Lying in Your Arms Read online

  Hoping to start the day off the same way, he reached for her as soon as he woke up the next morning. Her half of the bed was empty. It was warm, though, as if she’d just left it a few moments ago. Sitting up, he glanced toward the bathroom. The door was open, but she wasn’t inside.

  A muffled voice was talking nearby, and he finally glanced out the patio door and saw her sitting in the sunshine, talking on her phone.

  She was stark naked.

  Damn, he liked this place.

  Beams of sunlight illuminated every delicious bit of her, catching all the gold highlights in that honey-brown hair. He’d touched and kissed almost every inch of her last night, but he hadn’t seen her in all her glory until this moment, and the sight of her nearly stopped his heart. She was all softness and curves and smooth, silky skin.

  And he’d left his mark on her.

  Even from here he could see the slightly reddened spots on her throat and breasts, left there by his hungry mouth. There was a small bruise on one hip, and he suspected he’d held her a little too tightly when she’d been riding him.

  He didn’t feel too badly, though, suspecting that if he looked at his back in the mirror he’d see plenty of war wounds, too. He certainly felt them. But he didn’t regret one damn thing. The memory that he could get her out of her mind, raking at him, begging him, and utterly helpless to do anything but take what he gave her turned him on almost as much as looking at her sitting naked in the sunshine.

  Smiling, he got up and stretched, not surprised to see he had some major morning wood. Hell, just thinking of her was enough to make him want to go outside and push her legs apart. He couldn’t think of a better way to scrape up his knees than kneeling in front of her. Draping her legs over the arms of her chair would put all those beautiful, slick secrets right in front of his face; he wanted to see, explore and taste her all over again.

  But she seemed pretty involved in her conversation. So he instead headed to the bathroom to wash up. When he came out, she was still outside, still talking, and he went over and pulled the patio door open.

  “No, I swear, I’m fine,” she was saying into her cell phone. “You don’t need to do anything right now, just let it go. It’ll die down, these things always do.”

  Not sure whether her conversation was a private one or not, he was about to close the door again when she glanced up, saw him standing there and offered him a bright good-morning smile.

  “Hi,” he murmured, bending down to kiss the top of her head.

  “Hi back,” she replied before returning to her telephone conversation. “What? Uh, yeah. Someone I met here in Costa Rica.”

  Ah, she was explaining him to someone.

  “Oh, be quiet, you know-it-all,” she said good-naturedly. “Of course he’s hot.”

  He snickered.

  “Leo. Like the lion.”

  Rowr.

  She sighed heavily, obviously getting the third degree. “No, not DiCaprio for God’s sake!”

  He laughed.

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re a genius. It was great advice. Blah, blah, blah.”

  So this someone had been after her to have a wild, sexy fling during her vacation? Interesting, considering that was also what his friends had told him to do, which made him wonder again what it was that haunted Madison. They hadn’t discussed it, beyond her admission that she’d come here to get away from her troubles for a while. What were those troubles, though? Had her friends told her to go off and have an affair to get over a broken heart? And if so, who’d broken it?

  The idea of someone hurting her made his whole body stiffen in anger. He walked over to the pool’s edge, not wanting her to interpret his reaction as jealousy.

  Even if, he had to concede, that might be part of it.

  Yeah, he hated the idea that anyone might have hurt her.

  But it was more than that. The very thought of any other man having his hands on her, making her cry out in pleasure the way she had for him last night, made him want to punch the bungalow wall. How crazy was that? He was jealous over somebody she might have been with even before she’d met him? He’d only known her a couple of days, but the very idea of it made him more ready to do violence than the reality of his former best man sleeping with his ex-fiancée.

  “You are losing it, man,” he muttered.

  “Did you say something?”

  He hadn’t even realized she’d ended her call and walked up behind him until she spoke. Before he could turn around, she’d slipped her arms around his waist and stepped in close, hugging him from behind. Every bare inch of her body delighted him, but, to be honest, he’d rather be the one coming at her from behind.

  Hmm. Nice mental images filled his head.

  “I just checked,” he told her. “The pool is reptile-free and ready to go.”

  She shivered against his back, her pert nipples scraping his skin, driving him a little nuts. “Yikes, thanks for reminding me. I’d managed to forget all about that this morning.”

  He turned around, lining the hug up better. Full frontal under the full sun...it was kind of spectacular.

  “Sorry I slept so late. You didn’t have to go outside to take your call,” he said.

  “No problem. It was just a friend from California.” She smiled broadly, her eyes twinkling with humor in the sunlight. “Before I came here, he had suggested I find a beach bum to hook up with on my vacation. He was very happy to hear your voice and realize I’d taken his advice.”

  Thrusting off the quick flash of jealousy that her friend was male, Leo pretended to be offended. “Beach bum?”

  “Well, no, I guess I have slightly higher standards.”

  “I’m going to have to punish you for that.”

  “Promises, promises.” Her saucy tone and pursed lips said she was thinking of naughty punishments.

  Which sounded just fine to him. God, how he enjoyed this woman’s blunt approach to everything, from life to sex. He’d never been with anyone who was so open about what she wanted and what she didn’t. And when she did or didn’t want them.

