“Jesus,” he ground out, nuzzling her neck almost roughly. “I’m burning up.”

She threaded her fingers through his hair, mindless that they were still damp with crab juice, and kissed him. “It’s the spices.”

He shook his head as they kissed again. “No, Josie, it’s you.”

He peeled her from him then slid off the table, pulling her hips until they were even with the edge. Josie gasped at the sudden move, helpless to stop him as he shoved her dress up. Her chest heaved as he stared at her womanhood covered by her purple satin panties. She pulled the rest of the dress off, watching with satisfaction as his gaze moved from her thighs to her breasts. Breasts that were normally constrained in a bra but she’d left free and loose while she cooked.

He leaned in as if to take one of her breasts into his mouth, but she stilled him with a hand against his chest, then pulled his shirt up and over his head. She took him in. For a car-parts salesman, he had a dark tan and a fit physique, equal to that of a male cover model. She licked her finger and drew it from his thick, well-defined collarbone down around one of his flat nipples, before tweaking the tiny pebble of flesh then drawing it into her mouth.

Drew grew taut, groaning at her unexpected attention. It seemed only natural to Josie that if a woman could get so much pleasure from having her breasts licked, then the same would apply to a man. And she took private pleasure in being proven right.

Drew’s fingers dug into the soft flesh of her thighs as she worked, laving each of his nipples then suckling them, blowing on the distended flesh while it was still wet. His hips bucked, putting his erection against her. Then his fingers found the sides of her panties and he stepped back, freeing her from her one last bit of clothing.

He stood for long moments, saying nothing as he nudged her knees farther apart with his hips and stood gazing at her bared womanhood with what she could only call awe. Then he was touching her dark, springy curls, parting her farther. Josie grasped his shoulders and shivered at his light touch.

He kissed her again. Hard and demandingly. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he pushed her back until she lay flat against the table. He rested one hand between her breasts and held her still as he leaned forward to pull one of her nipples deep into mouth.

Sensation exploded within Josie. Hot, so very hot. Realization slowly sank through her passion-clouded mind that it must be the spices. The cayenne they’d eaten and that remained on Drew’s tongue made each lick hotter than the one before, adding a sensation she’d never experienced before. She tightly grasped his shoulders, bracing herself as a blissful shudder ran through her body.

Is that how her licking had made him feel?

She didn’t have a chance to answer the question because Drew had left her breasts and was laving a path down her quivering stomach toward the V of black hair at the top of her thighs. She restlessly licked her lips, wondering if her sensitive flesh could withstand the spicy attention. Then he was parting her with his thumbs and taking her tight bud between his lips and the worry was whipped from her mind, replaced by searing pleasure.

“Oh!” Josie sought something, anything, to grab a hold of-Drew’s hair, the edge of the table-to gain a stability that she feared she’d never find again. He sucked in deeply, then one of his fingers rimmed her flesh before thrusting inside to the hilt, so that she felt the palm of his hand pressing against her burning clit.

Red, hot sensation shot over and through and around Josie again and again. She writhed on the table, bearing down against the hand bringing her so much pleasure, rubbing the spices even farther into her swollen flesh.

She was just beginning to flutter back down to earth when she blinked open her eyes to find Drew had shucked his pants with his free hand and was rolling a condom down the thick, hard length of his erection. She swallowed hard and braced her feet against the side of the table, readying herself for his first thrust.

7

NEVER HAD DREW VIEWED a sight as breath-stealing as Josie spilled over the cutting-board table, her X-rated body undulating in pleasure as she welcomed the climax he’d brought her to. And now as she readied herself for him, he wondered if he’d ever made love to a woman so gloriously unconscious of the way she looked. A woman not driven by shallow motivations but by a deeper need to connect with him in the way he needed to connect with her.

Drew touched her feet, caressing his way up her silky legs to her knees, his gaze caught by hers. Forgotten was the fact that they were in the kitchen of a hotel. Gone were any concerns over his role in her life. All that mattered was this one moment in time.

