by Jayne Blue
I tugged downward as Brax stepped out of his pants. I’d never seen him before. Not like this. That night so many years ago had been quick and heated. We’d never taken our clothes off. Never explored each other like this. Brax stood stock still save for the hard breaths he took that sent a shudder through him. I slid my hands over the granite hard curve of his ass. I think I liked that part of him best of all. Sculpted like marble with hard muscles that bunched beneath my fingertips. I grew bold, skimming my fingers between his legs until I felt the heavy weight of his balls. He let out a noise, part lustful growl and hitched breath. Then he turned, gently taking my wrists in his hands he pushed me back toward the bed until I sat in front of him.
“My turn,” he said. He leaned forward and hooked his fingers under the waistband of my underwear and dragged them down. I reached back and unhooked the clasp of my bra and let that fall away. Slowly I leaned back; propping myself up on my elbows, I lay myself open for his inspection.
Brax went to his knees at the edge of the bed. He put a hand on each of my knees and pressed them flat against the bed, spreading my legs wide. I quivered before him as he wasted no time. He slid two fingers between my legs, testing my arousal. I could hide nothing from him. He found me wet . . . swollen. So ready.
I cried out as he spread my lips wide with those two fingers and worked me over with his thumb. A wicked smirk lifted the corners of his mouth and his eyes flashed at how quickly I responded to him. I felt made for this. Made for him. With everyone else I had to hold on so tight. Be something or someone they expected me to be. The good daughter. The boss. The one bright spot in a family that had fallen so far down. But with Brax I was just me. And it was just this. A moment. Forever.
“God,” he whispered. “Look at you. Do you realize how fucking sexy you are?”
I felt a blush heat my cheeks. Brax kept his practiced fingers between my thighs. Working me. Drawing me out, making me shudder and gasp and thrust my hips unbidden.
He slid a finger inside of me and worked me from there too. I moaned and threw my head back. But Brax hooked a finger under my chin and brought me back to the present.
“Stay with me,” he whispered. “Right here.” He made a vee with two fingers and pointed to his eyes.
He redoubled his efforts, hooking three fingers together and sliding them deep inside of me. He held them still, making me do the work. With my eyes locked with his, I thrust my hips and fucked. He leaned down and brought his lips to my breast, flicking one nipple with his tongue, then the other. Then he blew on me, pebbling my nipples. Still he kept his fingers inside of me while I bucked and thrust, my movements becoming more erratic as my desire rose.
“Please,” I gasped. His fingers felt so good, but I wanted more. I wanted him to fill me. But he made me wait, drawing out the sensation nearly to my breaking point. I knew what he was doing. He’d make me beg. And God, I wanted to. I wanted to plead and crawl, become shameless and reckless all over again. I was his. Only his. With each thrust of his fingers. With each maddening slide of his thumb over my sensitive bud, he claimed me. With my eyes open he wanted me to see what I was with him.
“Yes,” I cried out. “Anything. Please. Brax.”
Then he leaned down and crushed his lips against mine. His tongue urgent, insistent as he finally withdrew his fingers and slid his rock hard cock into me. He’d stretched me already with his fingers and primed me for him. Even so, my eyes went wide at the size of him. How had I forgotten? How had I ever settled for anyone else? There hadn’t been many. One before him when I was a teenager. Two or three since. But no one like Brax. He fit inside me, stretching my contours, molding me to him.
Again, I tried to close my eyes. Again, he wouldn’t have it.
“Nicole, look at me.”
I snapped my eyes open and Brax slid his hands beneath my hips. He flipped me with agile strength that took my breath away. Now I straddled him as he rooted himself as deep as he could go.
I threw my head back and thrust my hips. Brax kept one steadying hand at my waist, and used the other to play with my nipples, tugging gently to heighten my arousal. Then he reached up and tugged the rubber band holding the remnants of my bun in place. My hair spilled around my shoulders and feathered against his arm. I put my hands flat on his chest to brace myself as I felt the first shuddering waves of pleasure.
