“Asshole cheated,” Jeremy grumbled as he took a drink from his beer bottle.
“How did I cheat? You were standing right there!”
“Well, looks like Mini Luke’s down fifty bucks for his college fund, baby girl,” Luke said casually as he rubbed Emmy’s pregnant belly.”
“Call him Mini Luke one more time and your P is never getting anywhere near my V again,” Emmy replied as she slapped at his hand.
Normally, I’d be laughing as I watched the back and forth banter between everyone, but I was I having trouble concentrating on anything going on around me when the heat from Brett’s thigh pressing firmly against mine felt like it was scalding my skin. I’d never in my life felt so in-tuned to another person as I was with Brett. My body was insanely aware of every movement the man made.
The waitress blessedly chose that moment to show up with my meal. As soon as the beer was placed in front of me, I snatched it up and took a couple hearty gulps.
“I think you and I started off on the wrong foot.”
Brett’s warm breath against my ear startled a jolt from me as I spun my head to the side to look at him. He was so close I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the hypnotic pull of those rich brown eyes.
“What?”
“The wrong foot,” he repeated. “I’d like us to start over.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
Brett leaned back and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Brett Halstead. It’s nice to meet you.”
I felt my lips tip up in a smile at his playful demeanor. “Mackenzie Webster,” I responded, placing my hand in his. As soon as our palms touched an electric current shot straight up my arm. “It’s nice to meet you, too,” I murmured, sinking into his gaze. The rough brush of his slightly calloused finger across the pulse point in my wrist caused my breath to hitch. I was certain he could feel its erratic thrum beneath my skin. I couldn’t describe the effect the man was having on me, but the longer I was in his presence, the more difficult it became to resist his pull, and a large part of me—the part that was heating up deep down in my belly—didn’t want to.
As the evening wore on, the conversation between everyone kept me entertained as I enjoyed my mouthwatering burger and what had to be the best onion rings I’d ever had the pleasure of eating in my life. Before I knew it, I was on my fourth beer and laughing so hysterically at Emmy and Savannah’s antics that my sorely underused stomach muscles ached. My head was fuzzy and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so relaxed.
“You have a ride home?” Emmy asked me when the night finally wound down. “If you drove, Luke and I can take you home since you’ve been drinking.”
I opened my mouth, just about to accept her offer, when Brett spoke over me. “No worries, I got her.”
I whipped my head around to argue but it was too late. “Perfect,” Emmy said with a clap of her hands. It was not perfect. I could barely handle sitting next to Brett for a few hours. Being locked in a car with him, no matter how short a time, was bound to make my head explode. To say the sexual tension between the two of us was stifling was an extreme understatement. It was so damn thick I worried I might choke on it.
I was so busy trying to formulate a reasonable excuse as to why I needed to ride with Emmy and Luke that I missed my chance. Everyone at the table said their goodbyes, passing out hugs, cheek kisses, and backslaps while I stood there like an idiot, booze and Brett clouding my brain and taking away all rational thinking.
Chills spread across my skin as he leaned in and spoke softly—almost seductively—into my ear, “You ready to go or you want to stay for another drink?”
It took an immense amount of willpower to pull my gaze from his soft lips. Staying for another drink with him was a horrible idea. My desire for him was growing with each minute I was in his presence. I craved him to the point of being terrified.
A quick glance at my watch showed I still had two hours before Lizzy would let me through my front door, but sitting outside my apartment was safer for me than staying with Brett. “I-I think I should probably head home.” I knew…I just knew, as I stared into his warm gaze, that any longer with him and I was going to end up doing something I would regret.
“All right, let’s get you out of here.”
I stood on wobbly legs and slowly made my way to the door. I’d have loved nothing more than to blame my weak knees on the alcohol, but that would have been a lie. It was all Brett. I wanted to run away and jump him all at the same time. When his warm palm landed on the small of my back to guide me from the bar, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to suppress a moan.
