Hard to Resist

by Stephanie Morris

  Keelan sat down in one of the chairs and watched Nataleigh as she prepared the food. Did we win the game? his mind echoed. For some unexplainable reason, his heart had skipped a beat when Nataleigh had said we in regard to winning or losing the football game.

  A strange warmth had rushed through him at the same time. There was sense of sharing and caring about the way Nataleigh had said we. It had been their game, with him coaching the boys and Nataleigh cheering them on.

  It felt good, real good.

  Knock it off Robinson.

  Dragging both his hands down his face, he was coming down from an emotional high, that’s all. He was always wired after coaching a game until he could get home, alone, to unwind and relax.

  But tonight?

  He wasn’t alone. He was in Nataleigh Brown’s kitchen about to consume a turkey-and-cheese sandwich.

  And this, too, felt good, very good.

  Enough of this nonsense Keelan. Quit over thinking this. Eat the stupid sandwich, then get the hell out of there and go home where you belong.

  Home?

  The little dreary place in that dinky neighborhood? Yeah, that was what he called home, all right, in all its rundown glory.

  He’d fixed up the house as best he could, but there was just so much anyone could do with a place like that. The pipes were rusting out, the wiring was shoddy—blew a fuse if he turned on more than two lights at the same time—and a new crack in the living room ceiling had just appeared last week.

  That was what he called home.

  Keelan glanced around Nataleigh’s apartment. There was a feeling of warmth here, he mused, despite its small size and threadbare furniture. It welcomed a person, sort of wrapped itself around him with an undefined something that made him want to soak it up, to linger, allow it to soothe.

  His home sure as hell didn’t do that for him. In fact, it wasn’t a home, it was a house, and a dismal one at that.

  He exhaled softly, unsure where all this was coming from. It seemed as though, after all these years, he was being forced to take a long, hard look at where he lived and found it sadly lacking.

  He stifled a groan. Why was he doing this to himself? Did it have something to do with the appearance of Nataleigh Brown in his life? He didn’t know. That woman was definitely clouding his brain.

  “Here you go,” she said, putting a plate in front of him, dragging him from his muddled thought. She then placed a glass of iced tea in front of him as well before sitting down opposite him.

  “I hope you aren’t too angry with Germaine. And just keep this mind, it could have been worse. We could have had to bail him out of jail.”

  “True, but thanks to you we didn’t.” He took a bite of the sandwich, chewed and swallowed. “I appreciate you stepping in the way you did. It was a decent thing to do. One of the students told me they heard you tell the police that you were Germaine’s guardian. You stuck your neck out when you didn’t have to.”

  Nataleigh shook her head, clear amusement dominating her expression. “It almost backfired for that reason. They didn’t believe I was his mother or guardian. Luckily the other kids’ father showed up to collect his son, so they let me take Germaine.”

  “Why did you take the risk? You don’t even know Leena and Germaine.”

  “Oh but I do.” Nataleigh leaned slightly toward Keelan. “When I made my way into bleachers, they stood up and waved at me, then gestured for me to join them. I was touched by their offer. It meant a lot to me.”

  Keelan nodded, starring at her intently as he continued to eat.

  “I work with animals that belong to customers all day. A cat might rub up against me and purr, a dog might lick my hand and a bird may talk to me until I want to stuff it, but Germaine and Leena are real people. They extended their friendship to me with no reservations. When Germaine got in trouble, helping him was the first thing that came to mind.”

  Keelan drained the glass of tea, then sat it on the table, staring at it for several heartbeats before meeting Nataleigh’s gaze again. “I think you’re beginning to understand why the students at Carter are so important to me.

  He rose to his feet and moved around the table to draw Nataleigh into his arms. She went willingly and when he lowered his mouth to hers, she returned his kiss enthusiastically. Heated desire instantly coursed through him. The kiss was searing and all rational thought disappeared.

