by Talyn Scott
“Mmmm.”
Easily sensing her shift in need, Evan wrapped his forearm around Vania’s waist for support. “That’s it,” he coaxed, “lean on me.” His open mouth came down hard on her nape. The pleasurable bite almost crossed the line of pain.
Goosebumps pebbled her skin. “Ah!” His tongue started flicking out, tracing sensitive spots connected strategically to her clit. How did he know exactly where to touch her?
Right beneath her ear, he bit down again.
“Evan!”
He licked away the sting of his bite.
“Oh, Evan…” When he nuzzled the hypersensitive spots on her nape, Vania grew wetter.
“I’ve waited for months to touch you.” His admission sent chills throughout her body. “To taste you.”
A hand skimmed Vania’s soft belly until he stopped on her mound. He kept it still, allowing nothing more than the heat from his palm and fingers to warm her sex.
“Please.” She needed him to move that hand.
Vania heard Evan grit his teeth as his hand tightened on her pussy, gracing her throbbing sex with a teasing squeeze before backing off. He dipped his head and trailed bites down the side of her throat. Vania gasped at every nibble, each claiming bite.
“I want you to dance for me again. Soon, Vania.” One finger precisely touched her clit, massaging the seam of her pants against her swollen nub while he licked down her neck. “While you’re completely naked.”
She sucked in a breath as he sucked in the skin over her hammering pulse point. He bit down right over the spot.
“If I give you that dance,” she said on a long moan, “what… do I get for my efforts?”
“I’m about to show you.”
Chapter 14
Evan turned Vania to face him. His cheeks were flushed, his lips parted while his midnight eyes roamed up and down her body, clearly feasting on what he saw yet hungering for more.
“Evan.”
“Mmm, Vania.” His hand shot out and unfastened her pants with practiced precision. He slid them down her legs, his fingertips grazing her skin like butterfly wings. Evan lowered and lifted each foot to remove her pants but left on her shoes.
He leaned back and appraised what he’d unwrapped. Vania stood in nude hiphugger panties, professional yet tall heels, and a crocheted peasant blouse with a waist tie. “I know beauty and imperfection go hand in hand.” He licked his lips. “I can’t find your imperfections anywhere. You kill me, Baby. You really do.”
She whimpered, waiting on his next move.
Slowly, Evan’s hands slid up her outer thighs, fingers dipping behind her knees on his upward glide.
She moaned his name while the back of her head hit the wall.
“That’s it,” he whispered gruffly. “You know who has you.”
Evan brought his hands back to her waist, kissing and nibbling her thighs as he lifted her shirt. He toyed with the waist-tie of her blouse and peppered kisses on her stomach.
Her fingers curled in his hair when Evan dipped his tongue in her navel, circling. “Feels incredible.” She stared down at him as he loosened the waist-tie. His eyes met hers with longing.
“Yes, focus. Push everything aside but us.” Evan placed a kiss against the V-front dip of her hiphuggers. “Imagine me inside you, Vania, as deep as I can go.”
“I am.” She sank her fingers to his scalp. “Right now.”
Evan pulled Vania’s blouse over her head while delivering wet, open-mouth kisses on her scorching skin. “So hot, you’re burning for me.”
“Yes.” She writhed beneath his lips, the ache building in her sex. How did he make her burn all over? How did Evan’s touch propel her to unbearable desperation in minutes?
“I always knew beneath your proper little outfits, you’d be gorgeous in your skin.”
Evan tossed aside her blouse and feasted on the sight of her. He wiped a shaky hand over his mouth, seemingly transfixed on where her breasts plumped above her unlined demi bra. The fabric was sheer nude nylon, similar to stockings. Her large, rosy nipples stood visible beneath the mesh.
“Evan… The pain is too much.”
“Spread your legs, beautiful.”
She obeyed.
“Wider.” His chest rose and fell beneath his suit jacket. “I need to see you open and willing.”
On a rough gasp, Vania stretched her legs as far as they would go, her sheer panties framing her plump flesh.
