Light Me Up

  “I’m ready too,” Brian called after her, giving her a shiver of happiness.

  “Want to help?”

  “You know it.”

  She flipped on the bathroom light and curled her lip at her appearance. “I suppose that’s a part of the plan you have for me tonight?”

  “A big part.” He appeared behind her, and she smiled at his reflection in the mirror.

  “Want to clue me in yet?”

  Without giving a reply, he slid his hands up her bare arms, leaving gooseflesh in their wake, then pulled the straps of her dress down. “You’ll put your hair back up for me?”

  “Of course. You just like messing it up, don’t you?”

  “I do, but not this time.” A tug at the back of her dress, then a loosening as he pulled down the zipper. She stood still as he let the fabric slip down her body and pool at her feet, glad to be rid of it. In short order, her strapless bra followed, leaving her naked since he’d demolished her panties in her old bathroom.

  She watched in the mirror as his gaze slowly slid down and up again, seeming to caress her every curve and lingering on his favorite ones: her breasts and nipples with their silver rings. His fingers lightly traced around her waist to her belly, hands forming a V as he moved them down to the bare juncture of her thighs. He watched the slow progression intently, and she loved watching him. Before she knew it, her breath was coming in shallow pants as arousal tightened her muscles under his seeking fingers.

  “I’m going to draw you like this,” he said, and her knees went weak. Again.

  “Like…this?”

  “With your hair up, that beautiful neck bared. Along with everything else.” Gently, he gathered her hair at her nape and lifted it, grazing the side of her neck with his lips.

  “Oh my…God.”

  He’d drawn her before; it was something he loved to do. Right now, a portrait he’d done of her during their turbulent inception as a couple hung over their bed. More than once, she’d been relaxing and watching TV with him while he doodled on his sketch pad, only for him to lift it up later and show her the breathtaking profile of her he’d sketched out while she hadn’t even known. But he hadn’t done that in a while, and well, he’d never asked to draw her nude.

  She closed her eyes as his hands released her hair then traveled all over her body, almost as if he were memorizing her lines and curves to better help him transfer them to paper. “Is that okay, sunshine? Just know if you say no, you spoil all my carefully made plans.”

  Was he crazy? No had never even occurred to her. She was too busy trying not to go up in flames, shove him onto the bed in the next room and ride him to ecstasy. His hands covered both her breasts, kneading lightly. She inhaled to drive them further into his touch. “You know my answer is yes. My answer is always yes to you.”

  He grinned at her in the mirror, his smile white and beautiful against his olive complexion. Hopefully this would involve him getting naked too, at least before the night was over. “Let’s hope so. Now get ready for me.” He kissed her cheek, then turned and left her melting, watching him go adoringly.

  God, she loved that man.

  Repairing her hair wasn’t such a chore this time, as she wasn’t striving for perfection. For this, she left it soft and a little disarrayed, some tendrils still hanging in loose ringlets. She hoped he would like it. Donning her fuzzy pink robe, she headed toward the living room where she found him rearranging the throw pillows on their couch.

  He’d changed into a pair of ripped, faded jeans, but he’d lost his shirt, for which she’d be eternally grateful since she was more than a little obsessed with his body. His ink, his piercings. Lord. She swallowed thickly.

  “How is this?” she asked, more to get his attention than his opinion. She already knew what he would say.

  “Gorgeous. Perfect.” The way he smiled told her he genuinely thought so.

  Candace took a deep breath and moved closer, fingers clenched on her robe. Given her thudding heart and ragged breath, it was almost as if she’d never been naked for him before. “I think this’ll work,” he said, eyeing the pillow arrangement critically. “Go ahead and lie down and we’ll work on pose.”

  She licked her lips and slipped out of her robe, which he took from her. As soon as the air hit her nipples, they tightened—or maybe it was because his gaze automatically went there. “This may very well be the greatest idea I’ve ever had,” he said as she stretched out on the couch.

  She would’ve laughed if she weren’t so damn turned on. Every inch of her body felt incredibly sensitized, and if he’d touched between her legs, he’d have found her slick and swollen. Hell, if he touched between her legs, she’d end up needing to fix her hair again.

  He urged her onto her left side and a little more upright, resting her elbow on the arm of the couch and adding another pillow under it to make her more comfortable. “Put your hand here, like this,” he said, moving her hand so that it was against her cheek. “Can you hold that?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine.”

  As he continued to work, she simply went limp and let him situate her however he wanted. He brought her right leg forward over her left and bent it at the knee so she wasn’t showing everything, then paused in his task to stroke his hand over the curve of her hip. “Damn. That’s hot. This is going to be perfect.”

  “And for your eyes only, right?” she teased.

  He gave her a wry look. “Given that I’d beat the fucking shit out of anyone else who saw you like this, yes.”

  “You’re not going to, like, have it tattooed across your back or anything?”

  “There’s an idea,” he laughed. He moved her right arm so that it lay along her side, not obstructing the view of her breasts. “Are you comfortable? Seriously. It shouldn’t take me long but I’d rather you speak now than have to adjust anything.”

  Without moving anything except her eyes, she looked up at him. “Yes.”

