Jacquie D’Alessandro - In Over His Head

Dipping his head, he ran kisses down her throat, then circled his tongue around her nipple before taking the tight bud into his mouth.

Lexie threw her head back, and simply let the sensations wash through her. An ache of deep want pulled at her, from where his mouth caressed her breast, down to her core. She felt hot, and impatient, and wanted them both naked. But his mouth was so warm and seductive, distracting her from her goal of ridding him of his jeans.

And before she could regroup, he gently urged her back until she sat on the bed. He dropped to his knees in front of her, lifting her foot to slowly remove her sandal. He caressed her bare foot, running the pad of his thumb up her instep, shooting delight up her leg. He looked up at her, and her breath caught at the concentrated heat emanating from his eyes.

"You're beautiful, Lexie," he said in a husky, aroused voice as he slipped off her other sandal.

The way he was looking at her, with those sexy eyes all hot and focused, made her feel positively woozy. Before she could return the compliment, which she surely would have if she'd been able to find her voice, he ran his hands up her legs, pushing up her full skirt until it bunched around her waist. Leaning forward, he pressed his open mouth against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. The sight of his dark head between her legs, the brush of his tongue dampening her flesh, brought a deep groan to her throat.

"You smell so good," he whispered, his warm breath caressing her. "Like flowers. And sunshine."

He moved closer, the breadth of his shoulders spreading her legs wider. Reaching under her skirt, he eased her lace panties down her legs. Heart pounding with anticipation, she reclined back on her elbows, watching as he kissed his way slowly up her thighs, sliding his hands under her to pull her closer.

At the first touch of his mouth to her feminine flesh, her breath left her body in a rush of hot desire. Then she simply forgot how to breathe, as he lifted her against him and made love to her with his mouth, his lips and tongue caressing and gliding, delving, circling, until she was mindless. His hands, his mouth, were relentless. Unstoppable. Everywhere. She collapsed back onto the mattress, fisting her hands on the bedspread in search of an anchor as an intense orgasm throbbed through her.

While delightful aftershocks still pulsed, she felt him rise. Heard the sound of a drawer opening, then the shush of him removing his jeans. She pried open her eyes in time to see him rolling on a condom. Then he loomed over her, and their lips met in a voluptuous kiss. His heat, mingled with her musk, inundated her senses. With her skirt still nicked up about her waist, she spread her legs wide, lifting her hips to welcome him.

He slid into her in one long stroke, filling her. She expected fast and furious, flash and heat, but instead he stilled. Breaking off their kiss, he propped his weight on his forearms and looked down at her.

Compelling eyes, dark and intense, searched hers. She looked up at him, absorbing the sensation of him inside her. The brief thought that this interlude was supposed to be light and fun flickered through her mind. Surely it wasn't supposed to feel this… intense. Surely she wasn't supposed to feel this connection to him.

"Lexie." That single, husky-voiced word sounded faintly like a question. As if he, too, felt and wondered at this… whatever it was passing between them.

She wanted to reply, to say his name, but then he started to move, slowly rocking his hips, and she lost the ability to speak. Her eyes slid closed, and she gave herself over totally to her passion. Her hands glided down his smooth back, to his buttocks, urging him deeper, higher. Her tension escalated, then in a rush, her orgasm washed over her like a great wave. A long, deep moan vibrated in her throat and she clutched him tighter, wrapping her legs around his hips. She felt him thrust again, then he buried his face against her neck, his groan of release sounding in her ear.

Still intimately joined, she laid beneath him, sated, languid, listening to his choppy breathing as she waited for her own breathing to regulate. His weight pressed her into the mattress, and she savored the press of his chest against hers, the tickle of his chest hair against her breasts.

She felt him lift his head, and opened her eyes to find him looking down at her with an unreadable expression.

There were about a dozen things she wanted to say, first and foremost, Thanks, I needed that , but lengthy speech was still beyond her. So she said the one word she could manage.

"Wow."

He studied her in silence for several seconds, then nodded. "Yeah." He touched the tip of his tongue to his lower lip. "You taste like flowers. Everywhere."

Heat swept through her. "Well, you would know."

"That's some spark that's between us."

"Definitely shorted out all my circuits." She raised her hands above her head and stretched like a contented cat. Then she ran her index finger over his lovely bottom lip. "You know, in the body-score-keeping scheme of things, you know a lot more about me than I know about you. And now that I can breathe again, I think it's about time I evened up the score."

"Consider me at your disposal."

"So, uh, what's your recovery time looking like?"

"Definitely gonna need a few minutes."

"Would a massage help?"

"Depends on what you plan to massage. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about you, me and a nice warm shower. What are you thinking?"

A slow grin eased across his face. "That great minds think alike."

"Hey, there's no scar on your ass."

Josh pushed his wet hair from his eyes, then looked over his shoulder. Lexie stood behind him, shower spray bouncing off her shoulders, bar of soap in hand.

Her eyes were narrowed on his butt, and she looked disgruntled.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your ass." She ran a soapy hand over his buttocks and he sucked in a breath. "No scar." She looked at him with a clearly suspicious expression. "I thought you were bitten by a snake."

"I was. Right there." He touched his finger to a spot on his left buttock. "Didn't leave a scar. Snakebites usually don't." He turned around and took the soap from her.

Her gaze skimmed over his torso, lingering on his groin, which tightened in response. Then she reached out and brushed her fingertips over his upper thigh. "How did this happen?"

"All your fault, sweetheart. 'Fraid I took one look at you, and I've been hard ever since."

"The scar. On your leg."

"Oh. Got caught by a Brahman horn."

Her eyes widened. "Brahman? As in bull?"

"Don't know of any other kind."

She ran her fingers down the length of the thin seven-inch scar. "Aren't those bulls wild and vicious? What were you doing so close to one?"

"I was ridin' him in a rodeo. Or rather, I was trying to ride him. Without much success, unfortunately, as that scar can attest."

She stared at him with an expression he couldn't recall any other woman ever looking at him with, especially when he mentioned riding in the rodeo. Instead of interest and admiration, Lexie looked downright horrified. "Rodeo? You ride in rodeos?"

Hmm. Her reaction piqued his curiosity, but at the moment, other things were much more interesting.

Such as that trio of golden freckles dusting the base of her throat. Brushing a single fingertip over the marks he said, "You say 'rodeo' like I kicked small dogs and stole social security checks from elderly ladies. Most cowboys try their hand at the rodeo at least once."

"Isn't it very dangerous?"

"It is. But I don't do it anymore." That was certainly true. He was officially retired. "Now, I can think of at least ten other things I'd rather be doing than talking. Like playing a game of Shampoo, for instance."