in and out of her with his tongue to punctuate his words “… and make you come again. And again. And again.”
“Yes!” Sensation ripped through her center, drawing tight. Tighter. Concentrating into a kind of reverse pressure that built until her body bowed from the bed, suspended for a moment before finally tipping over the edge of desire. Then racing outward until the waves of her release washed through every nerve, cell, and extremity. Body slack and sated, she watched through heavy-lidded eyes as Levi shifted between her legs, kicking off his low-slung jeans. He crawled over her body until his hips rested in the cradle of her thighs, the solid length of him thick and straining against her belly as he reached for the condom above her head.
Their eyes caught and she couldn’t help the awed whisper slipping past her lips. “You’re amazing.”
The muscle in his jaw ticced once, twice, before he covered her mouth with a hot, demanding kiss tasting of her desire and that had her body pulling together once more. He pulled away with a firm shake of his head and a gruff promise. “And I’m not half finished yet.”
He couldn’t get inside her fast enough. Tasting her satisfaction on his tongue had been a decadent torture. So good and yet painfully not enough. Condom on, he pushed inside her, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of sensation. The stroke of her small heel, high on his back, the tight clasp of her body clenching rhythmically around him, and the breathy relief at his ear when he sank to the hilt.
She’d thought he was after another no-strings night. Not even close.
This wasn’t something he was giving up until he split town for good.
Pulling back and thrusting deep, he set a steady rhythm. Watched the tells of Elise’s face and body, working her closer to the next rise with each stroke.
She wouldn’t regret this. Wouldn’t get hurt or form any lasting attachment. She didn’t want a commitment any more than he did. But being his beck-and-call girl wasn’t going to fly either. So they’d have an affair. A short. Hot. Guilt-free few weeks of fun together.
Arching back, Elise let out a wild cry as her body clenched hard around him.
And he’d blow her mind while they did.
The bed was garbage. Sure, it had held up its end of the bargain, remaining upright when they’d put it through its paces. But barely.
Slitting an eye toward the window at the far side of the room, Levi figured it had to be pushing late evening based on the auburn tint to the sky.
Later than he’d thought. But after burning off a week’s worth of bottle-necked sexual frustration he hadn’t been fully willing to acknowledge, he’d been wrung out. Add to that, the softness of Elise curled against him—a novelty too tempting to ignore—and he’d slept.
It wasn’t that Levi didn’t enjoy the feel of a woman in his arms or that, like some guys, he couldn’t sleep tangled up with another person. He liked the press of a soft body and deep rhythm of a chest rising and falling with each breath. Liked the pretty scent of a shampoo that wasn’t his. What he didn’t like were the complications and potential for misunderstanding when he gave into the desire to pull a woman close and just drift off into the night.
Women got ideas when a man held them for too long without trying to get inside them. Ideas he didn’t have the time or inclination to dispel.
But with Elise, he didn’t have to.
With Elise, the limits on the bounds of this relationship couldn’t be more clear. He was leaving in less than two months’ time. And she didn’t really want him. Well, damn, she wanted him in the make-me-come-six-times-tonight way. Which was about the way he wanted her too. But she didn’t want a real relationship getting in the way of her priorities.
Which made this perfect.
Which made her safe.
He wouldn’t give her no-strings, because that wasn’t what it was. There were strings, but they were uncomplicated.
Him. Her.
A feel-good bit of escape that would last as long as the distraction continued to work for both of them. And then they’d go their separate ways. No hard feelings. No hassle. No heartbreak.
Nothing he had to worry about when he left this city behind.
So he’d indulged in a couple hours of warm-bodied, close-contact shut-eye with Elise.
And hell, he probably would have kept right on sleeping if it hadn’t been for the bed and the way it amplified every movement with the supports swaying precariously under the slightest shift in weight.
How this thing had stayed up through what they’d put it through he had no idea.
The tumble of curls tucked beneath his chin shifted, tickling his neck as the body they were attached to wriggled around. He could sense her tension rising and didn’t want to give up the comfort that had been between them.
“Thinking about the strings?” he asked into the top of her head.
Elise traced a light pattern over his chest with the tips of her fingers, brushing this way and that. “Probably should have clarified the issue before we …”
The corner of his mouth kicked up as he wondered which words she was trying out in her head.
“Had sex,” he offered, chivalrously.
“Yes.” Tilting her head back she peered up at him. “What is this? I mean, I don’t think I mind, whatever it is. I wanted it—want it. But for both our sakes, a little clarification would probably go a long way. This is a … sex thing, right?”
“Obviously the sex is a big part of it, but it’s not the only part. Yeah, I can’t keep my thoughts out of your panties, but I also just … like you.” Levi brushed his thumb over the fine hair at her temple. “Neither one of us is in a place where we can afford a real relationship. I’m leaving and you’re working like a dog to make your studio happen. But we’ve got this connection. Why fight it?”
“So you’re my boyfriend, but in the loosest sense of the word.”
Why didn’t he like the sound of that? “How about I’m your boyfriend in the exclusive, let’s-just-have-a-good-time-while-it-lasts sense of the word?”
Elise’s brow lifted with the corner of her mouth, and something inside Levi moved with it. Damn, he liked that smile.
“You really don’t want me going out with another guy.”
Not even a little bit. “Only child. What can I say? Never learned to share.”
The second the words left his mouth he about choked. Beyond the offer of the most cursory information, Levi didn’t talk about his life growing up. Hell, he didn’t even like to think about it. But that glib remark was just the kind of opening a dedicated family girl like Elise could jump on.
He didn’t want her to ask about his family. He didn’t want her to know about his mother. He didn’t want all those normally innocuous questions that polite people asked giving away the kind of life he’d led. The kind of man he was.
Only
