As Timeless as the Sea Page 8

  She turned, and looked straight in Jace’s eyes.

  “Morning,” he said. He was lying on his side, his head propped on a hand, watching her.

  “Er... morning.” She blinked a few times. When she’d gone to the bathroom in the night, she’d completely forgotten he was there.

  Holy moly. They’d had sex. And not just sex, but great sex. She supposed she should be feeling regret right now at finally letting her guard down, but surprisingly, that emotion wasn’t rearing its ugly head at all.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Not too bad, considering. You?”

  “Remarkably well, as you say, considering.”

  “Oddly, I didn’t feel drunk,” she said. “I must have had... I don’t know... four, five glasses of wine throughout the evening? Maybe more?”

  “Yeah. And I had a few whiskies.”

  “But we were also drinking a lot of iced tea and water, and eating, of course... I mean, the room didn’t spin or anything, but I guess we were pretty wasted...”

  Her voice trailed off. The rose-colored sunlight slanted across the bed, making Jace looked like an angel. An archangel, actually—he was too gorgeous for an ordinary heavenly being. He even had a halo, his brown hair gleaming gold around the edges. He’d pulled the duvet over his hips, but the muscles in his chest and his glorious biceps gleamed. Hymns had been written about this guy, she was sure of it.

  “Did you really come three times last night?” he asked.

  Ohhh... that wicked gleam in his eye brought him right down to earth. Or maybe even further south than that.

  Her lips twitched. “At least three. There might have been a fourth in there somewhere.”

  His eyebrows rose.

  “What?” she asked innocently.

  He shook his head, bemused. “I’ve never been with a girl who’s had multiple orgasms on the first date. And never like that, without me having to do a thing. I mean, yeah, if a guy goes down on a woman and gives her an orgasm, I’d expect—well, hope—that she’d come again during sex. But not like that, just one after the other.”

  “I’m a freak of nature,” she said, and wrinkled her nose.

  “Seriously?”

  “No,” she scoffed.

  “You’ve researched this,” he guessed.

  She propped her head on a hand, the same way he had. This was a novelty. Brodie had hated her talking about sex like this. Although he’d been willing to try some of the techniques she’d discovered to help with his premature ejaculation, if she’d tried to talk about anything else, he’d accused her of draining all the romanticism out of sex, and told her he didn’t want to know.

  “You sure you want to talk about this?” she asked Jace. “I thought men found it a turn off.”

  “Not this man. I’m fascinated. Tell me more about how women come. As much detail as you like.”

  She laughed and nudged him. “You just want to steal all my hard-earned knowledge for yourself.”

  “Absolutely I do. I’m happy to admit it.”

  “I don’t think you need any help in that area, Jace.”

  “I’ve not had any complaints, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. I’m a lifelong student. And any knowledge I get will only benefit you.” He gave her a mischievous smile.

  A quiver passed through her—he was talking about having sex again.

  She shouldn’t. Even in the hazy state she’d been in the night before, she’d only meant for it to be a one-off.

  But he’d been so good at it...

  Her body felt as if it were blooming in the early morning light, and Jace was the sun. Just looking into his eyes warmed her through, and made her nipples tighten and tingles start in her lady parts.

  It was obviously something to do with the wedding, but it felt as if some of the magic of the previous night still existed in this room, like finding glitter on the pillow when you’d worn sparkly eyeshadow the night before, even though you thought you’d removed all your makeup before you went to bed.

  Or maybe it was just having Jace here, beside her, looking sexy enough to have for breakfast. He was a young, virile, gorgeous male, and he wanted her. She wasn’t stupid. Now was not the time to get on her high horse and declare she wanted to stay single.

  “All right,” she said softly. “Most women are capable of multiple orgasms. We don’t have a refractory period like men—the time after ejaculation when you can’t be aroused. But there are different kinds.”

  “Of orgasm?”

