“I can be generous,” Anne said. “If you’re going to explain why you abandoned your wife and child, I might even make popcorn. This should be good.”
Brad frowned at her. “This isn’t like you, Anne.”
She shook her head. “If you think so, then you weren’t paying attention before.”
“I’ll explain myself to you privately.”
“This is my house. It’s pretty private.”
“Alone,” Brad clarified. “Without him.” He jerked his head at Pete.
“Pete and I have no secrets,” Anne said blithely. “Anything you have to say, you can say to both of us.”
“This used to be our house.” He gave her the kind of soulful look that had worked back when she’d been dumb enough to fall for it. Now it just pissed her off.
“Things have changed. If you have something to say, say it. If it’s one of those twelve-step things where you have to make amends, I’ll hear you out and wish you the best.”
The idea of making amends was a foreign concept to Brad, based on his expression. Anne suppressed a sigh, suddenly not enjoying this anymore. She wanted Brad to go away, and then she was pretty sure she wanted to climb back into Pete’s lap and pick up where they’d left off.
“Anne.” He took a deep breath and took a half-step towards her. “There were things I couldn’t tell you. Still can’t. Things involving my job. I got called away and I had to go. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I’m sorry you were hurt by that.”
“I wasn’t hurt,” Anne said. “I was enlightened. The kind of man who would leave his wife at that particular time for any reason is not the kind of man I want to be with.”
Brad might not believe that, but it was true. She’d felt a lot of things after he left, but mostly she’d felt angry that he’d taken the most cowardly way out of their relationship possible and that he’d done it with absolutely no regard for the child he’d fathered. It had been a relief when he’d agreed to give her full custody without a fight. Her one fear had been that her son would be subjected to a childhood full of broken promises from a father who didn’t see other people as a priority.
“I’m telling you that I didn’t have a choice.”
“We all make choices. Your choice was to pack everything you owned and take it with you when you had your job emergency.” She had to fight a juvenile urge to make air quotes, and the resulting surge of humor steadied her, adding a note of finality to her voice that underscored the emotional distance between then and now. “My choice was to divorce you. Goodbye, Brad.”
She closed the door, making him step back fast or risk getting his foot caught. It was petty of her to find that satisfying, but then, she’d gotten so little satisfaction out of her relationship with Brad that he probably owed her some.
“And at one time, I found him charming,” Anne informed Pete, shaking her head at her own folly. “He was everything I thought I was supposed to want. Tall, dark, handsome. Successful. The right kind of man with the right kind of background who went to the right schools and vacationed in the right places. But he was so wrong for me.”
Fortunately, he’d left. Now he was back, tall, dark, and annoying. Why was he back?
“He didn’t get you,” Pete said.
“He did, actually. He just didn’t want me after he got me.” Which hadn’t bothered her once she realized she didn’t want him, either.
Pete shook his head. “He didn’t get you. He didn’t know what made you tick. He never saw the real you. If he had, he couldn’t have said sarcasm was unlike you.”
“Good point. He never saw the real me, and I never saw the real him. We saw some dream version of each other. We were following the script of the life we were supposed to live. Or something.”
“Something.” Pete was still looking at the door.
“It bugs you too, doesn’t it?” Anne asked.
“What? Your sarcasm? I like a woman with sharp wit.”
“No. The way he showed up here, with no warning.”
“Hell, yes, it bugs me. I had you right where I wanted you, and he interrupted.” Pete turned his attention to her. “Let’s get back to that.”
“In a minute.” Anne cocked her head, studying the man. There were layers she hadn’t suspected here. “Something about this feels as off to you as it does to me. I couldn’t figure out why I was so upset when he showed up. I don’t have any unresolved feelings for him. I don’t have any secret hope that some day we’ll be a real family, because I already have a real family. He hasn’t asked for time with Joey, even though he’d be entitled. So how come I wanted to slam his foot in the door?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“He upsets me,” Anne said bluntly. “I don’t know what he’s doing here, but I don’t like it. You don’t like it, either. I didn’t miss the caveman thing you did there.”
