Okay, so maybe her falling out with her dad wasn’t the only thing that continually interrupted her REM—ehem a certain Marine—but it was for damn sure the most painful.
When the bells on the salon’s front door chimed, Carissa shook her head and dropped the conversation. She’d expected Maddie, of all people, to take her side in this. She needed someone to support her, because, as time went on, even she’d begun to question how she could go on, completely cut off from her dad and the place she’d once called home. Right now, she felt it, knew without a shadow of a doubt that she’d done the right thing by severing ties with Clay Brandt. Her heart simply wasn’t strong enough to endure that continual beating and, if she would have hung on, she knew the man would have ripped the organ right from her chest.
But other days these memories were harder to rationalize. She had a feeling tomorrow, the anniversary of her mother's passing, would be one of them.
“Ooh, pedicures. Fun.”
Carissa glanced up to see Ellie Morris approach. Her gorgeous blonde hair fell all the way down to her butt and her green eyes were just as big and happy as her boobs. Like Jenny, Ellie had been born and raised in River Bend and, after college a handful of years ago, she’d returned to her reign as town sweetheart. Except she really wasn’t all that sweet. At least not in Carissa’s eyes, because, a few months ago, rumor had it that she’d been very dirty with Josh.
Carissa dug her fingernails into her palms to keep the feline claws at bay.
“Hey, El.” Maddie smiled as the woman came to stand beside Jenny. “What’s the latest juice?”
Ellie, a journalist for the local newspaper, chuckled. “Mrs. Schmidt had a heart attack yesterday, but she’s doing fine. Kevin Thomas got pulled over for DUI last night and, because it’s his 4th offense, he’s sitting in the clink. Oh, and I might've recently got a booty call text from your soon-to-be brother-in-law.”
Carissa growled and, if it weren’t for Jenny’s grip on her foot, she probably would've pounced.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Ellie asked, turning to Carissa with a saccharine smile.
Down, girl. He’s not your man.
But seriously, how recently were they talking?
She swallowed down the bitter jealousy and forced her own sugary grin. “Just a tickle in my throat.”
“Well,” Maddie began, her tone amused, “next time you service Josh, you should hint about the wedding. He needs a date. Or at least someone to make sure he shows up on time and tucks in his shirt.”
“Ooh, that’d be fun. I’ve always wanted to bang the best man.” Ellie waggled her eyebrows and grinned.
Bile rose in Carissa’s throat. She knew what her sexual encounter with Josh meant—more or less nothing. A one-time deal. Just a quick scratch across an old itch. But the thought of him dating, let alone sleeping with, Ellie didn’t sit well. At all.
Jenny laughed as she nudged Carissa’s foot out of the water and began on Maddie again. “Who are you bringing to the wedding, Car?”
Maddie snorted. “No one. I think she’s trying out for Celibacy Apprentice or something. She had a totally gorgeous man ready and willing to nail her to the freakin’ wall last night and she chickened out.”
“I had heatstroke!” Carissa lied, despising this situation more and more with every passing second.
“Right. And obviously you’re feeling better, so you should come out with us later. Andrew’s in town for one more night.”
Damn, she’d walked right into that one, hadn’t she? “Uh…”
“Exactly. Chicken.”
Carissa might’ve been annoyed, except the soreness between her legs reminded her she was definitely not afraid to have sex with a gorgeous, sexy as hell man.
And apparently neither was Ellie.
Crap.
Funny how it didn’t bother her one iota that Jenny had been sleeping with Reed for years, but the thought of Josh and Ellie together for a night or two made her wanna lose every bit of fattening food she’d ingested that morning.
She was being ridiculous. She had no ties on Josh, no control over what or who he did. She also couldn’t stop Cade from calling and trying to reach out to her. And she couldn’t change that Maddie might feel obligated to have or even want to have her father at her wedding.
By now she should be used to setting aside her own feelings for those of others. She’d been doing it for the better part of the last ten years.
