“Always in a hurry,” Josh said, “This isn’t something we’re going to rush, Mo Cuishle.”
He left his hand where she’d placed it, but he only smiled mildly at the frustrated sound that heaved from her throat when he did nothing more than cup the round globe.
The sight of her topless had affected him in ways a woman hadn’t in a very long time. Her body was perfection. He wanted to consume it in great, greedy, branding bites. His need to slow down was for himself as well as her — a truth she didn’t need to know.
Nuzzling her neck, he felt her breast wriggle in his palm as she shuddered. He liked it. Mind you, he wasn’t a huge fan of the limitations of making love on the couch. Especially not when there was a perfectly good option so nearby.
“What are you doing?” Auggie yelped in surprise when he scooped her up into his arms and rose in a smooth, easy move off the couch. Then she groaned at the feel of his shirt against her naked, sensitized skin
“I’m seducing you,” Josh said, then lowered his lips to hers to back up his words. They didn’t move far, just to the sheepskin rug in front of the fireplace.
“On the rug?” Auggie squeaked as he lowered her down and stretched her out.
“I want you in front of the fire,” he murmured. Rearing back, he whipped the jersey from his chest. “I want to see the colours of the flames dancing over your skin, want to touch you everywhere they do. And,” his grin was naughty, “Some places they don’t.”
Auggie looked up at his broad, muscular shoulders and sculpted abs, and felt drool pool in her mouth. Yep, doing this by the fire worked for her. He dropped back down beside her, and she reached out to touch him immediately.
“Still with the rushing,” he said. He braceleted both of her wrists in his big hands, then nibbled his way slowly up the inside of her arm. When she started to whimper and wriggle with need, he simply smiled, and worked his way up the next arm.
By the time he had worked his mouth over her neck and collarbone and was hovering above her breasts, Auggie was quivering with anticipation. His tongue flicked out to stroke the puckered nipple in front of him, and Auggie’s back bowed up off the floor eagerly.
“I like the look of you, fine thing,” Josh murmured, “Love the taste.”
His mouth closed over her breast, sucking the nipple even as he swirled it with his tongue. She writhed under him, the feel of the sheepskin soft under her back. He might want to take things slow, but it had been too long since a man had touched her. She needed him inside her now. And she failed to recall telling him he could set the pace.
Locking her legs around his back, she arched up to press herself against him. She didn’t need to go slow. She didn’t want slow, at all. If she could have freed her hands from his grasp, she would have, and then it would have been game on. So, she’d use the tools she had to make her point.
He chuckled, but the sound was strained. Auggie was encouraged.
“Not so in control, after all, are you, Irish?” She panted, then moaned when he obligingly ground himself against her.
She’d bucked her body up almost in half to make contact with his erection. Which, Josh imagined, could not have been comfortable. Even if it was impressively athletic.
“Stop fighting me, and let me savour you,” he said. To compromise, and because fuck if he didn’t want to, he released her hands long enough to yank down the leggings she wore.
She didn’t even give him a moment to enjoy the sight of her spread out underneath him in nothing but a midnight blue thong. Eagerly, she kicked herself free, then reared up and set her hands to unbuckling his belt. With her lips pursed in concentration, he blew out an amused breath and feathered his fingers through her hair. She glanced up, saw the warmth in his eyes as he watched her, and her fingers faltered briefly.
“Need some help?”
She huffed out a breath, and when the heated air hit his abs, his muscles contracted. She glanced up again as the buckle sprang free, then she leaned in and pressed her lips just south of his belly button. His fingers clenched, tearing at her hair briefly. In response, her fingers popped open the button of his jeans, and carefully unzipped his fly.
Through the cotton of his boxers, Auggie traced the length of his erection with her index finger.
“Nice.”
“Don’t do that,” Josh said through gritted teeth. “Or, this will be over almost before it’s begun.”
“What happened to savouring?” Auggie asked sweetly. She batted her eyelashes at him. “Are you saying you have the muscles but not the stamina?”
Josh threw back his head and laughed. He knew exactly what she was doing, trying to control the moment, trying to speed things up until this was nothing more than a quick fuck. He wasn’t sure why, but it wasn’t. Not for him.
In a single, economical move, he stood. With his legs spread on either side of her, he dropped his jeans. Auggie leaned back, pressed her hands into the floor behind her, and looked up to watch the show. He towered above her. From her current angle, everything about him was hard, huge… impressive.
“Shorts, too,” she ordered, wiggling her eyebrows at him. He was laughing and cursing at the same time, but he did what she wanted, and dropped his drawers. When he sprang out and saluted her, she gasped.
“Oh my.”
He grinned down at her, then reached into the back pocket of his jeans and came out holding a condom in his hand.
“You had a condom in your pocket?” She blinked in shock. “Presumptuous.”
He grinned, and simply dropped to the floor beside her.
“Hopeful,” he said. He lay the bright blue packet on her stomach and took her knees in each of his hands.
She stared at the wrapper lying on her belly, then groaned as he parted her legs and settled his mouth just inside her knee. The scruff on his jaw made her skin shiver, and she moved restlessly, then froze as the condom shifted against her belly.
Josh looked up at her and grinned.
“That’ll keep you in place.”
“I’m pretty sure this is not where it goes, Irish.”
He grinned again and bent his head. She stopped thinking about the condom package long before it slid off her. Josh’s mouth was inches from her mound, his tongue had just swept out to glide down the crevice of skin where her pelvis met her thigh. He worked his way up her quivering belly to trace kisses along the line of her panties, then he simply kissed his way down her centre, the heat of his mouth doing magic things to her even through the flimsy fabric.