Note to self: never drink around Brett again. Booze plus Brett was a recipe for disaster.
Sweet Christ, this woman is doing me in. I’d spent the last couple of hours with a perpetual hard-on that was beginning to ache so badly I could feel it pulsing behind my fly. I wanted to be buried so deep between Kenzie’s thighs we wouldn’t be able to tell where I started and she began. The sweet smell of her skin, the way those pillowy lips curved into a stunning smile, the way her lush curves pressed into me when I leaned in a little too close to talk to her…she was driving me bat-shit crazy and didn’t even know it. There was nothing on this Earth more attractive than a sexy-as-hell woman who was unaware of her effect on men. It made her seem so…innocent. But when those hazel eyes met mine, I could see the hunger in their depths. A hunger that matched my own.
I’d watched in fascination all night as her nostrils flared every time I got close. The pulse in her neck thrummed noticeably whenever I brushed my leg against hers. If I had any doubt she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her, it quickly disappeared the moment I placed my hand on her lower back and guided her from Colt’s. Her body instantly stiffened at my touch and I heard the shallow catch in her breath before a quiet, almost silent moan escaped her lips. That was enough to put me over the edge. Images of her soft, silky body writhing under mine as she screamed my name bombarded me. I was making my move. She might have shot me down before, but her body was telling me the truth. I was going to get what I wanted. And I’d keep at her until she finally admitted she wanted me, too.
Brett led me to his jeep, never once removing his hand from my back. I kept my eyes trained straight ahead once we made it to the passenger side waiting for the beep of the door unlocking, but it never came.
“Beauty,” he whispered in my ear after several seconds. A part of me was scared to turn around, knowing what would happen if I looked into his eyes, but with that one whispered word, I lost the fight between my body and brain. My body turned of its own accord and I was transfixed in his gaze.
“Tell me not to kiss you,” he demanded. “If this isn’t what you want, you need to say so right now, because once I start, I’m not going to want to stop.”
I opened my mouth to say no, but the word doesn’t come. It was only two simple letters, but I just couldn’t say them. He stared at me for what felt like an eternity before a knowing smile tipped the corner of his mouth.
“Time’s up.”
I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, maybe for our first kiss to be a gentle, hesitant, but that wasn’t what happened. My lips parted on a gasp of surprise when his mouth crashed down on mine, hungry…dominating. The moment the kiss began, he was in complete control. His tongue darted inside, tangling with my own, commanding a response from me. A moan rumbled from deep in my throat when he pushed my back up against the side of his jeep, pressing every inch of his rock hard body against my own.
Brett wedged his thick thigh between my legs and grabbed hold of my waist as he pressed impossibly further into me, grinding the most sensitive part of me against the ridged muscles in his leg. His lips moved from my own, down to my neck, nibbling and licking at me as my hips moved against him and my nipples pebbled into hard peaks. I couldn’t remember anything ever feeling this good. We were both fully clothed and I was already embarrassingly close to orgasm. I gasped when I felt the bulge of his
erection pushing insistently against my stomach and a sense of power washed through me at the thought that I affected him so much.
His tongue traced back up my neck to my ear, where he pulled the lobe between his lips and bit down lightly.
I was barely able to hear his whispered words over the blood rushing through my ears. “Come home with me.”
It wasn’t a request, but I couldn’t have denied him even if it had been. I wanted to go home with him. I wanted more of what he was making me feel. I wanted everything his body was offering.
I nodded vigorously, unable to form words as he assaulted every one of my senses. As quickly as his heat had wrapped around me, it disappeared, leaving me shivering against the cold metal of the car. The locks beeped and he pulled me against his body to open the door. I’d barely been able to form a coherent thought when he lifted me up like I weighed nothing and deposited me in the passenger seat. Leaning over me to buckle the seatbelt, he then slammed the door shut and jogged around to his side. In a matter of seconds, the jeep sprung to life and we were peeling out of the parking lot. I counted down the minutes—five in all—before he pulled into a dimly lit driveway. I’d never been happier to live in such a small town. Any longer of a drive and I probably would have had enough time to talk myself out of what I was about to do.