“Caveman thing?” Pete did an amazing impression of ignorant innocence.
“You gave off this my territory warning vibe. I picked up on it. I don’t think Brad did. I told you he was a slow learner.”
“Maybe I am a caveman and I do consider you my territory.” He scooped her up before she could guess what he was doing and walked back to the rocker with her cradled against his chest. “Fortunately for you, I’ve evolved beyond the urge to drag you off by your hair.”
“I’m not falling for this.” But she gave into the urge to snuggle closer.
Pete grinned at her and secured her in his lap. “You’re falling for me.”
“Because you tripped me.”
“As long as it works.”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” Anne said. “You looked dangerous for a minute there. He missed it. I didn’t.”
“I can be a very dangerous man.” Pete palmed her breast and squeezed gently. “I may prove a serious danger to your bras.”
“You won’t be serious about this, will you?”
“About sex? Hell, no. If there’s ever a time you need to keep your sense of humor, it’s in bed.” His fingers moved, and her desire to finish the conversation warred with more carnal desires.
“Pete.”
He put both of his hands up in a gesture of mock surrender. “Okay. I don’t like him coming around. But I’m not afraid of the competition.”
“Some competition.”
“He might just have the holiday blues.” Pete wrapped his arms around her again and rocked his hips under her in a suggestive move. “Or he might be feeling sentimental.”
“You mean, maybe he’s bored, in town over the holiday break, and hoping I’d miss sex enough to do him one last time?”
“Seems likely. How was he to know you had me?” He nuzzled the curve of her neck.
“I don’t see how he could have, since I didn’t know I had you.”
“I’m subtle.”
Anne burst into laughter and gave in to the urge to slide her hands up Pete’s chest and around his neck. “You’re subtle like a sledgehammer.”
He gave her a look of deep suspicion. “You’re not going to sing Peter Gabriel when we get naked, are you?”
“If the tool analogy fits…” Anne grinned, feeling lighter now that the Brad problem had been put into perspective.
“I’ll be your sledgehammer.” Pete waggled his brows at her and hugged her closer. “Anytime you want, my tool is yours.”
“It’s a good thing Joey doesn’t understand all these words yet.”
He glanced over at the small boy who’d dozed off shortly after being put down. “It’s a good thing Joey takes naps and goes to bed early.”
“You really don’t mind, do you?” Anne pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I have a baby, stretch marks, and an annoying ex who’s suddenly decided to hang around, and it doesn’t bother you.”
The humor smoothed out of his face, leaving a very different expression from the one she was used to looking back at her. This was the man who’d been shaped by the Army, the one she’d glimpsed when
his body shifted to ready for action if Brad posed a problem.
“No. It doesn’t bother me.” Pete cupped her face in his big hands, thumbs caressing her cheekbones. “You’re not a girl. You’re a woman. My woman.”
The focused intent in his eyes and voice sent a shiver of sensual anticipation through her. “That’s so Neanderthal, the way you say that.”
He gave her a knowing look. “Neanderthals make you hot.” Then his mouth covered hers and, since he was right, she gave in to the heat.
The first time he’d kissed her, she hadn’t known what to brace herself for. This time, she knew and didn’t even try to resist the urge to curl her fingers into the thick muscles of his shoulders, hold on, and open her mouth to invite more. His tongue didn’t need any more encouragement to slide inside and tease hers while his hands smoothed and shaped her body as if they hungered for tactile exploration the way she hungered for his touch.
“Pete,” she whispered his name against his lips and shuddered, pressing her breasts against his chest while his palms moved down to cup her ass.
“Anne.” He squeezed and pulled her body into his, letting her feel the hard shaft that proved they were equally affected. “I want you.”
