Tonight she needed it to be different. Despite all her instincts crying out to sate her desire, and quickly, she drew back. “I’m going to get out of these clothes.”

Breathing hard, Deo nodded wordlessly.

“Maybe you can start the fi re after you shower.” Nita kissed Deo lightly.

“Fire’s already started,” Deo muttered.

Laughing, Nita headed for the bedroom. When she found it, she closed the door, half wishing that Deo had followed and grateful that she hadn’t. Her hands were shaking as she unbuttoned her blouse. They were going to have sex. She knew that. She knew that Deo knew it.

It wouldn’t be the fi rst time she had kept an appointment for sex. She had gone places to have sex before, so many times she’d lost count.

Roadside motels. Borrowed apartments. Abandoned on-call rooms.

Assignations for pleasure that left her feeling empty and alone.

Sylvia was almost always there fi rst, and she would often take Nita the instant Nita walked in—a second’s frantic coupling against the door and then Sylvia would be inside her or on her knees, claiming her with her mouth. Nita was usually already so aroused just from anticipating Sylvia’s onslaught, hungering for the connection during the days and weeks when they had no contact—not even a phone call—

that she would rarely be able to hold back for more than a minute or two. She would come screaming, all the while wondering why she felt no satisfaction. Once was never enough for either of them, and for half an hour or forty-fi ve minutes Sylvia drove her relentlessly through one orgasm after another until Nita was too weak to move. All the while, Sylvia insisted that Nita was hers, that Nita was everything she needed, everything she wanted—her heart and her soul. And Nita let herself believe.

• 196 •

Winds of Fortune

Sighing, Nita slipped into the shower and prayed that the heat would penetrate to the cold place deep inside. She didn’t want to think of Sylvia, not tonight, not ever. When she stepped out, she found a thick white robe folded on the vanity and wondered when Deo had placed it there. She wondered, too, if Deo had looked at her through the steam-streaked glass doors and ached for her the way she ached. She fi nger-combed her hair and pulled on the robe, tying it loosely at the waist.

Halfway down the stairs, Nita felt the heat. Inside a fi re blazed while outside the storm raged, wind driving the rain with such force it sounded as if stones pelted against the skylights and glass doors. Deo lounged in the chair in front of the fi replace, two glasses of wine on the table beside her. Her short black robe came to mid-thigh and dipped into the valley between her legs. Trying to pretend she wasn’t going out of her mind waiting for Deo to touch her, Nita strolled to the chair, leaned down, and kissed Deo.

“Thanks for the robe. And the fi re.”

Deo tilted her head back and held out her hand. “You’re welcome.”

She tugged Nita around to sit on her lap and nuzzled her neck. “I love it when your hair is down.”

“I can’t do anything else when it’s wet like this, but I like the way it feels.” Nita caressed Deo’s neck and traced the curve of Deo’s breast underneath the material that slanted between her breasts. “I like the way you feel too.”

Nita lowered her head to kiss her just as Deo tilted her face up, and they came together with a hungry clash of mouths and tongues.

Deo’s hands were on her shoulders, then her waist, then inside her robe stroking her belly and her hip. Feasting on Deo’s mouth, answering her teasing tongue with strokes of her own, Nita was very quickly almost as far gone as she had been that night outside the bar when she hadn’t been able to stop herself from coming in Deo’s arms. Another few minutes of Deo’s tongue thrusting inside her mouth or the barest brush of Deo’s fi nger between her thighs, and she was going to climax.

“It’s too soon,” Nita gasped. “God, too soon.”

“You need to tell me now,” Deo murmured, parting Nita’s robe a few inches and kissing the center of her chest, “if you don’t want to make love.” She groaned as Nita’s fi ngertips glided over her nipple.

“And you might need to get off my lap, too.”

“I understand. I’m sorry.” Nita gripped the wide arms of the chair

• 197 •

RADCLY fFE

and pushed herself off Deo’s lap. Watching Deo’s expression falter, she quickly knelt between Deo’s legs and pushed the robe open with both hands. Leaning to kiss the inside of Deo’s thigh, she murmured,

“Maybe I’ll be safer down here.”

“I don’t think so.” Deo caressed Nita’s face, her fi ngers shaking.

“I’m really in trouble.”

“No you’re not.” Gently, Nita spread her fi ngers along the taut muscles that framed the vee of Deo’s sex and kissed her. She tasted sweet and rich and Nita licked delicately along the furled folds to the prominent ridge in their center. When she found a spot that made Deo twitch and moan, she played with it, pressing with the very tip of her tongue. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth and around.

“Please,” Deo whispered, her legs twisting as her muscles clenched tighter and tighter. “Please stop. I can’t take you doing that any more.

