The tears were drying but I was still feeling hurt and confused. His face was so close to mine now, his voice soft with apology, those blue-gray eyes staring at me with sympathy and bemusement, the corners of those perfect lips turned upward in a hesitant smile.
“But Brent only offered me a hundred thousand dollars.” I said in a meek voice, trying to explain my confusion, “the check is for seven hundred thousand. I don’t understand why he overpaid me so much? Does he owe you money too and he just added it on there?”
I saw light flicker across those stormy eyes as recognition dawned across Austin’s face. “The offer was for a hundred grand for each image.”
He watched the information sink in to my brain. A hundred thousand dollars for each image that he’d chosen? My mouth dropped open again. My eyelashes fluttered a few times as I blinked rapidly as though it would help me understand better. I was about to say something, I have no idea what, because within seconds Austin’s mouth was on mine, firm and insistent, his tongue pushing past my lips and between my teeth.
While it would still take me some time to adjust to the outrageous art sale, it only took a split second to adjust to the feel of Austin’s lips against mine. The smell of him so near to me. The warmth where his hands pressed down on my thighs. The growing heat pooling between my legs. The closeness of him to me.
I had imagined this moment so many times since our reunion. There had been so many moments over the last few weeks when I thought it might happen, only to have him catch me completely off guard now.
I felt my body melting into his touch, moving my face close to his as he deepened the kiss. His hands began to roam up my torso. I prepared to feel them over my breasts, my nipples stiffening in anticipation, but instead his hands moved to my arms and slid up over my shoulders to brace my face. I leaned forward a little further, pushing him off balance and causing him to topple over backwards, pulling me with him onto the rug.
The kiss continued long and deep but I ached to feel his hands against my flesh. I pressed my breasts against his chest while my pelvis lined up against the hard bulge in the jeans he wore.
I moaned at the feeling of him pressing against my sex as my hands began to tug at the t-shirt that was tucked into the waistband of his jeans.
He broke the kiss when I moaned and rolled over so that I fell away from him. The sense of loss was immediate and maddening. I raised my hands to grab him around the neck and pull him back to me but he caught my wrists and held them tightly against his chest.
I felt the wild beat of his heart.
I knew he was using a lot of restraint to hold himself back. I just didn’t understand why.
“Nina.” Those stormy gray eyes were dark with his internal battle between lust and decency. I saw the pained expression on his face and it began to dawn on me that he might not have worked through this to the same extent I had. “I don’t think we should…” His words trailed off as I parted my lips and arched my back trying to press myself against him again. He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply as I made contact against that hard bulge in his pants again.
“We shouldn’t.” He said it simply and quietly and I think it was intended for himself more than me.
There was no convincing me. I wanted to feel him against me again and I writhed in his grasp and panted my conviction, “We should,” I purred at him, “Oh God, Austin, we should.”
He looked at me questioningly. Surprised at me, “Are you sure?” He leaned down and ran his warm mouth over the line of my jaw, nibbling his way down my throat, “Are you really sure, Neen? Because people are going to say it’s wrong. Mom and Dad are going to come unglued,” I giggled, a little at what he was saying, a little because he was tickling me, “and if we do—” he looked back up at me, staring into my eyes with purpose and sincerity,“if we do, it has to be because you mean it. I want you, Nina, but I want you forever. I feel like just found you and I don’t want to lose you because of some stupid impulse.”
He waited for me to answer. A thousand thoughts raced through my head. He was right, people would talk if we were a couple. We were young. He would be my first. What if we faced all that persecution and it didn’t even work out?
I took a deep breath. I saw the need in his eyes.
I wanted to take the chance.
“Yes, Austin. Please. I love you.”
I didn’t have to beg hard, as soon as the words
had escaped my lips, his were claiming them again. This time without hesitance or apology. Clamped firmly against my mouth, his tongue dancing with mine as his hands began an unabashed exploration of my curves. The warmth of his palms was lighting me on fire every where he touched me. He yanked at my blouse until it was a limp pile of fabric on the floor next to us, then he pulled the cups of my bra down until my breasts rose free for his mouth and hands. Each dark pink nipple puckered and hardened for him as he sucked them, one at a time, flicking the tip of his tongue across them and blowing lightly against them.
I had his shirt untucked from his jeans and my hands were busy trying to touch him everywhere at once, relishing the combination of smooth skin over hard muscle his own nipples tight as I drew my fingers lightly over them.
Once we gave in to our forbidden passion we were helpless to try to stop ourselves. Our touches became more urgent, our kisses more hungry. I rose up on my elbows to unsnap my bra and he moved to straddle my thighs as he pulled the t-shirt over his head.
Now we were naked from the waist up and we could see each other fully. His gaze fell on my heavy breasts and I had just a second to be self conscious under his eyes before I saw the desire in them, “You are such a beautiful woman, Nina.” There was no mistaking the huskiness in his voice as he bent over me again to lick and nip my smooth orbs as he worked his way down along the slight rise on my stomach.
His hands fumbled with the fly of my jeans and soon he was sliding the offending garment over my legs until they joined the blouse in the growing pile of clothes beside us. He kissed his way back up my legs from my ankles to my cotton panty covered mound. His face buried between my legs, inhaling my musk deeply.
He hooked his thumbs through the sides of my panties and slid them down slowly. When they had been added to the pile, he returned his attention to v-shaped valley where my thighs came together. He pushed my knees apart and slipped his tongue along the edge of my hole.