“I promise, you’ll enjoy it this time. Just relax and let Dr. Erik take care of you, okay?” He held her head steady and gazed into her eyes. “One more question. Did you use protection, condoms?”
“Yes. Every time.” Michelle caressed the rigid muscles of his shoulders. He was a gynecologist, and confronted with STDs everyday. He’d be foolish to plunge headfirst into something he wasn’t certain about.
The fact that he married her this afternoon proved that like Cassie, he still didn’t believe in sex outside of marriage. But he was a man with needs. Could he have slipped up and been with someone since her death? Was that someone Bridget Ashley? Hey, it could happen. “What about you?” she asked in an unsteady voice. “Have you been with anyone since—”
“Cassie is the only woman I’ve ever been with, Michelle.”
Michelle gasped as his hands suddenly grabbed her buttocks and pulled her up against him. He was strong and solid under his robe. He rotated his hips, rubbing the outline of his erection against her belly. Bending his head, he swept his hot tongue inside her mouth. As his masterful tongue explored her sweetness, he released her buttocks and trailed his big warm hands slowly over her hips, up the arch of her back, around her sides to her stomach, and up along her chest, leaving a blaze of fire in their wake.
Michelle was panting and quivering by the time he slid his hands through the slit of the teddy and cupped her swollen aching breasts in his palms. He began to mold them, shape them, while his fingers tweaked at her pebbled, tingling nipples. Blood pounded against her temples and she was certain her heart would erupt from the sheer pleasure he inflicted on her. She never dreamed a man could make a woman feel this way.
“Undress me,” he whispered against her mouth before releasing her and stepping back.
She gazed up into his face. His eyes glowed like two hot coals of fire. Still tingling from his touches and kisses, Michelle knew she’d do anything this man told her to do. With trembling fingers, she pushed the robe from his shoulders. It fell in a black pool around his waist where the belt held it secured.
Michelle swallowed as she stared at the beautiful stature of her husband. His chest was wide and powerful under a mat of curly black hair that extended upward from a corded washboard stomach. She licked her lips as she gazed at his tiny male nipples and wondered how they would feel against her tongue.
She stepped forward. He stood rigid. She placed her hands on his shoulders and dipped her head. His smell was intoxicating, his hair, silky against her lips, his skin smooth and salty under her tongue. She licked at one nipple then drew it gently into her mouth and sucked on it. He gasped and his body tensed under her hands, but he made no attempt to hold her or stop her. She smiled as she trailed her tongue across his chest and gave the other nipple an equal dose of attention as the first.
He sucked air into his lungs. “Untie my robe,” he rasped on a harsh breath.
Michelle’s heart pounded heavily as she obeyed. The black robe slithered down his hairy thighs and legs and pooled at his feet. She stepped back and gasped in awe at his magnificent sex—a thick long column of flesh towering up against his tight hairy belly. In a daze, Michelle wondered how in everything sane would she be able to take him inside her. She swallowed from lust and fear.
“Don’t be afraid,” Erik whispered, pulling on the bows of her teddy. He pushed the thin straps off her shoulders and watched the material slither down to bunch in a silky pile around her hips. With ragged breath, he lowered his head to her chest.
Knowing they’d both soon be carried away on the waves of passion where neither of them would be able to think rationally, Michelle though she should speak up now. “Erik, what about protection?”
“I don’t want to use a condom the first time with you, Michelle. I want to feel your slick tight flesh gripping me, not some damned foreign object.”
“But, I could get pregnant. Yes, we’re married, but I don’t think either one of us wants a child right now, Erik.”
“When was your last period?” His hands circled her hips.
“I… I… just finished a few days ago.”
“Then we’re safe, sweetheart.” His breath was hot against her skin as his smooth tongue lashed across one high mound of her breast.
Michelle trusted him. He was a woman’s doctor and knew more about these things than she did. Women’s bodies were his forte. In more ways than one she decided as his skillful hands and mouth made her flesh heat up under her skin.
Wild fire leaped in her veins as he knelt before her and trailed hot wet kisses across her belly, then back up to her heaving chest. She cried aloud when he finally took one swollen breast into his wide mouth and sucked it ravenously. The fire spewed from her core, sizzled up along her belly, into her breast, and passed through her nipple into his mouth. She collapsed against him, weak and dizzy. His arms locked against her back, supporting her. His mouth traveled across the deep valley to the other breast and he suckled with the same intense urgency while his hands caressed the curves of her body, seeking out her pleasure points before finally coming to rest between her quivering thighs. He’d saved the best for last.