“I can’t,” I said, struggling to form my words. “I can’t hold back. Brax.”
“Let go, baby,” he said. “I want you to. I want to feel you around me when you come.”
Then a torrent unleashed. A starburst of sensations spread from my core to every nerve ending. I screamed like no one could hear. Held nothing back. Wave after wave of pleasure washed over me as Brax hooked his fingers in mine and held me up. I ground out my orgasm, shuddering and clenching around him. If he hadn’t laced his fingers through mine, I would have collapsed. But Brax was strong and gentle. As he felt me crest down, he brought himself up; cradling me with a steady hand behind my back he flipped me.
I brought my legs up, finding the strength to wrap them around his waist as Brax seated himself deep inside me again. I held on as he began the slow, pounding rhythm he needed to bring himself to his own, explosive orgasm. His face swam above me and his eyes held mine. He was strong and fierce. His Viking hair fell around us like a curtain, mixing with mine, the shades a perfect match. I’d never noticed that before.
It made me feel like I was made for him in more ways than one. The way he fit perfectly inside of me, filling me to the brim. With each pounding stroke I felt my walls clench around him again. Impossibly, a new rising tide took over. Brax felt it too. He dug his toes into the headboard and went rigid inside of me, letting me get the friction I needed to wring out another smaller orgasm. I’d never done that before. Never more than once. But Brax seemed so in tune with my body I wondered if he could bring me to climax over and over. If only I had my whole life to do nothing but try.
Then Brax leaned down and caught my lips in a kiss. His rhythm stuttered as he poured himself inside me. I curled my body around his to receive it. My fingers threaded through his hair, my legs still drawn up, spread wide and wrapped around his hips. As he crested down, he feathered my neck with kisses as he whispered my name in the dark. He was still inside of me later, as he gathered me into his arms and watched me fall asleep.
Chapter Ten
Brax
I probably should have woken Nicole earlier. But it was just past dawn and I knew if I did, she might find an excuse to leave. I was selfish. I wanted her here. Hell, I wanted to tie her to the bed and keep her waiting for me. The thing is, I think she wanted me to. We’d gone late into the night and I did things to her I’d fantasized about since that first time under the bleachers. I’d lost count of how many times I’d taken her. Four? Five? Hell, my legs felt weak from it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had trouble walking today.
My balls clenched again as I cracked egg shells against the lip of an iron skillet. The yolks sizzled and hissed as they made contact with the heat. I had bacon frying in another pan and I flipped it just in time. Yeah. That’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted Nicole to remember the feel of me inside her all day. Fuck. Every day. The shit swirling around her and her brother might get more complicated, but one thing was crystal clear. Nicole was mine.
Mine.
My phone vibrated on the counter and I picked it up before the ring could reach Nicole’s ears.
“You coming in this morning?” Tate said.
“It’s early, man. Not even seven. Is something up?”
“No. I just thought you were going to stay here last night. That’s what you told Mac. Did you forget?”
Shit. I had. We always kept two guys overnight at both the gym and The Den. It was an old habit, but shit had happened in the past that made it a necessary precaution. We only trusted our own members to protect our interests and react if something went down.
“Fuck. Yeah. I guess I did. I’ll take
tonight’s shift though. Is everything all right over there?”
“Oh yeah. We’re good. It was just nobody heard from you so I wanted to check in. Hope you had a good reason for being AWOL.” The sneer in Tate’s voice would have earned him a slug to the arm from me if he’d said it in person. Still, my reason for staying away descended the stairs dressed in nothing but an oversized Great Wolves Gym t-shirt she’d probably found in one of my drawers.
Fuck. She looked sexy as hell in it. Her hair fell in cascading waves around her shoulders and she rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she padded over to me in her bare feet. I’d claimed her last night, pure and simple. But seeing her in that shirt made it feel like she was wearing my brand. Yeah. I liked that a lot.
“Look, I gotta go,” I said to Tate. He was still talking in my ear but I didn’t hear a damn thing he said. “I’ll be there before noon.” Tate said more things but I’d clicked off the phone and set it on the counter.
