"Gee, Mia, that is a shame." He winked as he walked by me and tapped me under the chin. "Thirty minutes. I'll be waiting."
I felt a surge of heat as I inhaled his scent and watched his ass in those low-slung gym shorts walk away from me and into a room off the kitchen. I cleared my mind, continued eating, and started working away. I got up to refill my coffee when I noticed Bryce had left the door open just enough that I could see him as he ran on the treadmill.
I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. I leaned against the counter and stood there drinking my coffee, watching him. A half hour later, I had long forgotten about the reports I was supposed to be working on, when he turned and looked into the kitchen. I still stood in the exact same spot watching him. I had only moved to grab more fruit. He gave me a sexy smile before shutting the treadmill off and grabbed his towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead and chest. He walked back into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, popping a piece of cantaloupe into his mouth.
"Like what you see, do you?"
I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. How was I going to hide this? I mean, I had literally been standing here drooling into my cup of coffee while watching the man run. There was no hiding it, he had caught me. What the hell was wrong with me?
I said nothing. Instead I drank down the last of my coffee, rinsed the mug in the sink, and placed it into the dishwasher. When I turned, he stood there watching me, a look in his eyes that I had never seen before.
"I thought you were going to join me?"
"I was," I said, straightening myself up from leaning on the kitchen counter, avoiding eye contact with him.
"Well, how about this. Since you made me run for an hour and I am done with my workout, why don't we go out and sit in the hot tub?" He stood there with a sexy smirk on his face. I felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room at his proposition. "Don't try to hide it, Mia. You know the idea sounds good." He winked. "And I am pretty sure you brought a bathing suit, since you were going to be in sun and sand, so you're not getting out of it. It's time to relax." He shut my laptop down and stood, leaning against the counter, looking at me.
Did I want to join him in the hot tub? Hell yes, I did. The room was getting warmer by the second as we stood there staring at one another. I could barely breathe, so instead of saying anything, I grabbed my laptop and papers and looked over my shoulder at him as I quickly left the kitchen, shaking my head as I went.
"I hope you are getting changed!" I heard him shout behind me. "I'll be out back."
"I am! Meet you out there," I yelled back as I wandered down the hall as fast as I could and opened the bedroom door. I dumped everything onto the desk in the corner and turned to look over my shoulder out into the hallway. I thought for a second and then went over to my suitcase, lifting it up onto the bed. Unzipping the bag, I reached inside, pulling out a little white bikini, and let out a breath. Why the hell hadn't I packed a one-piece?
I went into the bathroom and changed, then looked at myself in the mirror. I played with the ties on my bathing suit for a second, and then grabbed one of the black towels and wrapped it around my body. I looked back at my reflection in the mirror one more time, trying to gather some form of courage of being almost naked in front of Bryce, and then shut the light off. I grabbed my flip-flops from my bag and made my way out to the back of the house.
I looked out the door and saw Bryce was already seated in the steaming water. He was facing away from the house and looking out onto the lake. I slipped my feet into my sandals and let out a breath as I stepped out the back door, the cold instantly hitting my bare skin. I clutched my towel, shivering, and ran to the hot tub and was just about to stop when my foot slipped on a patch of ice. I dropped the towel as I went down, letting out a scream. "Bryce, help!" I landed on my back with a thud.
Bryce jumped up and looked down to the ground. "My God, Mia, are you all right?" He jumped out of the tub and came rushing to my side. "Did you hit your head, anything broken?" he asked, placing his hand under my head to check for bumps.
"No, I thin
k I'm okay." I reached for the towel and groaned as I tried to sit up.
"Don't move." He picked me up off the ground with ease and sat me on the edge of the hot tub. He took the towel from me and I slowly lowered myself into the hot water, embarrassment reeling through me.
"Get in. You’re going to get cold." He set my towel on the stairs and then climbed back into the tub.
Once he was seated beside me, I began to laugh at how embarrassing that was.
"What's so funny?"
"I am just embarrassed is all, about the fall."
"Don't be. I remember how accident prone you are. Do you remember the time you went into the house to grab a drink for yourself and came back out to the pool and tripped over Grant’s pants? You went headfirst into the pool, your drink flying, and when you hit the water, your bikini top flew off." He laughed.
"Oh God, don't remind me. I wanted to die when I noticed it had come off," I said, laughing at the memory, my hands covering my face.
"All my sixteen-year-old brain wanted was a little flash, but you covered everything up so tight it was impossible to see anything.” He winked and reached over the side of the tub, grabbed a wine cooler, opened it, and handed it over to me. "Here you go!"
My face flamed with embarrassment, but I did my best to brush it off and took the cold bottle from his hand and took a sip. "What's this for?"
"We are celebrating our breakups today!"
"What do you mean, celebrating?"
"Let's be honest with ourselves. Obviously neither of us were meant to date these douches that we were involved with, and we are totally better off without them, so we are going to celebrate, baby!"
I let out a loud laugh. He was right!
"So, aside from this breakup, which was your worst?"
