"It"s more than a break, actually," she said, widening her smile. "I"m no more interested in a serious involvement with a man than you are with a woman, so you can lower your guard and sleep peacefully tonight."
He would, Donovan thought, although for some reason it bothered him that she could so easily wipe him off. Why did she have to be so accepting of his stance on affairs? Why did he feel so annoyed by hers?
She made a move to get up, but his leg hindered her progress. She frowned. "Do you mind?"
Yes, he did mind-about a number of things that he really wasn"t even sure about. One thing was for certain, though. He didn"t like how easy it was for her to dust off what they"d just shared. Maybe he should be relieved that she wasn"t the clingy type, that she was mature enough to engage in a meaningless affair and know how to move on. That she wouldn"t be entertaining any lingering side effects from it. But still. He had made her scream-several times. He"d given her multiple o.r.g.a.s.ms. Her leg print was probably a permanent imprint in his back. He had been inside her so much tonight that his shaft would probably be suffering from withdrawals starting tomorrow. He was beginning to get awfully p.i.s.sed that the one woman who affected him like none other was acting as if he hadn"t made an impression on her at all, lasting or otherwise.
"Donovan?"
He met her gaze deciding she had underestimated a Steele. "Yes?"
"Would you move your leg?"
"I don"t think so." Instead of moving his leg, he s.h.i.+fted his body to straddle her.
Her gaze narrowed up at him. "And just what do you think you"re doing?"
"About to get some more of you."
"And if I don"t want to give you more?"
An arrogant smile touched the corners of his lips. "Then it"s up to me to convince you that you really do. Seduction is my specialty." He leaned down and captured her mouth with his.
Just that quick desire spiked up his spine. When she begin kissing him back with a need just as ravenous as his, he knew he had her convinced. But that wasn"t enough. Not by a long shot. He wanted to hear her scream some more.
Moments later he broke their kiss only to trail his mouth down the base of her neck toward her chest and greedily latched onto a breast. Both were pretty, shaped with perfection, appealing to any man"s eyes, definitely a tasty treat to his tongue. As he worked that tongue to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, taking the nipples in his mouth, sucking for a while and then using his tongue to give unadulterated pleasure, her moans began coming and the sound taunted his control. He knew women well enough to know she was almost over the edge, and he wouldn"t be happy until he was tumbling off the cliff with her.
Feeling a heady rush of pleasure at the sensuous state he now had her in, he moved away from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to trek further south when, in one heck of a surprising move and totally catching him off guard, she slid from beneath him and with a shove to his chest sent him tumbling on his back. He blinked to find she was now the one straddling him.
"Are you ready to be punished, Donovan?" she asked.
He swallowed deeply. "Depends on how you plan to dish it out." The look in her eyes warned him that whatever she had in mind would probably be brutal and that he was in for a lot of suffering.
"So, you want some more of me, huh?"
He couldn"t tell a lie although admitting such a thing could be tantamount to acknowledging something he"d rather keep to himself. He was becoming addicted to her. "As much of you as I can get and then some," he said, actually with little regret.
"And you think you can handle whatever I give you?" she asked as her hand skittered over his chest. His reaction to her touch was instantaneous, and he watched a haughty smile touch her lips when his shaft got even more engorged. Before he could answer, she swept her hand downward and captured him in a firm, yet painless, grip.
He suppressed the urge to groan, but that didn"t stop the s.h.i.+ver of arousal that shot through his body knowing she held him in her hand. He barely got the words out in a strained voice. "Yes, I can handle it," he said, when in fact he wasn"t so sure.
"Um, I hope for your sake that you can." And then in a quick and surprising move, she lowered her head and went down on him.
Chapter 11.
There was no way she was going to let him know she was a novice at this, Natalie thought, using her mouth in a way she"d only heard about and hoping she was doing it right. Apparently she was, if the way his fingers were clutching her hair was anything to go by.
And then there was the way he was breathing-ragged, choppy and at times uneven while making a number of groaning sounds. She tried to ignore all of that while her tongue did all the things to him she would secretly admit to fantasizing about in her nightly dreams. She had never considered doing this to Karl or any man, but with Donovan there was something about his scent that enticed her to sample his taste.
