“Have you used any?” He tipped out the contents of the bag on her bed in front of her. “No, look at that, all still pristine in their sealed packaging.”
“Nadia gave them to me,” Abbi half mumbled. “Stuff like this gets sent to the magazine all the time.”
“She’s a really good friend, isn’t she?” Joe poked through the items.
“Yes.”
“This looks interesting.” He quirked his eyebrow.
Abbi glanced at the ball gag and couldn’t repress her shiver.
He laughed and swept the toys back into the bag. “I think I should take possession of these and bring them out a bit later.”
She didn’t think she’d ever want to use some of those toys.
He dropped the bag back down on the floor and touched her chin with his finger. “Are you ready?”
Ready? That was an understatement. “Just call me Ever-Ready Abbi,” she joked lamely.
“I know.” He laughed as he leaned close.
She swatted him but he grabbed her hand.
“You’re asking for it,” he warned.
“You’re not into spanking.”
He shook his head. “I think I’d prefer to see you suffer in other ways.”
Pleasure spurted through her, mingling with relief. She didn’t think pain was her thing. “Such as?”
His eyes gleamed. “You’ll see.”
“You’ve always been good at this, haven’t you?” she asked half an hour later, so dazed she couldn’t think better of it before asking.
He levered himself up on his elbows and looked down at her, mild confusion creasing his gorgeous features. “At what?”
“Making this easy.” She shrugged. “Keeping things fun and light and good.”
“By ‘things’ you mean sex?”
She nodded, spreading her legs a fraction wider to fit him more comfortably; she liked him staying so close. “You don’t bat an eyelid at sex toys. At sex talk. It’s always been easy for you.”
He laughed. “Yes, maybe I discovered how good it could be.” He lifted a hand and massaged her shoulder, his fingertips moving in slow, firm circles. “But it wasn’t always easy.”
Back at school Abbi had wondered about his life prior to coming to the Burns household, and she wondered about it again now. She’d never heard him discuss his past—he’d just arrived at school and gotten on with making his future. She’d never heard any stories, never heard any gossip from the girls, other than about his sexual prowess. It was like he lived only in the present. Easygoing, making the most of the moment. But now that she had the opportunity, she couldn’t resist asking.
“In what way wasn’t it easy?” she asked softly, mirroring his light massage, only she traced the indentations of his muscled chest with the tips of her fingers.
She knew he’d been one of the youngest first picks ever in the NBA draft; he hadn’t finished college because he’d gone pro. And he’d proven himself. Until that day when he’d been taken out in a foul. His freak fall on the court had snapped his right femur, bone piercing through his skin. Even now the footage was on YouTube in those “worst ever on-court injury” compilations. Abbi had watched it once and was still horrified. Some sports pundits had reckoned that he could come back from it. But Joe hadn’t. He’d gone back to college, gotten his degree, and started his business. And here he was.
…
Joe carefully lifted himself off Abbi and onto his side, facing her. He’d never been one for pillow talk—never understood the need to open up and emote. After sex he liked to sleep or maybe eat or maybe just go for round two already. But Abbi looked all pink and pleased, her big blue gaze focused on him with interest. Searching, curious, wanting to know more.
He didn’t want to give more. But a verbal shutdown would shatter her blossoming bedroom confidence. He didn’t want to snuff that glow in her eyes.
“I was doing everything I could to hold on to my new world,” he said, feeling rueful. “I was busting my butt on the basketball court, in class at school trying to catch up. Trying to be the good son and brother, to fit in with my new foster family. I was scared of losing it. I’d lost it so many times before.” He’d been angry, alone, literally lost. It was only when his talent at basketball had been recognized by his foster father that his life began to take on some kind of meaning. Only then his basketball skill caused more problems for him in that family. With his new “brother.” “I tried to do whatever it took to stay. I worked so damn hard. So when some pretty girl smiled at me and asked me to kiss her? Feel her up? Invited me inside?” He shook his head and laughed. “How was I supposed to deny myself that pleasure? It felt good. Warm.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It worked for me.”
She rolled to face him, her skin luminous. Her eyes searching, but not judging. “Did it work for your partners?”
His lips twisted. “My foster mom at the time, Brigit, took me to the side and told to me be careful—not just in terms of safe sex, but emotionally. For my partners. I learned to keep it light.”
“Why not get heavy?”
“Because there was too much else I had to work for.” He shrugged. He didn’t have enough to give. He never would. There was just that bit of him missing. From birth.
“You worked hard.”
“You’ve no idea.” Inside he’d been terrified of stepping with the wrong foot. It had taken him a long time to believe that the Burnses’ was his home. And in the end, of course, it wasn’t. The resentment of his foster brother, Zach, who’d been the best basketball player at school until Joe turned up? That had turned the situation septic.
Wasn’t it just ironic that the thing he was best at had ruined his one chance of winning a happy family.
They were better off without him. Like always.
So yeah, when some girl had gotten on her knees and given him his first-ever blow job, he’d found an outlet. He’d gotten good at that too.
But all it had ever been was a temporary escape. A way of relaxing from the pressure. He wanted to escape this intimacy now—via sex. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I like to think I didn’t.” He tried to close the convo.