She pulled back her shoulders and reminded herself that she had more important things to worry about than things she couldn’t change. Namely having a place to live. The rest was just needless distraction that would get in the way of finally doing something for herself. And she deserved that, didn’t she? To make herself her number one priority?
She shifted in her seat and that delicious ache at the apex of her thighs made her smile. Yeah, she deserved it, all right.
***
Josh rolled back into Cameron County early Sunday evening. Normally, drill weekends left him feeling relaxed and satisfied. Like he’d been useful in some elemental sort of way. Hell, it was part of the reason he’d volunteered to courtesy drill with the Omaha reserve unit in the first place. That and his time with the Corps had quickly begun to dwindle.
Come September, his IRR would be up and he’d be back to civilian status. He’d been looking forward to that moment for the last two years. Only now, the impending departure had him feeling a little restless and a lot bittersweet.
But the end of his military career wasn’t the only thing that had him wound tighter than a snake.
A certain feisty little brunette with the most mesmerizing, whiskey colored eyes he’d ever seen was partly to blame, too.
She’d been on his mind all weekend. Over and over again, he’d replayed their time together. Three years ago meshing with Friday night. The brazen desire in her eyes. The shameless need she claimed only he could remedy. The disappointment on her beautiful face when he’d reminded her it would never happen again.
Shit.
He should have never given in. He could have held her off if he’d really wanted to, but they both knew he didn’t. Even in those few conflicted moments, when he’d tried to think with something other than his dick, he hadn’t given a damn about what was right or wrong.
All that had mattered was having Carissa one more time. Letting her fill him up with the most amazing, heady desire he’d ever felt, riding the high for a few moments, and then letting her sap it all from his body again like the greedy, sexy little vixen she was.
He’d loved every second of being with her and just the memory had his cock stirring.
No way, man. You know what they say about playing with fire.
Yeah, he knew all right. Which was why, despite Friday night being absolutely stellar, he was not going to sleep with Carissa again. Ever.
Chapter Twelve
“Hold on a sec, I gotta check on dinner.”
Maddie laughed on the other end of the phone as Carissa jogged to the kitchen from her bedroom, where she’d spent the last several hours packing. “You’re nothing if not consistent, chica.”
Cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, Carissa pulled out the oven rack and stuck a knife into the crusty top layer of the chicken pot pie. “Who am I to stray from family tradition? Today of all days.”
“Hmm, another reason you’d make some man a very nice wife someday. If only, you know, you’d actually date.”
“Hey, I’m perfectly content eating my own Sunday night leftovers for the rest of my life. You know there’s always dessert, too. And this week it’s your favorite—peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.”
Maddie groaned. “You better save me some.”
“Don’t I always?” Carissa shut the oven and set the timer for fifteen more minutes, when a knock sounded on her front door. “I gotta go. Lori’s here with the rest of my boxes. Ugh, I am so over this moving crap.”
“You sure you don’t want me to come help?�
�
“Positive. Go snuggle your man.”
Maddie sighed. “Well, you don’t have to twist my arm on that. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Carissa clicked off the phone and tossed it onto the couch as she made her way to the door, sidestepping half-packed boxes. She didn’t bother to check the peephole or hide that she wasn’t wearing a bra when she swung the door open, since she’d fully expected Lori to be standing on the other side.
Only the person looming in her hall wasn’t Lori. Not unless she’d somehow morphed into a tall, dark, brooding man wearing a Marines t-shirt and combat boots.
Keenly aware that the mere sight of him had her nipples tightening into hedonistic little nubs, Carissa crossed her arms over her chest and desperately tried not to show any outward surprise. “Hi,” she said easily, an impressive airiness to her voice.
“Hi.” In contrast to her lighthearted greeting, Josh didn’t bother to disguise his uncertainty or the dark tension warring within him. The crease between his brows deepened as he stared down at her, his blue eyes hard and penetrating.
