by Scott, J. S.
He made no bones about the fact that he wanted me, and I hadn’t had a guy I cared about look at me like that…ever.
Carter made me feel bolder than I actually was because I knew our attraction was mutual.
I sank down into the water, almost purring with the pleasure of the jets and the warm water. “I’m a little sore,” I confessed.
“Probably because I manhandled you like a bull goes after a cow at mating season,” he said wryly.
I flashed him a smile. “Maybe I like bulls,” I teased. “I just haven’t been with a guy for a while.”
He reached out and snagged me around the waist, and then pulled me into him. “How long?”
“A couple of years,” I admitted with a sigh. I’d gotten more standoffish about having sex with a man just to have sex. My vibrator did the job just as well—sometimes better. “I’m pretty sure that I don’t want to know how long it’s been for you.”
Carter was known for his prowess with women. I was pretty sure he hadn’t been with someone else after we met, but I didn’t want to hear about what had happened before that.
“Close to a year,” he confessed as he toyed with my hair. “Regardless of what everybody thinks, I’m not indiscriminate when it comes to women, and I haven’t met anybody I wanted to be with. I’ve been too busy trying to run everybody else’s lives.”
“So do you finally believe that you’re not responsible for everything that happens in your world?” I asked softly.
“I don’t want to admit it, but yeah, I think I do. I’m always going to want to control what I can, but I’m learning to let go of what I can’t,” he rumbled. “How about you? Are you feeling better?”
I nodded. “I had a long talk with my mother. I think she was right. She needed to tell her story, and I respect that. Now she’s engaged.”
“You say that like it’s not a good thing,” he ventured.
“It’s not that. I guess I’m just afraid for her. But I haven’t met her new fiancé, Mick. And she says he has his own future secure, and probably hers, too. But it’s hard after what happened. I never want to see my mom destroyed like she was all those years ago.” My disapproval had all been hinged on the fact that he could end up not being who my mom thought he was…breaking her heart a second time.
“Do you trust her to make a good decision?”
“I do. She had no way of knowing what my father was, and she’s generally a pretty good judge of character. They’ve known each other for a while. Every relationship is a crap shoot, really.”
“That’s not exactly flattering,” he said wryly.
“I didn’t mean it like that, but how do you ever completely know somebody? We have to trust our instincts.”
I felt him shrug. “Pretty much.”
I leaned my head back on his shoulder. “Look at the stars. I haven’t seen them this well since I was a kid. We lived in a fairly small town, away from the lights. I think I’ve forgotten how small a sky like this can make me feel.”
There was only a sliver of the moon, but the stars were so bright that it kept the area from being completely dark. Along with the fire pit that Carter had lit, it was bright enough to see his face.
“Are you still planning your visit with your mom next week?”
“I am if you let me use your jet,” I teased.
“It’s yours whenever you need it.”
“I have a long shoot at the end of next month,” I told him. “Summer was slow, and I’ve been trying to slow down to work on the designing side, but my regulars are kicking back into gear. I’ll probably be gone a lot until close to the holidays.”
“Do you have a contract with anybody other than Easily Beautiful?”
“Nothing in writing, but I have companies that request me every year.”
I wasn’t sure why the idea of hitting the road again wasn’t as exciting as it used to be. I suspected it was because I couldn’t imagine not seeing Carter every day. But the constant travel had actually started to wear on me over the last year, too. Ever since I’d come to Seattle, I felt like I’d finally found my home.
“What about your bag designs? And the store?”
“I’m ready to do some prototypes,” I told him excitedly. “And Laura has all the help she needs with the store. We switched our partnership agreement so she has full ownership. I’m just an investor. Her designs are brilliant.”
“Any regrets?”
“None,” I told him emphatically. “I get to be an early investor for a company that’s going to explode, and I still get to work on my travel bag line. Laura never really needed me. She did an amazing job before I ever got here, and we’re working together on social media.”
“My brother Jett is having an engagement party in a couple weeks. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in being my date?” he asked smoothly.
“I’d better be your date,” I warned him. “As long as we’re sleeping together, I’d really prefer if you didn’t see anybody else.”
Honestly, I couldn’t imagine seeing him with another woman. It would destroy me.
“There is nobody else, Brynn,” he said earnestly. “And there won’t be. Hell, I spend too much time fantasizing about you.”
I smiled. “Good. Keep it that way.”
“You realize we didn’t even discuss birth control,” he contemplated.
Birth control had been the last thing on my mind earlier. I hadn’t even been able to think once Carter had touched me. “I’m good,” I informed him. “I had an IUD three years ago, so I have a couple of years. And I get tested regularly when I’m sexually active. Honestly, I don’t let a guy touch me without a condom.”
“I’m clean, too,” he reassured me. “How did I get so lucky?”
“You drive me so insanely crazy that I didn’t think about it,” I admitted.
He tightened his arm around my waist. “You haven’t seen crazy yet, sweetheart. But you will,” he said in a husky voice.