  The embers of desire from the prior night were fanned into consuming flames that burned hotter than the night before. He was on fire, consumed with passion that demanded to be satisfied. He ended the kiss to draw in a ragged breath.

  “I want you, Nataleigh. I want to make love to you.”

  Chapter Seven

  The instant the words left his mouth, Keelan stiffened and pulled back. Nataleigh’s eyes were wide, telling him he’d definitely made a mistake revealing such an impassioned truth. He backed away from her slowly. “I’m sorry, Nataleigh. I shouldn’t have said that, done that. I know you aren’t ready.”

  Soft, dry laughter escaped her. “Don’t you think that’s a decision I can make for myself?”

  Still feeling uneasy with what he just admitted to, he turned to the table and picked up his glass and plate. “I’m trying to not to give you the wrong impression here, Nataleigh.” God, his excuse sounded weak to his own ears.

  “What wrong impression, Keelan?” Her voice was soft, but he could tell she’d stepped closer.

  His grip tightened reflexively as he placed the dishes on the counter. He struggled to loosen his grip, but fear of what he would reach for next if he did kept him still.

  She boldly pressed her front against his back, forcing him to acknowledge her and the sizzling attraction between them. As if he could ignore it. That quick, he grew hard and stiff with wanting her, his erection pressing insistently against the fly of his khaki’s.

  “Look at me, Keelan.”

  He dropped his head, knowing what would happen the second he did. Her light, unexpected touch caused him to jerk. He closed his eyes when her hands slid down his arms toward his hands. She coaxed him into releasing the dishes.

  “Look at me, Keelan.”

  When he didn’t obey her command, she lifted his arm high enough for her to duck underneath and squeeze herself between him and the counter until they were aligned from chests to thighs, forcing him to acknowledge her and their undeniable attraction.

  Her fiery determination turned him on and he knew he had to do something fast or he’d succumb and take her passionately until neither of them could move. Just as he attempted to take a much needed step away from her, she grabbed his shirt and held him in place.

  She rose up on her toes, placing her mouth inches below his. “I want you so badly, Keelan, I ache with it.” She lowered her lashes and nipped lightly at his jaw, then used her soft tongue to soothe the love bite. “Stop treating me like a fragile piece of glass. I won’t break. I’m a big girl. I know what I want.”

  Bracing his hands on either side of her hips on the counter to keep from touching her, he shuddered and groaned, holding fast to his dwindling resolve. “Nataleigh—”

  “Don’t tell me no.” The plea was filled with a wealth of emotion as her lips traveled up to his ear. “I want the closeness and intimacy of making love with you. My desire for you is so strong it consumes me.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut as he battled between right and wrong. The words she’d just spoken were so honest, saying so much about her feelings for him. She wanted him and she was allowing her emotions and passions to run wild and free.

  Seemingly taking his silence as agreement, she tugged his shirt from the waistband of his pants, shoved it up and over his head and tossed it to the floor at their feet. She flattened her palms on his bare chest and her breathing deepened as she stroked his taut, heated flesh and trailed her fingers down to his hard abdomen. Arousal surged though his bloodstream and arrowed straight to his groin. His erection pulsed against the fly of his khaki pants.


  Bolder still, she dragged her tongue along the shell of his ear, then dipped inside. “I’m wet with the thought of having you deep inside of me, Keelan,” she whispered huskily.

  Her thigh lifted high along his thigh so that she cold rub herself against his erection.

  “Touch me and you’ll see for yourself.”

  His fingers curled into tight fists against the counter as he fought the temptation to obey her request. Frankly, he was still in shock over the woman that had transformed before his eyes. Gone was the quiet and reserved woman he usually dealt with. In her place was the vixen he’d seen on more than one occasion.

  She gave him no choice. He exhaled slowly as she undid the button to her jeans before easing the zipper down. A heartbeat later, she grabbed his wrist, slid his hand inside her jeans, then pressed his fingers against the damp panel of cotton covering her feminine heat.

