by Marie Harte
Grumbling the whole while, she ignored him as she guzzled down some sugar water. Honestly, the woman should have been majorly buzzed after two candy bars and three sodas. But somehow she regulated her intake of sugar and caffeine. More than one cup of coffee for Dex and he was jazzed for hours.
Just as they turned in their putters, Dex noticed a sight he could have done without—Selena Thorpe surrounded by several town council members and her trust-fund friends. He knew several of them from high school. They’d been jerks back then. He couldn’t imagine they’d gotten any better.
Blonde, beautiful and loaded after having bled husband number three for as much as she could, the surgically sculpted Selena saw him and smiled. When she noticed Maya, her smile grew wider, but a lot less pleasant.
Shit.
Maya finished her drink and tossed it in the trash. She hadn’t seen Selena yet. Perhaps Dex could salvage the evening by taking her as far away as possible.
“Oh, Dex-ter. Dex?” Selena sauntered over to them while her friends watched from a distance, crowding near the batting cages.
Maya stiffened, her back still to the woman. “That voice. The voice of evil.” She turned. “What the hell is she doing here? Looking for a four-year-old to fleece after foregoing another prenup?”
He held his laughter. Encouraging Maya wouldn’t be good. The last time she and Selena met, Maya had busted her nose. It had been so satisfying to see Selena go down, yet he’d been scared for Maya as well. In this day and age, a simple fistfight could turn into assault and battery and lawsuits. A good thing Anson had talked the woman down from filing more charges. The only thing standing between Maya and jail had been Dex’s reluctance to support Selena’s account of what had transpired between them, and Anson’s silence, for which he still owed his cousin a huge favor.
Here there would be way too many witnesses to ignore.
“How are you, handsome?” Selena asked as she came abreast of them. She hadn’t been too impressed with him when they’d met two weeks ago. Then she’d heard of his financial success, and suddenly he was no longer that unpopular geek from high school.
“Hello, Selena.” He’d talk his way out of a possible altercation with manners. “You remember Maya.” He took a firm hold of Maya’s hand, refusing to let go. He’d learned his lesson.
“I’m sure her nose does,” Maya said with a smirk.
Selena’s blue eyes narrowed over her bruised nose. Too bad she was such a viper. He would have loved to shoot her portrait. “You little bitch. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my distance. Wouldn’t want to get scalped.” Selena tittered.
He felt Maya tense, knew she’d been teased about her heritage growing up and wondered if she still had to tolerate such nonsense from people—other than Selena. In this day and age, he wouldn’t think the PC-crowd could be so crass.
“Got my tomahawk in my back pocket. Best watch your step or I’ll yank off a patch of your bottle-blonde hair.” Maya’s smile would have looked at home on a shark.
He winced. “Ah, we’d better get going.”
“You sure?” Selena stepped closer to him. “I feel bad for you, keeping company with such trash. A girl like Maya, you don’t know where she’s been.” She flicked Maya a contemptuous glance. “But then, you always were a Boy Scout. Helping those less fortunate and fundraising for the chess club. I admire that.”
“Photography club, actually,” he muttered.
Selena smiled. “You’re such a good man, Dex. I’ll see you around.” She turned and strutted away, rejoining the snobs he recognized and wished he didn’t.
Maya took a step after her so Dex tightened his grip.
“Easy, killer. Let her go. We don’t need trouble.”
“From her?” Maya snorted. “Only trouble she has is keeping her legs and mouth closed. See? They’re still open.”
He deliberately turned them away from Selena and walked in the other direction. “I won the game. We’re done here.”
“Lucky shot.”
“Twice. So let’s leave. Can I interest you in—”
“More sex? Sure.”
He flushed when an older woman looked his way at the comment. To Maya, he whispered, “Keep your voice down.”
Maya snickered. “Selena’s a bitch, but she’s right about one thing. You are a Boy Scout.” She ripped her hand away from his and latched onto his arm. “So when are you going to heat up my sheets again?”
They’d been together Wednesday and Thursday, and they would have been together today too if this hadn’t been a date. He refused to let her dictate what they did all the time. Dates, in his opinion, were for getting to know each other. Not for fucking until they couldn’t breathe.
They hadn’t been together for that long, but he swore he was wearing her down. She smiled at him. A lot. Not making fun, but having fun. A big difference.
“I want to shoot you,” he said as they left the fun center.
“Well gee, maybe if you promise to use a .22 and aim for the fleshy part of my arm, so it doesn’t hurt too much.”
“Smart ass.” He held open the door of his truck for her, then got in and headed out of the parking lot. “I meant I want to take your picture. Will you pose for me?”
“Hmm. Maybe. What do I get if I do?”
“What do you want?” She just grinned at him. Dumb question. “Is sex all you ever think about?”
“With that cock of yours so near me, yeah.”
Of course he had a hard-on. He always did around her. He adjusted himself and concentrated on the road. “Our dates are for getting to know each other with our clothes on.”
