Dale’s mouth watered in anticipation. Using both thumbs, he spread her open and swept his tongue up her center in a long, slow swipe. Then he repeated it. Over and over and over again. He increased the pressure, then pulled back, lingering in the midst of her sweetness before bringing her close to the edge again.
Damn. He could do this all night.
Even with the hard-on raging painfully inside his boxer briefs. Even with his busted up knee aching like a bitch as he maintained his crouch. Dale still didn’t want to stop. He was so turned on by the way her body responded to him. She was so incredibly wet. And the soft mewls coming from deep in her throat were sexy as hell.
He had nothing he could give her that she couldn’t already get for herself. Except this. This was the one way he could prove he was worthy of her.
“Oh, my god, Dale, please,” she begged. She clasped his head and lifted her pelvis, holding him against her center.
Dale drilled his tongue inside her as his fingers plucked at her clit, rolling it into a tight bud, then flicking his thumbnail back and forth over it in rapid succession.
Nyree’s thighs trembled against his face. Her breath hitched.
“Oh, my god! Oh, my god!” she screamed as she shattered apart against his tongue.
Dale licked up every drip. He had never tasted anything more amazing than her unbelievably sensual flavor.
Grimacing from the pain in his knee, he managed to push himself up from the floor and took her into his arms. She was feather-light as he carried her down the apartment’s short hallway and into her bedroom.
It was a mess, with clothes and shoes strewn everywhere, and the bed unmade.
He loved her for it.
It showed him that she wasn’t perfect. She was real.
And, for the night, she was his.
~ ~ ~
“Tell me you have a condom.”
Nyree knelt before him on her mattress as Dale stood at the foot of her bed. The erection tenting his black boxer briefs intimidated the hell out of her, but she’d never been one to back down from a challenge. After the amazing journey he’d taken her on with his tongue, she was eager to see just what else he had planned.
“You don’t have any?” he asked her.
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and shook her head. With the way she’d been pursuing him, why wouldn’t he think she was prepared?
“It’s, uh, been a while,” she said. “And with the way you’ve been playing hard to get, I wasn’t sure anything would ever happen.”
He caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted her face. “I’m happy you’re so damn determined,” he said before placing a light kiss on her lips.
He left the room and, a minute later, returned with the jeans he’d taken off in her bathroom before his massage. He pulled his wallet from the back pocket and pulled out two condoms.
“This will get us started,” he said.
Lust raced through Nyree’s bloodstream at the seductive promise in his voice. When he hooked his thumbs in the side of his briefs and pushed them down his hips, she nearly choked.
He was big. As in a lot bigger than anyone else she’d ever been with. Admittedly, that count was relatively low for someone her age. One boy in high school, one in college and Calvin.
She held her hands up. “Um, okay, let’s just get this out in the open.”
He stopped in the middle of opening the condom. “What’s wrong?” His eyes went wide. “Wait, you’re not a virgin, are you?”
“No,” Nyree said.
Relief flashed across his face. “Thank God. With Desmond and Lance as your older brothers, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d made you wear a chastity belt.”
A nervous giggle bubbled up from her chest. “You have no idea how close that is to the truth.”
“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea.” Dale pulled the latex from the foil. “I’d have done the same thing if you were my little sister.” He looked up from where he’d been concentrating on rolling the condom over his erection. “Erase what I just said. That sounded weird as hell.”
“A little,” Nyree said with another giggle. Goodness, she had to stop that. She wasn’t even a giggler.
She let out a deep breath. “I, um, I just need you to take this slow. You’re big. And I’m…not. And, like I said, it’s been a while.”
His face softened as he walked up to her. He captured her cheek in his palm and pressed his lips to hers. “It’s been a while for me too,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you, Nyree. I promise.”
His promise was sweet, but it wouldn’t reduce the size of him. Nyree tried to relax, knowing it would be easier if she released some of the tension flowing through her.
Dale urged her to lie back on the bed, following her down onto the mattress. He levered himself up on one arm and, with his other hand, gently urged her thighs to part. Even though she was still wet from her orgasm, he sucked two of his fingers into his mouth, coating them before reaching down again and prodding her flesh. Sensations flooded her, stirring deep within her belly and branching out to every extremity.
“Tell me if I need to pull back,” he whispered against her cheek.
Nyree locked onto his wrist and pressed down, urging him to push deeper.
He complied, nestling his fingers inside her, moving slowly, until they were fully embedded. His fingers started to move in a circular motion, and Nyree was certain she would melt then and there. She fisted her hands in the sheets, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth to hush the whimpers that she couldn’t seem to control.
She turned to liquid as Dale continued his sensual play. Their gazes locked, his eyes heavy with heat and something…else. Something that touched her very soul. It was the intensity she saw in his face, as if her pleasure was the most important thing in his world.
When his thumb joined in the action, brushing against her tender clit, she was hit with a wave of pleasure so intense her back bowed off the bed.
