Stroke of Luck (5 page)

After touching her now, and having her lips touch his yesterday, Robert realized he had to taste her. He felt drawn, as if she were a magnet and he the pole. He leaned closer and closer, his one goal her lips.

The sounds of the cafe around him faded as if he were in a competition or on a mission, but he could hear every tiny pass of her breath between her lips. As he moved closer, his lips inches from hers, his sense of smell heightened and his nostrils flared when he picked up the scent of cherries and almond, probably from the lotion she used on her body.

Her pulse was beating erratically at the base of her throat. Next he would taste that pulse with lips, tongue and teeth. But for now, the goal was just lips to lips.

Centimeters closer he moved. He heard and saw the way her breath caught in her throat, the way those amazingly clear pupils widened with desire right before her eyelids fluttered closed. There was no doubting she was aroused and wanted him. He was more than happy to satisfy that desire.

He slid his hand around her tiny waist and brought her even closer to him. She slid her hands around his neck as if it were the only natural place for them to be.

He was inches from achieving victory when someone jostled his arm, pulling him out of the sensual trance, knocking him off balance and hard into her. The movement caused her to raise her head, hitting him in the chin, knocking his teeth together in a jarring way.

“Ow,” she said, reaching up to put a hand on her forehead where it had met his face. He couldn’t help checking to see if his jaw was out of whack as well.

“Why are you ‘ow’ing? Your head is harder than my jaw,” he complained.

“Easy for you to say,” she said. “You’re on top.”

I wish
, he thought, the humor of the situation helping him to cope with the fact that he’d lost control with this woman—again. For God’s sake, he was in a public restaurant and he’d been so caught up in the sensual game that he’d happily have taken her right there and then.

The thought of being out of control caused him to take her hand and pull her outside the café.

“Come on. This has got to stop.” His mind was made up. Screw staying away from her. Robert knew that the only thing that was going to give him peace of mind was to take her. Preferably now, and several more times before tonight’s curfew. Maybe once he got her out of his system he could get his mind back on the business at hand.

“Where are we going?” she asked once they were standing on the sidewalk.

“The first hotel I can find,” he answered absently. “I’m tired of having all these interruptions.”

When she didn’t respond, he stopped his frantic search for a nonexistent cab and looked at her standing in the streetlights, looking so cute and confused that it nearly undid him.

“Did I read things wrong?” he asked quietly, reaching up to pull a strand of her hair from blowing in front of her eyes. He tucked it behind her ear and stroked a finger down her face. “It’s your decision.”

She smiled, lighting up her eyes and her entire face. Robert forgot the cab—forgot everything but the pure joy and need that was present in her smile.

“You didn’t read anything wrong. But I have a hotel room and a car. It’s right over there.” She pointed to a battered-looking sports utility vehicle that was in a no-parking zone. “My hotel is about three blocks away.”

She took control and pulled him across the street against the signal. “Uh, did you know…” he began, stopping when she pulled a parking ticket from under the wiper blade, shrugged, opened the door and climbed in. He saw her toss the ticket into the back.

She laughed at the look on his face when he got in the passenger side. “Don’t worry. You have fifteen days to pay. I’ve gotten several since I’ve been here. I’ll pay them all before I leave town.”

She turned the ignition on and the car gave that annoying sound when a manual transmission is started before the clutch is engaged. “Dang it, I can’t get the hang of this manual transmission thing. I didn’t get this assignment until the last minute and this was the only vehicle available for rent.”

She finally got the SUV started, then pulled out without checking for oncoming traffic and executed a neat U-turn in the middle of the street, right in front of an oncoming car. She waved gaily at the driver, who was giving her the bird for pulling out in front of him, then looked over at Robert. “People are so friendly here, don’t you think?”

For a second he thought she was serious. Then he laughed. “Just around you, I think.”

She laughed with him. “Normally I would never do something like that, but I’m feeling a little anxious right now. You know, like if I don’t get to my hotel in less than five minutes, I’ll pop.”

Robert reached over and ran a finger down her arm. “We wouldn’t want you to pop, so you’d better hurry.”

She did. Luckily for Robert, he’d been through two tours in Afghanistan, had been injured and medevac’d to Germany through an epic storm over the Gulf. He’d been a Ranger and was made of stern stuff, so he didn’t even flinch when she fishtailed the SUV into the parking lot of an upscale hotel. Of course, that could have been because he’d been busy tracing enticing designs on the skin of her bare leg, reaching under the hem of her shorts and playing with the damp area of her panties that covered her crotch.

When she stomped on the brake and the car shuddered to a stop, she was nearly shuddering as well. “Damn, I don’t know how I didn’t kill us both.”

“What?” Hey, he could do the innocent bit himself. “You said you were about to pop. I was just trying to hel—”

The “p” was swallowed, because she unbuckled her seatbelt and launched herself across the car. Before he knew it, she was sitting on his lap, arms wrapped around his neck, legs on either side of his hips, kissing him hard.

Not that he was complaining. He was kissing her back just as hard. Soon the kissing wasn’t enough. He swept his hands down her spine to the curve of her hips. Then he measured the shape of her narrow waist, ran his hands up to touch the edge of her breasts. She hummed with pleasure at his touch.

Finally she eased her lips from his and smiled down at him. His fingers were gently stroking from the bottoms of her breasts up to the nipples and back down again.

“It’s been a long time since I did this sort of thing in a car,” she said. He detected a note of bemusement in her voice.

“For me it’s been a lifetime,” he said.

