Page 75 of Puppy Christmas

“That one’s a little questionable,” Lila gasped as he lingered a moment near the back of her knee. “Maybe you should just skip to the good parts.”

“Thesearethe good parts,” he protested, but he gave in at least partway. Lila’s jeans were starting to provide a serious impediment, so he gave her leg yet another tug. This time, he didn’t stop until he’d managed to get her waist within reaching distance. He meant to make short work of the zipper and remove the pants altogether, but her sweater was askew enough to expose even more of her stomach.

This time, he gave all the way in to the urge to explore that undulating expanse. He started by pressing a kiss against her belly button, savoring the taste that greeted his tongue. She was salt and skin and the soft, downy fuzz that covered her belly.

“If this is what you’re like when you’re out of practice, I’m not sure I could handle you at your best,” Lila said with a soft moan. He was working his way downward, but slowly, taking his time savoring each tantalizing inch. “Besides—it seems like I should be the one reintroducing you to how this all works. Are you sure you don’t want to switch places?”

Oh, he was sure. One press of that woman’s well-formed mouth anywhere near his cock, and this interlude was going to be over before it even began. Already, each brush of her body against his erection was making him long to rip every shred of her clothing off and bury himself inside her.

“There’s plenty of time for that,” he said as he flicked the button of her jeans open. As this elicited a gasp of Lila’s approval, he had no qualms about sliding the flat of his palm inside.

Ford had no way of knowing what kind of underwear she’d been wearing the night of their phone sex, but the panties she had on today were the merest scrap of lace. They dipped low on her belly, providing a tempting barrier. He was man enough to appreciate that they’d been worn for his benefit, in anticipation of being seen and appreciated to their fullest. Determined not to let her down, he paused and leaned down to kiss the white scalloped edge.

She gasped and buried her hands in his hair, her whole body giving a convulsive twitch as he continued his gentle assault. At least, it started out gently enough. Ford was determined to enjoy every second in this woman’s bed, but as soon as he managed to tug her jeans down her hips, he lost his resolve. The lace covered just enough of her mons to qualify as underwear, but that was it. Everywhere else he looked and touched and tasted was gloriously bare—and even more gloriously bared to him. Soft with desire and pliable with need, Lila’s legs fell open enough to allow him to slide between them.

Her hands were still buried in his hair, her grip on his scalp surprisingly firm. He was half afraid that she was going to yank him away from his current delightful vantage point, but all she did was use the leverage to slide closer to the end of the bed.

“You don’t taste like a fruit basket at all,” he mused as he finished tugging her jeans off the rest of the way. From there, the only thing he could do was work his way back up from the ankle again, this time unrestricted by clothing. He paused for a few moments near her knees and then up her thighs, pressing increasingly deeper kisses the closer he drew to her center.

“I hope you’re not disappointed.” She released a low moan and twisted her hands in his hair as he flicked a tongue along the inner edge of her panties. “I’m no princess, after all. Just an ordinary woman.”

Nothing about Lila was ordinary, and Ford would have been glad to expound on this topic at length. At least, he would have if it weren’t for the fact that she was well within licking distance. He could have wasted time with sweet nothings, telling her of all the ways she’d brought joy and light to his life, but words seemed like a wasteful use of his tongue.

So he answered her with a kiss. Not a soft, slow, sensual one, but one that took shameless advantage of her parted thighs and the fact that his head was buried between them.

Ford had been looking forward to this for weeks, anticipating the loss of Lila’s control as one might await the reveal of a masterpiece. He loved the idea of her wriggling and squirming against his mouth, of tasting the deepest parts of her and savoring the flavor of her on his lips long after she came.

Somehow, in all those imaginings, he’d forgotten that his own control was a thing of the past. He was unable to take his time, even more unable to enjoy the gasps and moans of Lila’s pleasure. As soon as his tongue found her clit, he lost all sense of anything else.

He was still in her bedroom, he knew. He had one hand angling her hips up to keep her pressed against his mouth, the other stroking her inner thigh and all the silken softness it offered. He could smell her and taste her andfeelher, but that was where he ended and she began.

Lila was everywhere. The rhythmic motion of her hips was the beat of his heart. The wet heat of her was the air he breathed. The slide of her skin under his fingertips was his entire fucking world.

And when she came—not gently or primly—but in an uncontrollable wave of ecstasy against his lips, he knew that his world would never be the same again.

As much as he would have loved to stay where he was forever, Ford eventually drew back, but not before planting one last kiss on her inner thigh. Lila found the power to speak long before he did, her low, sultry voice laughing even now.

“Well,” she said with all the air of a satiated woman. “You don’t seem too out of practice with that, either. I know you’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos on braiding lately. Have you added cunnilingus ones to the mix?”

Ford shook his head and slid up the bed to join her, his hands skimming over thighs and hips and stomach as he did. Lila still had her sweater on, so he didn’t stop until his palm lay against her rib cage, nestled against the band of her bra. This, too, he noted was lace.

This, too, he resolved to remove at the earliest possibility.

“Arethere YouTube tutorials about cunnilingus?” he asked. He lifted her sweater and began examining the lace bra in earnest. It matched the panties perfectly, all delicate and white and barely sufficient to cover the areolas he’d heard so much about. “That seems like it might contradict the terms of their service. It’s really just porn by that time.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Lila said. “I expect that’s more your area of expertise than mine.”

Her tone was stiff enough that Ford stole a peek up at her face. She wasn’t, as he’d feared, insulting him. In fact, he suspected that the strangled note in her voice came from the lower lip she had pulled between her teeth. This theory was confirmed when he grazed his fingers over the lip of her bra and came in contact with the peaked tip of her nipple.

“Well, Ihavebeen celibate for an awfully long time,” he said. His own voice was becoming noticeably hoarse. His erection, which had maintained a hard, steady presence during his foray between Lila’s legs, was now making more painful demands. “And there’s only so much pleasure I can get out of Judge Judy.”

“Ford!” Lila sat up with a gasp.

“Artisticpleasure,” he said. He paused a moment to appreciate Lila’s disheveled and mostly naked appearance. Her lace bra was more of a shelf than anything else, lifting and displaying her breasts in a way designed to drive a man mad. Unable to resist, he lifted a hand to one of those taut, temptingly lifted globes. Her skin was like silk, her moan like music, and he was powerless against both.

“Don’t worry,” he added, his voice tight. “You have nothing to be jealous of. Judy pales in comparison to you.”

“I swear, if you mention that woman’s name one more time…”