“Like here?” Josh murmured and his mouth traveled further down her body until he was licking a warm, wet trail around the cup of her naval.
“Oh, no…please,” Phil gasped as the pleasurable sensation sent shock waves down her spine. She could feel herself getting wetter and hotter by the moment and she wondered how long Josh would draw this torture out.
“What about here?” Josh asked, and moved down her body until he was planting soft, hot kisses right above the low slung border of the tiny red lace panties which barely covered her mound. “Or here?” he asked in a low voice, placing his lips directly on the little scrap of red lace that was all that separated him from her wet sex.
Phil felt her breath catch in her throat as she remembered the last time his mouth had been in contact with that particular part of her anatomy. God, the memory of his fingers inside her, of his mouth on her was too much to resist.
“Please,” she whispered, barely able to get the words out, “Please, Josh, don’t kiss me there. Don’t…don’t…”
“Don’t go down on you?” he asked in a low, dangerous voice. “Don’t pull off your panties and spread you open so I can taste your hot little pussy? Is that what you’re asking?”
Somehow, Phil managed to nod. “Please Josh, oh, God, please…please don’t do that to me,” she begged softly. She was panting now and it seemed hard to get a deep breath because of the way her heart was racing.
“God, Phil, you’re making me crazy,” he growled, hooking his fingers into the thin side bands of the panties and pulling. They came off too quickly and one side snapped, making Phil gasp. She was going to owe Cass a whole new lingerie set—not that she cared at this point. She just wanted to feel Josh’s mouth on her, to feel him exploring her with his tongue, kissing her, licking her…
She didn’t have to wait long. Before she knew it, Josh had pulled her to the edge of the mattress and positioned himself between her legs. Phil bit her lip to keep back a moan at the delicious sensation of his warm hands spreading her thighs even wider so he could get to her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he told her again. “I love the way you look, love to breathe in your scent. I love that I can take my time with you and make you moan—I want to taste every bit of you. Want to eat your creamy pussy until you scream.” He planted a soft kiss on her inner thigh and looked up at her, a devilish glint in his eyes. “Is that what you want, Phil? Tell me—I want to hear you say it. All of it.”
“Oh…” Phil moaned. She was trembling with need and it felt like her heart was beating in every part of her body at once. She was sure she couldn’t take this, but she knew what her lover wanted to hear. “No,” she whispered, reaching down to stroke her hand through his hair. “No, Josh. Please don’t…don’t go down on me. Please don’t make me scream.”
“But I want to,” he almost whispered, still smiling at her. “I want to do this…” He kissed the slit of her swollen sex, making Phil gasp. “And this…” He spread her open with his thumbs, exposing her completely, and placed a soft, sucking kiss over the aching bud of her clit, making her jump and groan. “And this,” he murmured. Lowering his head, he licked a hot, wet trail from the bottom of her sex to the top.
Phil cried out, unable to help herself, unable to care about how she sounded. All she could think about was his mouth on her, his tongue exploring her and the magical tingle that built with every delicious movement as he kissed and licked and sucked her.
Josh looked up for a moment, his brown eyes drowning deep and his full mouth wet with her juices. “That’s right,” he told her in a hoarse voice. “Give it up for me, Phil. I love those soft little noises you make when you get hot. I love to hear you let it all go.” Then he cupped her hips in his hands and pulled her even closer, cradling her pelvis as though it was a bowl of water and he was a man dying of thirst.
She gasped and arched her back, offering herself completely. When he had done this before in the RipTide dressing room, she had been standing up and it was impossible to be as open as she was now. But lying on the bed with Josh positioned between her legs, Phil realized she had never felt so vulnerable and yet so safe at the same time. It felt so good—so right. Josh had meant it when he said he wanted to take his time; he was exploring her thoroughly with his tongue, lapping her throbbing clit one moment and pressing his tongue deep inside her the next.
