by Kara Lennox
But none of it smelled as good as Elena, whose scent still reminded him of cinnamon and nutmeg, the most decadent pastry in the case. She’d managed to drag his shirt over his head, and now she was pressed against his bare chest. He pulled the elastic band off her ponytail, and her hair fell in a thick, glorious cloud around her face and then his face as she kissed him.
He wanted her naked. He flicked open the bra clasp in the middle of her back; maybe he hadn’t learned much in high school, but his misspent youth had at least taught him how to gracefully remove a girl’s bra.
She rose up far enough that she could wiggle out of the undergarment and toss it aside. Her breasts felt exquisite pressed against him, but he wanted to see them. See all of her. He’d imagined her naked countless times since they’d met, but he was willing to bet the reality would be even better.
Elena wasn’t a tiny thing; she was tall and curvy in all the right places. Still, he was probably twice her weight, and he easily flipped her onto her back, then stood up and pulled her to her feet.
“What...?”
“I just want to see you.”
“Ohhh.” She smiled seductively and struck a pose, pouting and twisting a strand of hair around her finger.
“All of you,” he clarified as he sat on the edge of the bed to remove his boots, keeping his gaze firmly focused on Elena.
She kicked off her clogs and made a show of slithering out of her jeans, turning away from him and wiggling her cute bottom far more than was strictly necessary. When she stood in front of him wearing only a pair of pink bikini panties, his breath whooshed out of his lungs.
How in the hell did he get so lucky that this amazing creature was giving herself to him?
She crooked a finger at him. “Stand up.”
He followed orders. If she’d told him to walk across hot coals barefoot, he’d have done it, no questions asked.
Elena went to work on the button fly of his jeans, and he found himself wishing there were more than five buttons.
When she was done, she made as if to finish undressing him, but there was only so much of her sweet brand of torture he could take without losing what little control he still clung to. So he shoved the jeans and his boxers down and kicked them aside.
He knew she was looking at him. At him, the part of him that was hard as concrete right now. He could feel her hot gaze on him, and once again he found it hard to breathe.
“Damn, Travis. If I’d known what you were hiding—”
“What, you think I should wear it on the outside from now on?” But all joking aside, he was a big guy in more ways than one—big enough that he’d destroyed more than one condom.
Oh. Hell.
“Aren’t you going to take my panties off?” she said playfully, but then the smile abruptly fled her face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just—I don’t have any protection. And there’s no way I’ll risk—”
“No worries, I’ve taken care of that.” She searched around the room for something—her purse, which she’d dropped on the floor near the door. After rooting around in it, she came up with a string of three small square packets.
“What are you doing with condoms in your purse?” he blurted out.
“These were in the stuff I brought from Daniel’s house. I couldn’t leave them lying around, certainly not in the bathroom or my bedroom—my mother snoops. So I hid them in my purse, which I guard like a pit bull.”
She set the condoms on the nightstand. “Now, where were we?”
Second thoughts crept back into his brain. What if the condom failed? What if he got her pregnant—what would they do then?
“You’re overthinking again, Travis.” She led him back to the bed. How had she known? “Now finish undressing me. Please.”
How could he say no? He would just have to be extra careful.
He hooked his index fingers under the elastic of her panties and slowly lowered them along her thighs, revealing a small, neat thatch of curls a few shades darker than the hair on her head. Also revealed was an obvious bikini tan line—and what a teeny-tiny bikini it must have been.
At Daniel’s, she’d probably had the use of a swimming pool and servants to bring her a fresh, icy cocktail whenever needed. Or maybe not—did servants do stuff for other servants?
No swimming pool here. So many things she’d given up because of him.
He couldn’t think about that now. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and filled his head with thoughts of Elena and only Elena—her incredible golden skin, her strong but feminine hands and perfectly manicured nails, painted a whimsical lime green. Even the sound of her breathing turned him on, and he enjoyed hearing her sharp intake of breath when he pressed his mouth just to the side of her pubis.
Oh, yeah. That’s what he was going to do. He sat her on the edge of the bed and knelt on the floor in front of her.
“Whoa, wait a minute...” She laughed nervously.
“What, you’re chickening out now?” He kissed her knee. Lord help him, even her knees were sexy. And he didn’t really think she was changing her mind. She just liked it better when she got to be bold and sassy and unpredictable, and he was the one who was unbalanced.
She made no further objections, but she was tense as she waited to see what he would do. He spent some time just kissing her knee, making little circles with his tongue. Eventually, as she relaxed, he nudged her legs open and moved to kissing and licking the inside of her thigh, sometimes alternating with his fingers, brushing the tips lightly, getting closer and closer to the center of her pleasure.
The scent of her—not the cinnamon scent, but something far more womanly and intoxicating—tickled his nose. The scent of desire. At last, he moved his mouth between her thighs.