"Well, I guess it would have been when I was in my early twenties. I was out with my friends when a group of guys my friends knew showed up. I didn't know it at the time, but it was a fix-up. Anyways, I was introduced to the quiet guy in the back, Brenden. You could tell he was the bad boy of the group, you know what I mean. I was instantly attracted to him. We started seeing one another, but I really wanted to play it cool just so he didn't know how much I liked him. It became more of a push-pull type of relationship. One week he would want me, the next I would want him. Anyways, things finally got serious once we were done playing that game, and he moved in with me. We survived Christmas and Valentine’s Day, and then things kind of crashed and burned."
"What happened?"
"I came home from work one afternoon, and a voice mail—no surprise there—was waiting on the machine for him. He had apparently been seeing a girl on the side and she called to let him know she was three months pregnant. I was so crushed, my heart broken, I packed up his things before he got home and left them down on the sidewalk for him." I drank down more of my cooler, looking over to Bryce.
"Wow, maybe you should get rid of voice mail. There seems to be a pattern here."
I let out a laugh.
"Honestly, I don't even know what to say to that," Bryce said, drinking back his beer.
"Well, what about you?" I asked. "What is your worst story?"
Bryce looked up from the bottle he was holding. With one look I could tell he had something on his mind that he was holding back for some reason. "It was this one, to be honest," he said, getting quiet again.
I looked over at Bryce and cleared my throat before downing the remainder of my cooler. "You know what this calls, for don't you?"
"No," he answered, pulling himself up out of the tub to sit on the edge.
"Meatballs!"
"Meatballs?"
"Yeah meatballs! Let's go make some. They are the perfect comfort food, trust me!"
Bryce watched as I climbed out of the tub and wrapped myself up in the towel, obstructing his view. "You coming?"
“All right, let’s go make meatballs!"
Chapter 9
Bryce
"You mix while I add ingredients," Mia said, opening the pantry door and pulling out a bunch of dry ingredients, while the ground beef defrosted in the microwave.
She stopped and went over everything she had pulled out, mentally remembering the ingredients, her face lighting up when she recalled the one she was missing.
"Did you want some wine before we start?" I questioned while grabbing the bowl and measuring cups she handed me.
"Um yeah...that is just a silly question. I'll grab the glasses."
The microwave beeped and she pulled the ground beef out and dumped it into the bowl, while I went down and grabbed us two bottles of wine. I returned to the kitchen and opened and poured us our wine.
"When you’re done, could you break up this ground beef? Do you have any oatmeal or breadcrumbs?" Mia asked while searching the cupboard.
"I can do that. Oatmeal is on the top shelf; breadcrumbs are in the green container," I answered as I dug my hand into the cold beef and began to break it up. I couldn't help but watch her bend and grab the breadcrumb container. She had the most perfect ass.
She set it on the counter and opened it, taking a couple of handfuls and dumping them into the bowl, along with an egg for me to mix. I dug my hands into the cold meat and watched as she carefully measured and added a bunch of spices into a separate bowl.
"Make sure you mix it all together really well, and then we will add in these spices. Where do you keep the baking sheets?"
"In the cupboard beside the stove."
Soon we were through with the first bottle of wine and onto the second when we began rolling meatballs and placing them one by one onto the pan while the oven was heating to the desired temperature.
"Just you wait, I'm telling you, these meatballs are the best comfort food in the world."
"Eat a lot of these do you?" I joked.
Mia stuck her tongue out at me before taking the tray and putting them in the oven.
"Now for more wine! You want to pick another bottle or shall I this time?"
"Go for it!" she said, and I walked over to the top of the stairs and turned to look back at Mia. She had already begun to clean up the kitchen. I hadn't realized it before, but I had really missed her and her brother in my life.
I watched as she danced around the kitchen, putting ingredients back where she had taken them from and placing things in the sink to quickly wash up and put away. I stood there for a few minutes continuing to watch her, wishing I could correct the lie that I had told her earlier. That the breakup I had just been through wasn’t really the worst breakup. What was my worst breakup was the night she had seen me with her friend. That the worse part of it was having to say good-bye to her. However, I already knew there was no way that I could. So, pulling my gaze from her, I trudged down the stairs to pick our next bottle of wine.
While the meatballs cooked, we both showered and changed into some loungewear. As darkness fell, snow had started to fall again, and I had just built a roaring fire in the fireplace. I had soft music playing and two glasses of my favorite wine poured. I had just finished placing the bottle back into the chiller and dimming the lights when I saw Mia from the corner of my eye come into the room carrying a tray.
"Here they are!" she sang as she set the tray down, meatballs piled high on one plate and crackers and cheese on another.
I held out a glass of wine for her and she reached out and took it from me, looking around the room as realization came to her face.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Bryce, is this how you seduce women? I mean, look at it here. A beautiful lake house, hot tub, fire, dim lights, food and wine?" The light was dancing in her eyes as she looked at me.
I grinned. "No, the seducing part comes later—much, much later," I joked. "Just thought it would be nice to relax a little. Now let me taste these meatballs you rave about!"
She didn't hesitate. She grabbed one from the pile and brought it to my mouth.
"Be careful, it might be hot inside."
I took a bite, my teeth sinking into the soft inside. It was the best meatball I had ever tasted, and I closed my eyes as I chewed. When I opened my eyes, Mia was studying my face, a look in her eye I hadn't seen on her before.
