Hiding in Plain Sight

by Hornbuckle, J. A.

  "I want you, Reese," he whispered, dropping his face into her sweet smelling neck, to lick, to taste. "I want to ride you. Within you."

  "Oh, yes," she purred.

  He felt the heat of her hands as she pushed against him and knew he'd just crossed the line between almost-friend to almost-lover. His insides dropped to realize what he'd mistaken for her want, for her desire, had been wrong.

  But as soon as he was far enough away, her hands released his chest to settle at the sides of her panties. He gave her room to move as she lifted her hips and pulled them down, then off her succulent hips.

  "I want you too, Bayco," she whispered in her sexy, almost sultry, voice. He felt her legs spread even wider, propped up against the sides of his legs. "Please?"

  A simply plea from a not so simple female.

  He could feel her heat, her naked wetness against him.

  His voice was thick as he tried to answer her with a question of his own. "What do you want, Reese?"

  Her hands gripped his shoulders as her forearms pressed upwards, along with her hips.

  "You," she said with her whiskey voice. "I want you."

  Oh, fuck.

  Since he was already propped on forearms and knees, it was easy to allow his cock to zero in on her hot core.

  Brand wanted more of her mouth, though, before he joined with her. He couldn't get enough of her lips, her tongue, as he thought of sinking between her legs. But she was having none of it. Her full lips and tongue meshed with his, as her hips churned while her hands reached, to drag her wetness along his uncovered shaft as she moved.

  But he only stayed a moment before sliding to her side. He was determined to show her pleasure, her value with this, their first joining. As he lifted to move, her hips rose with him. The soft thrust said so much, telling him that he was not alone in his desire. His cock throbbed on a deep note, and he felt his balls move tight against him at her innocent nudge.

  He again dropped his mouth to reach for her sweet, moist lips. Propping himself on an elbow, he used the other hand to cup the fullness of her breast.

  "Oh," he heard her breathe into his mouth as his thumb flicked over her hardened peak. Brand's heart, much more than his mouth, absorbed the sound as he brought his thumb and forefinger together, applying pressure, softly tweaking. At the first twist, her hips lifted, causing him to drape a thigh between her restless legs.

  His eyes shot downward, his gaze hungry for the sight of her naked juncture and was surprised by the glow of her hairless skin at the top of her thighs.

  She half-rolled beneath him, seeming to seek his heat before her shapely ass lifted again, throwing a leg over to press herself against his leg, moving to create the friction her body needed, craved. Her soft skin connected with the sparse hair of his thigh and he couldn't help his jolt at the feel of her sodden leaves as they splayed on him.

  At the awareness of her need, he ground his hardness on her lower belly, the firm feel of her hipbone again, providing the resistance his cock craved. He hated to remove his hand from her breast, but it ached to touch the fullness of her ass. To bring her closer, tuck her hard against him. He felt her hand tentatively reach between them to capture his hardness.

  The eager innocence of her touch inflamed him. But this portion wasn't for him—he would find his fulfillment later.

  This was for her enjoyment.

  His lips sought hers as his fingers slid to her belly, sliding downward on her smooth skin until the first split of flesh opened beneath his touch. She gasped, and she moved her hands to his shoulders. He raised his head and found her eyes met his again, creating an intimacy he'd never known while in the throes of passion. He sank his fingers further, feeling her swollen flesh, wetness as his digits traveled in a slow journey between her nether lips, learning the secrets of her by touch.

  A long slow intake, a mouthful of air, was his reward as his fingers moved over the pearl of her pleasure and around her moist folds. A sharp hip thrust greeted him as his fingers dipped into the puddling creaminess inside her.

  Goddamn, every response was a strike deep to both his body and his heart.

  His fingers stroked, rubbed and delved as he listened and watched her responses as they guided him through her pleasure.

  "Bayco…" she cooed. "Yes, there, baby." Her eyes were now closed and her head dropped away from him as she thrust against his fingers. He knew she was reaching for it. Reaching for that beauty he was going to give to her, the one she was striving for. And he needed to provide it.

