Luckily the ‘home-style’ design of the inn meant regular door knobs and keys. Since he was the sole guest until later that day, JC hadn’t bothered to lock the door of his room. With a twist of the knob the door swung in, allowing him to carry his precious arm-load in without jostling her too much. He had a feeling if he gave her any time to think, the outcome was at risk. The door closed behind them with a quick shove of his foot.
“Lauren,” he murmured, his lips against her ear, as he set her to her feet next to the big bed.
She was helpless to fight, couldn’t think of a good reason she need at the moment. His big gentle hands, his firm warm lips, they were doing such wonderful, exciting things to her. “Kiss me before I can think,” Lauren commanded, her hands on his neck urging his head up. She had the impression of a wicked smile on his handsome face before his mouth settled over hers.
Her answer to his kiss was a soft sigh. Lauren may have been a widowed mother of three but she didn’t seem to be very experienced, JC thought. Her response was nearly innocent. Okay, she’d married young — hadn’t her husband?... It occurred to him that maybe Blackwood had been nearly as innocent as his bride.
Lauren tipped her head back as JC’s mouth left hers to skate along her jaw. It was an open invitation. She wanted his talented wicked mouth everywhere... And he didn’t disappoint. The sensuous scrape of his teeth down her throat was followed by sucking licks. Oh, God!...
With one arm around her waist for support, JC whipped the quilt and covers back to the foot of the bed. Lauren’s legs didn’t seem able to hold her upright — and he couldn’t explore her if he had to keep her off the floor at the same time.
“You—you made your bed,” she murmured inanely as her back hit the mattress.
“Yeah...” What could he say? He preferred to crawl into a made bed at night. One of his more anal retentive traits. Her immediate smile said it was a good trait. “Let’s lose this.” He grasped the hem of her baggy sweat shirt and pulled it off, dropping it to the floor.
A flash of feminine terror swept through her. She’d had three children, twins. Her body had never quite recovered...
“You’re beautiful,” JC assured her, his appreciative eyes more than his low words soothed her fears. Next he pulled the pins from her hair to let it cascade down her shoulders. It was so beautiful; silky, coffee-colored and it smelled of wild flowers. “You need to wear it down.”
“Can’t. Kitchen.”
“Shame. Wear it down for me.”
Before she could respond, his deft fingers made quick work unfastening her plain cotton bra. Now she felt exposed. She eyed his long-sleeved teeshirt.
Rising to his knees to straddle her legs, JC divested himself of his shirt, letting it land next to hers on the floor.
He was the beautiful one. Broad shoulders, muscular arms and chest. A sprinkle of hair across his breast bone trickling invitingly down to where it disappeared beneath the waist band of his jeans. Damn! What clothes hid... She raised her hands to his chest, experimentally stroking the flat discs of his nipples with her fingertips. “Oooh! she whispered in surprise when they reacted by stiffening.
JC lowered his body over hers to savor flesh against flesh. So she didn’t know a lot about the male body. Today was going to be a learning experience for her. Very rarely in the past was he the teacher. He had a good feeling he was going to enjoy educating Lauren Blackwood. His mouth found hers once more.
Heat and hardness. Lauren revelled in the feel of him. Just the feel of his skin on her breasts made them swell, eager for more. Her hands moved from his neck, down his sleek ribs and spine to the indention just above his jeans. His skin was smooth, heated. Her fingers and palms explored every inch his back before moving to the front of his hard body.
JC groaned as her soft, seeking hands set about learning him. Damn! He was supposed to be seducing her, making he crazy — not the other way around. The curious little minx was going to make him lose it if she didn’t stop. He was no monk but it was been some time... “Honey, slow down.” Taking her roving hands in one of his, he held them above her head.
“But, Joshua—” she protested.
“Let me do this my way, Lauren,” he murmured. “I promise it’ll be good for you.” His mouth glided down her throat to the slope of one of her creamy breasts. Momentarily it settled over one begging nipple. His tongue licked, his lips and teeth nibbled until it was a hard rosy bud, then his mouth firmed around the peak and sucked.
“Ohh!” Lauren gasped. He wasn’t being in the least gently or cautious — and she discovered it was exciting. She didn’t want him treating her like some fragile thing. She wanted him to make her sob and bed with pleasure! She wanted him to hurry to what was to be some thrilling conclusion she had never known. She wanted to experience it all at once.
