Her shirt landed behind the dresser, and he moved down her body, unbuttoning her jeans with a quick flick of his finger and thumb. Her zipper lowered with a hastyvrrrrip, and he hauled the fabric toward her feet, muttering a hoarsethank fuckat the garment’s ease of removal. As he flung the denim and her socks over his shoulder, she squirmed out of her sports bra and let it land wherever it fell on the sheets.
Cool air washed over her nipples, battling the heat of his gaze as he went motionless. He stared down at her bare breasts, ruddy hair rumpled, face flushed, attention transfixed.
She was nearly naked now. Only wearing her panties.
His rapt expression told her he loved what he saw.
Her nipples hardened to an ache, and she stopped bracketing his thighs so tightly with hers. Instead, she splayed her legs wider on the bed, her tender skin rubbing against the sheet. Another invitation.
He accepted without hesitation. Slid his hard palms slowly up her thighs and over the swell of her belly, until his fingers hooked into the waist of her soft cotton boy shorts. Instead of lowering them, though, he lightly tugged them upward. Hitched them infinitesimally tighter against her pussy. Stroked her swelling clit with subtle twitches of the fabric, side to side.
Her head fell back on the bed, and her exhalation shook.
“Yeah?” he rasped. “That good?”
“Yes.” It was a hiss, as he slowly used the cotton to rub her into near delirium.
“Want these off?”
“Yes.”
He tugged off her panties while backing out from between her legs, and she levered herself up to sitting, then standing, following him as he retreated, because no way she was letting him get away from her this time. But when his palm raised in a silent request for her to stop, she stilled at the side of the bed.
“Want to do this right.” He cautiously edged around her, like a man skirting a live bomb, and looked everywhere but at her naked body. “Let me...”
After shoving the quilt entirely off the bed, he straightened the sheets with a few hasty adjustments. Ran his palms over the cotton, smoothing away wrinkles. Then he took her hand and guided her back onto the mattress, nudging her to crawl toward the spindledheadboard. His steady hands stacked two of the fluffy pillows and helped her prop herself semi-upright against them, then dropped away.
When she reached out to haul him on top of her again, he edged back a step.
His eyes met hers. “Just want to look at you for a while. Okay?”
Molly was private, not shy. Nakedness with a lover had never fazed her, even in the unforgiving light of day, and Karl clearly enjoyed the sight of her body. That said...
“I’m not eighteen anymore,” she told him. “Please remember that.”
The breeze through the cracked window raised goosebumps now, as she lay there alone on the bed, bare. Arms outstretched, legs slightly parted, braced for his appraisal whenever he chose to glance downward.
He lifted a shoulder, eyes still pinned to hers. “Neither of us is.”
“Whatever body you might have pictured over the past two decades? It’s long gone. I hope...” Her fingertips twitched against the sheets, but she kept her expression neutral. “I hope that’s not a problem.”
He laughed then, a loud snort of mirth. Plucking her hand from the mattress, he pressed it against the fly of his jeans. “You tell me.”
Even through the denim, the heat of him seared her palm. His cock was a heavy, solid bar straining against his zipper.
“Already got a good look at you wearing nothing but panties. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever fucking seen.” He hitched his hips, grinding against her touch with a strangled groan before letting her hand drop. “This is the damn result.”
Her body sank deeper into the mattress as she relaxed. Andwithout further ado, she raised her knees and spread them wide enough to feel the stretch. “Then look all you want, Karl. Just be warned: If you don’t make me come in the near future, I’ll do it myself.”
As soon as she gave permission, his eyes dropped immediately. Feet planted, so tense his body shook with nearly imperceptible tremors, he surveyed her splayed body in silence. His feverish stare swooped over her, lingering between her legs for several thudding heartbeats as she melted beneath its heat. His expression changed as he studied her there. Turned possessive, like her body belonged to him. Famished, like a man starved.
The chill from the window had vanished, and she was sweltering again. Flushed and aching with unslaked desire. She shifted her ass, desperate for friction, and her needy body clenched around nothing.
Ruddy color glazed his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose as he continued studying her. His nostrils flared with each harsh inhalation, and a vein at his temple throbbed rapidly.
There was no impartial judgment here. Not even a hairbreadth of cool distance. When he finally tore his eyes from her pussy, they devoured her breasts, the swell of her belly, and the dimpled softness of her thighs in voracious, lingering sweeps.
At long freaking last, he stepped closer again. Reached for her. But not in the way or toward any of the places she’d anticipated.
