Wicked Pleasures Read online

  “You are hot.”

  Will’s quiet words seemed to caress her along with his breath. He drew a finger down the damp skin between her breasts, then slid it inside the waistband of her pants. Renae braced herself against the side of the counter as he stripped the cotton from her burning body, leaving the white lace of her panties in place. He moved away from her and she whimpered in protest.

  Moments later he was opening the top of the ice-cream carton and retrieving a fresh spoon from a nearby drawer. For a moment she was afraid he might leave her like that, panting, nearly naked on the counter, as he went off to eat ice cream.

  Until he spooned a healthy portion of the sweet concoction from the carton then held the dripping spoon above her right nipple.

  Renae gasped, both surprised by his bold move and the cold sensation of the ice cream against her skin. She watched as the white ball started sliding down over her nipple. Will leaned in and caught it in his mouth, then licked her puckered flesh with long, slow stokes.

  Her eyes drifted closed at the exquisite combination of hot and cold, inanimate and animate coming together on her right breast. Will finished laving her then drew her nipple deep into his mouth, seeming to pull on a line that went straight down to her clit.

  He stepped away again and it was all Renae could do not to melt to the floor in front of him in a mindless puddle. She watched as he duplicated the ice-cream bit with her left nipple, this time allowing the cream to melt further until it pooled in her navel. By the time his tongue lapped around her belly ring, her elbows were trembling so badly she nearly couldn’t hold herself upright.

  “I…I thought you weren’t an ice-cream kind of guy,” she whispered so quietly she almost didn’t hear herself.

  His blue-eyed gaze met hers. “Lately I’m coming to realize that there’s a lot about myself I don’t understand.”

  Renae could not only relate to his statement, but she could empathize with Will. Ever since they’d taken things from flirty to dirty her life hadn’t been the same. She was no longer content to just bring home a check from Women Only…couldn’t ignore the goings-on in her own condo. And Will…

  He pressed his mouth against the white cotton crotch of her panties and blew, nearly shooting her physically off the counter, and psychologically into another dimension.

  Sex between them before had been about instant gratification, of seeking an orgasm, then seeking it all over again. They hadn’t taken much time to explore each other at leisure. Any rest time had been reserved solely for rest. There’d been no foreplay, no during play, just “get down to the act, thank you very much” play.

  His unhurried attention made a completely different kind of chaos accumulate in her belly. It was deeper, somehow, more intense, her heart thudding in a way that would have been scary had she been thinking clearly. Her hips automatically bucked up off the counter as he bared her to his gaze then fastened his lips firmly to her clitoris. Then again, how could she think clearly when he was doing his best to chase all coherent thought from her mind, period?

  Will laved and suckled her with a patience and a consideration she’d never experienced before. His long tongue lapped her, meeting with the fleshy hood of her arousal then gently pulling it up until she trembled violently.

  The world exploded behind Renae’s closed eyelids, her hips jerking, her breathing ragged, but rather than freeing her, Will remained where he was, drawing out her crisis by suckling her, pulling the bud of her center into his mouth and swirling his tongue against it.

  Renae ran her hands through his hair again and again, not wanting the moment to end, yet eager to have him connect with her in an even more intimate way.

  As her climax ebbed, she tugged on the coarse strands of his hair until he was once again kissing her. She devoured his mouth much as he had devoured hers moments before, somehow unable to get enough of him. Of the taste of herself on him. She restlessly pulled the hem of his oxford shirt from the waist of his slacks, surprised to find him still fully dressed. Rather than wasting time with all the buttons, she undid the first two then yanked the shirt over his head, barely pausing to let the piece of clothing fall to the floor before diving for the zipper to his slacks.

  Will caught her hands in his and broke off the kiss.

  Renae knew a moment of panic. Maybe there was a reason why he was still dressed. Maybe he didn’t want her.

  He leaned his forehead against hers and stared deep into her eyes for long moments. She heard her own deep swallow, words out of her reach. Then he grinned.

  “Where’s the fire, Renae?”

  She wanted to tell him it was everywhere. Running rampant over her skin. Searing through her veins. Causing an inferno between her legs. But she didn’t get the chance because as she watched, he slid her panties down her legs then opened his own slacks so that their clothes covered the kitchen floor.

  Finally he was naked in front of her.

  Renae shivered just looking at his fine masculine form. He was made up of just the right amount of muscle, lean and powerful and so mouthwateringly gorgeous he took her breath away. His skin was golden-brown from doing laps in the pool, the white swatch below his hips down to the tops of his legs like a welcoming beacon. This man and she were different in so many ways, she sometimes wondered how they’d ever come together. He exercised, she sunbathed. He oozed self-discipline and plowed ahead with single-minded intent while up until now she’d bounced off the walls of life, pondering each cut and bruise, unprepared when the next wall went up in front of her.

  So different…but in that moment, the same.

  She curved her calves around his legs and moaned when his rock-hard length was cradled in her soft, wet folds. He moved away to put on a condom he’d taken from his back pocket, and she watched, entranced, as the latex stretched across his straining member. Then she scooted closer to the edge of the counter so he would have easy access.