He raised his head and gazed up at her, his eyes shimmering with enchantment in the candlelight. “Why, Michelle, no crotch?”
“Thought you’d like it.” She managed a silky smile.
“Love it.” Expert fingers made their way between the damp laces at her groin. “You’re so smooth and soaking wet.” He gently caressed her slick swelling then eased a finger inside her tightness.
Michelle whispered his name and her senses reeled as if short-circuited as he began to stroke her. All her fears, all her inhibitions left her at that instant. She was a woman, all woman needing her man.
With one hand, Erik reached out and pulled the bedspread off the bed and dropped it to the carpet behind them. He tugged Michelle down and spread her out on the soft covering. He positioned himself over her, supporting his weight on his knees and elbows on either side of her body.
His eyes took their fill of the sexy, slender woman under him, the white lace pooled about her narrow waist, her long legs and velvety thighs trembling with anticipation. He gazed at the black eyes burning like bright marble, the smooth lips—wet and swollen from his kisses.
As he admired his wife, Erik felt a great wrenching in his chest as something unlocked in his heart and soul, sending ripples of excitement flickering through his veins. This driving need, this powerful maddening emotion was new to him. He never dreamed he could need any woman as violently as he needed this one. Michelle’s love for him was like a rich flowing river, sweet and full of enticement. He dropped his mouth to hers. “Feed me, wife. I’m hungry.”
The torment in his voice uncapped a tidal wave of passion in Michelle. She knew at that instant that she could please him, give him the love he needed like no other woman could. She would love him with everything she was and everything she would ever be.
With hysterical delight rising inside her, Michelle ran her hands across his muscled chest and tangled her searching fingers in the matted hairs on his stomach. As he sucked the honey from her mouth and kneaded the tender flesh of her breasts in his palm, her hands caressed every inch of his powerful granite body. She fondled his tight buns, molding and shaping them in her hands. She gently raked her fingers up his back and shoulders, then down his sides and back to his belly. Lower. He sucked desperate air into his lungs and shuddered above her when her fingers brushed across his erection. She curled her fingers around him, barely spanning him.
“So big,” she whispered, pushing back the tight skin and touching her fingers to the pearly drop that had escaped his body. She wiped the moisture along his rigid length, tenderly stroking him until his breathing came in a continuous flood of hard panting breaths.
Erik rose up, grabbed the lacy teddy in his hands and with one swipe of his wrists, he ripped it down the front and let it fall on either side of her hips. He gazed at the damp smooth area of her feminine delights, then lowering his head, he proceeded to act out a lascivious fantasy.
His hands slowly explored the softness of her inner thighs. Then he parted the slick folds of her womanhood and gazed in wonder at her. She was rosy pink and beautiful. He leaned in and placed his lips on her, kissing her tender flesh, stroking his tongue against her and inside her, lapping up her delicious juices that poured like warm honey into his mouth.
The pungent scent rising from her body, the thrusting of her hips against his face, and the moans of climactic ecstasy coming from her throat, drove Erik over the edge. He’d always been a man who took great pride in his mastery of self-control. He wanted to prolong her pleasure before taking her, but she’d driven him crazy. He couldn’t wait a minute more for her love. He rose up, spread her thighs, and knelt between them.
“It’s time,” he rasped, lowering his body to hers.
Heat rippled under Michelle’s skin as flushes of lust and love inched through her veins. She was ready for her man—her husband. But as she glanced down to where his sex hovered just inches from hers, fear made her close her eyes and hold her breath. “It’s not gonna fit, Erik,” she squeaked.
“Look at me,” he whispered, his mouth close to hers.
The scent of her woman’s juices, musky and heady, lingered on his warm breath. She obeyed his soft command and their eyes locked at the initial contact of naked flesh against naked flesh.
“We’ll make it fit.” Rolling his hips from side to side, he rubbed his hard length against her little swollen knob of ecstasy until she writhed and hissed like a snake. “Tell me you love me.”
“I love you, Erik.”
“Trust that love and know I won’t hurt you. Now, reach down and guide me.”
