Designing Passion (5 page)

“Oh I want a sweet snack.” He dipped a big, juicy strawberry into the chocolate.

The heated trail of his lips paused where his gifted fingers massaged, pinched, and rubbed her clit. The other hand, he grazed the cold fruit over her fleshy folds.

The heat of his breath on her skin was followed by a gentle wetness of him licking along her throbbing pussy. Tawny’s back arched as she welcomed his hungry sampling. The electrifying sensation of his hot tongue sliding into her swollen mound sent spasms of delight throughout her core. Looking up at her, he bit into the red berry, sucking the fruit while he drove his finger inside of her, massaging her inner walls to elation. Tawny shuddered with bliss, wanting him desperately.

Giving an entrancing stare, he paused with a grin before burying his face between her legs again. Her engorged slit spasmed with his urgent sucking, flicking, and then gentle biting. The talented masked rogue brought her to the brink of explosion. The intensity of his tantalizing tongue massaging her throbbing flesh sent her reeling as she panted with delight. “Oh my God. I’m gonna come.”

“Oh yeah, come for me. I wanna eat you out when you come.” He slid his finger in, massaging the walls of her pussy as he suckled harder on her clit.

“Oh God, oh God—” She squealed and grunted as her body exploded with shooting spasms of sheer ecstasy. She jerked violently. Her heated wetness spilled out and he lapped up her juices hungrily.

Tawny guided his mouth back to hers. Tremors rolled over her quivering body, and she couldn’t contain her husky rasps. She couldn’t wait any longer; she wanted him now, more than she had wanted anyone in years. Probing down the plains of his sculpted abdomen, she grasped his thick shaft, massaging and stroking. “I bet I can make you come, too,” she challenged.

“You’re off to a good start.” He held her hand over his cock, slowing the speed of her strokes and squeezing her fingers tighter.

Pushing his chest away with a firm hand, she eased him back up onto his knees and sat up. Tawny gave a seductive grin as he watched her. The sheer joy of having control drove her excitement higher. “You like to watch, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I’d love to watch you suck my cock.”

She tasted his hardness. His low moan prompted her to lick and then suck on the tip, empowered when his eyes closed and his head tilted back. Tawny took pleasure in savoring the engorged flesh, inducing untamed growls from him.

Mastering his cock, she cupped his balls in her left hand, and held her right at the base of his shaft, gripping tightly, taking pleasure at the sensation of his pulsing vein, and sucked and nibbled her way back to the tip. Moving her head in a slight rolling motion, she encircled the head repeatedly, consuming his length.

She was caught by surprise when he pulled away. His eyes dark with lust, he grabbed her shoulders and pinned her back onto the blankets. The sweetness of his breath brushed over her face as he hovered, gasping, far enough away that their lips could barely graze. His stare was penetrating as he tantalized her, rubbing his steely hard on against her dripping pussy, offering a smoldering grin.

Eager and frustrated, she pulled at his hips, welcoming him, but he resisted, still smiling through his black mask that glimmered in the candlelight. She was torn between her desire to see under his disguise and the opportunity to have all of him. With precision, he pivoted his torso, teasing her, moving closer, rubbing up and down the heat of her throbbing flesh. The confidence in his movement spurred her on, had her clawing at his back, begging for him without words.

“Do you want me?”

“Yes.”

“Then say it.” A teasing roll of his hips fueled her yearning as his hardness massaged her mound.

“I want you.”

She writhed under his powerful body as he pleasured her with the scraping of his whiskers around her lips, inflaming the urgency in tasting his kiss; the heated aroma of his musky cologne enthralled her.

“Uh—I can’t take it anymore.” He sat up, pulling her shoulders toward him. “It’s time to make you squeal.”

Ready for this moment, her breathing quickened. She watched as he grabbed one of the condoms and sheathed himself. Putty in his hands, she succumbed to his strength. He spun her around, landing her on her hands and knees as he gripped her hips from behind. Her pulse raced, her heart pounded.

“Shit, you turn me on. Do you want me inside you? Do you?”

“Yes, I want you inside me, now.”

