Breaking the Ice

Chapter 22

22

Okay, so they’d kissed before. But not like this. Not full of the promise of what was to come and Samantha was not prepared. Every cell in her body quivered at the onslaught of his mouth, the insistent thrust of his tongue, the rough clasp of his hands caging her hips, holding her where he wanted her as he grinded .

Her heart pounded and her breathing turned heavy. She moaned and squirmed, trying to get closer. The hard press of his chest was exquisite torture against the taut pebble of her nipples. She was burning up in his arms and she wanted more.

Then suddenly he was sweeping her close, their lips still fused and she wound her arms around his neck both to hang on and pull him even closer. She didn’t know how they got to his room without crashing into everything but they did and then his bed was at her back and his weight was at her front and the room was flooding with light from the bedside lamp.

Startled by the sudden intrusion to her retinas, her mouth broke from his to find him breathing hard, raw animal heat blazing from his eyes.

She had done that to him.

Samantha watched, her breathing just as hard, as he sat up, straddling her body, and lifted his shirt over his head, tossing it behind him. His chest was just as she’d seen in countless tabloid photos, only better.

Because tonight it belonged to her.

A tattoo of a Chinese dragon decorated his right pectoral muscle and she ran her finger from it all the way down the puckered perfection of his abdomen to where his jeans denied her further access. Her fingers went to work on the button, popping it but he shook his head and said, “Let’s not load that gun any further right now.”

Before she could protest, his fingers were stroking her belly as they tugged at the bow of her dress and somewhere in the mush her brain had become Samantha was aware it was her last defense. Once it was gone the fabric would part and there would only be two wispy pieces of lace between him and her bare flesh.

Time for some cover.

Reaching over, she located the switch on the bedside lamp and turned it off just as he parted the fabric. Darkness enveloped them once again and she relaxed. But only for a moment as the light suddenly flicked on again.

“I want to look at you.”

“I look better in the dark.” Lifting her head to kiss him, she groped for the switch again, flipping it off.

He chuckled against her mouth and it was such a turn-on Samantha almost forgave him his persistence as the light came back on.

“Sam.” He stared down at her in earnest. “I’m here. You can take it as a given that I want to see you naked. In fact, I’ve been fantasizing about unwrapping you from this dress all day.”

Samantha wanted to undulate her body at his words and the way he was eating her up with his eyes but her instincts, as per usual, were to hide . She knew she shouldn’t be letting years of internalized body shaming mess with this moment but try as she might, she couldn’t suppress the cringe. So… out the light went.

And on it came again.

“Nick!” Samantha squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to cover as much of her body with her arms as possible.

“You’re beautiful, Samantha,” he said quietly.

Gently, he tugged the arm over her breasts away and Samantha shivered, her flesh stippling in goosebumps, as his finger traced a line from the hollow at the base of her throat to the swell of her breast then into the dip to the front opening clasp.

“So beautiful.”

In one twist, he released the clasp and her breasts spilled free. His breath hissed out and she didn’t have to look at him to know he was staring right at them. They ached under the heat of his gaze, her nipples tingling as they puckered to tight points. The wanton in her wanted to arch her back, give him a show but she lay passively, shutting her eyes.

“Look at me.”

Samantha swallowed. “No.”

She could feel the intensity of his gaze on her nakedness. On her less-than-flat stomach. On her thighs dimpled with cellulite. On her breasts that fell softly to the side.

Really, was having sex in the dark too much to ask? It was her birthday after all.

“You’re gorgeous,” he murmured, dipping his head to nuzzle her throat as he caged both her arms above her head. “Every part of you is sexy and I’m going to prove it. I’m going to kiss and lick and suck every inch of your skin. Every” – he kissed each closed eye – “inch. And when I’ve done that,” he whispered, grazing her ear with his lips, “I’m going to do it again until, light or no light, you’re begging me for more.”

Samantha swallowed. His hot breath in her ear and his whispered promise was incredibly arousing but did he really mean it? Did he really find her desirable?

His tongue did the talking then, wandering down her neck, inching along her collarbones and drawing a wet line between the valley of her breasts before moving across to claim first one nipple then the other. A strangled moan escaped her throat as the hot wet heat of his mouth teased them mercilessly. When he grazed his teeth along the tip of each rosy peak she cried out in pure ecstasy.

Jesus. He was really good at this, turning her body into a quivering mass. But her brain was on a treadmill of doubt and insecurity.

What if, despite all this, he had his first failure?

“You’re thinking,” he murmured as his mouth returned for some more plundering.

Samantha moaned as sensations overwhelmed her and his lips moved south once more, his tongue leading the way again, dawdling across her belly then lower, licking wet circles close to the band of her underwear before edging away then heading back again. She tensed as he nuzzled the fabric on his way to her thighs.

“You’re still thinking,” he murmured as he pressed soft kisses to the flesh of her inner thigh.

Samantha swallowed as a hot tingle sparked between her legs. “I’m really trying to relax.” But he was close to ground zero and the lights were on .

As if reading her mind, Nick kissed his way back up her body, his mouth landing on hers as he reached across and flipped the light off. Darkness fell around them and Samantha opened her eyes as every muscle that had been strung taut, let go.

Their gazes met and he murmured, “Hey there,” before he kissed her again, soft and gentle this time like she was the most exquisite piece of expensive glass and she melted into him as his hand brushed down her belly and slid into her underwear.

