Seven Sexy Sins (8 page)

“Only it kind of…feels like…the real thing.”

“We’ll just get rid of some excess energy so we can start again, and take our time.”

“Okay.” She felt faint with desire. “Stop that. My turn.” She pushed his hand away and grabbed the shower gel, squeezing some onto her palm. Then she rubbed it onto his chest. “When did you get all these muscles?” She ran her hands over his ribcage, up to his shoulders, down his arms.

He put his hands on her hips. “You hadn’t noticed me before?”

“I…” She thought about it as she rubbed her fingers over his nipples, making him shiver. “I don’t think I let myself look too hard. Like staring at a gorgeous pair of shoes that costs five hundred bucks—what’s the point in staring when you know you’re never going to buy them?”

He smiled, looking down as her hand descended in small, slow circles. Her fingers followed his chest hair where it tapered to a line, and trailed across his flat, hard belly into the thatch of red-brown curls at the bottom. Her soapy hand closed around him, and she proceeded to make sure he was really, really clean.

He closed his eyes, bearing her touch for as long as he could, and when he finally opened them again, they were hot and exasperated. He kissed her, the hot shower soaking his russet hair, turning it the colour of mahogany, and the water ran between their bodies, making them shimmer. She tried to say something, anything, to lighten the tension, to make him laugh, but he was too far gone. His kisses were molten hot, insistent. “Okay, that’s enough.” He tore open the packet and put on the condom.

Gently, he turned her around. He lifted her hands and placed her palms on the tiles. Her heart thumped as he reached around to stroke her breasts, and dipped his hand lower to brush into her hair. Then he nudged her legs apart and pushed into her, making her sigh.

They stood there for a moment, revelling in the sensation of being so close, so aligned with one another. His hands slid over her soapy body as he began to move leisurely inside her, drawing out their climax with excruciating slowness.

“Jeez, Rusty.” Her breath came in gasps, and he gave a sexy laugh. Her eyes narrowed—he wasn’t the only one who could play at being naughty. She spread her legs wider, glancing over her shoulder. “Are you going to fuck me properly or not?”

He gave her a warning look, but closed his eyes and thrust into her powerfully, leaning forward on the tiles. She gasped at the sound of wet skin on skin, at the slide of him inside her, and before long, her orgasm exploded. It made her squeal again as her muscles clenched around him, and he exclaimed as he came, pulling her tightly to him.

Afterward, he withdrew and turned her in his arms, and she rested her forehead on his shoulder, only half-conscious of the hot water soaking into her skin. “Oh my God.”

He kissed her ear. “You have the most powerful orgasms of any woman I’ve ever known, do you know that?”

“I have a very strong pelvic floor.”

He chuckled. “It feels like you’re squeezing me in a vise.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, that wasn’t a complaint.” He kissed her ear, her cheek and finally her lips. Then he looked at her, his green eyes warm. “So we’ve finished the starter. Are you ready for the main course?”

“Not yet. I need some real sustenance first.”

Ten minutes later, they lay on the bed eating chocolate.

“I thought this was for afterward.” He broke off a piece and offered it to her.

She took it and put it in her mouth. “It was. But I didn’t know we were going to have pre-sex sex. I need to keep my energy up.”

He laughed, breaking off another chunk for himself. He lay propped up against the pillows, slightly turned toward her, and she lay on her front, arms resting on a pillow.

She finished the piece of chocolate and took a sip of wine. “This is, like, an absolutely perfect evening.”

“Eating chocolate and drinking wine in a dodgy motel?”

“And having hot sex,” she said, adding before she could stop herself, “with you.”

He sucked on the chocolate as she studied him curiously, his eyes meeting hers, warm with amusement. He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I can’t reconcile the two versions I have of you in my head.”

“What do you mean?”

She pushed herself into a sitting position, her arms around the pillow. “There’s the Rusty I’ve known for ten years, the one who used to like jumping off Charlie’s Rock into the river and scaring the shit out of me, who made Dan let me watch horror movies when our parents had gone to bed, who bought me my first glass of wine in a bar.” She sipped her wine. “And then there’s the other Rusty.”

He gave a lazy smile. “And what’s he like?”

