The bed dips as Nova sits down next to me. His fingers sweep across my shoulders, brushing my hair aside. There’s the snap of the lotion bottle cap, then a moment later his hands are sliding over my skin. He rubs the lotion up and down, around and across my skin, covering every inch of my back. Of course he doesn’t stop there. With practiced ease, his fingers, knuckles, and palms work into my back.
“Nova,” I protest, as we progress past the simple act of applying lotion. My body tenses, not sure I’m ready for more, but then his fingers knead the top of my shoulders and his thumbs press into the knots in my neck. A moan escapes me before I can protest further. The tension, and my apprehension, vanish beneath his touch as he caresses my aching muscles. “Fuck, that feels awesome,” I groan into the pillow. “Why didn’t you mention you could do this?”
Nova chuckles, but doesn’t stop. “I needed to know you wanted me for more than my hands.”
“Uh huh” is all I can manage as his thumbs go back to working on my neck.
“I took a couple of massage courses while at Syracuse,” Nova tells me as I continue to melt under his touch. “Usually when I mention it, it’s all girls want from me.”
“I can understand why,” I mumble in reply.
He finishes working the muscles around my shoulders and neck, then his hands start down my back. “I can do necks, shoulders, backs, legs . . .”
“Legs?” I mutter. His hands pause and lift, eliciting a whimper of protest, but it soon turns into a satisfied groan as his hands work my tired calf muscles. His hands work up from my calves to my hamstrings. He better not be thinking of massaging my glutes. Then again, if it’s the price to pay for what he’s doing to the rest of my muscles, I might be willing to let him.
His hands keep traveling up my legs. Jolts race across my skin, straight to my core. My mind races to other places I’d like his hands to go. I push into his touch as his hands get to the top of my hamstring. His fingers brush against the damp thin fabric between my legs and he freezes. “Belle . . .?”
He’s leaving the choice to me. I’m torn between the alarms blaring in my mind and the growing ache between my thighs. Am I ready to take things to the next level? We were close in Big Bear. It would only take a slight shift to bring his fingers to my opening. Inviting him to move the fabric that separates us. Begging him to massage parts aching for a different reason. It’s tempting. Oh, so tempting.
I pull away, and Nova lets me go. He climbs off the bed and kneels down next to me, bringing his face close to mine. Fingers that I want inside of me gently stroke my cheek. “Not ready?” he asks. My body’s so flush with need I can’t form rational words right now. I answer with a nod instead. “Still want to watch something?”
No. I want my mind and my pussy to get in sync, damn it.
“Yeah,” I reply in a shaky voice, my body still not giving up its demands. He reaches across me, grabbing my shirt and handing it to me. He turns away, giving me a moment to get my shirt back on before settling onto the other bed and reaching for the remote. “Do you want to stay?” He turns back, a question in his eyes. “To sleep,” I clarify. “If you want.”
A grin returns to Nova’s face. “If you don’t mind me taking my shirt off.”
Images of Nova shirtless come to mind. Nova in the hot tub, in my room, in the hot spring. Being around him semi naked right now might be a bad idea, but what can we do five feet apart? I return his grin. “If you want.” He doesn’t waste any time tearing his shirt off, and hello, toned muscle. I’ve always been more concerned with a guy’s mind than his body, but since Nova’s pretty smart himself, I can appreciate his body, too, right?
“Still watching TV?” he asks when he catches me staring at the hard planes of his chest.
“Yep,” I say, tearing my eyes away from temptation.
He chuckles. “You know, I usually sleep naked.”
I scoff. “I think I would have noticed that in Big Bear.”
As if I’ve thrown down a challenge, he undoes his belt, removes his pants, and tosses them on top of his shirt. He climbs in under the sheet, then there’s a rustling before he adds his boxers to the pile of clothes. He grins a challenge back at me. “You should try it. Sleep studies have shown that sleeping naked helps you get to sleep faster and sleep better.”
“Uh huh,” I reply, eyeing him with suspicion. “And that’s the only reason you want to get me out of my panties? Better sleep?”
“What else could we do this far apart?” he asks with a mischievous wink.
“Uh huh,” I repeat, considering the question.
Nova’s gaze returns to the show, where Captain Kirk is fighting a big green reptile. “That was filmed near here, you know,” he says, his eyes glued to the screen. “We’ll pass the spot next week.”
He’s so engrossed in the show, he doesn’t notice when I shimmy out of my panties and drop them to the floor next to the bed. At least, he doesn’t seem to notice. Until he turns his head and asks, “Just the panties?”
