Broken Open

by Lauren Dane

  He loved her neck and shoulders. Breathtaking femininity flowed through the harder outline of muscles put there by a woman who enjoyed using her body. Who pushed herself. Her throat, where he knew her pulse beat strong and her scent lingered as if it waited just for him.

  Her lips, pursed as she worked on something very detailed, drew his attention next. She’d taken her makeup off and it didn’t matter because she was gorgeous either way.

  She wore glasses while she worked, but this pair was sturdier than her day-to-day pair. They magnified the lush, dark sweep of her lashes and the dark brown eyes.

  He smiled at the scarf she had wrapped around her head, the puff of her curls coming out the top.

  This Tuesday was totally relaxed. It warmed him that she’d feel safe enough with him to let her guard down this way.

  He worked for a while longer before he allowed himself to look at her again and this time she was looking right back.

  “You must like what you see, mister. You sure are looking over my way a lot.”

  He grinned. “I most definitely like what I see. I’d give it five stars any day of the week. I’m sorry. I know you’re trying to work.”

  She stood and walked to him. He swiveled his chair to take in the full majesty of the way she moved, her attention totally on him, the left side of her mouth quirked up.

  Tuesday climbed into his lap, straddling him and wrapping her arms around his neck. “I can take a break.”

  “This day keeps getting better and better.” He palmed her breasts through her shirt and she pressed into his touch.

  “Now I guess I’m interrupting your work.”

  “Whatever shall I do about that?”

  “Maybe I might need a little correction.”

  She undulated her hips, brushing herself against his cock as she said it and he saw spots for a moment. Probably because all the blood in his brain rushed to his lap.

  She leaned her upper body back and whipped her shirt off. He banded an arm around her waist and hauled her close for a kiss.

  He made a sound in his chest. Bone-deep pleasure at her taste, at her weight in his lap, at the heat of her skin seeping through his own shirt.

  But mostly, as happened every time, it was a sound of appreciation at the way she bared herself to him totally when they had sex. She demanded what she wanted. Took it if it pleased her. Made him deliver it in whatever way she liked.

  She thought that it was he who held the power because he liked to hold her wrists or be in charge.

  He might have been in charge, but she was the one who held the power because he’d have done anything for her. Anything. Because she’d given herself so frankly.

  He slid his mouth down her throat and gasped at her whispered plea.

  He stood, giving her a moment to wrap herself around him before he headed to his room. Animals scattered, excited by movement.

  Ezra cursed as a cat nearly got squashed, though fortunately he kept them from sprawling.

  He put her down before he dropped her. “Come on.”

  She took his hand and he led her upstairs, across the landing and then pointed to a ladder. “Up.”

  No animals up here. Just a reading loft he escaped to.

  “Wow.” She looked around at the soft couch and chairs, the shelves full of books and the skylight overhead. “This is such a treat. I love this.”

  “So you said you wanted to see if you liked rug burn.” He pushed the sleep pants he’d been wearing down, freeing his cock. “Let’s test it out.”

  She dropped to her knees, set her glasses on a nearby table and went to it with such zeal and skill he nearly came the first five minutes.

  He wanted to come so much. It felt so good with her right then. But he wanted it to last, too. He fought himself as she took him closer, her nails scoring down the backs of his legs and up again, then over the back of his balls which sent a hard slice of pleasure through him.

  Right on the very edge, he stepped back, his hand at her shoulder. “Remember, I like to come in you best. It’s your turn now. Jesus, Tuesday, you’re killing me.”

  She was. Still kneeling. Topless. Moonlight on her skin. Her nipples drawn up into hard, dark beads. Her luscious lips swollen and slick from sucking him off.

  He stepped from his pants and sat on the low, wide couch. “Come here.”

  He’d been up there just the night before and it had occurred to him he should show Tuesday the loft and if they got up there one thing could easily lead to another with them so he’d put a few condoms in a container on a side table.

