by Aria Cole
“This is going to be a lot harder than I anticipated.”
The bastard cat chose that moment to curl around her feet, meowing so loudly I swear he’d call in wild cats.
“Jinx is going to need a litter box.” She picked up the cat, snuggling into his sooty gray fur.
“Of course he is.” I grabbed my keys and shoved them in my pocket. “I’ll get him something out of the garage. Get changed, and we’ll head to town. Sweat pants will be a little big, but they’ll have to do until we can get you something else.”
“Blaise, just bring me back to my apartment. I know it’s not livable at the moment, but I can get a few things.”
I paused, watching her from across the kitchen. “Brianna…”
She cocked her head, innocence radiating through every feature. For as smart and cocky as she was, she was still fragile. I could see it coming off her in waves.
“There was a back draft, took out the entire second floor. The structure caved in.”
“What?” Her eyes widened.
I nodded, pulling her into my arms and soothing her all over again. “I’m sorry.”
“All my stuff… Shit!”
“At least you got Jinx,” I attempted lamely before the surly beast snarled and swiped at my hand. “He’s a lucky little fucker.”
She rested her head on my chest, breath heating my skin, my nerves, my very heart. “I can hear the sarcasm in your voice.”
She was right; that was sarcasm.
He wasn’t lucky, he was a little asshole, but if it took me rescuing him to find her, then I was mighty glad I’d found him.
I was the lucky one in this odd little threesome we had going.
Chapter Five
Brianna
Blaise and I spent the rest of the day shopping, him hauling me from store to store, making me try on clothes in the dressing room, and loading his arms high with stacks of jeans, leggings, shirts, sweaters, even a pair of heavy winter boots—he said his place got a lot of snow up in the mountains.
That thought made me shudder with pleasure.
Spending the winter snowed-in with Blaise felt like a fantasy come true.
From Nordstrom’s to Whole Foods and a stop at the pet store in between, he’d shuttled me all over the city, being his funny, charming, completely cocky self. His generosity was astounding. No wonder he saved lives for a living. No matter what I’d said to him, the fact remained—he’d saved my life.
My life had come into sharp focus when he’d said the building, my home, was destroyed by the fire. I’d been so flippant about it before then, but every fire he fought, every life he rescued…all were heroic. All were dangerous. All scared the life out of me. Blaise was a hero, my hero.
“So what’d you think of the gumbo?” Blaise pulled me from my thoughts and into his lap.
We sat curled up on his leather couch, perched in front of a blazing fire. “It was fantastic. I’ve never had it before.”
“I learned how to make it while I was volunteering in the Ninth Ward, after Katrina hit.”
“You went to Louisiana?” My eyebrows rose in surprise.
He nodded softly. “They put out a call for search and rescue volunteers. I couldn’t not go. Few of the guys from the house and I road-tripped down, stayed for a few weeks, and did what we could. It was a life-changing experience.”
“I can’t imagine.” I tucked my feet under me, Jinx crawling into my lap and curling up. I pushed my fingers into his fur, smiling when the low rumble of his purr began. My thoughts drifted to something that had been whispering around in my mind all day. Through all the piles of expensive clothes and shoes, Blaise had been a perfect gentleman. Too perfect.
Why hadn’t he touched me? Why wasn’t he trying to get in my pants? Isn’t that what men did? Didn’t they always expect something in return?
“What’s goin’ on in that pretty head of yours, sweetheart?” Blaise’s hand rested on my knee, one fingertip turning small circles.
I gnawed on my bottom lip, wondering what to say, before finally settling on honesty. “Why haven’t you…tried to sleep with me?”
Blaise’s eyebrows nearly shot up into his hairline. His eyes fell down my body, landing on my thigh, the fresh bandage he’d wrapped gently soon after we’d returned home hiding beneath.
“I’m not looking to rush you, Brianna.”
My heart cracked a little at that. “But you have. From the start. You have me moving into your bedroom!”
His grin cocked to the side then before he slid a palm up my thigh, hooking it in the waistband of my new sleep shorts and tugging me to him.