“I want you too.” The admission left her feeling slightly stunned. She wanted Pete, of all men. With an intensity she hadn’t thought anybody past eighteen was capable of. “Are we still going to be friends tomorrow?”
“Better friends. Friends who like to get naked together.” He smiled at her and ran his hands up under her sweater to unfasten her bra again.
“Would you really wait until next year?”
“Sure. That’s only two days from now.” He peeled off her sweater and stripped the bra away, leaving her naked from the waist up. “We can spend the time fooling around.”
She giggled, then sobered. “I don’t think I could handle a few days of fooling around with no conclusion. I’m pretty ready to go, here.”
“Then let’s go to bed.” He hooked an arm under her knees, wrapped the other around her back, and stood with her in his arms. He left her sweater and bra where they’d fallen as he carried her off.
Chapter Three
Pete placed her on the bed with her back against the pillows she piled at the headboard and then stood in front of her while he stripped.
The shirt went first, a series of buttons undone by hands that were quick and agile, despite their size. After he took it off, she let her eyes drink in the bunched muscles in his arms and chest that flexed as he moved. She followed his hands down the rippling washboard of his abs to the button just below his waist.
“Pete. You’re ripped.”
“The better to ravish you.” He undid the button and fly and stripped off his pants. His boxers were red, printed with race cars in primary shades of blue and yellow.
“I can’t believe they make those in your size.”
“Want me to leave them on? Or are they too sexy for you?” Pete posed for her, fingers hooked in the waistband, making a joke of it, but ready to follow her lead and let her control the speed.
Take them off, her fevered brain urged. The logical side of her mind seized control of her mouth. “Um. Keep them. For now.”
“As you wish.” Pete placed a knee on the mattress and leaned forward to kiss her, a brief, hard kiss that sizzled her nerve endings.
She put her hands on his shoulders, since she couldn’t keep them to herself. He made a satisfied sound and moved all the way onto the bed, kneeling between legs she opened for him. He kissed his way along her jaw, down to the hollow of her throat, and nuzzled the valley between her breasts.
“I want to see more,” he told her, his hands going to the waistband of her pants.
“Can we turn off some lights?”
“No.” Pete tugged the fabric down her hips, his gaze holding hers. “We’re going to be lovers. I’m going to see and taste and touch every part of your body. I can go for candlelight if you’re into aromatherapy or think it’s sexy, but I’m not going to settle for screwing in the dark because you think you don’t look like a centerfold.”
“It’s not that. Well, not entirely that. I’d have to be blind to know I don’t look like a centerfold.” She traced the shape of his mouth with her fingertip. “It’s us. I want this. I want you. It’s just…” she trailed off, frustrated with herself for not being able to put it into words.
He kissed her fingertip then nipped at it. “You’re a little shy. A little nervous. You’re getting naked with me for the first time. I’m going to be inside you. You’re making yourself vulnerable with me, and the dark would make it easier to hide.”
“Are you a mechanic or a psychologist?” She narrowed her eyes at him, torn between amusement and annoyance that he’d nailed her so thoroughly.
“I’m the man who won’t let you hide from what you want.” He shifted back so her legs could meet and allow the pants to come off and peeled her out of them. He left her underwear in place as a concession. “Pink with little candy canes. Very seasonal.”
“I wore the gingerbread house pair yesterday,” Anne admitted.
“And you made fun of my shorts.” Pete gave her a mock-offended look and then pulled her down until she was flat on her back on the mattress, and stretched out on his side beside her, one palm on her belly, his thigh hooked over hers. “I think you owe me an apology.”
“Mine embrace the spirit of the season,” she pointed out. “You don’t have an excuse for yours.”
“Mine are seasonal. Red. Toys.”
She could feel his toy against her hip and wanted to play with it. With him. “This is the best present ever,” she admitted. “I must’ve been really good this year.”
“Want to be really bad?” His palm slid down until he just touched the mound of her sex.
