Shifting Gears (3 page)

The mental image he painted of his tawny hair between her thighs sabotaged her plans to draw out their pleasure. “Go ahead, jerk yourself. Slow. All the way from the base to the tip.”

Sloan gave him a few seconds to settle himself then asked, “Did you get any cream on your hand?”

“Yeah.” He cursed. “Impossible not to at this point. I’ve been hard all day. I’m leaking like a broken faucet here.”

“Taste yourself.”

“Uh, Sloan, I’ve never done that…” He hesitated.

When she refused to let him off the hook, he caved.

“But if it turns you on, I’ll try it. I’m pretty open-minded. I’ll do whatever you like. Just don’t stop touching yourself.”

She listened hard enough she could have heard a pin drop—until something better reached her ears. His lips smacked around his salty, cum-coated fingers. “Damn, that’s kind of hot.”

Sloan agreed. She whimpered as she teased herself higher, closer toward the finish line promising satisfaction. “The thought of two guys together always turns me on. Have you ever fooled around with another man? Would you?”

She hadn’t intended for the questions to come out. They hardly knew each other yet she’d already revealed her inner freak! But she’d taken their joint insanity this far, so why hedge now? Besides, she was experimenting with brutal honesty. It was time to go for what she really wanted. No more worrying about everyone else’s needs.

“Never have. But would I? I-I don’t know.” Mark grunted. She could tell from his breathing that he worked himself faster now. “I would have said ‘absolutely not’ until recently. But something happened, with Lynn and Sebastian. Maybe. I might try it. If it was with the right person.”

A sudden contraction gripped her, making her moan loudly.

“You like the idea, Sloan?”

“So much.” She inserted another finger in her gripping channel. “Tell me about the change of heart. Lynn said you’d share if I gave you my number.”

“We had a threesome. Sebastian, Lynn and I.” He breathed hard between his sentences now. “Actually, Bastian and I have shared women a bunch of times. But never anything between us. Unless you count touching by accident when we fucked the same girls.”

A gasp interrupted his retelling. She used the hand not tunneling inside her pussy to rub tiny circles around her clit. It wouldn’t take much more.

“The last time, we were with Lynn. She rode Sebastian—reverse cowgirl—while I ate her pussy.
Dio
, she tasted so fucking good. But not half as good as I bet you would.”

“Flattery.” It was all she could manage.

The story he told captured her full attention. The rippling walls of her pussy squeezed her fingers tighter as she imagined what it would be like to be the center of that much male attention. Delicious.

He surrendered a short bark of laughter before continuing. “While I worked on her, she insisted I put my finger in Sebastian’s ass. I liked it. Enough that, once things got hot and heavy, I lost it and pumped my spunk all down his leg. Shit. My best damn friend.”

Sloan couldn’t catch her breath enough to attempt a response.

She closed her eyes and imagined the shocked look on Mark’s face as he emptied his balls all over the furred shin of his driver. And that was all it took.

“Oh God. Mark!” She screamed when she came, shuddering and tensing so hard she got a cramp in her curled toes.

“Yes, come, Sloan. Come.” He shouted, a raw and base command tinting his voice. “I’m coming…with you.”

The knowledge spiked her ecstasy higher, prolonging her release. Damn, the man loved to talk. And talk dirty.

“Shot all over my chest. My abs. Some splashed over my nipple.”

She kept rubbing her clit, wringing every last drop of satisfaction from her orgasm and his confession.

“Taste it. For me.” Her voice trembled. “Imagine it’s Sebastian’s come instead of yours.”

“Fuck yes.” A wet slurp followed, setting off another mini-orgasm in her core.

Mark murmured reassurances for long minutes as she recovered, finally floating back to earth and the welcome embrace of his husky voice.

“Thank you.”

“No, thank
you
. Sloan, tell me where you are. I want to look into your eyes when we talk about what just happened and what might come next. I’ll steal you a packet of Pop-Tarts from Lynn’s stash of American snacks if you require more bribing.”

“Oh my God. She has Pop-Tarts?” With the global marketplace, some hints of home seemed universal but others were difficult to procure outside Hong Kong, Guangzhou or the other metropolitan areas nearby.

