Part 17 (1/2)

Soon after leaving the main road-and the few streetlights-behind them, they were traveling down a windy, tree-shaded lane. Darkness had almost completely enveloped them. They were entirely alone, a few miles from any building, surrounded by fields and pastures. Only local farmers used this road by day, and no one had any reason to use it at night.

It was good enough. Separated from the rest of the world by distance and trees and fields and darkness, they could finally give in to the pulsing hunger that had been dancing between them. It had been banked, put away since their last deep, wet kiss to mark their mutual o.r.g.a.s.ms the night before in her office. Now they were going to have a chance to let their hunger come out and play in the moonlight.

”I want that moonlight,” she whispered. She looked up at the canopy of trees above the open roof of the convertible, seeing only glimpses of golden light here and there where the thick leaves left occasional gaps.

Too dark. Annie knew she wouldn't be satisfied with frantic, frenzied blind touches. She wanted to see him. To experience everything. This road would not do.

”Up ahead there's a small dirt path. Turn right.”

He didn't question her again, but leaned forward in his seat, as if silently urging the car to get to their destination more quickly on the windy, unmarked road.

”This third-date rule of yours,” he asked as he carefully took the appropriate turn, onto a lane even more rough and narrow than the one they'd been traveling. ”Is it like one-two-three, then then go? Or do you go go? Or do you go on on three?” three?”

Unable to believe the man could make her laugh when she was a bundle of overs.e.xed nerves, she replied, ”In case you forgot, we kind of threw the third-date rule out the window last night.”

”Oh, I hadn't forgotten, darlin'.” He grabbed her hand, still twined in his hair, and brought her fingers to his mouth. Lightly biting the tip of one, he murmured, ”But I honestly considered last night more of a quick appetizer.” He shook his head. ”No, not even that...just an hors d'oeuvre. If this is the official end of the waiting, we're going to be having a nine-course feast feast.”

She s.h.i.+vered, getting the picture. He was right. There was so much they hadn't done last night. And she was every bit as anxious to do them as Sean.

In thirty minutes?

h.e.l.l. Maybe the family would stay longer. When they left, her Great Aunt Trudy had been winding up to tell stories about her old USO days. That could go on for ages.

Besides, it was her parents' anniversary. Surely they wouldn't wait up for her, like they had when Annie was a teenager. And deep in her heart, she hoped they still had the kind of intimate marriage that would demand that they slip away to their room for a private celebration. Even if she so so didn't want to think about the details. didn't want to think about the details.

”Here!” she said, realizing they'd just reached the perfect spot. The dirt lane had curved up through the woods, coming out at the top of a hill. They burst from beneath the trees like a train emerging from a dark tunnel.

Though entirely deserted and uncultivated, the area had been cleared long ago. Nothing came between the moonlight and their bodies. No shadows to interfere with their visual enjoyment of each other. Nothing but the night breeze faintly stirring the dry gra.s.s all around them. And the two of them, Annie and Sean, sitting beneath a glorious umbrella of midnight blue sky dotted with a million sparkling stars.

”Beautiful spot,” Sean said, looking down at the vista falling away from the front of the car, and then up at the universe spread in an artist's palette above them.

She could have agreed, could have talked about the view. But those thirty minutes were pus.h.i.+ng her, and the hunger she'd suppressed for the past twenty-four hours was rising up from deep inside, ready to consume her. She hadn't brought this man out here on what could be their last full night together to admire the view.

He reached for her. ”Annie...”

She didn't hesitate, sliding one leg over his lap to straddle him in the driver's seat. Twining her fingers in his hair, she covered his mouth with hers, her tongue plunging wildly, demanding his attention. He gave it, tasting her just as deeply, just as intensely. With his hands on her hips, he pulled her so tight against his rock-hard erection she couldn't even move.

Well, not much. She moved a little-up and down, rubbing on him, needing the sensation there...and, oh, G.o.d, there. there.

”Not tonight,” he growled, holding her still, keeping her from riding him anymore. ”I said a nine-course feast, darlin', not a fast-food drive-thru.”

”The time...”

”f.u.c.k the time, Annie.” He buried his face in her throat, sc.r.a.ping his teeth along her collarbone. ”I'm having you, I'm having all of you. And if we show up at your parents place in three hours with your hair a mess, red marks on your throat, my fingerprints on your thighs and your lipstick on my pants, I honestly won't give a d.a.m.n.”

Red marks...fingerprints...and, oh, lipstick. What a delicious litany of images flashed through her mind. She wanted all of the above. As many times as she could get them in the short time they had.

