Lorelie Brown - Riding the Wave

His hands clenched down on her hip.

“Us,” he echoed. There wasn’t much else he could say, not until everything else was settled. Not until he had the smaller details worked out. Then he’d be free to chase Avalon. And he’d chase her all the way until the ocean froze and she ran out of surf to photograph.

Avalon loved the way Tanner kissed her. The absolute perfection of it. The way it made her feel both calm, as if everything were right with the world, and incredibly bubbly at the same time. An effervescent joy that could sweep away everything else in its path, if she let it.

So she did. She tossed all her worries away. Let herself be overwhelmed by the strength he poured into her. The way his mouth moved over hers was a benediction and an endorsement. She’d given nothing of herself away that couldn’t be taken back later.

They were friends. Very good friends who frequently got to rub naked bits. And friends talked about the setbacks of work and career. There was nothing unusual there.

Except she’d felt safer in his arms. Telling him her fears while sitting on his lap had taken so much of the pain out. He probably had no idea how difficult it had been for her to share. She and Matthew had never gotten to this point. Though she’d always blamed him for being too closed off, maybe it had been her all along. Years with her mom had taught her how dangerous opening up could be.

She’d reached a new level in relationship land by exposing the vulnerable part of herself that feared simply not making it in her career. Never rising the way she needed to.

Part of her almost resented that she felt so exposed. He’d already been champion once; this extra round was a bonus. Though she knew he had pressure riding him, it wasn’t exactly the same. The part of her that was so frightened wondered how much he could really understand.

But then his hands slid over her back and she managed to forget altogether. Letting herself absorb the strokes was entirely tastier. She had to pull her mouth away long enough to twist and straddle him.

Her knees dug past the cushion to the poking wicker back of the chair, but she didn’t care. Not when she could get closer to him. The warm, achy core of her was only barely appeased by straddling. She rocked down over the hard ridge of his cock.

Tanner looped her wrists in his big, rough hands. “Hey now,” he said softly. His voice was deep and rumbly and vibrated her nipples. “We have time.”

She rubbed her entire body up against him. Absolutely shameless. “My schedule’s yours, after all.” Until he was gone again.

Or not exactly gone, but not hers anymore. How hard would that suck, to see him all the time and not have the right to touch.

She ran her fingers through his hair, down around the back of his neck. “I love what you do to me. Love the way you make me feel.” It was as close as she could come to putting words to how she felt.

But she wanted to believe he heard her anyway. That he knew at least how important he was to her.

His hands under the curve of her ass, he stood in one fast swoop. The blood rushed out of her head, down through her body. Naturally it pooled in her dampening pussy.

She locked her ankles at the small of his back. “What happened to having time?”

That grin of his sent its own set of tingles through her. “We’ve still got time.” He laced openmouthed kisses along her neck. Nibbles that made her melt across her chest like some kind of wanton strumpet. “We’re going to spend that time in my bed.”

And God, wanton strumpet was so much better than messed-up neurotic pile of goo.

She could deal with slutty. She could be slutty. That was all body and sensation. No biggie.

But when he tossed her onto the bed, he stood at the edge. The bounce jostled her brains for a second, but she blinked rapidly to find him looking down at her. With his hands on his hips, he looked every bit a man.

Her man.

The dark blue board shorts barely dipped over the blades of his hips and above them were those deliciously angled V-lines that pointed to the promised land. With his elbows out, he looked half marauding pirate.

His bright grin only confirmed it. “Now there’s a picture a guy could get used to.”

She lifted up on her elbows, suddenly a little anxious. “What?” She ran a hand over her stomach, caught by the sudden worry that she had a huge old smear of dirt or pudge that had popped up from nowhere. No, she didn’t always claim to be rational.

If a girl couldn’t be a little bit crazy inside her own head, where could she break out with the nutso?

But he shook his head. “You’re so fucking sexy. Do you know that?”

When he looked at her with that hot glint, he could make her believe it all the way down to the soles of her feet. She ran those very toes over the hard plane of his abs. So fucking tasty. Sometimes she was tempted to push him down and rub herself all over him. A perverted game of tag, maybe. To get her hands all over him. “So come here and show me what you think’s sexiest.”

