Seven Sexy Sins (12 page)

She laughed. “Here, dip one of these in it for me.” She handed him a stick of asparagus, wrapped in bacon.

“Amusingly phallic,” he said, scooping up some of the guacamole and offering it to her.

Fixing her gaze on his, she closed her lips over the end and took a delicate bite.

He studied her, his gaze starting to grow hot. “I don’t know how you made that look sexy, but you managed it.”

“This will kill you, then.” She took out a hot dog and made a great display of licking the end before sliding her mouth over it. Giggles overtook her, however, which rather killed the effect.

After this, she continued to unpack the tiny containers she’d carefully fitted into the cooler. Thoroughly enjoying themselves, feeding each other, they made their way through the other dishes she’d prepared, including small, tender pieces of steak cooked in a mustard sauce, salmon pieces that she adored but he wasn’t so keen on, and oysters, which he loved but made her shudder. “Did you know,” she told him as she fed him yet another, “oysters change sex from female to male and back, which means they help us to experience the masculine and feminine sides of love?”

He looked slightly alarmed. “Meaning what?”

“That you’ll be wearing my underwear before the night’s out.”

“Ah, but you’re not wearing any.”

“True.” She licked her fingers, not missing the way his gaze followed her tongue. She could see why eating like this was supposed to be sexy. It didn’t really matter what food they ate—the act of feeding each other, and observing the other eat, was the reason for the arousal. Watching his mouth close around her fingers, feeling his tongue sweep across her skin, that was the sexy part of this. She thought of what else she had planned, and desire rippled through her. She knew he saw it, maybe in a tightening of her nipples, or the dilating of her pupils, because his lips curved, and he leaned forward once again to kiss her.

When he finally drew back, she glanced out across the lake. The sun was low in the sky and the water sparkled with highlights. The late February mornings had turned cool and autumnal, but the evenings were still warm, and the cicadas were already out in force, chirruping in the bush. She cleared her throat. “How about some sweet food now?”

“Mm.” He tipped his head to one side, studying her.

“What?” She flicked him a glance as she brought out the last few pots.

“Nothing.” His eyes were full of smiles.

“I know you have a sweet tooth. So I took extra care with choosing these.” She opened the first one. “Strawberries and raspberries. Red fruit—the colour of love.”

“Oh yeah.”

She picked up a strawberry by the green stem and held it up. Keeping his eyes on hers, he closed his lips around it, reminding her of the way his mouth closed over her nipple. She swallowed as he bit gently, brushing his lips with his tongue.

“I love strawberries,” he said.

“I know.” She took the bitten end of the fruit, wiped the red juice on her lips like gloss, and pouted at him. “That’s why I got them.”

He reached across and slipped a hand behind her neck, pulling her toward him. He licked her lips slowly, sending little shivers of delight skittering through her.

They fed each other the rest of the fruit, and then she popped open the next container.

“Figs?” he said in surprise.

“Yep. Figs were used by the ancient Greeks in copulation rituals.”

“Now that sounds like something I might be interested in.” His eyes glimmered with amusement. “Actually, figs were one of the first plants cultivated by humans. Fossilized figs dating to around 9500BC were found in an early Neolithic village near Jericho.”

“Useless facts,” she said happily as she cut the figs in half. “That’s why I love you so much.”

The words left her mouth before she could stop them and she bit her lip, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the knife. Carefully she slit another fig open. She’d told him she loved him hundreds of times before. But not since they’d started sleeping together.

She decided to pretend she hadn’t said it and cleared her throat. “Apparently open figs simulate female reproductive organs. Watching a man eat one is supposed to be incredibly erotic.” She looked up finally. 

“Huh,” he said.

She held one up and turned the red flesh around to face him. “Well?”

“Are you going to take your clothes off so I can compare?”

“I don’t think so.”

Grinning, he took the fig from her. Keeping his eyes fixed on her, he ran his tongue lightly up the middle and then took a gentle bite, his tongue brushing his lips, and again she felt a shudder of desire, giving her goose bumps.

“Two can play at that game.” She took out a banana, peeled it, and closed her mouth over the end. Widening her eyes at him, she moved it in and out between her lips.