By now she had opened her legs wide for him. The lips of her femininity were moist and pink, and he teased them open with his tongue.
It had been a long, long time since he’d pleasured a woman in this way. The few sexual liaisons he’d had in recent years had been quick and perfunctory, emotionless. Strictly a release. This... This was something completely different. He was a little surprised he remembered how.
He didn’t operate entirely on memory. He let Elena’s moans and sighs guide him, quickly learning which strokes she liked, how fast, how hard. She clasped her hands behind his head—maybe just for balance, but maybe to make sure he didn’t escape.
He thought about escaping—bringing her to the brink of climax, then stopping, waiting until he was inside her before he brought her all the way. But she wouldn’t let him.
When she finally reached her peak, she became a wild thing, a creature of passion rather than reason. Her cries echoed in the almost empty room.
Eventually she let go of him and fell back on the bed. “Travis. That wasn’t fair.”
“Oh, you’re going to claim I took advantage?” He lay down beside her. They were diagonal on the bed, but since she’d already made a wreck of the covers, it didn’t matter. He propped his head on his hand so he could watch her. He played with a lock of her hair, and then used the ends like a paintbrush to tickle one of her large, rosy nipples. She laughed and swatted his hand away.
“You don’t like that?”
“I’m real sensitive right after I...you know.” She blushed, perhaps embarrassed by the strength of her passion.
“I know,” he said with a wicked laugh.
“You think that is funny? What you do to me?”
“I think it’s great, but I don’t kid myself. You can bring me to my knees and make me cry like a baby anytime you want.”
“Think so? Let’s find out.” And just like that, she was up and straddling him, allowing his erection to press against her mons without entering her. Meanwhile she treated him to long, hot, wet kisses, dee
p kisses, so deep he could swear she touched his soul.
He couldn’t resist touching her breasts. They were just the right size, exactly filling his hands, and her nipples reacted to every caress, hardening to pebbled peaks.
She was driving him wild. If she kept this up, he would never get inside her. Then again, maybe that was the best thing.
He never used to be this worried about fathering a child by accident. But since deciding to take responsibility for MacKenzie, he couldn’t be casual about it any longer.
Elena didn’t allow him to brood about remote possibilities for long. She grabbed one of the condoms and opened the package.
“Are you sure?”
“What do you mean, am I sure? You think we can undo everything we’ve done in the past twenty minutes?”
She had a point.
Her hands trembled a bit as she smoothed the latex over him, giving him the idea that she wasn’t as experienced as her earlier boldness had made him believe. That pleased him. Though he was as liberated as the next guy regarding a woman’s sex life, he still wanted to feel as if he was at least a little bit special, not just one in a long line of conquests.
“There. I think we’ve got it.”
“I hope so, because if I don’t bury myself inside you in the next fifteen seconds I’m going to lose my mind.”
“Yeah, but what a way to go crazy.”
Elena might believe she was calling the shots, but Travis needed to be on top. It wasn’t a macho thing; he just needed to be in control so he lasted longer than two seconds. Once again, he maneuvered her onto her back. Without hesitation she opened herself to him like a flower to the sun.
His stomach whooshed just before that magical moment, the one right before he made that most intimate contact. This was so incredible. Did she even realize the gift she was giving him?
Then she welcomed him inside, and he sank into her depths, filling her with as much of him as she could handle. He tried to take it slowly, let her get used to him. He couldn’t bear the thought of causing her pain. But she didn’t look like she was in pain as she raised her hips to meet him, encouraging him to go deeper still.
He could have ended it anytime. He was that primed. But he bit his lip and made himself hold on, wanting to give her as much pleasure as he took. He wasn’t sure if she would climax again so soon after the first time, but given the way she was breathing and the glazed look in her eyes and the little noises in the back of her throat, she enjoyed the hell out of their coupling.
Biting his lip no longer worked. He resorted to biting his tongue—in between kissing Elena—until he couldn’t hold on one more second.
His climax was the way he imagined the birth of a star might be: cataclysmic. Galaxies colliding. Epic amounts of energy changing form. By the time it was over, he couldn’t tell where she began and he ended, they were so tightly entwined. They breathed in unison, inhaling great gulps of air. Their sweat mingled. His face was buried in her hair.
“Well,” she said once she’d caught her breath. “I’d say this bedroom is officially broken-in.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ELENA SPRAWLED ON her new bed, an exhausted but satisfied heap. Her legs were tangled with Travis’s. Her head leaned against his shoulder, their fingers entwined.
They’d barely spoken since their no-holds-barred lovemaking. Words didn’t seem necessary, and anyway she didn’t want to break the spell. No one knew they were here. For a little while at least, this was their private cocoon. The rest of the world might as well not exist.
From somewhere, a phone chimed. Wasn’t hers, so it had to be his. Damn it.
