Merediths Awakening (6 page)

“We took care of Worthington’s business,” he rumbled. The wicked gleam in those dreamy brown eyes filled her with burning panic. It
must
be panic, it certainly couldn’t be desire. “Now it’s time to take care of our personal business.” His eyes caught hers and wouldn’t let go. For the second time today—the second time in years—Meredith found herself snared, completely unable to break the connection between them.

“We,” she paused to clear her throat, which was suddenly and inexplicably dry, “we don’t have any personal business. You’re contracted to my company. That’s all the business we have.” Maybe if she said it forcefully enough they would both believe it.

“Now Bambie, we both know that’s just not true.” One corner of his bitable, sculpted mouth kicked up. “We started something this afternoon, and it’s way overdue to be finished.”

Meredith stood behind her desk, fingers clenched white on the rich wood as Tony turned from the door. He was stalking her, and Meredith tried to hold her ground, but with each of his steps she felt her resolution falter. His eyes, locked on hers, brought back the ache that had filled her body at the construction site. She could feel the phantom of his heat against her skin, and unwillingly she longed to feel the real thing.

“My name,” instead of coming out strong and decisive, her voice was low and strained, “is not Bambie. I am not some bimbo you can enjoy a quick slap and tickle with, and then move on. I don’t have the luxury of ‘personal business’.”

*

Her eyes were like wide silver pools, yearning and vulnerable. Tony could all but feel her conflict, and while he understood it, he couldn’t allow it to continue. To control her. To control them.

He slanted her a smile he knew was a little bit dark, and a lot wicked. “Oh, I know your name, Ms. Worthington. I also know how little it suits you. You’re all big eyes and trembling lips. You’re like a little fawn, everything’s all new and scary, and you want to experience it all so bad. You’re just waiting for the one who can make it happen for you.

You know I can do it, don’t you Princess?”

With each word he’d moved a bit closer, until he could hear the faint rasp of her breath, and catch her scent. She smelled … expensive. Doubtless like some French perfume that cost more per ounce than his car payment. She smelled like Heaven.

Flowers and the spice of warm, aroused woman. She smelled … edible. And he was more than ready to take a bite.

*

“No.” She had to force each word out. Something had broken in her at the construction site this morning. Some crucial bond that had kept her separate and safe for five long years. Now she felt like all her defenses were crumbling around her, like she was spinning out of control. It felt far too much like when she’d waited for a crumb of her father’s attention, or when she’d hidden from the media frenzy after Marcus’ divorce.

It terrified her, and yet she couldn’t seem to stop it. “I don’t have the luxury of experiencing everything. I have a business. I have responsibilities. There is no room for anything else. There
is
nothing else.”

“Princess, your lips say one thing, but your eyes and body say another.” He prowled closer still, and Meredith finally broke and ran. As she moved swiftly from behind her desk to stand behind the low leather couch that backed up to the wall across from the window, Tony kept pace with her, slowly gaining ground.

“Don’t do this,” she could hear the panic growing in her voice. Growing at the same rate as the heat in her belly at the look in his melting brown eyes. To her dismay she realized her panic had less to do with him than it did with her own reactions. Deep down she knew if she gave in to him, to her own desires, she would never find her control again, and she would lose her grip on everything that defined her.

*

It was clear to Tony that unless he did something drastic, Meredith would shut down completely. He wouldn’t, couldn’t let that happen.

With a quick, totally unexpected move, he rounded the couch and pressed her against the wall, catching the hands she raised to push him away in one of his. With a gentleness that belied his abrupt capture, he rested his forehead against hers.

“Don’t be so scared,” he murmured. The desperation in her eyes haunted him, and he knew the only way to erase it was to free her from her self-imposed prison. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” She didn’t look reassured, but she did stop her frantic squirming. “Just trust me, Princess.” She shook her head, eyes wide. “Just a little,” he was whispering against her lips now, and they were soft as satin. As she shook her head, the motion slowed until it was a dreamy drag of mouth over mouth. He couldn’t contain his low purr of approval. “Just with this,” and his lips finally took hers.