Phil cried out as he sucked the aching bud of her clit into his mouth and began to draw slow patterns across it with the tip of his talented tongue. Where had he learned to do that? And why had she known him for so many years before she found out his hidden talents? When she thought of all the time she had wasted with Christian…but she didn’t want to think about that now. She just wanted to revel in the delicious feeling of being utterly and lovingly devoured as the tingling built inside her in a slow and steady arc.
“No more,” she managed to gasp. “Please, Josh, no more!” Her begging seemed to make him redouble his efforts and before she knew it, Phil had both hands buried in his thick hair and she was pressing her pelvis up to meet him with complete abandon. She felt wild, shameless, and hotter than she could ever remember being in her life. This was Josh, she reminded herself, sweet, funny, sensitive Josh who could always make her laugh or talk her out of a bad mood. But there was another side of him, a hot, masculine, animal side that wanted to explore her, wanted to touch her in a way she had never been touched, to own her in a way she had never been owned.
Phil reveled in the sensation of being opened and tasted and owned but when Josh entered her with two long, fingers, she knew she wanted more—needed more. His fingers and mouth felt so good, but she needed more to reach the peak. She needed Josh inside her.
“Please,” she gasped, tugging at his hair. “Please, Josh, I…don’t want…don’t need…” She shook her head as he looked up at her, his eyes heavy lidded with desire.
“What is it you don’t need, Phil?” he growled softly. “Tell me, baby. Let me know.”
The soft endearment almost as much as the intense look in his eyes made Phil’s breath catch in her throat. “You,” she almost whispered. “Inside me, Josh. Please, I don’t need…”
“All right.” Then he was on the bed beside her, cupping her cheek in his palm and sharing a sweet, hot kiss. Phil hummed in delight as he fed her the taste of herself. Finally they broke apart panting. She felt like she was going to explode if she didn’t have him.
Phil stroked one hand down his warm, broad chest until she was tugging at the belt loops in the front of his jeans. “Don’t take these off,” she told him. “Don’t take them off, right now.”
He grinned. “Pushy, aren’t you? I think I like that.” He slipped off the jeans and the shorts beneath and Phil was able to see for herself exactly how much he did in fact like it. She had seen most of him when they were trying on swimsuits, but this was the first time she’d ever seen him completely nude and she liked what she saw—all of it. His thick shaft was high and tight, close to his stomach, and it looked achingly hard. It was also quite a bit larger than what she was used to but really, she only had Christian’s to compare it with.
“Can I…?” Phil raised her eyebrows at him in question and Josh nodded.
“Sure, help yourself,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I just…” But his words trailed off when Phil closed her fingers around the hard, thick length of his shaft, delighting in the silky feel of his skin and the hot pulse of his desire in her palm. She felt the tingling between them spike higher at the intimate contact and smiled at the look on his face.
“God, Phil!” Josh groaned low in his throat, a sound of almost painful bliss. He half closed his eyes and tilted his head back as though overcome by pleasure. “Your soft little hand feels so good but you can’t…you have to stop or this will be over before we get started. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you, how long I’ve dreamed of this moment. I can’t hold out if you keep touching me like that.”
Reluctantly Phil released him
. She would have liked to taste him as he had tasted her, but she sensed that Josh was too much on edge for that. Besides, there would be plenty of other opportunities for exploration—the rest of her life if she had anything to say about it. Just the thought of that, of having Josh in her heart and her life and her bed forever gave her a rush of emotion and she knew she couldn’t wait any longer. She needed him now.
“Josh,” she said softly, lying down on the bed and opening her legs. “Please.”
“Hang on just a minute.” He fumbled in his discarded jeans and she saw that he had a small foil packet in one hand. How like Josh to be so considerate, she thought, not even making her ask if he had protection. And then everything else was driven out of her mind as he lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms.
“I want to hold you like this for a minute,” he murmured. “All naked and soft and warm pressed against me. I love the way you feel in my arms.” He kissed her again and she felt the magical tingle climb to new heights with anticipation. But Phil hadn’t had sex in a very long time, months actually, now that she stopped to consider it, and she needed Josh inside her so badly her entire body ached.