  He rolled the condom on, nearly choking when she decided to obey his call to come to him by crawling on hands and knees, juicy ass swaying from side to side.

  When she reached the couch, she stood, discarded her panties and climbed up onto him but he stopped her from putting his cock inside.

  “We need to make you ready. What sort of guy would I be if I didn’t make extra sure you were nice and wet?”

  He slid a fingertip through her pussy. She was hot and slick. Both of them groaned as he fluttered over her clit.

  Her tortured plea broke over him like a wave of sex. The fingers he’d had on her nipple tightened as he tugged just a little harder.

  She writhed. “Yes.”

  His cock was so hard right then it was as if every pulse beat was a hammer.

  On his lap she was fire wrapped in velvet.

  He collared her throat as he squeezed her clit gently and she cried out, coming in a hot rush.

  That’s when he found her entrance and pressed into her body hard and deep, the heat of her, the embrace of muscles still twitching and contracting after a climax, welcomed him and sank its nails into his belly, dragging him right to the edge of climax yet again.

  But he needed her to go again first. He wanted to make her feel so good every time they were together he’d be burned into her memory. His touch would obliterate anyone who came before. He yearned for more of that sound she made when he hit just the right spot deep inside.

  She made it and his fingers at her hip tightened.

  She made it again.

  “I need you to come again. Selfishly, you feel really good around me when I come. But I also love to watch when you climax. Perfection. And I think you should do it because my hands are full.” He nipped her bottom lip and she shivered.

  And then slid her hand down her belly to the place they were joined.

  His gaze followed and then he devoured every move she made, watching greedily as she drove herself into another orgasm, taking him along with her.

  She slumped against him, her head on his shoulder. He kissed her neck, picking her up and cleaning himself off before snuggling with her again.

  “I’m never going to read up here again without having to jerk off.”

  She laughed. “If you’d like, we can christen every room in your house this way.”

  “What I’d like to know is who wouldn’t like that?” He kissed her again.

  “There’s a sound that I think might be a cat trying to climb up a ladder.”

  He didn’t have time to answer before Peanut bounded over the edge and landed, chittering a greeting as she hopped up onto the back of the couch and curled around Ezra’s head.

  “Honestly, I can’t have you to myself anywhere.” Tuesday stood, pulling her panties back on. “Your other fans are not happy you’ve retreated.” She peered below. “Goldfish is pissed off. Loopy, well, I’m pretty sure she’d have that same sweet face no matter what.”

  “Come on. We’ll go back. I’ll let you work awhile before we go for round two.”

  Even better, she didn’t put her shirt back on the whole rest of the night.

  * * *

  ONE THING TUESDAY had discovered about Ezra was that he, too, seemed to have issues with insomnia, though his seemed less severe. On average she got about five hours a night. Sometimes she napped. Sometimes she tried not to nap to make herself tired.

  She’d tried slee
ping pills but they’d made the nightmares come back and she’d rather have insomnia than relive all the shittiest moments of her life over and over.

  So she was up and working for several hours before the sun began to rise. She’d let Loopy out and she and the cats had come to an agreement that they’d be allowed in the room with her when she worked but only if they stayed away from her table. Most of the time they obeyed.

  Ezra shuffled in at just before five. “How long have you been awake?”

  “A little while.”

  She moved to him, loving the sleep-warm embrace he gave her. “Morning. How long has it been that you’ve had trouble sleeping?”

  “On and off since the accident when I was a kid. And then after Eric got sick it came back in full force. I’ve lived on three hours a night. It’s better now.” With him she rested.

  He looked at her carefully and then kissed her forehead. “What helps?”

  “It’s one of the reasons I like to be physically active. I sleep best after a really full day. Anyway, you don’t sleep much, either.”