I turned and straddled him. “I can’t wait,” I said a little too enthusiastically.
“I am not doing this in a hot tub,” he said emphatically.
Really, the hot tub seemed like as good a place as any. All I knew was that I didn’t want to let this man go for even a moment. It didn’t matter what environment or what surface we were on.
I swiped a stray lock of wet hair from his forehead. “Then take me wherever you want me.”
“That’s the problem,” he said gruffly. “I want you everywhere. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing.”
I kissed him softly before I murmured, “I feel the same way. I always have. Even when you kissed me in the elevator, I wanted to tear your clothes off and force you to fuck me right there in the lift.”
“There wouldn’t have been any forcing, Brynn. I kissed you and I didn’t even know you, an act I still don’t fucking understand,” he said unhappily. “I’ve never done that before.”
I believed him.
There was some kind of crazy insta-lust that had sparked between us at first glance, and it was something I never would have said could happen.
“You and I are so similar in the most basic ways,” I ventured. “Maybe you think that’s crazy, but—”
“I don’t think that at all,” he interrupted. “We were both trying to outrun ourselves.”
I nodded. “I recognized it in you because I see it in me. Both of us were so caught up in our guilt and fear about the past that we weren’t really living the moments we were in. I tried. I really did. I wanted to be able to live in the present, but I couldn’t get over my childhood trauma. Now, I don’t really think it matters anymore.”
He cupped my cheek as he rumbled, “I don’t give a damn about the past, either. The only thing I want right now is you in my bed.”
My heart stuttered. “Then take me
there, Carter.”
I squealed as he did just that.
Brynn
My bare ass hit the bed as Carter dropped me there, and then came down on top of me.
“I want to take this slow, Brynn. I feel like we rushed to the finish line earlier, and never really experienced the race.”
My breath caught as I saw the intensity in his eyes. “I’m not sure we know how to go slow,” I said breathlessly.
“I’m sure as hell going to try,” he promised as he lowered his head to kiss me.
That’s all it took, the feel of Carter’s lips on mine, and a rush of heat flowed between my thighs.
There was no brake for us. It was full-speed-ahead, can’t-get-enough from that moment forward.
He was more deliberate, less out of control, but just as hot as he’d been in the afternoon.
I tried to wrap my arms around him to get closer, but he broke the embrace and pinned my arms gently to the side of my head before he said, “Easy, sweetheart.”
I sighed as he kissed me one more time, and then started on the sensitive skin of my neck. “Carter, I’m not all that patient,” I panted.
“I missed these earlier,” he said against my heated skin as he palmed my breasts.
Even though I’d never been that much into long foreplay, the way Carter played my body made me close my eyes and feel every sensation.
The touch of his lips on my diamond-hard nipple.
His fingers plucking at the other one.
And my body tightened as he nipped at a hard peak, and then soothed it with his tongue.
My core constricted tightly, and then the flood of hot moisture that pooled between my thighs.
My back arched as the tormenting pleasure continued until Carter moved lower, his tongue tracing a line from my breast to lower abdomen.
“Please,” I whimpered. “Carter, fuck me.”
I speared my hands into his coarse hair, and held on. But as he moved between my legs, I let go and grabbed onto the bottom sheet, already anticipating what was about to happen.
I let out an animal-like sound as his hot tongue connected with my quivering flesh. “Oh, God, Carter. I can’t handle this,” I said desperately.
Pure pleasure coursed through my body as he took one long lick all the way up my pussy, and it felt so good that I was clenching the sheets like they were a lifeline.
He teased.
He tormented.
He lapped at my juices like they were some kind of sustenance he needed to survive.
And I shattered when he buried his face into my pussy and started to put everything he had into my pleasure.
I let out a long moan, my legs trembling.
Maybe I’d never been into foreplay because I had no idea it could be this damn good.
I squirmed beneath his mouth, my back coming off the bed as he put his fingers into the mix. He didn’t stop putting pressure on my clit as those fingers fucked me, exploring every inch of my channel until he found a spot that nearly sent me to the roof.
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” I chanted, completely lost in the sensuality of what he was doing to me. “Harder.”
When his teeth clamped down on the tiny bundle of nerves begging for more attention, and then sucked, I imploded.
“Carter-oh-my-God-I’m-going-to-come,” I screamed incoherently, my head thrashing on the pillow.
He thrust his fingers into me harder, faster, and the pressure on my clit sent me sailing over the edge.
I was still coming down from my orgasmic high when he rolled and pulled me on top of him.
“Ride me, Brynn,” he commanded as he grabbed my hips, pulled them down, and seated himself deep inside me.
His cock was enormous, and felt like he was splitting me in two, but in a good way. I paused to adjust, to get used to his size and girth, before I raised up and sank back down on him.
It was a position I didn’t have much experience with, but I loved the way I could see his face, his eyes, and the look of torment and pleasure in his expression.
