“Sorry.”
“Kiss it better.”
“Like this?”
“Lower.”
“Here?”
“Lower.”
“Ah, I see the boo-boo.”
I laugh. “You said boo-boo. Like I’m two years old.”
“If you’re surprised by my level of maturity I have to wonder if you’ve been paying much attention these past four years.”
His lips drag across my abdomen, kissing near my hipbone.
“What happened here?”
“Nicked myself with the nail clippers.”
“A little far from your fingernails, don’t you think?”
“I wasn’t using them on my nails.”
“Cutting yourself out of your underwear?” He laughs like it’s a joke, but when he sees my expression he laughs even harder. “That’s what took you so long? Shoot…Tumbles, I would’ve ripped the thing off you.”
“Yes, because that’s so hot.”
“Instead, I fell asleep waiting hours and hours for you to dance for me.”
“Who said I was going to dance for you?”
He sticks his bottom lip out, and I push his face away.
“Well, sit up so I can give you a show,” I huff in a faux sigh. He grins wide, perches himself against the mattress, Lord Landon rising to get a good look.
I’m not a dancer, but I manage a great running man and sprinkler in my royal blue bustier.
“Come here, you vixen,” Landon says, grasping my hips and pulling me into him. His face is so smooth. I drag my tongue across his jaw because I can’t help myself. Then I lean back with a wrinkled nose.
“I bet that tasted good.” He laughs.
“What is on your neck?”
“Cologne.”
I smack my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “I need a mint.”
He puts his hand on the back of my neck and pulls me to his lips. “This’ll taste better.” And we tangle our tongues, and his breath hasn’t reached the morning stage yet since it’s still dark outside, so we must’ve only napped for a couple of hours.
He does taste better than his cologne.
“Can we have sex now?” I whisper against his mouth. His lips turn up and he adjusts my hips. I waste no time in grinding on him like I’m Buster on the hump pillow.
“Whoa there, Tumbles. Let me…” Then he pulls at my thong, moving the material enough so it’s out of the way. I’m not completely ready to settle on him just yet, so I quickly put his fingers in my mouth and force them to help me out. Landon’s laughing at my impatience, but he’s not stopping me either.
When I’m good and wet, I slam down on him, and both of us let out this entirely embarrassing grunt that I’m pretty sure the whole city heard. I prepare my thrusters, noticing Chocolateville in the distance. The graham cracker Ferris wheel and cookies ’n’ cream roller coaster looks pretty darn good, so I pick up speed, racing toward the main attractions. I can’t go slowly. My hips won’t let me. They rock and rock, and I curl my fingers into the sheets by Landon’s head, pulling them so hard I cover his face.
Landon grunts from underneath the bedspread, sliding his hands up to the ladies. “Liz, you gotta…”
And the rest of his sentence is obliterated as I burst through the gates of Chocolateville. I move at the speed of light, wondering how long the ride will be and knowing this is the first time I get to ride with my husband. I open my eyes, and Landon’s removed the sheet, his forehead strained, concentrated, sweaty, and I say something unintelligible and close my eyes again.
I’m starting to cramp up. Damn, it’s been a while. But I will not let this get in the way. I adjust my hips, cringing at the pain in my leg, but continue to ride Landon’s brains out. Our thighs are slick, and his grip slips all over my torso when I finally push through the cramp.
I taste chocolate on the tip of my tongue. I feel the lift deep in my belly, and I know I’m about ten seconds away from falling. I’ve missed him so much. He feels so good and so familiar, and yet it feels new and exciting, too, and I can’t wait to do this with him for the rest of our lives.
I taste more chocolate.
More.
And more.
And…
“I…I’m sorry,” Landon stutters as he shakes under me.
I slowly stop my hips with a bittersweet chocolaty aftertaste. Lord Landon has abdicated his throne right as I was about to nose-dive into sweet double-fudge raspberry cheesecake. Landon’s hands squeeze my waist, and I open my eyes to his apologetic face.