  He shook his head. “No. I spent a lot of time totally out of it. My chemistry is messed up even now. But like you, I sleep better after I’ve had a really hard workout. Which bodes well since a certain gorgeous woman has kept me very busy. Now, speaking of that, I owe you breakfast for several hours of incredibly fun playdate last night.” He kissed her and she laughed.

  “Ooh good. I’m hungry. And I need coffee. I did make some tea so there’s hot water.”

  She followed him out of the office, closing the door to felines who wanted to test the mettle of her resolve to keep them out if they broke her rules.

  “She’s on to you,” he told the cats as he opened the curtains off the kitchen to flood the room in morning light.

  Tuesday made coffee while Ezra made a huge stack of blueberry pancakes.

  It was easy, this rhythm. It fit into her life without feeling intrusive.

  “I’ll take you down to your gallery or to your house. Whichever you need,” he said after they’d cleaned up and were headed out to take her back to town.

  “Home, please. I’ll drop this stuff off.”

  * * *

  “SO, HERE’S WHAT I was thinking,” he said as they parked in her driveway and he’d keyed the car off.

  “Uh-oh.”

  He grinned. “Hush. What time do you have to be at your stall in Portland tomorrow?”

  “Nine. I leave here at seven-fifteen or so. It gives me time to find a place to park and get my stuff set up. I think Natalie and Paddy are driving up after she gets finished at the library. You can catch a ride with them and I’ll meet you at my parents’ house.”

  “I was thinking I’d go with you in the morning. Help you set your stall up. I could stay if you needed it, but if you don’t I’ve got a number of things I need to do in Portland. My accountant is there and I have to pick up a jacket that you probably don’t even care about. Anyway, I have errands so I’ll do those and come back when you’re ready to go and head to your family’s place.”

  “Is your accountant open on Saturday?”

  “My accountant is open whenever I need him to be.” He shrugged.

  “When you get all arrogant like that? It makes my nipples rock-hard.”

  “Why do you tell me this stuff when my brother is standing on your porch and I have to get back to deal with alfalfa and alfalfa-related issues?”

  She leaned over, kissing him soundly as she ignored Paddy, who was indeed on her porch. “Because I’m a villain. Okay, you can come with me to Portland if you really want to. Thank you.”

  “It’ll be easiest if you sleep at my place, don’t you think? Then we can head out from there? How about I come over after work and we can load whatever you need into my truck? I’ll have it in the garage all night so it’ll be safe.”

  “It seems like a lot of work for you. And getting up really early.”

  “I’m a farmer. I’m up early every day.” And it seemed he liked taking care of her, even if he didn’t say it out loud. Oh, and the fact that he was a control freak and if she was at his house he’d have more control.

  “Okay then. I’m not arguing. I’ll see you tonight?”

  “Yes. Call me when you lock up. I’ll meet you here after that.”

  She nodded and he and Loopy both got out to walk her to the door. Paddy clutched a mug of coffee and tipped a chin at his brother and winked to Tuesday. “Morning. Tuesday, how you manage to look so good this early in the morning I don’t know. But you made my day.”

  She laughed. “You Hurleys are so full of it. I like it.”

  She kissed Ezra and waved goodbye before heading inside.

  Smiling.

  Natalie came into the kitchen wearing a robe. “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself. You look like someone who came a lot last night.” Natalie smirked as she poured a cup of coffee.

  “Takes one to know one. Not like it’s a complaint. I have to run to work now. Ezra’s taking me to Portland tomorrow morning and he’s driving up with me when I close up so you two don’t have to give him a ride.”

  “No kidding. Did you ever think Ezra was going to ride with us when you were going to be alone in another car? Are you new here?”

  Tuesday ducked her head. “I like it, okay? I don’t know if it’s okay to like it, but I do, so there. I like that he wants to make things easier for me. He does it without weakening me. He respects my abilities.”

  No time to think about that stuff right then. “I have to run. I’m spending the night at his house so I may not see you until tomorrow at Easton central.”

  “I’ll probably see you tonight then. Why don’t we all do something? Mexican food and a movie?”

