sure to be one thrilling adventure.
With her heart thumping so hard she feared he could hear it, Avery followed Jack as he shoved open the door to his hotel room. Once inside, the nervous butterflies she’d expected to flap around earlier finally showed up. She stared at him, hands sweating, as he shut the door behind her, trying to think of what the heck she should say or do now that they were actually here.
“Wouldn’t you know that the minute we come inside, it stops raining?” she said lamely. Why was she so suddenly, crazily nervous? A little fling was no big deal, right? People probably did things like sleeping with someone they barely knew all the time. Especially in Paris. She didn’t, but surely plenty of women did.
“Maybe if we’re lucky, it’ll start raining again when we go out. I like kissing it off you.” The brown eyes that met hers held amusement and a banked-down hint of the passion that had scorched between them just minutes ago.
He shut the door and flipped the lock, his gaze never leaving hers. The heat and promise and that odd touch of amusement in the dark depths of his gaze all sent her heart into a little backflip before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Unlike their previous kiss, this one didn’t start out soft and slow. It was hard and intense, his tongue teasing hers until she forgot all about what she should say or do. Forgot where they were. Forgot to breathe. His fingers cupped the back of her head, tangled in her hair, as the kiss got deeper, wilder, pulling a moan from her chest that might have been embarrassing if she’d been able to think at all.
His mouth left hers, moving hot and moist to the side of her neck to nuzzle there. “You feeling more relaxed now?” he murmured.
How had he known? Though relaxed probably wasn’t quite the right word to describe how she was feeling. “Um, yes. Thank you.”
He eased back, his fingers reaching for the buttons of her coat and undoing every one of them before she’d had a chance to blink. “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little warm,” he said as he slipped it from her shoulders and tossed it on a chair.
“Must be from all that running to the hotel,” she said, breathless, but not from their fast trek to his room. “I figured it was a good chance to start training for the spring marathon.”
His lips curved. “I thought we were running for a different reason.” This time, his hands reached for the buttons of her blouse, the backs of his fingers skimming her skin and making it tingle as he slowly undid them one by one. “The reason being that I can’t wait to see what you’re wearing under this.”
Her lacy white blouse dipped low over her breasts, and pure, feminine pleasure swept through her at the way his eyes darkened as he stared down at them. At the way a deep whoosh of breath left his lungs. His fingertips slipped down her collarbone and inside her bra to cup her breast at the same time that his mouth covered hers.
Oh. My. The man was certainly one amazing kisser. World class, really, and her bones nearly melted at the sensations swirling around her. His cool hand on her breast, her nipples tightening into his palm. His hot mouth tracking along her skin, her bra now slipping completely off her to the floor. Her pants somehow magically loose enough to allow his other wide palm to slide inside to grasp her rear before it moved to the front and touched her moist folds, making her gasp.
The loud patter of rain again on the window had him pausing his intimate exploration, and he lifted his head, his dark eyes gleaming. “Guess it’s a good thing we came in here out of the rain.”
“Good thing,” she managed before he resumed kissing and touching her until she was trembling with the intense pleasure of it all.
“Avery.” The way he said her name in a rough whisper, the way he expertly moved his fingers while kissing her mouth and face and throat, had her nearly moaning. It all felt so wonderful, every bit of nervousness evaporated, replaced by want and need.
How she ended up on the bed she couldn’t say, but when his mouth left hers she looked at him, foggily realizing that she was somehow flat on her back completely naked, while he stood there, staring at her.
“You are every bit as beautiful as I’d fantasized you’d be,” he said. “Looking at you takes my breath away.”
If that was true, then neither of them had much of an ability to breathe at the moment.
“My turn to look at you. Strip, please.”
Those bold words coming out of her mouth shocked her, but he just laughed. “Your wish is my command.” His gaze stayed on her as he quickly yanked off his shirt, and her breath caught at his lean but muscular torso. As he shoved off his pants, his erection became fully, impressively but all too briefly visible before his body covered hers, hot and deliciously heavy.
“You didn’t give me much time to look at you,” she managed to say.
“Sorry. Couldn’t wait to feel all your gorgeous, soft skin against all of mine.”
Well, if he put it that way. She had to admit it did feel amazingly, wonderfully, delectably good.
Was she really doing this? Lying naked with a man she barely knew? The feel of his body on hers, his mouth pressing sweet kisses to everything within reach of it, his smooth, warm skin beneath her hands told her the answer was yes, but to her surprise she didn’t feel tense or strange or regretful. All she felt was toe-curlingly excited and turned on.
His hands and mouth roamed everywhere until she found herself making little sounds and moving against him in a way that would have been embarrassing if she hadn’t been so totally absorbed in the sensations and how he made her feel. Nearing orgasm more times than she could count before he backed off and slowed things down, she was close to begging him when he finally rolled on a condom, grasped her hips with his hands and pulled her to him.
Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist, inviting him in, and the way they moved together made her think, in the tiny recess of her brain that could still function, that it seemed impossible they’d met only that morning. That this dance they danced hadn’t been etched in both their bodies and minds many a time before.
And when she cried out, it was his name on her lips and hers on his as they fell together.
“JUST SO YOU KNOW… it’s really true that I don’t usually do this.” Her pulse and breathing finally slowing to near normal, Avery managed to drag the sheet up to cover her breasts. She glanced over at Jack, whose head lay on the pillow next to hers, eyes closed, looking as sated and satisfied as she felt. She wasn’t sure why the words had tumbled out, but once they had, she wasn’t sorry. She didn’t want Jack to think she routinely picked up men, showed them around, then dove into bed with them.
“Do what?”
The expression on his face was one of bland innocence, completely at odds with the amused glint in the eyes that slowly opened to look at her. She couldn’t help but make an impatient sound. “You know very well what. Sleep with men I’ve just met. Heck, I’ve never even kissed a man I just met.”
He rolled to his side, his warm body pressing against hers. “I believe it was I who kissed you. Figured it was a Parisian tradition. The city of romance and everything. And what’s more romantic