  Her hips, those beautiful flared hips, strove upward to meet his hand with a firmness, a desire that caused a growl deep within him, bubbling up from a wellspring he'd thought had dried up years ago.

  "Please," he heard her whimper against his mouth, and her hand moved from his shoulder to his wrist, holding his hand captive against her. "Oh, Bay, please…"

  His iron length flexed and moved so fucking hard there were sure to bruises on her hip the next day. But at the moment, he didn't care. He was turgid and dripping because of the beauty he had in his arms, beneath his hand.

  And, if her cavern's tightness on his fingers was any indication, he needed to prepare her for what he so wanted to give. She was so tight, and he wanted to be able to enter her without pain, to ensure the pleasure he knew was in store for them both.

  His thumb continued to rub her swelling clit as his fingers slewed, catching the rhythm of her hips much as he caught her moans and whimpers against his lips as they moved together.

  He knew she was almost there from the beginning ripples moving both within and on the outside of her. Brand reached for the condom he'd snagged from the nightstand earlier and used his teeth to open it, stretching it over himself just as the tight undulations from inside her, the beating squeezes, announced her orgasm was moments away.

  "Come for me, Reese," he whispered on a rumble, dropping small kisses on her neck, her collarbone. "Come under my fingers, sweet one. You are so wet for me, so ready for me. Please, my beautiful draga."

  Her heart, which he could feel pulsing beneath his chest, sped up at his words as her mound began to hesitantly churn underneath his hand. He quickened the movements of his thumb as his fingers slid in and out, scissoring as they moved to prepare her for him.

  "Bah…oh, god, Bay…coh…oh, here. I'm gonna…oh, damn. Bay!" she cried as her whole body spasmed. She found what he'd created, nurtured, with just his hand, his fingers.

  And it was one of the most beautiful fucking sights he'd ever witnessed.

  He couldn't help rolling back onto her, his cock seeking the heat of her center.

  "God, yes," she agreed both verbally and by gripping him in her muscled thighs. "Give it to me, Bayco," she instructed and he was, again, caught on her laser-like gaze. "Fuck me now."

  He held her gorgeous, captivating legs open as he began to ease himself within her. Inch by inch between the shuddering remains of her orgasm, he slid in carefully. He released her mouth, concentrating on working to be fully enveloped within her.

  "Oh, god. Oh, Bay. It feels…you feel so good," she groaned and he felt her insides flex as he moved. "So big."

  "Take me, Reese," he ground out as he drew himself out before flexing his hips to dip his length back in. "So fucking wet… tight and hot." He'd never felt sensations that sharp, that clearly before; not the wet heat, nor the form-fitting sheathe of another's body as he moved within her.

  Propping himself on his elbows, she moved her legs up, crossing them over his lower back as her hips continued to lift to meet his. Their eyes caught and held as he tilted his face to hers, although he could only see a bit of her face in the dimness of the room.

  "Can we turn on a light, Bay?" she asked softly in between the kisses and licks she'd been applying to his chest, neck and chin.

  Without pausing, he reached a hand out and turned the small knob at the base of the nearest lamp, making them both blink deeply. But their hips never stopped.

  "Better?" he ask
ed, pushing her hair off her forehead before dropping back down to her mouth. It struck him that he couldn't kiss her deep enough. Hell, hard enough.

  Fuck!

  The look on her face with that wet, swollen mouth. The feel of her nipples brushing against his chest, and her delicious full thighs gripping him so tightly.

  Her pussy, grasping as she stroked…

  "Reese," he begged, using all that he had to hold back. The sweet stings of pressure were coiling in his spine, his balls pulled up firm against his body.

  "Oh, god, Bayco!" she moaned, again causing a deep throb within him. "Yes, baby."

  That's all it took for his hips to move mindlessly, shoving and sinking hard and deep within her. They were still glued eye to eye as he shuttled himself in and out of her, claiming her, caught up in to the storm, the hurricane of their heat.