  “Works for me. Have the menfolk figure out the details.”

  “We should also finish the conversation we started last night in your room. I’m sorry it made you upset right before you left. It was bad timing.”

  Tuesday had no plans to go back to that convo anytime soon. She needed to digest stuff for a while.

  “Maybe. Anyway, no need to apologize for caring about me.”

  After one last hug, Tuesday put her stuff away and headed into town.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  EZRA’S PHONE RANG once he’d dropped Tuesday off and helped her set up. She’d looked so fantastic he really hadn’t wanted to leave. But his accountant had invited him over for breakfast so he’d given her one last kiss—in full view of that dude hawking funky wind chimes who’d been staring at Tuesday—and headed out to the suburbs.

  He punched the button on his steering wheel to answer.

  “Hey, Ez, it’s Jeremy. Did I catch you at a bad time?” Jeremy had been the band’s manager for nearly all their career. The successful parts, anyway, which was what counted.

  “No. I’m in a Portland traffic snarl trying to get out to my accountant’s house. He’ll get those papers to you after I sign them today.”

  “Excellent. Not the traffic part, but as I’m sitting in traffic trying to get to the airport to come up to Seattle, I can commiserate. I wanted to see if you had some time coming up. Maybe we can head up to Vancouver for a few days. It’s been a long time.”

  He and Jeremy had been close once. Like brothers. And then Jeremy had lost his child to a terrible tragedy and within a year afterward, his marriage had also died. And then there’d been drugs that had torn through Ezra’s life.

  Both of them had to dig out of a metric fuckton of pain and they’d grown apart.

  But that friendship had never died.

  He asked Ezra to do things all the time and Ezra usually shied away, though he did have Jeremy come stay at his house when he was up with his other northwest clients—notably Adrian Brown, mega superstar rock phenomenon who lived in Washington with his family.

  Adrian had been another close friend once. Ezra hadn’t had the courage to try and rebuild their previous closeness. Maybe he needed to change that.

&nb
sp; “We’re bringing the alfalfa in next week. When are you going to be able to get away?”

  “I’m going to a high school graduation. Adrian’s oldest, Miles. And then I’ll be in Bainbridge Island for a week or so and then I’m coming down to you all. I’ll stay in Portland. I want to meet with the band, talk about the tour. I just got a bundle of stuff I need to go over on the plane. But you broke some records this tour. Label is thrilled. They want to talk new material and some box-set proposals. Let’s say two weeks or so from now. A week after your harvest.”

  Ezra heard the pleased note in Jeremy’s tone. It had been too long since he’d hung out with anyone but his family and more recently Tuesday. That had been good. So good it reminded him there were other relationships that once had been good in his life. And to get something else to focus on to figure this thing out with Tuesday.

  “All right then. It’ll be quiet for a few weeks after we bring the alfalfa in. Then my dad will take over and get it where it needs to go. You sure you want to hang out with me for two days in another country when I might bore you to death with farm talk and you don’t have a drinking partner?”

  Jeremy’s startled laugh made Ezra grin.

  “It’s been way too long, Ez. I’m sure we can eat harder now that drinking hard isn’t on our dance card. I’ll call you next week to coordinate when I’ll be down your way. Wrangle your brothers if you can, please.”

  They hung up and Ezra remembered he needed to call Vaughan, too. Maybe he’d check in after finishing up with the accountant. He could swing out to Gresham and still get back to Tuesday in time.

  There’d been a need to remove himself to get better. But he’d still had shame at what he’d done back then. Who he’d been. And that had kept him estranged from a lot of people. All that seemed to be changing and it was good. It felt awesome to be reconnecting with parts of his life from before that were good and right.

  Which scared him because it all came bundled up with the entirety of change in his life he tried to work through. Mainly the Tuesday part.

  He had to pull over about three blocks from his accountant’s house. Leaning his head against the steering wheel.