  “Oh, yes,” she breathed, a pleased, dreamy smile tipping one corner of her mouth.

  He swallowed hard, which did nothing to calm the chaotic buzz of lust and need clamoring inside him. She was so damned brazen and sensual, her feminine confidence affecting him on a purely masculine level that made him want to drive into her, fast and deep. She trusted him to take her body to give her the physical intimacy she craved—he could see the certainty in her eyes, her expression beckoning him to fulfill every one of her sexual fantasies.

  And he knew in that moment that he wouldn’t be able to refuse her this time—wouldn’t be able to refuse himself, no matter how wrong it might be to make love to her. Her desire for him was very real. And that’s all he needed to know to brush aside his own doubts and release his hunger.

  Without warning, he lowered his head, crushed his lips to hers and swallowed her gasp of surprise. It took her only a few heartbeats to respond to his passionate kiss, to welcome the thrust of his tongue into the silky, heated depth of her mouth. As they both indulged in the rough, delicious embrace, he knew there would be nothing slow, romantic or easy about this first joining.

  Without breaking the kiss, he reached behind her and swept aside the items on counter. Grasping her waist in his hands, he lifted her up onto the surface, heedless of the cramped space offered by the counter. They wouldn’t need much room for what he had in mind.

  With his mouth, lips and tongue consuming hers, he lifted her, shoving the jeans down her hips and out of the way, pausing only to remove her shoes socks. With the restrictive clothing out of the way, he pushed her knees apart, spreading her legs so that he fit in between and his throbbing erection nestled at the heart of her femininity. She locked her feet against the back of his hardened thighs to hold him in place and gyrated her hips in a slow, circular motion. He felt the heat and dewy moisture from her panties saturating the material of his khaki’s and he growled at the new untamed sensation that race through him.

  Abruptly, she ended the kiss and leaned back, bracing her hands on the counter behind her. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she panted for breath and her eyes were heavy lidded with arousal, the irises a sultry shade of black. “Undress me, Keelan,” she whispered invitingly. “I want your mouth on the rest of me.”

  He didn’t hesitate. He immediately lifted the shirt that kept her so modestly covered. Once the shirt was off, he leaned forward, lavishing kisses over the soft swells of her breasts overflowing her bra and dipped his tongue along the deep cleavage in between.

  She shivered and reverently whispered his name. Wanting her upper body naked, he tugged the straps of her bra off her shoulders and down her arms until her breasts were bared and the bunched material tightened at the crease of her elbow. She shifted, trying to lift her hands from the counter so that she could slip out of the straps, but he stopped her before she could follow through on her intent.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered, liking the way her current position kept him in total control. “I want you to keep your hands right where they are.”

  Excitement glowed in her gaze.

  Burying a hand into her thick hair, he tangled his fingers through the soft strands and tugged her head back so that her slender throat was completely exposed to him. Driven by something primitive and possessive that overruled his common sense, he placed his open mouth on her arched neck and grazed his tongue across her delicate skin. He found a particular sensitive spot that made her shiver and drew that tender flesh between his teeth. He nipped and suckled, and did something he had never, ever, done to any other woman. He marked Nataleigh as his.

  She gasped and arched into him as he bit her neck and he felt her tight nipples stab against his chest, demanding their own fair share of attention. His free hand molded to one full, straining breast and his thumb and forefinger closed over the pearled tip and tugged, hard enough to make her suck in a swift, startled breath of air.

  He continued to nuzzle her throat, then trailed hot, damp kisses lower. Finding her breasts, he curled his tongue around her awaiting nipple, licked at her slowly. He then drew her deep into his mouth with a soft, wet pulling suction that made her thighs clench around his waist and her hips rock rhythmically against his thickening erection.

  “Keelan, please,” she urged on a long, drawn-out moan. With the urgent plea in her sultry voice and the sexy, provocative gyration of her hips, she brought him to the brink of climax. Without preamble, he reached up and dragged her panties down and off her legs. One touch of his fingers against the slick folds of her sex told him she was beyond ready for him and any other foreplay was unnecessary.

