After Midnight. Katherine Garbera

stepped away, shimmied out of her dress and then let her bra slowly slide down her torso, pulling first one arm free and then the other and dangling it from one finger. She stood there with that cool Nordic beauty. His gorgeous ice queen, very sure of herself and her appeal.

      He started to get up, but she wagged her finger at him. “Did I say you could move?”

      “I think you’re going to want me to move,” he told her.

      “Not yet.”

      He sank back on the bed and grimaced as his slacks cut into his erection. He shifted and then thought, To hell with it, and unzipped his pants, pushing them down his legs.

      “You look good, Carter. You could be an underwear model.”

      He’d done a few ads in his day, but lately he preferred to keep some things for himself and his lovers. His body was one of them. He stood and slowly pulled the hem of his T-shirt up past his abdomen as he closed the gap between them. She reached out and traced the tattoo on his left side. Her fingers were warm and seeking as they moved over him.

      The design disappeared into the top of his boxer briefs, and she pulled the elastic waistband away from his skin, pushing the side of the briefs down so she could see the entire thing.

      “Is this a mountain?”

      “Yes. Nagano.”

      “Why Nagano?”

      He let out a groan. “Now? You want to talk now?” he asked, painfully aware that he could barely string together two words as she leaned lower to examine his ink. Her beautiful, lush breasts swayed forward and her breath brushed over his hip. She was so close to his cock, he could only think of twisting his hips so that he could feel her touch where he desired it most.

      “I guess not. But later,” she said, “I want to know more about it.”

      “Later,” he growled, cupping her breasts, rubbing his palm over the center of her nipples and gently fondling them.

      She caressed his upper body and pushed the T-shirt up and over his head. He stopped stroking her as she tossed it aside. Again she put her hand in the center of his chest and pushed against him. He walked backward until he felt the edge of the bed at the back of his thighs, and put his arm around her waist, dragging her forward with him as he sat. Inhaling her sweet, womanly scent, he pulled her onto his lap so she straddled him.

      She reached up and did something with her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders as she leaned forward. Staring at him with passion-glazed eyes, she cupped his face, rubbed her fingers through his short stubble and then leaned down to kiss him. Not a dominating one, as earlier, but one that promised that the games were over. He held her close to him with one hand on her hip, and let his other hand caress her, starting at the back of her neck and then slowly moving down the back of her spine. He felt her shiver as he traced his way around the tiny indentation right above her buttocks.

      He caressed her hips, and she rocked forward against him, then winced. Her knee. He’d forgotten that she’d injured it a year ago. He scooted back on the bed and rolled them onto their sides so they were facing each other.

      “Sorry,” she whispered.

      “Hey, gorgeous,” he said, lightly running his hand down the side of her body over her curves. “It’s okay. How’s the knee?”

      “Fine. It was just the angle.”

      “Then let’s find a better angle,” he suggested. “One where we don’t have to think about anything but each other.”

      She nodded. But the confidence that had been driving her had waned. He could read it in her eyes. “I guess I’m in charge now.”

      Just as he suspected, the thought of the power shift was enough to nudge any embarrassment Lindsey had over her knee out of her subconscious. She gave him an arched look, raised herself up onto her elbow and put her finger to the middle of his chest again.

      “Not so fast.” She leaned over him, slowly following the pattern of his chest hair as it narrowed down his belly and disappeared into the top of his boxer briefs. Then she dipped her finger under the elastic and brushed the tip of his cock, and his hips jerked forward.

      He breathed in and out, struggling to stay in control. Then he reached for her and mimicked her caress. He started in the middle of her chest and traced his finger down around each of her breasts, and then lower to her belly button. He drew a small circle around it and then leaned over to trace the path with his mouth. But he lingered at her breasts, catching her nipple in his mouth and sucking as he continued to fondle her belly button.

      She pushed her hand into his underwear and slid her hand up and down his shaft. He shivered in response, felt as though he was going to lose it, but instead rocked himself against her touch. He liked it. Her fingers were long, and she wrapped them around his length, stroking up and down within the confines of his underwear.

      He lifted his lips from her breast to move lower, kissing each of her ribs, and her hand slid off him as he did so. She let her fingers drift up his body and around to his back. Caressing the area near his tattoo, her fingers moved gently over the imprint as he tongued her belly button and then dipped his head lower. He peeled her underwear over her hips and down her long legs, stopping to kiss the scars at her knee, and then tossed them to the floor.

      He shoved his own briefs off, ready to be totally naked.

      “Are you on the pill?” he asked.

      “What?” She seemed dazed, and he realized that he’d jarred her.

      “Are you protected from pregnancy?”

      She nodded. “Are you clean?”

      Fair question, given his reputation, but still... “Yes. Are you?”

      “Of course,” she said.

      “Good.”

      He moved so that he could take her ankles in his hands to raise her legs. He smiled as she propped herself up on her elbows.

      She was spread out in front of him, her tousled blond hair falling around her shoulders, her pink-tipped breasts rising and falling with each breath she took. His eyes traced her nipped-in waist and the soft blond curls at the apex of her thighs. The long smooth legs that he’d admired often when she’d worn snow pants.

      She had a great ass, but he’d save that for next time. Tonight was special. It was the first time, and he wanted it to be just right. Wanted to see her face, so that in his mind he’d always have this image of Lindsey.

      Naked. Wanting. Completely his.

      He brought her foot to his chest and caressed her leg, starting at the ankle and working his way to her thigh, stopping just short of her center. Then he did the same with her other leg, lingering over the scars on her fully healed knee. Next he used his mouth on the same path, and when he got to the apex of her thighs, she sighed and tangled her hands in his hair as he parted her and kissed her most intimate flesh.

      She shifted under him, her heels pushing down on the bed as she lifted her hips toward his mouth. He flicked his tongue over her and then moved lower to taste her. She slipped her hands across his back, her nails digging into his shoulders as his mouth took full possession of her. Her thighs came up on either side of his face as she thrashed underneath him.

      She tried to pull him up over her, but the taste of her was addicting and he couldn’t get enough of it. His cock was hard and he wanted to be buried deep inside her, but he didn’t want to have to stop tasting her, either.

      He swirled his tongue around the little pink bud at the center of her and felt it swell under him. Her nails dug into his shoulders, and she made a breathy sort of moaning noise that let him know she liked it. He slipped his finger inside, stroking her. He kept it up until she tugged at his hair, and he lifted his head.

      “Carter.”

      “Yes, gorgeous?”

      “I