Vania braced herself as Evan flattened his hands on her inner thighs and pressed his nose home. “Ah!” She felt his hot breath against the damp fabric, teasing her without mercy.
He breathed in and out languidly. “Sweet and tangy.”
“I haven’t showered yet.” She flushed. “It’s… been a long day.”
Circling the tender skin on her inner thighs with his thumbs, Evan whispered against her covered pussy. “I don’t want to smell soap, Baby. I only want your scent, the earthier the better.”
“You do?” Matt always made her take a shower first.
“Oh, Vania, you have no idea.”
He nipped at her mound through the fabric, the careful graze of his teeth sending her reeling. From there, Evan’s lips were a myriad of movement across Vania’s sex, delivering kisses and punching hard breaths between nibbling. But his technique, his patience in watching her reactions to repeat and amp up what aroused her was unlike any other lover.
Though he’d been toying with her for too long, suddenly her legs hardened to granite. “Oh!”
“That’s it, Vania, let it happen.”
Incoherent words left Vania’s mouth as she bucked from intimate convulsions. With a groan, Evan tore aside her panties and thrust a single finger in her to the hilt.
“Mmm…”
“Baby,” he demanded gruffly. “Give it to me.”
She sort of snapped before flying in every direction. “Evan!”
“I’m here.”
“Evan!” She kept screaming his name until her throat grew raw.
“I have you.” He gentled his stroking, easing her down with soothing touches and soft promises. “That’s it.”
When Vania whimpered and started sliding down the wall, Evan lifted her and placed a reverent kiss on her forehead. He carried her to bed and tucked her in with a lavender-scented quilt.
“Can I lick you now?”
“That was for you, not me.” He frowned slightly. “Do you want pain reliever?”
“No thanks.”
“I know it’s early but rest awhile.” Evan traced a gentle fingertip over her upper arm, his jaw hardening. “I’ll have dinner sent over to you in an hour.”
She would be foolish to argue. The loft had no food. And although the unexpected orgasm relaxed her, Vania felt bone weary from the drastic way her life had changed. “I’ll nap.”
“Good.”
Then she remembered Oscar remained downstairs in the office. Plus, some of the volunteers might be waiting to talk to her. She moved up on her elbows. “I need to take care of the volunteers and Oscar first.”
“I’ll take care of everything.” He pressed the tip of his index finger on her sternum, guiding her down to the bed. “Where’s Oscar?”
“In the downstairs office.” Vania sank into the pillow, her hair fanning out. “I figured I’ll assign him the empty bedroom across the hall.”
“I’ll lock him in there for you.”
Vania smothered a yawn. “Keys are on the kitchen counter.”
“Get some rest, Baby.”
“Oh, Evan?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t forget to bring up Oscar’s litter box.”
Midnight passed before Evan, Drake, and Julian spotted Dr. Matthew Lambert and his lover leaving a rent-by-the-hour fuck palace.
Drake cracked the car window. “That dump couldn’t compete with any Easton resort on the face of this planet, even if given a multimillion dollar renovation and one of our GMs to nurse it back to health.”
&
nbsp; “Dr. Lambert is a cheap bastard.” Evan smiled in a way that lifted the hairs on the back of Drake’s neck. “I’ll add that to his list of Cons.”
“He has a list of Pros?”
“Only one item on that list. He once had fantastic taste in women.”
“His loss our gain, giving up Vania will go down as Dr. Lambert’s worst mistake.”
“I’ll add another item to his Cons,” Julian said dryly. “The doctor must be quick on the draw. Miles said he left work at eleven, and then there’s driving time to consider.”
“Hmmm, her shoulders are all tense,” murmured Drake as he studied Matt’s lover, “clearly dissatisfied. Guess you’re right.”
Evan tapped his knee with restless fingers. “Fast shot kept us from sitting here for hours, though.”
Drake spotted a bloody patch across Evan’s knuckles. “You said you didn’t hit Matt.”
