Heart On Fire Read online

  Judging by the smirk she seemed to be trying to suppress, she knew exactly how problematic she was making things for him.

  He was about to respond to her when a waiter appeared by their table, and asked if they wanted drinks. To his surprise, Erin asked if they could have a moment, and leaned across the table to get closer to him. The way her movement shoved her breasts up beneath her shirt was very distracting, but he leaned forward as well, bringing his face closer to hers.

  “How long is your lunch break?” she asked him, eyes steady and intent.

  Cam glanced at his watch. “I have another hour and a bit,” he told her. “Why?”

  “I have no idea where you live,” she told him, “but I’m staying in the apartment above the bakery, which I’m guessing is closer. How hungry are you, really?”

  The way her voice dropped to a purr on the last word made heat pool in Cam’s belly. “For food?” he asked, suddenly eager to be moving, “Not at all.”

  “Excellent.” Erin shoved abruptly to her feet and tossed her head towards the door.

  Cam moved past her and snatched his coat up off the hook by the counter, swinging it back around Erin’s shoulders.

  “Sorry Ana,” he told his bewildered niece, “but I have to go. Got a call from work.”

  “Oh, okay,” the young woman smiled. “It was nice to meet you,” she told Erin.

  “You too,” Erin replied, even as Cameron pulled the door open for her.

  They entered the laneway, their hands coming together as they set off at a brisk pace. They reached the road before the plaza and crossed it at a jog, then kept jogging towards the bakery, laughing as they went.

  Cameron was having a ball. He loved confident women, women who weren’t afraid of taking the initiative or owning their wants and desires. The way Erin had seemed to suddenly make up her mind about not only him, but also the nature of the relationship she wanted with him was incredibly alluring.

  Erin slowed as they neared the small shop and darted around the end of the building to the back where there was a narrow staircase that ran up the back wall of the building. She turned to Cam and pressed a finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet.

  They made their way quietly up the steps until they reached the small balcony in front of the door. As Erin reached into her pocket for keys, Cam crowded her against the door, slid his hands under her hair to cradle her head, and kissed her.

  The response he got from her was like being engulfed by a whirlwind. Erin’s arms immediately came around him, pulling him close. Her mouth, so hot and sweet, opened immediately beneath his and her tongue met his in a sensuous, teasing slide. She inched even closer, pressing her entire body as close to his as she could, and he groaned, sliding a hand from her face and down her throat, trying not to grind his sudden and full erection against her as his hand travelled lower again, coming to cup one full, firm breast.

  A door slammed somewhere below them and Erin startled slightly, just as Maggie’s voice came floating to them distantly from inside the bakery.

  “Don’t forget the gardenias.”

  Erin’s head jerked back and thumped against her door as Cameron laughed and pressed his face into her hair. “So close,” she huffed laughingly, and reached back into her pocket for her keys, her fingers brushing lightly against his erection through their clothing.

  Cam hissed and moved back slightly, just catching a cheeky little smirk from Erin as she turned and unlocked the door. They stumbled through together and she tossed her keys onto a kitchen island counter just to the left the door.

  Not wasting any time, Cameron closed the door and turned back to Erin in time to gather her up in his arms as came to him, pulling his mouth down to hers and claiming him utterly.

  She was intoxicating, this relative stranger. She was quiet, clever and undeniably beautiful, but there was something wistful and aching about her. She seemed incredibly reserved, yet was more open to him and their combined passion than anyone he’d ever been with intimately.

  They kissed deeply for a long moment, their urgency building slowly. The only other sounds in the small apartment were the hum of the fridge and the barely audible traffic from the street until Erin groaned and tore her mouth from Cam’s.

  “What are you doing to me?” she muttered, even as her hands made quick work of his jacket that he’d put around her and reached for the hem of his sweater. He helped her take it off, then watched greedily as she pulled off her own t-shirt and began on the button fly of her slacks.

  “Naked, now,” she commanded, stepping out of her pants and reaching up behind herself to unhook her bra.

  Cameron couldn’t take his eyes off her. She pulled off the mint green bra and tossed it onto the couch, and was about to remove her panties when he held out a hand towards her.

  “Stop,” he muttered hoarsely. “Just… please, let me see you for a minute?”

  Erin stilled, an inscrutable look on her face, but she straightened and tossed her hair back over her shoulder, allowing him to feast his eyes on the entire length of her nearly-nude body.

  And she was glorious, in every way. She was tall, slender, lithely muscled with gently flared hips and a narrow waist. Her full breasts tipped in dark, dusky pink nipples that had hardened with arousal moved slightly with her heartbeat and it was all Cam could do not to sweep her up and bury his face against her chest for the rest of forever.

  “Incredible,” he murmured, and watched delightedly as her breath hitched, tightening the muscles in her belly.

  Then her eyes met his and all his higher cognitive abilities suspended as she hooked her thumbs in the sides of her small black panties and draw them gracefully down her legs. She stepped out of those too, and stood proudly before him, utterly bare.

