After Hours

by Jodi Lynn Copeland

  “It is l—late.” Darn, her trembling voice. She drew a steadying breath. “I have to work in the morning and I’m sure you do, too. What do you do anyway?” Not that it mattered. Nothing about him mattered.

  He looked at the door, but then responded. “Own a landscaping business.”

  “That explains why you’re so good with your hands.” Two minutes ago she’d been riding him like a sex goddess extraordinaire. Now she couldn’t stop her blush over the inappropriate response. She sank down on the sectional, dismissing the words with a shrug. “It has to be a lot of work to own a business. I just manage a store and it takes enough out of me.”

  “What kind of store?”

  “A bookstore. It’s not half as boring as it sounds.” Sometimes exciting books were ordered in. The kind of how-to sex manuals that lured in an incredible guy. A guy who clearly wanted to leave and was only sticking around asking questions out of kindness. “See you, Colin. It’s been fun, but I really do need to get to bed.”

  Something flickered through his eyes. Some emotion that made her heart skip a beat with hope. He returned to her and leaned down. She swallowed hard, waiting, praying to feel his lips on hers. He brushed her cheek with a hasty kiss and straightened. “Good-bye, Caitlyn. Thanks for everything.”

  Joyce, she opened her mouth to say. One more time she wanted to hear her real name on his lips. The tears that welled in the back of her throat stopped her from saying a word. Through blurry eyes she watched him turn and walk out the door.

  Ten days spent hundreds of miles away doing a solo landscaping job for a friend should have been enough to make Colin forget about Caitlyn. If not the time and distance, then the nights out. More than one suntanned honey who called the West Coast home and attended night clubs wearing little more than a string for a skirt had sent fuck-me eyes his way. Despite heckling from his friends and his own fervent desire to move on, he couldn’t get his dick even a little bit interested in those honeys.

  It wasn’t just his dick, either. His head wasn’t into doing some other woman. His damned heart wasn’t.

  Grunting, Colin stepped out of his truck. He should have called Liz and told her he’d be taking a red-eye flight home tonight, and to leave the porch light on. Since he hadn’t called, he relied on the faint light bleeding through the slits in the living room shades to guide him to the front door. Cursing his bad luck for ever meeting up with Caitlyn, he pushed open the door. The curses died with a hard gulp at the sight of a naked ass waving at him from the living room floor. A naked ass that gave way to a slim female back, which led to a long neck and a crop of short black hair. The bare legs attached to that ass straddled another pair of legs, these ones unmistakably male in their shape and hairiness.

  The woman’s head bobbed. The man released a guttural groan and pushed his hands into her short dark locks. Colin’s stomach bottomed out.

  He’d been convinced that getting another woman stuck in his head after what happened with Marlene was a shitty thing to have happen. Walking in on his sister giving a guy a blow job topped that and then some—his sister who continued her merry sucking, as if she didn’t have a clue he was standing here.

  “I’m home!” he yelled, to be sure she could hear him over her happy slurps.

  Liz’s head ceased its bobbing. She shrieked and dove for the heap of clothes on the floor several feet away. She tugged a shirt too big to be her own over head, then shot him a scathing look. “Jesus, Col. Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?”

  “To come inside my own house?” he asked incredulously.

  The urge to send her to her room, and her companion on his way with a well-placed fist, hit Colin hard. Only, his sister wasn’t a kid anymore, and her companion…He turned his attention on the guy, who now stood with his hands planted on his hips and his stiff cock aimed right at Colin. He did a double take over the man’s face. No fucking way. This wasn’t happening. Not Dusty. But it was Dusty. Only his friend would have the balls to shoot him a cocky smile while standing naked and erect with his dick glistening from the moisture of Colin’s sister’s mouth.

  Not about to let that visual build, he looked back at Liz. “What the fuck—I thought you hated him?”

  She turned her glare on Dusty. “I do. His ego’s a freaking mile wide.” She glanced accusingly at Colin. “I thought you weren’t coming home until tomorrow.”

  “I caught a red-eye. And if you hate him so damned much, what are you doing with his cock in your mouth?”

  “She came up to the bar for a burger,” Dusty offered calmly.