She tipped her head to the side and curiously pursed her lips. “So, what brings you to my neighborhood?” He’d only been to her apartment once about a year and a half before and honestly she was surprised he’d found his way there again. Given the intensity of the conflict in his eyes, she suspected this wasn’t just a casual drop-in. Which probably meant…
“Ah, hell,” he said abruptly, pounding toward her so fast, she stumbled backward, coming up hard against the closet door just inside her apartment.
Her breath caught in her chest as he pushed all of his fingers into her hair and held her head still, like he planned on kissing her. Only he didn’t. He just held her tight, his breath warm against her lips as a violent storm of emotion brewed in his dark eyes.
“One more time,” he growled and Carissa smiled, her arms slipping upward, around his neck and into his hair.
“Whatever you say, Marine.”
***
How the hell he’d ended up at Carissa’s, Josh didn’t know. But the second he aligned his body with hers, thigh to thigh and hip to hip, pressing the length of his erection into her belly, it didn’t matter. All that he cared about was getting her naked and burying himself to the hilt in her sweet body.
She moaned, teasing her tongue against his in an eager greeting. Her hands slipped up and over his chest, and then they were beneath his shirt. The ravenous slide of her fingers against his skin had him twitching like a livewire.
Oh, yeah…this is why you’re here.
“You drive me fucking crazy,” he said against her mouth, loving the feel of her breasts pressed against him and her soft hands at his waist. He wanted her to touch him everywhere. To curb the craving and scratch the itch. Ease the incessant ache she’d left him with three years ago and taunted him with ever since. “You’re in my head every goddamn second of the day. I…I can’t shake you, baby girl. And I sure as hell can’t forget how damn good we are together.”
Her eyelashes fluttered as she tiptoed up and nuzzled at his ear with her lips. “We are pretty freaking amazing, aren’t we?”
He laughed in relief. Instead of shoving him out the door or slapping him across the face, she shared his sentiments. To solidify things, she curled a leg around him and kicked the door shut, before looping her arms around him again and hopping up into his arms. He caught her with ease, reveling in the feel of her middle cradled against his fly.
He was already hard and throbbing, but sex between them tended to be so frantic and reckless. This time, he wanted to slow things down. To show her he was capable of more than just a wham-bam-fuck-against-the-nearest-hard-surface.
“What are you waiting for?” she mewled, and the searing, wet slide of her tongue along the shell of his ear was all the incentive he needed to carry her further into the apartment.
“Bedroom?” He paused in the middle of the small kitchen, a hall traversing in each direction.
“No time for that.” She shook her head and wiggled out of his arms, going promptly for his belt and zipper. “Right here.”
Hell, yeah. Screw slow.
While she deftly freed his cock of all barriers, he went to work on her skimpy black shorts. He slid them off her hips and she kicked them away, before yanking off his shirt and then her own. Her full, mouthwatering breasts bounced free and he groaned his approval, before dipping down and suckling at each of the deep pink, puckered tips.
Her fingers tugged at his hair as she whimpered her pleasure and guided his mouth from one breast to the other, until she shook where she stood, her breath nothing but ragged gasps. Impatience took over then. She muttered a curse, pushed his head away, and greedily grabbed ahold of his straining cock, pulling him toward one of the two bistro style kitchen chairs.
He quickly procured a condom and, with shaking hands, shoved his jeans to mid-thigh and rolled it on. Carissa wasted no time pushing him into the seat and climbing onto his lap. A second later, she lowered herself on his shaft and treated him to that sweet little pinched-brow gasp of pleasure and pain his ego liked so much.
“You okay?” He brushed the hair from her face with one hand, while keeping her anchored to his lap with the other.
“Mmm, perfect.” She began to ride him then, slow and steady, every graceful arch of her back and sensual twist of her hips bringing them both a little closer to ecstasy.
God, if she wasn’t the sexiest woman he’d ever had, with her half-lidded eyes locked on his and her cheeks flushed a beautiful shade only sex could elicit. Her breasts thrust high, ebbing toward him in a slow, tortuous taunt, and then shifting away with every deep, consuming slide of her tight, wet body along his.
