Breathless

by HELEN HARDT

  “Bryce…”

  “Shhh.” He turned his cheek and kissed my palm. “No names, remember?”

  Right. No names. My idea. My stupid idea, because now, I wanted more than anything in the world to hear Bryce say my name, to tell me he wanted me, Marjorie.

  I’d made my bed, though.

  No names.

  Tonight I would give this man my body.

  Tomorrow I’d deal with the consequences.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bryce

  No pink walls. No unicorns. No posters of food and chefs. This was a stranger’s room—a beautiful stranger who had invited me in. Into her room…and into her body.

  The stranger had long dark hair, warm chocolate-brown eyes, and dark-pink lips. She was tall, with perfectly shaped tits, narrow hips, and long slender legs—legs I imagined resting on my shoulders while I devoured what was between them.

  The stranger gazed at me, her hand on my cheek, and her eyes—was it my imagination? Or were those lovely warm eyes shadowed with a touch of sorrow?

  I didn’t know why that surprised me. She had been through just as much as I had.

  Stop.

  We were just two strangers helping each other through a rough time. Period.

  I reached forward and caressed her cheek. Her skin was warm beneath my fingers, and I trailed my index finger over her jawline. I traced her swollen lips, and she puckered, kissing the tip of my finger.

  Should I let her take the lead?

  Stop.

  We were strangers. I’d take the lead. I always took the lead in a sexual encounter. I pulled her red T-shirt over her head. She wore a white lace bra, hard nipples protruding through the satiny fabric. I flicked one, and her short gasp morphed into a moan.

  “Take off your bra,” I said, my voice even lower than usual.

  She obeyed me, unclasping the back and letting it fall off her shoulders onto the floor.

  Her breasts were plump and perfectly formed, the brown nipples at attention. I’d seen them before—

  Stop.

  We were strangers now. This was all new to me.

  I pulled her to me and kissed her again, hard, unsnapping her jeans at the same time. Once I had unzipped them, I thrust my hand inside, finding the paradise between her legs. I groaned. God, she was wet. Slick and wet and warm. My cock strained, still bound by my jeans and boxers. With my other hand, I led her palm to my bulge.

  I broke the kiss and pushed her gently backward until her knees met the back of her bed, and she sat down. I removed her flip-flops, jeans, and panties—God, she was hot—in record time. I inhaled. Already I could smell her arousal, musky and sweet. She was shaved, her pussy bare—a delight for my gaze.

  “Are you going to get undressed?” she asked.

  I stood, torn. Part of me wanted to be naked as she was, our skin melting together. The other part wanted to remain clothed, remain in control, do whatever I wanted to her and enjoy the feeling of my cock straining against rough fabric before I let it loose to plunge into her.

  Control was overrated. I trailed my lips to her ear and nibbled on the edge. “Unbuckle me, honey. Please.”

  Again, she followed my command, removing my belt and then unfastening my jeans. She pushed them over my hips and exposed my black boxer briefs, my hardness thrusting outward. I removed the rest of my clothes quickly. Her gaze followed my every move. She liked what she saw.

  Good.

  I quickly grabbed a condom out of my jeans and then threw them back on the floor. I stood before her, my cock fully at attention. She opened her legs, teasing me. I couldn’t stop my gaze from dropping to her beautiful pussy. Dark pink and glistening, it beckoned me. And I knew. Before I could go any further, I had to taste her.

  I dropped to my knees, and again a battle warred inside me. Part of me wanted to just stare at her for a moment, take in the beauty of her private parts. The other part of me wanted to dive right in.

  As much as I wanted to get those soft folds against my tongue, I took the moment. I looked. This would be the only time, so I gave my eyes the feast they desired.

  Pure beauty. Pure shining, glorious beauty.

  Once my eyes had enough, my mouth was more than ready. I slowly slid my tongue along her wet slit. She fell back on the bed, moaning. She tasted like heaven. Musk and apples and heaven. I pushed her thighs upward, positioning those gorgeous legs over my shoulders, something I had dreamed of many times.

  Stop.

  Strangers. Hadn’t dreamed of it. We were two strangers. We’d never met before.

  I dived back into that luscious pussy, sucking and kissing.

  “Yes, yes,” she sighed. “Feels so good. So good.”

  I continued to ravish her. Couldn’t get enough. Everything about her pussy enticed me. The beauty, the taste, the way she ground against my mouth. The soft sighs coming from her throat, the mumbled words I didn’t hear yet understood.

  I moved away for a moment, teasing her with nibbles on the inside of her thighs, which were coated with dew.

  She was on the edge. She wanted to come, and damn, I wanted it too. I’d give her an explosive orgasm, and I wasn’t going to stop at just one. I wanted this strange and beautiful woman to come and come and then come some more—first all over my face and then all over my cock.

  “Yes, please,” she moaned.

  I gave her clit a hard suck, and then I thrust my long tongue as far as I could into her wet channel.

  “God, yes!” Her pussy walls shuddered around me, coating me with her juice.

  I reveled in her climax, sucking more honey out of her, and when her contractions began to subside, I pushed two fingers inside her.

