Grounded (Up in the Air, #3)(57)

He grimaced. “This is actually a part of the house that I did not design. It’s a long story, but I delegated this part of the design to my casino team, and since they knew I’d have to have some promotional parties here, this is what they did. I was not too happy when I saw it, but it has served its purpose. If I’m out of town and the casino needs to throw a pool party for some bigwigs, they do it here.”

I wrinkled my nose at him. I knew the Vegas scene well enough, even if it wasn’t really my scene. “I hope everything’s been disinfected.”

He tapped my nose. “Yes, of course. You know it drives me crazy when you do that with your nose. It makes you look so damn cute.”

I tapped his nose. “Don’t call me cute,” I told him.

His nostrils flared, rather sexily, I thought.

I was lying on a cushioned lounger in a white bikini I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing in public while he rubbed sunblock all over my body. He was not efficient about the process, rubbing more of the parts inside of the tiny bikini than out of it, and grinning the entire time.

“You don’t have to work at all today?” I asked him. He’d worked the day before, but made no mention of going in that day.

“I’m taking a day off. I want to f*ck you in broad daylight. I want to spread you out and strip you bare under the sun.”

That made me squirm in my seat. I’d had my hopes when he was dismissing his staff, but now it was certain. We weren’t just out here to swim.

“You’re going to get me sunburned in some painful places,” I predicted.

He held up the bottle of sunblock he was using. “I’ve got it covered. Come on now, you know me better.”

He was thorough, but slow as molasses as he covered me in the stuff. He even spent extra time on my feet, rubbing and kneading until I moaned in pleasure. He was good with his hands in every way imaginable.

The second leisurely rubbed on coat of sunblock was completely unnecessary, of course, but he did it all the same. Only James could turn sun protection into foreplay. I was writhing before he made it back up to my inner thighs.

His sunblock coated fingers teased around my sex, fingering my tiny string bikini bottoms, but he pulled them back with a wicked little smile. “For external use only, Love. I guess you’ll have to settle for my tongue.”

He pulled the strings on both of my hips loose with his teeth. I buried my hands in his hair as he buried his face between my legs.

It wasn’t his usual oral technique, avoiding my clit at first to thrust his tongue as deep inside of me as it would go. It felt drugging—it felt good, but when he finally moved up to my clit and sucked with a vengeance I came hard, gasping his name.

He moved up my body in a flash, untying my top, and moving my leg across his torso, positioning it diagonally with my ankle on his shoulder, turning me on my side, and straddling my other leg. He poised himself at my entrance for a brief moment.

“Fucking me sideways,” I told him breathlessly.

He grinned and thrust in hard. “Every which way, until we’re sated or dead, Love.”

He pulled out slowly, dragging himself along every perfect nerve, playing me like an instrument, then pounded in again. His size, and the unrelenting position, made each thrust border on painful. He repeated the torture, again and again, and I came with a ragged cry torn out of me.

He didn’t stop, just pounded faster. He bottomed out and came inside of me with a rough shout. I loved it, absolutely relished the moments when he lost it like that.

He pushed my legs apart, shifted me onto my back, and moved into me, kissing me languorously. He pulled out of me slowly, drawing it out, until I wanted him again as though we hadn’t just made love.

Once he’d separated his body from mine, he moved flush against me again.

“Wrap your arms and legs around me,” he ordered against my ear.

I did, my body obeying but my mind still in that soft dreamy place that only he could take me. He picked me up, rising slowly.

It was only as I was flying through the air that I realized his intent. I hit the water with a surprised little yelp. I was glaring as I surfaced.

He just grinned, diving in after me.

We played in the pool for a long time. Like children, I thought, only we were skinny dipping in broad daylight. I loved every second of it. I thought that playful James might just be my favorite.

He pulled me against him, kissing me hotly, and then thrust me away. “Run,” he told me with a wicked grin.

I made it just to the edge of the pool and one step out before he caught me, yanking me back into the water and against him, his front flush against my back. He bit my neck and rubbed against me. His rock hard erection poked hard into my backside.

“You’re insatiable,” I told him, my voice breathless.

“Yes,” he breathed into my ear. “I am. Now run.”

I made it out of the pool, across the concrete, and into the grass that time. It was only as he was tackling me onto my stomach that I realized it was exactly what he’d wanted, exactly what he’d planned. He was entering me from behind rather roughly within seconds.

He f*cked me in the grass, on hands and knees, pumping into me with a purpose.

“Say it, Bianca,” he ordered into my ear, his voice so low and gruff.

I came apart, but not enough to keep from saying it. “I’m yours, James. Only yours.”