“Strawberry
and
blueberry. There might even be a few of the brown sugar kind left.”

“Marco Rossi, I think I’m in love with you.”

“I know the feeling. But you must have been peeking at my official paperwork. Only my
mamma
calls me Marco. And I definitely don’t think of you like my mother.”

“I’m probably old enough to be—”

His raucous laughter cut her off. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“No matter how I acted tonight, I’m no racing groupie. That’s for sure.”

“Sloan?”

“Yeah.” She hesitated, her finger a fraction of an inch from the button that would end their call. Now that they’d eased some of their sexual tension, would he cut and run?

“
When
I get there…I don’t want you to think I’m assuming anything. Things got a little crazy tonight, but I’m not expecting more…physical stuff. You know, sex. I don’t want to scare you away. I won’t touch you if you’re not ready. We can talk. Really talk. Figure out where this is headed.”

“Once a navigator, always a navigator.”

She smiled when he laughed at her lame joke before persisting, “Yeah, so where are you staying? Tell me.”

“Same building as you. Apartment 3027.”

“Isn’t that right down the hall?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So why the telefuck?” He choked on another laugh. “Not that I didn’t enjoy it.”

Sloan shrugged though he couldn’t see it. “It was fun.”

And safe.

But it only made her crave more—the comfort of another human’s contact. Intimacy she hadn’t known in forever. “Marco, what if I
need
you to touch me?”

“I’ll be right there.”

Dead air followed.

Sloan giggled as she burrowed into her pillows, sated and elated at the same time.

Not two minutes later a knock sounded at the door. She practically skipped to the other room, put her eye to the peep hole then busted out laughing.

“Let me in, quick.”

She flung open the polished wood, a naked Marco zipping past her. She relocked the door then turned when she heard a crinkle. He held a plastic packet for her approval. “Would have been here even faster but I didn’t want to skip out on my promise of snackage. Good thing Bastian and I have connecting rooms. Though I think I knocked their coffee table over in the dark. Maybe they won’t notice?”

“What if someone had been in the hallway? You could have taken two seconds to throw on some clothes, I’m not going anywhere.”

“At this time of night, they’d probably be too drunk to remember tomorrow. I didn’t want to take the chance you’d change your mind.”

Sloan let her gaze wander from his movie-star face, along his sculpted body to his cock—impressive even half-hard—then back to his eyes, which made their own appraising circuit of her nude form. Somehow she didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious.

“You don’t need to worry about me changing my mind.” She took the silver package from his hand and set it on the table.

“Not hungry?” He frowned a little.

“Not for junk food. Except maybe beefcake.” Sloan closed the gap between them and devoured his lips. Their arms entwined around each other—necks, backs, waists—in a flurry of desperate embraces. Her torso brushed his, still sticky from his recent climax.

“You feel amazing in my arms.” He mumbled between nips on her neck. “And yeah, I might not be thirty yet, but you’re still going to have to give me a couple minutes to recover. You destroyed me on the phone. Plus…”

She raised her gaze to his, amused by the wonder there.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this. A first, I swear.” He took a tiny step backward. “I want to talk. I sort of promised myself no more meaningless sex.”

“With me or in general?” Sloan held out her hand and he accepted it. She led him to her bed then climbed in. He followed but sat, his shoulders resting against the headboard, instead of snuggling next to her.

“I guess I realized I was never going to find what Bastian and Lynn have if I keep running around like a kid, fucking beautiful women who aren’t important to me.”

Sloan’s eyebrows rose. “So you’re looking for something permanent?”

“You’re not?”

“Marco, I was married. Things went to hell. I don’t think I’m ready to sacrifice like that again. Might never be.” She rolled to her back then rubbed her eyes, surprised when he tucked the covers over her exposed breasts as though the sight made it difficult for him to think or have a serious conversation. “I thought the Cougar Challenge was about having a good time, that’s all.”

“What the fuck is the Cougar Challenge?”

The ice in his tone had her bolting upright, dragging the sheet with her. “Oh crap. I thought Lynn put you up to this! She told me to jump onboard the bandwagon like the rest of her friends. They dared me to hook up with a younger man…you…for a night of fun. Why the hell did you call me if you didn’t know I was a guaranteed lay?”