  "Talk to me, Bay," she breathed as she moved against him.

  "You are so fucking hot, Reese," he gritted out, almost tongue-tied as he moved himself fast and deep within her. "So wet and tight…so fucking good."

  "Because you touched me, Bay. God, yes," she again ground out. "That feels so good. There, right there! Yes!"

  He could feel her insides clench against him as his pulsating cock strove to go deeper. He was going to hit it and hit it hard.

  "Come with me, Nadia. Don't stop," he urged as he felt the first of his come shoot up from his balls and out through his narrow opening. Hard kicks that stole his breath, ramped his heartbeat to racing and created a white noise inside where even time was lost in the sexual paradise of his orgasm.

  But with only a couple of beats afterward, he could tell things were not as they should be.

  She'd pulled away from him, her arms releasing his shoulders and falling to cradle her breasts. Her breaths measured instead of panting, like his were.

  Wait, weren't they both…?

  He dropped down and pressed his forehead against hers once again, recognizing that his orgasm had been one unparalleled in the history of the universe, his universe.

  "Uhm," she breathed while she used her forearms to lever him off her torso. "Can you, like, get off me?"

  "Sorry," he replied, ashamed but not knowing why. Embarrassed by her words and actions, which didn't make sense when he considered their movements in the moments before. "Reese?"

  "Uhm…just need a moment here, okay?" she said as she slid her amazing body away from his, turning from underneath him.

  Something was wrong and on such a deep level he was uncertain about the best way to respond.

  Once disconnected, she turned to her side, dragging the tangled sheet up with her moves.

  Brand stilled. This wasn't just wrong. This was so beyond wrong he couldn't breathe.

  "Reese?" he offered again.

  "Yeah," he heard her soft reply.

  "What happened?" he asked, his heart beating as hard as when he was going to come. But there was no joy in this. None at all.

  "Guess you were too much for me," she whispered, her eyes were studiously still big but tilted away from him.

  He'd done something wrong, something so wrong that she couldn't even turn to look at him.

  He twisted away, letting his back hit the sheets.

  What the fuck had he done?

  Obviously the woman his heart wanted hadn't found same satisfaction with their joining as he had.

  But he'd been so sure that they'd been…

  Okay, she didn't want him. Not like that.

  And, that thought caused a sharp barb of hurt within him in a place he'd once vowed no one would ever hurt him in again.

  *.*.*.*.*

  Oh, god.

  Nadia.

  What had I done?

  Nadia.

  I'd just given it up to a man who didn't even know who I was and called out another woman's name when he was milli-seconds away from hitting it.

  Nadia.

  Could I be more stupid?

  Shit.

  My life was such a fucking mess.

  I was wanted by someone I couldn't stand yet was connected to someone I'd decided I wanted. But who didn't want me.

  Nadia.

  Who the fuck was the bitch and why had he said her name when we were, like, like…

  All the furls of my anger were swept away as I recognized that it'd only been four days between us before I allowed him, uhm, welcomed him to, like…

  I couldn't look at him and absolutely refused to look at myself in the mirrors that adorned the walls around our bed.

  I hurt.

  Hurt from the assault of his turgid, thickness that had invaded me, which had originally been taken in, welcomed and begged for. That ache would heal. But the hurt to my heart, the one caused by his cries for another woman who I didn't know, who I wasn't and would, probably never be, scored across my soul. Deeply.

  I wasn't that girl. The one he really wanted to be with.

  At the moment, though, I wanted him off of me. His body separated from mine.

  Truthfully?

  I just wanted to cry.

  Cry so deep, at such a depth that I could never be hurt again. To pour every tear I was destined to shed into one long bawling session— just so I'd never have to feel a pain this deep, this horrible, again.

  "So, hey. Like, that was, like, great and everything," I said, trying to keep my voice steady as my lungs stretched trying for even, steady breathing. "But could you, like, get off?"