  “Of multiple orgasms.” Her cheeks warmed—not because of the sensitive nature of the subject, because that didn’t bother her—more because of the gleam in his eyes. “For some women, each orgasm is fairly distinct and occurs anything from two to ten minutes apart. Their partner has to avoid the areas that are too sensitive, but continue caressing them until the hypersensitivity goes away. And like you said, going from oral to penetration, changing position, it all helps.”

  “So what’s the other sort?”

  “Serial multiple. Orgasms are barely separated—the woman just rolls through them.”

  “And that’s you?”

  She nodded. “I’ve never taken the twenty-to-forty minutes most books say women take to climax. It’s usually nearer five to ten. And when I’m on my own and don’t stop, they just keep on coming, so to speak. That’s the first time I’ve had more than one with a partner, though.”

  He gave a short laugh. “I’m honored, although I don’t think I had anything to do with it.”

  “It was everything to do with you, Jace. I can’t tell you how amazing you were.”

  He smiled. “You know how to say all the right things.”

  “I mean it. You didn’t stop. You just kept on going, hitting all the right spots. It makes me feel faint just thinking about it.”

  “Why haven’t you had more than one with a partner before?” he wanted to know.

  “Sex with Brodie became all about his problem.” She didn’t like thinking about it. “He always climaxed before me, right from the first time we made love, and eventually even before penetration. He always had to finish me off afterward, and to be honest I just felt lucky having one orgasm. I know I’m not alone in that. Time is definitely an issue when we all have busy lives, and we’re tired. Some guys find it a pressure giving a woman an orgasm, especially if it takes her forty minutes. The last thing they want to think about is having to give her more than one. And because it doesn’t take guys long to come, it means they have to have quite a bit of stamina to keep going long enough to let her climax repeatedly.”

  She let her gaze slip down him, remembering the way he’d thrust so hard last night that the headboard had banged against the wall. Jeez, she loved enthusiastic sex like that. And the way he’d just kept going through each of her orgasms... It had felt as if he could have gone on for hours. What a treat, after all the problems she’d had with Brodie. Maybe there was a God, after all.

  “You’re a very unusual woman,” he said.

  “Well, maybe I’m more open than some. But I believe communication is essential to enjoyment in bed. And being multi-orgasmic definitely starts in the mind. Orgasm is all about letting go. Did you know that when you orgasm, the part of your brain that deals with fear shuts down? At that moment of climax, you become totally vulnerable and lose all your inhibitions. That’s why it feels so intimate with someone else—it’s not just about sharing yourself physically. The more a couple can work on this, lengthening foreplay, looking into each other’s eyes when they come, that sort of thing, the better their orgasms are likely to be. Not everyone has time for that, though, and for most people having one and then falling asleep is good enough.”

  “You’re amazing,” he said. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”

  She felt flustered at the admiration in his eyes. “I’m nothing special,” she protested.

  “I beg to differ. It’s refreshing.”

  “Not too clinical?”
she asked.

  “Well, maybe if you started quoting from a medical journal mid-coitus, I might protest, but no, I have no problem with talking about sex.”

  “I like that,” she said.

  They studied each other for a long moment.

  “How many orgasms do you think you could have in one session?” he asked eventually.

  Her heart rate increased at the implication that he wanted to have sex again. She gave a nonchalant shrug, though. “The most female orgasms observed under test conditions was 134 in sixty minutes.”

  “Fucking hell.”

  “I know. I bet she couldn’t walk for days afterward.”

  He laughed and pulled her toward him, into his arms. “I don’t know that we could make that total, but I’m willing to see if we can get a decent figure.”

  She cupped his face and stroked his cheek. “Honestly, I don’t care about numbers. It’s just being with someone who doesn’t mind taking time in bed. Who’s willing to talk about things. I can’t tell you how wonderful that is.”

  Turning his head, he kissed the palm of her hand. Then he leaned forward and kissed her lips.