Jinx hissed then jumped off, curling up peacefully by the fire. But I felt the judgment coming off him in waves. That old cat kept one eye on Blaise the entire time. Well, Jinx did get it. Blaise had saved both of our lives. And then he’d worked his way inside my soul, and something had taken root.
I’d suddenly found myself unable to picture a future without Blaise.
A year from now, five years from now, twenty, Blaise’s face was also in my head. I imagined the way the salt and pepper would continue to sprinkle through his hair, how he would look with our baby in his powerful hands.
“Do you want my lips on you, Brianna?” Those very same lips at my ear pulled me from my thoughts.
“Yes…” I hissed.
“That’s what you’ve been waiting for, sweet girl? My hands crawling up your skin, my lips tasting your pretty pink flesh?” The thumb hooked in my waistband and slid the shorts down my thighs.
I squirmed, covering my bandage with my hand as he pushed my shorts down past my knees. I hated the bandage, hated the scar that would no doubt remain. I wished I was perfect for him. Now, not only would I worry about my too wide hips and my thighs that definitely always touched, but also this scar carved into my skin.
“I want to see all of you.” He caught my wrist and pushed it above my head, planting kisses down my inner elbow and sending shivers skittering through my bloodstream.
Oh, God… What was he doing to me?
His lips trailed down my arm, skimming the heavy curve of my breast, before landing a flurry of kisses around the creamy flesh of my bandage.
“Stop…” I whispered, tears burning my eyes.
“Never, Brianna. I won’t let you hide from me. This is a reminder I’ll carry for the rest of my life of the night I met you. The night we saved each other.”
“Saved each other?” I squeaked, fingers trembling at the force in his words.
“You saved me, Brianna. I have no doubt of that. You know, this is the first day I’ve had off in three years. The first full day. And I fucking loved it. Playing hooky today felt good because I was with you. And if you're wondering why I didn’t put my hands on you earlier, didn’t shove my tongue past your sweet lips like I wanted to…” He pushed his head between my breasts, sucking in a slow breath. “I realized today you’re too fucking good for me. I realized I couldn’t push you, because you might run. You’re not used to being taken care of, sweetheart. You’re just fine being alone.”
I opened my mouth, about to disagree with him, before he held a hand to my lips.
“Don’t bother arguing. You can't hide yourself from me, Brianna. We’re part of the same heart. I know what's inside yours just as well as I know my own. You’re an independent woman because you have to be, not because you want to be. So I realized today I couldn’t push you, because rare, beautiful creatures like you don’t come along often, and I can’t let you go.”
My eyes scrunched closed, a thousand and one emotions rushing through my body. Through my mind.
Blaise wanted me.
Blaise was the real deal.
Blaise was the very thing I needed and hadn’t even known I wanted.
“No one has ever been there for me,” I muttered, more out of shock than anything else. “My dad left when I was young, my memories of him are hazy…and my mom was always tuned out. In her own world. When she wasn’t wo
rking, she was at the bar drinking with her friends. I had to learn to rely on myself alone. It just comes natural to me.” I paused, catching his face in my hands. “But you’re right. I never asked for that. I just wanted a normal childhood, but instead, I had to raise myself.”
“That ends now, baby. From here on out, I take care of you. You live here, you don’t worry about where you’ll sleep or where your next meal is coming from. Let me take care of you.”
Chapter Six
Blaise
My hands pushed up the thin cotton of her shirt, sliding it off her shoulders before laying her out on the couch underneath me. I’d been fucking dreaming of this moment, dreaming of burying my cock deep inside her body and fucking her until we were lost in each other.
“Are you on anything, sweetheart?” I fisted her gorgeous tits in my palms, pushing them together and nipping at her lace-covered nipple.
Her hands pushed through my hair, soft moans falling from her lips.