  He reached for his belt, his movements frenzied as he jerked at the buckle and pulled the strap free. The metal button and zipper followed, and he shoved his pants over his hips, pausing long enough to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. The day after Nataleigh agreed to go to dinner with him, he stopped to purchase the condoms he hadn’t needed in a while. His social life had been nonexistent for a while now. All of that was about to change.

  He slipped a packet out of his wallet. A low curse slipped from his lips as he fumbled slightly. When he had the rubber on, he glanced back up at Nataleigh and found her watching him taking his size and length with an appreciative lick of her lips.

  Her arms and hands were still propped behind her as he’d ordered and she looked completely wanton with her top open and her naked breasts quivering. He had an unobstructed view of the pouty lips between her legs, glistening with her dewy essence—all his for the taking.

  Cupping her luscious bottom in his hands, he pulled her hips to the very edge of the counter, positioning her for his possession and forcing her to press her knees against his waist for better leverage. He rubbed the taut, swollen head of his burgeoning erection through her petal-soft folds of flesh, bathing the tip in slick moisture before ending the torment and pushing into her with one long, hard stroke.

  She sucked in a swift breath, a raw sound of pleasure rumbled from deep inside his chest as he watched her body envelop him, surrounding him in wet heat, and felt the exquisite squeeze of her inner muscles.

  The sheer bliss of finally being inside of her was so intense, so startling, he had to take a moment to savor the feeling because he knew it was only a matter of a few strokes before he’d come. His skin burned, his muscles ached and his stomach constricted with the need to thrust.

  Holding back, he lifted his eyes to her face, finding her lips parted and her pupils dilated with heat and arousal. Wanting her on the edge, too, he pressed his thumb against the hard knot of nerves between her legs, just above where they were joined, teasing her with feather-light caresses that gradually deepened to long, rhythmic strokes. Her body trembled and he could feel her fighting the orgasm building within her.

  “Keelan…move.”

  He shook his head, denying her for the moment, not until he extracted what he wanted from her. “I want to watch you when you come.” And he wouldn’t be far behind, he knew.

  She moaned, closed her eyes and gave herself up to the ministrations of his fingers. She clenched her legs around
his hips, her breathing escaping in short pants. When he felt her body draw tight and contract around his hot, rigid flesh, he finally did move, and took her where they both were desperate to go.

  Yet he couldn’t seem to get close enough, deep enough. He pumped his hips forward and back, again, and again, his every thrust heavier, harder, than the one before. His heart thumped in his chest and his pulse surged, urging him on, taking him higher, but it was ultimately her soft, keening cry and the rippling of her second climax that milked him to completion, leaving him drained and lightheaded from the incredible, shuddering release they’d shared. But in no way had he sampled enough of her to quench his desire. No, he needed more and it just might take all night.

  Starting right now.

  * * * *

  Nataleigh made a sound of protest when Keelan pulled away. The kitchen counter wasn’t the most comfortable place in the world, but she wasn’t ready to give up his touch. He pressed his lips against hers briefly, then pulled away.

  “Don’t worry. We aren’t finished by any means.”

  She shuddered at the tone of promise she heard in his voice.

  “Where’s the bathroom?”

  “Down the hall to the left,” she murmured.

  He surprised her when he finally released her from the bind of her bra. This discarded scrap of clothing fell to the floor.

  “Wrap your arms around my neck, your legs around my waist.”

  The tenseness in his voice sent a shiver up her spine. She had a feeling that their night was just beginning—if she obeyed his command. She would be crazy not to. Doing as he asked, she gasped when he slid his hands under her bare bottom and lifted her up into his arms. He followed her directions to the bathroom, then set her on the vanity ledge beside the porcelain sink.

  Once again, he moved away.

  She watched as he discarded the used protection before cleaning himself. When he came back toward her with another damp towel, she tried to remain relaxed.