Goddess of Love (Goddess Summoning #5)(42)

"Is it good? Do you like it?"

"Yes," she whispered against his lips.

He reached up and pulled her silken shoulder strap down, baring her breast. Her pink nipple was puckered and ready for his mouth. He bent to lave the bud, circling it with his tongue before he sucked it into his mouth, hard and fast. Her gasp made him lift his head. She was panting, her lips parted and wet.

"You taste so damn sweet," he managed to say.

Spreading her legs, she moved her hips so that he had access to more of her. He pulsed against her. "Let me feel you."

She moaned and whispered, "Yes."

Blood rushed through his body, filling him so that he felt engorged, unbearably hard and tight. He reached between them and easily found a slit in her silky dress.

"Ah, god! You have nothing on under there." His voice sounded strange to him, deep and almost sobbing with lust as his fingers glided over her wet heat.

She didn't speak. Instead she lifted one leg, wrapping it high on his hip. Then she moved her own hips, lifting so that the tip of his penis joined his fingers and both were sliding against her slickness without actually penetrating her.

"If you don't want this, you have to tell me to stop now." He gasped the words, knowing that soon he would be unable to think rationally. "And please don't tell me to stop."

"Don't stop," she whispered.

With a growl, he took her ass in both of his hands and backed her against the tree. She braced herself with her hands on his shoulders, and then he moved forward, sliding into her tight heat with unbearable slowness as both her legs came up around him and he held her firmly.

"Christ, you feel incredible!"

Through the roaring of his pounding blood he heard her gasp and he covered her mouth again, drinking in her moans and muffling her cries and his own as he tunneled deeper. When he felt her spasm rhythmically around him, he tilted her pelvis even more so that he could sink himself fully inside her, his own orgasm building and building....

"Hey Captain, that you over there?"

Griffin had no f**king idea how his lieutenant's voice managed to penetrate the raw passion that was filling his brain, but later he thought how grateful he was that it had. No damn way he would ever have forgiven himself if anyone had seen what was going on between them.

"Captain! Hey!"

Griffin lifted his head from her and looked around the tree to see Robert waving and coming toward him.

"What is it?" Griffin roared. Slipping out of her, he angled his body so that she was even more covered as she hastily straightened her costume and tried to regain her footing. Robert froze where he was, clearly surprised by his friend's angry tone.

"Uh, the chief is asking for you. He wants you to explain to the mayor that plan you have for training the community on the use of the mini-defibrillators. Seems the mayor might have some funding you could use."

Griffin fought to make his brain work while he got his breathing under control.

"Go."

He glanced down at her. She was still straightening her costume and she wasn't looking at him.

"Just go," she repeated.

She tried to move out of the cage of his arms, but he only tightened them around her and threw Robert a quick, "Tell the chief I'll be right there."

Robert nodded, gave Griffin one more curious look, and then disappeared back into the restaurant.

"It's okay. He's gone now," Griffin told her.

"You should go, too."

Griffin felt an awful wave of frustration, mixed with a terrible sinking. It couldn't end like this. It wouldn't end like this. He reached out and pulled the silk ribbon that still held her mask into place, and it fluttered away like a freed bird, leaving her face naked to him. She was so incredibly beautiful the words he'd been planning to say wouldn't come to him. The silence between them grew, and in a gesture that was both proud and vulnerable, she lifted her chin and met his eyes.

"I said, you should go, too."

"Don't do that," he whispered roughly, finally finding his voice again. She looked away from him, clearly trying to hide the hurt in her eyes. He cupped her face in his hands, forcing her gaze back to his.

"You don't know me, so you're going to have to take my word for this till I can prove it to you. I'm not the kind of man who uses a woman and then walks away. This" - he gestured at the tree - "has never happened to me before. I should apologize to you, but I'd be lying if I said I was sorry it happened, and I won't lie to you." He paused, rubbing his thumbs up and down the smoothness of her cheeks. "What I will apologize for is leaving."

She stared at him for a long time with those expressive violet eyes. Finally she said, so softly that he had to strain to hear her, "This has never happened to me before, either. I'm usually the one in control."

"Let me take care of this business with the mayor. I'll try to make it short and be right back. Say you'll wait for me at our table."

"I'll wait for you," she said.

"Good." His kiss was rough and thorough, and then he reluctantly followed Robert's path into the restaurant.

Chapter Thirteen

W hat, in all the sexless levels of the Underworld, had just happened to her? Everything had seemed fine. She'd been playing at being a mortal, and she'd been having a wonderful time, especially enjoying the titillation of Griffin's possession of her. She'd definitely enjoyed dancing for him, and the way he'd taken her in his arms, again without her permission, and danced her away from the crowd. Then they'd fallen into that weird conversation about Vulcan. By the flabby thighs of Bacchus! Why had she opened up that Pandora's box? Or, more precisely, why had she admitted such intimate things to a man who was practically a complete stranger - and a mortal one at that? Then, he'd kissed her, and that's when it had happened. She'd lost control. With shaking hands she retied the mask on her face, grateful for the camouflage, and walked quickly back to their table where her pomegranate martini waited. She took a long drink, letting its coolness soothe the heat that was still pulsing through her body. The mortal had brought her to orgasm!