  Sandi let him press her onto her back, and welcomed him in her arms as he deepened the kiss, sending sexy shivers down to her toes and all the way back to her earlobes, firing up all her nerve endings on the way. His hands slid over her skin, stroking, brushing, occasionally teasing, and she sighed, her eyes fluttering open occasionally to watch him, still bathed in the pinky gold of the rising sun.

  This was heavenly. Ohhh... why had she kept herself apart from men for so long?

  But it wasn’t just any old guy in her bed, she reminded herself as he kissed down her neck to her breasts and proceeded to pay attention to her hardening nipples. Jace was special. She was under no illusions about that.

  He kissed her breasts for a while, brushing her nipples with his tongue and then teasing them with his teeth, and then moved back. He shifted on the bed, higher on the pillows, and gestured for her to roll away from him. She did so, and he pulled her back against his chest, keeping his arms tight around her. Taking her hand in his, he guided it over her breasts, down her body, and between her legs.

  “Show me,” he murmured in her ear, making goose bumps pop out all over her body. “Show me how you touch yourself.”

  She closed her eyes as he moved her fingers down into her folds. He kept his hand on top of hers, and as she began to stroke herself, he followed her movements, learning what pressure she liked, what speed. With his other hand, he teased her nipple, and when she turned her head to look up at him, he captured her lips with a kiss.

  It was so leisurely, so quiet and warm in the room, she felt as if she were still in the magical dream world of the night before, as if there was no such thing as time, as if he’d be happy to lie there forever, just stroking her, until pleasure was the only thing in the universe that existed.

  She came slowly, in sweet, short clenches, and he kept his hand over hers and captured her sighs with his mouth, only moving back when her muscles finally relaxed.

  “Stay there,” he said, lifting up and moving over her. “You’re a goddess, Sandi Cartwright, and I’m going to worship your body until the sun comes up.”

  Chapter Eleven

  JACE KISSED DOWN HER body, taking time to tease her nipples with his tongue again on the way down. Was there anything as blissful as worshipping a woman’s body while the rest of the world was still asleep? And Sandi’s body was more beautiful than most—or maybe she just felt special because of the way she was reacting to him.

  He was happy to admit, he’d been with his share of women over the years, especially when he was younger. Some had been shy, one or two inexperienced. Some were enthusiastic, and most had enjoyed going to bed with him. But he’d never had a woman respond to his attentions the way that Sandi was responding. It wasn’t as if she gave fake sighs and moans like a porn star—she obviously didn’t need to fake anything. Her flushed cheeks, fluttering eyelids, and the way her body moved beneath his told him she was responding to every brush of his hand, every touch of his tongue.

  He pushed up her knees and lowered down between them, used both hands to open her wide, and sank his mouth into her folds. She moaned and clutched a hand in his hair, tilting her hips up to give him better access. Encouraged, he took his time to explore her, sliding two fingers inside her, and teasing her clit with the tip of his tongue.

  “Ohhh... that’s amazing,” she said with a sigh when he gave a few long licks all the way up and circled her clit slowly.

  Maybe that was why he was enjoying this so much—because she wasn’t afraid to communicate what she liked. No one’s born knowing, he thought, and it made things so much easier because she was open with what felt good for her.

  Continuing with the long licks and swirls of his tongue, he wasn’t surprised when it was only a few minutes later that her breathing turned ragged and she tightened her fingers in his hair.

  Murmuring his approval, he stroked her thigh with one hand and felt her clamp around the fingers of his other hand as she came, and he guided her through it, enjoying her sweet sighs and the way her body shivered with pleasure.

  When she’d done, he pushed upright, put on a condom, and then twirled his finger in the air. “Turn over,” he instructed. She twisted onto her front, and he parted her thighs, positioned himself at her entrance, and then slowly entered her from behind.

  “Aaahhh.” She buried her face in the pillow.