  “I challenged him to a game of pool,” Liz added, just as casually. “Winner got a free round of oral sex.”

  “You lost?” Colin guessed.

  “Actually, I won that game.” Her lower lip came out in a pout. “I lost the next one. He still owes me my win, so if you don’t mind…” She crossed the room and grabbed hold of Dusty’s cock.

  “Easy, chick,” Dusty warned. “You break it, you pay for a new one. One this big won’t come cheap. “

  Liz rolled her eyes. “In your dreams it’s that big.”

  Colin fought the urge to shut his eyes, turn around and walk back out of the house. It was his house, damnit. He shouldn’t have to be witness to his sister’s twisted sexual exploits, or hear them, for that matter. He gave Liz a stern look. “You’re not taking him to your bed.”

  She fisted her free hand at her hip, stubbornness shooting from every line of her body. “I am. If you’re lucky I won’t share the details in the morning.”

  “If you’re lucky I won’t kick your ass out—”

  “Relax, man,” Dusty cut him off. “I get that she’s your sister, but she’s a big girl.” His gaze shifted to her chest, and he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “A real big girl.”

  Liz released his erection to hold up a hand. “Save it, Col. I get that you would rather catch me fucking some guy I plan to marry, but you ought to now by know that’s never gonna happen. Not everyone’s cut out for relationships the way you are.”

  “I’m not cut out for relationships,” he retorted. And he did not want to hear her using the word fuck in that context.

  Knowing filled her eyes. “Right. Like you haven’t thought of Caitlyn every day since you’ve been gone. She called, by the way. Twice.”

  Colin’s gaze zoomed to the answering machine on the coffee table. “She called?” He winced over his tone. Shit, he didn’t mean to sound so anxious.

  Liz laughed. “No. But the fact that you were hoping she did proves my theory. Regardless of what happened with Marlene, you can’t go back to being the bed-hopping bad boy you were in your early twenties. You’re a commitment man now. You need the whole love-and-marriage package. Deal with it.”

  Dusty nodded. “I hate to agree with her—not just because of her attitude problem, either—but you’re in a hell of a lot better mood when you’re involved with a woman.”

  Eyes narrowed, Liz swatted his arm. “Trust me, dickhead, if anyone has an attitude problem, it’s you. Now get your ass moving before I decide not to give you the rest of your win.” Her mouth curved in a catty smile. “Women are fickle, you know?”

  Colin shut out further conversation as the pair hurried up the stairs. He didn’t manage to miss the openmouthed kiss they shared at the top, or the way they groped each other as they rounded the hall and disappeared from sight. Hell, he didn’t get either one of them. He also didn’t get how he could feel so damned jealous. He did feel jealous, though, in a way that tightened his gut over the idea that his sister was right.

  He’d tried to deny it again and again the last two weeks, but regardless of the past, he was a relationship man, one who’d been hiding behind a landscaping business for too long. The truth was, he didn’t need to put in endless hours to see the business continue to thrive. He employed enough workers these days to comfortably take off for the next few weeks without worry.

  He had the time to invest in a woman. The question was, did that
woman have the time and desire to invest in him?

  They’d never made it to Chapter M. Joyce didn’t need Achieving the Ultimate Orgasm to tell her that completing the chapter exercise of masturbation alone would never be as fulfilling as doing it while Colin watched. But while it wouldn’t be as satisfying, it might be the thing to ease the ache in her chest.

  It was a sex ache. She’d gone wild with sex for three days straight. The last ten she hadn’t done anything more than fantasize and dream about stripping Colin naked and running her tongue all over his big, beautiful body. As a result she was pent up and in need of an orgasm. Once she had that orgasm, the fantasies and dreams would die. She hoped to gosh the ceaseless thoughts of him would go with them.

  Heat pushed into her cheeks as she sank against the headboard of her bed and spread her naked thighs. She was stronger these days, more of the confident woman she’d set out to become. Still, the idea of sticking her finger in her pussy was a bit much. Then again, she wouldn’t be using a finger to get herself off. She’d be using a carrot.

