Layover Read online

  It was all about pleasure.

  He stayed back to allow her to slide into the booth first, and handed her the menu before lifting his own. Julia held the stiff, printed sheet but didn’t study the selections right away. Graham’s face drew her attention. It fed her as easily and fully as the fettuccine Alfredo and garlic bread they both ordered. It quenched her thirst as well as the good red wine the sommelier recommended.

  The booth could easily have sat six, and they both pretended it was as crowded. His thigh pressed hers as he leaned to offer her another slice of garlic bread oozing butter. Julia took it, and their hands brushed. She bit into it and the full flavors of good Italian bread, sweet butter, spicy garlic, exploded on her tongue. Graham’s tongue slid over his mouth at the sound she made.

  “That good, huh?”

  “Try it.” She offered him the slice from her hand.

  His fingers circled her wrist to keep her hand steady as he took the last bite from her. He lipped her fingertips, suckling gently and so quickly only the answering tug of desire in her clit proved he’d done it at all. Without letting go of her wrist Graham chewed. Swallowed. His mouth gleamed with butter, and Julia wanted to lean in to lick it from his lips.

  Under the table, their legs touched. She waited, holding her breath, for him to kiss her. Graham’s mouth parted and he leaned forward…but he didn’t kiss her. His breath nuzzled her cheek and the scent of garlic and butter and wine all mingled until he was as tantalizing as the meal.

  Julia tensed at the brush of his mouth on her ear. She could turn her head and take his mouth with hers, but the tickle-tingle of pleasure his lips were creating against her neck as he spoke was too delightful to give up. Her nipples peaked against the satin of her bra as her eyes fluttered closed. Could he see that, the evidence of her arousal? She didn’t care.

  “Are you ready for dessert?”

  It wasn’t exactly what she’d expected him to say. Julia opened her eyes, her mouth already tipping into a smile as she turned to look at him. “Are you?”

  Graham’s fingers slid from around her wrist to link with hers. Palm to palm, their hands came to rest on the table. Below it, their thighs touched, moved apart. Touched again.

  “Whatever you want, Julia.” Graham’s eyes weren’t blue or green or gray but some mixed-up shade of all three. Now the pupils had gone wide and dark, with the table’s candlelight reflected in them.

  Julia also saw herself, hair tumbled over her shoulders. Her mouth a slash of red, tinged from wine, and her cheeks flushed pink with the heat of his closeness. His admiration had become her mirror.

  She meant to speak but her throat at first wouldn’t let her. She licked her lips, and he watched her do it. His fingers tightened on hers. She drew in a breath, then another.

  Graham’s gaze flickered, but he didn’t look away. There’d be no taking back the words, not that she wanted to. Julia leaned closer, just a little, to allow her lowered voice to reach his ear. Their mouths were scant inches apart, but they were not kissing. This close she could count the individual hairs in each of his brows, his lashes, in the line of his off-center widow’s peak. She could trace the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes with her gaze.

  “I think,” Julia said slowly, “I’d like you to take me back to my hotel.”

  The car ride had been eternal. Unbearable. Julia had turned on the radio and opened the roof, and the wind whipping her hair into tangles around her shoulders had also taken away their conversation, leaving only the sound of her laughter.

  In the parking lot she said nothing but looked at him over her shoulder as she moved toward the hotel. She didn’t have to crook her finger to get him to follow. The invitation was in her eyes, impossible to misinterpret this time.

  The lobby bustled with people coming and going. They got on the elevator, where Graham took a spot along the back wall next to Julia. She stared straight ahead, but he could see the tilt of her smile. The crowd pushed in on them, but even in the crush of people he could feel her. Smell her. She was the only woman there, as far as he was concerned.

  The elevator stopped. They got off. Down the hall he followed her, and still they hadn’t said more than a murmured word or two. At her door she paused.

  Now it comes, he thought. She’d say good-night and leave him with his cock aching and his heart pounding. But Julia glanced at him over her shoulder and slid her key card into the slot. She pushed open the door and walked through.