“Just the panties,” I assure him.
“Shame,” he replies. “Though to be fair, it’s not like I could do what I’d like to do to your breasts anyway, right?”
“Right,” I confirm. We return to the show, but my curiosity soon gets to me. My skin tingles as curiosity grows about what he might be imagining. “What, um, would you like to do to them?”
Nova turns to look at me, his gaze turns heated as he takes me in, like he can see every inch of my body despite the sheet. They come to rest on the swell of my breasts, desire burning in them. I reach up to tuck a few loose strands of hair back into place. He curls his delicious lips up in a sexy smirk. “Well, you aren’t far from where I’d start.”
My hand pauses, palm hovering over my cheek. “Oh?”
“I’d start by kissing you. Slowly tasting your honeyed lips.”
I laugh, but damn it, my lips tingle, wanting his lips on mine. “You mean my beeswax ChapStick?”
“Delicious,” he replies, his eyes locked on my mouth.
I lick my lips, parting them as if inviting his tongue to join in our imagined kiss. He shifts uncomfortably, but doesn’t take his eyes off my mouth. “What then?” I ask, wondering how far I’ll let him take this.
He hums to himself as he ponders. “Your jaw . . . I’d kiss it. From one ear to the other.” My finger traces the path for him, skin tingling along the way. “Then I’d kiss up and down your neck. First one side, then the other.” My fingers caress the delicate skin. “Next, I’d lick your collarbone, but only because it’s the fastest way to get to your breasts.”
Crap. This is becoming a bad idea. Or a great one. I’ve pleasured myself plenty of times, but not like this. Not with someone else watching. I should be mortified . . . but I’m not. With Nova, I’m safe, at ease, confident in a way I haven’t been before. As my fingers reach my breasts, those small jolts have become a full-on current ripping across my skin, making my skin pebble and my nipples harden in anticipation of being next.
Nova considers his next move as my fingers trace a slow path back and forth, stroking the swell of my breasts. He nods at the top of the sheet, where my nipples are trying to poke through the fabric. “Those look too damn tempting. I’d run my thumbs over them.” My fingers follow his suggestion, but I keep them over the sheet, retaining some semblance of control. He reaches under his own sheet to adjust his growing hard-on, his hand staying there. “Just like that. They need a good pinch, though . . . A little harder . . .” I gasp, my thighs clenching and my core tingling from our little game of Nova says. “Good. Of course, I’d be doing it with my mouth. Sucking and biting.”
I pinch one of my nipples hard and give it a slight tug, imagining his mouth where my hand is. I groan, and he looks rather pleased. His hand moves under the sheet. It’s giving me ideas of what I’d like to do to him, but we’re playing his game, so I keep rubbing and tugging.
“Your right hand looks like it’s doing all right. How about we give your left hand something else to do?” I hum my approval of the idea. “Under the sheet. Slowly. Rake your nails down your skin like you want to rake them across mine.”
“Do I?” I ask with a mischievous smile.
“Over this body?” he asks, tugging his sheet down to his waist. My eyes follow the movement, from his firm chest to his defined abs to the delicious vee of his Adonis belt disappearing under the fabric. When I lick my hungry lips, he chuckles.
My arousal is building before my fingers reach my waist. It’s a good thing he already has me reaching down there, because having him lying there, half naked, stroking his own arousal while he watches me, my hand would be going there regardless. My hand dips under the fabric of the sheet, cupping my already slick pussy and waiting. “Hmm . . . What would you play with next?”
He hums, and his stroking slows, as he considers the options. “Play? No, that makes it sound like I’d still be tender. We’d be past that point of being gentle. I wouldn’t reach down to stroke you. I’d have my head down there, licking you from your opening to your clit. Feeling your thighs clench around my head when I make you come for me.”
My fingers go into motion, dragging a line to my clit as instructed. I swirl my finger around it, groaning as pleasure ripples through me. “Not rub. Flick,” Nova corrects, his breath hitching like mine. “We’re past being gentle, remember?” I do as I’m told, flicking myself, then clenching hard as my nerves light up beneath my fingers. “Fuck, that’s hot,” he groans. “Do it again.”
Moaning and squirming as my climax builds, I swirl and flick and pinch my clit and nipple. My breathing grows shallower, faster. “Nova . . .” I groan between pants. “I’m so fucking close.”
“Your other hand . . .” Nova says, his own breathing growing ragged as the motion under his sheet grows faster.