California sunsets were
different from Florida sunsets. In Florida, the setting sun set the sky ablaze,
splashing beams of light out from behind long, tall clouds over the Gulf in a
dramatic display of light and color. Mother Nature's nightly fireworks. In
California, the sun fell toward the horizon with less drama, less fanfare,
serenely setting the cloudless sky aglow, the color of a peach, until it dipped
into the Pacific Ocean.
Ivan stood on the
western-facing balcony of his room, feeling as serene as the sky appeared. An
ever-present breeze lifted the ends of his hair off his shoulders as he raised
his half-full wineglass to his lips.
Marriage. He had been thinking
about the subject for weeks now, even months if he was being honest with
himself. Was he ready for marriage? For another chance at forever? With Jaden?
He had proposed once, only for
the engagement to end. At the time, he considered that just maybe marriage
wasn't in the cards for him. Like a horse who draws up lame in the Kentucky
Derby, something had always interfered to keep his relationships from making it
to the finish line. Had he finally picked a winner? Was Jaden his prize filly
who would finally bring home his own, personal Triple Crown: love, happiness,
and forever?
His free hand skimmed over the
smooth, wooden finish of the balcony's railing, and the corner of his mouth
lifted as his gaze dropped reflectively. He had caressed Jaden's leg the same
way earlier, ever-so-softly. Was his hand absently remembering the motion and
repeating it on the banister in her absence? Wishing the railing were her?
Delicate hands threaded around
his waist, followed immediately by the warmth of her body pressing against his
back. Speak of the devil, or rather the angel.
"Mmm." His grin
widened, and his heart jumped. She always had this effect on him. Even now,
after months of learning every curve and line of her body, she could still
weaken his knees.
"Am I interrupting?"
she said before pressing her lips against the back of his bare shoulder.
"Never." He leaned
back, falling into the sanctuary of her embrace as he covered her hand with
his. They only had this one last night together before they had to return to
civilization and he had to return to Miami.
"It's just that you
looked so sexy out here, all silent and still, with your head down. You looked
deep in thought." Her lips trailed a line from one shoulder to the other,
her nose brushing against the back of his neck along the way.
He shivered, not because he
was cold, but because she made him so warm. Not just on the surface, but down
deep…all the way to his marrow. When had another woman ever made him feel this
way? So alive and safe, yet calm and vulnerable?
"I was thinking about
you," he admitted.
"Oh?"
He set down his glass and
turned. Her freshly showered hair hung in sexy tendrils around her face and
over her shoulders, and all she wore was a filmy, satiny, peach-colored robe
with large, muted roses printed on the fabric. Oddly enough, the color reminded
him of the sunset and made her lightly tanned skin vibrant.
"Are you surprised?"
he said. "That I would be thinking about the most beautiful woman in the
world?"
Her smile made his heart skip
a beat. "I'd love to say yes, but no." She shook her head. "I'm
not surprised."
"Good." He pulled
her closer and dipped his head down so their foreheads kissed. "I can't
believe how happy you make me, Jaden."
Her fingers wound into his
hair. "Right back at you."
They stood like that for a
while, neither speaking, hardly moving, just existing in each other's presence
as the sun ignored their plea for time to stand still and fell below the horizon.
Finally, Ivan inhaled deeply,
pulled away, and took her hand. "Come on. We'd better get in."
"Why? No one here but
us." She was clearly teasing. Or more like challenging. She was good for
that, willing to meet him where his sexual proclivities took him while
surprising him from time to time by showing her inner freak. In that way, they
were highly compatible.
She trailed in after him,
grasping his hand with both of hers as they passed through the French doors
into the room.
He plucked one of the roses
from the vase as they passed the table. "Lie back on the bed, baby
girl." He released her hand and nodded toward the bed.
This was his woman, and he
wanted to show her just how precious she was.
She began to untie the robe.
"No." He touched her
wrist and shook his head once. "Leave it on."
* * *
Jaden froze, her hands on the
sash that secured the robe around her waist. This was new. She bit her bottom
lip seductively. "You don't want me naked, sir?" She sat on the edge
of the bed.
Ivan knelt and gently parted
her knees and nestled between them. "That's not what I said."
What a devil he was. In other
words, she would get naked. Without a doubt. But he would get her naked in his
own time, when he wanted her to be.
"Lie back for me,
baby."
Oh, she did like when he
called her baby.
She pulled herself back on the
bed and laid down, one knee bent so that her leg rested over the other.
He followed her up onto the
bed and propped himself on one arm beside her. With his free hand, he tugged
one end of the tie and slowly pulled the bow free.
"Are you seducing me,
Doctor?"
He smiled down at her, but his
gaze remained on her waist as he brushed the robe open ever-so-slightly. "Admiring you," he said, clarifying
his intentions. "Simply admiring."
He tugged the satiny sash free
from the robe and dangled the long ribbon of material over her, a wicked smile
playing over his face.
"And just what do you
have in mind for that?" she said, beginning to get some ideas herself.
"Grab hold of the headboard."
His deep voice stroked her ears and vibrated that special place between her legs—the
place that was his and no one else's. His voice alone could probably make her
come under the right circumstances.
She licked her lips and pursed
them, her bent leg drawing further up the other as a decadent rush flooded her.
But like a good girl, she did what he said and reached up, over her head, and grabbed
hold of one of the vertical rails of the headboard.
"Mmm, that's nice."
He scooted forward, his bare chest inching toward her face as he reached up and
wrapped the sash around her wrists several times and loosely bound her.
"How does that feel. Too tight?"
She shook her head and
strained her neck so she could lap her tongue over his nipple. The bed trembled
as a moan broke in his throat.
"Bad girl," he said,
teasing her and pulling away.
