Your Alluring Love (The Bennett Family)

by Layla Hagen

  “You sure you don’t want more?” She holds her cone out to me.

  “Since when do you share your food? If I remember correctly, you’re the one stealing everyone’s food all the time.”

  “I make exceptions from time to time. And I can’t believe you ate just one scoop. And it was vanilla.”

  “What’s wrong with vanilla?”

  “It’s just so safe. And there were so many interesting flavors to choose from.”

  “Like apple?” I tease, pointing to her cone. “Why would you choose that? It smells like soap.”

  She slashes the air with her forefinger. “Watch it, Becker, or I’ll start thinking we’re not compatible. Your list of negative traits is already making me doubtful.”

  I grip her wrist midair, bringing it close to me, and kiss her sensitive skin. “What negative traits?”

  “You sometimes snore, and….” Her voice trails off as I touch her skin with the tip of my tongue.

  “And?” I press.

  She whisks her hand away. “And you use your seductive powers to derail my thoughts. That is the lowest of low.”

  “Completely unforgivable,” I agree, not bothering to hide my amusement. “So, nothing tips the scales in my favor?”

  “I didn’t say that.” With a wink, she takes another mouthful of ice cream. “You’re funny, you have no issues with being used as a pillow, and your shirts make for fantastic robes.”

  “Your priorities are fascinating.”

  “Why do I have the suspicion that by ‘fascinating’ you mean ‘weird’?”

  “Your words, not mine.”

  Scoffing, she licks her frozen treat again. “Eating something delicious is hands-down the best way to end my day.”

  “Where do I fit in the equation?”

  She peeks at me sideways, as if weighing her words carefully. “You’re the bonus.”

  She says nothing at all afterward, focusing on her ice cream. She’s down to the last third of it, and I swear she’s savoring it like her life depends on it. To my dismay, she starts making little noises at the back of her throat. They remind me of those she makes when we’re tangled in the sheets and I’m driving inside her.

  “Alice, I don’t like those sounds you’re making.” It’s my duty to warn her, give her a heads-up that I might pounce on her.

  “Why not?”

  Putting my lips to her ear, I whisper, “Because it turns me on.”

  She gasps lightly, which doesn’t help the situation in my jeans in the slightest.

  “I’m trying to be on my best behavior right now.”

  She tilts her head. “I like you more when you’re on your worst behavior.”

  Damn, this woman keeps me on my toes. Her eyes hold a challenge, as they always do, but I have a lot of aces up my sleeve.

  “You’ve just earned yourself a night full of teasing,” I inform her.

  “A bit optimistic, aren’t you? About spending the night with me?”

  “I’m always optimistic, and you didn’t protest that I picked you up—”

  “Because my car is at the mechanic’s. Again.”

  Well, well, and here I took her lack of protest as a sign that she wanted to spend the night with me and I’d drive her back in the morning. I don’t let that deter me.

  “I’m not just optimistic but also relentless. I don’t give up until I get what I want. And lately, I want you all the time.” Bringing my lips to her ear again, I tug gently at her earlobe with my teeth. “Here’s a secret. I like persuading you.”

  “I have a secret too. I want to be romanced and seduced over and over again. You’re just so good at it, I can’t help wanting more.”

  I pull back triumphantly. “It’s a done deal, then. You’ll be romanced properly and repeatedly.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you deserve it, and look at you. Just by saying it, I’ve made you smile. Anything that makes you smile goes.”

  She hunches her shoulders, a thinly veiled surprise crossing her face. It’s there only for a fraction of a second, but I don’t miss it, and it causes all my protective instincts to spring to life.

  “What just went through your head?” I ask, because I haven’t yet mastered the art of reading her so well.

  “No one’s ever said that to me. Well, no one who doesn’t share my last name.”

  Instinctively I want to wipe from her memory every asshole she dated who didn’t put forth the effort to find out what makes her smile.

  “Well, I’ll make sure to repeat it often, and make good on my words.”

  “It’s a dangerous thing to say around me. I might take advantage.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  She eats the last bit of her cone, and I wait until she swallows before finally pulling her into a kiss, losing myself in her sweet taste. She parts her lips, welcoming me. Our tongues clash in an unexpected desperation to taste and explore.

  When we pull apart for air, I rest my forehead against hers.

  “I want to learn you, Alice. I used to think I knew all there is about you, but you keep surprising me. I’m beginning to see there are sides to you I’ve never seen before. I want to discover them all.”

  “That’s a lot of work.” She breathes heavily, and I become aware that she’s fisting my shirt.

  “I’m up to the challenge.”