She watched as he licked chocolate off his fingers. Lord, did he know how much he turned her on? “Sexy. Hot. I’d never met him myself—I’d heard about him from other girls, but as soon as I turned up, he disappeared.” She ran her gaze down him. He was naked, completely unselfconscious, confident and relaxed in his nudity, and more than aware, she suspected, that his lean, muscled body was starting to heat her up again. “I mean, I’ve always realised you were popular with the girls. Heaven knows I’ve heard enough tales about your bedroom exploits from your girlfriends. But it’s only now I’ve really started to see that Rusty myself.”

He reached over to get his Coke, displaying his wide chest with its crisp, curling hairs, and his tanned, muscular biceps to her before he turned back. He sipped the soda. “Do you like that Rusty?”

She met his gaze. “I can’t see how any woman could fail to.” She picked up his left hand, examining his empty fingers. “How come you’re still single, after all the girlfriends you’ve had?”

“I’m only twenty-six. And I haven’t had
that
many. You make me sound like a right tart.”

She laughed. “Well, you’ve had more than me.”

“Sweetheart, the Pope’s had more than you.”

“I’ve had two boyfriends.”

He snorted. “Two eunuchs, by the sound of it.”

“Don’t change the subject. Come on, tell me, have you ever been in love? I know you were pretty hot on that girl…what was her name? Meredith? Did you love her?”

He shrugged, clearly uncomfortable talking about it. “Not enough.”

“Do you ever think you’ll relax your guard enough to fall properly in love?”

“Nah.” He smiled.

She rested her head on her hand as she studied him. “Do you want kids, Rusty?”

His smile faded and his eyes took on a wary look. “No.”

“Why not?”

“You know why not.”

“Because your father, and your grandfather and your great-grandfather were all bastards?”

“Something like that.”

“It doesn’t run in the blood, love.”

He said nothing and she knew he was thinking about his brother. Cole, three years older than Rusty, had proved himself every inch a Thorne. A troublemaker throughout his school years, he’d got into a bad crowd, been arrested at twenty-one for burglary, spent six months in jail, and since then had been in and out of court on various charges. He got his girlfriend pregnant at twenty-five and had been decent enough to marry her but so far hadn’t exactly proved to be the ideal parent or husband. A drunk and a gambler, Cole was unreliable, hot tempered and basically unpleasant. Faith had often wondered if Rusty had been switched at birth.

“You’re so different from them,” she said, reaching out to stroke his cheek. “You’re educated, you have a profession, you’re responsible and reliable… There’s not a nasty bone in your body. How on earth can you think you’re like them?”

“The same blood runs in my veins.” His eyes were shadowed, dark.

“I know. But it’s just blood, Rusty. It doesn’t mean anything.”

The amusement had completely disappeared from his face, though, and she could feel the way he’d withdrawn from her. Suddenly she wished she hadn’t said anything. Had she spoiled the evening? Was he going to say he had to go now?

Chapter Eight

His gaze fell to her lips and then to her breasts. To her relief, by the time he looked back up at her, he was smiling. “Enough about me. I’m much more interested in discovering how you’ve made it to twenty-two without doing
any
of your seven sexy sins.”

She clutched the pillow to her, letting the intensity of the moment go, glad he’d decided to move on. “I don’t know. Just never got around to it. I didn’t go out with the two guys I’ve been with for long.”

“You were at university for three years. You must have had other offers. And there was no Dan around to watch over you. I would have thought you’d have gone crazy with all that freedom.”

She shrugged. “Mum wasn’t quite the ‘wait till you’re married’ sort, but she did impress upon me when I was younger that I shouldn’t sleep around. Besides which, I went to uni not long after the accident. I wasn’t ready to share myself with lots of different people. I kept myself to myself and concentrated on my studies. I didn’t want to open my heart. I was quite keen to protect it.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

She thought about it. “No, I don’t think so. I’ve thought I was, several times. But I don’t think it was the real thing. Not like you see in movies, or hear about in songs. The kind of love that means you can’t concentrate on anything, that makes you ache when you’re not with someone. I’ve never had that.” She stopped, thinking about the way she’d felt all week, waiting to see him again. But that wasn’t the same. That was just about looking forward to investigating the next sin, to increasing her sexual experience. Not the same thing at all.