But Abbi’s smile turned cheeky. “They all loved you. They all wanted to keep you. But they didn’t seem to be desperate when they couldn’t. You stayed friends with them. Which was pretty rare for most guys back then.”
He knew he’d hurt a couple of high school lovers, but breaking hearts was never his goal. It had taken him a while to adjust to the emotional arc of it. Now he knew how to keep it easy, when to pull back. He needed to pull back now.
“All those girls at school…” She trailed off. Her blue eyes flashed something fierce.
Joe sat up and leaned over her, to see right into her pretty face. “You’re not jealous, are you?” He shouldn’t be pleased. But he was. She’d wanted him back then?
No way.
She’d been doing math at a level three years above her own. She also had the knack of explaining things. And community service had been part of one of those geek-awards programs she’d been doing. He’d been her community service.
“When you tutored me in math, you actually looked at me.” He brushed her hair back from her face, enjoying the silky feel of the long strands. “You looked up from your book and stared right at me. And then I really saw you and you were so…hot.” More than hot, she’d been sweet. He’d wanted her to look like that always at him—with that intensity. “But after our sessions ended, you never looked at me again. I tried a couple of times, to catch your eye.”
“No you didn’t.” A confused expression crossed her face.
Oh God, she really had no idea. “A shy girl sometimes has to be careful she doesn’t make a guy think she’s not interested.”
“You were never interested.” Her jaw dropped.
His gut twisted at the same time desire rampaged through him. He almost shivered. “You have any idea how mesmerizing your eyes are? How luminous your skin is?”
&
nbsp; He smiled ruefully as her skin washed over in a red glow. Damn, he’d miss it if she ever stopped blushing. But he breathed out, trying to ease the tightening in his chest. Trying to shake off that disappointed tension—that he could have been with her back then?
But reality slammed back into him. It never would have worked. He’d have hurt her.
“It’s a good thing you were shy,” he said, trying to convince himself as much as tease her. “You wouldn’t have liked being one of my posse.”
She rolled her eyes. “Your pussy posse.”
“I never called them that.” He laughed even as he winced. “What was it you were jealous of?”
“Don’t you mean who?” Abbi bristled. “You don’t get it, do you? You may have had it tough for much of your life, but when it came to getting it, you were on easy street.”
He couldn’t exactly argue with that.
“I hated Elle Manning,” she blurted.
Elle who? It took him a second to remember who Abbi meant. Then he placed her—total party girl who liked to work her way around the team. “How come?”
“How come?” She looked at him like he was a prize idiot. “Elle didn’t have to wear braces. She didn’t need to hide in oversize sweaters and a scarf. She had pert boobs and a perfect teen body.”
And oh yeah, Abbi was jealous.
Joe was too tickled. “You wanted to be like her?” Crazy woman, Abbi was so much more than gorgeous.
She hesitated. “I once overheard her talking about giving you a blow job.”
“Did you?” Now that annoyed him. “I can’t stand people who kiss and tell.”
“She said very complimentary things.”
“Don’t pacify me. I don’t care what she said.” The look on Abbi’s face made him forget the annoyance. Forget Elle. He leaned a little over her. “I want to know how it made you feel.” God did he want to know.
Blue eyes flashed up at him. “I wanted it to be me.”
Fuck yeah. He wanted that too. So damn much. He rolled onto his back and thrust off the sheet covering him. “Take me then.”
Chapter Twelve
“Keep secrets.”
Abbi stilled, risked a glance down, and saw Joe had fully recovered his energy from that last round of “make Abbi scream.”
Joe’s brows flashed up. “Don’t tell me you’ve never given a guy a blow job.”
That wasn’t the issue.
“Abbi.” He reached out and ran his hands down her hair, his amusement audible. “I do believe I have an extra item to cover in today’s lesson.”
“I’m not good at it. I don’t know if I can be good at it.” Certainly not as good as Elle Manning had no doubt been.
She heard his muffled curse. “There’s not a lot to it.”
She arched her brows and gave his cock a pointed look, pleased when she heard his appreciative chuckle. Okay, good, at the very least they might be able to laugh their way through this. If she really fluffed it, he’d give her pointers, right? That was why they were doing this in the first place.
She straddled his thighs, bending toward his big, wide, straining erection. She stared at it, fascinated, thrilled as she watched it strain tighter, larger before her very eyes.
Because of her.
Heat roared deep in her belly.
“All you have to do is kiss it, or lick it, or suck it,” he said roughly. “And you better do that quick, because you’re making me hot just by the way you’re looking at me.”
She was the one who was hot.
“Take me, Abbi.” His voice dropped to that low command that got right in her bones.
None of her usual doubts entered her mind. None of the what should I do now? line of questioning. This was what she wanted. Just Joe lying before her for pleasure.
She touched lightly at first, with the tips of two fingers, almost tentative as she watched him.
“Don’t worry,” he teased. “I won’t break.”
She chuckled at the ridiculous thought. “You like a firmer touch?”
“I’m gonna like anything you do. Take your time, do whatever you want. I’m yours.”
Hers to explore? She smiled at his boost. He was a good guy.