“Mmm,” Nicole said, her voice groggy from sex and lack of sleep. We’d only settled for the night about two hours ago. “I’m starving.”
“Good,” I said, reaching over to turn off the burners as she slid her arms around my waist and rested her head against the center of my back. She cheated and snagged a strip of bacon. I swatted her round ass and heated blood raced straight to my cock when I realized she really wasn’t wearing anything underneath my t-shirt.
I plated her breakfast as she hopped up on the counter. It put her at eye level with me as I set the plate beside her and stood between her legs.
“Oh no you don’t,” she said as I fumbled under the hem of the shirt and found her secret spot. She could feign a protest all she wanted, but I held my own personal lie detector button right under my thumb. I smiled as she grew hot for me and I felt that slow trickle of moisture slide beneath my thumb.
“What do you have going on today?” I asked. Showing her mercy I let go of her little clit and gripped her ass with both hands instead.
She threw her head back and covered her eyes with her hand. “God. I shouldn’t be here. We don’t open the parlor until eleven today but I’ve got a zillion things to do for prep.”
“Can’t your staff handle that?”
She spread her fingers into a vee and glowered one eye at me through them. “You of all people know what it’s like to run a restaurant. I can’t do it on autopilot.”
“Yep. I sure as fuck do. What happens if you close it for the day?”
She shrugged. “Never happened. Not ever. Not even during my dad’s . . . uh . . . issues.”
I cocked my head. “What issues?” Reaching over, I took a piece of her bacon. She swatted my hand but I was too fast for her. Grabbing another plate, I popped up on the counter next to her.
She shook her head and smiled. “Wow, you really didn’t think about me at all after that one night, did you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You honestly don’t know what I’m talking about?”
“I really don’t. And you’re wrong. I thought about you a lot.”
She raised a skeptical brow.
“Swear to God.” I raised two fingers in a boy scout salute that earned me snorting laughter. Which earned her a pinch on the ass that made her squeal. Fuck. One more of those and I really would tie her to the fucking bed.
Nicole stabbed a fork through her eggs. Somehow, like everything else she did, when she answered me with a mouthful of food, I found that sexy as hell too.
“Well, let’s just say my brother came by his addictive personality honestly. For my dad though, it was horses and all-night poker games. He had big dreams to franchise the parlor and brand some of our more popular flavors. He was a hell of a salesman. Lined up millions of dollars. But . . . well.”
“Jesus. He blew all of it?”
She nodded slowly and her eyes went far away.
“Where is he now?”
Her tone was flat and colorless. “Serving fifteen. Mandatory minimum.”
“Fuuck. Federal?”
She nodded and tore through her last piece of bacon like she meant to murder it. A beat passed between us. Then another. Then I couldn’t help myself. My shoulders shook and I let out a hard laugh. Nicole’s body stiffened beside me. Then she cocked her head to the side and laughed so hard tears streamed down her cheeks. She collapsed in a fit of snorts that sounded like a goose on helium and leaned her head against my shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I said, recovering. “It’s just. Good God, woman. I’ve got to hand it to you. When your shit falls apart, it really falls apart.”
Nicole erupted in a fresh fit of laughter. I hopped off the counter and turned to face her. She braced herself with her hands on my shoulders and tried to recover. “I know,” she said through snorts, flapping a weak hand against my chest.
“Oh God. I know. I shouldn’t be laughing. It’s just . . . oh. God. Brax. It feels really good.”
I pressed my forehead against hers as she shook with the last hiccuping gasps of her laughing fit. Then I folded her against me and held her, making a solid cage with my body for her to lean on. When she finally pulled herself together, she craned her neck and looked up at me with those wide, beautiful, gun-metal gray eyes.
“So will you help me? With Doug, I mean? Do you understand why I just can’t give up on him? Not yet.”
I let out a sigh. “I get it. I do. He’s a shithead, but he’s your shithead.”
