“Yeah?”
“Thank you for bringing me here. This may be the best day of my life.”
He couldn’t look away from her. He stared into her green eyes, eyes that didn’t want his money or his connections. Eyes that looked upon him with such tenderness, he could barely take it.
Did he deserve her kindness? Did he deserve anyone’s kindness? He knew the answer, but he couldn’t fight those demons tonight.
He moved from his chair and sank to his knees in front of her. “Abby?” he said, the word tasting like redemption.
“Yes?” she answered on a gentle whisper.
“I know this isn’t a date. I…I don’t know what this is. But everything inside of me is begging for me to kiss you.”
She held his gaze.
“Can I kiss you, Abby Rose?”
Her eyes clouded with confusion and pain but also a deep longing he recognized. He saw it because he knew he had to be mirroring back the same yearning, the same desire. She released a shaky breath then gave him a slight nod.
“Thank you.” He cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers.
Their uneven, shallow breaths mingled together, and he weaved his fingers into her hair, pulling her close. With Abby, every sensation went deeper. The brush of his lips against hers. The softness of her skin. It was like turning a dial on a microscope, each click bringing him closer, intensifying their connection. He parted his lips, and she sighed into his mouth, their tongues meeting in a slow sensual dance. She tasted like strawberries and summer rain, each kiss sweeter than the last, and brought him closer to a place he’d assumed wasn’t meant for people like him.
Abby leaned forward and parted her thighs, allowing him to pull her body flush with his. Her soft curves met his hard angles, and his cock came to life. If this was the sensation overload he got from kissing her, imagine the cataclysmic explosion of what it would be like sliding into her sweet center.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he ran his hands down her back, sliding them to her ass and lifting her up as he came to his feet. He dug his fingertips into the supple flesh and only felt the fabric of her tights.
“You’re not wearing any underwear,” he said, not expecting his sweet as honey school teacher to go commando.
She smiled against his lips. “I’m wearing tights,” she said with a deceptively innocent grin.
“I didn’t think…”
“Did you assume I wore granny panties because I’m a school teacher?”
He pressed her back against the wall. “You just amaze and surprise me in so many ways.”
She released a sexy sigh and threaded her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck, sending another pang of lust straight to his hard length.
“Abby Rose,” he breathed, trailing kisses to her earlobe as he thrust his hips, a heated friction building between them.
Abby sighed, swiveling her hips as he gripped her ass.
Buzz. Buzz.
She stilled. “Something moved, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t you.”
Buzz.
He rested his forehead against hers. “It’s my phone. Do you want me to chuck it out the window?”
Her chest moved up and down in heated breaths.
Buzz. Buzz.
“It could be Joaquin.”
He balanced her body in one hand and slid his phone out with the other.
“Shit…shoot,” he said.
“What is it?”
“You’re right, it’s Joaquin. Some weather’s rolling in, and he’d like to get ahead of it. We need to head back to the helicopter.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.”
“In the gondola?”
“That’s right,” he answered.
She gave him a naughty grin. “I’ve never made out in a gondola.”
This woman!
He pressed a kiss to her lips and lingered, inhaling her scent, drunk with infatuation. “Let’s go change that.”
9
Abby
You can do a lot of kissing in twelve minutes.
Abby ran her fingertips over her kiss-swollen lips and gazed out the window of the helicopter as it made a pass over Bergen Mountain and headed east back to Denver.
This was crazy. It was stupid and wild and reckless and…the most adored and cherished she’d ever felt. She leaned into Brennen, and he rested his hand on her knee, making tiny circles with his thumb that sent a rush of heat to her core.
Had Tyler ever made her feel like this?
They were so young when they’d gotten together. She’d given him her virginity—a quick and anticlimactic experience. She figured it would get better, and that intimacy would evolve as they learned what the other liked.
In a way, she did learn. He liked sex until he finished, and then it was over. In six years together, he’d never made her come. His kisses never made her lips tingle, never made her body ache, desperate for more.
She pushed away thoughts of her ex and snuggled into Brennen—a man who made her feel and experience things she’d never thought possible. She’d always told her students to dream big. Maybe it was time to take her own advice.
“Here, you must be cold,” he said, pulling out a blanket from a side bin and draping it across their laps.
She met his gaze as his hand found her knee again, but it didn’t stay put. Under the covers, he trailed his fingertips up her inner thigh, forging a heated path straight to her most sensitive place. She looked away from him and toward the pilot, not five feet away.
“He can’t hear us,” Brennen said, reading her mind. He gestured toward the unlit bulb. “See that.”
She nodded.
“When it’s on, we’re all connected over the headsets. When it’s off, it’s just you and me.”
He inched his hand past the hem of her sweater dress, and she sighed. “Only you can hear me?”
“Only me. And fuck—flip! I want to hear you come. I want to make you come with my hand.”
She barely had a moment to react before he slipped his hand inside her tights. It was so warm and so big and so strong.
“Will you let me make you feel good?” he said, a low growl over the headset.