“I’m gonna fuck you so hard.”

In a swift movement, he plunged deep inside her tight wetness. Tawny’s cries of ecstasy filled the tower as the storm flashed and boomed outside.

“Do you like that?”

“Yes, don’t stop.”

Increasing his tempo, he plunged deeper inside her, harder, faster, clutching her hips while driving with desperate force into her. Whimpering with delight, she pushed against him in blissful swaying motion. Happy to be dominated by him, Tawny held her ass in the air while he pounded her hard from behind. He gripped her shoulders, pushing them down as he pumped, and she shuddered with each slamming thrust.

His fingers trailed down her arms, gripping her wrists. “You like giving me control?”

“Yes.” Her body was ablaze with rippling waves of glorious contractions.

“What do you want?”

“I want you to come inside me.”

“Oh yeah, I’m gonna explode so deep inside you.”

He impaled her willing body and she arched her back, tilting her pelvis as he slammed into her, sending a shockwave of ecstasy through her core. She came screaming out with bliss.

He continued driving even faster into her taut, swollen flesh. In one final climactic instant, his harsh growl of masculine satisfaction filled the air.

“Oh fuck, you’re amazing.” His pace slowed, with long, deep thrusts, shuddering as his hands gripped her wrists. Finally, he collapsed onto her.

Tawny quivered beneath him as residual tremors jerked through her body.

***

The squawking of seagulls sounded closer. Tawny opened her eyes in surprise for a moment, until she realized where she was. The disheveled mound of blankets had been strewn over the floor, one thin satin cover draped lightly over her body. She strained her eyes against the growing light that beamed through fractured stained glass.

The empty champagne glasses and bottle sat on the table alongside the half-eaten strawberries and chocolate and the faint odor of candle smoke still lingered in the air.

A brief stretch of her limbs revealed the stiffness in her back and thighs. They had made love into the early morning light before she’d fallen asleep in his arms.

Tawny rolled over, patting down the empty blankets and pillow beside her. Her remarkable conquest had vanished. It hadn’t occurred to her that one-night arrangement didn’t speak to what would happen when morning would come. With a sigh, she curled up, hugging his pillow as waves of self-conscious inhibitions returned.

“Did you sleep well, darling?” a rough voice called from across the room.

Startled, Tawny sat up, clutching the pillow against her chest. “You’re still here.” She released a half relieved sigh.

“Yes, I am, but I’m not the one with the history of taking off without saying good-bye—Tawny.”

“What? How did you know my n—”

“I know everything about you.” Holding up a scrap of lavender and black lace, he glared at her with hatred shooting from his eyes.

Sometime while she slept, he had removed her disguise.

“What? How?” Tawny stood up, wrapping the blanket around her as panic surged through her. “How do you know me?”

Her intimate masked stranger got up from his chair and walked toward her, staring her down with a fierce look. Clad in last night’s damp and disheveled costume, he approached her holding her lavender and lace attire in front of him with pursed lips. “How many guys have you dumped and crushed? You don’t realize who I am?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about; I don’t even know your name.”

Without a word, he watched her through the almond shaped slits of his mask. Welled up tears began collecting at the red rims of his eyes as he clenched his teeth. He threw her mask on the floor at her feet.

Tawny bent down, squatting as she worked to inhale through the pangs of fear. All strength had left her body. With a heavy hand, she reached to pick it up, and cringed when a second mask of black satin dropped beside her delicate disguise.

Tawny collected the mask looking at it with regret. Tears began to seep from her eyes as she sniffed back the dripping moisture from her nose. His musky scent lingered on it. She inhaled, savoring the last of any joy this adventure had left to offer. Salty wetness dribbled down over her trembling lips. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to know anything about him. Now, the complications she feared had become reality. Gathering her strength, she rose to her feet, holding the two masks, avoiding his stare.

“Look at me, dammit. You owe me that much.” His voice broke on the command.

Confused, she contemplated a witty response, but failed to summon the courage. She didn’t want to see his face.

“Look at me.” He roared and grabbed her arms and shook her abruptly. “I said look at me, Tawny.”

Hesitant, she complied.