*

Meredith was awash in sensation. The wall pressed cool against her back, while Tony’s body blanketed her in heat. His scent, musk and man, filled her head, leaving her dizzy and confused. His voice was a low rumble vibrating from his chest to hers. And his mouth. God, his mouth. It was like silk and velvet, warm and slow on hers. With brief licks and tiny bites his mouth gentled hers, seducing a response, and she was helpless to resist.

“Mmm. You taste so good,” his words buzzed against her, sending sparkles of sensation through her. With a last nip at her lower lip he moved on, feathering kisses over her jaw before moving on to breathe warm caresses against the sensitive skin of her neck.

“You taste like fresh water in the desert, and warm spicy nights.” His hot words and hotter lips wove a spell around her. And in spite of herself, she didn’t want to escape.

Caught up in his light touches and soft words, Meredith didn’t immediately notice what his free hand was up to. It was only when a cool draft wafted over her abdomen that she realized he’d been methodically plucking her buttons open, one by one. Before she could do more than tense in protest, his lips surrounded hers again, sucking them into his mouth before focusing on first the top and then the bottom. The sensations streaking through her were electric and totally distracted her from the hand now stroking down her thigh to begin inching her skirt upward in a slow, inevitable slide.

Tony hooked her thigh lightly around his, freeing up his hand while still keeping her skirt at crotch level. Once again free to move, he stroked a heated path up her tummy before tracing the outline of her bra. This time Meredith didn’t protest. She was too caught up in the sensations he was causing to riot along her nerve endings. His fingers were rough, a working man’s hands, but gentle at the same time, taming her like the wild fawn he’d named her for.

*

God
,
she is delicious
. For all her bristles and denials, her skin was like satin, and her mouth like hot, wet silk. Meredith Worthington was a cauldron waiting to boil over. All she needed was the right man to break her formidable control. The right man to show her the pleasure that could only be found by giving over completely. And Tony intended to be that man.

She was so closed, so hard to read. He couldn’t imagine she didn’t recognize him, not when he’d spent five long years planning for the day he’d claim her for his own. But if she did remember him, she wasn’t letting on. Not by word or deed. Suddenly, he had to know for sure.

“Let me touch you,
Ariel.
”

*

Hearing that name, Meredith froze from the inside out. Oh, no, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. She’d walked away from this sort of adventure five years ago, and if there’d been moments of regret, all she had to do was look at the yellowed newspaper clipping in her dresser drawer to remember why.

But if that were true, then why didn’t she pull away from the man who held her so forcefully? Held her as if she were as necessary to him as the air he breathed. In spite of her confusion, her senses were swimming. Her hormones crying.

She tried to stay strong, but even her wall of ice wasn’t proof against the fire of his touch.

*

Moving with slow intent, Tony slid his hand under her loose cotton blouse along her rib cage to stroke up her spine. With one practiced motion he undid the clip of her bra, and made a low sound of enjoyment when her breasts fell loose against his chest.

When he pushed the bra up, baring her breasts, he had to fight for breath. Her breasts were creamy white and smooth, pale as the rest of her skin. Her nipples were long and tight, a rosy pink that went well with her ivory skin, but seemed at odds with her black, black hair. She was like strawberries and cream, and she was just waiting to be savored and enjoyed. Unable to resist for one moment more, Tony leaned down and stroked his tongue lightly against her beaded nipple, smiling darkly as she arched into the caress.

*

His tongue was like velvet. She’d known that from his kisses, but the sensation of it on her skin was a revelation. Meredith knew she would be embarrassed later, even enraged with him and with herself. But now? Now all she knew was the press of his hips against hers, the cool slickness of the wall supporting her, his hand cupping her breast like an offering and his mouth tormenting her inflamed flesh.