She glanced at the darkened bulb. “Yes.”
He made slow circles around her tight, throbbing bundle of nerves, and she parted her thighs, allowing his fingers to explore.
He pressed his middle finger inside her and rocked his palm in slow, measured strokes. “You are so wet,” he said, the words heightening her arousal.
She glanced once more at the light. It was still off. Only Brennen could hear her over the buzz and thrum of the helicopter, and desire pulled her thoughts away from being caught by the pilot to being ravaged by the sexy man with his hand in her tights.
He slid another finger inside her and increased his pace. “Do you want to come in my hand, Abby Rose?”
“Yes,” she moaned, closing her eyes and surrendering to his touch.
She tilted her hips and turned into him. She’d never done anything like this before. Every orgasm she’d experienced had been alone in her bedroom, hidden away. And now, here she was in a helicopter with Brennen Bergen working her body into a frenzy, his large hand owning her pleasure, driving her closer to the edge.
“I bet you taste so sweet.”
She braced herself, one hand on the bench, the other on his thigh. He took in a sharp breath as her fingers glided up his leg and passed over his hard length.
“This is all for you,” he breathed, his hand moving in a delicious rhythm.
She moaned, hovering on the precipice, millimeters from letting go and being washed away into a sea of wanton delight.
She squeezed his thigh, fingertips digging into the hard muscle.
“You’re so close. I can feel it. I can feel you tightening around my fingers.”
He was so attuned to her, and his words heightened her arousal to a fevered level she’d never known. She bucked her hips,
riding his hand as the world narrowed and only two things existed in the dark cab of the helicopter: Brennen’s hands and Brennen’s lips.
He tore off his headset and then hers. With the bulky gear gone, their mouths met in a scorching kiss. He increased the pressure between her legs, his hand never slowing its carnal assault, and in the space of a breath, she flew over the edge, his kisses swallowing her moans as an orgasm tore through her body.
A contagion of fireworks exploded from her core, setting every nerve ending on fire. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her, the sensation deepening as Brennen continued working, and a second wave dragged her over the edge again.
She released her grip on his thigh and rested her forehead on his shoulder. His hand slowed, and she caught her breath as he slid it from between her thighs and pulled the hem of her dress down.
He put on his headset, and Abby leaned forward so he could slide hers on, too.
He cupped her cheek in his hand. “You’re amazing.”
Loose-limbed and smiling like an idiot, she traced his jawline with her fingertips. “I didn’t think that could happen twice in a row.”
He captured her hand and kissed her palm. “That’s going to happen way more than twice in a row.”
Her eyes went wide. “Wow!”
“Wow is right, Miss Quinn. That was so hot. I want to devour every part of you.”
“Wow!” she said, seriously needing to find another word.
He grinned and glanced up at the pilot.
“You don’t think he…” she began, realizing she’d just come twice in a helicopter directly behind the person making sure they didn’t crash into something or fall out of the sky.
He pressed another kiss to her palm. “No, it’s too loud, and it’s too dark. Plus, with weather rolling in, I’m sure Joaquin’s been concentrating on getting us home safe.”
She lowered her head. “I’m just sorry you didn’t get to…”
He lifted her chin. “Abby, don’t you dare apologize. I could do this all night. You’re mesmerizing.”
“All night?”
“All night,” he repeated, the words sending a tingle down her spine.
“Wow!” she said again.
He chuckled and kissed her so tenderly, a tear trailed down her cheek.
He wiped it away. “What is it?”
Embarrassed, she looked away from him.
“Abby?” he said, his concerned voice floating through the headset.
She turned to him, and he took her hand into his. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Brennen. I should be on cloud nine. And I meant what I said, this might just be the best day of my life.”
“Then what is it?”
She pressed her fingertips to her lips. “I never expected to kiss anyone but Tyler. I must sound like a naïve idiot saying that after everything that just happened between us.”
“You don’t sound like an idiot—not at all.”
She released a slow breath. “And, I feel guilty because I was with him for years, and I can’t remember what it was like to kiss him. All I can think of is you, and how for as long as I live, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way you kiss me.”
He ran a finger down her jawline and held her gaze in the hazy darkness. “I’m no saint, Abby. I’m not proud of how I’ve treated women in the past. I couldn’t even tell you how many I’ve kissed.”
She flinched. She couldn’t help it as the images she’d seen of him online flashed through her mind. But the man she’d met on her first day at Whitmore, and the man she’d seen in those pictures, didn’t feel like the same person caressing her hand and hanging on her every word.
“I can’t remember any of them, Abby. I couldn’t even tell you most of their names. But with you, I want to know everything. I can’t get you out of my mind. Last night, I was thinking about your smiles.”
“My smiles?” she asked.
“Yeah, you’ve got a bunch of different ones.”
“I do?”
“Yep, you’ve got the one for your students, the one when you think something is really funny, and the one you do when you don’t think anyone’s watching.”
She held his gaze in the pale blue light of the helicopter console. “Which smile is this?”
