A Fine Specimen

  Whoa. Talk about hormonal overload and the insanity it brings! Caitlin shook herself and turned back into the house. Who even knew if Alex would want to see her again after last night—and here she was planning his garden? That way led to heartache and it was way too nice a day for that. Besides which, she was hungry and it looked like Alex wasn’t going to be doing the honors.

  Cooking breakfast was fine with her, she liked cooking. It was the cleaning-up-afterward part she didn’t like.

  Caitlin checked the fridge, frowned, then checked the shelves.

  Preparing breakfast was going to be a major undertaking. Alex didn’t believe in food shopping. Finally, after a thorough and disgusted check of his supplies, she managed to put together the makings for French toast. The bread was stale, with suspicious green flecks, the butter was almost rancid and she didn’t want to think too hard about how old the eggs might be. But—technically—it was food. And including the major food groups too—grease, carbs and cholesterol.

  She cracked the eggs into a clean white bowl and whisked them. The yolks were anemic-looking, but they’d have to do. The coffee machine was in a cupboard, together with a radio. Caitlin twiddled the dial until she found a soft rock station and settled in contentedly to a program featuring the best of the ’90s.

  Madonna. “Ray of Light”. Perfect.

  Humming softly, hips moving gently in time with the beat, she put on the coffee and lit a burner for the French toast. She turned to the cupboard again—then gave a start at the large, dark figure standing in the doorway watching her out of dark, unreadable eyes.

  The gray morning light gave his dark skin a metallic tone. His tight, hard features looked almost otherworldly, like a member of a future race that had been honed and perfected over several millennia. He looked like the captain of Starfleet Command.

  “Oh!” She smiled, heart hammering. “My goodness, you scared me. I had no idea you were up. Breakfast will be ready in just a few minutes, so… Alex?”

  He just looked at her unsmilingly, his eyes fiercely locked on hers.

  “Got unfinished business,” he said finally in a hoarse croak, as if his voice hadn’t been used in a long time. “You and me.”

  God, he looked better than any male had a right to in the morning. He had pulled on pajama bottoms and the soft cotton clung to his lean hips, the drawstring waistband dipping low on his flat stomach. His chest, covered in crisp black hair, was just magnificent. Good thing he kept that chest covered up during the day with a shirt and jacket. If he lived in a nudist colony, he’d be jumped constantly by the female population.

  Caitlin had felt every inch of that chest against her the night before. Her heart thumped at the sight of him and she found awkward bits of her body softening. Her heart, her knees, her sex.

  “Alex?” she asked uncertainly when he didn’t move. He simply stared at her, face expressionless. “Is something wrong?” He came away from the doorframe and walked silently toward her on large bare feet. Damn him, even his feet were gorgeous, long and lean, high-arched and beautifully shaped. There was something in his walk which reminded her of a panther’s pace. A panther stalking prey.

  He was aroused. The big, plum-colored tip of his cock was poking up from under the waistband of the soft pants. Oh God.

  “Alex?” she ventured again. “Are you angry because I rummaged around for food and— Mmmf!”

  Alex hooked his arm around her neck and caught her mouth with his. Her neck fell back over his arm and her bones loosened. His kitchen, his garden, Baylorville, the whole world started spinning around her as he leaned into her, and she had to clutch his bare shoulders for balance.

  When his tongue touched hers, she felt the electric shock down to her toes. His large, calloused hand touched her thigh under the shirt and glided upward, smoothing over her bare hip.

  “Saw your panties on the bedroom floor,” he breathed into her neck, once he released her mouth. “Figured you wouldn’t have anything on under this.”

  “You figured right, Dick Tracy, excellent deductive powers,” Caitlin murmured, then bit her lip as his hand traveled leisurely up her side to caress her breast.

  “Mmm.” He pulled her even closer. “But I had to find out firsthand. Says I have to right in the Detective’s Manual. Rule number one for a detective—check your facts.”

  He reached out to turn off the burner and hooked a kitchen chair with one gorgeous bare foot. He sat down, Caitlin straddling his lap.