  He fitted the tip of his erection against her fleshy portal and paused. Renae wanted to groan with impatience, force his entrance. Just when she might have reached down to do just that, he tilted his hips forward, entering her a scant few inches, then withdrawing.

  Renae did moan. Too little…too fast.

  Restless chaos built and built, her position of no power driving her insane. If they were in bed, she would have slammed him back to the mattress and then saddled and straddled him in two seconds flat.

  He stroked her again and she tried to force him in to the hilt. He grasped her hips and held her still, withdrawing again.

  Renae’s breath came in such ragged gasps she actually heard herself. She wanted him to fill her so badly she throbbed with the power of her need, trembled, her body no longer her own, but his to do with as he pleased.

  She frantically searched his face, finding his jaw tense, his expression determined as he entered her again, no doubt intent on withdrawing before hitting all the way home. But as she watched, the pure sensation of it seemed to wash over his face and instead of withdrawing, he was sliding into the hilt, finally filling her in the way she longed to be filled.

  Every molecule of air exited from Renae’s lungs. Every muscle contracted. She knew a moment of fear that she might not be able to breathe or move again. Then Will pulled slightly out and surged forward again, drawing a moan from her that broke the spell and coaxed her to an even higher plane of pleasure. The cool counter under her bottom was no longer hard. The kitchen itself no longer existed. All she knew was that moment and this man. And somewhere deep down she thought that’s all that she really needed.

  She tightened her legs around Will’s hips, teetering on the edge of orgasm. Seeming to sense her condition, Will lengthened his strokes, each one a little faster than the one before. Renae stiffened as an almost unbearable pressure took hold of her stomach. She tightly gripped his shoulders, subconsciously trying to maintain balance even as she snowboarded off the edge and into a snow-white wilderness.

  Somewhere through the clouds of her own clim
ax, she heard Will’s low groan, felt him go whipcord straight.

  Long moments later they were out of breath and clinging to each other, sweat glistening on their bodies, the ice cream melting on the counter next to them. And Renae looked at Will as if she really didn’t know him at all.

  The sound of a ringing phone pierced her ears. Renae was reminded of another telephone call a few days earlier that had not only shattered the moment, but splintered her from Will. Was it going to happen again?

  Will didn’t want to acknowledge the ringing phone. Didn’t want to withdraw from Renae’s soft body. He wanted to explore the myriad emotions that once he’d relaxed and opened the gate to, had rushed through him like dam waters being set free.

  He searched Renae’s face and eyes. When he’d looked at her before tonight, he’d seen a sexy woman he couldn’t wait to heat up the sheets with. Now…

  Damn the ringing phone.

  “I…think I should get that.”

  He watched as Renae dropped her gaze, looking everywhere but at him as he moved away from her. Two steps and he was snatching up the receiver in the dining room. “Sexton.”

  “Will? Is that you?”

  He tried to place the female voice but couldn’t. “This is he.”

  A sigh then, “Good. This is Tabitha, you know, Renae’s roommate upstairs. She wouldn’t happen to be with you, would she? I’ve been calling her cell but she’s not picking up.”

  Will looked at where Renae had her back to him. She’d already put her panties and pants back on and was working on the sweatshirt, although he knew she had to be steaming hot in the heavy cotton.

  “It’s for you,” he said, holding out the phone.

  Renae turned to face him, her shocked expression touching something deep inside him.

  “It’s Tabitha,” he explained.

  She instantly appeared to relax as she took the receiver then walked into the other room. Will used the time to clean up and get dressed himself. When Renae turned back around, he was leaning against the counter watching her.

  “Coast is clear,” she said, hanging the receiver back up.

  Will nodded, feeling he should say something, wanting to say something, but unsure what exactly it was. He knew now wasn’t the moment to lay on the table that, wrong or right, he no longer wanted to be with Janet.

  After all, where did that leave him with Renae?

  “Well, um, thanks for letting me wait here,” she said, turning from him.

  He followed her into the living room where she gathered her cell phone and her keys from the coffee table, then to the door where she appeared to hesitate for a moment before she closed it behind her.

  Will leaned against the wood and dry-washed his face, trying to interpret everything that had happened in the past hour. More than just the sex. What had made him go to her when he’d seen her sitting on the stairs? What had compelled her to agree to wait at his place?

  What had made him kiss her in the way he had?

  He’d lived a fairly straightforward life. He’d grown up in South London in the working-class area of Southwark. No, he hadn’t had the best clothes or the best bike or even the best education, but he’d made do with what he did have, getting strength from his parents whose work ethic was nothing if not stoic. Then he’d come to the States to attend medical school, bringing his sense of what he wanted out of life with him.

  Or rather what he’d thought he’d wanted out of life.

  Now everything emerged a thick, impenetrable fog, the future unclear and a tad intimidating.

  He found himself absently rubbing his chest and looked down at where his heart still throbbed thickly beneath his breastplate. He’d never felt quite this way before, so he had absolutely no frame of reference to compare it to. To say, oh yes, I remember this, and shortly thereafter this, this and that would happen.