The silence between us was becoming a little uncomfortable, so I took the remainder of the meatball that she held in her hand and put it to her perfect lips, watching as she parted them and took it from my hand. As soon as her teeth sank into the warm meat, she too closed her eyes.
She was fucking gorgeous.
I couldn't help myself. As soon as I knew she had swallowed, but before she opened her eyes, I leaned down and took her mouth with mine. She didn't move as I kissed her lips, her body stiffening at first, but I held her in my arms, and soon the plate of meatballs was forgotten, and she was a puddle in my arms.
We fell to the couch and curled up together, her in my arms as I continued the assault on her mouth, my tongue forcing her lips apart. I could already feel myself straining against my pants, and I gripped her ass while I kissed her deep. I pulled her closer to me so she could feel what she was doing to me, my mouth moving from hers down to her neck. I felt her place her hand between us, resting it on my chest, signaling me to give her a second.
As I pulled my lips away, I noticed her breathing was hard and erratic and she was having a hard time catching her breath. I gave her a couple of minutes, letting her calm down a bit before taking her hand in mine.
"Come with me," I said, sliding off the couch and helping her to stand.
Together we walked hand-in-hand down the hall toward the bedroom.
"Where are we going?" she asked innocently.
"You'll see. Just keep an open mind okay." I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted her naked, but at the same time, I didn't want to scare her away. I had spent half my teenage life thinking of her perfect pink lips wrapped around my cock as she looked up at me through that mane of messy, soft, thick brown beautiful hair. The more I thought of it, the more I could feel myself getting harder at the thought of her doing that to me.
I shut the bedroom door behind her. She stood there watching me as I wandered into the bathroom and turned on the shower. It didn't take long before the steam was rising over the shower door, the glass starting to fog up. I dropped my gear, glancing out the door to catch her watching me, and then I got into the shower, my heart speeding up at the thought that I might have taken things with her a little too far and that she may not join me. I knew she wanted me, I could see it in her eyes, but I was still worried.
I ran my hand over the length of my cock. If I couldn't get satisfaction out of burying myself inside her and listening to her moan, then I guess good old faithful would do.
I shut the shower door behind me, the steam now thick enough in the bathroom that I couldn't even see my own reflection in the mirror. I placed one hand on the wall to balance myself while the hot water ran over my body, and I slowly stroked my cock with the other. I was hard as a fucking rock, and it was such a shame to waste this, but it needed to be done.
I stroked myself another couple of times, relishing the sensation, but stopped when I thought I heard the bathroom door creak open. I gripped my cock, continuing to stroke it, when the shower door opened, letting in a rush of cool air, and a naked Mia stepped inside.
My heart nearly stopped as she shook her hair from the ponytail she had it in, her breasts on full display for me. Her eyes trailed down to the hand that was wrapped around my cock, a light flush on her cheeks as she bit her lip and shut the door behind her.
I let my eyes wash over her body, her perky breasts before me, her rosy pink buds calling to me, practically begging me to suck on them. I looked up and met her eyes. She looked a little unsure of herself, and for a second I was afraid she may just turn and run. She hid her eyes quickly and her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink as her eyes wandered down my body, landing once again on my already hard cock.
&n
bsp; "I don't even know what I am doing," she whispered, and once again, I was sure she was going to run if I didn't act fast.
I didn't give her words another thought. I reached out and wrapped my hands around her waist, pulling her against me and meeting her lips with a harsh, demanding kiss, my tongue exploring the inside of her mouth, while the hot water washed down overtop of us. I tore my lips from hers. "Just go with it. This week is about letting go, remember?"
I pushed her up against the wall of the shower and kissed her again, taking her hands and wrapping them around my waist. I ran my hands over her breasts gently, running the palms of my hands over her nipples. I cupped them in my hands, feeling the weight of them as they rested there. It was a matter of seconds before I rubbed the pads of my thumbs over her nipples again, and she sucked in air and let out a beautiful little moan that went straight to my cock.
I stifled her moan and kissed her lips again, while running my hands through her thick, soft hair. She placed her hands on my chest, stopping me. "What are we doing? What am I doing?" she mumbled between kisses.
She had always been a little uptight, I remembered that from years ago. "Shhh, just go with it," I whispered, taking her earlobe into my mouth. "Who would have thought I'd still want you after all this time? I've waited twelve years for you," I whispered, those words slipping out before I could stop them.
"Bryce?"
I kissed her hard and turned her around, pulling her back flush to my chest. I needed to distract her from what I had said. She wasn't supposed to know. I kissed her neck and ran my hand down between her legs, my fingers quickly sliding into her folds. She was already wet for me, and I groaned as my fingers slid over her, rubbing her clit in slow circles. She dropped her head back against my shoulder and sucked her lower lip between her teeth. "Feel good, baby?" I whispered in her ear.
She moaned her approval, so I kept going, my other hand reaching up and taking her nipple and rolling it between my fingers. When I felt her start to shake, I stopped, pulling my hand from between her legs.
His to Hold (The Malone Brother Book 3) Page 6