimacy, then.”

“Yes, intimacy. Exactly.” He moistened his lips again and held my gaze.

“That"s something I only have with you.” Before I could speak, his hand slid from

my face into my hair, and he kissed me.

Austin was the last man in the universe I should have been like this with. No

matter how much I could tune out the rest of the world when we were in bed, that

world still existed beyond the bedroom walls, and there were people in it who

expected him to put out for pay. Those same people would be horrified to know I felt

this way about someone—some
thing
—like him. He was Austin, but he was still

Sabian.

This intimate tenderness had all the makings of a long-term relationship, but

reality held too many cards that simply wouldn"t allow it to happen.

Still, whether it should have been or not, there it was again, that same gentle

but desperate kiss we"d shared on the porch and up against the door, only now it

made sense. Now I understood what he"d been after, and had I been in his shoes, I"d

have driven across town in the middle of the night for it too. Not for
me
, per se, but

for this deep intimacy that couldn"t be bought, sold, forced, or ignored.

And I couldn"t ignore it.

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103

Chapter Fourteen

A week or two later, after a day from hell at my own job, it was my turn to

preface a visit with “I might not be good company.”

Austin wasn"t dissuaded, though. “I promise I"ll make it worth your while,”

he"d said over the phone with that grin in his voice. “
And
I"ll cook for you.” Now, I"d

made some stupid decisions in my life, but passing up an evening of Austin"s

cooking and whatever else would make it worth my while? Not a chance.

So, after a shower, a change of clothes, and a few deep breaths to settle myself

enough to keep any lethal levels of road rage at bay, I drove over to his apartment.

When I walked through his front door, I caught a faint but familiar scent.

Something hot. Burning.

Candles.

The light was on in the living room, and there were no candles in sight, but I

knew that smell. Grinning to myself as I set my purse down, I wondered what he

had up his sleeve.

Austin closed the door and came up behind me, hands on my hips and lips on

my neck. “Just the usual bullshit at work?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“I"d rather fix it.” His lips curved into a grin against my skin.

“And I"m sure you"ve thought of just how to do that, haven"t you?”

“I have.” He pulled my jacket over my shoulders, fingertips trailing down my

arms as he pulled it all the way off. He turned away just long enough to hang it up,

then put his arms around my waist and kissed beneath my ear. “And I think you"ll

enjoy it.”

“Of that, I have no doubt,” I murmured.

“Do you want a drink first or everything else I have planned?”

“Hmm,” I said. “Depends on what the drink is and what you have planned.”

“Vodka and whatever I can find to mix with it.” He kissed the side of my neck.

“Or you can take what"s behind door number one.”

“What"s behind door number one?”

The tip of his tongue made a slow circle below my ear. “You have to pick first.”

His lips and voice brushed my skin. “The drink or the mystery prize?”

I shivered. “How about a rain check on the drink?”

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Lauren Gallagher

His fingertips slipped under the back of my shirt. “I was hoping you"d say

that.”

Turning around in his arms, I kissed him. “So what"s behind door number

one?”

“You"ll see.” He gently turned me around again and guided me down the hall,

flicking the living room light off behind us. The entire apartment was dark now

except for a soft amber glow in the bedroom ahead of me. My heart thudded with

every step we took. It didn"t take a genius to figure out that whatever Austin had in

mind, it would—sooner or later—end in sweat and orgasms. That thought alone was

enough to raise my body temperature and negate my entire workday. Curiosity

about what
else
he had planned made me tremble with excitement.

Every light in the bedroom was off, but a half dozen or so candles flickered on

the dresser and nightstand. The comforter and blanket were already pulled back,

the pillows piled neatly on one side of the bed. A bottle of what I assumed to be

massage oil sat beside the candles.

“I was thinking,” he said against the skin beneath my ear as he reached

around to unbutton my blouse, “that you could use a massage.”

Right then and there, I nearly melted. “You don"t mind?”

“Not in the least. Especially not after the one you gave me.” He hooked his

fingers under either side of my shirt and drew it over my shoulders and down my

arms. “I"m guessing you don"t either?”