  “Have you had a good look?” she asked as she moved towards him, her hands finding the button of his pants and deftly flicking it open.

  “I could look for days and still not have seen enough,” Cameron told her honestly, gritting his teeth as she slowly drew his zipper down and deliberately dragged the backs of her fingers down the painfully hard length of him.

  “Guess you’ll just have to make do with an hour,” she murmured in reply, shoving at his jeans and boxers as she lifted her face and pressed her lips to his once more.

  A jolt like electricity ran down his spine at the way their bodies fit together so perfectly. The heat at the centre of her cradled his own throbbing flesh, and he couldn’t remember ever having been so aroused in his life as he became when she slid her cool hands down his back to grab his ass and pull him even tighter against herself.

  “God, Erin,” he muttered against her mouth, one hand gripping her hip, the other her shoulder and probably too tightly at that, but he couldn’t seem to let go.

  “I know,” she mumbled in return, and shifted slightly away from him to glance wildly around the room. “Bedroom’s that way,” she told him, nodding towards a door at the far right corner of the living room.

  Cameron grabbed her hand and started to lead her to the door, but pulled up suddenly and turned to her. “Do you have a condom?” he asked. “Because this wasn’t exactly the lunch date I had in mind when I left work.”

  Erin looked consternated for a moment, then her expression cleared. “I think I might,” she told him, before frowning again. “But I’ll have to check the expiry on them.” She hustled him into the bedroom and ducked through another door into what Cam presumed was the bathroom.

  He took a seat on the end of the bed as she rummaged around through drawers and scrubbed a hand over his face.

  What the hell was happening? He had never experienced a pull as profound as this before. He’d been with his fair share of women- very fair, if the truth be told- and had a few long term relationships. But not once had he experienced this all-consuming desire, the outright need to be with a woman. Not to mention the fact that he had just met her that morning.

  “Success,” Erin said from the doorway, her voice triumpha
nt as she held a black foil square aloft.

  Her body was illuminated by the diffuse light making its way into the room through the diaphanous curtains and Cam’s mouth damn near watered as she moved to stand before him, pushing in between his knees, one slender hand cupping the side of his face. “It’s even in date,” she whispered, eyes fixed on his.

  Cam felt blood surge to his cock as he stared up at her, unable to look away. He slid his palms behind her knees and up the backs of her thighs to her ass, squeezing gently as he pressed a light kiss between her breasts.

  “I don’t think I’m going to last long,” he confessed to her, then swallowed deeply as she dropped to her knees onto the carpet before him.

  “Good thing we have to be quick anyway,” she told him, gently taking his erection in hand and stroking experimentally from base to tip.

  His heart rate accelerated as she leaned forward and pressed a series of gently sucking kisses to his collarbone and up his throat, her wickedly clever hand stroking him firmly the entire time until it was just too much. Cam grabbed her wrist.

  “You’re going to have to stop, or it’s going to happen in about thirty seconds,” he told her, and was rewarded with a huff of laughter against the skin of his throat. She leaned back slightly and tore open the foil wrapper, turning it the right way up and sliding it down the length of him. He was startled to note that her hands were shaking.

  “Hey, we don’t have to do this,” he told her, taking her hands in his and holding them firmly away from his body. “It’s all happening pretty quickly…”

  “I’m fine,” she told him, meeting his eyes. “Really.” She waited until he nodded before she leaned back in and kissed him, her lips a searing heat against his, and her hands resumed their maddening touch between his thighs.

  “Erin,” Cam told her warningly, “I’m serious about the not-lasting thing.”

  “I know,” she told him, her voice husky with arousal. “I just love how you feel.” She bit down gently on his trapezius before getting to her feet. “Scoot back so you’re leaning against the headboard,” she ordered.

  Cam felt like he was going to come on the spot and gripped the base of his cock firmly for a moment before he complied, watching greedily as Erin crawled up the bed towards him, positioning herself over his lap and staring down at him for a moment.

  His hands slid almost of their own volition from her hips over her waist and up her ribs to cup her breasts. They were warm and heavy in his hands, and he ran his thumbs gently over her nipples, smiling slightly at they way they tightened even further under his ministrations.

  Erin pushed against him and moved further forward, one hand snaking beneath herself to grip his shaft and hold it in place as she hesitated, then slid down his length in one long, smooth motion.

  There was nothing Cam could do as his head dropped back and he groaned, the tight heat of her gripping him so perfectly that the only thought running through his mind was that if he were to die right in this moment, he’d not be unhappy at all.

  “Cameron.” Erin sighed, her eyes drifting closed and her head tilting back.

  The long column of her throat was exposed to him, so Cam just had to taste. He pressed his lips to the hollow between her collarbones and worked his way up as Erin began moving over him, her hips rolling as she rose up and down in a maddening rhythm. The warm silkiness of her skin under his tongue, combined with the way the muscles of her back shifted beneath his hands was almost overwhelming.