“All I’m hearing from you is no sex.” She sighed. “But okay, I’ll play. Tell me about your parents.”
“What’s to tell? Only child of Connie and Theo Black. Nice people.”
“Rich people,” she corrected. “How come you’re not as obnoxious as Selena and her cronies?”
He shrugged. “Money isn’t the same thing to everyone. To my mom and dad, it’s a means of securing our family’s future. They live in a nice, normal house. They have two cars, one for each of them. And okay, my dad’s is a Mercedes, but my mom drives a Hyundai.”
She grinned. “Not a Lexus?”
He shook his head.
“What do they think of you doing Pocahontas?” What kids had once called her in school.
“My parents don’t see color, Maya.”
“I hate to break it to you, Boy Scout, but everyone does.”
“They don’t care about it. Not like I do. Yeah, I’m totally prejudiced. I’m only into darker-skinned women with dusky nipples and a smooth pussy that tastes like—”
“Would you stop?” she snapped.
“Embarrassed?” He chuckled. “I thought you had a healthy sex drive and weren’t afraid to say so. Women who have sex aren’t slutty, you said. They’re empowered feminists. I agree, by the way. Which is why we’ll be fucking first thing in the morning, after we wake up. A new day, not a date day.”
That had her attention. “Excuse me?”
“This is date number three. And like you said at the very beginning of our relationship—”
“Blackmailed association.”
“—we can’t have sex. Because then I’d technically be blackmailing you into it. And paying to get between your legs is like prostitution. That’s what you said before.”
“Not exactly,” she hedged.
“Close enough. I have to draw a line somewhere.”
“God forbid you do a bad thing,” she muttered.
“Exactly. But interesting that you neatly diverted us from talking about you. You do that a lot. Ask me a bazillion questions about what I like and do, but you don’t share much about yourself.”
He shifted in his seat. He actually disliked talking about himself. Dex had always been o
n the shy side, only losing most of that when he grew into his size-thirteen feet after high school. It would probably amuse her to know he still occasionally felt tongue-tied around her. Looking into her beautiful brown eyes could leave him mute with appreciation. She had beauty that went soul deep.
“You want us to get to know each other?” said Maya. “Well, that includes me asking questions. That’s not deflecting. That’s me being curious.”
That had to be a good thing, right? He felt her gaze like a caress and swallowed a sigh.
She asked, “Do you get along with your parents?” Still wanting to know about his parents.
“Yes.”
“Really well or just tolerably?”
“Like you and your dad. We’re close.”
She nodded. “You and Anson still tight?”
“Yep. Jack too. It’s like we never left Bend.” The three of them had been gone for twelve years and had come back in the span of a few months. It felt like they’d always been together. Some friends were just like that.
“Hurray for assholes sticking together.”
He grinned. “You do know that your attitude does nothing but make me hard.”
“And we’re back to sex.” She sighed. “I take back everything I said before. Now why can’t we go back to my place and fuck like bunnies? Because I don’t understand. We can still be ‘friendly’ when you’re buried inside me.”
He gritted his teeth. “Do you have to say things like that?”
“Oh, baby. I surely do.” She licked her lips, and he groaned. She laughed. “So what’s your favorite thing to do to me?”
“I have to pick just one?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t,” he said. “I like it all.”
She quieted, and he chanced a glance at her, only to see her studying him.
“What?” he asked when she remained quiet.
“Would your mom like me?”
“Well that killed the mood.” He blew out a breath. “Of course she’d like you. You’re beautiful, smart, obnoxious, and you’re an artist. My mom has a soft spot for artists.”
“Oh. Is she into art?”
“My grandfather—her dad—was a starving painter. Great talent, not so good at marketing himself. She’s always been more than supportive of my photography.”
“That’s good.”
“What about you? Did your dad always support you?”
It amazed him how pleasant and unguarded she could seem when she let herself just be with him.
She nodded. “I’ve always been into doing my own thing. Pottery was a natural extension of expressing myself. Dad has always been there for me.” She grew quiet. “He’s the only one, other than Ann or Riley, who I can count on.”
Too soon to tell her, You can count on me. So he changed the subject again. “Where should we go on date number four?”
“My bed?”
“No, seriously.”
She grinned. “I am serious.”
He expelled a frustrated breath. “So far, our dates have given me some pretty deep insights into your life. I already know what sex with you is like.”
“We went to a restaurant, had pizza and golfed. Exactly what do you think you know about me?”
“Besides knowing you’re a dynamo in bed, I know you’re competitive. You have a hot temper, but you will admit when you’re wrong.”
“Doesn’t happen often.”
“You wish. Besides being cute when you’re forced to admit you weren’t right, you love vanilla ice cream, books and horror movies, are addicted to soda and chocolate—milk chocolate, not the dark kind—and love your men to be tall, overpowering, and frankly, awesome.”
She snickered. “Awesome?”