“Please,” she whispered urgently. “Please, Josh—I don’t want you so much.”
“I want you too, Phil,” he said, looking into her eyes. “I just didn’t want to take things too fast.”
Phil shook her head, trying to indicate that he couldn’t possible do that, and then nuzzled under his chin, kissing his neck and nipping at the strong cords of his throat. She had never been very sexually aggressive before but she was a different woman than she had been—was it only three days before? Phil didn’t know and didn’t care, but she did know she liked the soft growl she got in response to her actions.
“All right then.” Josh rolled her over suddenly, pinning her to the mattress with her arms above her head. “If that’s the way you want it, that’s the way I’ll give it to you,” he said. “Is that what you need, Phil? You need me to fuck you hard?”
“Oh, God, Josh, no,” she moaned. “Please don’t…don’t fuck me hard…so hard and deep.”
“God, Phil, you’re driving me insane,” he growled, pulling her closer. She shivered with anticipation as he pressed between her legs and she felt the head of his shaft slip over her sensitive clit. And then he was entering her, stretching her tender flesh deliciously wide, pressing deep and hard just as he had promised until he reached her center.
“Oh!” Phil arched her back, her arms still pinned helplessly above her head as she felt him bottom out inside her. The familiar tingling grew to a new pitch until she could feel every nerve ending in her body prickling. This was what she needed, she felt instinctively. She needed Josh inside her, deep and hard and fast, filling her with himself in order to reach the elusive peak.
“You’re so tight.” Josh held still, concern clouding his eyes as he leaned over her. “You okay, Phil? I’m not hurting you, am I?”
It was so like her best friend to make sure she was all right even though he had to be dying to move, dying to take her. At any rate, she knew she was dying to feel him move inside her. It was true that she felt full and stretched open. But it was immensely pleasurable. She shook her head firmly to let him know she was all right and to prove it, she thrust up with her pelvis, grinding against him in a way that could leave no doubt about exactly how she felt.
Josh groaned low in his throat and pulled back until he was almost out of her before plunging in again. Phil gasped and tilted her pelvis to meet him, feeling warm prickling sensations shoot up her spine as he thrust into her, giving her everything he had.
She could feel the pleasure building inside her, cresting higher with every thrust. She was already so close, brought almost to the edge by the way he had tasted her and pressed his fingers and tongue inside her. Phil knew it wouldn’t take long for her to come and when she did, she was going to come so hard.
“Josh…Josh!” She was moaning his name out loud now, unable to help herself, unable to stop and not caring a bit. She wrapped her legs around his lean, muscular hips and urged him on. She could feel herself getting closer and closer to a complete meltdown and she wanted it—she worked for it, moving her hips in time with his.
“Phil.” Josh groaned her name even as he released her hands and pulled her closer. “God…love you so much,” he told her as he pressed deeply into her body. “Come for me, baby. Want to hear you come—feel you coming all around me.”
It was as though his words triggered something deep inside her. Phil felt the tingling sensation build to a climax of overwhelming proportions, washing over her in wave after wave of pleasure as she cried out beneath him. Josh moaned and pressed deeply into her, pulsing inside her as he allowed her orgasm to trigger his own.
“Josh,” she gasped as the brilliant sensations burst inside her. “Oh no…no…n…Yes!” As the word left her lips, she felt something explode deep within and she was suddenly shivering with the familiar Pop Rocks in Diet Coke sensation of a wish granted. Or, in this case, she realized, a curse lifted.
It was Josh that had done this for her. His love, his willingness to listen to her and stick by her. It was his need for her that awakened her need for him. Without him she might never have been free. Without him she would still be stuck in a miserable failing relationship wondering why her life sucked and feeling powerless to change it. Tears rose to her eyes and poured down her cheeks in a warm wet flood at both her realization and her release.
“Phil?” Josh’s voice sounded almost panicked. “Phil, oh, God—did I hurt you?”
Poor Josh, he must think I cry every time I have sex. She did her best to wipe at the tears smearing her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she managed to say. “It’s just…just that I love you. I love you so much.”