Now she wondered if he tasted good too. She bent closer, nuzzling into his defined abs, breathing in the scent and warmth of him. Dear heaven, his body was so damn big. So damn perfect. She ran her hands over his chest, swirling the tips of her fingers around his nipples—teasing to see if she could get his as hard as hers. Finally she moved her attentions lower, checking out the silky skin of his shaft, the broad, blunt head of him. She licked at the slit, then roved lower, discovering the weight of his balls, the way he moved when she lightly squeezed them. With every lick, every slide of her fingers, she fell deeper and deeper into a trance of discovery, of pleasure at finding how he reacted.
And her hunger grew voracious.
She wanted to eat him up, couldn’t feast fast enough. She clasped his balls in her hands, wrapped her fist around his shaft, and pumped while taking him so far into her mouth she felt him hit the back of her throat. And she sucked as hard as she could, bobbing her head in a rhythm that matched her hand. Releasing him when he bucked his hips. Then she paused, played, catching her breath before bending to try it again. To take more of him.
The kissing, the massage, the frank discussion of what got her wet and him hard, all coalesced within her. She wanted. And she’d damn well do what she wanted. And she wanted to explore every inch of his body.
It was a beautiful fucking body.
She kept licking, kissing, and sucking, just like he’d asked. With every breath, every stroke, she grew hotter. Eyes closed, she moaned and tried to take him deeper in her mouth. She felt his fingers tighten in her hair, liking the tender pull at her temple. She tugged back so she could suck him harder. She wanted to feel him thrust, to fuck her mouth. She wanted him to come.
“I’m not coming in your mouth,” he panted.
She remembered some of those adult films she had watched in the past—and how she hadn’t feel comfortable doing some of the things the women in those movies did. Not with Scott. But now, with Joe, she wanted to do those things. Ached to do those things.
She withdrew and softly sucked the very tip of him before answering with hoarse, honest desire. “Then come on my face.”
“Fuck!” His hips jerked and he tried to slide up the bed away from her.
She smiled. That’s what she wanted—him surprised, him excited. Him out of control. “I want you to. Please.”
With a shaking hand he half rolled off the mattress to reach for his jeans and grab a condom from the pocket. “Get on your hands and knees,” he ordered as he sheathed himself.
She eagerly complied.
He got off the bed to stand behind her and tested her with a finger, sucking in a breath as he easily slid into her heat. “You’re so wet.”
“Sucking you off turned me on,” she said simply, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder. Saying things like that when she was really aroused felt natural. Before, any sexy talk that she’d actually managed to think of had stuck in her throat. But she hadn’t had to think to say that…she’d just been honest.
She heard a smothered growl, and he gripped her hips. “This isn’t going to be gentle.”
She happily curled her fingers into the pillows. “Whatever you want.”
“You’re not helping me when you say things like that,” he growled.
“I thought you liked me being so willing to please.”
“Oh, I like it.” With a throaty mutter, he thrust deep. “I like it too much.”
She arched her back, tossing her head at the sheer pleasure of his possession. His hands swept around to clasp her breasts. Then one slid lower to her clit.
She clenched on him and bucked like she was a filly being ridden for the first time. All bareback rodeo.
Both his hands smacked back on her hips. She bucked and pushed back against him harde
r. His fingers dug into her flesh. His thrusts went crazy wild. Knocking her forward, almost off her hands. She spread them wider, fingers gripping the mattress to help keep her balance.
She panted, moaned, cried out as he took her harder than she’d ever been taken in her life. Hotter than she’d ever been in her life. She hadn’t thought anything could surpass last night, but this was animalistic and wild. She screamed as the orgasm hit her. Heat billowed around her, through her, pulsing with every clench of her inner muscles. Never before had she felt anything as good as this.
With one final thrust he came, emitting a long, deep groan of release. She eased forward onto her stomach as his weight came over her.
“Naughty vixen,” he murmured, lazily sweeping his hand down her spine. “You win that round.” He ran his hand along the length of her arm, pressing it into the mattress. “But you will pay for it.”
“Really? Bite me.”
“Oh, I will. Later.” He chuckled. “You sound so pleased with yourself.”
“I am pleased with myself.” She breathed in deeply, satisfaction filling her.
For once, she was very, very pleased with herself.
That was the first time she’d enjoyed giving head. The first time she’d gotten more turned on doing rather than receiving. The pleasure in knowing she’d made him lose control was indescribable.
“You make me want to do all these things I’d never wanted to do before,” she admitted. She felt like she’d been missing out on a whole side of herself she hadn’t known anything about—a side that was normal for everyone else.
“Ditto.” He toyed with her hair, sliding it over her back with a lazy finger.
Her heart slammed to a stop. What did he say he did with her that he usually didn’t do with other women? The only thing was sex—bossy-style sex. Her heart thundered again. “You’re not usually this dominant in bed?”
He took a moment to reply. “Not as dominant, no.”
“So you’re doing it for me.” She pressed her cheek deeper into the pillow so he couldn’t see all her face. He wasn’t being himself because she wasn’t good enough? He had to act a part to make this good?
Taming His Tutor (Entangled Brazen) Page 11