  “So am I,” she says softly. “I want to discover everything about you too. I want to make you happy.”

  “You already do,” I say right before I lower my mouth on hers again.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Alice

  We leave the park shortly after I finish eating, and I snuggle against him on the way to the car because it’s gotten really windy. Nate seems pleased, draping his arm around me. He’d parked right in front of the shop, which is now closing.

  “Hey, can we buy some more to go? I want a second serving tonight. If you behave, I’ll let you have some too.”

  Nate flashes me a grin. “Whatever you wish.” He’s a little too excited considering he’s not a fan, but I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  We buy a to-go container filled to the brim. Afterward, Nate and I chitchat with the vendor while he closes the shop, and after he leaves, Nate and I head to the car.

  It makes me giddy that Nate brought me here.

  It feels a little silly to be so excited about something so small, but my mother’s words from a few years ago come back to me. She said love is in the little day-to-day things. That when she thinks about the love she has for my father, the first things popping in her mind aren’t their wedding, or the proposal, but the way they look after each other each day. The way they share the joys and encourage each other in the difficult moments.

  “Why so silent?” Nate asks, snapping me out of my thoughts. We’re in front of the passenger door, but instead of unlocking it, he traps me against the car, his hands on the roof at each side of my head.

  “Just enjoying being together.”

  Nate tips my head up, sealing his mouth over mine, and I nearly melt in his arms. This kiss feels different than the ones before, though I can’t say why. He threads his fingers through my hair, deepening the kiss, and I figure out what is different.

  This feels a lot like love, no matter how much I’m telling myself not to get ahead of myself, not to project things.

  “I need you,” he whispers when we pull apart. “Tonight. Every night.”

  “I need you too.”

  ***

  The next half hour passes in a blur. I don’t remember when we got in the car, or when we decided to spend the night at his apartment, but even though Nate is speeding through the streets of San Francisco, I still feel like he’s not driving fast enough.

  We make a conscious effort not to touch each other until we’re inside the apartment. Once inside, I toe off my shoes, barely managing to place the box on the table in the living roo
m before Nate places one hand on my waist, spinning me around so I’m facing him.

  He brushes away a rebel strand of hair that has caught at the corner of my lip. Then he slides his thumb across my upper lip, then my lower lip, pressing gently in the center. I open my mouth a little and he heeds my invitation, sliding his thumb in my mouth. I run my tongue across the tip.

  “Jesus, Alice.”

  In one swift move, he pulls me flush against him. Splaying my hands on his chest, I swear I can feel his heart hammering against his ribcage, just as I can feel how hard he is for me already. He tips his head down, kissing me deeply, the kind of kiss that wipes away every thought, filling every cell with warmth and love, and hunger for more. When we finally come up for air, we’re both gasping.

  “You have too many clothes on, Alice.” His lips part in a grin.

  “Then start taking them off.”

  Without another word, he proceeds to rid me of them, first my shirt, then my pants and shoes. I do the same with his clothes, pure need and desperation driving our hands.

  “This is not very gentlemanly of you,” I tease. “I was going to have some more ice cream first.”

  Tilting his head to one side, he studies me, and I can practically see the wheels spinning in his brain. Uh-oh. I might have woken a monster.

  Without taking his eyes off me, he removes the lid of the cup.

  “Here you go.” The challenge in his tone matches the heat in his gaze, and their combined force has my skin buzzing with awareness everywhere.

  “Are you going to eat too?”

  “Oh, I’ll eat, just like I’ll eat you. In fact, why don’t I do it at the same time?”

  His words prompt a wave of heat to wash over me, concentrating low in my body. He dips his thumb in the cup, then smears it around the tips of my breasts. Before I have a chance to recover, his hot tongue licks across the same spot, and I grip the counter behind me to steady myself.

  “Nate, what are you doing?” I whisper.

  “Taking what’s mine. You’re mine, Alice. Every single part of you. Your laughter, your moans. All mine.”

  “All yours.”

  He repeatedly smears cold ice cream on my skin, then covers the spot with his mouth. The succession of hot and cold is excruciating, like going from high to low again and again until I don’t know which is the high and which is the low. I only know I need this man desperately.

  “I need you. Now. Please.”

  His blessed mouth, which is teasing one of my breasts, travels up to my neck until he reaches my ear. Biting my earlobe, he says, “Look at you, all hot and bothered and dirty. Why don’t we go in the shower to clean you up?”

  Best proposition ever.