They both laughed and he pulled her close to him for the first time, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her properly. “Are you nearly done?” he asked eventually. “I’m too horny to wait much longer.”

“Sweetheart, I think you were horny before I even unzipped the cooler.” Packing up the plates, she moved everything off the blanket to one side. “There’s one thing left.”

“What’s that?”

She took out a jar of chocolate body paint and showed him the label.

Both his eyebrows shot up. “Now you’re talking.”

She got to her knees, took a final look around to make sure they couldn’t be seen, and then removed her top. Standing, she slipped off her skirt and threw both items into the house before sitting before him naked, cross-legged. Following her lead, he did the same with his shirt, pants and boxers, and sat facing her. “I’m glad there’s chocolate,” he said.

“You can’t have food sex and not have chocolate. It’s another food containing a stimulant similar to endorphins. Apparently some monasteries in Vienna banned it in the seventeenth century because it inflamed passion.”

“The Aztecs discovered it. The Aztec emperor Montezuma drank fifty golden goblets of chocolate a day to enhance his sexual prowess.”

“I didn’t know that,” she said. “Jeez, he must have been fat.” She unscrewed the lid of the jar. Inside was a small brush, fitted into the lid.

“Where did you get this?”

“One of my readers gave me a website address.” She took out the brush and straightened the handle, clipping it in place. “The idea is that we paint this onto areas we’d like to be licked. Starting with the not so obvious.”

“Otherwise it would be a very short exercise.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“Go on then, you first.”

She dipped the brush in the soft chocolate and touched it to the tips of each finger on her left hand. She held it up to show him and winked.

Rusty closed his hand around her wrist, his thumb resting in the centre of her palm, and brought it up to his mouth. Keeping his eyes on hers, he closed his mouth over each finger in turn, sucking the chocolate off. She couldn’t decide whether to watch him, finding his hot gaze and the sight of his lips sucking her so arousing, or close her eyes, which heightened the sensation of his tongue brushing her skin. In the end she did both in turn, sighing happily as he turned her hand over and placed a kiss in the centre of her palm.

“My turn now.” She did the same to him, painting his fingers before licking the chocolate off. He gave a low groan as her mouth covered his thumb. She looked up to see his eyes closed, and she kept her mouth there for a while, smoothing her tongue over his skin, closing her own eyes. When she finally looked up again, he was watching her, his eyes hot.

“Do you know what you do to me?” She glanced down at his lap and then back up at him. “Yuh-huh.” Smiling, she dipped the brush back in the chocolate, drawing it across her wrist.

“Oh.” He brought it up to his mouth and licked it off gently. “This is a very useful lesson in erogenous zones.”

“I was just thinking the same.” She copied the movement on him. “I can’t believe how erotic it is, and it’s such a simple thing.”

“I know.” He watched her run her tongue down his arm, and he shivered. His eyes were growing more intense with desire by the minute. “Show me more.”

“I think the whole of my body’s one big erogenous zone at the moment.” She brushed the chocolate in the crook of her arm, shuddering as he removed it slowly with his mouth.

“I know what you mean.” He took the brush from her and painted a stripe from her shoulder up her neck, and then ran his tongue all the way up, making her tip her head to the side with a sigh.

“Show me what you like,” she said huskily as she got to her knees.

He dipped the brush in the chocolate and daubed his earlobe, and touched the brush to the spot behind his ear. She leaned forward, her breasts brushing his arm, and licked slowly up to his hairline, taking the lobe in her mouth and sucking the chocolate off. She repeated it the other side, enjoying his sighs of pleasure.

“You now,” he said, handing her the brush.

She took it and stroked it firmly across her lips.

He took her in his arms and kissed her, which smeared the chocolate across their faces and made her squeal as he lowered her to the ground. He planted chocolate kisses across her cheeks and chin, and placed dots with the brush on her nose and temples, kissing them off with his chocolatey lips.

After that, things started to heat up. They drew patterns with the body paint across their bodies and down their legs, getting stickier by the minute, trying the backs of their knees and the insides of their ankles, their toes, nipples, and even dobs in each other’s navels, which made him sigh but her squeal and giggle.