He nipped lightly at her breast, the same way he’d nipped at her lips and throat.

Pleasure sparked and she found herself involuntarily tightening her leg around his hip, needing a closer contact.

“I’m going to let go of your hands,” his voice was an intimate rasp, “and you aren’t going to fight me.” Incoherently she nodded, anything to keep the sensations coming.

Slowly he released her hands, eyes locked to hers as if expecting a struggle. When she merely slid them down to rest on his shoulders, he gave an approving nod and turned his attention back to her waiting breasts.

Each draw of his mouth seemed to send a bolt of electricity from nipple to clit, and Meredith was helpless to do anything but writhe in the fire. Finally she raised her hands to wind shaking fingers through his hair, scraping her nails lightly over his scalp and drawing his mouth back to hers.

“Huh-uh,” his voice was a rumble as he deliberately moved her hands back to the wall behind her. “I didn’t give you permission to move.” He pressed her wrists to the hard surface before adding, “If you want something, you must ask for it.” The tiny part of her brain that was still coherent was screaming warnings Meredith couldn’t quite heed. Those words, which had echoed through her fantasies, pushed her beyond all control. She was arching now, dragging her sex over his and savoring the sensations spearing through her. With each grinding pressure, with each eager pull of his lips, Meredith came closer to a release more cataclysmic than any she’d ever experienced.

“Please,” she whimpered.

He gave a dark smile and lowered his head so his words drifted over her sizzling flesh.

“Please, what?”

She hesitated. This felt like a point of no return. If she gave in and followed his rules, Meredith knew she’d be making a conscious choice to submit to him. And she was afraid that once she submitted, there would be no turning back.

“Please, Anthony…” His name had barely left her lips before his mouth was on her, as if starved for the taste of her sweet skin. Even as conscious thought began to fade, she realized his attention was a reward…for asking, and for using his full name.

When Tony lifted his mouth from her swollen breasts to gaze hungrily at her nipples, she found herself arching her back, thrusting closer to his mouth, trying to lure his lips back to her yearning flesh. Instead he dropped a brief kiss on her lips, her jaw, the exact spot where her neck met her shoulder.

*

“You will not move.” Tony looked deeply into her eyes. Their silver color seemed to glow, like molten metal. “Acknowledge,” he allowed a bite of authority to color his words. “You will not move.” He waited for her nod, and then slowly dropped to his knees before her.

Tony couldn’t suppress a low sound of enjoyment as he slid his hands up Meredith’s long, long legs. The fragile webbing of her stockings snagged on his rough skin, emphasizing her femininity. With a slow, steady stroke he slid his hands under her skirt, letting it catch on his arms until it was rucked up around her waist. Her fingers clenched, flexing against the wall as he pushed her skirt still higher and leaned in to rub his cheek over the soft skin of her belly.

His head filled with her unique scent, spicy and warm. Smiling against her silky skin, he hooked his fingers into her stockings and panties, and drew them down to pool around her ankles, dropping to his knees at her feet as he did so. Gently, one foot at a time, he removed her sensible black pumps, helping her step free.

Before she had time to realize what he was doing, what she was letting him do, Tony lifted her leg, draping one thigh over his shoulder, and began to feast.

*

He kissed her pussy the same way he kissed her mouth, nibbling and sucking. He ran his tongue lovingly through each curve, gifting her with sharp, sucking kisses on the fragile skin between her silken folds. When his tongue slid like a velvet lash into her weeping opening, Meredith pounded tight fists against the wall, feeling like the small pain was the only thing keeping her from falling to pieces.

Nothing had ever felt so good, so amazing. His tongue flickered against her convulsing passage before sweeping up to flutter over her aching clit. As her hips pumped utterly out of her control, he continued to torment the apex of her pleasure and slowly began to work one thick finger into her narrow opening. When he added a second finger, Meredith arched and shuddered into her climax.