  She looked at his face. From this vantage point, what she could see was mostly square jaw, black stubble and absurdly long black eyelashes. He shifted his arms until she was nestled up against him, chest to chest, nose to nose.

  She could feel the pulses of blood in his penis every time her belly touched it. Each surge was echoed in her womb.

  He watched her eyes, watched her reaction to his arousal, hot and hard as steel against her belly. Caitlin couldn’t have hid her own reaction to him if she’d tried.

  She knew she was flushed, she could feel it down to her breasts. Her nipples were so sensitized that the thick, starched material of the shirt almost hurt them as she brushed against it. At least the material was so thick it hid the fact that her nipples had turned hard as pebbles.

  Alex’s gaze left her eyes, lingering on her mouth before dropping to her breasts. When his gaze rose again, his eyes were so hot they scorched.

  Maybe he had X-ray vision.

  “What—” Oh God, the heat inside her was so intense she could barely huff out the words. “What unfinished business do we have?”

  “Foreplay,” he growled. He pulled her to him for a kiss so hard and so hungry she was shivering when it ended.

  “Completely forgot foreplay last night, it went straight out the window.” His hand slid up her rib cage, his thumb rasping across her nipple. Goose pimples broke out on her arms. “It was like I was in some kind of a race to see how fast I could get into you. Sorry.”

  The last word was said against her neck, his teeth and stubble scraping down a tendon. She shivered.

  “I forgive you,” she whispered.

  His mouth moved against the skin of her neck in a smile. “That’s good. I am humbly appreciative and hope to make it up to you. However…” His hands went to the front of his shirt. “You stole my shirt. Do you know what happens to stolen goods?”

  He slid the buttons from their holes, slowly, one by one, watching carefully as the shirt widened, exposing the swell of her breasts.

  Caitlin was mesmerized by the look on his face. Every feature tight. Pupils dilated. Sharp, searing heat. He suddenly looked up at her and every cell in her body flashed heat.

  “Do you?”

  Do I what? she thought, dazed. He was teasing her. She should be responding but there was no moisture in her mouth. She couldn’t even swallow. He’d asked her something. She shook her head slowly, side to side, without looking away from him.

  The shirt was completely unbuttoned, caught on her breasts. Alex put his hands on her shoulders, opening the shirt even farther.

  “The police have to confiscate stolen goods.” His hands slid down her arms, taking the shirt with it. It dropped to the floor. “That’s the law.”

  She was naked on his lap. Her heart was pounding so hard she was sure he could see it pulsing against her skin. He was seeing something, because his eyes were locked on her breasts. He cupped a breast in his hand, his skin dark and tough against her white flesh. The contrast was vivid, arousing.

  He bent his dark head and licked her nipple.

  Caitlin jolted. Her womb contracted with each movement of his tongue. She was breathing in short pants, embarrassed at how aroused she was at such simple touches. His hand at her breast, his tongue at her nipple. Her heart was knocking against her rib cage so hard she was surprised it didn’t make a racket.

  Alex lifted his head and kissed her again, hard, one big hand cupping the back of her head, as if she’d escape if he didn’t bind her to him.


  Silly, silly man. She wasn’t going anywhere. His kisses were making her so weak she could barely stay upright. His other hand left her breast to cup her bottom, edging her closer to him, so close the lips of her sex met his huge, material-clad penis. It surged against her, lengthening and thickening.

  She sucked in her breath and let it out shakily.

  He pulled her even more tightly to him and kissed her again, so hard she sagged against him helplessly. Caitlin’s body immediately prepared itself for lovemaking. Her breasts felt heavy and swollen and her lower body softened, like a flower unfurling.

  Had he felt that? He felt something, because he jolted and moved fast, in a blur. He lifted her, using only one arm around her back and positioning her over him. With the other hand he pushed the material of the pajama bottoms down, pulled his penis away from his stomach and held it, lowering her over him. His hips pushed up as she sank down on him so that in an instant she was completely impaled, full to bursting with hard, aroused Alex.

  It hurt, just a little. Not actually pain, no. More like stretched and invaded. And hot. It was like having a burning brand of steel inside her. He was so tall her feet didn’t touch the floor so she had no leverage to control the depth of his invasion, the full weight of her body sinking her down on him. She wriggled a little to find a more comfortable position and he groaned.

