I sit Yasmin down at a small table near the front window. “Would you like something to drink?” I ask her.
“Sparkling water, three limes and one lemon. No ice.”
I nod and leave her to grab my binder with a few samples and pictures of things I can offer with the dog weddings. Once I’ve retrieved the big three-ring binder, I make my way back with the sparkling water and take a seat. “Sorry, fresh out of fruit.” And that’s the truth, we don’t keep fresh lemons and limes on hand. Why would we?
She waves a dismissive hand. “Oh, it’s fine, dear. Now let’s talk about Doodles and Sparkles.”
I pull out a notebook and flip it open. “When would you like the wedding to take place and where?”
She pushes her long blonde hair off her shoulder. “Next weekend at our estate. We have a gorgeous backyard that overlooks the water.”
I pick up my phone to check the calendar and my heart skips a beat when I see I’ve got a missed text message from Ellis. I don’t open it and check the calendar for the date. “Ok, that’ll be the thirty-first. We can totally do that. Do you have an idea of how many guests there will be?”
Yasmin’s face lights. “Seventy-five at the most.”
My eyes widen because seventy-five people...for a dog wedding? It’s almost mind-blowing. I swallow. “That’s quite a lot of people.”
Yasmin smiles. “Yes, we have lots of friends with pets. I’m in a Doggy Mommy group in the neighborhood.”
I smile, writing down the number.
Yasmin places her hand over mine. “Do you think you could talk to Ellis? Convince him to come? It would mean so much to Doodles and Sparkles.”
I bite the end of my pen. I’m sure it’s not the dogs who want him there, but I smile. “Ok, sure. I’ll try.”
Yasmin and I spend the next thirty minutes discussing all things doggy weddings, and the whole time I try my hardest not to think about the text burning a hole in my pocket.
As soon as she walks out the door, I yank my phone out of my jeans’ back pocket and open up the messages.
“Thinking about you,” is all it reads.
And I swear my heart does some little fluttery-flippity thing.
* * *
“So, you can’t stop thinking about me, huh?” I text Ellis back once I get home from work. I kick off my shoes and fall onto my couch.
His reply comes back in an instant, “Yes. All day.”
“I’ve been thinking about you, too.”
“Have you missed me?” he texts back.
Honestly the man has been gone for twenty-four hours and yes, I do miss him. Is that too shameful to admit? I’m trying to be casual here, so Ellis doesn’t think I’m a psycho-wannabe bride. “Maybe a little.”
“Only a little.” he replies instantly.
I laugh slightly, my cheeks flaming red. “Ok, maybe a lot.”
“Me too. I can’t stop thinking about the other night.”
“The shower?” Listen, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, too. Like everything this man does is such a turn on to me.
But, it’s so much more than that. At the brewery, looking at how talented he is with his designs. Is there anything this man can’t do?
But, is it weird if I say I can almost feel Ellis through the phone. Not physically, of course. But, emotionally. Spiritually. Like there’s this intense connection I don’t want to break. I grip my phone, waiting for his answer.
“Yeah, you have no idea how hot it was to have you go wild on me like that.”
My face flames red, and next thing I know his name pops up on my caller ID. I answer, “Hello.”
“Hey,” he says in the most sexy, husky voice I’ve ever heard him make. “I’ve been thinking about you all day, and I needed to hear your voice.”
And at this very moment I realize how good it is to hear his voice. How in some weird way, I’ve missed it. “I’m glad you called.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
I lay back against the couch, my body growing a little needy from the sound of his voice. From the intimacy we’re sharing right now. “Because I wanted to hear your voice too,” I tell him.
“You sound like you’re lying down, are you?”
I nod, even though I know he can’t see me. “Yeah.”
“I am too.”
The image of him lying down, one arm possibly behind his head, his abs on display is emblazoned in the image center in my brain, not going away anytime soon. I have to be honest, I know where this is headed, and I have a teeny-tiny confession to make. I’ve never done this before. To be real, I’ve always been too embarrassed to try. Like it’s silly, right? I can’t do anything like this, what would I even say?
Ellis answers that internal question for me. “Just let me tell you what to do, Kiki.” And he says this in such a low voice and with such seduction I could almost come on the spot for him.
“I’m not really sure what to do.”
“Start by telling me what you’re wearing.”
I stare down at my outfit, wishing I had something sexier on. “Just jeans and my Doggy Spaw t-shirt.”
“Are your panties cotton or lace?”
“Cotton,” I answer quietly, ashamed of my answer. I wish I was wearing something erotic to turn Ellis on.
But, it doesn’t matter because he growls into the phone. The same growl he made when he saw me naked for the first time. “I’ve pictured you as a cotton girl. Take off your jeans and describe your panties to me.”
“Ok, I’m unzipping my jeans now.” I can’t believe how turned on I am once I discard my jeans and toss them across the room. “They’re red with little yellow polka-dots on them.”
He hisses into the phone.
And I do something bold, something I never thought I’d do in my life. I line up the camera on the lower half of my body and snap a pic. And then I click send.
“Fucking Christ, Kiki,” he says after a minute. “Are you trying to kill me?”