Carter Lawson was beautiful, especially when he was this aroused. And I devoured him with my gaze.
“Tell me what you want,” I said as I hesitated.
I wanted to make Carter feel the same intense heat that I did. I wanted to watch him lose himself in pleasure.
His fingers bit into my hips as he guided me. “Just this, Brynn. Just you.”
I melted, recognizing that I made Carter vulnerable, as defenseless as I was right now.
He set a fast and furious pace, and I was just along for the ride. Every time I sank back down, completely taking Carter in, he consumed me.
It didn’t take long before I could feel my orgasm building, and I welcomed it this time.
I wanted to splinter into tiny pieces because I knew that Carter would put me back together again.
“Fuck! Brynn!” Carter groaned as he slammed into me.
“Carter-I-think-I’m-dying,” I screamed out as my climax rolled over me, the pleasure coming in waves that I rode along with the man I was watching as he found his own release.
I collapsed on top of him, and he held me tightly, our bodies covered in sweat.
Carter had just rocked my world, and I knew instinctively that nothing would ever be the same again.
Every emotion I had came rushing to the surface, and I had the ridiculous impulse to cry, even though I was blissfully happy.
“I take it you’re still alive,” Carter said hoarsely against my ear.
“Just barely,” I retorted, unable to move a muscle, my breathing still slightly ragged. “I can’t even move right now.”
I knew my body would be screaming in the morning, but every moment of the pain I experienced would be worth it.
“I’d be happy to try to revive you,” he said hopefully.
I could feel his cock already hardening beneath my sex. “Oh, no. I’m not doing that again tonight. You just wrecked me.”
He chuckled as he stroked the hair out of my eyes.
I had no idea how Carter could have the desire or the fortitude so soon, but my body was completely spent.
“And I’m pretty sure we stink,” I added.
“You smell like me and sex,” he said, sounding completely content with the fragrance.
I rolled off him with a whimper.
“Are you hurt?”
I turned my head and smiled at him weakly. “Not in a bad way.”
He jumped out of bed with more energy than I could muster, and then scooped me up as he said, “A warm shower should help.”
I moaned with pleasure after he’d turned on the shower that had more jets than I could count, and pulled me inside.
“This feels amazing,” I told him, my energy starting to come back.
The jets felt like they were pounding every sore muscle back to healthy tissue again.
Carter grabbed some soap, lathered up my body, and then rinsed me off before he reached for some shampoo.
Honestly, I’d never known how pleasurable it could be to have a guy wash my hair, but maybe it wasn’t always that way. I was pretty sure it was the soothing way Carter massaged my scalp while he was getting my hair clean.
I felt like I’d gotten my second wind by the time my hair was completely washed and rinsed.
Grabbing the soap, I squirted a liberal amount into my hands before I dropped it back on the shelf. “My turn. I’m feeling very much revived.”
I felt like I’d waited a lifetime to touch him like this, and there was no way I was going to waste the opportunity.
I caressed his chest, running my fingers over every muscle, and then I went for the six-pack abs. I couldn’t resist putting my hand around his erect cock.
“Don’t, Brynn,” he cautioned.
“I just want to touc
h you,” I said in a pleading tone.
“You might get more than you can handle,” he answered in a disgruntled voice.
“I think I could deal with that,” I muttered as I ran my fingers down his steely shaft. “Turn,” I requested.
I soaped up his back, and then his rock-hard butt.
“I think you have the sexiest rear end I’ve ever seen,” I commented.
“No, I don’t,” he shot back. “That honor definitely belongs to you, sweetheart.”
He stepped in to rinse himself off.
“So you’re an ass man?” I asked with a laugh.
“I’m totally into any part of your body,” he replied in the completely wicked tone that I loved.
The man was charming, and I was pretty sure it came naturally to him.
We stepped out of the shower, and Carter dried my body carefully before toweling himself off.
“Do you want to come to Michigan with me?” My question came out far more awkward than it should have sounded.
He tossed the towel in the hamper and turned back to me. “I was already planning on it. I thought we could leave from here. Unless you really don’t want me to go.”
“I do. I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to deal with the whole ‘meet the mother’ thing right now. We still don’t know where this relationship is going to go. I thought you might want some time—”
“I don’t,” he interrupted in a firm tone. “Brynn, I want to meet your mother. She and your aunt are the only real family you have.”
“She’ll badger you about grandchildren,” I warned him.
“Then I’ll tell her that we aren’t ready for that.”
“She’s opinionated and blunt,” I added.
He grinned. “Then I guess I know where you got those traits.”
“Smartass,” I said, my heart light.
I wanted Carter to go with me, but I’d been afraid it was way too soon for him to get wrapped up in family.
“If you think I’m bad, wait until you meet my brothers,” he said in a falsely beleaguered voice. “And you’re meeting my family shortly, and there is a hell of a lot more of them than I have to meet in Michigan.”