“Damn it, I’m so sorry.” He blows out a breath and curses. “It’s been forever, and he just…” His hand waves out, finishing the sentence for him.
I bite my lips, slump against him, and hold him close. “Looks like I still got it.”
“Give me ten minutes and I’ll get you going, I promise.”
“Landon, it’s okay.” And as I look into his eyes, I realize that…I totally mean it. “No, it’s more than okay. It was wonderful.”
“Shit.”
“Stop that.”
“Please don’t propose another five months sex-free.”
“We are definitely not doing that again.”
He kisses my shoulder, both of us doused in sweat that is turning cold. “Are you tired?” he asks.
“No way.”
“There’s something I want to do for you.”
“Give Lord Landon a rest for a bit.”
He laughs under me. “I will. I meant something else.”
Chapter 37
“What does it feel like to orgasm?”
“Ugh, I told you I was sorry!” Landon says as he shifts in the tub, accidentally kicking me.
“I meant for you.” I blow a handful of bubble bath at him. We’ve already downed the champagne he poured and splashed all the candles out when we tried to get in the tub at the same time. “I’ve always wondered if orgasms for men feel different than orgasms for women.”
“Yeah…I wouldn’t know.”
“Well, is it just the rubbing that gets you? Or is it the head that feels the best? The balls? The shaft? Do you like it when it’s sucked on or when I flex or when we sort of circle our hips?”
“All of the above.”
“But what’s the best part?”
“All of it.”
I throw my hands up. “You are no help.”
“Okay, what’s the best for you? Which erogenous zone?”
“I doubt you even know them all,” I tease.
“I know yours.”
“Prove it.”
He slips to his knees, and I stretch my legs out, lowering in the bubbles. His lips brush my earlobe before he takes it between his teeth.
“Sweet Georgia pie,” I groan.
“There’s one.”
He moves down to my clavicle.
“No, wait, stay at number ooooooonnnnnneeee…” Lawdy, what is he doing?
His tongue snakes out after his teeth give my neck a delicious bite, and suddenly my fingers are gripping his ass cheeks.
“Patience, Tumbles. That’s only number two.”
“Nope, go to whatever hell number this is,” I say, thrusting my hips up. But that makes me slip in the tub so far I go under for less than a second that seems like more because I breathe in a lungful of bathwater.
“I’m dying!” I choke, and Landon, being the sweet husband he is, laughs at me while grabbing a towel.
“I told you to be patient,” he says, wiping my face free of bubbles. Then he tosses the towel and dips his hand under the water and grasps my ribs.
“Good golly almighty,” I say, heart thumping in my nethers.
“Watch your mouth,” he teases.
“Shut your mouth.”
“Mmmkay.” He closes his lips around my left nipple peeking from the bubbles, and I try not to move so he doesn’t inhale water too. But I lose concentration about two seconds in.
“Get the other one,” I say, wiggling a little so
the twin gets attention as well. Something prickles all the way from my crown to my painted toenails, and I tug on his ass again.
“Number three, four, and five,” he says, leaning up with a wink.
“That’s a good look for you.” I point to the bubbles on his chin. He rubs them onto my face. Then he nudges my thighs open.
“You’re going to drown yourself if you kiss there.”
“I’ll use my wickedly talented fingers.”
“Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh…” There’s Chocolateville in the distance again. Erogenous zone number six is by far my favorite. His thumbs gently massage my inner thighs while his fingers take care of my ass, and I have no idea how he’s keeping his balance with what he’s doing to me.
“Can you come inside now?” I moan, and it takes him two Mississippis to grant my request.
“Mmm…” I muse, settling my arms around his neck.
“What?”
“I’ve never done it in a tub before. The one at home is too small.”
“I’ve done it in there.”
I stop moving my hips with him and give him a look.
