Radclyffe - Wild Shores

Gem grinned. “Is that your weakness?”

“I might have more than one of those.” Austin leaned against the closed front door, waiting for Gem to set the ground rules. She couldn’t get any farther away from Gem physically, and if she got any closer, she was going to put her hands on her. Her heart pounded so hard it must be audible.

Gem’s blue eyes flashed, then smoldered to an even deeper indigo. She took a step forward and stopped an arm’s length away. “Is that right. Not just cinnamon buns, huh?”

Austin shook her head, swallowing around the lust that clamped her throat in a vise.

“Should I guess?” Gem took another step.

“I think you might have a pretty good idea.”

Gem gripped the edges of Austin’s jacket, pushed it off her shoulders, and kissed her neck. “I seem to recall a few. My memory’s a little hazy, though.”

The touch of Gem’s lips spread over Austin’s skin like burning honey. Austin tossed aside the jacket, let her head fall back against the door, and closed her eyes. She shuddered. “This might not be the best of ideas.”

“Why?” Gem kissed her throat again, moved up, nipped the undersurface of the angle of her jaw, and leaned into her, body pressing everywhere. “Are you married?”

“No,” Austin rasped. She slid both hands down Gem’s back and cradled her hips, opening her thighs to pull Gem between her legs.

“Good.” Gem unbuttoned the top button of Austin’s shirt, peeled back the fabric, and kissed her chest. “Engaged?”

Austin shook her head, her lids slipping closed, the flames reaching deeper, igniting her darkest reaches. “No. No one.”

“So hard to believe,” Gem murmured, opening another button, baring the inner curves of Austin’s breasts. She kissed first one then the other and rubbed her cheek over the swell of warm, firm flesh. Another button and her hand was inside Austin’s shirt, cupping her breast through the thin silk tank she’d worn underneath it. “Why aren’t you taken? God, you’re beautiful.”

“Gem,” Austin moaned.

“Hmm? Why not?” Gem teased a nipple beneath sheer black promise.

“I never fell.”

Gem squeezed and the tender nipple peaked. “In love, you mean?”

“Yes. God, yes.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it. It really is some kind of insanity. This is ever so much nicer.”

Austin gripped Gem’s wrist before the last of her reason dissolved. She couldn’t tell her everything, but she had to be sure. “Wait.”

Gem stilled. “What, what is it? Oh—you mean me?”

“No—but—”

“I’m not married, I’m not engaged.” Gem took a breath, tried to find the truth. “There’s a woman, we’ve been seeing each other almost two years now. We’re not committed.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t love her.” The words were a shock and Gem jerked. “I mean, I do, but not—not in the way I need to if I’m going to make promises.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in love?”

“I don’t, or maybe I should just say I don’t trust it.” Gem caressed Austin’s jaw, kissed her slowly until the heat flared again. “This has nothing to do with anyone, anything, but us.”

Austin cradled Gem’s face, brushed her thumbs over the graceful arches of her cheeks. “You don’t know me.”

“You don’t know me either.”

Austin smiled. “It feels like I do, in so many ways.”

Gem caught Austin’s thumb in her teeth and bit lightly. “Then believe me if I say the same.”

“I do.”

“Then good. That’s enough.”

Gem’s voice was far away and Austin’s grip on caution drifted off with it. She wanted, a hard hot ache drawing tighter in her depths. More than pleasure, more than sex. Need, touch, knowing. Gem. “Don’t stop.”

“Oh no, not hardly.” Gem opened another button on Austin’s shirt, pulled the tails free from her pants, and finished exposing her down the middle. She pushed up the thin tank, trailed her fingers up and down the center of Austin’s abdomen. “I love your body. I can’t get enough.”

Austin shuddered. “Take…all you want.”

All you want. Gem laughed, feeling wild and wanton and not caring that she didn’t have any idea what she was doing. All she knew was she wanted more. Had she ever wanted so much? So simple, so astounding. The taste and touch of her, the sound of her pleasure was flame to oil. She popped the top button of Austin’s pants, knelt, and kissed Austin’s stomach. Austin’s fingers came into her hair, a possessive gesture that thrilled her, turning her liquid and hot inside. She grasped the waistband of Austin’s pants. “Say no now or—”

“Yes,” Austin said, her voice a harsh whisper.

Gem unzipped her, grasped the layers of clothing, and pulled them down. “Your damn boots.”

“Laces.”

“I know, I know,” Gem muttered, finding the leather and pulling them loose. Austin kicked them off and Gem pressed her shoulders between Austin’s thighs.

“God,” Austin groaned.

“No, not hardly,” Gem whispered, caressing Austin’s thighs, running her hands down her legs and up the outer thighs. She couldn’t wait any longer. Gripping her hips, she covered her with her mouth. Austin arched and met her with a slow languid thrust. Gem hummed in the back of her throat and tasted her, stroking and exploring with her tongue and her lips. Austin’s thighs trembled, and she took more.

“Go slow if you don’t—” Austin cradled Gem’s head in her hands and rocked into her mouth, the rhythm as easy and natural as waves on the shore. Gem’s mouth was a sea of pleasure, and Austin rode the crest higher and higher. Sunlight, burning away the mist, flared behind her eyelids, a blaze of passion and promise. “I’m going to come.”

Gem’s grip tightened and she coaxed Austin to the brink.

Austin jerked, a cry wrenched from her chest, and she lost the rhythm, lost control, lost the tenuous fragments of awareness that held her anchored to the earth. She soared until her mind blanked and she tumbled from the clouds.

Gem broke her fall, steady and strong. “Right here, baby.”

“Sorry.” Austin looped her arms around Gem’s waist and leaned hard. “I—don’t have my legs under me just yet.”

Gem laughed and stroked the back of her neck. “Kick off the rest of your clothes. The bed isn’t far. One good thing about a small cabin.”

“The bed is pretty small too.”

“We’ll manage,” Gem murmured.

A minute later, Gem was naked and Austin stretched out facing her on top of the bed. The little alcove was shadowy, a secret hollow untouched by the world. Austin brushed her fingers through Gem’s hair and kissed her. “You’re incredible.”

“Oh, that was all you.”

“I don’t know who that was,” Austin said. “You just kind of turned me upside down.”

“Did I?” Gem kissed her, sliding one leg over Austin’s hip, pressing her center to Austin’s thigh. The pressure against her sensitive, swollen sex was wonderful and insanity-provoking. “How is that?”

“I’m usually not so…easy.”

“Really? Easy, huh.” Gem laughed. “I like that.”

“So do I.” More than she’d ever imagined. Austin kissed her, brushing her fingers over Gem’s neck, down her chest, and over her breast. She clasped her gently, teased a nipple with her thumb.

Gem arched, pulled Austin on top of her, and wrapped a leg around Austin’s thigh. “How about you show me what you’re usually like.”

“I would, but…” Austin braced herself on an elbow and rocked against Gem’s center until Gem moaned. Slipping a hand between them, she cupped her and slid inside. “There’s nothing usual about being with you.”