  “Surely you’re not done yet?” he teased, bracing his hands either side of her shoulders and thrusting slowly. It was like plunging into soft wet velvet. When he looked down, he could see himself sliding into her, his erection glistening with her moisture every time he pulled back. “Fuck, that feels good.”

  She widened her thighs, and the sight of her spread there so willingly for him forced his body into overdrive. He started to thrust properly, filling the air with the slick sound of their lovemaking, and she began to exclaim with every push of his hips.

  “Too much?” he asked, easing back a little, knowing that not every girl liked it rough.

  “No. God no. That’s... aaahhh... amazing...”

  So he picked up the pace again, thrusting hard. Something was rising inside him, deep and feral, a basic instinct to claim and conquer that the civilized part of him usually suppressed. Groaning, he tangled his hand in her hair and tugged it back, and she cried out, rewarding him with a fresh flood of moisture. He slid a hand beneath her to tug on her nipples, and that was it, she came again, panting and crying out as her body clenched around him.

  He slowed his pace and then carefully withdrew. He wasn’t far from climaxing, but her words from earlier, about looking into each other’s eyes, had him curious.

  Rolling her onto her back again, he took a moment to admire her flushed cheeks and the way she lifted her arms above her head, stretched, and purred. Then he guided the tip of his erection into her, and slid inside as he lowered back down.

  “You are one hell of a woman,” he said, moving slowly.

  “Mmm, and you are the sexiest man in the world.” She closed her eyes as he kissed her, her lips parting beneath his with a moan as he pushed forward, filling her to the brim. “Fuck. Jace!”

  “Too much?” He wanted to test her limits, to find out exactly what she did and didn’t like.

  “Mmm, no... it’s just... ohhh... you’re not a small man... mmm...”

  He chuckled and nipped her bottom lip. “Open your eyes.”

  She did so, looking up into his as he continued to move. In between kisses, thrusting all the while, he held her gaze, feeling as if he was drowning in the ocean of her eyes, for the first time understanding why they were called the windows of the soul.

  She looked dreamily erotic, sleepy and sexy, and as he continued to slide inside her, her cheeks filled with rose-pink, and her lips parted with her sighs.

  “Keep your eyes open,” he demanded, heat building inside
him. She was so slick around his erection, her tight walls clinging hold of him every time he moved back, and he wasn’t going to last much longer. Against his will, his hips moved faster, and his breathing grew quicker.

  “Oh fuck, yes, come on baby,” she said, meeting each thrust with a rock of her hips. “Come for me.”

  He forced his eyes open and looked into hers as his climax slowly rolled over him. Her dark blue irises were flecked with sky-blue, and as he stared into them, his body pulsing into hers, he felt as if someone had looped a piece of cord around them both and pulled it tight.

  He’d had one-night stands before, and other casual relationships, and for him sex was rarely more than a brief connection, the blaze of comets passing by in the darkness of a night sky. But at that moment, when he looked into Sandi’s eyes, something happened.

  If he was a more romantic man, he might have said his future flashed before his eyes—not his past, but a glimpse into a world he’d never seen before, where life was shared with someone else, where evenings weren’t long and lonely, and where marriage, love, and children wasn’t something to be afraid of, but rather something to be cherished and celebrated.

  It happened in a brief burst, like the scatter of sparks from a firework, and then he blinked and gasped as his climax passed, his rigid muscles releasing the tension and turning loose and wobbly. Sandi was coming again beneath him, fucking hell, her fourth orgasm, the woman was a phenomenon. He couldn’t believe it. He groaned as she squeezed his erection with each clench of her muscles, her sighs hot on his lips, and then she flopped back onto the pillows, limp and exhausted.

  He kissed her. “Four down, 130 to go,” he said.

  She started laughing, and he chuckled and withdrew, got rid of the condom, and swept her up in his arms.

  “I’ve never met anyone like you,” he said.

  “Nor I you.” She wrapped an arm around his neck and pressed against him as he kissed her, and he reveled in the feel of her soft body along his, smoothing his hand down her back and over her hips.