She moaned as his fingers found the slick heat of her, stroking along her aching sex and she gasped when they found the heart of her and pushed inside. One finger. Then two.

She cried out his name when they found the hard knot of nerves.

“ Nick! ”

Gripping the broad warmth of his shoulders, she bucked at the stimulus, his fingers deft and firm, the pressure on her clit so damn perfect someone should write it up in a textbook somewhere. The Hawkeye technique . His mouth broke away and she protested but suddenly he was finding another pleasure point, his tongue circling an engorged nipple, drawing it into his mouth and sucking so damn good she thought she might just faint from pleasure.

There were no bad thoughts now. There were no thoughts at all. Just the frantic thrum of her pulse taking up all the space in her head and the ragged edge to her breathing and the fireworks popping behind her eyelids.

She wanted more. Needed more. Of this. Of him .

He came back to her then and she kissed him deeper and wetter, his clean male scent enveloping her as she wrapped her legs around his waist and lifted her hips in invitation. His fingers were stroking her from the inside with devastating precision but she needed more.

She needed all of him.

“Nick. Please …”

As if he knew she was teetering on the edge, his mouth was back on hers, kissing and plundering as he groped behind her and for a split second she thought he was going to turn the light on but then she heard the drawer open and he was back brandishing a little foil packet.

“Take off your panties,” he muttered as he eased back just enough to push down his jeans and underwear and free himself.

Samantha did not need to be told twice, somehow managing to coordinate trembling fingers to divest herself of the satin and lace barrier as Nick put on the condom. Then they were coming together again, fitting into each other like two Lego blocks, his erection probing her slickness, his hand sliding under her left knee, bending and lifting her leg off the bed as he slid slowly and easy all the way home.

The low moan rose from her throat in deep, sonorous praise as he filled her, stretched her, completed her. Took her to another place. He fit perfectly. As if he was made for her.

As if she was made for him.

“ Samantha …”

His hot breath puffed against the side of her neck as his body began to move, slowly, like she was a Stradivarius and he the maestro and it took no time to feel the first mild ripple of pleasure as it undulated through her pelvis, innervating every single muscle in preparation.

Okay. It hadn’t just been an idle boast. Her orgasm was building. Jesus – how many women did it take to be this damn good?

Women like the redhead today?

No, dear God, do not think about the redhead! But it was too late, her thoughts started to derail. She cringed as his hand squeezed her ass – was he comparing the handful to someone else’s handful?

God – was she the biggest girl he’d been with?

“Samantha,” he growled into her neck, biting the skin gently as he slowed his thrusting even further to a lazy tempo. “You’re thinking again.”

The build ebbed out of reach like a retreating wave and Samantha silently cursed herself. “Sorry, I’m taking too long, aren’t I?”

He chuckled, warm air currents caressing her throat as he pulled almost all the way out. “There’s no time limit,” he assured, his voice low and sexy as he slid all the way in again. “I can do this all night. In fact, I plan to. Just relax. Let it happen.”

Okay, right. Relax. Easy. And when he kissed her, she almost believed it with his slow penetration a particularly sweet torture all of its own. But, damn it, she was going to be his first failure, wasn’t she? First, they’d played the light-switch tango and now she was too in her head and taking forever.

Frankly she could have him hard and hot inside her all night with absolutely no release and be perfectly satisfied but he was a man, right? Sure, he said there was no time limit but wasn’t sex all about the end result for them?

Breaking off the kiss, Nick pressed his forehead to hers, his breathing husky. “How about we stop for now and go back to just making out?”

Oh God. Samantha shut her eyes; she couldn’t look at him. “I failed, didn’t I?”

“No. Absolutely not .”

Okay… sure . What a complete birthday sex nightmare. This was the last time she was ever taking Bec’s advice. She was going to have to face him tomorrow and the next day and the next knowing that she was a sexual dud. That until he’d met her he’d been able to satisfy every other woman he’d been with.

Maybe her second boyfriend had been right.

“Let me up,” she said, shoving against him.

“Sam…” he protested but eased away.

She shivered as he withdrew, lamenting his absence already even as she scrambled out from under him and off the bed, exceedingly grateful for the darkness what with her open bra hanging off her shoulders and her dress gaping to display everything.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving.” All she had to do was find where she’d kicked her damn underwear.

“ What? ” He vaulted upright. “Sam… please don’t go.”

He sounded genuine but staying was not an option and, having located her underwear she escaped into his en suite. She didn’t bother with the light; the less she saw in the mirror the better. If only she could just disappear through the wall and find herself back in her apartment.

The lamp was on when she exited the bathroom and Nick was pacing. He’d obviously ditched the condom and shoved his arms into his shirt although he hadn’t done up the buttons.

“Don’t say anything, okay?” She held up a hand to stop his advance. “This is not your fault. It’s my fault. You were doing everything right… and I’m sorry I’ve been your only failure but that’s all on me, okay? And it’s going to be so weird between us now, which is why we shouldn’t have done this in the first place and I’m so sorry that I put it on you and that this has been such a disaster.”

“Sam… this is not a disaster. Sex between two people for the first time isn’t like it is in Hollywood. Please stay… I promise you won’t regret it.”

She shook her head. If it was this disastrous the first time maybe someone up there was telling her something? “I think it’s time to call it a night, Nick. Thanks for the cake.”

She stood for a second, unsure of the etiquette for running out on somebody who’d been buried deep inside you with no payoff and who was your boss and your friend. Then she just turned on her heel and left, as fast as her legs would carry her.