He positioned his hard-on between her slick, fleshy lips and rubbed himself lengthwise down then up again, purposely denying himself the pleasure of filling her as he stroked her externally. He watched her throw back her head as if the anticipation were killing her. She tried to force a breach by curving her ankles around his waist and drawing him against her. But the urgency of her movements merely increased his desire to draw this out.

He worked his head against her clit, massaging it, the catch in her breath and the shivering of her stomach revealing the effect he was having on her.

An effect that mirrored the quake beginning to shake him from the inside out.

He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so…at one with a woman. So on the same wavelength. He didn’t need to hurry. Or wonder if he was doing the right thing. Or listen to her whisper orders about how to touch her there or do this just so. Instead there existed a mutual understanding between them that all was game and that the simplest touch could be the most erotic. There was no rushing toward an end.

Finally, Drew fit the thick, pulsating head of his erection against her opening. He paused, noticing the way she stopped breathing, her face flushed, her lips parted as she anticipated his next move. He slowly entered her by degrees then stopped, allowing her tight, slick muscles to become acclimated to his girth. She hungrily licked her lips, allowing him to call the shots. Drew reveled in the power he had. Over himself. Over her. Over them both.

He glided in to the hilt, the quake inside shaking him to the core while Josie’s moan wove around him. Her back arched and her glistening breasts shivered. Drew felt as if his very heart beat at the base of his penis as he slowly withdrew then stroked her again…and again.

Josie released her ankles and matched his deep rhythm, her eyelids fluttering closed with every thrust as if unable to bear the exquisite pleasure that he was giving her. That they were experiencing together.

He splayed his hands against her stomach, wondering at the narrowness of her waist, the fullness of her breasts, the dark rose of her puckered nipples. The moisture that clung to her skin made her look darker yet. Keeping his strokes long and deep, he slowly slid his fingers down over her sides, then back up and over her breasts, intoxicated by the feel of her inside and out.

He realized he’d stopped his movements, his erection throbbing inside her. He watched her suck her bottom lip into her mouth and bite down hard as if unable to take the torture. Drew slipped his hands to her hips and held her tight as he withdrew then thrust into her hard.

“Yes. Oh, dear God, yes…”

Her softly whispered words empowered him further and he increased the speed of his thrusts, the next faster and harder than the one before. He wanted to consume her. Wanted to possess every part of her. The sound of damp, hard flesh smacking together filled his ears: the sweet smell of her sex blended with his sex filled his nose.

Then he was sailing over the edge of the world and into a parallel universe he’d never visited before, suspended in darkness, his mind uncharacteristically unconcerned about his powerless state.

Then Josie cried out, in the middle of her own crisis and he was moving again. Frenetically, wildly, speeding through the darkness with an incredible sense of freedom.


LATER THAT NIGHT, as Josie sat at the quiet front desk, darkness having long since fallen outside the open doors, she trembled just thinking about what had passed between her and Drew in the kitchen.

She wished it could have continued, that they could have gone upstairs to his room and explored each other well into the night, but Philippe couldn’t stay because of an appointment he had to take his mother to. Even so, Josie didn’t have the money to pay him overtime.

At any rate, Drew had a reception party of some sort he needed to attend at the convention hotel. His immediate superior would be going and would expect to see him there. So she sat at the front desk alone, unable to wipe the wistful smile from her face. She couldn’t even bring herself to care about the debts she couldn’t cover or the future of the hotel. Both concerns would still be there in the morning, she told herself.

Right now…well, right now, she wanted to enjoy the blissful aftermath of great sex.

A sound from upstairs drew her attention.

Josie’s hand froze at her neck as her gaze swept toward the steps. With Drew out for the evening and Philippe gone, no one was in the hotel but her.

She was probably imagining things. Either that, or the light breeze had stirred something from its resting place.

Another noise.

Okay, maybe she wasn’t imagining things.

She rose from the chair and looked toward the open front doors and the tourists passing by in a colorful stream. No one seemed to be interested in her or the Josephine.

The unmistakable sound of footsteps overhead.