Friggin’ amazing. In less than five minutes, they’d gone from hello to holy shit, toe curling sex.
“You were thinking about me,” he said knowingly, his mouth against hers.
“All the time.” She drew his bottom lip between her teeth and he groaned, tightened his grip on her ass and plunged upward, meeting her thrust with a forceful one of his own. She sucked in a breath and dug her nails into the back of his neck. So he did it again. And again.
“Touch me,” she begged, and he could feel the tension coiling in her body, gripping his cock. He brushed the pad of his thumb over her clit at the same time he leaned in and captured a pretty pink nipple between his lips. “Oh, Josh, I’m…I’m…”
“That’s it, baby girl, come for me.” He stroked faster against her slippery nub and she shattered, her breath coming in broken pants as she quaked and convulsed above him. The tight vise of her sex around his cock brought him closer to the brink himself and when she rotated her hips and spasmed one final time, his world blackened a little around the edges. He pistoned upward and ground his teeth, the muscles in his thighs and stomach tingling. The sound of their labored breathing, Carissa’s soft cries of pleasure, and the wet and rhythmic slapping of their bodies was too much to bear. He came and he came hard. He was pretty sure steam blew from his ears.
Not quite how he’d expected to spend his Sunday evening—but so much better.
Josh pulled Carissa close and kissed her forehead when she curled her arms around his shoulders and fell into him, like she belonged there, a perfect fit against his body.
He could get use to this.
Too bad he had no right.
Still, he held her tight, stroking a hand down over her hair and her back until their breathing steadied again.
And then an alarm went off.
“Shit!” On shaky legs, Carissa climbed off his lap and hurried across the kitchen, her peachy little butt and stunning breasts jiggling. She pressed a button on the stove and tended to something in the oven. He grabbed a tissue from a box on the counter and took care of business, all the while watching her carefully pull out a casserole dish. Naked.
So hot.
“Glad to see there’s actually something in there. I thought maybe my time here was up.”
/> She laughed over her shoulder. “Oh, no. I’m not nearly finished with you.”
He pulled his jeans back into place with a smile, knowing he should probably remind her of their deal. But, considering this wasn’t the first one they’d reneged on, he couldn’t help but wonder if rules with Carissa were just destined to be broken.
She bowed to pick up her tank top, then slipped it back over her head. She didn’t bother with her panties however and he appreciated that. “Wow, you didn’t argue with me.”
He shook his head. “We may need to reevaluate.”
“Ah, I like the way you think. In fact, this?” She gestured to their mutual states of half-dress and the articles of clothing still on the floor. “Exactly what I needed today. You’re a genius.”
“Yeah?” Intrigued by what might be on her mind, he arched an eyebrow. He was pretty sure, however, getting naked with her again wasn’t the smartest decision he’d ever made. But it was a feeling he was getting used to.
“Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it right now. How about we start the reevaluation process in the shower? And then we can eat.”
“Eat?”
She pointed to the casserole dish. “You just gave me a perfect orgasm. The least I can do is feed you.”
“I’m starting to feel like a stud for hire. We have sex, you give me food.”
She tipped her head back and gave a full-bellied laugh. The beautiful sound went straight to his gut and strangely enough, it warmed him, when it should have made him nervous.
“You showed up at my door tonight, remember?” she asked, head tipped the side, hair falling.
“Good point.”
“But…” She closed the distance between them and grabbed his hand. “I certainly wouldn’t mind paying back the favor.”
“I’m pretty sure I came, too.” He thumbed back toward the chair, eyebrow cocked.
“Just go with it, okay?” She grinned, hooked a finger around his belt loop and led him to the bathroom, where she started the shower before turning her attention back to him.
Red Hot Obsessions: Ten Contemporary Hot Alpha Male Romance Novels Boxed Set Page 134