  Graham went after her.

  She was already turning as he stepped inside and the door started to hiss closed behind him. In two steps she was in his arms. In another she had him pushed against the door, her knee between his thighs, both her hands laid flat on his chest.

  She didn’t kiss him.

  They stared. He was breathing hard, his pulse like thunder in his ears. The perfect breasts he’d fantasized about for months rose and fell beneath her silk blouse, and though his hands itched to cup them, Graham didn’t move.

  Julia looked at him and tugged her lower lip into the grip of her even, white teeth. Her hands, fingers spread, moved down his chest to his belly. Her knee hitched higher, pressing her thigh against his balls, and his cock surged.

  Her eyes widened a tiny bit at the sound of the moan he couldn’t hold back. Her tongue swiped her mouth. Holding his breath, Graham watched her gaze move over his face, his jaw, his throat, the small part of his bare chest exposed by the undone couple buttons on his shirt. Her eyes licked kisses all over him.

  His hands, which had gone naturally to her hips when she put herself against him, clutched, but something in her gaze kept him from moving more than that. Julia’s thigh moved slowly back and forth between his legs, the pressure not enough to do more than tease.

  And still they hadn’t spoken. The sound of their breath, mingled, was harsh and loud even over the room’s noisy air conditioner. Through the door behind him Graham heard the mutter of voices, the squeak of wheels. He opened his mouth to say something, but had nothing to say.

  “I shouldn’t have walked away.”

  It wasn’t what he expected her to say, but once the words left her lips Graham couldn’t have imagined anything more right. He half nodded, not trusting his voice.

  One hand moved down his chest to his belt buckle, and he held his breath again. Her other hand slid over his heart. Her gaze went there next. When she leaned to press her mouth to his shirt, when she felt the leap and stutter of his heart at her touch, Graham said the only thing that came to mind.

  “You’re not walking away now.”

  Her breath seeped hot through the cotton and her lips traced shivery patterns on him when she spoke. “No. Absolutely not.”

  In his imaginings he’d had her on the bed already, exploring that luscious body with hands and tongue. But now, here, in the reality, with the slow but steady rocking of her thigh against his balls and her hand only inches from his cock, Graham couldn’t move.

  She wasn’t waiting for him to make the first move. He knew it though she hadn’t said so. Julia wasn’t waiting for him to kiss her, or touch her. Julia, Graham thought with another small groan easing from his throat, was the one in charge here. All he could do—all he wanted to do—was acquiesce.

  When she looked at him this time, her dark blue eyes flashed. Something passed between them in that look, and though Graham wasn’t sure exactly what it was, Julia nodded slightly, as though she approved.

  Her thigh pressed him again, and this time he couldn’t stop the breath from hissing out, or his hips from pushing forward. Julia smiled. The hand on his belt moved to cup him. She weighed him through the khaki, his cock stiff and his balls heavy; when her hand stroked him, the material blunted her touch but did nothing to diminish its power.

  Graham’s hands fisted in her shirt, just above her hips. “Julia—”

  “Shh.” She shook her head a little. “This is all right. Isn’t it?”

  He didn’t know what to say. No other woman had ever
pinned him to a door. It didn’t matter he stood a good half a foot taller or that he could easily have captured both her wrists with one of his hands. She held him prisoner not with her size or strength but with her will.

  It was fucking sexy as hell.

  Her gaze still locked on his, Julia nimbly opened his belt buckle. Then the button and zipper. When she slid her hand inside both his pants and his boxer briefs, when her hand found his hot, hard cock and stroked it flesh on flesh, Graham’s head went back against the door with a thud. It stung, but the sweetness of her touch took away any pain. He wanted to watch her face, but his eyes closed as automatically as his mouth opened from the pleasure.

  She stepped away from him, and his hands fell away from her. Graham forced himself to look at her again, even as the ecstasy her hand was making on his prick wanted to take all his attention. Julia’s expression had gone serious, her smooth brow furrowed. She wasn’t looking at his face, but at the place her hand disappeared into his pants. Up. Down. She jerked him slowly, constrained by fabric.