“Hard to focus when I’m touching you, isn’t it?” I tugged the cups of her bra down, revealing her sweet, dark nipples to my greedy eyes. With a deft flick, I swirled a tongue at her nipple. She arched, and my teeth grazed the peaked flesh. With a hand sliding between her thighs, I cupped the beautiful mound of her pussy and pushed my fingers against her soaked lips. “Answer me, sweetheart. If I empty my come deep inside you, are we gonna make a baby?”
Her eyes darkened, her fingers stilling in my hair. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth before she nodded quickly.
“Fuck, there’s nothing preventing me from knockin’ you up the first time I take you? Sinking my seed inside your gorgeous pussy and filling you up with me?”
“I’ve been thinking about you inside me all day.” Her fingers dug into the flesh at my shoulders as her legs locked around my waist.
I groaned, pushing my head between her tits, rocking my hips against hers. The heat of her pussy was like fire through the denim of my jeans. Being inside her might be too much; I might lose my mind. Fuck, I knew I’d already lost my heart.
“I’m clean, and I need to make you mine, sweetheart,” I growled, pulling the zipper on my jeans and shoving them and my boxers down my thighs. Desire burned through my body, my balls heavy with come, ready to love her so hard and so deep I’d coat her unprotected womb with my seed and really make her mine.
Brianna’s hands pushed up my torso, shoving up my shirt until it was over my shoulders. I was nestled between her thighs, ready, naked, only a scrap of pale pink cotton separating me from her pussy.
“Brianna…” I groaned, pressing my cock against the damp cotton. “I have to know…” I resented the words as they formed in my head. “Am I the only man who’s touched you like this?”
She nodded fiercely, her hands wrapped at my neck as she pulled me down to her. “You’re the only one, Blaise. Only you.”
“Thank fuck,” I murmured, fisting a hand in the panties I’d just bought for her this morning and tearing them off her form. A groan barreled from my throat when I looked on her sweet, glistening pussy for the first time.
“Jesus, so wet and ready for me.” I slid a finger through her silky lips, gathering her juices and then pushing my finger past my lips. “Sweet as candy.”
A tremor rolled through her body, and I knew I had her. I knew she had me.
The taste of her was like a sugar high. We were addicted to each other.
“When I saw you, I knew we had a story to tell, Brianna. I felt it deep in my bones.” I breathed against her lips, hands pushing into her hair as my cock nudged at her lips. “I knew the story of us was just beginning.”
I pushed past her tight entrance.
“Oh, God.” She arched and dug into my back. “Blaise…”
“Nice and slow, baby. I’ll go easy on you the first time,” I husked at her ear, sinking myself an inch farther.
“No,” she said. “No, I want all of you. Don’t hold back, Blaise.” Her words were like a shot of adrenaline to my balls. Suddenly I couldn’t stand to not have her, feel her, sink inside her.
“You don't know what you’re asking.” I paused, unwilling to hurt her, even though hearing her little moans and huffs was a complete fucking turn-on.
“I do. I’m asking for you, Blaise. Give me all of you.”
I slid farther into her, breaking the thin layer that officially made her mine. Claimed.
Her muscles flexed and tightened around my cock, her cries and tightly squinted eyes telling me this hurt.
Fuck.
This hurt like hell.
I pulled her tighter into my arms, stilling my hips until her body could adjust to me.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I cradled her against me, my words hushing at her ear.
“Deeper. I want to feel you deeper.” She shocked the hell out of me when she begged.
Christ, she was begging for my dick.
“Brianna.” I kissed under her ear, flexing my hips slowly, sliding farther into her. “I can’t tell you how much you mean to me.”
“Harder, Blaise.” She pulled at my hair, bringing my lips to hers in a soft kiss.
I kissed her back, thrusting my tongue past her pouty lips, enjoying the honeyed taste of her. I sped up, groaning as her eager body flexed against me.
“You were made for me, Brianna. That’s the only thing I know for sure,” I murmured at her lips, thrusting one final time before I hit the end of her. Buried deep in her body, I fucking found God.
“Talk to me, sweetheart. Tell me how it feels.” My hips slid back and forth, my body finding a rhythm just for us.
“Good. God, you feel so good.” Her words serrated groans.