Short time. Tonight. Tomorrow. That's all.

Annie pushed the hurtful thought away. She didn't want to even consider that a period she'd begun to think could be the most amazing time in her life could be over almost as quickly as it had begun. Or that she'd wasted the first few days of it with silly rules about third dates.

Almost desperate to take what she could, Annie kissed him again, tasting in lazy thrusts this time. Without even breaking the connection, she felt Sean reach for the door handle and open it. Annie immediately took advantage, sliding her cramped right leg down and out.

She'd a.s.sumed he'd been making her more comfortable. She did not not expect him to encircle her waist and step out of the car, his hands under her b.u.t.t, her legs wrapping around his hips. ”Sean?” expect him to encircle her waist and step out of the car, his hands under her b.u.t.t, her legs wrapping around his hips. ”Sean?”

”Slight change of position,” he muttered. Not explaining, he turned them around, backing her into the car this time. But instead of pus.h.i.+ng her down onto the seat he'd just left, he lifted her higher, positioning her on the back hood, with her bare legs dangling down inside the car, resting against the two seats. Then he parted them.

Mmm. Much better. ”I like the way you think.”

His eyes glittered. ”You're really going to like this.”

He knelt on the seats in front of her, his face level with her middle. Annie looked down at him, running the tips of her fingers along the moonlit highlights in his hair, watching as he began to unb.u.t.ton her blouse from the bottom up.

With every b.u.t.ton he unfastened, he kissed a spot of the skin he uncovered. Starting at her belly. Moving up, over her midriff. To the under-curves of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

”Sean,” she groaned, wis.h.i.+ng he could hurry up, wanting his mouth and his hands and that incredible erection she'd had deep inside her body the night before.

If he stood on the seats, she could have it right where she most wanted it. She could taste and lick and suck until he was as out of his mind as anyone could possibly get.

Annie wasn't the queen of oral s.e.x. But if desire was enough, she knew she could pleasure this man until he wouldn't be able to remember his own name.

He wouldn't be rushed, however. Not this time.

”You are so beautiful,” he whispered. ”For the rest of my life, I will never again smell peaches without thinking of you.” He pushed the blouse off her shoulders, letting it fall to the lid of the trunk. ”Of this.”

He unfastened the front clasp of her bra between one slow stroke of his tongue against her cleavage and the next. And when it fell away, he moved that tongue, that incredible mouth, to her pebbled nipple. But before tasting her, giving her the intimate kiss she needed, he sc.r.a.ped the side of his rough cheek against it. Annie quivered and reflexively clenched her legs together, wondering how a little touch on one small part of her body could spread to every other inch of her. His lean hips were between her legs, so she couldn't clench far-just enough to hold him tight and keep him there.

He finally licked the aching tip of one breast, his flat tongue providing a smooth, velvety caress. The taste left moisture in its wake, which the night breeze rolled across to make her s.h.i.+ver. ”Please, Sean.”

”Shh, let me. Just let me.”

She let him.

Knowing just when to give, and when to move away, Sean made thorough love to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He caressed her, stroked her, filled his hands with her. Suckling one nipple, rubbing the other between his fingertips, he soon had her shaking and thrusting against his lower body. Annie was so wet and aroused she could barely stand the pressure of the hard car against her most intimate parts.

It was a long while before he backed up enough to let her pull his s.h.i.+rt off. Once it was gone, she busied herself stroking the long lines of thick muscle on his shoulders and his upper back. His body was slick with a light coating of sweat caused, she suspected, by the amazing restraint, the efforts he made to keep complete control over what was happening.

”I like your skirt,” he whispered as he worked his way down again. ”I've been wondering all evening what you had on underneath it.”

He was about to find out, and she could hardly wait. But instead of undressing her completely and exploring her that way, he instead touched her through the cloth. He lightly traced the outline of her hip bone and his mouth soon followed his fingers.

Annie couldn't help thrusting up, at least a little, inviting him to go farther. Not, she suspected, that he needed any such invitation. Sean was going to take what he wanted tonight, he'd made that very clear.

The certainty that he wanted to use his mouth on her, to drive her to madness with those lips and that tongue, had her ready to fall off the car in pure s.h.i.+vers of excitement.

He laughed softly at her desperate efforts to demand more, but he didn't give in. Still taking his d.a.m.n sweet time, he moved lower. Tasting, sampling, he heightened the tension even by simply rubbing his cheek against her clothes, but denying her the connection of his mouth on her skin.

He knew that he was driving her mad, and Annie honestly wasn't sure whether she wanted to thank him or bash him in the head for it.