  “Are you, by any chance, a little wicked?”

  “Haven’t you figured that out by now?”

  He stared into her eyes. “I’m getting the picture.”

  “Are you liking what you see?”

  “Yeah.” He raked a slow, thorough stare down her body, from the long hair draping her shoulders and playing peekaboo with those pebbled nipples, to the slim middle, to those eminently grippable hips and drool-inspiring long legs. All naked. All completely his, for now at least. “Oh, hell, yeah.”

  “Good. As for the punishment, despite some curiosity, I’m fairly certain I’m not into pain,” she explained. “If you ever spanked me, I would probably cut your hand off.”

  Chuckling, he replied, “No interest in spanking, sweetheart.”

  She continued. “Nor am I into rape fantasies. Any man who tries to force me won’t lose a hand, he’ll lose what he uses that hand to play with.”

  He didn’t play along by grimacing, cringing or feigning horror at the idea of losing every man’s most prized possession. Instead, he grew serious, reaching out to touch her hair. It was warm beneath his fingertips, baked in the sun. “Every Santori man was raised by a Santori mother who taught him how to treat women. Lesson number one—men who hurt women are cowards,” he said. “I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

  She turned her face to kiss his palm. “I know that, Leo. I know you’d never really hurt me.” Her impish smile returned. “But if you wanted to, say, get a little creative with some...”

  Positions? Toys?

  “...handcuffs...I might not object.”

  He coughed into his fist. Jesus, the woman was killing him here.

  “Problem?”

  “Nope. No problem. Kind of hard to get handcuffs down here, I imagine.” He could hear the heat in his tone as he speculated, “We might have to make do with silk scarves or something.”

  It was her turn to look af
fected by the conversation. She was breathing across open lips and her eyelids had dropped to half-mast. She might have been teasing, trying to arouse him with some suggestive ideas, but those ideas were obviously exploding into full-fledged X-rated movies in her mind.

  “That could be arranged.”

  “And maybe then you’d have to shut up and wait and take what I want to give you.”

  “Maybe,” she said, completely unrepentant for being so demanding.

  Oh, hell, who was he kidding? He loved that she was so demanding. Loved that he got her so worked up she couldn’t do anything but scream and beg and threaten him if he didn’t proceed. She’d gone so far as to call him a clit tease last night. He couldn’t say he’d ever heard the expression, but had to admit, he’d found it pretty funny. And he’d been determined to live up to it.

  “Maybe I’ll punish you by making you wait all day for your punishment.”

  “That’d be punishment for you, too,” she said, her voice almost a purr.

  He knew she was taunting him, and decided to pay her back. Not warning her, he swung her up into his arms, bracing her under the shoulder, crossing-the-threshold style. As she squealed, he stepped to the very edge of the pool, dangling her over the crystal clear water. “Ready to get wet?”

  “Don’t you dare!” She twined her arms tightly around his neck. “It’s too early, the water’s too cold.”

  “Not for a beach bum.”

  “Superhot fireman, that’s what I meant to say. Strong, professional, determined, hardworking hero.” Loosening her grip, she traced the tip of her finger across his lips. “Please don’t throw me into that cold water, Leo. Pretty please?”

  “What are you going to give me if I don’t?”

  She thought about it, tapping the tip of her finger on her mouth. Then, smiling as if the proverbial lightbulb had just gone off in her head, she replied, “A blow job?”

  He was torn between laughing and groaning with pure want. He’d already been aroused and another ten gallons of blood rushed to his cock just at her suggestion.

  “You always say what you’re thinking, don’t you?”

  “Pretty much,” she admitted. “That’s why my closest friends always called me Mad. It wasn’t just a shortening of my name.”

  “Hmm. Mad. You don’t seem like the angry type.”

  “Not angry. It’s short for Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.”

  “That I can see.” He glanced at the glistening water, as if he really had to think about it, and said, “Okay, Mad. I guess I won’t toss you in this time.”

  “You really are my hero.”

  She leaned up and brushed her lips against his. He immediately opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, invading her, taking the sassiness right off her tongue. Madison needed to be kissed, well and often, if only as a reminder that she wasn’t always in charge.

  When they finally ended the kiss, they were both panting. But he wouldn’t put her down yet. He liked holding her, liked being in control for now. She might demand what she wanted, but he was making it pretty damned clear that, physically, he had her right where he wanted her.

  She twined her fingers in his hair and looked up at him, her expression purely happy. “That’s a very nice way to start the day.”

  “I had another one in mind when I woke up.”

  “Sorry I wasn’t there.”

  “It’s okay. Like I said, I slept too late anyway. I never sleep so late in the morning unless I’m on nights and have just gone to bed.”

  “I figured you could use your rest. You got quite a workout last night.”

  He scrunched his brow, as if giving it careful consideration. “Really?” Lifting her up and down a couple of times in his arms like a barbell, he added, “Funny, I feel great.”

  She squealed a little and hung on to his shoulders, saying, “That’s good. Because I think you’re going to get another one today.”

  “One?”

  “Four.”

  He barked a laugh, then thought about it. Four. Hmm. Not very impressive. “Come on, challenge me, babe.”