I can’t help but giggle a little into the phone. “Did that turn you on?”
He lets out a deep breath. “Just thinking about you turns me on.”
“I wish you were here right now.”
“Me too, but I can’t be. So, I need you to touch yourself like I would touch you. I need you to be a little rough, and a whole lot gentle. And I want you to tell me exactly how it feels.”
“And what will you be doing?” I ask him, too turned on to really think about anything else.
“I’m gonna be stroking my hard cock until you make me come.” He lets out a deep sigh, his voice a little shaky with desire. “You want to make me come, right?”
More than anything. “I do.” My eyes widen as the urge to be touched between my legs becomes too much. I squeeze my thighs together, moaning a little as I do. “I’m so wet,” I say as I slip my fingers over myself.
I can’t believe I’m really doing this.
“I’ve got my big dick in my hand. It’s so hard, Kiki. You make me so goddamn hard.”
“Does it feel good?” I ask him, needing to know. Wanting to know if this is turning him on as much as it turns me on.
“So fucking good. How does your pussy feel?” He groans hard. “I want you to pretend it’s me touching you.”
“I am.” I race my fingers over my clit, loving the pressure of it. “So good, Ellis.”
The sounds he makes urge me on, making me roll my fingers over my clit faster and faster. “I’m being rough with my cock. Are you being rough with your clit? Are you treating it like you never have before?”
I push harder against my wet skin. “Yes, I am.”
“Good. Keep rubbing. When I get back to Florida I’m coming straight for you.”
His persistence turns me on, making me burn with how consumed he is by me. “Please do.” I moan louder. “Please, Ellis.”
“I’m gonna make you come all over me, Kiki. All over me.” His voice shakes a bit, and I’m already seeing stars.
“I’m coming,” I cry out as my body spasms through my orgasm.
Ellis’ voice growls, a pure guttural sound as he keeps stroking himself. Harder and deeper than it was the other night. Like his own neediness has grown more since seeing me last. This thought drives me through the roof. “I need you to make me come, Kiki. Tell me how badly you want to suck my cock.”
I lick my lips, my body still reeling from my most recent orgasm as I whisper into the phone, “I want to take you deep down my throat.”
“Fuck,” he says on a groan. “I’d fuck your mouth so good.” I believe him. And then his moans turn to growls in an instant, and the next thing I know he’s making the most sexiest and manliest noise ever. He’s coming, and it makes my chest warm as I listen to him.
“I can’t wait till I get home,” he says before saying goodnight.
And as soon as we hang up, I’m reminded that Florida isn’t his home, although he just called it that.
I’m sure it was an innocent slip up, but a small part of me wonders if Ellis is feeling exactly what I am.
EIGHTEEN
Ellis
Never stop living…
As soon as I step off the plane in Florida, the only thing I can think of is Kiki. I’ve never craved anyone this badly before in my life. Since having phone sex with her a few nights ago it’s been on repeat in my mind. Don’t get me wrong, I had to go to Atlanta. There was no other way of getting around making the bottles anywhere else. Now I’ve got the bottles, time to brew some beer to put in them and get them out for testing.
But, none of that is important right now. I don’t even stop at my hotel after getting off the plane. No, my mind is in go mode. Like a big fucking green light with Kiki.
I should be heading the other way. I should be a good guy, and remember her ex is the whole reason we’re getting a second chance with the brewery. And I don’t know if he’d be willing to invest if he knew I was falling for her.
But, I can’t think about any of that right now. I can’t think about anything, really.
And if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think wild horses could stop me from knocking on her door and waiting as patiently as I can for her to open it. And oh boy, when she does, it’s an out-of-this-world experience.
“Wow, you look...wow,” I fumble over my words.
She laughs a little, and there’s a new glow to her. One I’d never noticed before. She looks like sex on legs, some very nice toned legs. Her hair falls down in a waterfall of brown waves, and her dress is some yellow number that displays her tits in the most awesome way. I can’t keep my eyes off them. “You too.”
“Did you want to grab dinner?”
She shakes her head. “No, not dinner.”
I crack a smile. “Dessert?”
She shakes her head again with a big smile.
“Coffee?”
Once more she shakes that beautiful head of hers.
“My hotel room has a hot tub.” And that’s all I need, and Kiki walks hand in hand with me toward my rental car.
And it is so on. I drive like speed limits are a myth, and pull up to my hotel in record time.
We make our way through the lobby without looking completely awkward. I open the door to my room, and lead her inside.
The hot tub’s off a private deck, and I can’t wait to get her in there.
I’ve been thinking about her all day. Like all fucking day long. All fucking week. And I can’t wait to slip my cock deep inside her.
Just the thought of it is getting me hard as I open a bottle of wine for her as she stands on the deck overlooking the ocean.
“Beautiful, right?” I ask her, offering her a nice Pinot Grigio.
“I love it here. I wish I could live right on the beach.” She turns to face me. “Do you miss it?”
“Miss what?”
“The beach, the ocean.”
I shrug. “No, not really. Maybe a little come winter time.” I smile, but I know that’s not what she’s really asking. She’s asking if I would ever come back to it. If I’d ever move back here to Jupiter. To be with her.