That quickly, he was on the bed, stretched alongside her. A blessed sort of magic. “I’m not even sure where to start. Here?” He slid a kiss over the end of her shoulder, dipping down her arm. “Here, maybe?” This time it was her ribs, the bottom edge that stood out in stark relief from her leaned-back position. “No, this.” He ringed the shallow well of her navel with his tongue.

Avalon melted into the rumpled bedspread. Let him take her away. Let him worship at her body. She could cope. One way or the other.

She bit back the grin, not wanting to explain.

Tanner’s head continued lower, leaving wet tracks of attention all the way across her lower stomach and along the band of her shorts. But his long, blunt fingers tugged them down with no trouble, especially when she gave an extra hip wiggle to help him along.

The way he licked her was a freaking miracle. If she weren’t nearly so selfish, she’d insist that every woman should get a chance at his licking, sucking, blessing of a mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she clenched fingers through his golden hair. The sweeping tingle was almost enough to send her over, and she only wrenched higher when he thrust two sure fingers in her pussy. The fullness was enough to make her want to hand over anything. Everything.

But he apparently didn’t have her orgasm in mind, not yet at least. When she got close, the leashed pleasure inside her tingling through her insides, drawing her nipples tight, he pulled away.

When he lifted his head, the wet gleam of her juices limned his mouth.

And she didn’t feel the least bit guilty over that. She grinned. “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Get back down there.”

He laughed and swiped the back of his hand over his lips. But then he stuck the two fingers he’d had inside her into his own mouth. The pink of his tongue slicked over the mess she’d left on him.

The hard thump inside her chest was half turn-on and half owned. He could have so much of her, if he only took.

“You’re kind of bossy.” He dipped his head, rubbing his mouth over her sternum. His tongue curled around the center string of her bikini top; then he took the strap between his teeth. Tugged. Goose bumps washed out over her flesh. “You’re lucky I dig it.”

“You dig lots about me.” She wanted to believe it. Needed to hear it a little more.

“Lots and lots and . . .” The last word was lost as he sucked her nipple into the wet heat of his mouth.

Avalon moaned. Her fingers found purchase across the back of his head, and they didn’t even know if she wanted to pull him closer or push him away. She pretty much could listen to him forever, but the way he made her feel would do as well. He was drawing tiny layers of sensation from her, layering it all together like some sort of sex god. The whisper of his fingers over her hip, the push of his rough thigh against the hot center of her pussy. The licking, nipping delight of his mouth.

It almost became too much. She thought the hard-edged pleasure would shake out her bones and fly away if she didn’t grab hold. Her hands dove between them, pushing down his shorts.

He snagged a condom from the bedside table, from the most recent box they’d been zooming through. A minute later, he pushed inside her.

He was hard and big and exactly what she’d needed. More of him, more sensation. And he didn’t stop touching her. His hands were everywhere, his mouth at the bend of her neck. His tongue along the top of her chest. A special, wet kiss to the knot where she’d broken her clavicle at eleven.

The way they moved together was enough to make her forget everything else. She needed nothing but him. She lost track of how long, until she needed something more. A little harder.

The pushes on his shoulders weren’t missed. Wrapping one arm low around her waist, he flipped them over so she was riding. Speed made her gray at the edges with dizziness. She put her hands flat on his chest, reveling in the hard strength thrusting up into her.

Part of her wanted to scrunch her eyes shut to get what she needed. But the way his eyes almost seemed to glow couldn’t be denied. Tanner couldn’t be denied.

He was such an elemental force of nature. And she was only riding along until she was shaken free.

But Christ, what a ride it was.

Her hips worked over his, the burn in her thighs more than worth it for the rubbing, blunt thrusts. She needed more of that. Sweat pooled at the base of her spine, trickled down in another wet lick. More sweat beaded across his chest, and she curved down to lick at him. The new angle of her pelvis stroked the head of his cock against some throbbing, clenching place inside her. Blunt-edged perfection.