Dami stayed with her, those wonderful fingers seeming to know what to do, when to keep stroking her. And when to go still, to hold her, to press just the right spot as the pulsing became a shimmer again, a slow, lovely fade into something so perfectly, wonderfully easy and loose.
He had his arm around her waist again. And then he was turning her, scooping her up high against his chest.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and offered her mouth to him. He took it in a slow, thorough kiss as he laid her down on blue satin and then stretched out beside her, easing an arm under her head, gathering her into him, her cheek against his chest, her hand over his heart.
His lips touched her hair again, a kiss both tender and firm.
She closed her eyes for a time. The room was so quiet. His body was big and warm, her own personal heater.
When she looked again, he was watching her through eyes that were black now, limitless and so deep.
She lifted up on an elbow and gazed down at him. He returned her look out of the center of some wonderful stillness. She marveled, “Dami, this is just how I pictured it, only better. I mean, what you did to me was so hot. And now I’m lying here naked with you in this big manly bed of yours.”
“My bed is manly?” He seemed pleased.
“Oh, definitely. Yes. But the point is, it’s okay, you know? You and me, naked, together. It’s comfortable, easy. Good.” By then she was waving the arm she wasn’t leaning on. One wide sweeping gesture bopped him on the nose. “Oops.”
He only laughed. “I’m glad you’re happy. But please don’t break my nose.”
“Sorry. I promise, I’ll be careful.” It seemed only natural to let her hand drift lower. He was still hard. She traced the muscles of his belly—but hesitated to touch that most manly part of him. She couldn’t help asking, “Does it hurt to be so big and hard?”
He gave her that beautiful half smile of his. “In a good way, yes.”
“Do you need...?”
His smile went full-out. “Over the years, I find more and more pleasure in this particular sort of suffering. I enjoy the ache. I find that getting there really is a lot of the fun, that sometimes the longer it takes, the more satisfying the conclusion.”
She really did want to touch it. “Is it all right if I...?”
“Yes.” Gruff. Low. Like the purr of some big sleek wild animal, no less dangerous for being easy and loose, relaxing in his lair.
She explored at her leisure, loving the smooth, silky feel of his skin there, the flared mushroom shape of the head. He lay very still as she touched him and his breathing changed, becoming faster, shallower. When she bent to kiss him, he let out a low groan.
That made her smile as she lowered her mouth on him and took him inside. He whispered encouragements. She knew she wasn’t doing that good of a job. But he never complained. He eased his fingers into her hair, curving them around the back of her neck as she took him in and then let him out nice and slow. He didn’t try to take control. His hold was loose, gentle. And she liked that so much.
It made her feel powerful and sexy and womanly. Her mouth surrounding him, her hand wrapped around him, she was running that show.
Running it all the way to the finish, as it turned out. Beneath her hand, she felt him pulsing. His body stiffened. He let out a low, deep moan. “Luce, you should let me...”
No way. She was doing this and she was doing it right. She stayed with him, swallowed him down. He tasted like sea foam, musky and salty. He held her tighter against him right there at the end, and he growled out her name in a way that sent a hot thrill zipping through her, because she had done it, given him pleasure, just as he’d done for her.
She kissed her way up the muscular center of him, feeling naughty and bold.
He took her and turned her and tucked her against him. “Sleep.”
“Huh? But we only just got started.”
He chuckled. “Greedy.” He sounded pleased about it.
“Dami, there’s only so much time and I have so much to learn.”
“Sleep,” he said again.
So she closed her eyes—not for long, she told herself. Just for a little while....
* * *
When she woke, he was kissing her.
She looked down and his dark head was tracing the length of her scar as he feathered kisses along it. He kissed her breast, found another scar—a small horizontal one from years ago when she’d needed a temporary pacemaker after surgery.
He went lower. He kissed the little cluster of drainage-tube scars.
And lower still...
The things he could do with his mouth, with his tongue...
No doubt about it. She had made the right choice to come to him to get up to speed on making love.
He did it again, brought her all the way to the top of the world and then over the edge, with his mouth that time. And then he took her hand and pulled her up out of the bed and led her into the kitchen. He made them more of his delicious hot chocolate. They sat together at the table sipping cocoa without a stitch on. It was strangely erotic, like those dreams you sometimes have where you’re naked someplace you would never go without your clothes on.
Once she’d finished her chocolate, he told her to get dressed, and when she had everything back on but the panties he’d torn, he said, “Now I want you to return to your room and get some sleep. I’ll come for you at eleven.”
“But, Dami, we haven’t... I mean, it’s been amazing. But we’re not finished yet.”
He bent close and whispered in her ear. “Don’t wear any panties.”
Her breath caught on a gasp. “You mean...?”
“For all day and into the evening. No panties. And don’t cheat. Wear a dress or a skirt. No tights, either.”
The place where her panties should have been was suddenly damp. “Oh, Dami. You are very bad.”
“So I’ve been told. No knickers, and whenever you notice that you’re without them, think of me.”
All that Saturday, Lucy did think of him.
And not only because she was walking around without her panties.
How could she not think of him? He was the best friend she’d ever had, not to mention the hottest, smoothest guy she knew.
He sat across from her at another café, where they had coffee and a real breakfast. She ordered a mushroom omelet and toast with jam.
“Eat everything,” he commanded. “You have to keep your strength up....” And he gave her a look. Intimate. Teasing. That look said he knew she had no knickers on. That look made promises concerning what he would do to her as soon as they were alone.
She couldn’t wait, though he seemed quite happy to make her wait.
“Eat,” he said again.
And she did. She ate every bite of her omelet. Both pieces of toast, too. Slathered in jam.
After that he took her where she really wanted to go: his studio, in a villa on one of the hills surrounding the harbor. He kept a flat on the lower floor. They didn’t even go in there.
Upstairs