I’ll come right in your mouth.”

Nita gripped Deo’s thighs fi rmly to stop her from pulling away.

Deo was hard, throbbing, hot, and Nita needed more. She sucked, sliding Deo’s clitoris in and out between her lips, and Deo groaned, a broken, hopeless, unbelievably beautiful sound. Reaching up, Nita caressed her tense belly and said with her mouth against Deo’s clit, “I can’t believe how hard you are. Stop fi ghting it. I want you to come.”

When Nita slipped her fi ngers just inside and went back to sucking her, Deo jerked forward, clutching Nita’s shoulders. “I’m going to come. Don’t stop. Jesus. Jesus, lick right there, oh…just don’t stop.”

Nita wrapped both arms around Deo’s waist as Deo rode her mouth. She wished she could still her own heartbeat so nothing interfered with her absorbing every sound and movement of Deo’s body as she climaxed. Finally, Deo groaned and collapsed back into the chair. Nita couldn’t let her go, but covered her sex with light kisses until Deo pushed feebly at her face.

“Give me a minute,” Deo murmured. “Too sensitive right now.”

“You are so amazing.” Nita gazed up the length of Deo’s body. Deo was golden in the fi relight, her skin shining with sweat and pleasure.

Nita was aware of time passing, of the night hurtling toward dawn, and she needed more. Carefully, she eased inside her, moaning when Deo closed down around her fi ngers. “That’s it. Beautiful.”

“Nita, God, what are you doing? I don’t…oh God…I can’t…”

“Shh,” Nita soothed, pulling out and pushing back in a little at a

• 198 •

Winds of Fortune

time, carefully avoiding Deo’s swollen clitoris. “Just relax. Just hold me inside. You don’t have to do anything.”

Deo stared down at Nita helplessly. “Feels so good.”

“I can tell.” Nita smiled, watching Deo’s face as she slowly fucked her. “I want to make you come all night.”

“Can’t,” Deo muttered. “Want to, but…”

“Stroke your clit. Show me what you like.” Nita kept her tempo slow, her strokes gentle.

“Let me make you come,” Deo protested, grasping Nita’s wrist.

“Not yet. I’ll come fast, and I don’t want to. I want this. Please. I want you.”

Deo relaxed and pressed two fi ngers against the base of her clit.

“It will take me a while.”

“That’s all right. I’ve got all night.” Nita winced inwardly at the irony. All night. All night, and she needed every minute and so many more. Her clitoris pounded, and she was wet, so wet. But it wasn’t her orgasm she wanted as she watched Deo circle and stroke and pinch her thickened clitoris. Deo’s pleasure was sweeter than anything she’d ever experienced. “Does it feel good?”

“Yes,” Deo hissed through gritted teeth. “Getting so hard again.”

“Are you going to come?”

“I…don’t…know.”

Nita matched her strokes to the speed of Deo’s hand, picking up as Deo circled faster. Minutes passed and Deo moaned, her motions frantic. Sensing Deo’s need, Nita massaged Deo’s other opening with her free hand and slid a fi nger through the fi rm muscle.

“Oh God,” Deo cried, her body bowing. “Oh God you’re going to make me come.”

“Yes,” Nita whispered, thrusting with both hands as Deo fi nished herself with a low, tortured moan. “Yes, yes, yes.”

Deo’s head fell back against the chair, her arms dropping limply to her sides, her breasts and stomach heaving as she fought to breathe.

Nita gently withdrew and pillowed her cheek against Deo’s stomach.

“When you come, I feel like something inside me is going to burst.

You’re so beautiful I can’t stand it.”

“I want us to go to bed,” Deo groaned. “I want to touch you. Please Nita. Please let me touch you.”

“I need you to.” Nita kissed Deo’s stomach. “I want you to.”

• 199 •

RADCLY fFE

Deo reached for the wine beside them and handed a glass to Nita.

She drank deeply from her own and rose, hoping her legs would carry her upstairs. She gripped Nita’s hand and drew her along beside her to the stairs. “I’ve never come like that before.”

“No?” Nita circled Deo’s waist as they climbed the stairs. “I’ve never made love to anyone that way before. I’m so hungry for you.”

“You sound sorry,” Deo whispered, pushing open her bedroom door. Just inside, she turned on a small table lamp that left most of the room in shadow.

Nita shook her head fi rmly. “No. Not sorry at all.”

Deo emptied her wine glass and put it on the bedside table. She held out her hand for Nita’s and placed it beside her own. Then she untied her robe and let it fall. She watched Nita’s gaze travel over her body and her nipples hardened at the heat in Nita’s eyes. “Will you take off your robe?”