Fucking Brianna Foster might be the death of me.
They could write it front and center on my tombstone.
Fucked until the day he died, buried deep inside Brianna, a very happy man.
I wanted to plunge into her without warning. I needed to be inside her, pumping away, chasing my orgasm, but I’d seen myself. I knew I was bigger than average. I had to be gentle. I didn’t want to leave her sore and unable to fuck for days, because that’s exactly what I had in mind.
Fucking her again and again, for days, until she was full of me.
I moved my lips down to her hard nipples and pulled one into my mouth. One hand supported me over her body, the other wrapped around her shapely waist, pulling her into me as I pumped away.
“Jesus Christ, so fucking hot and tight, like a goddamn fist around my dick. The way your pussy hugs my cock, baby, never felt anything like it.” I thrust into her, and she took everything I had to give. My hair fell into my face as I pounded her, her moans echoing across the room, nails biting into my back, the pain-pleasure sensation causing the base of my spine to tingle. I ground my hips and circled, my pelvis working against her clit. I angled my hips and clenched at the flesh of her ass to lift her up into me, to position her to hit the spot on her inner wall that would have her coming apart beneath me.
It worked just like I thought it would as a string of curse words erupted from her throat and she came around my dick.
“Aww, feel so good milking me, baby. Your pussy is pulsing, pulling my orgasm out of me, tightening and fisting.” I dipped my head as I continued to thrust and grind against her. I caught her lips and kissed her as I pounded until my release erupted through me. Her body went limp beneath me, sated as I poured into her. Her chest heaved, her nipples rasping against my chest, arms over my head and fisted around my neck with pleasure.
“You fuck like an animal, baby.”
She grinned a Cheshire cat grin that turned up her orgasm-flushed cheeks and made my cock throb. I could fuck her again and again. I’d never wanted anyone as goddamn badly as I wanted Brianna Foster.
“Stop giving me that grin.” I plucked her nipple with my thumb and finger, loving her squeal.
“Yes, boss.” She wrapped her arms around my chest, nails dancing across the bare skin of my back.
“Mmm, I like that.” I yanked her chin to me, taking her lips in a sensual kiss.
“I’m sore, Blaise. You fucked me straight into submission.” She giggled. A melody that sounded so fucking sweet to my ears, I couldn’t help but smile myself.
“I like the sound of that.” I smacked her on the ass, making sure I left a sting. “I like kinky.”
“Ow! Oh, my God.” She rubbed her ass.
“You sure are a surprise, sweetheart.” I kissed her again.
Chapter Seven
Blaise
“Mornin’, beautiful, what’s your pleasure?” I held a steaming cup of black brew in my hand as she descended the stairs.
“Thank you.” She took the mug, sipping then setting it on the counter. Wild waves of hair curtained around her shoulders, her body all soft and warm, fresh from sleep and still drowsy. She was a vision first thing in the morning.
“Love waking up to you.” I slid a palm down the center of her body as I sucked on the flesh of her earlobe. I glided my hand up her silky thigh and traveled to the apex of her thighs to find her bare.
“Christ, where are your panties?” My voice was gruff as I pushed my aching erection into her ass.
“What’s the point? You’re just going to rip them off me anyway.” Her chest heaved with shallow breaths as I glided my fingers over her soaked flesh.
“Mmm, always so responsive when I touch you.” I spun her and lifted her up on the counter in an instant. A lazy smile fell across my face as she palmed my rock-hard arousal in her hands. “Nuh-uh.” I pulled my hips out of her reach. “I need to taste that sweet pussy.” I ducked my head and took her lips with my own in a punishing kiss. One hand kneaded her breast as the other pushed her to lean back against the cupboard. “That’s my girl.” I pulled away, and desire flashed in her eyes. My eyes flicked down her beautiful body. “So fucking sweet.” I danced one fingertip high up on her thigh where her dress had ridden up. A low growl escaped my throat when she licked her lips as she watched my fingertip trailing a path around her heated flesh. “You want me, baby?”