Taking It All Off

He raised his hand and traced the soft line of her jaw. “Then who are you?”

She cradled her head against his hand. “I’m just a woman. A woman who’s tired of doing what everyone expects of me. I want to spend this weekend doing what I want, getting reacquainted with part of myself I’ve put second for too long.”

He stilled, holding his breath. “And what do you want?”

“This.” She stood on tiptoe, and put her arms around his neck, pulling him to her. Her lips were soft against his, the kiss tentative at first, then more assured.

He resisted for the briefest moment, stunned, before instinct and desire took over and he gathered her closer. He shaped her body to his as he deepened the kiss, opening his mouth to taste her fully. She made a breathy, mewling sound that ripped away the last shred of his reserve. He forgot everything but how much he wanted her. Here. Now.

He cupped her bottom, pressing her close against him, savoring her heat against his growing erection. She hooked one leg around him, her gauzy skirt falling back to reveal the pale beauty of her inner thigh. He slid his hand up that silky expanse of flesh, toward the burning center where he wanted to bury himself.

She nipped at the corner of his mouth. “Let’s go back to the cottage,” she whispered.

The cottage. Like a cold wave splashing over them, the words reminded him of where they were. Why they were here. Who she was.

He pulled away from her, so suddenly that she almost fell. “This is insane,” he said.

“Yes, it’s insane.” She stared at him, out of breath. Flushed. Gorgeous. “That’s the whole point. I…I want us to spend this weekend doing all the things we can never do back home. Exploring those fantasies I’m supposed to be writing about.”

He took another step back, as if physical distance could break the spell she’d cast over him. “You mean you want us to have sex.”

She flushed more, but nodded. “Yes.”

“Why? Beyond the obvious reasons that we turn each other on?”

“I think…” She wet her lips again, almost sending him over the edge. “I think a weekend like this, totally indulging myself, will help me understand what it is I really want to do. I know this sounds crazy to someone like you, who’s always done exactly what you felt like, but I’ve been trying to make myself into the person I think I should be for so long I’m not sure I know anymore who I really am.”

“And you think a weekend screwing me will do it?” He was deliberately crude, hoping to shock them both back to their senses.

She flinched, but didn’t back down. “It’s the most radical thing I can think of, so yes.” She smiled. “And I think we’d both enjoy it, very much.”

Hell yes, he’d enjoy it. And it might even be fun to see the straitlaced ice princess thaw a little. “What happens when we get home?”

She held her hands up, fingers spread wide. “No strings. We go our own ways and no one knows this ever happened.”

A weekend of great sex with a gorgeous woman, no strings? “I’d be crazy to say no.”

“Then why don’t we get started?” She smiled and reached for his hand.

He took it and pulled her toward the path to the cottages, eager now. “It’s only fair to warn you.” He grinned at her. “I don’t intend to stop until the boat pulls up Sunday evening.”

4

BACK AT THE COTTAGE, Glynna busied herself lighting candles. The bravado that had led her to make her wild proposition was fading fast, now that she was alone with Jake in this intimate space.

The rustle of fabric against skin disturbed her thoughts. She whirled to see Jake pulling off his shirt. “Wh—what are you doing?” she stammered.

He unfastened the snap of his pants. “I don’t know about you, but I prefer to do these things naked.”

She clutched the matchbook so tightly it bent in two. “Yes, but…don’t you think we ought to talk first?”

“I thought we already talked.” He shoved his pants to the floor and stepped out of them. Now he was dressed only in tight black briefs that left little to the imagination. “Or are you having second thoughts?”

“No. Of course not.” She sat on the edge of the bed, her legs too wobbly to support her anymore. She glanced at him again. The candlelight burnished his broad shoulders and muscular thighs with gold, and glinted on the dusting of hair across his chest. His nipples were two small brown pebbles against his paler skin, his navel a perfect indentation in his flat stomach. He walked toward her, moving easily, comfortable in his skin, confident in his sexuality.

He stopped in front of her, the thick ridge of his erection almost at eye level, impossible to ignore. She swallowed, her face burning.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She raised her head and looked into his eyes, hoping he wouldn’t laugh at her. “I…I’ve never done anything like this before.”

The lines around his mouth tightened. “You’ve never had sex?”

She squeezed her hands into fists. “No. I mean yes, I’ve had sex. But not…not planned, like this. With someone I don’t know very well.” She looked toward the double doors leading to the veranda. Was it too late to run away, back to her lonely, safe apartment? But if she did that, things would never be different for her, would they? Her real self would still be trapped somewhere between the roles she played of obedient daughter and conscientious employee.

She raised her eyes to look at Jake again. He watched her, saying nothing, his face calm. Patient. But another emotion flickered in his eyes. Encouragement? For her?

She took a deep breath and went on. “You’ve had a lot of experience and I…I haven’t.”

“Are you afraid we won’t please each other?” He knelt before her, and put his hands on her thighs. The silk of her dress rustled beneath his fingers as he caressed her through the cloth. “You don’t have anything to worry about. Just relax. Do whatever feels good.”

He pushed the skirt up a few inches and bent to kiss her knee. “We’ll go slow at first. Get used to each other.”

His breath was hot, burning its way up her leg as he trailed kisses up the inside of her thigh from her knee to the lacy edge of her underwear. She felt as if she was melting from within, the tension coiling inside of her as his mouth drew closer and closer to the juncture of her thighs.

Her eyes fluttered shut as his mouth closed over the thin silk of her panties. Need built within her, fierce and demanding. It had been so long….

“Do you like the way this makes you feel?” he asked, his mouth still pressed against the silk.

Her reply was more moan than speech, and she felt his lips curve into a smile.

“There’s so much more to enjoy,” he murmured. He pushed the dress up farther and kissed her stomach, his tongue tickling her navel before climbing the ladder of her ribs to her breasts. He ringed each mound with kisses, painting concentric circles with his tongue, drawing closer and closer to her taut, sensitive nipples.

“Nice.” Still kneeling before her, he stripped off her dress and settled his hands on her hips, drawing her closer, until she was straddling his torso, legs spread wide to embrace him, the wet silk of her panties the only barrier between them.

He flicked his tongue across her nipple, and she arched against him, gasping at the waves of desire that washed over her each time he touched her. He suckled first one breast, and then the other, until she was trembling with need, her throbbing sex straining against his pounding heart.

When he raised his head, she cried out and clung to him, but he gently pushed her away. “I’m not going to leave you,” he said. “But now it’s your turn to get better acquainted with me.”

He stood and stripped off his briefs. She stared at his erection, mesmerized by its frank eroticism. No one would call the male member beautiful, yet she couldn’t stop staring at it, the tension within her responding to each swaying movement as he walked toward her again.

“Move over so I can lie down beside you.”

She did so, hesitating only a moment before slipping out of her panties. She stretched out on the bed and turned to face him, wanting to wrap herself around him and demand he enter her, but holding back.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

His sleepy, seductive smile made her heart race. “Touch me,” he said. “Wherever you want to touch me.”