  I felt, more than saw, him hovering over me. At long last, I felt him pull his impressive length out, and I couldn't help my thoughts as his flesh grazed mine.

  Nadia.

  I wanted more than ever to cry. To cry and scream and shout. To slap and punch.

  "Reese?" he asked and for some reason I got caught up in the other questions which were hovering just on the other side of his sole use of my name. And, just like the time he'd said it before, in that quizzical voice, I didn't respond in word or in action.

  Because, at that moment, I realized I was completely and totally alone.

  I'd thought I'd been broken before with the loss of mobility, the loss of myself due to other men's ideas of what I should wear, where I should be, and what I should think. But all of that was nothing, not a fucking thing, in the breaking of me,

  All with just Bayco's groan of a name.

  A name that wasn't mine.

  Nadia.

  Fuck me. I never thought I'd be destroyed with just a word.

  Then and there, I recognized I would never, ever, be free.

  That I was well and truly done for; caught in the headlights of the man that chased me. And captive in the brake lights of the man I'd wanted, but who'd used me as a substitute for someone else.

  I wrapped the sheet around me and scooted to the edge of the bed.

  "Where are you going?" he asked from his place on his side of the wide mattress.

  "Bathroom," I muttered, heartsick. "Be back in a sec'."

  There wasn't any sound from behind me as I shuffled to the tiny enclosure, closing and locking the door. Nor did any sound escape as I sat in the tub, allowing the spray of the shower to hit the top of my head as I screamed into the towel I held between my face and knees.

  Nadia.

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was awkward for me the next morning.

  Maybe because it was I woke up plastered against him, glued to his side, one arm underneath his pillow. The other hand was on his rippled abs, my thigh draped over his manly parts.

  Or maybe it was because we were still nose to nose, our heads turned toward each other even as we'd slept.

  So what I woke to was the feel and sight of a man beyond compare. Beyond anything I'd ever experienced. Ever, even in my damn daydreams.

  Shit.

  I tried to breathe but I couldn't take in enough air to fill my lungs. And, at my breath's hitch, he opened his eyes and smiled. Sleepy, sweet and achingly sexy in his own brand of honeyed goodness.

  That one dimple was my u
ndoing and at the sight whatever shoring up of my hurt I'd done in the shower fled. I tucked my face into his neck. I couldn't take the acceptance, the goddamn caring, in his light green gaze and was embarrassed.

  He wasn't here for anything other than protecting me, but then we'd…and, then, he'd…

  Oh, man.

  "Bathroom," I muttered after dropping my eyes and peeling myself off the deliciousness of him.

  Of Bay.

  Oh shit, Bay.

  While I was planted on the porcelain perch in the bathroom, I allowed my mind to roam. There was no way a girl could imagine a man like him. No way in hell.

  Gorgeous to the point of taking your breath away.

  Riding a sweet bike like he fucking owned the road.

  A man who took charge when the occasion warranted after taking time to buy a girl, a person he didn't even know, products to hide herself.

  Then, gave her such pleasure she thought for a moment she'd seen God in all His glory.

  Before sending her to hell with another woman's name.

  Aw, damn. Goddamn.

  This was bad. Very fucking bad.

  I finished my business on the toilet and turned the knobs on the shower as my head still tried to make sense of what we'd done together last night. Of the name he'd uttered that had shut my body down without any ifs, ands or buts. I wasn't able push the hurt of the name he'd said away from me. Every time my thoughts ventured down that particular road, I almost swayed with the pain.

  But.

  That was something I was just gonna have to get over. Having my heart ripped out wasn't going to change my plans in any way, shape or form.

  I was escaping Louie and didn't have the time nor the need to fall for some kind of foreign sex-god who got off on performing some type of rescue or something. Then sexing up his rescue before he dropped a hammer-blow of rejection with some other bitch's name.

  My body locked into full shut-down mode as I listened again to what my thoughts had said. Excuse me? 'Fall for'? Oh, hell no. I don't think so.