  “That’s right, baby. Come. I want to make you feel good. I want to make you feel nothing but good.”

  I thrust some more, and she undulated her hips, grinding against my mouth.

  “You like that? You like my fingers inside your hot pussy?”

  I clamped my lips around her clit, and she flew into another orgasm and then another. When she finally came down from that one, she grabbed two fistfuls of the blanket covering her bed.

  “You. Need you. Inside me.”

  I hadn’t yet paid any attention to her beautiful breasts. I wanted to explore every inch of her body with my lips and my fingers, but I couldn’t deny her plea. I ripped open the condom package and rolled it onto my hard dick. Then I rose above her, my knees on the bed.

  And I thrust inside that sweet pussy.

  Fuck.

  Home.

  Home sweet home.

  Even with the rubber barrier between us, I knew this was home.

  Home inside this stranger.

  Except she wasn’t a stranger.

  Stop.

  I forced the thought from my head.

  Stranger.

  Stranger.

  Stranger.

  Not the sister of your best friend. Not the most beautiful woman you’ve ever laid eyes on. Not the woman who can ease your aching emptiness.

  Simply a beautiful, giving stranger.

  No names. No information.

  Just two strangers passing in the night.

  I was inside a beautiful stranger, sating a need and a desire.

  Nothing more.

  I pulled out and then plunged back into the beautiful warmth of this stranger, this stranger who was giving of herself. Her warmth clamped around me, milking me, making me want her all the more.

  This stranger.

  How I wanted her.

  This stranger…

  Until—

  “Oh, God! Bryce!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marjorie

  “Damn!” he grunted. “Can’t. Can’t stop.”

  “I don’t want you to stop.” I kissed his salty neck covered in perspiration. “Feels too good. Don’t stop.”

  He was so big, so demanding, stretching me, and the burning stretch had never been so amazing.

  “Supposed. To be”—he
panted—“strangers.”

  Strangers. Right. Couldn’t think about that right now as he was thrusting back inside me, nudging my already sensitive clit.

  Fuck strangers. This was Bryce Simpson, the man I wanted more than anything. I would not apologize for using his given name. He had demons. Who didn’t? Who knew more about demons than the Steels? All of us, including my new sisters-in-law, especially Ruby.

  “Don’t stop,” I said. “Please don’t stop”—pause—“Bryce.”

  A sound escaped his throat. Not a moan or a groan or a sigh. No. This was more like a growl. A growl from an animal. An angry animal.

  He increased his pace, fucking me hard and fast, and as he nudged that secret part of me, I flew into another orgasm, my whole body throbbing and tingling, stars bursting from my core and imploding back to my pussy.

  I resisted the urge to yell. The boys’ room wasn’t adjacent to mine, but I still had to be careful.

  “Why?” he grunted. “Why?”

  “Why what?” I said between gasps.

  “Why”—thrust—“can’t”—thrust—“we”—thrust—“be”—thrust—“strange— Fuck!”

  He pushed into me so deep, I was sure he touched my heart. So sensitive were my walls that I felt every single pulse of his cock as he released.

  Every. Single. Pulse.

  We lay, our bodies joined, for several moments, until he finally rolled away, covering his eyes with his arm.

  “Damn,” he said.

  Was that a good damn or a bad damn? I had a hunch it was both.

  I leaned over, propping myself up on my arm. His face was covered in perspiration, his blue eyes covered by his arm. I gently moved his arm back to his side.

  “Look at me, Bryce.”

  His eyes remained closed.

  “Damn it. Look at me.”

  He slowly opened his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for what?”

  He simply shook his head.

  “Hey.” I kissed his salty forehead. “Let it go. Just for tonight. Let it fucking go.” I nudged his other arm and snuggled into his shoulder. “Let it go.”

  The alarm on my phone blared at seven a.m.

  I was already awake. My sleep wasn’t great these days, although in Bryce’s arms, I’d slept better than I had in months.

  He shot up at the sound, his eyes wide and disoriented.

  “Just the alarm.” I rose from the bed. “I need to get the boys up for school. Stay here as long as you want.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Seven.”

  “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “I have a meeting at nine.”

  “Where?”

  “Here. With your brothers.”

  “Talon’s still at the hospital with Jade. I’m sure they’re going to reschedule your meeting.” The mention of Jade made my pulse quicken. I hurriedly checked my phone. No texts or missed calls.

  I exhaled.

  Good. No news was good news.

  “I need to get out of here,” Bryce said, standing. “What if the boys see me?”

  “What if they do? You’re a family friend. They know that. You being here is no big deal.”

  He scanned the room. “Yeah. I suppose. Right.”

  I wrapped my robe around my shoulders and secured it with the fabric belt. Then I walked toward a still-naked Bryce—he was magnificent—and touched his upper arm. “Hey. Everything’s fine. Trust me.”

  He lowered his gaze, not meeting my eyes. “This… It was… It was great. It was amazing.”

  “I’m glad you think so. I agree.”

  “But Marjorie—”

  I smiled. “You said my name.”

  “I know.”

  “You didn’t say it at all while we were making love.”

  “Because we were supposed to be strangers. And that wasn’t…”

  “Wasn’t what? Making love? Just a fuck?”