“Wait a minute,” he said eventually, holding up a hand. He looked very mischievous and she felt instantly wary. “I’ve got something I want to try.” He pulled the cooler over and rummaged inside. “I’m sure I saw…ah yes.” He brought out a Mars Bar.

“That was supposed to be for afterward.”

He shook his head. He put a hand on her shoulder and pressed her onto her back. Slowly, he unwrapped the long, slender chocolate bar, his eyes gleaming.

“Rusty…”

“Open your legs.”

She shook her head, eyes wide. “No.”

He leaned over her and kissed her. “Come on, sexy, think about what you’ll be able to tell your readers.”

“I couldn’t.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “There’s nobody here.”

“That’s hardly the point.”

He nudged at her legs. “Come on. Isn’t this what your articles are about? Pushing boundaries?”

“Even so.” She felt deliciously shocked. “You are so wicked, Rusty Thorne.”

“And you love me for it.” His eyes were hot, almost feverish. He kissed her, nudged her legs again. “Go on.”

She closed her eyes and screwed up her nose, reluctantly opening her legs. “I’m going to regret this…”

“No you won’t. I promise.” He kissed her again.

She jumped as he brushed the cold bar up her thigh. “Eeek!”

“Just relax.” He stroked it up the central core of her, continuing to kiss her. She let him, struggling not to giggle, not believing what she was letting him do. She felt him push it inside her gently, and gasped. He took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into her mouth, kissing her deeply as he slid the chocolate bar up into her. The coldness was tantalisingly shocking, a stark contrast to the heat of her body. As he withdrew it slowly, it made her catch her breath.

He lifted his head. She opened her eyes, her cheeks hot. Then she stared at him as his green eyes gleamed.

“You wouldn’t.”

He grinned. Before she could stop him, he took a bite of the bar.

“Rusty!” She squealed, trying to snatch it out of his hand, and he laughed, rolling away from her. They fought for a moment, but he caught her hands and drew her to him, turning it into an embrace, and eventually she gave in and put her arms around him, melting against him like the bits of chocolate still sticking to their bodies.

Within minutes he retrieved a condom, put it on and slid inside her, still laughing at the embarrassed expression on her face.

“You’re so sexy.” He licked up stray bits of chocolate around her neck and shoulder. “I’ve never done that before.”

“I should think not, you wicked man.”

He chuckled, making hot, sweet, sticky love to her until they both came, filling the warm evening air with soft sighs and gasps, as the kingfishers dived into the darkening lake, and the kiwi birds began to cry in the bush.

Chapter Twelve

Later, after a shower had washed away the stickiness, they walked around part of the lake and watched the reflection of the setting sun across the water.

Rusty took Faith’s hand, and she didn’t protest. After all, they’d walked hand-in-hand before, just as she’d walked with Toby, Dan and even Eve, so it was hardly out of the ordinary. And yet it felt strange. Intimate. She looked down as he linked her fingers with his, watching as he stroked her knuckles with his thumb. Then she glanced back up at him. He wasn’t looking at her—he was waxing lyrical about the first European colonists to New Zealand and what it must have been like to land in such a beautiful country after a long journey across the wild seas. His gaze had wandered across the lake, and he was lost in a world of his own, his voice deep and melodious as he related some tale he’d once read about the first missionaries to Kerikeri. He often zoned out like this when in teacher mode, and she knew his students commented on it.
Mr. Thorne’s gone A.W.O.L. again.

The sun was setting behind him, and the sky burned a deep orange in between the blue. It lit his hair, turning the ruffled, russet-brown strands to scarlet at the ends, silhouetting his attractive, boy-next-door features and wide, sexy smile. She couldn’t help it. She brought him to a stop, turned him around and kissed him, their fingers still linked down by their sides.

“Hmm,” he said when she finally drew back. “Were you trying to shut me up?”

“That’s absolutely the reason.”

His lips curved, and, releasing her hand, he brushed a strand of hair back from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. The light touch made her shiver, and she saw he’d noticed, a slight frown appearing on his forehead, an intense look in his eyes. For a moment she thought he was going to startle like a deer, run a mile at the thought that he could make her shiver with a mere brush.