Throwing the car in park and turning the key, he jumped from the driver’s side and all but ran to my door, ripping it open and pulling me from my seat. He hoisted me up, forcing me to wrap my legs around his waist as he carried me up a sidewalk and a small set of stairs.
“I can walk, you know,” I panted, still breathless from being so close to him as he fumbled with his keys, no doubt trying to get the door unlocked. I almost cried out in relief when I heard to sound of the deadbolt turning.
“Not letting you go, beauty,” he muttered, his lips still trailing over my neck. “Won’t risk you running away from me.” The instant we passed the threshold, he had me pinned against the wall by the front door, grinding his hard length between my legs just like he had in my fantasies. I was sure my wet panties were about to melt away from my body.
“Not going anywhere,” I breathed as I writhed against him, desperate for the release he’d been silently promising since we’d left the bar.
My hand snaked from around his neck, down his chest, across the ripples of his abs until I reached the stiff bulge behind the fly of his jeans.
“Take it out,” he growled against my lips as his hips thrust back and forth between my legs, rubbing against me in the most deliciously erotic way. I didn’t think it was possible to get any wetter than I already was, but his words proved me wrong.
With him holding my weight against the wall with his hips, I was able to free up both hands. They shook as I worked the belt and button of his pants, causing me to fumble a bit, but when I finally got his silky hard-on free, several thoughts crossed my mind.
First, how the hell was that ever going to fit? I’d never had anything to compare Lance to, but Brett made what Lance was working with look amateurish. Second, was I really doing this? Was I really about to put myself out there to have a one-night stand with a man I hardly knew?
When his head tipped back on a guttural groan as I stroked up his thick shaft and he told me, “God, beauty. You’re fuckin’ perfect,” the answer to my question was a resounding yes. I was about to have sex with this man. Hot, sweaty, animalistic—god willing—sex. And my one track mind couldn’t wait.
Taking my cues from how his body locked up and the intoxicating sounds he was making, I tightened my grip and sped up my hand. At that very moment, I wanted nothing more than to throw Brett over the edge. My earlier beers no longer affected me; I was drunk on the power of what I could do to this strong man.
“Stop.” One of his hands holding me under my butt, grabbed hold of my wrist to stop my actions. “You keep doin’ that and I’m gonna come before I can get inside you.”
At his words, my sex clenched with the thought of having him inside my body and I let out a whimper of desire. Pulling me from the wall, he moved quickly to what I could only assume was the bedroom. Never in my life had I undressed as fast as I did the moment my feet hit Brett’s bedroom floor. Clothes whipped off in a flurry of action, and I was pretty sure my panties were torn to shreds as he ripped them from my body, unwilling to wait for me to pull them down. Buttons flew across the room as he tore his shirt off, throwing it over his shoulder without a care. The second I was in nothing but my skin, he lifted me up and tossed me to the center of the bed like a rag doll, and a part of me—a part that would never willingly admit it aloud—loved his alpha-caveman behavior. Had it been Lance, Lord knows I’d have probably been terrified, but something in Brett’s eyes called out to me, letting me know he wasn’t going to hurt me. I watched in awe as his huge body climbed over mine, every corded muscle, every dip in his tantalizing skin making me even wetter for him.
“Jesus, baby. You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted this,” he mumbled as he leaned over me to reach into his nightstand drawer. The crinkle of the condom wrapper echoed through the room and I stared, transfixed as I watched him rip it open with his teeth and slide it over his cock. Once he was covered, he used his knees to spread my legs wide and settled his hips between mine. With one powerful thrust, he buried himself as deep as he could possibly go.
“Fucking shit,” he shouted between clenched teeth at the same time I cried out, unprepared for the way he stretched me open.
