Deeper Read online

  It was a more poetic speech than any she could remember hearing from him, but like the rest of this, it didn’t seem out of place. Bess let Nick guide her through the sliding-glass doors, across the linoleum, through the living room and into the bedroom. He kissed her mouth when they got to the bed, and she pulled away to catch her breath.

  They looked into each other’s eyes, both breathing hard. Nick licked his lips and passed a hand over her hair, then cupped her cheek for a moment before finally resting his hand on her shoulder.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You didn’t used to…”

  He kissed her mouth again, hard, before gentling the pressure. He pulled away just enough to say against her lips, “I didn’t used to do a lot of things.”

  He nipped at her bottom lip, not hard enough to hurt, then ran his tongue over it. Her mouth parted for him and his kiss took her breath away, not from its harshness but from the uncommon tenderness.

  “Stop thinking about the way things were,” he murmured as he lifted her shirt over her head. His palms skimmed the lace of her bra, then unhooked it and tugged it off, too. “Just think about the way things are now.”

  It was so much easier to do that with his mouth tracing the slope of her breasts. When he suckled gently at one nipple, Bess cringed, pushing his mouth from her skin even as they both moved onto the bed. Nick lifted his head.

  “No?”

  She shook her head a little, not wanting to explain about nursing her boys, how things had changed for her since then. Not wanting to think about it, actually. She wanted to do what he’d said. Think about now.

  Nick studied her for a moment, but said nothing, just moved to her ribs and belly. His kisses left a trail of tiny hot spots that faded slowly, only to ignite again when he retraced his path. His fingers toyed with the snap of her denim skirt, but before he undid it he sat up to pull off his T-shirt. Bare-chested, he knelt next to her.

  Bess studied his body, more familiar to her after the past week than it had ever been. She reached to circle his nipple with a fingertip, then traced the line of dark hair on his belly to where it disappeared into the waistband of his jeans. Her hand fell away and he covered her with his body, bare flesh to bare flesh. The button of his jeans was a small, sudden chill on her hot skin and she wriggled under him as he kissed her mouth again.

  They turned to face one another, legs entwined. Bess ran her fingers through his hair, relishing the silk of it. She cupped the back of his neck to pull him closer. Farther down, his shoulder blades jutted like the stumps of shorn wings. She traced the lines of his bones, and he shuddered against her.

  “Tickles,” he murmured into the hollow of her throat. His hand slid up her thigh, beneath her skirt. “Why do you bother putting these on when you know I’m only going to take them off you again?”

  He stroked her panties, then rolled her onto her back and knelt again. He used both hands to push up her skirt and hook her panties down. They slid without resistance over her thighs and knees, and Nick followed them all the way down to her ankles, where he tugged them off and tossed them away. His hands slid up again, over the same places, and his mouth followed. He nudged her legs apart with his head and settled between her legs.

  Bess undid the snap and zipper, but with her skirt bunched around her waist there seemed little need for her to take the whole thing off. Nick’s mouth caressed one of her knees, then the other, and he looked up at her.

  “Take it off,” he ordered, changing her mind about the necessity of being totally naked. “I want to see you.”

  He got out of his jeans while she slid out of her skirt. He wore no briefs, was bare beneath the denim, and Bess licked her lips at the sight of his cock growing thicker as he pushed the material down his thighs and stepped out of it. He crawled up the bed to cover her again.

  She thought he would slide inside her at once. She was wet enough for him. Ready. Aching, in fact, for him to fill her, a term she’d often read in books but had never understood could be true.

  Nick didn’t do so. He kissed her mouth and looked down into her eyes. His hand slid between them and his fingers found her clit without hesitation. His gaze flared when she gasped at the touch.

  “I could fuck you a million times and never get tired of it,” he told her. “There’s always something new about you.”

  Bess didn’t believe that could possibly be true, but she believed he meant it. There didn’t seem to be an answer to it, nor did Nick seem to expect one. He stroked her gently until her hips moved and her hand gripped his arm.

  Then he moved. Without ceasing the slow, steady circling of his fingers on her clit he moved his mouth down her body. His breath flickered over her nipples, but he didn’t pause there. The muscles of her belly trembled, but he didn’t stay there, either. Once more he settled between her legs, and Bess half sat, propped on her elbows in immediate reaction.

  “Nick—”

  She quieted at once when, without preamble or hesitation, he kissed her. His thumbs parted her swollen, slick folds and his mouth fastened onto her sweetly throbbing clitoris. His lips pressed her and a moment later the point of his tongue took up the pace and motion of his fingers. Bess couldn’t think of anything else. He licked her slowly, then faster when her hips lifted to meet his mouth.

  She was close already. Not ready to tip into orgasm yet, but the pleasure building between her legs had moved from simple to complex, leaving no question about where it would go. Many times over the past twenty years, her body had stuttered or stalled when presented with pleasure. Her mind had overruled the simplicity of climax and left her tense with frustration.

  Not tonight.

  Nick slid one, then another finger inside her as he used his tongue to caress her. A third stretched her—not as much as his cock would, but she moaned anyway as he fucked her with his hand and mouth. Her fingers gripped the sheets of the bed she hadn’t bothered making. Her heels dug into the mattress as her hips tipped upward.

  Climax danced out of her grasp, and her head fell back, eyes closed and jaw clenched in concentration. Nick’s hand slowed. His tongue followed suit. He blew heated breath across her wet flesh, and Bess let out a sigh.

  He did it again and she tensed, hovering, ready to crash, but again the pleasure eluded her. Nick withdrew. Bess opened her eyes.

  He rolled onto his back, pulling her by the hip to straddle him. She thought he meant for her to slide onto his prick, and though the thought of it sent a fresh burst of arousal through her, part of her sighed with disappointment at not being able to finish beneath his tongue.

  “No,” Nick said hoarsely when she gripped his cock. His hands held her hips as she looked at him curiously. He pulled her forward. “I still want to lick you.”

  Her entire body flooded with fire. It had been different, somehow, with her on her back and him between her legs. Passive, as if that made a difference. Now he wanted her to move over his body, to straddle his face the way she straddled his hips. Her first inclination was to refuse, and she shook her head, but Nick’s tug on her hips inched her forward on her knees. Her hands found a place to grip the headboard.

  Now he held her ass, still urging her to slide her knees forward. When she got close enough, he wrapped first one arm and then the other beneath her thighs to push her body toward his face. It was the longest second Bess had ever counted, that moment between the time her clit brushed his chest and the one when his hands on her ass pressed her body to his face.

  In this position she could move as easily as she desired, and Nick could either direct her movements with his grip on her hips and ass, or he could stay still. She could grind down on him, if she wanted, or pull away so only his breath tickled her. Caught between the extremes, Bess hovered until he smoothed his hands over her rump and eased her onto his waiting mouth.

  A breath sobbed out of her and she closed her eyes. It was silly to be embarrassed now, after everything else, and it wasn’t quite shame that made her block out the sig