“That’s my smile,” he said with a sweet, boyish grin. “That one I’ve only seen you do when you see me.”
“You’re pretty lucky to get your own smile,” she teased, but the earnest look in his eyes caught her off guard.
“I’m luckier than you’ll ever know,” he said, leaning in to kiss her when the pilot light blinked on, and Joaquin’s voice filtered in through their headsets.
“Hey guys, ETA at Bergen Building is three minutes. How are you doing back there? I tried to keep it from getting too bumpy with that front coming in.”
Brennen bit back a grin. “We didn’t notice a thing.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Joaquin replied.
Abby pressed her hand to her mouth as an intoxicating rush of excitement danced through her body, hardly believing the crazy, impulsive, mind-blowing thing they’d just done.
Within minutes, the helicopter touched down, and they said their goodbyes to Joaquin then took the elevator to the parking garage. Out of the confines of the helicopter cab, reality set in, and a pang of anxiety rippled through her chest.
What happens now?
She had no frame of reference for this kind of thing. And what was this thing? They weren’t dating. What did you do with a guy after he made you come twice—twice—in a helicopter? Were they going to sleep together? Did she want to sleep with him? That was a stupid question. Her body tingled every time he touched her. Her lady parts wanted nothing more than to lock herself in a room with this man and throw away the key, but her heart was another matter.
“Hey, why so quiet?” He reached over and rested his hand on her knee as they pulled out of the Bergen Building garage and cruised down the boulevard toward The Dalton.
She fidgeted. “I just don’t know what you…expect.”
His hand stilled. “Expect?” he asked, the word slicing through her. “I don’t expect anything, Abby.”
“You don’t?” Again, the carousel of images of Brennen cozied up with other women flashed through her mind.
“No, not at all,” he answered gently, resuming the sweet circles.
Her tensed muscles relaxed a fraction. “Oh, okay.”
“I know you’ve got work to do.”
“Yeah,” she said, not feeling at all like grading spelling tests.
The Dalton came into view, and Brennen entered the passcode for the garage when it hit her. Their excursion had ended. Would they part ways at the elevator? Was this the end of whatever they’d started?
She drummed her fingers on the leather seat. “I was just thinking, the field trip is over, but I do have another volunteer opportunity for you.”
He pulled the Mercedes into its parking spot and cut the ignition. “You know I love volunteer opportunities,” he said, hand creeping up her thigh.
“Do you have a red pen?” she asked as he leaned over and kissed her neck.
He stilled at the question. “Is that code for something kinky?”
She giggled. “No, we’re going to grade spelling tests in my apartment on the couch.”
He pulled back and eyed her carefully. “Let me get this right. This volunteer opportunity is happening at your place on a couch.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “With red pens and notebook paper.”
He opened the glove box and started rifling around.
“What are you doing?”
He whipped out a pen and held it up triumphantly. “Red pen!”
She unbuckled her seatbelt and bounced out of the car. “Let’s go!”
“I’ll get your bag!” he called.
Abby entered the elevator, and Brennen followed her inside the tight space. She pressed her back to the wall, and he dropped her teacher�
�s tote and caged her in.
He gathered her into his arms and took her earlobe between his teeth. “You didn’t think I’d have my own red pen, did you?”
Her body hummed with excitement. “You get extra credit for that, Mr. Bergen.”
He trailed kisses down her neck. “What about a gold star?”
“You get all the stars,” she breathed, eyes fluttering closed.
The elevator pinged and the doors opened, but not to the eleventh floor. A decidedly annoyed sigh told her that.
“Hello, Harvey,” she said, glancing past Brennen’s body. “Are you heading up?”
The old man crossed his arms. “Not anymore.”
“Well, goodnight then,” she said, but the man didn’t move and continued to block the door sensor.
Brennen turned. “Is there something else, Harvey?”
“A visitor left a message for you at the desk.”
Brennen waved the man off. “I’m not concerned about that. I’ll pick it up later. Is there anything else?”
Harvey’s gaze shifted between herself and Brennen. “No, there’s nothing,” he said, stepping back and allowing the doors to close.
“I wonder what makes Harvey so grumpy?” she asked.
“Hemorrhoids? Rock ‘n’ roll? The invention of the toaster oven? Who knows?” Brennen said with a wolfish grin as he unzipped her coat.
She took a step back. “Before we start this volunteer activity, I need to know that you’re going to fulfill your duties.”
His wolfish grin grew positively carnal. “And what does that involve, Miss Quinn?” he asked as the doors opened.
She walked backwards down the hallway, a coy smile stretched across her lips. “Attention to detail. Persevering until completion.”
His gaze raked over her body. “I think we both know how good I am at attention to detail and completion.”
Abby’s cheeks heated. The buzz between them, this naughty, playful banter brought out a side of her she’d never known. She feigned innocence. “But that could have been an outlier?”
Brennen’s brow knit together. “A what?”
“A one-time occurrence. We should probably compile some more data to ensure we’re on target to meet the benchmark.”
Man Fast: Bergen Brothers: Book One Page 12