She shook her head and
scissored her legs. "I'm a good girl." He had her flaming hot, as
usual. But this was a new game he was playing. Normally, they were all over
each other in a fever of lust. She could get used to this side of him, though.
"We'll see." He rolled
to the side and picked up the rose he had been holding earlier and laid down
next to her again, supported on one elbow.
He used the head of the rose
to push the robe off her breast. Her nipple budded against the exposure and
Ivan grinned.
"So responsive, aren't
you?" he said, swirling the rose around her tender peak of flesh.
She rolled her spine, pushing
her breast against the velvety petals. God, but who would have thought a rose
could be so erotic. But then, this was Ivan. He could make a trip to the
dentist erotic. The man was sensuality and desire in a suit. Or in a pair of
boxers, as the case was now.
He swirled the rose around and
around, circling her breast in widening circles before sliding the cool bud
across to the other side to gently push the robe open. She was now fully
exposed.
With the rose tickling the
second nipple to attention, he bent down and laved the first with his tongue.
The combined sensations sent her to heaven. One soft, like satin, the other wet
and warm, with a hint of five o'clock shadow to barely rasp her skin.
She shivered and pulled on her
binding. "You're driving me wild, baby."
His teeth lightly pinched her
nipple in reply, and the rose traveled slowly down the center of her abdomen.
God, but this was good.
Expert fingers brushed down
her sensitive labia, swollen from their loveplay, before the rose skimmed where
his fingers had just been. The waxy petals were a provocative, subtle weapon to
undo her. There was just something utterly exquisite about him pleasuring her with
a simple flower that spun her insides into knots.
"Ivan…" Her wrists
clashed with the binding, and her body writhed.
He turned the rose and drew it
up the inside of one thigh, then the other, all the while suckling her breast,
nibbling her nipple, breathing warm air against her skin.
Every breath was a moan, every
inhale a means to feed her coiling muscles with the oxygen they desperately
craved as they quivered and tightened inside her belly, deep between her legs.
Over and over, he caressed her
with the simple, delicate rose until she nearly lost her mind. The pleasure,
the decadence, the way he knew how to touch her to draw more from her than she
thought she was capable of.
Finally, he settled the rose
on her flat stomach and dove his hand down, his fingers probing, urging,
caressing her swollen clit. She had died. Gone to heaven. And Ivan was her
guardian angel in the flesh.
"More…more…so close…"
She panted and pulled on her restraints, her gaze meeting Ivan's as he looked
up to watch her face in the final moments before she came against his hand.
His middle finger dipped
inside, found her G-spot, and massaged as he burrowed the butt of his hand
against her clit.
"Oh God!" Her entire
body lifted and shuddered, exploding in bliss.
After hours of diving into
each other and making love every which way, Jaden amazed even herself from the
force of her orgasm. But with Ivan, every time was better than the last, and
she feared that if he ever left her, she would never recover. She was so
unbelievably, undeniably in love with him.
"That's it, baby."
He pressed in hard with his hand and finger, pulling her orgasm out by applying
pressure.
She knew he was beside himself
with desire. He had told her before how much he loved feeling her clench him
during climax, whether it was his finger or his cock inside her. He had explained
that there was something about the anatomy of an orgasm that was sexy as hell…the
way a woman's vagina convulsed and sucked, as if on a straw, almost as if a
woman's body instinctively knew that a man's cock offered what it needed to
begin new life and wanted to draw in his offering.
And when he explained it that
way, it was kind of erotic.
Within seconds, he withdrew
his hand, shifted so he was poised above her, and shoved down his boxers.
"I need you, Jaden."
She was his. All his.
He brushed the rose off her
stomach, and in one fluid motion, he sank into her while at the same time
pulling the slipknot free from around her wrists. An instant later, her arms
were around him, holding him as her orgasm continued to wend its way through her.
The familiar contours and
bunching muscles of his back felt like home. He was her life raft in the ocean
of life, grounding her while keeping her afloat.
He buried his face against the
side of her neck and hooked his arm behind her left knee, pulling to open her
wider as he surged forward, driving in deep.
A breeze blew through the open
doors, smelling of earth, the scent mingling perfectly with the fragrance that was
Ivan. Skin, clean, sex. If only she could bottle him. Then she could simply
take him out and spritz the nape of her neck whenever she needed a fix. Maybe
someday she wouldn't have to. Maybe someday the distance wouldn't be an issue
and all she would have to do was walk across the room and press her nose against
his neck to capture his scent.
Ah, the perfection of that
thought made her sigh, even as Ivan gasped through a violent contraction in the
small of his back, his powerful body getting close to its own release.
By now, she knew his body, his
movement, his voice. So when his shoulders tensed and the telltale shudder
ranged down his spine as he groaned, she knew he was only seconds away from
coming.
"Tell me you love
me," he said against her neck.
She tightened her hold and
turned into him. "I love you. God, I love you."
His body stiffened, quaked,
and a grunt caught in his throat before he exhaled the lusty, relieved groan of
a man finding refuge in his woman's body.
Liquid heat filled her, and a
perverse thrill shot through her belly as she luxuriated in the feel of his
cock twitching and pumping inside her. Was this similar to what he felt when
she came? Because yes, it was an erotic sensation, wasn't it?
Perspiration slicked his back,
and his ragged breathing was as much a turn-on as the rest of him. She loved
how he felt and sounded after coming, like a man well-sated and content, as if
he hadn't a want for anything else. Completely undone and spent.
"I love you," he
whispered.
And Jaden's heart soared. In
love. They were so madly in love. This was it. The real thing. Ivan was the
One. She knew it as certainly as she knew the night would roll into day.
How had she gotten so lucky?
As the last hint of sunlight
faded from the sky, she clung to him as he did to her, one more night closer to
forever.
And for now, it was enough.
For now.