“I didn’t.” Evan flexed his hand. “This was courtesy of Oscar.”
“Who’s Oscar?” Julian asked.
Drake watched Matt get in his car. The bastard then hightailed it from the parking lot before his lover even opened her car door.
“Oscar,” Drake explained, “is of the four-legged variety, complete with orange fur. His favorite past times are sharpening his claws on hand-sewn draperies imported from France and chewing hand-knotted Aubusson rugs, preferring the ones threaded with real gold. Don’t ask me where he shits, because you wouldn’t believe me.”
Evan’s fist came down on the dashboard. “Is Matt’s lover her?”
Drake squinted, seeing a shocking resemblance to the Black Widow who’d given him that lackluster fuck. “Even from here, the similarities are uncanny.”
“She’s temptingly gorgeous,” Julian said, “but there’s something about her that shrivels my balls. Do either of you remember her name?”
The woman drove in the opposite way of Matt’s car.
“I don’t know.” Drake shifted into drive and veered from the curb. Thankfully, Matt was heading in the direction of his house, which would make what they were about to do easier.
“You fucked a woman and didn’t get her name?”
“Coming from someone who names his Subs Lovelys,” he snapped because Julian hit home. Drake was nearly thirty and still having anonymous sex, or at least he was until a month ago. “I know,” he said eventually when Evan and Julian stayed quiet. “That’s an ugly side of me I’ve recently buried.”
“Don’t beat yourself up.” Evan placed a hand on Drake’s shoulder. “Her first name is Gayle. That’s all I know.”
Julian said, “Whoever she is, you should thank her for breaking up Matt and Vania. Otherwise, you both might have been attending Vania’s wedding in a few months instead of tasting her body.”
Drake took a left. “I intend to do more than taste. It’s hard holding back from her, especially after last night. I want to fast-forward our relationship.”
“We’re aggressive by nature.” Evan nodded. “But if this afternoon was any indication, Vania’s coming around to the idea of us. We’ll take it slow.”
Julian disagreed, “I say overwhelm her right into your arms. From what I just saw, Vania was deprived both sexually and emotionally. If you really want to bond with her, and I don’t blame you one bit, claim her quickly and completely.”
“We’ll scare her.”
Julian sighed. “At first, lure her with only your bodies and careful, expert touch, and then work your way from there.”
Coming from a man who played a woman’s body beautifully, Julian might be right. Drake wondered if he and Evan should second-guess their strategy. But still… “Sounds kind of devious.”
“You wouldn’t force Vania in anything,” Julian argued, “so how is it devious to ply her with your body or bodies, in this case? She could always say no. If that occurs, and I doubt it will, then back off for a while and let her breathe.”
“I’m all over that plan,” Evan agreed. “Matt has done a number on her self-esteem.” He ran his hand over his face, scrubbing at his whiskers. “Earlier, she didn’t want me to smell her until she showered.”
“You’re kidding.”
Julian shook his head. “That bastard probably insulted her body to keep her under his thumb, which is typical of cheaters, abusers, and narcissists. I hear it daily from women inside Level 69.”
“It’s a good thing we’re here to counsel Dr. Matt.” Drake took the last street, hanging back as Matt’s garage door lowered. They parked the borrowed sedan in the driveway of a vacant, foreclosed home.
Julian opened his door. “I still think we should’ve asked our private security to handle this.”
Drake locked the car after Evan stepped out. “What if Vania were one of your Lovelys, Julian? Would you accept an ex-lover bruising her?”
“She’s bruised?”
Evan and Drake nodded grimly.
Julian looked over at Matt’s house, his eyes narrowing to slits. “We’re wasting time talking.”
Chapter 15
After deciding to walk to work this morning, Vania tossed her heels in a shopping bag and laced up sneakers. “Yes, Oscar.” She petted his furry head. “I have a spring in my step.” She laughed at his answering mewl. “Wonder why that is, huh? Well, you’re too young to know.”
She locked the front door and descended the stairs. When Vania hit the bottom step, she sucked in a sharp breath. “What happened to you?”