"I can"t take any more," he said in a jagged breath while at the same time clenching her shoulders in an attempt to pry her enthusiastic mouth from him. He pulled her up over his body, and lifting his head from the pillow he met her mouth, taking it with a greedy intent and a voracious hunger.
Supported by an arm on both sides of him, Natalie let him plunder her mouth at an insatiable will, returning the kiss with the same fervor that he was delivering, not believing that after all they"d done already that night they still were going strong with no thoughts of letting up. At least she wasn"t, and by the way he was avidly feeding on her mouth, neither was he.
But she wasn"t through with him yet. She was determined to make her brand of torture bittersweet. Ignoring his protest, she pulled away from the heated kiss and licked her lips before saying. "You weren"t supposed to do that."
He flashed a wicked grin that held no remorse. "Sorry about that."
"I"m accepting no apologies. You"re going to pay."
The look he gave her was one of incredulity. "With more torture?"
She smiled sweetly. "I"ll let you decide. Now hand me a condom, please."
s.h.i.+fting slightly, he reached over into the nightstand and pulled out a condom packet and ripped it open with his teeth. He handed the condom to her before tossing the opened foil packet to join the others littering the floor.
"Look at the mess you"ve made," she said, grinning. "I"m sure your housekeeper thinks you"re a slob."
Donovan couldn"t help but chuckle. "Then I"m going to have to convince her otherwise," he said, trying to retain his composure as he watched her sheath his erection and noted how fascinated she seemed with the entire process. That wouldn"t be so bad if the hands touching his shaft weren"t so warm. They reminded him of the warmth of her mouth on him.
"There." Finished with the task, she then eased her body in place over his and centered her feminine mound right over the head of his engorged member.
"That"s right, sweetheart, take me on home," he said in a tormented breath. "Lead me right inside of you."
"Um, what if I say that I don"t want to?"
He arched a brow. "Then I would say you"ve got to be kidding."
She couldn"t help but smile at that. "No, I"m not kidding," she said, while deliberating easing the lower part of her body down a little so that her feminine mound could lightly brush against his shaft. He sucked in a deep breath at the fleeting contact.
"What"s the matter, Donovan? Can"t you handle it? Can"t you handle me?"
For the first time in his life, Donovan actually wondered if perhaps there was a woman he couldn"t handle, and he was flat on his back staring up at her. The thought of that was absurd, ludicrous at best. But then, he was the one who seemed to be suffering, and she appeared to be having the time of her life increasing his misery.
Donovan inwardly sighed. His mama always told him you could catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and he was willing to put it to the test. He reached out and wrapped his arms around her neck. "Are you sure you want to keep agonizing me?" he asked, lifting his head up to lick the corners of her mouth with his tongue. He then used that same tongue to trace the outline of her lips and watched the simmering fire he was igniting in her gaze.
He took a breast into his hand, fondled the nipple with his fingertips. He sensed the moment when pa.s.sion instead of punishment took over her mind. Now it was time to put the icing on the cake by seducing her with words of what he wanted to do to her and how he intended to do it. He spoke deliberately low but made sure he could be heard as well as understood. He was explicit, described everything in detail, every single position, giving her an unscripted idea of just what his plans were for her. His words were breaking through. He could tell by the darkening of her eyes and the unsteady sound of her breathing. He could also tell by her feminine scent. His words had lubricated her even more.
She tipped her head back and stared at him, and he wondered if she realized that her lower body had inched down a little, and that the blunt head of his shaft had penetrated her somewhat. It was inching forward, stretching her again to make the intimate connection possible.
He continued talking, making promises, while their bodies connected. But that didn"t stop him from cupping her backside in his hand to hold her in place, or locking his leg around her just in case she had a change of heart. Their bodies were now locked, and he didn"t intend on letting her go anywhere. With that thought in his mind, he lifted his hips off the bed to fill her even more.
Now it was time to deliver on all those promises he"d made.
