“Mmm...” she said, her eyes focused only on him. “This is some really lovely stuff you’ve chosen for the occasion. I know what would make it better, though.”
Leaning into Sutton, she held up her flute and poured a stream of the champagne down his neck. Moving quickly, she lapped at the drops that ran down his throat and pooled in the hollow of his collarbone. She let her tongue drag along his neck, meeting the rough stubble of his five o’clock shadow and feeling the low growl vibrating in his throat.
“Did you like that?” she asked.
Sutton’s arm shot out to wrap around her bare waist and tug her body close. Startled, Lauren smacked hard against the wall of his chest, pressing her breasts into him. She could feel the cool moisture of the remaining champagne on his skin as it molded to hers. When she looked up, he had a wicked grin across his face.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. He took a sip from his own flute and then brought his lips to hers. The bubbly liquid filled her own mouth and danced around her tongue before she swallowed it.
Their mouths were still locked onto one another as Sutton walked her slowly back toward the bed. With his arm still hooked around the small of her back, he eased Lauren’s body down slowly until she met with the cool fabric of her duvet.
He pulled away long enough to look longingly at her body and whip off his shirt. Then he poured the rest of the champagne into the valley between her breasts. He cast the empty flute onto the soft carpet with a thud and dipped his head to clean up the mess he’d made. His tongue slid along her sternum, teasing at the inner curves of her breasts and down to her rib cage. He used his fingertip to dip into her navel and then rub the champagne he found there over the hardened peaks of her nipples. After bathing them in the expensive alcohol, he took his time removing every drop from her skin.
Lauren arched into his mouth and his hands, urging him on and gasping aloud as he sucked hard at her breast. Her own empty champagne flute rolled from her hand across the mattress. She brought her hands to his head, burying her fingers in his thick blond hair and tugging him closer. He resisted her pull, moving lower down her stomach to the dripping golden liquid that awaited him there. His searing lips were like fire across her skin. She ached for him to caress every part of her and he happily complied.
Sutton’s hands pressed against her inner thighs, easing them apart and slipping between them and out of her reach. She cried out loudly as his champagne-chilled tongue found her heated core. His mouth worked slowly over her sensitive skin, drawing a chorus of strangled cries from her throat at the sharp contrast of sensation. He was relentless, slipping a finger inside of her and stroking until she came undone.
“Sutton!” she gasped, her body undulating and pulsing with the pleasure surging through her. She hadn’t wanted to find her release without him, not tonight, but as usual, he didn’t give her the option. She collapsed back against the mattress when it was over, her muscles tired and her lungs burning.
She pried open her eyes when she felt the heat of Sutton’s body moving up over her again. He had shed the last of his clothing, his skin gliding bare along hers.
A moment later, his green eyes were staring down into her own and she felt herself getting lost in their emerald depths. She could feel the firm heat of his desire pressing against her thigh and her body ached to join with his. Lauren reached out to him, her palms making contact with the rough stubble of his cheeks. She pulled his mouth to hers and gave herself over to him. Not just physically, but emotionally, as well. He had believed in her, even when she hadn’t believed in herself, and she wanted to be that woman for him.
At first, she’d been afraid to give in to her building feelings for Sutton. She worried that she wasn’t good enough, but now, when he looked at her like this she realized it was only her own doubts holding her back. He had never
said she was anything less than perfection in his eyes and she needed to stop fighting it. Stop fighting him. He deserved all of her, not just the woman so afraid of being a misfit that she never tried.
When he surged forward and filled her aching body with his, she gasped against his mouth but refused to let go. She needed this, needed him to have the strength to be her best self. Lauren drew her legs up to cradle his hips, urging him deeper inside. She wanted to get as close to him as she could. To take in Sutton and keep a part of him there inside her forever.
As the pace increased, Sutton finally had to tear away from her lips. He buried his face in her neck, his breath hot and ragged as he thrust hard and fast. Her body, which had been exhausted mere moments ago, was alive and tingling with sensation once again. Her release built inside, her muscles tightening and straining as she got closer and closer. Sutton’s body was equally tense beneath her fingertips, a sheen of perspiration forming on his skin.
“I’ve never...wanted a woman...as much as I want you right now, Lauren.”
His words were barely a whisper in her ear amongst the rough gasps and rustling sheets, but she heard them and felt them to her innermost core. Her heart stuttered in her chest. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but it was a serious statement for a man with a playboy’s reputation like his. She knew he meant it.
“I’m yours,” she whispered. “I’ve been yours since I saw you across the room at the club.”
And Lauren meant her words, as well. She wanted to say more. To pour out the sentiments that were swelling inside her chest every time she looked at him, but she wouldn’t. Not now. Things in their lives were too complicated right now. And in some ways, too fragile. She was about to start a new business venture with crushing pressure to succeed. He was fighting to clear his family’s name and get his company back. Any upset, like an unexpected and ill-timed declaration of love, might be enough to send the house of cards tumbling down.
The thought was sobering, but before she could get very far with her dark thoughts, her body tugged her out of her own head. The band snapped inside and the rush of pleasure exploded through her. She gasped and cried into his shoulder, clutching him tightly even as he kept surging forward again and again.
“Lauren,” he rasped as his whole body shuddered with his own release.
With Sutton’s face still buried in her neck and their hearts beating a rapid tattoo together, she swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue. Maybe when things settled down in their lives, they would have room for more than what they currently shared.
But not now.
Sutton rolled onto his side and wrapped his arm around her waist. He tugged her body against his, curling her into the protective cocoon to keep her warm.
“Congratulations, Chef Roberts,” he whispered into her ear as she drifted into sleep.
* * *
“I was thinking we should go to the club to celebrate your big news.”
Lauren opened one eye and looked at him, obviously not quite ready to be fully awake, despite the sunlight streaming into the windows. They’d been snuggling together, avoiding getting up, when he’d made the suggestion.
“Why would I want to go there?”