She smiled and kissed him, softly this time. It was incongruous, because the kiss was almost friendly and fun, with a tiny hint of a spark. But the way her butt and groin were in direct contact with his hardening dick left no doubt as to her intent. Though he was just as hungry for her as he’d been before, he was able to keep the need to take her down to a low boil. Fact was, this was her game and he’d take his direction from her. If she wanted to finish here, he’d do it and pay for the consequences to his body later.

But if she wanted to move this up to the comfortable confines of her room, he’d manage somehow to get there without doing something likely to get them both arrested.

“So,” she finally continued, “as much as the car sex fantasy appeals to me, I think it’s time we finished this inside.”

She rubbed herself one last long, lingering time against him then moved back across the seat and let herself out of the car. He joined her and took her hand in his as they moved quickly across the parking lot. The hotel was one of the chains that had all the room doors on the inside. They crossed a thankfully empty lobby and only had a short wait for the elevator. Once inside, she pressed the button for the second floor.

“Darn,” he said as it rose and stopped before he could finish a sentence.

She laughed. “I know. Oh, for a room in a twenty-story hotel, huh? My other fantasy is elevator sex. But since this hotel only has three floors, that wasn’t likely to happen.”

He laughed with her as he followed her from the elevator down a short, quiet hall to her doorway. She worked the keycard into the slot and pushed her butt backward so that it was rubbing against the front of his sweatpants. He took the opportunity to grab her hips and keep her close while leaning forward to nibble on the back of her neck.

That quickly, the control he’d been so proud of in the car was ready to snap. The door opened and they almost fell into the room. Robert spun her around in his arms so she was facing him and they could kiss mouth-to-mouth. She was more than willing and pulled a scant inch away to tease him.

“I hope you didn’t use up all your energy in the heat,” she said, “because I’ve got plans for another vigorous workout for you.”

He smiled back at her while his fingers were busy separating her from her clothes. He wasn’t the only one so engaged—she was working on his pants and when her fingers brushed over his aching cock, he felt his heart jump as if the starting gun had sounded.

“I don’t know, it was a pretty intense race,” he managed, his voice trembling because she’d lowered his pants, and her fingers, with those short nails painted fire-engine-red, were now tracing circles around his tip like a blind artist molding clay.

“Oh, I see. Well then, why don’t you just lie back and let me do all the work? Just to conserve your energy,” she said. Her voice was so sultry it sounded like a purr—there really was no other word for it.

Then she pulled his pants and briefs completely down and pushed him so that he fell backward onto the large bed that dominated the otherwise utilitarian hotel room.

He was stretched out, bare from the knees up and seriously aroused. He got even harder when she started removing her lingerie with little fuss. She stopped for long enough to reach into the bedside table for a strip of condoms. He thanked Christ she’d thought of that, because he was completely unprepared.

“Thank you,” he managed to get out as she skillfully unwrapped a condom and slid it onto his hard length.

“You’re welcome,” she said with a grin and climbed on top of him. She put her hands on his chest for balance, her legs on either side of his hips, and lowered her pussy slowly onto his dick.

They were both more than ready for this, and the moment he felt her pussy lips spreading to accommodate his staff, he felt the urge to take control and thrust his way home. He almost did until he looked up at her face and saw the excitement in her eyes and the way she first bit then licked her lips.

“Oh my,” she groaned as he slid another inch deeper. “Oh my, oh my. You feel so very good to me.”

About a quarter of an inch of him was inside her and she was right. It did feel good—just not good enough. He didn’t like to beg, but if she didn’t start taking more of him, he would either have to say something or take control. But damn it, he was enjoying this little slice of being dominated.

She lifted off him then came slowly back down, taking a centimeter more. “Oh yes,” she cried. Instead of answering her cry with one of his own, and despite his best intentions, he gripped her hips a little harder, trying to let her know what he wanted without words. As if she were finally reading his mind, she slid down farther onto him.

Now most of his cock was buried inside that tight little pussy and it was unbelievable how good it felt. Her inner muscles were squeezing him like a tight, hot, delicious little glove before releasing him then squeezing again. He felt his vision graying and knew the intense pleasure was making him a little crazy.

“Annalisa.” All bets were going to be off in about three heartbeats. He was begging for much more. “Take all of me.”

Annalisa had never felt this way before when making love. She felt as if every nerve in her body was on high alert, stretched so taut it was almost painful, but oh so not. She felt equal parts beautiful, hot and completely in control.

As she rode this beautiful, strong man she opened her eyes and knew she’d never seen anything more perfect than the desire and need stamped on his face. She leaned forward, sliding her hands up his chest to rest on his shoulders, which kept her pussy hard against his hips, seating him fully inside her.

She let her mouth play with his, licking across his lips before settling hers fully on his. The kiss spun out of control in an instant, taking her higher and stretching the passion more tightly inside her.

He moved his hands to hold her hips fully against him and thrust upward inside her at the same time as his tongue taunted hers in a playful duel as if he were showing her who was really in control.

She lifted her lips because she desperately needed to cry at the beauty, the perfection she was feeling.

“Let go,” she demanded. Her voice sounded as if it didn’t belong to her. “Come.”

She looked at the way his eyes darkened with passion and something else she couldn’t identify. She wondered if he would have an issue with her taking control in this way, but after a short pause he submitted.

“Come,” she ordered one final time then feverishly ground her lips back against his at the same time she tightened the muscles of her pussy around his cock.

His eyes closed slowly and she felt the jerks of his dick deep inside her, signaling that he’d finally followed her command. His release acted like a switch being flipped inside her. She felt her body start to shake and twitch as she fell over the peak of her orgasm and down into mindless passion.