“Can we just do this all night?” she moaned.
“It gets a lot better,” Dale said.
And then he proceeded to show her. When he dipped his head and captured her nipple between his lips, Nyree thought she would surely die. She wasn’t equipped to handle the multitude of sensations spiraling through her. He tongued the sensitive nub, swirling his tongue around the tip of her breast, grazing it with his teeth. He sucked gently, then increased the pressure, while at the same time increasing the rhythm of his thrusting fingers.
Her breath hitched, and the cry she’d tried to hold back escaped from her throat.
“I told you it gets better,” Dale murmured against her breast.
Nyree locked her legs around his waist. “I…want you…inside me,” she choked out.
“Not as much as I want to be there.”
After hooking his arm around her hip, he reached down between them and grasped his cock, then guided it inside her.
“Relax,” Dale said on a gasp.
Nyree made a concerted effort to release the anxiety flowing through her, and as he sank in by gentle degrees, her body gradually began to welcome him. He stretched her deliciously wide, pulling out, then pushing in with slow, deliberate thrusts. His back was still slick from the oil she’d used during his massage. It made it even easier to run her fingers up and down his spine. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, holding on for dear life as he finally drove himself completely inside of her. Never had she felt so full, so incredibly, marvelously full.
“You okay?” Dale whispered against her cheek.
She nodded. “Soooo okay.”
“Okay is good, but not good enough.” He moved his hips, rocking slowly at first, then picking up the pace. “I need you to be better than just okay.”
He lunged until her inner thighs burned with the exquisite ache of having to open so wide for him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on, moving with him, tilting her hips up to meet his thrusts.
“Faster,” she cried. “Please, go faster.”
He obliged, placing his hands on either side of her head and working his hips like a piston, pumping in and out, over and over and over. Dale wet his fingers again, reached down between them and rubbed her clit, even as he continued to move within her.
One touch and Nyree’s orgasm hit out of nowhere, hurtling her into the sweetest oblivion she’d ever experienced. Dale’s hips surged once, twice and then a third time before he erupted, his limbs shaking as he came with raging force. He wrapped his arm around her, holding her pelvis to his as his hips gave one last desperate thrust.
He pulled out and collapsed onto her bed, his deep breaths soughing in and out.
“Ten years later, and I’m still getting knocked out by a Grant.”
Nyree burst out laughing. “I hope this knockout was better than what you experienced with the other two Grants.”
“A thousand times better.”
“And just think, we still have another condom.”
His laughter rumbled from deep within his chest. “That’s the best damn news in the world, isn’t it?”
He reached over and scooped his arm underneath her, then urged her to climb on top of him. He pressed a kiss to her lips before pulling his head back slightly and staring into her eyes.
“Did I hurt you?”
Nyree shook her head. “I may need a little breather before we put that other condom to use, but I’m okay.”
Dale reached over and grabbed a dirty sock from her floor. Using the sock, he pulled the condom from his still semi-erect cock, balled it up, and tossed it on her nightstand.
“Really?” she asked.
“What?”
“You just stuffed a condom in a sock like a teenager trying to hide the evidence.”
“Actually, like someone whose legs are too weak to get up and go to the bathroom to clean up,” he said.
“Remind me that’s over there,” she said. “I sometimes bring my laundry over to my mom’s. That’s a conversation I never want to have.”
That deep laugh rumbled in his chest again. “Awkward with a capital A?”
“All caps and ten exclamation points.”
Dale folded his arms underneath his head. “You seem to spend a lot of time there,” he said. “Whenever I text you, you’re either on your way to your mom’s or just leaving.”
She shrugged. “Habit. I’ve only been in this apartment for a year. Honestly, I was afraid to leave home.”
His brows spiked. “Afraid to leave home? You?” Dale shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Doesn’t go with your personality.”
“I guess ‘afraid’ isn’t the right word. Anxious, maybe? I wasn’t sure how my mom and grandmother would get along without me there.” She folded her hands on his chest and rested her chin on the backs of her fingers. “My grandmother had a stroke a couple of years ago, not too long after aunt Hazel died. My mom spends a lot of time taking care of her. Having to attend to the house, as well as my grandmother, is a lot for her to handle.
“Not to mention taking care of Lance and Desmond. I wasn’t joking when I said they aren’t capable of feeding themselves, or doing their own laundry. That’s why I’m often there, helping her to get it all done.”
Dale pushed a strand of curly hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “Your brothers are grown men. It’s not your responsibility to take care of them.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “But I’ve been doing it for so long that it comes as second nature. I rarely see it as taking care of them, but more as helping out my mom.”
“I think it’s just in your nature to be everything for everybody. But you do realize you can’t live your life that way, right, Nyree?”
She nodded.
“But it doesn’t change how you feel about the renovation, does it?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “When it comes to the house, it still falls on my shoulders.” She looked up at him. “I know it isn’t realistic, but I want you to be straight with me, Dale. Is there any way we can still get it completed in time?”