“I mean, it was with myself,” he explains, and I laugh. He twitches inside me, and I tap the back of Landon’s head.
“Trying to make me laugh?”
“It’s like a hug.”
“So I’ve heard.”
We start moving again, the slow lap of the water rising enough to spill from the tub. I have to adjust a couple times because my back starts panging, and when I lose concentration I slip too far down into the water.
Landon rests his forehead on mine, letting out a long breath. He’s so sexy, his muscles straining as he keeps himself over me, his nose bumping into mine as he tries to kiss me and grind into me at the same time. He’s mine, damn it. I capture his lips, kissing him as hard and passionately as I can because it feels so good to be here with him. And it doesn’t feel like we’re peas and carrots, or even strawberries and whipped cream right now. It feels like we’re the main course, the meat and potatoes of the entire meal.
I open my eyes when he breaks our kiss to keep pumping into me. There’s a vein in his forehead becoming more and more prominent, and I settle my hands on his smooth jaw.
“Stop.”
He looks back at me, still in the water. “You don’t want to…?”
“Stop overthinking. I’m enjoying this, Landon.”
He drops his head onto my shoulder. “I know. I just…you need to be whipped cream or whatever the hell it was you said, and I’ve already screwed up once and—”
“Landon.”
“Yeah?”
“Play with me.”
He leans up. “What?”
“Just play with me. Have fun.”
The corner of his mouth quirks, and he slides back in the tub, out of me, and pulls me up against him. His hands are on my ass, and he kicks the plug from the drain.
“Hold on to me,” he says with a wicked grin, and his hand takes a dive under the water and finds the hallelujah erogenous zone.
My nails dig into his forearm, and that’s about all I can concentrate on as sparks fly behind my eyes. The dip in my lower abdomen drops ten thousand feet, then jumps back up and up and up, and I bite down onto Landon’s shoulder to muffle the scream.
Ten Mississippis. That’s how long it takes for me to plummet into the biggest piece of double-fudge raspberry cheesecake.
He slides his hand up to my cheek, and I can barely make out his burning, lust-filled eyes through my satisfied haze.
“Looks like I’ve still got it, too,” he says, and if I had any energy left I’d playfully smack the smirk from his face.
The rest of the water drains from the tub. Landon picks me up and we slip on the wet floor, but it doesn’t matter, because he’s rushing me to the king-sized bed. But we don’t jump in. We stay standing next to it, his hands grasping at my face, holding my lips to his, and the Land of Liz is ready for another visit from Lord Landon.
“Make love to me,” I demand against his bottom lip. I feel him smile, and he pushes me back onto the mattress. My body bounces, and I can tell he enjoys the show the ladies give him.
His fingers splay across my abdomen, the angel butterflies beat their wings against his fingertips, and then he wraps his hands around my hips. The sheets stick to my butt as he pulls me to the edge of the mattress and slides in. We groan in unison again, and this time it’s him who races to Chocolateville, hips rocking and rocking with no prelude, and it’s okay, because I am so there with him.
“Please…don’t…stop…” I can see the cheesecake skydive. He’s driving me to it, pushing and pushing on my shoulders, and I climb onto the lift, throat getting sore as I scream out. The butterflies in my stomach dive-bomb, and I’m only half aware that I’m biting down on Landon’s shoulder again, muffling unintelligibles.
And I fall. I fall so fast and so hard I can’t see straight. It knocks the breath straight from my lungs, fireworks burst behind my eyeballs, and I taste the epitome of chocolate. It seems to last forever, and he’s still rocking into me. The thrusters have not ceased, and they continue to rub and please as I find my breath and blink my eyes open.
Landon smirks, and his hips slow.
“Did…did you not…?” I ask, my mind still trying to figure out where I am.
“It’s okay,” he says in a horrible impression of my voice. “Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.”
“You’re a butt.”
“This butt can keep going if you want.”