“Please, Josh.”
The way she moaned his name was impossible to resist. She was hot and panting for him. The panties he’d just munched his way down were soaked. And he was as hard as he could remember ever being.
“You don’t need these anymore.”
“All I’m saying,” she said, and lifted her hips for him as he slipped a finger under the elastic and eased them down her body.
For a long moment, he simply stared down at her. Her body was long and slim and primed. Her lips were red and swollen, parted in anticipation, and her eyes were deep pools, easy enough to read at the moment. They were hungry to finish what they’d started. He knew the same look had to be mirrored on his own face.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he murmured. Even without the flickering glow and shadow play cast by the fire’s reflection against her skin, she was his sexiest dream come to life. When her eyes softened, when her hands reached up to pull him down to her, he lowered his body to meet hers.
She didn’t even remember him finding the condom that had fallen beneath her, but he was wearing it when he thrust inside her body. He filled her, fit her oh so perfectly. She whimpered when he pulled out. Then he was back again, and her body picked up the rhythm he set.
The fire scorched her -- but not the fire in the grate. This fire came from deep inside. It came from hearing the mingling of her moans with Josh’s grunts, came from the sheen of sweat clinging between them, from the consuming friction that was building, building, building as Josh’s pace quickened.
His mouth crashed down on hers as the strokes his body gave her grew frenzied, frantic. When his hand slipped between then to cover her breast and stroke her nipple, she cried out. Just like that, the pressure inside her morphed, shot her over the edge with a loud yell.
Her climax sounded like triumph in Josh’s ears. The inner walls of her body clenched around him, and he completely lost himself as he pounded himself into her with hard, frantic strokes. He pushed inside her as deeply as he could go, felt her buck up again to give him what he needed. His body tightened, the climax tearing through him with a thoroughness and a viciousness that had him shouting as the glorious pleasure turned his muscles and his mind to mush.
He collapsed beside her, burying his sweaty forehead into the soft wool of the rug as he waited for air to return to his lungs.
“Slow enough for you?” Auggie asked, then felt laughter gurgle out of her at the look he gave her.
To silence her - for absolutely no other reason, of course - he kissed her. His mouth closed over hers and he swallowed the bubbles of her laughter until she reached up to clasp the back of his neck and hold him fast to her.
Feeling smug, he broke the kiss, then brushed his lips gently across her temple.
“There’s always next time, Mo Cuishle,” he said, then smiled and collapsed onto his back beside her when she raised an eyebrow and gave him an interested look.
It made him laugh. Sliding an arm around her neck, he let her adjust her body against his until she was snuggled halfway across him. Lazily, he stroked his fingers up and down her back.
“You know what would be good right now?”
“A cigarette?”
“Augusta Chamberlain.” Josh sat up so he could stare down at her with recrimination. “You did not say that.”
“What?” His abrupt change of positions had jostled her, and she looked up at him from flat on her back. “That’s the expression isn’t it? A cigarette after sex?”
The absolute innocence in her voice was so sweet he wanted to kiss her all over. Again. Right after he established this one thing.
“Tell me you’re not a smoker, fine thing.”
“Are you crazy? Those things will kill you. I take care of this body.”
He could see that. Just to confirm, he took his time running his gaze over her body one more time until she started to squirm from his stare. The view was having an effect on his body, too, and when she noticed, her eyebrows shot up. She blinked rapidly, and Josh had to grin.
“No way. Already?”
“You seem to have an effect on me, fine thing,” he said, grinning at the incredulous look in her eyes. “But no, well, er I mean yes, but later. What I meant was a bed would be nice. I enjoyed this rug, but no question, a bed would be softer. And a nice tumbler of whiskey would go down right about now, too.”
“Well,” Auggie said, considering, “I don’t have any whiskey. But, we could bring the pizza. And the rest of the wine, I suppose.”
He didn’t need to hear the offer twice. Standing, he reached down for her hand, then smiled at her as he hauled her up. He could see the instant self-consciousness hit, and it made him grin. After the intimacies they’d just shared, how walking together in the buff was uncomfortable for her was a bit of a mystery to him.
She gave him a nervous glance to check if he was watching as she cast around for her scattered clothing. His eyes were averted, yet somehow, Auggie still got the impression that he was taking in her every movement. It left her feeling exposed and naked in ways which went beyond her lack of clothing.
Reaching for the nearest thing she found -- his jersey -- Auggie jammed her head and arms in and let the sweater slip down her body. The wool was itchy against her bare skin, but it covered her, which was all that really mattered. As a bonus, it smelled of him. She was realizing that she quite enjoyed the combination of fresh outdoorsy cologne and warm male pheromones.
“Don’t cover up on my account,” Josh said, with a wink that she ignored. But as the garment dwarfed her slender body, he had to admit, he liked the look of her in his sweater. She stopped in the act of gathering up her clothes to give him a cool look. Grabbing the pizza box, she thrust it at him, then had to avert her eyes immediately.
It was either that, or rip off his sweater and jump him again. The man was still naked, after all, and he wore it well.
“Hold that thought, fine thing,” he said. Scooping up the wine bottle by the neck and deliberately not donning any clothes, he followed her up the stairs to her bed.
The next time he kissed her, she tasted like a decent Cabernet with a spicy pepperoni kick. And this time, when he made love to her, he took a very long, sweet time.