  Instead he felt like he’d been flung into a vast sea and was navigating the waters without the aid of a chart or even a compass, the shore so far away as to be nonexistent.

  The question was, did he allow the current to take him where it willed? Or did he pick up a paddle and make for the closest coast and familiar ground?

  Now that was certainly something to think about….

  15

  RENAE NORMALLY DIDN’T have a problem with Monday mornings. But today…well, she suspected today would go down as her own personal worst. And it was only eleven o’clock. Not even the memory of last night, of her and Will, helped. In fact, considering what had happened since then, it actually hurt.

  It hadn’t been enough that her alarm hadn’t gone off and she’d gotten up late. She hadn’t been able to find the clean basket of laundry she’d put just inside her bedroom door the night before and had been forced to look for her belly-dancer costume. But when she’d put that on, an important thread had given across her breasts and the sequins had popped from the material like a series of buttons being ripped from a shirt. She’d had little doubt who had been behind the mishap, but she hadn’t had the time to confront Nina as she’d rushed from the apartment in a bathing-suit top and belly-dancer bottoms, reaching Women Only with only ten minutes left to go into the class she’d been scheduled to lead.

  Thankfully Lucky had stopped by the shop first thing and had not only opened, she had directed the class in her jeans and T-shirt. Renae had checked her cell phone to discover it had been switched off, something she didn’t remember doing. In fact, after Tabitha had been forced to call Will’s direct line, she distinctly remembered turning her cell back on before returning to her condo.

  And now, two hours later, she was in the middle of her sixth interview from hell to fill the position that would be left open by Lucky’s pending departure.

  “I don’t know how my mom would feel about my selling stuff…like this dildo,” the fresh-faced nineteen-year-old woman said, picking up an electric massager and staring at it.

  Renae wanted to tell the overgrown teen that maybe she should consider growing up and moving out of her parents’ house. “I understand completely. I wouldn’t want you selling anything you hadn’t a clue about, either. This,” she said, taking the box from her, “is a massager or a clitoris vibrator, not a dildo. And besides, one of the job requirements is that you not only know your physical self, but that you’re an expert on it, you know, should you need to fill in for someone during our popular Clit 101 course.”

  The teen gasped, turned as red as the curtain to the room where the class in question was conducted, then mumbled an apology as she headed for the door.

  Lucky’s laugh sounded from the counter where she was comparing inventory sheets. “Don’t you think you were a little hard on her?”

  Renae gave an eye roll. “Jesus, the girl probably didn’t even know where her clitoris was.”

  “Yes, but when did that become one of the requirements for employment? I mean, a floor salesperson doesn’t need to be an expert on the female anatomy.”

  Renae waved the massager. “No, but she should know that if a woman attempted to insert this she’d probably never get it back out.” She shook her head as she restocked the item. “I can see the headlines now: ‘The victim of electrocution was told she’d achieve the ultimate orgasm by a worker at Women Only.’ And never mind the lawsuits.”

  Lucky tsked tsked. “Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” She tucked the inventory sheets away. “Actually, lately I’ve been wondering if you pushed your mattress against the wall so that you’re getting up on the wrong side every morning.”

  Renae grimaced, then drew a deep breath and released it. “You’re right. I have been a bit bitchy lately, haven’t I?”

  Lucky rounded the counter and came to stand in front of her. “Have you spoken to Ginger yet?”

  Renae nodded. “Yeah. She can’t have lunch with me until later this week.”

  Lucky smiled. “Well, that’s good, isn’t it? At least you’ll finally get your proposal heard.”

  “Yeah
, I guess. It’s just that I couldn’t help feeling she was giving me the brush-off. And, trust me, that’s not a way I’m used to feeling with Ginger.”

  “I think she just has other things on her mind.”

  “Mmm.” As did she.

  Namely the person she’d seen coming out of Will’s apartment this morning.

  Lucky was looking at her a little too closely. “Are you sure that’s all that’s bothering you?”

  “Yes,” she said quickly. Then she leaned against the counter and sighed more than said, “No.”

  “Ah. I didn’t think so.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “That’s supposed to mean that Colin told me the resident returned from California last night.”

  “Like I needed to be told that. I saw her coming out of Will’s apartment at nine o’clock this morning.”

  The words were out before she could swallow them back.

  Renae winced and turned toward the counter, going through a small pile of coupons then straightening and putting them back near the register for customers to take.

  After last night, she hadn’t known what she’d expected. She’d sensed that something had changed in Will…had changed in their strange relationship. But when she’d returned to her condo to find a momentary peace treaty had been signed by Tabitha and Nina, she’d determined to just let whatever was happening happen. It wasn’t like she had any control over it anyway. The harder she tried to understand, the more elusive the answer became. She hoped coasting and allowing the road to take her where it may might shine a spotlight on what she was missing.

  Upon coming to that conclusion, she had felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders and had slept better that night than she’d slept in a long, long time. So well she was grinning when she’d awakened, even though her alarm hadn’t gone off and she was late. Not even her missing clothing and her costume mishap had managed to wipe the smile from her face.