She moved her foot back.
“You can do better.”
She laughed. “I could do better if you were here with me.”
He didn’t smile or move. “Your panties are in the way. I think you should move them.”
Slowly, she moved her fingers over her ribs and across her hip. She let her fingertips dance over the edge of her panties. “This could be your tongue.”
“Your panties.” His voice was thick. “Move them. They’re blocking my view.”
“I could take them off…” She hooked her index finger under the string across her hip and started to tug.
“No.”
“Oh?” She touched the thin silk separating her hand from her clit. “You mean here?”
“You know I do.”
She pushed the thin silk aside, giving him a full view of her swollen clit. “Come here,” she said. “I want to—”
“Shh. How can you complain? I’m not even touching you.”
Which was the problem. Still, her sex must have glistened with the slippery wetness, since her belly tightened with desire. She knew he liked this, and that made her like it. She’d get what she wanted soon enough.
“Look me in the eye and stroke yourself.” Desire deepened his voice. “Show me how you like it.”
“You know how I like it.” Keeping her panties to the side, she spread herself with two fingers.
She heard him moan and moaned herself.
“You could touch me.” She shifted so he could see exactly how much she wanted him.
“You do it.”
Had she ever been this wet? Surely her clit had never been this swollen. Hot. Wet.
She rolled onto her back and reached down. Glide. She arched her hips in pleasure. Slide. Her fingers trailed her slick heat, and she used two to stroke her clit.
“Inside,” Daniel said.
So she sunk a finger deep inside, caressing her clit with her thumb.
“I can’t stand it—I can’t keep my hands off you.” Daniel crossed the room and buried his face between her legs. She gasped and removed her hand, but he took it and mumbled, “You do this, too.”
His tongue ran the length of her and accompanied her fingers as they circled around her clit. He sucked on her clit and flicked his tongue. She couldn’t tell which sensations were caused by him and which by her.
His hands reached up to find her breasts. Gentle fingers caught her nipples, caressed them into hard, tingling tips.
She flexed her hips toward his mouth, unable to hold back one more second. He sucked again, and she saw stars, fireworks, explosions.
Her muscles throbbed and pulsated as they reached for something that wasn’t there. Even as she ached for his cock, she gasped at the intensity of her orgasm.
“Take off your clothes, Daniel.” She reached toward him. “I need you. Now.”
He didn’t get naked, though. He didn’t fill the still-aching need in her. The orgasm hadn’t fulfilled her—it’d left her hungry.
He chuckled and walked toward the champagne. “You’ll get what you want soon enough.”
Why did she doubt that?
“Tell me about the party, baby.” He handed her a glass, the topaz bubbles bursting across the surface of the drink. His hair wasn’t even slightly mussed, but his lips were shiny. “Who’d you talk to?”
Pushing aside her need, she sat and took a glass as she considered. The tail end of the orgasm still fluttered through her stomach, and the predator’s face flashed through her mind—his brooding eyes, the scent that wrapped around her and refused to let go. And then that detective, Kai Atlanta. The sorrow in his eyes. The strange comfort she’d felt in his company. None of these topics seemed like pillow-talk material.
She should ask for his help now…if only she could.
“Well,” she said, wondering if he already knew this. “I think I can save my horses.” And her family.
“What do you mean?”
“I officially made Harvard’s short, short list. It’s down to two people and I’m one of them.”
He blinked and then grinned. “What? You’re one of the finalists?”
“I am.” The thrill of success bubbled through her. She could claim him in public now. “Dr. Stoller told me himself.”
“That’s fantastic.” Daniel sat on the bed and wrapped her in his arms, but not before she saw his expression. He looked worried; the tiny lines around his eyes deepened.
“What’s the matter?”
“The matter?” he asked. “Nothing. It’s fantastic. It’s absolutely fantastic. What’d Stoller tell you?”
“I think he likes me best,” she said. Daniel’s expression seemed so earnest, she must’ve imagined the worry. “He told me his money’s on me.”
“That’s great, baby. What else did he say?”
“That they were here to listen to two lectures—he’s here with someone from the West Coast—and then he’d make an announcement. I’m going to the final party with him.”
“Wow.” Dan toasted his glass against hers. “Did he say who the competition was?”
“Oh, yes he did.” Ann grinned. Champagne bubbles threatened to spill over the edge of her glass in her excitement. “And I know he’s not supposed to tell.”
“Well, who is it?”
“Reinhart.”
“Reinhart? You mean Adam Reinhart?”
“Yep.” Ann curled herself back onto the bed, inhaling the warm scent of Daniel’s skin. “Adam Reinhart’s my competition. And he’s married. Newly married.”
“Which is why you’ll get the job and he won’t. He’ll take a sabbatical when the first kid is born. He’ll miss all those classes and committee meetings, and when the second kid is born, he’ll miss all the same classes a second time.”
Ann knew all the arguments and knew they were right. She’d seen it happen over and over at Duke and in graduate school and even as an undergrad. Still, she didn’t particularly care, at least not as much as Daniel did.
Besides, she thought, maybe she’d beat out Reinhart on merit alone.
“We