  “Oh God.” Alex’s forehead fell to her shoulder with a little thunk. “Not again.”

  She wriggled a little more and felt him, impossibly, swell inside her as she moved on him. “What?” she asked, breathlessly. It was almost impossible to breathe, as if her body couldn’t do two things at once—have Alex inside her and pull in air.

  “Foreplay.” His muffled voice floated up. “Fuck. I forgot again.”

  It was hard to think of him doing anything that could excite her more than she already was. The slight discomfort was gone and she was so aroused she was shaking with it. Alex’s entire body was one huge turn-on. The crisp chest hair that tickled her breasts and stomach and that turned wiry around his groin, rubbing roughly against the delicate flesh of her sex, the steely thighs under her legs, shoulders so broad they exceeded the span of the chair.

  And that smell, oh God. Pure Alex. Pure sex.

  “It’s okay,” she said shakily. “Another time.”

  His head lifted at that and he gave her a half smile, one corner of his beautiful mouth tilting up. “No,” he said, his deep voice low. “Now.”

  Eyes narrowing, watching her face carefully, Alex reached down to where her body joined his. Carefully, delicately, he touched her clitoris. It was like being touched by lightning. She jolted.

  “That’s it,” he murmured, rubbing her lightly. A wash of heat so great she almost burned up with it rose from her groin area, together with a wash of juices. That was it, indeed.

  His finger slowly, carefully traced her pussy all around where it was clenched on his penis, opening her up just a little more. The thighs under her turned even harder and his hips rose, just a little, reaching somehow even more deeply inside her.

  “Bend back,” Alex ordered.

  Caitlin was almost beyond understanding English. “What?”

  “Over my arm. Bend.” Alex’s voice was guttural now, hoarse. He had a steely arm holding her, and she tipped her head back.

  “Yeah. That’s it.” It was more a puffing out of breath than words. Bending to her, Alex licked a nipple. Caitlin whimpered. She was breathing in fast, shallow pants that sounded loud in the quiet kitchen. With a low, approving sound coming from his throat, Alex opened his mouth over the tip of her breast and sucked. Hard.

  Her vagina clenched around him.

  A noise came from his chest that sounded like a purr.

  Each movement of his mouth set off a reaction in her inner muscles, which caused his penis to jerk inside her. Like a positive-reinforcement machine.

  Caitlin’s muscles were completely lax. If she hadn’t been held up by his arm, impaled on his penis, she would have fallen to the floor.

  Alex switched breasts and the contrast between one nipple in the heat of his mouth, the other tip wet in the cool morning air, made her shiver.

  Alex’s mouth left her breasts and moved up, slowly, kissing her skin every inch of the way to her neck, where he ran teeth and tongue over a sensitive tendon. She broke out in goose bumps all over. She could feel Alex smiling against the skin of her neck.

  “That’s it,” he whispered against her skin. “Now open more for me.”

  Caitlin blinked. Open more for him? How could she possibly be more open? A shifting of his hands on her back, an adjusting of her thighs and she found herself leaning forward, plastered against his chest, her thighs opened wider by his legs and Alex, impossibly, even more deeply inside her.

  “Oh yeah,” he breathed. “Just like that.”

  His thighs under her hardened even more as he moved inside her. At first gently, a light rotation that brought him into contact with every single erogenous zone inside her, then harder as he started pumping. Short, lazy strokes that soon grew deeper.

  Caitlin’s head had fallen to his shoulder. They couldn’t kiss. His strokes moved her up and down too much for that. And a kiss would be wasted right now anyway. Caitlin loved Alex’s kisses. He was amazingly good at kissing. He never made her feel crowded or like she couldn’t breathe, like other men’s kisses had. No, Alex knew exactly what to do and how to do it, and she loved it.

  But right now, all her attention was centered on the heat between her legs.

  With difficulty, she lifted her head slightly and opened her eyes. It was mesmerizing, watching where they were joined. The contrast between their coloring was electrifying. With each stroke that pushed him inside her, strands of her pubic hair intertwined with his, pale ash to black. When he pulled out, his penis was darkly earth-toned and glistening, a contrast to her bright pink flesh.