As if hearing her unspoken plea, JC lifted his head and moved to her other breast. Meanwhile his hand trailed down her ribs to her midriff. With nimble fingers, he unfastened her jeans to slip her hand beneath her plain cotton panties. Sifting through the dark curls below her belly, he found her already swollen, slick and ready. But he wasn’t nearly finished making her crazy. Releasing her hands, he moved lower on the bed to remove the remainder of her clothes. For just a moment, he took in her curvaceous womanly form with admiring eyes.
Naked. She was lying wantonly on a man’s bed naked, Lauren realized in a mild panic. He could see what her two pregnancies had wrought. Granted she had breasts she hadn’t before nursing, but her stomach — Then thought was no longer possible as he knelt between her knees, he lowered his head to press damp kisses on her belly.
“God, Lauren, you take my breath away,” he muttered. “I’ve gotta taste you.”
Taste her? Taste— She shrieked when his mouth touched her intimately. There was no other word for the startled sound. Christopher had never... Delicious. Sinfully delicious. That’s how his tongue felt, lapping and teasing her. He drew another surprised gasp as his tongue flicked at that bundle of nerve endings he sought.
“Joshua... I’ve never...”
Then it was about time. His lips and tongue danced, played and sucked until her back arched as she screamed his name. He was rewarded with the sweetest love cream he’d ever tasted.
Before she could completely floated back to earth, JC quickly shoved off his jeans and shorts, making sure he had a condom at the ready when he returned between her thighs. Rolling on protection, he nudged the broad head of his arousal into her wet nest.
“You’re a big guy,” Lauren commented. He was only the second man she’d seen naked. Christopher had been a much larger person clothed. JC’s manly endowments rivalled if not surpassed her late husband’s in length and breadth.
JC smiled “You approve?”
“I’ve never screamed before.”
Leaning close for a lingering kiss, he said, “Let’s see if I can make you do it again.” Thrusting into her, he felt her tight heat close about him like a fist.
It took Lauren a moment to adjust to his invasion; she felt full, stuffed actually, in the most wonderful, exciting way.
“Ready, honey?” He felt her body relax still he waited.
“Mmm... so ready,” she purred, wrapping her legs around his lean hips.
“Get ready to scream,” he warned her hotly.
And scream she did.
Not only was her new lover as physically different from her gentle soldier husband as night was from day, their technique in bed didn’t even resemble the same act, Lauren mused. Making love with Christopher brought forth words like ‘tender, sweet, pleasant, sighs’. With Joshua the phrases were more ‘wild, hot, sweaty, thrilling, screams’. He had actually made her scream with the thing he’d done with his mouth. Of course she had read about such things, but she’d never experienced them. The physical act with Christopher had been almost worship — love and respect. Joshua was old fashioned lust. Here she was at nearly twenty-nine, widow, mother of three and she’d finally experienced the wild thing!
Lauren giggled.
The sound woke JC from his light doze and found Lauren grinning up at him. “What?”
“Who woulda thunk a skinny thing like you would know how to do the big nasty so good?”
He chuckled. “You?”
“I had no idea what it was, let alone who could do it!”
“Glad to be of service, ma’am,” he taunted with a grin
This brought an immediate reality check to sit squarely on her heart. Those words. Christopher’s favorite response when she’d thanked him for something he’d done for her. Oh God! What had she just done? Hadn’t she just degraded all that had existed between her sweet late husband? Even with her silly thoughts… She’d gone to bed with a celebrity — on a whim — for lust, not love. All that was between her and Joshua was electricity...
She’d gone quiet, solemn and stiff, JC realized. Was she regretting it so soon? “Lauren—”
“I need to get going,” she announced hastily. Seeing no help for the matter, she left the bed naked to hurriedly gather her clothes. Not bothering with undergarments, she pulled on her sweat shirt and jeans, then jammed her feet into her sneakers. She had to get upstairs and take a shower; she’d dress properly afterwards.
JC watched the proceedings with a grim feeling. He’d hoped he and Lauren could linger and discuss what had happened, why it had happened. It hadn’t been just sex for him. What had he said or done to send her flying around like a trapped bird, desperate for escape? For now there was nothing he could say to soothe her, not when she was in panic mode. “I’ll talk to you later,” he called as she went to the door.
She replied nothing as she put the door between them.