And honestly, I don’t know. I know I really like her. And the way she looks tonight, I know if I left this place I’d miss her every damn day.
“Come here,” I say to her.
She crosses the patio, and I step behind her. She leans her head back against my chest, and together we watch the crashing waves along the shoreline.
It really is breathtaking. And my body hardens when she pushes her ass back against my dick.
He’s awake, and my body’s raring to go. “You have no idea what you do to me, Kiki.”
She turns in my arms to face me. “You do the same things to me.”
There’s a warmth in my chest that spreads throughout my body, limb to limb, igniting a flame of want only Kiki can satisfy. I kiss her. Our tongues mingle. And I keep kissing her as I take her wine glass from her and walk her closer to the tub.
“I need to get you naked and into this hot tub.” Like right the fuck now.
Kiki draws in a breath, and kicks off her shoes. That’s the right idea.
I set her wine glass down, and rip off my shirt. I turn on the hot tub and wait a second for the jets to start bubbling.
When I glance back at Kiki she’s removed all of her clothing down to only her black-cotton panties. She faces me, and I suck in a deep, ragged breath. “You’re drop-dead gorgeous,” I tell her before unzipping my jeans. “Do you know that?”
She steps closer, her cheeks flaming crimson, putting one foot into the tub. “Thank you,” she says, peeking up at me through her long lashes. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
I smile, removing my boxers and letting my cock spring to life.
Now it’s her turn to gasp when she sees me fist it in my hand. “Get in,” I tell her, nodding to the hot tub.
She removes her panties and then steps in, sitting down on one of the seats.
I follow in after her, and sit next to her, my body so turned on more than it’s ever been before. “You know what I love about Florida?”
Kiki runs a hand over my thigh, her nails tracing over my skin, creating sparks that fly up my leg. “What?”
“Every day feels like vacation.”
She laughs, the sound waking me up to the possibility of hearing it every day. “You’re kind of right. Except in summer, when you melt into the sidewalk while walking from your house to the car.”
I crack a smile. “I don’t miss the summers.”
“There’s something I’ve been thinking about all day.” She straddles my lap, pushing her tits in my face.
Oh, yeah.
I lean in and kiss her soft skin, making my way over each peak with my mouth before drawing one into my lips, nibbling my teeth over her pebbled nipple. I press my hand against her back, bringing her body closer to me. “What’s that?”
She cups my face, like she seems to do a lot. And I’m not gonna lie. I really dig it.
“The way you get so hard in an instant. The way you sound when you come. I can’t get the visions of it out of my mind, and it turns me on.”
I stall, my eyes searching hers. “You do know it’s because of you, right? That you make me so fucking wild with every little thing you do.”
“Like what?”
I suck in a breath, like all the oxygen has been pushed out of the air, and I’m left with this sense of loneliness without the thought of having her with me always. “Your lips, for starters. I fucking love your lips. I love the sounds you make when I touch you. You make me so damn hard when you look at me like you’re looking at me right now. Like how you looked at me the night you first saw my drawings.”
“Like you’re a mystery to me?”
“I think I’m pretty easy to figure out.” I squeeze her body in my hands.
She shakes her head the tiniest bit. “No, you’re not.”
I kiss her lips, kissing her the way she deserves to be kissed. She grinds against m
y dick, and I want to stare at her. To gawk at her. To look at her and never stop looking at her.
“I want you, Ellis,” she breathes out, her voice strained as she rocks into me, and by god this girl will fucking have me.
All of me.
My dick turns rock solid. It’s go time if there’s ever been a go time before.
I gaze into her eyes, staring up at her slightly. “Kiki, you may think I’m a mystery, but I think it’s pretty obvious what you do to me. How you make me feel.” I grab her hand and place it on my hard on. “This is what you do.”
She moans out, hurried, uneven, and the sound of it makes me want her even more. The sexiness of her tone. The want so fucking apparent as she murmurs. I want her. My fucking god, do I want her.
Make sense? Good. Because nothing right now in this moment makes sense anymore. The world has turned topsy-turvy and I can’t decipher which way is up or down. All I do know, is there’s an electrical current in the air, sizzling between us.
Her hands land on my shoulders, and she nuzzles her face in the groove of my neck. “I’m yours,” she whispers against my skin, so feather soft I almost don’t hear her.
But fuck me, I’m so glad I do. Because it ignites something deep within me.
It’s like a light switch has been flipped on, blazing from the inside out. I don’t know what to do with all this brightness, all this energy, so I kiss her. And let me just say, I love kissing her. I really do.
It’s slow. It’s fast. It’s everything a kiss should be, tongues colliding, moans escaping. It’s like we can’t get enough of each other, so we try harder and harder.
I lean back after I’ve broken the kiss and reach for my jeans pocket to find the condom tucked away inside.
Because I need inside her now.
“I’m on the pill,” she tells me, her big brown eyes trusting me with everything she has.
Oh fuck. “Are you sure?”
She nods. “Yes, I want to feel all of you.”
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’ve never gone bareback in my life. Ever. And my heart is like a jackhammer inside my chest, begging me to feel her with no barrier between us.
NEVER KISS A STRANGER Page 13