“Damn it,” he murmured, echoing her thoughts, and she grinned as he forced his body to an upright position and hefted himself off the bed. She turned to her side and watched him moving around, finding his jeans, digging into the pocket, all while completely and unabashedly naked.
He glanced at the screen. “Yeah, Leo, what’s up...What? Whoa, slow down, my Spanish isn’t that good....Oh, hell. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m, like, half an hour away.”
“What’s wrong?”
“A pipe burst in the house I’m working on. My painters came back from lunch and found water everywhere. They managed to get the water turned off, but the place is flooded.” As he recounted the conversation to her, he pulled on his clothes as quickly as he could. “I’m sorry, Elena. I’m so sorry but I have to go take care of this.”
“Of course you do.” She popped out of bed and started putting her clothes on, too.
“You don’t have to rush around just because I do. You can stay in bed if you want.”
“Without you? What fun would that be? Anyway, I’m not in the habit of lounging in bed in the middle of the day. I’m coming with you.”
“Why would you do that? It’s not going to be any fun.”
“Maybe I can help. I’m very good at crisis management. I’ve dealt with everything from home repair emergencies to medical crises to the trickiest logistic snafus.”
“If you want to come, I won’t stop you, but taking a girl with me to work isn’t how I like to show her a good time.”
“You already showed me a good time.” She grinned at him, and he grinned back.
“You are one in a million.”
She finger-combed her hair and pulled it back into the elastic, stepped into her clogs and grabbed her purse. She was ready before him, but only because he had to put on work boots and tie them.
“How am I going to explain you to my crew?”
“Why do you have to? You’re the boss. But if you feel compelled you can tell them the truth—your niece is coming to live with you, and I’m the nanny you just hired.” She ducked into the bathroom and grabbed every towel she could get her hands on. “Do you have mops and buckets at the house?”
“Yes. Elena, you don’t have to—”
“Maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“It’s bad, all right.” The floors upstairs had just been refinished, and the carpeting downstairs was brand-new. Now he would have to do it all over again.
“Don’t borrow trouble ’til you see the situation for yourself.”
“Okay, Mary Sunshine.” He grabbed his keys, locked the house and they both climbed into his truck.
“What’s the insurance situation?”
“I have insurance,” he said impatiently.
“A washing machine hose burst at my parents’ house a few months ago, and insurance covered it.”
“It’s not the money that worries me—it’s the time. I promised the house would be done by the first of the year.”
“So, you can hire an extra crew if you have to. I know dozens of qualified, bonded and insured craftspeople. Who’s your insurance company?”
“Securex.”
“Good, I’ve worked with them before.” She was already scrolling through her phone contacts. Ah, there was the one she wanted. Dave Brewer answered on the second ring.
“Dave! It’s Elena Marquez.”
Travis looked over at her suspiciously.
“Elena?” Dave said. “What can I do for you? Does Mr. Logan need something?”
“Actually, this isn’t for Mr. Logan. A friend of mine, a contractor, is a client of yours. He’s had a plumbing incident at a property he’s working on and he needs to file a claim—fast. He’s working against a deadline. We’re on our way to the property now—we don’t know the extent of the damage yet.”
Suddenly she realized Travis had pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the engine.
“Do you have his policy number?” Dave asked.
She looked over at Travis questioningly.
“Hang up the phone,” he said. “Now.”
“I’ll call you back, Dave.”
She disconnected. “Travis. What?” His severe expression alarmed her.
“I appreciate you wanting to help.” He sounded as if he was struggling not to raise his voice. “But you don’t have to rescue me. My foreman has already called my insurance agent. I know how to handle this type of crisis, okay? I didn’t just start renovating houses last week. I’m happy to have your company, but that’s it.”
“Oh.” She’d obviously done something to offend him. “Okay. I guess I’m just in the habit of jumping in and handling problems.”
“That’s no longer your job. Maybe Daniel needed someone to keep his calendar and pick out his ties, but I don’t.”
“Got it. But...I’ve built some goodwill with a lot of service providers. No reason you shouldn’t benefit from it.”
“Great. If I need your help, I’ll ask.”
Whoa. Apparently she’d hit his hot button again.
Elena’s phone rang. She checked the screen and groaned. She wasn’t ready to talk to her mother yet. But if she put it off, it would just get worse. She answered. “Hello, Mama.”
“Elena, where are you?”
“I told you. I’m taking a new job as a nanny to Travis’s niece.”
“You’re living under his roof?” She sounded as if this might be worse than learning Elena had joined a devil-worshiping cult.
“In his spare bedroom, yes. It’s a perfectly customary living arrangement. Lots of people have live-in nannies. You didn’t object when I moved into Daniel’s home.”
“That was different. He’s a billionaire and he’s married. And that house is huge. Travis is a bachelor.”
She wasn’t going to have this argument. She waited in silence.
“What am I going to tell your father?” Rosalie finally asked.
“Don’t tell him anything. Just...tell him I have a new job and I moved out.”