Phoenix (Editing)

Chapter 21

Claire woke with a start. She'd been dreaming about ... something. For a moment she lay still, trying to mentally hold onto the wisps of her reverie. She was in Pierce's huge California king bed. She couldn't recall all of the details of the dream, just that it had left her feeling rejuvenated.

She sat up and looked at her sleeping lover. The sheets had been tossed to the floor at some point during the night and he lay in all of his naked glory. Every inch of him was defined, sculpted, perfect. Claire studied the long lines of muscles and temptation reared its head. Pierce was leaving again for another business trip, and she wouldn't get to see him for another two weeks. She didn't know how she would make it two weeks without his touch, his presence. She didn't want him to go, but she could hardly say that. Almost two months had passed since breakfast with his family and things couldn't have been better between them.

The early morning sun had begun to creep across the floor and the foot of the bed. Pierce lay on his back, one arm slung over his eyes and his breathing was rhythmic and deep. He was still asleep.

Asleep and at half mass. Claire eyed him hungrily. She enjoyed moments like this. Where she could observe him without his knowledge. She drank in the sight of him, allowing herself to wonder how she got so lucky. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did. Pierce was consistently proving her wrong in her assumptions about him.

She touched him gingerly, her nimble fingers splayed across his thigh. He didn't stir, but he grew harder at her touch. She slowly scooted closer, trying not to wake him. Leaning forward, she gave his member a quick lick. Pierce's breath quickened, but he still didn't rouse. Emboldened, Claire licked again and took him between her lips.

Pierce was dreaming. He'd been back in the cafe with Claire. Their first disastrous date. The sequenced morphed in his mind and he was no longer in the cafe watching Claire assault her ex-husband. Now he was caught in a vortex of bliss. He and Claire were making love again. He didn't try to make sense of why his mind had jumped from one scene to the other. He couldn't think passed the pleasure that coiled through him.

It felt so authentic; too real. Reality crashed into him, and he cracked his eyes open to find Claire straddling him. Her back arched and her hips rolled as she rode him, one hand in her hair and the other teasing a dark pink nipple between her fingers. A groan of ecstasy escaped him, and he reached for her, hands on her hips, encouraging her on. The sun splayed across her back, encasing her in an angelic halo. Seeing her like that almost made him come right then.

He was close. Closer than he would have liked. He wanted her to come with him. Sitting up, he pulled her closer and placed a hand between them, finding her pearl with his thumb. Claire wrapped her arms around him and rocked her hips, her muscles tightening and gripping him as she slid up and down his engorged length.

"God, yes." Claire moaned wantonly as she moved faster. Her stomach muscles clenched, and she could feel the orgasm building in her center.

Sweat slicked their skin and the only sounds in the quiet of the early morning was of their love. They held each other, kissing fervently as they were buffeted with wave after wave of euphoria. It crashed into, over and through them.

"Fuck, baby." Pierce growled in her ear, and he knew he was going to come. He increased his ministrations and she cried out above him as the first orgasm hit her. As her walls tightened on him, he lost control. The spasms of her body sent shock waves through him all the way to his toes. As he came, Claire pushed him back down and rode him in earnest, another wave crashing into her before the first had truly abated.