“Well, I’m smart, funny, handsome, and I can’t get enough of you. In what way aren’t I awesome for you?” He asked just as they pulled into her driveway. It was dark enough that he could only see her expression in the dash’s ambient light.
She watched him with caution, no longer so open, and her guardedness pleased him. Though he wanted her to trust him enough to let him into her heart, he also wanted to be considered interesting enough to be a serious threat.
They sat with the truck running. “Left you speechless with my amazingness, eh?”
“Turn off the truck.”
“I was about to.” He turned the key and the engine went silent. The moon tucked behind some clouds, and he couldn’t see much more than her vague shape next to him.
“You’re not coming in.”
“Okay then. I’ll see you tomor—”
“Not yet.” Maya unbuckled her seatbelt.
He sucked in a breath when she leaned close, unbuckled his seatbelt, then unfastened his jeans. “What are you doing?” He was proud of his voice not breaking.
“Our date is officially over.”
“Yeah, but—”
“No buts.” She had him unzipped and his cock out of his pants in a heartbeat.
Cold out of his clothes but so hard he ached, he could only sit there while she toyed with him.
“I can’t wrap my hand around your cock.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “Have I told you how much I love touching you? You’re so thick.”
Trying to take charge of the situation, he put a hand over hers, and she squeezed him.
“Fuck. Maya, no sex.”
“Agreed.”
He took his hand away and wanted to cry with frustration when she pulled hers away as well. But he meant it about wanting more from her than sexual gratification, even if she didn’t want to hear it. At least she respected his position enough to—
“Shit.”
Her mouth over his cockhead was the last thing he knew before thought abandoned him and sensation took over. He leaned his head back against his headrest and let himself feel.
Chapter Nine
Maya needed some control, and she took what she wanted. All Dex’s talk—about liking her, knowing things about her, thinking how much his mom would like her—freaked her the hell out. Because his approval now meant something to her, and it shouldn’t. There would be no easy walking away from him.
She couldn’t put her finger on it, but somehow he’d snuck past her defenses and made her care about him. Tricky, tricky Dex.
Opening her mouth wider, she took more of him in, breathing through her nose so she could accept him to the back of her throat. She’d never been into oral sex as a rule, but with Dex, she wanted nothing more than to taste and touch him.
He had a sexy smell, a musky heat that went straight to her core and aroused the hell out of her. His small grunts and deep moans had her restless. Too bad the moon hadn’t reappeared, because she’d love to watch him as she blew him.
He put a hand in her hair, and she worried he’d try to pull her away. But he didn’t. Dex caressed her while she licked and sucked, and she snaked a hand between his legs to put pressure on his balls. “Oh fuck. Baby, you don’t have to…”
No, she didn’t. She wanted to. That small difference made him more than dangerous.
She moaned around his cock and bobbed over him. He arched into her but didn’t shove her head down. He gripped her hair tight while she played, and the moisture at his tip made her suck harder.
“Baby, I’m ready to come. So fucking hard,” he said on a breath.
She hollowed her cheeks as she sucked, and his girth made her jaw ache. Another swipe of her tongue against the underside of his cockhead, then the press of her teeth, and he jerked and filled her mouth. Dex was a big man, with a lot to give. Which impressed her even more because he had such delicious control.
Unless dealing with her.
That vulnerability put them on equal ground, because God knew she couldn’t keep her hands to herself around him.
“Maya,”
he sighed. She pulled away and heard him zip up. Before she could scoot back to her side, he kissed her. She wondered if he found it sexy to taste himself on her lips, because she sure as hell liked kissing him after he’d gone down on her.
“Thanks,” he said softly. “I’m not sure what I did to deserve that, but thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She meant it. “Sometimes, Dex, it’s not about you. That was for me.”
He chuckled. “Oh? You like swallowing me down, is that it?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, then he groaned. “You like torturing me, don’t you? You can’t tell a man you like blowing him, swallowing him, and expect him not to be hard and aching all the time around you. Damn it, Maya. You’re making me crazy.”
She grinned. “Good. Because you do the same to me.”
“I do?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. I don’t normally scream when I come.”
“Which you haven’t yet tonight.”
She planted a hand on his chest when he moved closer. “Nope. We can’t have sex on your date nights. Your rule.”
“Then what the fuck was that?” he growled. “Because I just came down your throat.”
“That, my boy, was torture.”
He said a few choice words under his breath—but loud enough for her to hear. “Fine. So what now, Miss de Sade?”
“Oh, kinky. But then, you do like tying me up and hurting me oh so good.”
His low chuckle made her nipples stand at attention. “Honey, just wait until I’m inside you again. You won’t sit for a week.”
“Great.” She huffed. “I’m already tense thanks to promises of you and your anal wand of love.”
He laughed. “Nice. You come up with that yourself?”
“Riley did. And just so you know, I didn’t mean to kiss and tell, but I couldn’t walk straight after Wednesday. They kind of figured it out.” At her words, he laughed harder, and she joined him. “Now if you’re done making fun of me, how about a game of Sorry?”