With trembling fingers, Michelle reached between them. He drew back his hips to give her room. He was so hard and hot in her palm. She’d never felt anything this splendid before. She guided the broad tip to her wet opening and gasped at the sharp pleasure it brought her. A wanton madness overtook her senses and needing to have the column of pulsing flesh inside her, Michelle threw her arms around her husband’s shoulders and raised her hips to him.
Erik stilled. “Easy, baby. I know you want it, but if we rush it, neither one of us will have any pleasure tonight.”
He pushed against her and moaned as her tight wet muscles resisted him. He pushed a little deeper. She clamped around his head. He pulled back slowly then gave her another inch, breathing hard and laboriously as the friction mounted. She quivered beneath him, trying to take him bravely. He gave her another inch, pulled back, and gave her another, over and over again, until she began to trust him, stretch for him, dance with him. He pulled all the way back, and somehow he knew she knew the time had come for him to possess her completely. She arched her back and raised her hips as he surged heavily into her with one strong thrust, burying as much as he dared inside her.
Michelle cried out in a moment’s agony at the sharp unexpected pain. As her tender muscles strained and stretched, trying to accommodate his monstrous size, she clutched his shoulders in desperation, breathing her dewy breath into his mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes. She didn’t expect it to hurt so much. She wasn’t a virgin, but then he was an exceptionally large man.
Erik supported his weight on his knees and lay still, full and deep inside her. She could feel the heat of his body course down the entire length of hers. She tried to be brave, but her body quivered around him.
Erik placed his palms against Michelle’s, twirled his fingers around hers and spread her arms wide across the coverlet. He planted light, tender kisses across her flushed face, calling on all his willpower not to move too quickly. She was so sweet, so delicious and hot. He sipped at the hot tears seeping from beneath her closed lids. She still didn’t have it all, yet he’d hurt her. He knew she’d have difficulty taking him, slender as she was. What he didn’t expect was that she would be as tight as a virgin.
“You okay, Beautiful?”
She nodded, then her lids slowly opened and the hot passion coming from her eyes took a serious toll on Erik’s restrain. Her flesh felt like hot velvet around him, making him forget everything but the need to satiate the fire in his soul, the burning she had ignited, and that only she could quench. He’d known it would be like this. “You’re so hot and sexy. So tight, and you feel divinely wonderful sheathed around me,” he said against her lips.
The strained smile that had started to form on Michelle’s lips quickly vanished as he pulled back and started moving slowly inside her. The pain lessened with each masterful stroke and soon her body began to vibrate with the liquid fire he generated in her blood.
With their fingers still entangled, Erik raised their arms above her head and began to move with hard, steady thrusts, coming almost all the way out of her body, only to meet her halfway and slam her back into the floor again, each stroke bringing more power and fire and passion than the one before.
Michelle matched him, thrust for thrust as their passions rose to a high crescendo, overflowed and poured in torrents from their hearts. She pulled her hand from his and wrapped her arms about his shoulders, her legs around his waist. He was damp and sleek. She felt the powerful rippling of his magnificent muscles under her fingers as he took her hard and fast. Passion drove the blood through her head, chest, and stomach, down to her core, where it sizzled like a blazing furnace.
She gasped and writhed as a heavy fullness circulated low in her belly, dispersed throughout her thighs and legs, and rushed back to the sensitized spot where Erik pumped urgently into her. She tensed terribly, then erupted, shattering into a torrent of fiery sensations. She screamed his name over and over again as the thrilling shockwaves scorched through her veins.
Erik felt her legs tighten around his waist as she quivered from the force of her climax. He watched her exquisite, tear-streaked face, her tight trembling body. He didn’t know a woman could come so hard, so passionately. He didn’t know he could make a woman so violently wild with ecstasy that all her senses were shamelessly abandoned. He didn’t know a woman could make him feel like this, so powerless, yet so in control.
He wanted to dominate her and be dominated by her. He wanted to shed all his fears and guilt and regrets inside her. He laid fully on her. Wet skin against wet skin. He passed his hands under her, clasped her buttocks and pulled her into his final, desperate thrusts.
His whole body cried out for release, and as a rough, hard sob escaped his lips, Erik buried his face in Michelle’s neck. He thrust one last time, locked his hips to hers, and poured his love deep inside her.
Much, much later, Michelle felt a warm cloth pass gently between her sore thighs then she was lifted and placed on the mattress. She felt the weight of Erik’s body as he climbed in and gathered her into his arms, pulling the covers up around them. Too exhausted to move, she laid her head on his warm chest and drifted off into sweet, fulfilled oblivion.
