“Cal, I didn’t mean…” She couldn’t go on. She wanted to kiss him.
He encircled her wrists with his hands. The bedpost bumped against her spine. “Consider this a scientific experiment, Professor.”
He leaned forward, drawing her hands behind her back and around the bedpost at the same time. She felt as if she’d been tied to a stake, except his gentle fingers were the only bonds holding her in place.
As he gazed down, her heart gave a nervous kick against her ribs. “Let’s see how you taste.”
His head dipped and his lips brushed hers. They were soft and warm, slightly parted, barely touching. Her eyes drifted shut. She felt as if she were being grazed by a feather and wondered how someone so strong could have such a tender touch.
He continued to tease her with his mouth. The barest brush, the slightest touch. Her senses swirled. She wanted more and she went up on tiptoe, slanting her mouth across his and deepening the kiss.
He drew back. Another graze. A glance.
She leaned into him again, and he nipped her bottom lip. Was that a warning that only the quarterback called the play? Her body throbbed with frustration.
He rewarded her obedience by closing his lips over hers and lightly tracing the bow with the tip of his tongue. She moaned. If he gave this much attention to a simple kiss, what would he do if she let him get to the rest of her?
She couldn’t stand it any longer, and once again she reared up on her tiptoes. This time he didn’t object. The gentle tantalizer disappeared, and he took full possession of what she offered. With his hands occupied shackling hers behind the bedpost, he could only use his mouth on her, and he used it well, filling her with his tongue and leaning into her so she could feel his passion.
She pressed her own body against his and lost herself in a new way of kissing, a mating that was more erotic than any sex act
she’d ever experienced. She could be male and female, the possessor and the possessed. She moved her body against him, using it as if she were a snake, rubbing breasts and belly, thighs and hips. Her body burned with the thrill of everything that had been missing for her, and in her passion, she had a brief glimpse of how it might be if they were more to each other than bodies.
She heard a moan, but this time it didn’t come from her. It was hoarse, muffled, urgent. Her hands were suddenly free, while his were on her thighs, sliding beneath her nightshirt.
Oh, yes. She wanted him there. Hurry. Touch my softest place. My sweetest place. Her body urged him to boldness while her mind and heart cried out not to give herself so cheaply. She wanted to be courted, to be wooed and won, even if only for her body. Just once in her life, she wanted to feel what other women felt when men pursued them.
His fingers touched the soft curls. “Stop!” Her exclamation sounded as if it were part command, part howl.
“No.”
“I mean it, Cal.” She gasped for breath, struggled for control. “Get your hands out from under my nightshirt.”
“You want me here. You know you do.”
He was still pressed hard against her, and she wished she’d touched him there first, before she’d told him to stop. Just one quick touch so she could see how he felt against her hand. “I want you to stop.”
He jerked away from her. “This is stupid! This is so damn stupid I can’t believe it! The two of us are trapped together in this stinking marriage. We can’t stand each other, and the only consolation we’re going to find is in bed, but you’re too damn stubborn to cooperate!”
He’d proven her point in spades, and she swallowed her hurt so she could let him know it. “I knew you didn’t like me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You just said it. You just said that we can’t stand each other, even though I already said I didn’t dislike you. So that leaves you. You just admitted how you felt about me.”
“I did not say that.”
“You most assuredly did.”
“Well, I didn’t mean it.”
“Ha!”
“Rosebud…”
“Don’t you call me that, you jerk! Sex is just another form of sport to you, isn’t it? Something to do when you’re not on the football field or drinking beer with your buddies. Well, I don’t feel that way about it. You want to have sex with me, fine! You can have sex with me! But on my terms.”
“And exactly what terms are those?”