He reached out and started to pull the pillow away from her. She clung onto it for a moment before letting him slide it out of her fingers. He threw it on the floor, took her hand and linked their fingers again. “Well, I, for one, have no idea how you’ve managed to stay relatively innocent for so long.” He pulled her toward him, wrapped his arms around her and rolled so he was leaning over her. He nuzzled her neck, kissing her ear. “You’re obviously a sex kitten deep down.”

“I’ve never thought of myself that way.”

“It’s been obvious to me for a long time.” He lifted his head, running his fingers lightly up her thigh. His green eyes were warm, intense. “Are you ready for your second sexy sin, Ms. Hillman?”

A frisson of excitement and nervousness ran between her shoulder blades, and her mouth went dry. “Um…”

He kissed her, nibbled her bottom lip and ran his tongue across it. “What’s the matter, Faith?” He rubbed his nose against hers.

“I’m nervous.”

“About what? It’s only me.”

“Don’t you see? That’s the problem.”

He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. The amusement faded from his eyes, to be replaced by gentleness. “Sweetheart, I’m so pleased I’m going to be the first to do this for you. I love you, I’m incredibly fond of you and that’s what makes this so special.”

Faith looked into his eyes. She knew he meant he loved her as a friend. But her heart did a little tap dance all the same.

He trailed his hand down from her face and then drew spirals around her breasts, brushing the nipples occasionally, making her catch her breath. He traced light lines across the flat of her stomach before moving into the triangular thatch of curls beneath.

She sighed, and he kissed her while he slid his fingers even lower, into the already hot, wet part of her. They slipped deep inside her to collect the slick moisture, and then returned to begin arousing her even more.

She opened her legs wider, welcoming his touch, and his mouth left hers to kiss her cheeks, her eyelids, her neck, around to her ear.

“You’re so sexy.” He ran his tongue around her ear, making her shiver. “You drive me crazy, do you know that?” His deep voice seemed to ring throughout her, at the right pitch to set her whole body vibrating like a bell. “With your hot little ass and your tight, firm breasts and this incredible mouth…” He kissed it again. “I sat there and watched you talking to Dan and Toby and Eve on Wednesday and all I could think about was picking you up and carrying you off somewhere so I could do bad things to you.”

“Oh,” she said faintly.

His lips hovered a millimetre above hers, teasing, just out of reach. His fingers were firm, stroking her insistently. “I want to bury my mouth in you. I want to taste you, Faith. Are you going to let me taste you?”

“Yes.” Her nervousness had vanished, to be replaced by a hungry desire for this sexy, provocative man.

He reached behind him and threw all but one pillow onto the floor, lay on his back and placed the last pillow under his head lengthways. The room was subsiding into twilight, and somebody had lit a barbecue on the beach somewhere—the subtle smoky smell complementing the sweet scent of the jasmine that was rising again. Music also filtered through with the aromas, either from one of the other motel rooms or from the beach, slow ballads and lazy acoustic guitar, Jack Johnson, maybe, or John Mayer, the notes spiralling with her thoughts.

His eyes were dark, intense. He was no longer the friend she’d known for millennia, replaced instead by the lover she was beginning to adore. She moved up the bed, manoeuvring herself astride the pillow, and his hands guided her down onto his mouth.

Faith leaned her arms on the headboard of the bed, her heart thumping. She closed her eyes as he kissed the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thigh. He brushed his lips against her hair, sending a tingle through her. Then he swept his tongue right through the hot centre of her.

“Fuck!” She inhaled sharply, tensing at the unfamiliar feeling. He gave a short, brief laugh, and his hand stroked the outside of her thigh in response, but he didn’t stop. Forcing herself to relax, she gave herself over to him as he began to arouse her slowly with his lips, teeth and tongue.

She rested her forehead on her arms. The sensations he was creating were incredible. He caressed her thighs and hips and brought a hand underneath to stroke her, parting her lips with his fingers to access the heart of her sensitivity. He slipped his fingers inside her, deep inside, his thumb joining his lips and tongue in teasing the responsive spot at the top so that she groaned and widened her hips, begging him to take her further.