Page 23 of One Kind Soul

She laughed. “No one has ever called me a vixen.”

“People haven’t been paying close enough attention then.” He caught her mouth again and this kiss was full of . . . purpose. Not like the surprise one she’d sprung on him at the adjoining door. No. This one was meant to convince her of her vixenness.

And the man knew how to persuade.

His lips were firm in their demands, yet gentle in the way they parted so his tongue could explore her mouth, caress her tongue, pull a vibrating moan from her throat. Slow, steady strokes made her yearn for the same sensations between her legs.

Nicole raked her hands up into his hair, loving the rumble in his chest as she scratched along his scalp. She arched into him when he broke the kiss to pull her tank top strap off her shoulder and nibble on her collarbone. She nearly broke apart when he merely slid his hand under her tank top and teased her already pebbled nipples with his rough fingertips.

“May I?” He tugged on the tank top’s bottom hem.

“Allow me.” She yanked off the top herself, enjoying the way his blue gaze darkened as he took in the sight of her breasts. “Touch me, Christian.”

“You can count on it, Nicki the Vixen.” A cute smile slid across his lips. “Nixen.”

She chuckled. “You’re silly.”

“I think you mean sexy.” He nipped at her earlobe, the scratch of his stubble against her neck sending an entirely welcome sensation throughout her body. “I’m sexy, Nixen. As are you.”

The man was right. About him anyway. Christian Henley was the sexiest man she’d come across ever. The fact that he thought she was sexy made him sexy. He was dead wrong of course, but maybe—for tonight—she could pretend to be sexy enough to have a man like him. Perhaps she could put aside all the years of her sister’s torment about her physical appearance and enjoy the attention of this absolutely gorgeous man. After all the mental trauma of listening to Lynda’s daily affirmations that Nicole was hideous, maybe she could take a few moments to forget all that. To lose herself with Christian.

He bent over her breasts and when his mouth closed over one of them and his tongue swirled around her nipple, she closed her eyes and succumbed to his ministrations. While he gave her other breast the same attention, his right hand traveled along her stomach, over her hips, and to that hot, wet space waiting between her thighs.

She immediately grabbed the waistband of her leggings and panties and pulled them down, needing no barriers between her body and his. Christian helped and a moment later both were completely off and added to her discarded sweatshirt and tank top.

“So, so beautiful,” Christian rasped as he circled an index finger along her left thigh. A finger dipped into her ready depths and she immediately pulled his face up to hers so she could taste that mouth of his again.

The kiss turned feverish as he teased her with his fingers, gliding in and out of her until she panted below him. She didn’t want to be a hog though so she rolled them, turning Christian to his back, slowly so as not to hurt his leg. His fingers dragged out of her and wasn’t that a feeling to remember?

“I wasn’t done there,” he complained, but his eyes widened when Nicole tugged at his sweatpants, indicating she was about to remove them. She lowered the sweats, going slowly around his stitched calf. Then she did the same with his briefs before she closed her hands around his impressive erection.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “You can touch me all you want. I just needed a turn.”

The left side of his mouth turned up and he reached up his hands to push her hair back. His eyes were huge, blue pools that stared directly into her. Was it possible to orgasm simply from the way a man looked at her?

With Christian, it felt possible.

Nicole shimmied down the length of his body, dropping kisses along the way to all that toned magnificence on display. She gave a few tight tugs on his arousal, causing delicious sounds to sift through his teeth, but the best was feeling his entire body go rigid when she surrounded his erection with her mouth.

“Shit . . . that’s . . . incredible...” The words came out strained and Nicole did feel like a vixen over the fact that she could do this to him with simply her mouth. She bobbed up and down along his length a few times, delighted when he shuddered beneath her. Being able to reduce a man to a quivering mass was powerful. She’d done this before, but never had she felt so . . . so sure about what she was doing.

Dragging her lips along his arousal, Nicole reached his tip and stroked him with her tongue. Then she took him in deep again and he let out a moan the occupants of the next room probably heard. He was right there and bringing him to the edge made Nicole peek over that precipice too.

She released him and reached for her sweatshirt. Finding the pocket, she plunged her hand in and produced a condom packet. She held it up between them and Christian’s eyes went crossed as he focused on it.

Slowly, he lifted his hand and plucked it from her grip. “Why, Nixen, did you plan to have your way with me tonight?”

She ran her hands along his bare chest then leaned down so she rested against him. “The condoms were right by the cheese curls.”

He shook with laughter. “Bullshit.”

Nicole laughed too and if she were being honest, she hadn’t laughed this much since Tessa had moved from Hawaii. There hadn’t been anyone to laugh with, but Christian was good at it. Everything felt . . . lighter with him around.

Even a near-death experience.

Christian fingered the edge of the condom packet then focused on her. “Are you sure about this?”

“Why? Are you not sure?” Maybe her newfound vixen powers had dissipated. Lynda was right. No one wanted her. No one wanted Princess Uggers.