Before she had time to react, he thrust in hard, almost retreated and then thrust in hard again. In response she moved her body to the rhythm he"d set, riding him as hard as he needed to be ridden. Never had he made love to a woman with so much intensity, an all-out a.s.sault on delivering pa.s.sion to her on a silver platter. The same way she was delivering it to him.
Somehow with their vigorous entanglements they had changed positions, and he was now the one on top. He tilted her hips at an angle to drive relentlessly into her. He was never into drama, but as far as he was concerned, you couldn"t get any more dramatic than this. This was lovemaking at its finest, the kind that made multiple o.r.g.a.s.ms commonplace. She was bringing something out of him that he"d not known had been inside of him.
"Donovan!"
No matter how many times he heard her scream his name, it always did something to him. It triggered his engorged s.e.x locked inside of her to react. To explode in one h.e.l.l of a release. She grabbed hold of his shoulders. Her nails dug deep into his shoulder blades, but pain wasn"t the dominant factor right now. The pa.s.sionate flames burning through his veins were. And even as he felt her come apart in his arms and he exploded in an o.r.g.a.s.m that had rocked him to the core, he couldn"t stop thrusting into her, needing this. Needing her.
He quickly pushed away the thought that he would need any woman, no matter how enjoyable the lovemaking was. Tomorrow he would deal with all these foreign emotions swamping him now. But not tonight. Tonight he wanted only to deal with this. Immeasurable pleasure.
Natalie glanced at the clock as she eased out of bed from under Donovan"s arms. She was glad her aunt was a sound sleeper and probably didn"t know that it was close to five in the morning and she hadn"t returned home yet.
She glanced around for her clothes and then quickly remembered Donovan had stripped her naked on the stairs. The memories had sensuous s.h.i.+vers moving up her spine. The man had more pa.s.sion in his little toe than Karl had had in his entire body. Donovan may be a tad arrogant, but the man could certainly deliver. He had made good on all those promises he had whispered and had introduced her to lovemaking positions she hadn"t known existed. Her body was sore but she felt good. She couldn"t even count the number of o.r.g.a.s.ms she"d had tonight. To say she had made up for lost time was an understatement.
She wrapped her arms around her naked body as she glanced over at Donovan sleeping peacefully in the bed he"d found her in that day. Leaning back over to the bed, she brushed a kiss first on his cheek and then his lips, being careful not to wake him.
One and done.
At least she knew where she stood with Donovan. He had spelled out his expectations-or lack of them-loud and clear. One night of extreme pleasure and it was done, never to be repeated. A one-night stand, nothing more, nothing less. He had definitely gotten rid of her restlessness and had taken the edge off. She would always have memories of their night together.
Backing away from the bed, she turned to slip out the door but not before glancing back over her shoulder at him. Whether she wanted him to or not, Donovan had a special place in her heart.
Donovan nearly jumped straight up out of bed at the ringing of the phone. With hazy eyes, he glanced around the room trying to recall what day it was. Then he remembered. It was Sat.u.r.day morning.
He leaned over and s.n.a.t.c.hed the phone out of its cradle. "h.e.l.lo?"
"Hey, we thought we"d get together and have breakfast at your place before heading over to the gym," his brother Morgan said in the phone. "I"ll make a pit stop at Mary"s Diner. You want the usual?"
Donovan raked a hand down his face in an attempt to wipe the sleep from his eyes. "Yes, the usual will be fine." Then his stomach growled, and he remembered the intense s.e.xual activities from the night before. "Make it a double order for me, though."
He hung up the phone and slumped back down in bed. Jeeze. What a night. If there was such a thing as having a s.e.xual hangover then this was it. He s.h.i.+fted his body to look down at the floor. There were condom packets everywhere. d.a.m.n. How many of the blasted things had he used? If he thought all that action last night was a result of a dream, then he was looking at viable proof that it wasn"t. And just when had Natalie left? How could he have slept through her slipping out of bed? She at least deserved a walk to the car.
Knowing he needed to get up since his brothers were on their way over, he eased out of bed and headed toward the bathroom. And he needed to get rid of any evidence of his activities of the night before or his brothers would never let him live it down. He chuckled thinking that they actually thought they could share such things with a wife. Not that he thought any of his sisters-in-laws were prudes by any means, but still. Some of the positions he had introduced Natalie to last night were scandalous at best. But she seemed to have enjoyed them as much as he had.