He froze over me, holding himself up on his strong arms as he looked down. “Christ, beauty. Am I hurting you?”
“Just…just gimme a minute,” I breathed. “It’s been a while. And you’re…bigger…than my ex.”
“I’ll stop, Kenzie. If it’s too much, I’ll stop. Just say the word. I don’t want to hurt you.”
As he spoke, my walls relaxed, allowing the slight pain to subside, leaving an intense pleasure in its place.
“Don’t stop. God, don’t stop. I need you to move. Please move, Brett.”
“Anything you want, beauty.”
With that, he pulled out, only his thick head remaining inside, before shoving back into me, pulling a loud moan from deep within my chest. As he pumped into me over and over again, all I could think was that sex had never felt this good. Never. Brett had a gift when it came to this. Within just a few minutes, I was teetering precariously at the edge of a release so strong I was likely to pass out.
“Brett,” I whimpered as our sweat-slicked bodies moved together.
“So. Fuckin’. Perfect,” he bit out with each slam of his hips. “Nothing like it, beauty. Nothing fuckin’ like it.”
His words sent me over, yelling out his name repeatedly mixed with a few unintelligible words.
“That’s it, Kenzie. Come for me, baby. I can feel you. I’m so fucking close.”
Two more deep thrusts and he drove himself to the hilt, shouting out my name like a curse before burying his face in my neck and biting down, causing my walls to spasm as my orgasm dragged out even longer. His cock twitched as the last of his release filled up the condom. When he finished, he collapsed on top of me, nuzzling the crook of my neck until we were both able to function again.
Good Lord. That was the best sex I’d ever experienced in my life, and as I lay there, the euphoria slowly creeping away, reality took its place. The realization of what just happened hit me like a ton of bricks. The steel and barbed-wire reinforced walls carefully positioned around my heart shot back into place. I got what I wanted; now I needed to move on. But something deep in the back of my mind was arguing with me, telling me what I wanted was more than just one night with Brett.
That tiny part of my subconscious was why I knew I needed to escape. It was best that I made a hasty retreat as it became all too clear that, if I let it go any further, I could seriously fall for this man.
And that was the most terrifying thought of all.
I was pretty certain I was dead. Had to be. No man on the fa
ce of the Earth could live through an orgasm like that. When I came, I was sure the back of my head blew right the fuck off. Hell, if my dick wasn’t still twitching, I’d have been convinced I was in Heaven. Once I was right-minded enough to realize I was probably crushing Kenzie, I made a conscious effort to roll off the poor girl.
That was my first mistake.
The minute she wasn’t holding my weight, she shot off the bed like her ass was on fire.
“Hey,” I said, reaching out to snag her arm, but she was already too far away. “Where do you think you’re going?” I smiled as I watched her sexy ass bounce as she darted around the room.
“I need to get home,” she answered, never once making eye contact as she picked up her underwear. Seeing they were ripped to hell, she threw them down, grabbed her jeans and pulled them on before going for her bra. Usually, the thought of a woman not wearing any panties under her clothes was enough to get me hard as a rock, but I couldn’t get past what she’d just said. My smile quickly vanished as I climbed from the bed and pulled my own pants back on, also sans underwear.
“What are you talking about? I’m nowhere near done with you.” I walked to her and reached out, pulling her against my chest as her eyes darted around the floor, no doubt searching for her shirt.
“I have to get back to my kids.” She tried to pull away, but I wasn’t having any of that. The woman had just blown my mind yet she was running? Like hell. I’d finally gotten a little taste of what I’d been craving for weeks on end. There was no way in hell I was giving that shit up. I was already addicted.
“Beauty,” I spoke softly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and tipping her chin up so I could see into her beautiful hazel eyes. “It’s all right. Just call Lizzy and explain. I’m sure your kids are down for the count. I’ll take you back to your car in the morning. Hell, I’ll even set the alarm so we get you there before they wake up. They’ll never know the difference.”
Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) Page 4