“God, yes.” She sucked in a breath as his hand shifted lower. “Why weren’t you in my stocking Christmas morning?”
“I can’t fit down the chimney. Also, I didn’t want to confuse things with holiday cheer.” He cupped and squeezed between her legs. “I didn’t want you to reach for me because you felt alone at Christmas.”
“I didn’t feel alone at Christmas,” Anne said, reaching up to settle her hand on his arm. “I had Joey and Maggie and Adam. And I had you.”
Pete tugged her panties aside and traced her folds with a finger. He let out a groan when he found her slick and ready for his touch. “I hope you don’t expect the first time to last very long.”
“I don’t think I can last very long,” she admitted.
“You should be on top,” he muttered. He stroked her, his touch so gentle she bit her lip, torn between the urge to demand more and wallowing in the unexpectedly tender caress. “More comfortable for you.”
“Good thinking.” How could he think at all at a time like this? She was awash with feeling, sensation and emotion flowing together. His body, hard and warm against hers. His hands, so gentle and careful and exquisitely knowledgeable, drawing her into a world of pleasure. The heady rush of lust that made her aware of herself as a sexual being. The security and safety of experiencing all of it with a man she knew and trusted. She thrust her pelvis up, needing more.
“You are so fucking hot.” He stopped petting her pussy through and around and under the fabric barrier and tugged her panties down. She kicked them off, needing to be naked, and went for the waistband of his boxers.
“You are so fucking huge,” she muttered, wanting to see all of him. He helped her, shedding the brightly printed shorts, and the total impact of Pete naked robbed her of breath. Every inch of him was hard and his penis jutted out like an invitation.
She curled her hand around the base of his cock, loving the texture of him. Velvety soft skin over steely shaft. She let her hand glide up until she reached the rounded head.
“My turn.” Pete palmed her bared sex, massaging but not trying to open her.
“Pete.”
“I want you soft and wet and relaxed
when you take me inside you.” His thumb found her clit and rubbed. The direct stimulation made her hips jerk. “Let me make you feel so good you can’t hold back.”
She made a sound between a laugh and a groan and clutched at him, needing him closer. He stroked again and again, settling the heel of his palm against her clit and rubbing in a circle that made her rock up, pushing herself into his hand.
“Pete. Oh. Oh.” Her breath came in sharp pants as need spiraled and then contracted in a burst of pleasure.
“Oh, yeah. That’s it.”
He produced a foil packet from somewhere, sheathed himself, then rolled onto his back and pulled her with him, settling her on top of him in a sprawl of limbs. She let her thighs shift to the outside of his and drew her knees up to open herself wide to him. Her breasts pressed into his bared chest and her sex pressed against his shaft. The feel of him between her legs, hard and hot and ready while she still trembled with aftershocks, made her breath come faster.
“I want you.”
“Take me.” Pete rocked his hips, positioning his cock so it fit to the slick folds that parted to accept him. He didn’t move the extra inch it would take to enter her, just waited for her to take what she wanted.
“Not sure I can,” Anne muttered. She moved against him, testing. His head pushed inside as her flesh stretched to accommodate the width of him. It felt good. So good. She needed more. She let gravity push her down onto his shaft, taking him inch by inch, stopping when her body needed a minute to adjust, until finally he was planted all the way inside her and she felt pleasurably full.
“Anne.” His hands gripped her hips, holding her there. His pelvis rocked into hers, giving her a fraction more. The deep penetration sent a rush of heat through her, making her grind against him to maximize the sensation.
“Mmm,” she sighed, her lips caressing his chest because she couldn’t resist him. Her nipples rubbed against his skin as she moved on him, setting a leisurely pace, luxuriating in the feel of him. The heat of him under her, his hands on her, his flesh in her made her feel drunk with sexual bliss.
“I want to come in you. I want to feel you coming, wrapped around me.”
Undercover Lover: Take Me, Lover Book 4 Page 2