She laughed. “Exactly.”
“Look. I can’t make you any promises. There're some angles on this you don’t understand and I have no intention of explaining to you. You’ll just have to trust it’s for your own good. So when I tell you to do something, there might be times you can’t ask me any questions. But yes, I will try.”
Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes. “Thank you.”
“But no promises. You heard that part, right? There’s a fair chance he’s messed up with some people I can’t go near. And unfortunately, I can’t do this by myself. I’m going to have to talk it over with the rest of the club.”
She saluted me. “I get it. I do. And I swear I don’t want to put you in a position that could make things bad for you.”
I nodded. “But yeah. I’ll see what I can do.”
She bit the bottom of her lip and I think it was on her mind to tell me something else. But she stopped herself. Instead, she pressed her forehead against mine again. God, she was something else. Fierce and strong in her own way. She didn’t seem afraid of anything. I was starting to love that about her as much as it made me want to spank her ass.
“You’re not who I thought you were,” I said as I kissed the top of her head and smoothed a lock of hair away from her forehead.
She straightened her back and draped her arms around my shoulders. “Who did you think I was?”
I took a breath and looked at a point over her shoulder. I thought about her back then. To me, she was everything pure and good that I could never have. Until the one night I did. But somehow, since she’d told me her secrets I saw her in a different light. Not some Barbie doll with a perfect life. No. She’d gone through hell and survived it.
“I noticed you, you know,” I said. “Not just that night. I’d see you in the hallway. There was a light in you. Like from within. I don’t even think you were aware of it and that’s what made it so special. Like sunlight. Every girl in that school secretly hated you. I thought you were too good to be true. Every guy in that school wanted to . . . well . . . you know.”
“God,” she said. “Just ugh. Was I that insufferable?”
“No. No!” I hooked my fingers under her chin and tilted her head toward mine. “I’m not explaining it right. You were just something special. Untouchable, somehow. Better than the rest of us. And I don’t mean you were conceited or anything. I actually mean the opposite of that. Then that night when your car wouldn’t start after that football game. I don’t know what the hell made me think I could even talk to you. But you
looked sad. And there was no one else around. I don’t think you realized how vulnerable you looked and it kind of set me off. I was afraid somebody might try to take advantage of you.”
She nodded and her face grew serious. “I couldn’t believe you did. You just came out of nowhere and it was starting to rain.”
“Why were you crying? You tried to pretend you weren’t. But I’d been watching you for a minute or two before I came over to see if you were okay.”
She looked toward the ceiling and blew a hair away from her eyes. “I wasn’t sad. Well, maybe a little. I’d just found out Derek Moyer had been cheating on me with one of the cheerleaders from East Bradford. Isn’t that stupid? I can’t even remember why I cared. He was an asshole. It’s just, well, he was my . . . uh . . . first.”
My blood boiled thinking about it. Of course I’d known she wasn’t a virgin that night. But the idea of anyone else touching her, even fifteen years ago. I took a breath to settle my raging heart. I wanted to reach back in time and punch that asshole for her. “That’s who you were dating? Moyer?”
“Well, he was captain of the football team. He was headed for medical school. All that shit seemed so important at the time. He and I were just, I don’t know, expected. Like I was following someone else’s script.”
“Well, I’m glad he cheated on you. Or at least, I’m glad you found out about it that night. Still, I always felt a little bit guilty about everything that happened between you and me after that.”
“Do you regret it?” She reared back. Her eyes widened and I wanted to kiss away any doubt I might have put into her head.
“Are you kidding? Um. No. I just felt like I took something from you. I don’t know, I knew being with me dirtied you. I knew you were having a rough night. God, Nicole. I wish I had insisted on driving you home. I wish I’d known how bad things were for you there. I knew you were vulnerable. But, man, I was eighteen and you were something else in that tight little cheerleading outfit.”
She snorted with laughter again and flung her arms around my neck. “You didn’t dirty me. I seem to recall I was the one who kissed you first, even. Do you want to know why I did? Why I went off with you?”