***
On the fifth ring, Michelle realized she wasn’t dreaming, and that the ringing wasn’t in her head. Lagged from sleep, she untangled herself from the steel arms holding her prisoner against a hard wall of muscle, and reached for the receiver. “Hello.”
“Michelle?” Felicia’s voice drifted through the wires.
Michelle bolted upright. Oh, God. She was in Erik’s room, in his bed, answering his phone at eight o’clock in the morning. Her mind swirled frantically at what his mother must be thinking.
She glanced back at Erik. He was fast asleep on his back—one arm above his head, the other across his stomach, and the bed sheets tangled at his feet. He looked as beautiful and tempting as a sun god, Michelle thought. Her eyes inadvertently fixed on the junction of his muscular thighs where his ample sex—now semi-hard—lay nestled in a mat of curly black hair. Memories of his power scorched her mind. How did she ever take all of him? Or did she?
“Michelle?”
Michelle whipped back around at Felicia’s voice. “Um—” She placed a hand against her thumping heart, and wet her dry lips with her tongue, trying to think of something to say. “Felicia, uh—is everything okay? Is Precious okay?” Lame.
“Precious is fine. We’re having a great time. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it when you get home.” She paused. “Michelle, you and my son are two mature consenting adults. I didn’t call to check up on him or to pass judgment on you. Quite frankly, if what I think happened really did happen, I’m glad it’s you he chose. Now, be a dear and get him for me.”
Michelle colored at Felicia’s easy acceptance of her. If she only knew she was speaking to her new daughter-in-law and not just some woman her son had taken to bed… “Well, he’s—”
“Who’s it?” Erik asked from behind her. His voice was heavy and husky from sleep.
Michelle shivered as she felt a finger trace down the outline of her spine, reminding her that she was butt naked. She turned to look at him, feeling uncertain about everything, until she saw him smile with warm memories of their night together. She covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “It’s your mother. Felicia.”
A scowl immediately replaced his smile. “What does she want?”
“I don’t know. But she now knows we slept together.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he assured her as he took the receiver from her. Damn. What did his mother want? Why did Michelle have to answer the bloody phone? He wished now he hadn’t turned off his cell last night. He leaned over and kissed her lingeringly on her lips.
Michelle startled as his facial stubble grazed her face. She liked the feel.
His hand tightened on her arm as she started to get out of the bed. “Stay.”
“I have to use the bathroom.”
“Hurry back, baby. This won’t take long.” He put the phone to his ears. “Mother, you’d better have a damn good reason for calling me so early.”
In the bathroom, Michelle leaned against the door. Darn it! Their secret wasn’t a secret anymore. And of all people, his mother had to be the one to find out. How could she face Felicia again, knowing that she knew what she knew?
She studied her naked body in the full mirror. There were tiny bite marks on her neck and chest and around her breasts. Erik was definitely a breast man, she thought as she ran her fingers carefully over her sore nipples. He’d suckled as if he were drawing nourishment from her. She wondered if he was unconsciously making up for the fact that he wasn’t breastfed as an infant.
She let her fingers trail down her belly as memories of Erik’s passion surfaced. Three more times during the night, he’d awakened her and taken her. It seemed as though she only had half-hour intervals of rest between each salacious session. Over and over, he had brought her to the brink of pleasure, and held her timelessly there until she had begged him to end her sweet misery.
The first time had been fierce and intense. She supposed it was because he’d been starved for two years. But the cadence later changed and their lovemaking had been slow, long, and drawn-out. Erik had been powerful and tender, hard and sweet, and she’d yielded shamelessly to the flames that had been held captive within her since Ryan, maybe even before.
Michelle took another step and gasped as the muscles between her legs screamed. Erik’s stamina and endurance had taken her by a storm of surprise. Erik LaCrosse was an expert in the art of lovemaking. He knew exactly how to please a woman. Cassie had been the luckiest woman on earth, Michelle thought with a hint of jealousy toward the only other woman he’d made love to.
She hadn’t wanted last night to end, but it did, and soon they would return to the home he’d shared with Cassie, the house where he couldn’t make love to her. Would he be able to now that they were married?
