Page 27 of The Rival in South Africa
Alex was agoodkisser.Wewere good together. With just the right amount of tongue, our mouths synchronized perfectly.
His hands slid around to the inside of my thighs, tugging me gently. I let Alex pull me over him, sliding my knees up onto the mattress on either side of his hips. Alex ran his hands up my thigh, groaning when he found how far up my dress had risen with the spreading of my knees.
But we didn’t stop. My hands were in Alex’s hair, one of his hands pressed on my back, encouraging me to get closer to him, my full front to his, my breasts pressed hard against his chest, and the hem of my tight dress digging into my thighs. Impatiently I broke away, Alex’s mouth following mine, his eyes dazed. I hiked my dress up to my waist and pressed closer, widening the stance.
Alex grunted his approval and pulled me to him again. And then we were down, down, down on the bed, thrusting and pressing and grinding…
And then the drums beat.
We broke apart, panting our own rhythm, staring at each other wide-eyed.
“Dinner,” I said inelegantly.
“Right.”
He made no effort to move, and our mouths were only millimeters away from each other.
I dropped down, unable to resist. This time our kisses were softer, our mouths closed.
In between, Alex remarked again, “Dinner.”
I sighed. “Is that your way of telling me to get off?”
He grinned and thrust up against me, hard and ready and in just the perfect spot.
“You can take that either way you want.”
I bent down and kissed him again. And again. And again until he flipped me over.
“Nikki,” he said, nuzzling my nose with his. “We do need to eat. And we’ll come right back here after dinner, yeah?”
“Youhave to eat.”
Alex rolled away from me and sat on the edge of the bed. “Fairly certain you can’t live off of my kisses. Plus, someone will be by any minute now to make sure we haven’t been eaten by a leopard or run over by a hippopotamus.”
“Fine.”
We stayed quiet for a moment, him sitting on the edge of the bed, me sprawled out on the duvet, hair a mess.
“What are you doing?” he asked me.
“Recovering. What are you doing?”
“Waiting for my blood to spread back out.”
“Good plan.”
ELEVEN
It tookus so long to recover that someone did try to come and find us. Alex assured Misola we were on our way, but because it was dark now, she waited at the tent entrance like a chaperone at a school dance. She may not have known what was going on, but I’m certain she would have noticed if we’d collapsed back into bed.
We sat at the long dining table, everyone else well into their beverage of choice. The fire was roaring, the lodge a bubble of warmth and chatter and merriment.
Alex and I sat next to each other, the last two seats available, saved just for us.
“We were waiting for you! Thought maybe you’d gotten distracted,” said Mark, who sat across from me. He grinned slyly.
Olivia chimed in next to him. “I saw your dress, Nikki. It was lovely.”