  Joyce grabbed the carrot from where she’d placed it on the bed next to her and frowned over its size. A vibrator or dildo would have been preferable, but she’d yet to make either of those purchases. The sex manual suggested using a cucumber. Every cuke in the produce aisle had seemed two feet long and eight inches thick. She’d settled on the carrot, lopping off a good chunk of the skinny end. The fat end really wasn’t that big around. Not as big as Colin was fully erect. She could handle it.

  Pulling up her knees, she reached between her thighs and parted the lips of her sex. Tremors shook through her as she eyed the red, uneven flesh of her pussy and the tiny bundle of nerves already standing at attention. She flicked a finger across her clit and gasped as sensation shot deep into her core and wetness shimmered to life on her sex. Holding the carrot firmly, she guided it to her sheath. The cool spear slid a half inch inside. Her hips bucked up and she cried out at the shockingly rigid texture. The carrot pushed farther inside with the arching of her hips. Her pussy grew moister, hungry, seemed to gobble the carrot right up, until her fisted hand brushed against her exposed clit. And, oh, gosh, did that ever feel good.

  Moving the carrot back and forth within her juicy sex, she rubbed the edge of her hand over her aching clit. Heat flooded her belly. Her pelvic muscles tightened. She stopped rubbing to pull out the spear, then thrust it back inside. The breath whooshed from her lips as she watched the erotic in-and-out play, saw the shine of her cream coating the carrot, felt the blistering tug of a fast-approaching orgasm.

  The phone next to the bed rang. Joyce grabbed it, pushed the TALK button and barked, “Can’t you see I’m busy here?”

  “Caitlyn?”

  Colin’s voice cruised to her ear. The carrot plunging into her became his cock. His fingers parted her folds, stroked her clit. His name came out a lusty cry. “Colin!”

  “What are you doing, cupcake?”

  The sudden coarseness of his tone said he knew well. She was too keyed up to deny it. “What does it sound like?”

  His breathing intensified. “Are you alone?”

  Why did he care? She should say no and make it seem like she’d been able to easily move on, but she was too busy to put any effort into a lie. “Yes,” she panted, grinding the carrot in circles.

  “So am I,” he confessed, his tone low, husky. “Alone and lying on my bed naked, thinking of you. I’m stroking my dick, but it doesn’t feel anything like your hand, Caitlyn. Tell me how you’d touch me if you were here right now.”

  The carrot ceased for a second, then started up again, pushing into her dripping pussy with new vigor. She was a sex goddess in his eyes. A sex goddess who elated in phone sex. A sex goddess who’d spent many long hours reading erotic stories the past ten days.

  Closing her eyes, she rode the carrot hard. She breathed into the phone, imagining his hand fisted around his cock, pumping. “I’d be kneeling naked between your thighs, fondling my breasts and moaning over how good it felt.” The moan that punctuated the words had everything to do with the quakes stealing through her and nothing to do with good timing. “I’d pull at my throbbing nipples, wet my fingers and stroke them over the tips.” She brought her free hand to her mouth and sucked in the first two digits, whimpering over the salty-sweet taste of her arousal.

  Pulling the fingers from her lips, she stroked them over her rigid nipples. She writhed against the warm moistness of her touch, the cool hardness of the carrot. “I’d make you desperate for my touch, so needy you’d beg.”

  “I’m not the only one ready to beg, cupcake.” Colin’s voice came through rough, yet cocky. “Your breasts are aching for my mouth. You want to feel it sucking on you, biting at your nipples. Your cunt’s on fire for my dick. You’re fingering yourself, but you know it’s not half as good as it’d be if it were my fingers in your body, my stiff cock pushing inside you. Beg for me and I’ll make it all better.”

  Joyce squeezed her nipple, crying out as electric sensation shot to her pussy. Her sex constricted around the carrot, her clit tingled. She slid partway down the headboard, splaying her thighs wider and forcing her mind back to the conversation. On the visual of Colin’s stroking hand. “I won’t give in, so you do. You can’t stand to watch any longer, knowing how much I want you. I hurt with my ache. You toss me back on the bed and shove into me with a hard thrust that has us both crying out.”