  When she met his gaze, she smiled. “It feels like you have a nice, thick cock, Graham. But I’d like to see it.”

  His hands went at once to his waistband and pushed at it. His briefs got hung up for a moment on his erection, but he was practiced enough at stripping past a hard-on to get beyond it. Julia, still gripping him, used her other hand to help him, but the pants went no farther than his upper thighs.

  It was enough, apparently. Her eyes gleamed as she took in the sight of him. Watching her look at him sent a surge of pleasure from his balls to his cock, held so firmly in her fist.

  “Gorgeous,” she said.

  No woman had ever said his penis was pretty, much less called it gorgeous, and heat flooded his chest and up his throat to his cheeks. She tilted her head to stare, her hand still moving at a torturously slow pace.

  “Does that embarrass you?”

  The blush embarrassed him more, and Graham shook his head.

  Her grip tightened. She squeezed the head of his cock gently, then stroked down. He jerked under her touch. “It’s not nice to be untruthful.”

  “I’m…not…It’s not that.” Graham swallowed, then laughed. “You do realize it’s hard to talk when you’re touching me like that.”

  “I figured as much.” Julia’s low, throaty laughter sent more heat spinning through him. “What do you think would happen if I sucked you, instead?”

  “I—”

  It was all he had time to say before she stepped back far enough to push his pants farther down as she stepped into the crotch and used her foot to shove them all the way to his ankles. In the next moment she’d gone to her knees in front of him. She hadn’t yet let go of his prick, and Graham looked down, stunned.

  She gave him a quick smile before she took him in her mouth. His hands found the silk of her hair and his head went back against the door again. His cock leaped as her tongue stroked the head, and when she sucked gently, Graham muttered a low curse.

  Julia hummed laughter around his cock and sucked a little harder. Her hand followed her mouth’s path. When her other stroked his balls, Graham cried out her name.

  Julia had such a beautiful mouth there was no doubt he’d more than once imagined it on his prick, but even in his wildest fantasies Graham had never pictured her like this. Hell, even as a teenager horny from watching soft-core porn on late-night cable he’d never believed something like this could happen. He’d had blow jobs, but a woman had never gone down on him like this.

  Her soft sigh drew his attention and he looked down to watch her, getting off on the sight as much as the sensation. Julia’s hand had left his balls and gone beneath her skirt. He couldn’t see it, but the way her arm moved told him she was stroking herself. The sight of it and the thought of her touching herself while she got him off zipped a lightning bolt of desire through him. He was going to shoot like a teenager and couldn’t hold back.

  Julia’s mouth slowed. Her lips closed over him but her tongue kept up its work inside her mouth, flicking and licking along his shaft and the head. She pulled away, then dipped her head again to flutter her tongue over his balls. Graham’s hoarse shout was loud enough to be heard in the hall, but he didn’t care. Couldn’t. Not with her kiss on the tender seam of his balls and stroking his cock, not when her hand was moving faster under her skirt and her breath had started coming faster.

  “I’m going to…” A groan interrupted his warning. He looked down at her through a red haze of desire, his climax rising in him as inexorably as a tsunami.

  She looked up at him with heavy-lidded eyes, her mouth wet. Julia’s smile eased over her face like slowly melting butter. She leaned in to lick his balls again as her hand moved on his shaft, then up and over his cock head. She cupped it, giving him something to fuck into, and that was finally too much.

  Orgasm ripped out of him as his hips pushed his cock into her waiting grip. Heat spat from his prick, jetting into her palm. The scent of it, that evidence of his ejaculation, sent another burst from him. Graham fell back against the door as he came into Julia’s hand, her tongue pressed to the frantically beating throb in his balls.

  When he could breathe again he looked down at her. She’d sat back a little, but her smile hadn’t dimmed. She got to her feet and grabbed his tie to yank him close enough for her mouth to reach his.