Michelle was standing under the hot shower sprays when the door was slid back and Erik stepped into the tub behind her. Silently, he reached for her, drawing her slippery body against him. She felt the full force of his manhood pressing against her slick buttocks. His hands went to her breasts and he cupped them in his palms and squeezed. Michelle gasped in pleasurable pain as her body turned as hot and liquid as the water falling off her skin. But something was terribly wrong. Something was eating him up inside. She felt a kind of wild fear in his touch, an acute possessiveness that went deeper than the desires of the flesh.
“Erik.” She tried to turn her head to look into his eyes, but he pushed her against the wall and bent her forward, raising one of her legs and placing her foot on the edge of the tub. His knees bent slightly. She felt his fingers brush between her thighs as he fitted the head of his erection to her opening. He came up hard and strong, entering her swiftly and deeply from behind.
Michelle felt every straining muscle, every blood-filled vein in his shaft as he sliced through her. He didn’t wait for her this time. He just started bucking and pumping wildly into her. His teeth sank into the back of her neck as he worked himself in and out, back and forth. His breathing labored, his grunts hard and rough.
But despite his roughness, the power from his thrusts sent spirals of ecstasy through Michelle. She gave herself up freely to the cruel passion until she felt him stiffen and tremble.
Erik’s hands tightened on Michelle’s breasts, so swollen with passion, the nipples felt like rough pebbles. And as the hot water cascaded down their heaving bodies, he poured himself into her. She was his salvation, his hope.
“Tell me you’ll never leave me.”
“Erik.” Michelle instinctively pushed backward to meet a hard delicious thrust.
“Tell me!”
“I’ll never leave you, Erik. I’ll never leave you.”
“Good. Good. Michelle…”
Erik came. He came hard and long as cries erupted from his throat. He fell forward, crushing Michelle between him and the wet tiles. He clung to her as his sex pulsed inside her. He never wanted to let her go. He never wanted to lose her. He never wanted to have to live without her.
Finally, he pulled from inside her and turned her around. He could tell she had been crying. She had cried for him, for his pain, his loss, his grief.
He turned off the faucet then kissed her wet cheeks and puffy eyelids. He kissed her mouth, his tongue seeking hers. He brought her close to him and felt life return to his loins. God this, sexy, slender woman was going to be the death of him.
He lifted and placed her on his shaft again, wrapping her legs around his waist, and his hands around her body. Carefully, he stepped out of the shower and stumbled toward the bed, their wet bodies still joined together. He arranged her buttocks on the edge of the mattress and draped her legs over his shoulders. He cupped her breasts, leaned in, and sank deeper into her.
She bucked, and her mouth opened on a long scream.
It was pure madness. They weren’t leaving this hotel room any time soon.
A deep growl erupted from his throat as he began to pump inside her.
***
Michelle gazed at Erik as they waited in the lobby for the valet to bring the Mercedes around. They had made love over and over again until their bodies literally shut down on them. They had no choice but to succumb to fatigue and had fallen into a long, deep sleep.
It was now early evening, and Michelle was dying to know what had driven him to take her so violently in the shower. She’d asked while they were getting dressed, but he hadn’t responded. Had they found Cassie’s killer? It was the only thing she knew that could unhinge him. “Are you ready to talk, Erik?” she asked gently. “I need to know what’s eating you.”
His eyes clouded over. “Danielle died early this morning.”
Michelle’s hand automatically flew to his arm. They’d been expecting it, but still… “Oh, Erik, I’m so sorry.” She now understood why he’d made her promise not to leave him. The women in his life were dying around him. He needed to know he could count on one. She would be there for him for as long as he needed her. “I meant what I said. I’m here for you. I’ll never leave. I’ll help you get through this difficult time, however you want me to.”
He placed his hand over hers resting on his arm. “Do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Can you start joining me for coffee in the morning? It’ll brighten my day.”
“I’d love to.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you in the shower,” he said with a tender hum in his voice.
She smiled. “I’m over it. Couldn’t you tell?”
He touched a finger to her cheek. “You have brought so much happiness back into my life and my home. Last night and today were the most magical and incredibly beautiful moments of my life. You were unbelievably amazing. It was never like that for me. Ever.”
Michelle’s heart leaped with happiness. She had something on the late Mrs. LaCrosse, and he’d been honest enough to tell her. “Well, I can’t take all the credit. I had an excellent teacher. I didn’t know my body could do half the things it did in the last eighteen hours.”
He chuckled. “There’s a lot more I plan to teach you, Mrs. LaCrosse. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Michelle smiled in euphoria. She was sure she hadn’t.