  He stroked her jaw with his index finger. “You’re beautiful. Once you see this you might want to show everyone.”

  “I doubt that!”

  “Tell you what. I’ll do a quick close-up of your face too. Then you can show whoever you want.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  He stood back and looked at her from head to toe, giving her a few minor adjustments. Then he dragged his chair over and sat, propping his ankle on his opposite knee and reaching for his large sketchpad. Of course, after that, he moved his chair three times to find just the right angle. All the while she watched him in amusement, falling more in love with him every passing minute if that were possible. He was never satisfied until his work was flawless, and if he needed another hour to make it that way, he would take it.

  “Okay,” he finally announced. “Ready.”

  “You know, you’ve drawn me from memory before. I think you just want to have an excuse to stare at me naked,” she said.

  “There is that,” he agreed, and she giggled when he didn’t dispute the accusation.

  Now came the hard part—remaining still and quiet while he needed total concentration. But that was okay, because it gave her an excuse to look at him and nothing else the entire time he worked. Shirtless, intense, his black hair tousled and his dark blue gaze roving all over her body as his graphite pencil roved the paper…yes, this was the greatest idea he’d ever had. Time crept by, and she became aware of her pulse all over, especially between her thighs, and she squeezed them together trying to assuage the building ache. That felt good though, so she kept doing it. The rhythmic movements only worked to encourage her arousal.

  He took that moment to look up at her over his pad. His eyes followed the curve of her hip, and she felt that gaze so acutely it could’ve been his hands stroking her skin. The damp flesh hidden from his view throbbed and burned. “God, I want you,” she blurted.

  “Baby, you have no idea,” he muttered, now looking down at his pad. “I could break rocks over here right now.”

  Oh, damn, tha
t didn’t help at all. Brian looking so unimaginably hot right now didn’t help, either. All that hard male flesh exposed. His bare feet, which never failed to fascinate her—was there anything about him that didn’t? She could scarcely see the movement of his hands on his pad. Those hands were works of art—big and graceful, they created beautiful things and they never failed to make her body sing.

  Turnabout was fair play. “I’m so wet. I would touch myself, but I can’t move.”

  He completely stopped and looked up at her. He didn’t have to say a word; she knew what the thought of her masturbating did to him—it was a thing. A thing the mere mention of was likely to get her fucked senseless, to drive all thought of it out of her head.

  She undulated her hips in tiny, subtle circles. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”

  “Candace,” he said in a warning tone. The most delicious warning she could imagine.

  “Okay,” she relented with a pout. He winked at her.

  “Not much longer, babe.”

  “Then you’ll fuck me?”

  “Jesus. You have to ask?”

  “No, I just like to.”

  He didn’t look up. “Fair enough. I like to answer. Yes, I’ll fuck you.”

  “Hard?”

  “Like you’re unbreakable.”

  Damn. Her eyes closed. Her wetness doubled, almost as if her body understood and stepped up its efforts to prepare her for the rough play he was capable of. “I can’t wait,” she whispered.

  He heard. “I can’t either. Trying not to mess up over here.” She repressed a laugh as he winced and reached down to adjust himself under his sketch pad.

  “How will you do it?”

  “How do you want it?”

  “I want you right here as soon as you’re done. I won’t be able to wait.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “But will you go down on me first?” He was sooooo good at that. So good.

  “Goddamn, what are you trying to do to me? I can’t concentrate.”

  He tried to appear cool and affected but couldn’t quite pull it off. She smiled. Of course, she could sympathize, being seconds away from breaking her pose to attend to needs that were spiraling out of control. “Will you?”

  “I’ll suck you until you scream, Candace. Until you make that sound.” The corner of his mouth kicked up. “You know the one I mean. It’s the sexiest, most primal thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Sexy and primal. Interesting that he would use those words to describe that high-pitched, wavering, uncontrolled caterwaul she did when he was giving it to her good. That noise was almost embarrassing. “After that,” she said, “I want you wherever and however you want me.”

  His gaze flickered to hers. A spark of danger lit in his eyes. “Then you’ll get it.”

  She didn’t have to explain what she meant and neither did he. Her heart jumped and warmth spread in her face, no doubt turning her cheeks bright red. “Okay,” she said softly.

  Appearing satisfied he’d shut her up, he went back to work with swift, efficient strokes, his expression tense but otherwise unreadable. She just tried to keep breathing, anticipation and anxiety swamping her as she thought back on the times before, letting him take her ass. The overwhelming fullness that fell just a little too much on the pain side of the pleasure/pain dichotomy. But enough on the pleasure side that she couldn’t stop. That she wanted more.

  “You got quiet,” he observed after more time had passed. “If you don’t want—”

  “No. I do.”

  “You know I love you, babe.”

  “I know. I love you too.”

  “Me and you?” he said, giving the first line of their favorite motto.

  “Against the world,” she finished. Always.

  Chapter Three

  “Done?” she asked, hearing the breathless excitement in her own voice.

  “For the moment. I’ll play around with it more later.”

  “Can I see?”

  After scrutinizing his work while the seconds ticked away on the clock hanging on the wall above his head, he flipped the pad closed and slipped it behind him on the chair. The grin he gave her was full of the mischief she loved about him…one of the hundreds of things she loved about him, anyway.