  Their teeth clashed. Their tongues lashed. She devoured him and took his breath as his cock softened in her fist.

  “Now,” Julia said against his lips, “it’s your turn.”

  Her doubts and fears seemed so ridiculous now that she’d pushed him against a door and sucked and stroked him until he shot all over her hand. Why had she been so afraid? Because he might balk at her being in charge? She reached to the left and snagged a hand towel from the rack just outside the bathroom and wiped her hands while he watched. Julia kissed him again and waited for him to react to what she’d just said.

  Graham broke the kiss to stare into her eyes. “Anything you want.”

  “That’s the right answer,” she murmured and gave his tie another tug.

  Something almost like recognition but not quite flickered in his eyes. Graham kissed her slowly and thoroughly, and Julia let him take the lead. His hands came up to cradle her head, his fingers tangling in the hair at the back of her neck. They were both breathing hard when he broke the kiss.

  “Julia.”

  “Mmm?” She smiled, waiting. Hoping. Refusing to fear this would sour.

  Graham opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. Julia let go of the tie and stepped out of his arms. “Graham,” she said after a minute in which her heart beat faster and refused to slow. “Would it be easier for you if I told you what I wanted you to do?”

  He licked his lips before he answered. “Is that what you want?”

  “It’s what I like, yes.” She tossed the towel onto the bathroom floor and eyed him as she unbuttoned her shirt. It hung open, showing the satin of her bra and the stripe of her belly above her skirt. Then she shrugged out of it and tossed it aside.

  Graham processed this for a moment. Most any man would’ve looked silly with his pants around his ankles and his shirt barely covering his prick, but Graham didn’t seem to know he was supposed to look silly. He looked damn sexy, instead, especially when he stepped out of the pants altogether and then loosened his tie, pulling it from his collar. He tossed it on the floor, then opened his buttons and took off his shirt, too.

  “I want to do what you like,” he said after a pause.

  Naked, he moved toward her and sank to his knees. He didn’t have to look up as far as she had from the same position. He was not the first man she’d ever had in front of her that way, but he was the first ever to do it on his own accord, without an order.

  It left her weak.

  Sharp-toothed fear bit at her insides again, and she took breath after trembling breath to quell it. This didn’t have to be more than it was, an interlude in a hotel room that w
ould give them both something to remember. This didn’t have to be more.

  Just over her right shoulder and next to the bathroom door was the metal shelf and hanger rack. She’d hung nothing on the hangers, and they rattled when she shoved them aside. The metal was cold on both her palms as she gripped the bar. She held it tight.

  “Touch me.” Her voice snagged and ripped the silence.

  Graham pushed up her skirt. His thumbs ran along the inside of her thighs. He stopped just below the lace of her panties. When he leaned in, his eyes closed, to breathe her in, Julia blessed the bar to which she clung. She might have fallen without it.

  Graham nudged her skirt higher with his face and held it there with his hands, which came to rest on her hips. He pressed his mouth to her, his breath hot through her panties. It didn’t take much to see this was going to be complicated, but before she could direct him, Graham figured it out.

  He kissed her pussy gently as he reached behind to undo her zipper. He left her body only long enough to let the skirt fall to the ground and help her step out of it. She wore no stockings, just her panties and flats.

  He looked up at her again. “I want to taste you.”

  Julia smiled. “Well, here I am.”

  Grinning, Graham hooked his fingers into her panties and eased them aside. Julia tensed, her grip on the bar tightening. His breath kissed her first. Then, his mouth.

  Oh, God, it was heaven when his lips found her heat. When his tongue stroked the seam of her cunt and opened her, Julia cried out. When he found her clit, already swollen, her hips bucked forward. The hangers rattled, but she didn’t let go.

  Graham licked her just once or twice before sliding a hand under her thigh and lifting her leg over his shoulder. Both hands clutched her ass, then, and held her still while he feasted on her clit. His fingers parted her buttocks, one slipping down her crack to find the often-ignored heat of her anus.