“What does it look like?”
She took in Matt’s bruised face, his split and swollen lip, and wondered why it took Dr. Murphy so long to lose his shit. “At least, your hands aren’t broken.”
“Thankfully not, I’ve six surgeries scheduled for today.” He shrugged and winced in pain. Apparently, his face wasn’t the only place damaged on him. “But I’ll have a hard time explaining to my staff and patients what happened. Do you think they’ll believe I fell down the stairs?”
“No.” She motioned for him to step away from the parking lot, where a few of the tenants were leaving for work. “Why are you here?”
“I needed to see that you were okay.”
Matt took a seat on a concrete bench facing the ugliest sculpture imaginable and sighed as Vania stayed standing. In his current condition, she may not find him much of a threat, but she wasn’t cozying up next to him on a damn bench.
She gestured to herself. “As you can see, I’m fine. Leave.”
“I want to know why you are doing this, breaking us apart.”
“I’ve already told you.” She checked her watch. “I have fifteen minutes to get to work.”
“Are you going to live here from now on?”
She’d loved him for years, yet his question seemed unsettling, almost creepy. “I’m managing the firehouse only until Avery gets back.”
His eyes moved up and down her body. “I see you’ve got your clothes back. I would’ve brought them, you know.”
“I didn’t send for them, if that’s what you’re asking. But I doubt you would’ve given them back.”
Discreetly, two members of the Eastons private staff delivered Vania’s clothes, personal items, and a piping hot breakfast of smoked salmon Eggs Benedict topped with Key Lime hollandaise this morning.
Vania was grateful she had her belongings, but she’d have a word with Drake and Evan. Their sudden highhandedness in her life couldn’t continue. Neither had asked her permission beforehand, which didn’t sit well with her.
Vania lifted arms covered with a black pullover she’d paired with a pink tulip skirt. “You bruised me, Matt.”
“I bruised you?” A line formed on his brow. “I thought they were lying.”
“You know how much pressure it takes to bruise a body, Doctor.” She curled her lip when recalling how uncomfortable she’d been last night. No matter how comfortable the bed had been, she’d rolled this way and that to avoid putting pressure on her upper arms. Luckily, she’d found some pain reliever and bath salts in the bathr
oom to ease her arms. “You intended to hurt me.”
“That’s not true.” He looked at the ground. “I’m so sorry, Vania. I was hoping they were lying about the bruises.”
“If you ever touch me again, I will press charges.”
“I would deserve no less.”
At least they agreed on something. But a question sat on the tip of her tongue. Vania wondered why Matt was furious at her for leaving when he had another woman. Now wasn’t the time to ask.
Then something he’d said hit her. “Who did you hope was lying?”
“The Eastons.” Matt rolled his eyes, one of them swollen halfway shut. “Who else would’ve done this?”
“Not them.”
“I can’t believe you wrapped yourself up with Evan Easton, Van. He’s notorious for womanizing.”
Only shock kept her from laughing at his hypocrisy. “The Eastons really did this to you?”
“Yeah, Evan and two more, one with black hair and one was blonde. I’m going to look them up on the internet later, match the faces to the names.”
“So all three beat you?”
“Well, the blonde packed your clothes while the other two beat me.” Matt grimaced. “The blonde only made them stop in the middle of punches when he needed to ask a question about your stuff.”
Vania wondered if Matt would press charges but stopped short of asking.
“Don’t worry, Van.” Matt knew her well, knew what she was thinking. “I can’t make any complaints to the police. When the Eastons were finished with me, they explained their cousin Miles and their Aunt Gilda were throwing a private dinner party at Hytel Plume, where all three were currently in attendance — that they had at least a hundred and fifty witnesses the police could verify if I decided to press charges.”
Vania bit back a gasp.
“I’m not stupid enough to go against them. Especially after I was told my hands would be crushed if I dialed the cops.” He lifted them. “I wouldn’t be much of a surgeon without tools of the trade.”