  “Nope,” he said, standing without taking his eyes off her.

  She frowned and moved to get up. “No?”

  “No. Don’t move.”

  Now those were some sweet words. Swallowing, she fell back in her former position. As his hands went to his belt and began to unfasten it while he stared at her like a starving man about to fall on a buffet, she licked her lips in a feeble attempt to replenish the moisture. Oh. God. Yes. She rubbed her thighs together wantonly in front of him, feeling the slickness between them, encouraging her body’s perpetual response to him. She let her fingers slide down over her quivering belly muscles, closer and closer, then opened her legs so he could see her wet folds.

  “Sonofabitch,” he muttered, fingers seeming to fumble a bit as he worked his fly.

  She giggled with the heady intoxication of knowing she held this power over him and let her hand slip lower without taking her eyes from his face. Pushing him. “See anything you like?”

  “Fuck, yes.”

  The first brush of her fingertips over her clit caused her to suck in a breath and then sigh his name as if he were the one touching her. She wanted to rub herself to a frantic orgasm, but that was his job tonight. His eyes flared and she quickly moved her hand away, silently letting him know she would push that particular button of his right now.

  A few quick adjustments on his part and he was naked, his cock in his hand. Long, thick, beautiful, hard and ready with the silver beads on the top and bottom of the glans—those little beads in just the right place could have her coming within seconds if she was turned on enough. Now definitely qualified. Her own fingers when she dipped them shallowly into her pussy were no comparison to what he could give her. None.

  “Then come get it,” she said.

  She thought he might bust the coffee table to pieces in an effort to get to her; in the end he practically climbed over it. Reaching her, he crushed his mouth to hers, burying her under his weight on the couch, and she loved it, loved being pinned down and helpless under him. The heaviness of his erection rested on her thigh and she tried to wriggle her legs apart to give him space—

  Strong hands grasped her wrists and held them down; he pulled back and shook his head at her. “Uh-uh. You asked me to go down first. I’m just following orders.”

  All the curves he’d stared at while drawing her he touched now, every move swift and impatient, as if he couldn’t feel all of her fast enough. And then he was tasting her, his mouth hot on her neck, her breasts, her nipples, oh God yes, sucking the rings into his mouth and flicking them with his tongue until she writhed in desperation.

  Just as he drove her to the point of begging, he changed tactics, gained control of himself, slowed down. Threw her off balance in the way he loved to do. Even as she wanted to claw at him and tell him to hurry up and get her off, she managed to bring her own ragged emotions into check. The only thing better than Brian fucking her senseless was Brian making love to her.

  He barely left any part of her unkissed as he made his way down the length of her body. Without the burden of his weight on her, she opened her legs, giving him room. He slid his knees down onto the floor and grabbed her hips, pulling her until the backs of her thighs rested on his shoulders.

  For a long moment, he simply looked, and the heat in her face roared to an inferno. It didn’t matter how many times he’d seen her this way; whenever the most secret part of her was laid bare in front of him, she could scarcely deal with the intimacy. Her hands trembled as she reached for his hair, itching to sink her fingers deep into the silk of it. Mess it up a bit more. His gaze flickered up her body, finally coming to rest on her face.

  “I keep trying to think up new and inventive ways to tell you you’re
the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “And you get more beautiful with each passing day.”

  “You don’t have to say it. You only have to look at me like you are right now, and I’ll know.” His lips curved in a smile, and she went on. “If you ever stop doing that, that’s when I would start to wonder.”

  “It’s not something you’ll ever have to worry about, Candace. I promise you that.” His mouth lowered to skim the crease where her right thigh met her abdomen. He followed it down until his breath tickled right where she needed his tongue most, and then he pulled apart her lips with his thumbs. Looking at her. Breathing on her. Oh, Jesus. Her hands left his head—she feared now she’d pull his hair out—and clenched futilely at the couch cushions.

  One lick. One tiny lick she barely felt right on her clit, and her hips tried to wrench upward. Ready for the violent reaction, he held her steady and did it again. “Please, Brian, more…”

  He didn’t give it to her, and he wouldn’t until he was ready. She’d learned long ago not to rush him when he was like this; it was useless. His tongue traveled down her slit, thoroughly tasting her wetness and probing gently into her pussy. He licked and sucked her labia, first one side and then the other. He even placed nipping, sucking kisses along the insides of her thighs while her chest heaved and she curled her hands into fists to keep from reaching down and giving herself relief.

  “Do you know how fucking crazy I’d go if I didn’t have you?” he whispered, breathing the words right on her wet, hot flesh. Wet from her juices and from his skillful mouth.

  “Do you know how fucking crazy I’m going to go if I don’t have you?”

  “But you do.”

  “I know, just… I need to come. So bad.”

  “After all this time, I still haven’t taught you to enjoy drawing this out.”

  “It’s you. I can’t help it. When it comes to you, I’m in the red 24/7.”

  “Well. Can’t say I don’t enjoy hearing that.” He stroked one hand up and down her thigh, then skimmed the same pattern with his fingertips. “But I love it when you need me this much.”