A breathless laugh did little to mask the shiver that ran up my spine as he

trailed his fingertips down my back. A playful retort was right on the tip of my

tongue but disappeared when my bra loosened and fell down my arms. I held my

breath, expecting his hands over my breasts, but he abruptly broke contact

altogether. Fabric rustled behind me, and when his arms went around me—hands

cupping my breasts as I"d anticipated—his bare chest was hot against my back.

I covered his hands with my own, closing my eyes and letting my head fall

back against his shoulder while he kissed my neck.

“If this is what happens when I have a bad day,” I whispered, “I"ll take

anything my job can dish out.”

“We"ve barely started.” He nipped my shoulder before releasing me. “Let"s get

the rest of these clothes out of the way so I can do what I promised.”

After we"d undressed, he handed me one of the pillows off the bed.

“Lie on your stomach with this under your hips.”

I took it but stopped to kiss him first. His hard cock pressed against my hip,

and I grinned at him. “So is this a massage or foreplay?”

He laughed, drawing his fingertips up my back. “Who says it can"t be both?”

I shivered. He kissed me one last time, then nudged me toward the bed. I did

as he asked, lying with the pillow under my hips, and he ran a hand from the small

of my back to my shoulders.

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105

“I could just look at you like this all night.” His hand drifted back and forth

across my shoulders. “Just looking at you…” A single fingertip traced a line down

the center of my spine “Touching you…” He bent and kissed the back of my neck.

“Thinking about all the ways I"m going to make you come before we"re done.”

All I could do was breathe.

“And I"ll get to that,” he said, his voice dropping as it always did when he was

turned on. “I"ll get to that very, very soon. But first…” He sat up and reached for the

bottle of massage oil on the nightstand. The bottle clicked, then again, and after

he"d set it down, he sat back again, out of my sight, and the hiss of skin brushing

skin gave me goose bumps. I pictured him rubbing his hands together to heat the

oil. My skin tingled at the very thought of warm, oiled hands sliding over my tense

muscles.

The mattress creaked with shifting weight, and I closed my eyes, expecting his

hands at any moment, in any place. When? Where?

What I didn"t expect was the soft, tender kiss on the small of my back, his lips

and breath warm against my skin. I sucked in a breath, exhaling only when he did,

breathing in again when his inhalation cooled the air just above my skin. As he

kissed his way up my back, I was more aware than ever of the contours of my own

spine: the gentle decline from my lower back before it swept up toward my

shoulders, then a subtle downward curve before rising once more to the sensitive

place just beneath my hairline.

Then, without a word, he changed position, sitting over me with his knees on

either side of my hips, and his oiled hands went to work on my muscles.

I barely felt what he did to my back and shoulders. While his hands melted the

tension in my muscles, his erection against the back of my thigh created a whole

different kind of tension. The more he touched me, the more I wanted him to keep

doing it, but the more I ached for his cock.

His hands glided up my back, making slow, firm circles, and every time his

body moved, his hips inched closer to mine. Even as his hands again moved down

my spine, working their way to the small of my back, his hips didn"t retreat at all.

I shivered.

“Cold?” he asked.

“No, far from it.” I moistened my dry lips. “I just really, really like what you"re

doing.”

“You mean this?” His hands left my shoulders and found their place on my

lower back again. “Or this?” His lips touched between my shoulder blades again,

making me close my eyes and whimper softly. I"d never thought of that spot as an

erogenous zone. Maybe it hadn"t been before this moment.

“Everything you"re doing,” I whispered. “I love it.”

“Good,” he breathed against my back before kissing higher, then higher, still

higher, each soft, tender kiss eliciting the same shiver as the last. Maybe the

erogenous zone wasn"t my skin at all, but his lips. A sexual Midas touch.

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Lauren Gallagher

His hands moved slowly up my back to my shoulders, just as they had a

moment ago, and every nerve ending tingled as if it"d been dormant all along until

his fingertips brought it to life. When he made a warm, slow circle with the tip of

his tongue at the base of my neck, I shivered. It didn"t matter where or how he