“Oh my God.” She wheezed and stumbled backward clumsily. “But you’re dead.” Her eyes widened with horror as she backed away, clutching her blanket to her chest. Tawny’s feet got caught up in the length of the satin material dragging on the floor behind her. She toppled over, striking her head. The sharp pain was overtaken with looming darkness.

***

Her head throbbed relentlessly. Unwilling to open her eyes, she lay still, gripping the down filled duvet, pulling it up to her aching chin. Focusing on her breathing, the muffled sound of voices in the distance alerted her. Laura, and—him. Arguing.

Not knowing what was happening; the sudden replay in her head of the events before this moment came flooding back. Waves of remorse and confusion rushed over her. “Why the hell would she do this?” His tone was loud enough to make her want to scream, the throbbing in her eyes increased in proportion to his volume.

“Wyatt, I’m telling you, she thought you died; she had no idea. She never left you.” Loyal Laura, defending her as usual.

“Oh no? Then what about the letter she left me?”

“What letter?”

“A typed letter, in an envelope with my name on it. That’s all that I found when I climbed up to her window that night.”

Letter?
Tawny searched her memory to no avail.

“I had my pickup truck packed and running. I did what we agreed on, I climbed the rose trellis. She broke my heart.”

“Wyatt, her parents told her you died in a car crash. It devastated her. They put her in a boarding school and left her there while they jetted around the world. Tawny has been mourning you ever since.”

“She really thought I died?” His tone softened with bewilderment.

“When she lost the love of her life, a part of her died that night.”

“How do you know so much about it?”

“Tawny and I went to boarding school together for four years. She is my best friend.”

“Boarding school? She always said she would never set foot in one. Her parents threatened to put her there; that’s why we decided to elope.”

“She never would have in a million years, but the moment she thought you were dead, she lost her will to live and had no fight left in her. She never recovered.”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe all this time….”

“What?”

“I thought she—I—”

“She never said anything about a letter. What did it say?”

“When I climbed up to her window, I found that envelope taped right to the glass. I took it and put it in my pocket and tried to open the window. The house was dark. Her room was empty. I sat in my truck reading this cold, impersonal note from her, telling me I would never be the man she deserved. It said I would never amount to anything, never be able to take care of her, and could never love her enough.”

“Why would you think she wrote that letter? Did she sign it?”

“No, but it was typed on the old typewriter I got her at a swap meet. It had a missing
W.
”

“Oh Wyatt, they didn’t! I knew Bill and Deloris were cold, but I never imagined they would have done something like that.”

“The night we decided to get married she assured me money would never sway her feelings for me. She promised to always love me and that we would find our way in the world together. She knew I had no family, nothing, except for her. When she left, it crushed me.” His voice cracked.

Tawny stood in the doorway watching him as he fell into the chair, dropping his head into his hands. Laura patted his back trying to soothe him.

“Wyatt, I had no idea. I thought—” she choked, unable to say the words.

“I should have known. They said they would never let us be together. I should have doubted them. I should have—”

Tawny fell to her knees as she cried; her aching head pulsating from the pressure. The warmth of his hands on her arms brought some relief as he eased her to her feet. Wyatt took her into his embrace and held her tight while Tawny sobbed into his shoulder.

“Fifteen years, all this time, wasted.”

“So you really did love me, Tawny?” He held her at arm’s length, examining her eyes.

“Wyatt, I never stopped loving you.”

“Wow.”

“Starfish.” She half laughed as she sobbed.

“Starfish?”

“Yesterday, on the beach, remember?” Tawny cupped his wet cheek in the palm of her hand.

“Yes, our starfish; looks like it wasn’t the only one nature helped to find his way back to where it belonged.”

A soft sound of sniveling beside them distracted Tawny from her moment of bitter-sweet glee. “Laura?”

Her friend wiped her own tears away. A knock broke the tender moment. “I’ll get it.” Laura jumped up and opened the door. “Yes, Doctor, please come in, she’s awake.”

As the doctor examined her, Tawny sat up on the bed, still dumbfounded and shocked. Wyatt sat at her side, holding her hand.