“Oh, no!” Josh looked crushed. “God, Phil, please don’t say that. I’m so sorry, I just…” His brown eyes filled with remorse.
She realized that he must still think she was saying the opposite of everything she felt. “No, no!” She reached up to cup his cheek in her hand and looked at him earnestly. “No, Josh—you cured me. You broke the curse. I can say what I want now—what I really feel.”
“Honestly?” He looked at her hopefully. “You really can?”
Phil nodded. “I really can.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What did you think of Alison’s suit?”
“Tacky,” Phil said promptly.
“Dickhead Junior?”
“He’s a bastard—and he’s addicted to some kind of weird Japanese Internet porn,” Phil added as an afterthought.
“Hmm.” Josh raised an eyebrow but refused to be deterred. “This is the big one, Phil. How do you feel about éclairs?”
“I hate, loathe, and despise them,” Phil told him. Then she pulled him closer and gave him a hungry kiss on the mouth. “But you I can’t live without. All right?”
Josh gave a shaky laugh, the corners of his eyes crinkling with relief. “Whew. I was worried there for a minute.” He bent his head and nuzzled her cheek. “I guess that I’ve wanted you for so long, it’s just hard to believe I’ve really got you.”
“You’ve got me all right,” Phil told him. “And there’s no getting rid of me now, Bowman.” She sighed contentedly. “I’m so glad the curse is broken.”
“Ya know, Swann, in every fairy tale I ever read, it only takes a kiss to break the evil spell.”
Phil laughed and pulled him closer. “Well these are modern times, so it takes a little more. Sometimes you have to stop sitting around wishing for things and make your own magic.”
“Mmm.” Josh nuzzled her neck, lapping at the sensitive skin of her throat until she shivered. “Speaking of magic, I wouldn’t mind making a little more of it with you right now.”
Phil grinned at him. “Well, what are you waiting for? I wouldn’t mind either.”
Josh kissed her ravenously before pulling back to look into her eyes. “Your wish,” he said, “
is my command.”
Epilogue
“So BB&D didn’t fire you?” Cass eyed her older sister with surprise. Phil was lounging on the brown leather sofa beside Rory, looking happier than Cass could ever remember seeing her. Phil was wearing a breezy pale pink sundress and her long blond hair was loose around her shoulders instead of up in a tight knot at the back of her head. She wasn’t wearing neutral lipstick either, just some gloss on her rose red lips to highlight their color. Her eyes were the deep dusky blue that meant twilight must be falling outside.
“Nope, they didn’t fire us—we left. And as a matter of fact after Josh and I put in our notice they offered us generous severance packages, too.” Phil smiled and twirled a piece of her sparkly hair between her fingers. “And I got that letter of recommendation that Dickson Senior promised me. It makes me sound like one of the greatest undiscovered legal minds of our time. Not that I’m complaining.”
“What? But I thought Josh punched your boss!” Rory was looking at her oldest sister with wide eyes.
“He did. But he punched Dickson while he was in the act of assault and battery—on me.”
“Wow.” Cass couldn’t help giving her sister a look of admiration. “Spoken like a true lawyer. So you told them you’d sue and they forked over the severance?”
“Well, it didn’t hurt that I knew some very, let’s say embarrassing details about some of their senior employees.” Phil grinned and flipped her hair over one shoulder. “Some details they wanted to keep strictly confidential.”
“Damn, Phil, what’s gotten into you?” Cass demanded. In the week since her sister’s birthday wish, Phil had changed from a mousy, uncertain girl to a happy, confident woman. She knew some of that had to do with Phil finally getting together with Josh but she thought it also had to do with the fact that she had broken the fairy godmother’s magical hold over her. Never again would Phil have to accept a birthday wish, because the FG’s magic no longer worked on her. In fact, she didn’t even get her daily éclair anymore, which made her blissfully happy. Too bad she couldn’t have fixed it so Rory and I don’t have to take our birthday wishes anymore too, Cass thought with a touch of envy.