  She pulled back the carrot, then skewered it in tight, twisting, turning. Her pelvis jerked up, her hips rising erratically to take the carrot deeper. She sucked in a breath, gasped. “You fuck me hard.”

  “Hell, yeah, I do.” His breath wheezed in her ear. His cock glided in the circle of his fist, pre-cum coating the length and sounding through the phone line. Or maybe that was the sound of her arousal. She couldn’t think clearly enough to distinguish.

  “I fuck you so hard, tears fill your eyes and I can barely catch my breath.” He inhaled raggedly.

  She struggled for her own breaths, but found none worthy of taking. Orgasm had her in its grip. She balled her free hand in the comforter. Huffed in his ear. Held on tight as crippling tension washed through her in a tumultuous wave of ecstasy.

  “You can’t catch your breath,” Colin continued, his words beyond tense, nearly impossible to understand. “You can’t even think. You can only feel. Your pussy clamps down on my cock. Hugs it tight like it never wants to let go.”

  The crest of climax shook through her. Her toes curled. Her fingernails bit into the carrot. Her pussy gushed forth a flood of juices. “Oh, my gosh, Colin!”

  “You start spasming. You scream. You…” He broke off with a penetrating moan. His hand would be moving fast now, milking his cock with every ounce of energy. “Christ, you’re so good, cupcake. So fucking good.”

  “I—I’m coming around you,” Joyce managed. “Dripping all over your big, hard cock. It’s too much…. Y—you can’t holdback any longer. You—”

  “Come,” he finished for her with a growl. “I come all over your sweet pussy lips, fill you up all hot and creamy. Hell, you’re dripping so much. I can’t stop coming.” The sound of his release echoed through the phone line loud and clear. “I…can’t…stop….”

  Colin’s voice faded with a final moan. She sank into the hazy bliss of rapture, let it cloak her for a full minute. The enduring hardness of the carrot pushed into her thoughts then. Euphoria lifted in a rush. Sorrow threatened.

  Tossing the carrot aside, she slid back up the headboard and frowned at the phone’s mouthpiece. It was time to go. “I guess this is the part where I hang up.”

  “Guess so.”

  But he didn’t sound like he wanted that. Was there hope that he’d called so late at night for some reason other than phone sex? “Can I come over?” Joyce asked quickly, before common sense outweighed the longing to see him again. “We don’t have to have sex. We could just talk, or watch a movie or something.”

  “It’s after midnight.�
��

  “Good point.”

  “Way too late to talk. Come over and warm up my bed.”

  “Yes. No.” Was he serious? Didn’t he realize coming over there would mean embedding him further into her mind and heart? Darnit, she wanted to go so badly. But she couldn’t. She never should have suggested it. “No, I can’t do it. I’m sorry.”

  “Never be sorry when you’re following your heart. You’re the only one you have to please, the only one whose expectations you have to live up to.”

  So understanding. Such a wonderful guy. And she would be such a flake to hang up this phone without admitting the truth. “Colin?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m not following my heart and I’m not pleasing myself, either. Well, I was, but that’s not what I mean. I mean, I want to come over there. I…I miss you.”

  His heightened breathing pushed through the phone line. Five seconds passed. Ten. Her heart sank. Crud. She’d made the most foolish mistake ever. She’d spoken her heart and scared him so thoroughly, he’d never call or see her again.

  Five more seconds passed and Colin’s voice came through the line, low and serious. “I miss you, too. And not just my body. Maybe I’m crazy for wanting another relationship, but, hell, my heart misses you, Caitlyn. My arms miss you.”

  “Joyce,” she rushed out, happiness warming her through. “Call me Joyce. And I’m crazy, too, because I’m falling for you.”

  “The feeling’s mutual, Joyce. Now get that sweet ass of yours in the car and come over so we can do something about it. Or I’ll come over there.”

  She darted from the bed and tugged on her discarded shorts. Who needed panties? Certainly not a sex goddess like her. Achieving the Ultimate Orgasm caught her eye from the nightstand. Thank goodness for the power of the written word. Not to mention really explicit pictures. “Don’t bother. I’m already on my way. I’ll be there in five minutes.”