  “Am I going to need to do any walking for the rest of this vacation?” she asked.

  He tilted his head, as if considering it. “Not that I can think of.”

  “Okay, then. I guess you can go for a world record.”

  “What’s the record?”

  “Twenty-seven.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, uh, by that point you wouldn’t be able to put your legs together, much less walk. And I wouldn’t have a dick, much less one capable of getting hard.”

  She licked her lips, her expression evil. “Back to that blow job idea, are we?”

  He didn’t tease her back. She’d mentioned that one too many times for him to pretend he wasn’t dying for her to use her beautiful mouth on every inch of him.

  “I think we could fit that in today, if you really want to.”

  “I already know it’s not going to fit,” she said with a smirk. “But I do really want to and I’m always ready to give it the old college try.”

  “Rah-rah. So, where does that leave us? Somewhere between four and twenty-seven, with a blow job and a serious licking in between?”

  She swallowed visibly. “Serious licking?”

  “Oh, very serious.”

  “I noticed you kind of like that.”

  “No, honey, I kind of love it. You taste better to me than anything I’ve ever eaten in my life.”

  “Mmm.” She wriggled in his arms, obviously reacting to this verbal foreplay.

  So was he. In fact, he couldn’t lower her to her feet right now because, if he did, she would hit a major obstacle on her way down.

  “Okay, then. We’re agreed,” she said, as if firming up terms for a business proposition.

  “We are? What’s the final number again?”

  “Six.” She quickly added, “Plus the licking and the blowing.”

  Six. She was challenging him to make love to her six times today. Plus the...extras.

  No sweat.

  He was twenty-eight. His job kept him in peak physical condition. Until last night, he’d been celibate for six long months.

  And he was hotter for her than any man had ever been hot for a woman.

  Six would be absolutely no hardship.

  “And if it’ll really kill you not to suck my nipples until I scream, I guess you can do that, too,” she said, doing him a very great favor by offering up her beautiful breasts for his devouring.

  He lifted her higher, bent his head and flicked his tongue over one pretty tip.

  “Thank you, that’s so selfless of you,” he murmured as she sighed with pleasure.

  “That’s just how I roll.”

  They both started to laugh, softly at first, then growing louder. There wasn’t another woman he could ever remember talking to like this, especially one he’d been holding naked in his arms, whose nipple he’d just licked. She was so damned open and quick, witty and confident. Most women he’d dated hadn’t been able to take a joke that wasn’t about sex, much less any that were.

  Before Madison, sex had always been twice as serious but only half as good. Adding warm humor to intimacy—at least before the brain cells evaporated and lust took over completely—enhanced the experience in ways he’d never thought possible. Hell, just having a woman smile up at him tenderly, twining her fingers in his hair, was incredible all on its own. As demanding as she could be in bed, Madison still surprised him with moments like those. Every woman he’d ever been with before had been entirely serious, and, he suspected, focused on gaining advantage in the relationship outside of the bedroom.

  He and Madison didn’t have a relationship—not yet, anyway, not in the real world. This was a vacation fling, although something inside him rebelled at calling it that. Still, it was a freeing proposition; neither of them were playing games, keeping score or exchanging in any kind of tit for tat.

  It was easy with Madison. Hot, incredibly hot, but just s
o easy.

  “Okay, then, I think we have a deal,” he finally said.

  “This is going to be quite a day, isn’t it?” Her eyes were wide, gleaming with excitement, and she was practically panting each breath. He could feel the thudding of her heart in her chest and drew her a little more tightly against his body, knowing now where he intended to put her down.

  On the bed.

  “I think it would be quite a day even if we had to stop after one,” he replied, wondering if she heard the tenderness in his voice and correctly interpreted it.

  He wanted to spend the day with her. Yes, that day would include a lot of mind-blowing sex. But even if it didn’t, he would still be looking forward to it. Just being with her, getting to know her, hearing that laugh, watching those green-gold eyes sparkle in the sun...sounded like the perfect vacation day to him.

  She nodded slowly, silently agreeing with him. “Maybe we could just go on and on for hours and call it one.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Slowly loosening her arms from around his neck, she said, “Don’t you want to put me down?”

  “In a minute.”

  He walked across the patio and went inside through the open door. Carrying her to the huge bed, he didn’t so much lower her as toss her onto it. Madison stared up at him, those eyes flashing in challenge, and reached for him.

  He shook his head slowly.

  “What?”

  “Move up,” he ordered her, nodding toward the pillows.

  She did, edging closer to the headboard. When she was close enough, he said, “Get all the way up on your knees. Turn around facing the wall and hold on to the headboard.”

  She caught her lip between her teeth. He knew this was driving her crazy, both with lust, and because his tone of voice brooked no disobedience. He was calling the shots for now. It was about time she figured that out.

  She didn’t move. Neither did he.

  He could outwait her, of that he had no doubt. Knowing how to prove he could take care of his needs a little more easily than she could right now, he reached down and grabbed his cock. Encircling it in his hand, he stroked. It wasn’t nearly as good as she would be, but it got the job done. She hissed, her gaze dropping so she could stare, and he saw her lick her lips.