“I’m going to get it done,” he said. “If I have to work around the clock, I’ll figure out a way to do it.”
Her heart melted then and there.
But Nyree also knew it wasn’t completely fair. She’d brought this chaos upon herself. If she’d been more forthcoming, if she’d been honest with the girls back when Desmond and Lance first pulled out of the job, they could have put some contingency plans in place.
“What about your football tutoring thing?” she asked. “You’ll still need time for that, right?”
“Yeah,” he said with a weary sigh.
She caught the apprehension that flashed across his features. “What?” Nyree asked.
His full lips twisted up in a frown. “I found out that Kendrick—the kid I’ve been working with—has someone doing his schoolwork for him. He probably has several people doing his work for him.” He looked down at her, his eyes searing with raw honesty. “At least, I did back when I was in school.”
Nyree shook her head. “You mean to tell me that’s still happening?”
“Your brothers too, right?”
“Of course,” she said. “Desmond graduated high school with a 3.0 average. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I complain about them, I do love my brothers, but do you really think Desmond earned a 3.0 GPA in high school?”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t just high school for me. It happened in college, too.”
He closed his eyes, the corners pinching with his pained grimace. When he opened them again, the frank sadness and shame staring back at her stole Nyree’s breath.
“I have a college degree that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” he confessed. “My professors were all too happy to give me a bunch of grades I didn’t earn. All I had to do was show up for class and I got a B-plus.”
His shame was palpable. It made her ache for him.
“You can’t shoulder all the blame for that,” Nyree said as she ran her palm along his side in a comforting caress. “You were young. And that sounds like a young college student’s dream.”
“I loved it,” he said. “Can you imagine what my life was like back then? Big man on campus. Didn’t have to worry about anything but performing on the field and going to frat parties. It was heaven.”
He shook his head. “I was so damn stupid.” He looked down at her again. “I’ve never regretted anything as much as I regret not actually earning my degree.”
“You can always go back,” she said.
Dale’s gaze jerked to hers. He looked at her as if she’d spoken in a foreign language.
“What?” Nyree asked. “People go back to school all the time. I plan to eventually go back to get a degree in business.”
“Business?”
She nodded. “I have a head for chemistry, but if I’m going to build my product line into a global empire, I’ll need to learn how to actually run a business.”
“My degree is in business,” Dale said with a humorless grunt. “If I’d paid attention in class we could have formed a partnership.”
She pressed a kiss to his bare chest. “We can go to business school together,” she teased.
“Nah.” Dale shook his head. “If I went back I’d go into teaching, so that I could coach high school football.”
Nyree cupped her chin in her palm. “I think you’d make a fantastic high school coach. You should do it.”
“I don’t know about that.” He huffed out a sigh. “But, first, I need to figure out what to do about Kendrick.”
Nyree frowned. “Is there a question about what you should do? It seems obvious to me.”
“It’s not so cut and dry, Nyree. I don’t want to be the person who ruins the kid’s chances. It could stop him from getting into a Division One school if I expose him.”
“That’s not what’s important here.”
“It is to Kendrick. Who am I to dictate what should be impor
tant to him? Maybe he will make it to the pros. Is it really fair for me to transfer all my shit onto him? Just because it came back to bite me in the ass, who says it won’t work out for Kendrick?”
“History says it,” Nyree argued. “Making it onto an NFL roster is one of the hardest feats anyone can ever accomplish, and you know it. I don’t have to school you on the number of young boys from this area who have had their football dreams crushed.”
“That’s just it. Kendrick can make it. If he works hard enough, he’s good enough to be one of those one-in-a-million shots to make it to the NFL.”
“Even if he does make it to the NFL, is it really worth giving up an education? One game, one play can change his entire life.” Nyree sat up in bed, pulling the sheet up to cover her breasts. “How would you feel if a few years from now, you’re sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon, watching Kendrick play ball and he’s suddenly blindsided? With that one hit, you know his career is over. And that life is going to be harder for him because you didn’t speak up for him?
“Better yet, think about it this way,” she said. “How much do you wish that someone had spoken up for you when your coaches and professors where handing you everything on a silver platter?”
Nyree knew she’d hit her mark when she saw the pain that slashed across Dale’s face. She reached over and caressed his arm with soothing strokes, trying to wipe away the sting of her words.
“I know it’s hard. No one wants to be seen as the bad guy, but sometimes being the bad guy is a good thing, Dale.”
He took her hand and placed a kiss at the center of her palm. “Wise words,” he said.
She gave her bare shoulders a sexy little shake and winked at him. “I’m full of them.”
“Thanks for listening,” he said. “I appreciate it.” He released another of those heavy sighs. “I guess I have a decision to make.”
Nyree leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. “The only decision that needs to be made right now is who’s going to be on top.” She straddled his lap. “And I just made it.”
Any Way You Want It (Moments In Maplesville Book 6) Page 13