  He still didn’t meet my gaze. “That’s right. It was just a fuck.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Bryce

  I finally looked up. She stared at me, her lips parted. I had no idea what she might be thinking.

  All I knew was that I was the lowest of the low. A pig. A shithead. An asshole douchebag.

  I’d fucked my best friend’s baby sister.

  And hell, I’d loved it. If I didn’t leave now—right fucking now—I’d do it again. Even in a long matronly bathrobe, her hair a messy disarray, Marjorie Steel was the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid eyes on.

  Already my cock had stirred and was at half-mast, a fact that wasn’t lost on her, judging by her gaze.

  Marjorie cleared her throat. “Have it your way. I have two boys to take care of.” She slid on a pair of slippers and left the bedroom.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that I wanted her to leave, but now I wouldn’t be ripping the robe off her and throwing her back onto her bed.

  Damn.

  She’d been great—everything I’d imagined and more. Her body had been created to sheathe mine, and she was so responsive to my every touch. Her kisses made me feel like a teenager in the back of my old truck again.

  She’d been a baby when I was a teenager…

  Yeah, that still got to me some, but the real problem was me.

  Just me.

  I was fucked up, and a woman like Marjorie Steel deserved so much better.

  But as fucked up as I was, my cock was full-on hard just thinking about her. I sighed, gathered my clothes from the floor, piled them onto a chair, and then went into her attached bathroom.

  Time for a shower.

  And not a warm one.

  I was dressed in the same clothes I’d worn the night before. No big deal. Only Marjorie had seen me. I texted Joe quickly to see if our meeting was still on this morning. He said yes, it was, and that he’d checked in with Talon, who’d said Jade was doing fine and that the rest of us should go ahead and have the meeting without him. Marjorie hadn’t been back to her bedroom, which I thought was odd. Finally, I opened the door to her room quietly and eased out at about eight thirty a.m.

  No sign of the boys. No sign of Marjorie either. Perhaps she had driven them to school. I remembered how well Joe and his brothers had liked riding the bus all the way from the ranch. Meaning, they hadn’t.

  I couldn’t avoid her forever, and I certainly didn’t have time before my meeting at nine to go home and change.

  But how would it look, when Joe and Ryan arrived, finding me already here?

  I jerked when I heard bustling at the door. I walked out of the kitchen, and there was Marjorie, obviously coming back from… Where? If she’d taken the boys all the way into town to school, she wouldn’t be back yet. She wore a fleece jacket and sweat pants, her feet clad in old sneakers.

  She shed the jacket and hung it on the coatrack in the hallway.

  “You still here?” she said, not meeting my gaze.

  “Yeah. I have a meeting with your brothers here at nine. Remember?”

  “I heard from Talon,” she said. “Jade is going to be okay, and they’ll be home later today.”

  “Yeah, me too. Joe and Ryan decided to still have the meeting with me.”

  “I’ll make you guys some breakfast.”

  “Joe and Ryan probably already ate.”

  She laughed softly, not really smiling. “Trust me. I know my brothers. They’re bottomless pits. They’ll want breakfast. You want coffee?” She walked into the kitchen.

  I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans, shuffling my feet on the area rug between the hallway and the kitchen.

  Marjorie laughed—sort of. “I get it. You want to go outside and sit in your car and then come back in once Joe and Ryan have arrived so it doesn’t look like you’ve been here all night.” Her tone was sardonic and a little hurt.

  I cleared my throat. “No, that’s not what I was thinking.”

  “It’s written all over your face, Bryce. You do kn
ow as soon as they drive up, they’ll see your car, right?”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but she quieted me with a gesture.

  “Don’t even start, for God’s sake. Just sit down at the table and let me pour you a cup of coffee. Did you ever consider the fact that maybe you got here before they did? Maybe you’re excited to hear their proposal?”

  Again, I said nothing and sat down at the table as she instructed. A few seconds later, a steaming cup of black coffee was thrust in front of me.

  “I’m going to take a quick shower. When my brothers get here, just tell them you let yourself in. I’ll even tell them I left the door unlocked for you. Got it?”

  I nodded, feeling like the world’s biggest asshole.

  “Also, tell them I’ll make some breakfast when I’m done.”

  I nodded again. Then I simply sat, taking a sip of coffee that burned my tongue, and waited. Waited for two of the Steel brothers to show up for our meeting. And I knew, as soon as they saw my face, they'd be able to tell I’d fucked their little sister.

  I’d made such a big mistake.

  As much as I wanted to, though, I couldn’t bring myself to regret what had occurred. In fact, as much as I knew I wasn’t ready to offer Marjorie Steel anything close to what she deserved, all I could think about was getting back into her bed.

  Which meant only one thing. Even though I needed the work, I had to turn down whatever the Steels were about to offer me. I couldn’t be around Marjorie. Our need for each other was too great. I would never be able to resist her, so the only choice I had was to stay away from her.

  Far, far away from her.

  I looked up when the door opened. A few seconds later, Jonah Steel, my best friend in the world, walked into the kitchen.

  “Bryce, you’re early. What’s wrong with this picture?” He laughed.