A half hour later he had showered, dressed, discarded all those used condom packets off his bedroom floor and picked up his clothes that had been scattered all over the staircase.
By the time his brothers arrived, he figured he looked like a man well-rested with no signs of what had happened the night before. Apparently not. Bas walked in, took one look at him and said, "d.a.m.n, Donovan, what"s with all those pa.s.sion marks on your neck? Rough night, huh, kid? No wonder you wanted a double order."
Donovan rolled his eyes. Leave it to Bas to notice such things. Now of course Chance and Morgan were now giving him their full attention. "Don"t worry about any marks on my neck," he growled, taking the breakfast bag from Bas"s hands.
Still, he couldn"t help walking over to the mirror on his foyer wall to take a look for himself. Bas was right. He did have pa.s.sion marks all over his neck. Usually he was the giver of such things, never the recipient.
"Evidently you had a wild one on your hands last night," Bas said, laughing, clearly amused.
Normally, any jokes his brothers made about his conquests wouldn"t bother him in the least, but since his bed partner had been Natalie, for some reason it did bother him. Yes, she had been wild but he had driven her to it. He had been relentless to see how often he could make her come. "I"d rather not discuss it," he said to the three and saw the surprised look in their gazes.
"Okay." Chance nodded. "If that"s how it is."
In all honesty, Donovan wasn"t sure just how it was, but until he sorted everything out in his head, he merely said, "Yes, that"s how it is." And then he tacked on something he figured he would never, ever say about a woman. "She"s different."
Farrah raised a brow as she gazed across the table at Natalie. "That"s the fourth time you"ve yawned in fifteen minutes. Didn"t you get any sleep last night?"
Natalie couldn"t help but s.h.i.+ft in her seat under her friend"s intense stare. And she was sure she was blus.h.i.+ng. Instead of answering, she tried changing the subject. "Do you remember Gail Porter, that girl who used to sit in the back of the cla.s.s and not talk to anyone, until that day she got up in front of the cla.s.s to do her report and told us her parents had taken her to a nudist camp? I wonder what happened to her."
Farrah simply smiled over the top of her menu. "I understand she moved away, got married and now has some top-level job at the White House."
A surprised expression touched Natalie"s features. "Really?" she asked, incredulously.
With a straight face, Farrah simply answered, "No."
Natalie narrowed her eyes. "That was mean."
Farrah laughed out loud. "What"s mean is you not answering my question about your lack of sleep last night. Now are you ready to tell me where you went last night?"
No, she wasn"t. Instead, Natalie took a sip of her water. Luckily, her aunt had been asleep when she had returned home this morning just moments before the delivery boy had thrown the paper in the yard. Without taking a shower, she had crawled between the sheets with the scent of Donovan still clinging to her skin and memories of their lovemaking in her mind.
"Natalie?"
Knowing Farrah wouldn"t let up until she was given an answer, she looked across the table, met her inquisitive gaze and said, "I was with Donovan."
Farrah lifted a brow. "And?"
"And what?"
Farrah rolled her eyes. "What do you mean you were with him? Did the two of you meet up at the Racetrack Cafe? Did you go out on a date someplace else? Did you-"
"I was at his house. I spent the night."
The corners of Farrah"s lips curled up in a smile. "By spending the night do you mean you slept in a guest room? Did the two of you sit on the sofa all night watching movies and holding hands? Did the-"
"We slept together," an annoyed Natalie leaned over and whispered curtly. Farrah liked getting details. "But we didn"t get much sleep for mating like rabbits all night long." She narrowed her gaze and snapped, "Satisfied?"
A smirk of a grin appeared on Farrah"s face. "Forget about me. Are you you satisfied?" satisfied?"
Natalie blinked, not expecting Farrah"s retort. Natalie leaned back in her chair. Relaxed. Settled. Not as sore as she had been that morning. She couldn"t help but smile. "Yes, I"m satisfied. Extremely. Exceedingly. Enormously. Tre-"
"Cut! I got the picture."