“Wait. You’re saying Lynn
dared
you to fuck me? Lynn—Sebastian’s Lynn?”

“Shit, shit, shit.” Sloan’s mouth dropped open at the anger darkening his eyes. “I thought you knew. When she gave you my number—”

“So, what, this was some scheme cooked up by a group of horny older women?” He jumped to his feet. “Any young stud with a hard cock would do?”

“No, Marco—”

“Don’t call me that.” He shrugged off her touch then marched into the bathroom.

When he returned with a towel wrapped around his waist, she started to hide her face in her hands to avoid the accusation in his glare then decided those days were long gone. “
You
called
me
! You started in on the dirty talk practically before you said hello.”

“Because I’ve had some lame school-kid crush on you for
years
. I’m sure you don’t remember. You’d have had to see me for that.
Everyone notices Sebastian, not me. I’m just the navigator. Some loser who rides along with a superstar and drools over smoking-hot professional ladies who are completely out of my league unless they decide to slum it with some young, dumb, walking hard-on for a night of endless fucking
.”

She tried to refute his self-deprecating claims but nothing would come out of her stunned throat except a choked gurgle. Not that he would have heard her over the vicious string of Italian that she’d bet her life contained more curses than anything else.

“Why the hell should you be any different? I always dreamed of a chance with you. I thought divine intervention, or at least poetic justice, made sure you’d be the first woman I tried for more with. Of course, guys who want a girlfriend don’t call her and start jerking off over the phone two minutes later.
Dio!
”

“Because you did…I assumed you knew.” Sloan swallowed hard at the disbelief etching lines around his sexy mouth. “I’m sorry.”

She clambered to her knees at the foot of the bed and reached for him, to run a soothing hand along the bunched muscles of his shoulder, but he evaded her.

“I would never have used you like that.” Horror churned her stomach.

“Yeah, well, sorry you didn’t get your fill.” He strode from the room. “I can send one of the other crew members over if you’re still horny. I’m sure any of them would like to take your
Challenge
. Maybe you could screw a few at once, really show the rest of your friends up?”

Before she could object, he’d slammed the door hard enough to knock the package of pastries onto the floor. Shattered.

Tears streamed from her eyes in stunned silence. How had things gone from sugar to shit so fast? She should have known better. Relationships always ended this way. Even the one-night-stand variety.

She wouldn’t forget it again.

And judging by the arguing echoing down the hall, from the direction of Lynn and Sebastian’s apartment, she thought she might have ruined some friendships in her disastrous attempt at a no-strings affair.

Sloan couldn’t bear to listen to the fallout. She headed for her shower to drown the noise and attempt to cleanse herself of the disgust making her feel dirty. Dirtier than the night she’d discovered the bed she’d slept in for years had hosted dozens of other women while she was out of town.

This time she’d been the villain at fault.

Chapter Three

Sloan ignored yet another notification of a post on the
Tempt the Cougar
blog. She’d tried to unsubscribe from the damn feed but it seemed like the administrator wasn’t responding or her computer had joined the plot to make her life miserable.

She’d spent the day moping in bed watching Chinese television—with no subtitles. What she wouldn’t give for Netflix and a queue full of romantic comedies right now.

After avoiding the Cougar site all afternoon, she surrendered. Otherwise, she’d have no choice but to keep her dinner appointment with Lynn, who refused to confirm her cancellation text messages. Damn it.

She skimmed past Lynn’s lengthy apology and the rest of the Cougars checking in to see if both of them had survived the day intact. If she read their reassurances or encouragement she’d start to cry again, and she’d sworn she’d done enough of that to last a lifetime.

Still, the most recent message caught her eye.

Lynn: Sloan, this is all my fault. I should have been more clear with Mark. I have to interview a local travel agent this afternoon but I’ll be waiting for you tonight as planned. Please come. Let me make it up to you. I have a brand-new Desiree Holt novel set aside for you. It’s autographed.

Well, shit. Now she had to go. Because it wasn’t fair to make Lynn shoulder the entire burden of this fiasco. The woman had tried to help her out, fix her up. It wasn’t Lynn’s fault Sloan had the inverse Midas touch. A constant black cloud hovered over her head and her love life.