I laugh at his awfully proud grin. My eyes drift to his shoulder, where I’ve left decent teeth marks. The lady bits perk up again.
“Yes, please.”
He gives me a wicked smile before he twists me around, the upper half of my body on the fluffy comforter and legs on the floor, and we go to pound town. I call out “strawberries, strawberries!” I make no sense and I don’t care, because Landon takes me to chocolate heaven, which is like the Olympus of Chocolateville.
Five Mississippis. And I dive back into that cheesecake.
I kick Landon away briefly, only to tug him back. I settle against the mattress, pulling him with me, clinging onto those damn fine arms and smiling like a dope on marijuana brownies. I grip his hands, set them firmly on my breasts, and no lie, say, “The ladies are all yours.”
He laughs and kisses his way around my chest. Our five minutes of rough and hard dark chocolate turns into a soft melody of angel cake. He loves my chest, my stomach, my inner thighs.
“I want to play with you till morning,” he says, breath warm against erogenous zone number six.
“We…we have a plane to catch in the morning,” I whisper to the ceiling. Landon comes up from between my legs and starts kissing zone number two.
“Bahamas, here we come.”
“You’re so funny.”
“Thanks. But I’m not trying to be funny right now.”
“Just trying to rub it in.”
He stops kissing my neck and leans up. “Rub what in? You won…”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yeah, you did.”
“No…I forced your hands on the lady bits. I’m packed for Utah.”
“Are you really?”
“I even brought my cute boots.”
His smile lines deepen. “I packed for the Bahamas.”
“Well, repack. We’re going to Utah.”
“Why?”
“Because I lost.” I reach up and run my hand through his dark hair that’s already dry from the tub. “And because I love you. We should go there.”
“I love you. We should go to the Bahamas.”
“We’re arguing in the middle of our sexfest.”
He quirks a grin. “So does that make us peas and carrots again?”
I pull him down to my lips. “We’re good together.”
“But we should shut up so we can get to dessert.”
“Mmmhmm.”
He takes my hands, holds them
over my head, and settles on top of me.
“All right, Mrs. Wangford. This time when I take you to the stars, remember to say my name and not some fruit’s.”
I laugh, and he groans as my muscles lock around him. And he lets me taste all the treats in Chocolateville. Four more times.
Chapter 38
We don’t catch a flight the next morning. We never make it out of the hotel.
Instead we wake up in each other’s arms, watch reruns of Friends, and Landon calls the front desk and gets a room for the next week. We just need a hotel anyway, because the only sights we’re seeing are on each other.
Then we make love again, and one more time, then fight over who gets to open the biggest present when we get home.
I like this marriage thing, because it’s the best of all of us. We get to be the whole meal. The appetizer, the entrée, the luxurious dessert…
And yes, the peas and the carrots.
Epilogue
JULY
Landon
“This thing is impossible to pee on!” Liz shouts through the bathroom door. I chuckle and adjust my hat, trying my best to stay calm, but my heart’s beating clean out of my chest.
“You want me to come in and help you?” I joke. She’s gonna yell at me for it.
“Don’t you dare! And stop pacing outside the door. You’re making me nervous.”
“Let me in. I’ll push on your bladder.”
“Go wait on the bed!”
She doesn’t even know how nervous I am, and I’m not the one who has to wiz on a popsicle stick. But the second she told me she was a week late I started talking to myself whenever she wasn’t looking and checking the bank account. Now that The Walking Stiff got a contract, we’ve got a nice chunk of change in savings. But who knows how long that’ll last. Liz is better at taking care of that stuff, so I trust her to tell me if we’re in deep shit or not.
I pick up the socks I left on the floor and toss them in the basket before sitting on the edge of the bed.
The bathroom door opens, and Liz slides into our bedroom with a smile that shows off the small gap between her front teeth. Damn, I love that gap.
“It takes two minutes,” she says, and hops on the bed next to me, resting her chin on my shoulder.