  Erin shifted slightly, arching her back a little and took Cam’s face in her hands. He looked up at her and grinned, before allowing her to guide him to her left breast. He took the nipple in his mouth, laving it and ever-so-gently grazing it with his teeth before moving to the other and doing the same.

  This seemed to be exactly what she liked. Her hips bucked slightly, causing Cam to thrust involuntarily up, deeper into the heat of her, and he hooked his chin over her shoulder as she pressed herself as tightly against him as she could, their bodies moving perfectly in sync.

  The room was filled with the sounds of their lovemaking; soft, panting breaths, skin sliding against skin, the odd creak of Erin’s bed as their movements sped up and became more urgent, the occasional guttural groan torn from a throat.

  Cameron felt his orgasm approach and pulled back from Erin slightly to look into her face and gauge how close she was to her own. She had her bottom lip firmly clamped between her teeth and a frown creasing between her brows as she rocked over him.

  “Lean back,” he told her quietly. His eyes closed briefly and he fought for control as she gripped one of his shoulders for balance and leaned back, bracing herself against the bed with the other hand, her movements never once faltering.

  “I can’t believe how beautiful you are,” Cameron muttered under his breath, sliding a hand between her breasts, over her belly and down between them, his dextrous fingers seeking out her clitoris, and grinning triumphantly at the surprised ‘oh!’ that she huffed out when he stroked her gently.

  He was close, right on the edge, but he was determined to make sure she got there first. So he slid his fingers back and forth over her until her breath was catching with every exhalation and the movement of her hips became more and more erratic.

  “I’m close, Cameron,” she groaned, speeding up her movements

  “Good,” he told her, watching her face as her eyes fluttered closed and her back arched even further.

  He rocked into her twice, three times more, and then her orgasm tore through her, her inner muscles clenching around him deliciously. She moved frantically above him, and when she was spent she shoved his hand away and pressed herself back against him, half sobbing against his throat as she resumed her previous pace and worked with him for his own orgasm.

  Cam’s orgasm was shockingly intense, and took him almost by surprise. He groaned and held Erin tight, his hips stuttering of their own accord against hers as he came, his breath forced out of him.

  Long moments passed, and Cameron’s heart eventually began to slow. He was still inside of Erin, still enveloped by her warmth, her arms, the heady citrusy scent of her, and he was awash with entirely unexpected emotions. He was shocked, mostly, that his reaction had been so base. He had behaved shockingly- what would his mother think, taking a woman to bed on his lunch break that he’d only met that day?

  To be fair, though, it hadn’t been all him. Erin was, in a word, astonishing. A study in contradictions, to be sure, but astonishing nonetheless. For someone as reserved as she seemed to be, her lack of inhibitions when it came to physical intimacy was a phenomenal turn on.

  He let his head fall back against the headboard, Erin’s body slumping against his, and closed his eyes, just for a minute.

  Three

  As the sweat on Erin's skin cooled she shifted carefully, climbing out of Cam's lap, a little stunned at the audacity of her own actions. She had never behaved so wantonly in her life, and while she was unsure what had come over her, the mild tenderness between her thighs and lingering aftershocks of pleasure were a reminder that she sure didn't regret it.

  She moved carefully off the bed and cast a longing glance at Cam's face where he dozed on her bed. She checked the time and decided she could allow him ten minutes before she woke him for a quick shower before he had to return to work. She used the bathroom before padding silently into the living room to begin gathering their clothes, pulling her panties and t-shirt back on before heading into the kitchen and pulling a bottle of water from the fridge. She took a deep drink and her eyes returned, as always, to a large black and white canvas on the far wall, beside the sofa.

  It was a photo of herself and a dark-haired, brown-eyed man standing in a vineyard, backlit by the setting sun. Erin had her eyes closed in a laugh, while the man gazed adoringly down into her happy face. It had been taken three years previously, with the man she had thought she would spend the rest of her life with.

  It had been taken on their wedding day.
/>   Turning and opening the fridge, Erin started gathering ingredients together, fetching more from her pantry and turning on the oven. She grabbed a mixing bowl and a spatula, and set a pot on the stove, lighting the gas beneath it and adding a knob of butter.

  As she moved around the kitchen, Erin allowed herself a moment to remember the day it had been taken. It had been an unusually warm October day, and everything had gone perfectly. There had been no last minute disasters, nothing to derail the carefully planned event. His family and their friends had surrounded them, and the short service had ended with a passionate kiss and much laughter and applause.

  From there they had gone further into the vineyard for photos. They posed with the bridal party, with his parents and grandparents, and several photos of Erin and her girlfriends who had travelled especially for the day. Then the photographer had sent everyone else away, and it was just him. Daniel. While the photographer had changed lenses and adjusted his camera settings to compensate for the increasingly golden light, Daniel had taken her face in his hands and kissed her gently, lingeringly, as the sun dipped to the horizon behind them.