  She was so wet, pearls of moisture glistened in her pubic hair and made his penis glisten when he pulled out of her. An intense smell, the unmistakable smell of sex, drifted up. His churning penis made small sucking sounds as he worked her. A blind man could smell and hear what they were doing.

  The strokes were becoming harder, deeper, faster. Her chest rubbed against his, the friction almost as exciting as the friction of his cock inside her. Almost, but not quite. The friction of his penis was burning her up from the inside, a whirlwind of heat so intense she couldn’t move, could only stay with her head on Alex’s shoulder, watching the two of them, a sight so erotic her skin prickled.

  Alex was moving so fast and so hard now, both big hands clenched hard around her backside, holding and lifting her for him, moving quickly into the violent rhythms of climax.

  Caitlin slowly raised her eyes from where he was pumping in and out of her, up over the strong stomach muscles rippling with his thrusts, up to his face, flushed and hard, predatory, the broad chest beneath her hands bellowing in and out as if he were running a marathon. A lock of thick black hair had fallen over his forehead, tap-tap-tapping in time with his thrusts. His narrowed gaze held hers intently, watching her carefully.

  His jaw muscles moved and stomach contracted as he drove into her, over and over again.

  It was all too much. Caitlin drew in a deep breath and held it, shaking, on the edge of a precipice and then—yes! She fell right over the edge with a cry, tumbling onto him as her body erupted in tight convulsions, so hard they were almost painful.

  He rode her through it, intensifying the pulses of pure sensation, a level of pleasure she’d never felt before, pure animal sex, hard and fast.

  Caitlin shook and shuddered, eyes tightly closed because she couldn’t take any more sensory input, what was happening inside her was too sharp, too intense. Her loins were drenched, she was sweating all over, even her closed eyes were leaking water.

  Her body was starting the long slide to the other side of orgasm when Alex’s strong arms tightened around her so hard he cut off her air. He
punched his hips up in one hard thrust that raised her high, swelled inside her even more and gave a huge shout, jetting semen inside her so hard she came again, a short, intense little orgasm, like a hiccup or a cough.

  Dazed, Caitlin felt Alex settle back in the chair and felt his breaths slow in time with hers. They sat, foreheads on each other’s shoulders, plastered together by sweat and semen…and simply breathed.

  She opened her eyes slowly, astonished to find the room exactly the way it had been before. The buzzing frantic energy between them had been so strong she wouldn’t have been surprised to see that it had swirled in the room, knocking glasses and plates off the counter, tipping chairs.

  But nothing had changed except her.

  She closed her eyes again, feeling her muscles relax, one by one, her breathing slowly returning to normal, her other senses slowly awakening.

  Finally, Alex stirred and raised his head. He turned her face toward him with a finger. Her muscles had turned to water. She didn’t even have the energy to open her eyes.

  “Look at me,” he ordered softly.

  Yeah, right. Her eyelids flickered then subsided. Not going to happen.

  He shook her a little.

  “Caitlin, look at me.” Oh God, that was the Alex Cruz Voice of Command, as impossible to resist as the voice of God from a burning bush.

  Her eyes popped open.

  “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” He was looking grim now, as if expecting bad news. How sad. She wanted to wipe that expression off his face, right now. What they’d just shared was…terrific. Mind-bending, actually.

  She opened her mouth to tell him so and her stomach emitted a loud growl, startling in the silence of the room.

  Alex lost the grim expression and laughed. He closed his eyes and bent his head forward until it touched hers again. His mouth curved in a smile. “Much as I want a second round, I’ve guess we’ve been ordered to make other plans.” He lifted her gently and reluctantly off his lap. “What were you doing before?”

  “Cooking,” Caitlin said. She stood on shaky legs, looking down at his still-erect penis. Desire burned in her bloodstream and she was about to bend back down to him when her stomach rumbled again, loud and strong and embarrassing as hell. With a sigh, she bent to retrieve his shirt from the floor and gave herself up to satisfying at least one type of hunger.