  Taking my hand, he leads me through his apartment and into the bathroom, which I love. My bathroom is an oasis, but his takes the cake. In the center is a tub large enough for two people; I’ve been imagining us in there with candles around us since I first saw it. But right now, we’re heading to the shower. Turning on the water from above, he lets it run over us while pouring shower gel in his hands. He pushes me so my back is against the wall, spreading my legs open with his knee. His soapy hands travel over all the spots he kissed before, especially my breasts.

  He touches and teases all my sweet spots, turning me to putty in his hands. This man knows how to work my body, exactly where to touch me to drive me crazy.

  “I like having you like this,” he murmurs.

  “At your mercy?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Clean enough, you think?” I ask when I can no longer stand the torture. I need him to take me right now. My God, he’s so beautiful like this, with water running over him.

  He kisses me so passionately he steals my breath. After pulling back, he still doesn’t answer. I’m more hot and bothered than he is, so I set out to resolve that.

  Dropping to my knees, I stroke his hard-on, licking him from the tip to the base, watching him inhale sharply.

  “Alice….” He threads his fingers through my hair all the way to the roots, as if he desperately needs to hold on to me while my mouth explores him. He tightens his grip with every lash of my tongue, every lick across his crown. When he starts moving his hips back and forth slowly, as if making love to my mouth, I know I’ve brought him almost where I want him, but I’m not done.

  Taking advantage of the fact that his eyes are trained on me, I slip my hand between my legs, touching myself intimately.

  “Oh fuck. You’re killing me, Alice.”

  He pulls out of my mouth, helps me to my feet, and flips me around so my ass is against his granite thighs.

  “Grip the railing,” he says in a low, commanding voice. “You’ll need it.”

  Oh my. I love the promise in his voice. Knowing he’ll make good on it, I grip the steel railing with both hands, licking my lips. I hate not being able to see what he’s about to do, but I love it at the same time. When he drags the hot tip of his erection across one ass cheek and then the other, I shudder.

  “Nate,” I gasp. When he descends further, teasing the seam of my opening first with his tip, then with his hot length, my knees wobble.

  “Don’t push your delicious ass back,” he whispers in my ear. “I want you to stand straight.”

  I don’t quite understand what he means until he drives into me and holy shit. Because of the angle, he’s so deep inside me that I gasp for air, hoping for some reprieve but only receiving more of him. He only stops when he’s entered me completely.

  Stilling inside me, he puts his mouth to my ear. “Alice, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I just didn’t know it could feel like this. It’s so good.”

  Nate pulls out almost completely before slamming back into me. He grips the railing with one hand too, clasping it so tightly his knuckles turn white. He keeps the other arm protectively across my waist and pelvis, fingertips pressing against my clit.

  A sea of sensations engulfs me, heat, pleasure, and pure joy coursing through my veins. I give myself to him with abandon. I’d trust this man to do anything he wants with me; he owns my pleasure, my body, and my heart.

  Our sounds fill the space as we both succumb and lose ourselves in each other. The back of my head rests against his chest, and I turn slightly so my ear presses against his skin, catching his heartbeats. They’re rapid and frantic, matching his strokes and my racing pulse. Our hearts beat in unison as we climb toward the cusp of pleasure together.

  He loves me deep and desperate until he grunts out my name and my world spins on its axis. Nate holds me tightly to him until the haze of bliss clears, and then we play with soap and water again, cleaning each other.

  Stepping out of the shower, we dry ourselves with the plush towels near the sink, and then Nate unexpectedly lifts me, slinging one arm around my back and the other under my knees. Instinctively, I rest an arm around his neck, grounding myself. Nate skims his lips against my temple in a gesture so full of tenderness that my heart nearly bursts. For some reason, I feel incredibly shy, which is ridiculous. I was naked when he ate off me, and in the shower. I’ve never been one to feel vulnerable after intimacy, but right now I am.

  “What are you doing?” I ask when he exits the bathroom.

  “Carrying you to bed.”

  “Oh my! You are a knight.”

  “Forgot my armor, I’m afraid.”

  Grinning, I lean closer to him. “You’re naked. That’s my kind of armor.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Alice

  There are two addictions I haven’t been able to shake off my entire life: sweets and gossiping with my siblings (when I’m not the subject of said gossip). Nate is about to become my third. Ever since he surprised me with the ice cream trip two weeks ago, we’ve been spending a lot of time together, mostly evenings and nights and weekends. When the Delicious Dining team filmed their segment, Nate took the day off and was by my side. It was incredibly sweet.

  Right now, we’re in his apartment, but we�
�ve been in mine more often. So often, in fact, that I’m not sure I want to sleep in there alone again. This isn’t crazy, right? I mean, who would want to go back to an empty, cold apartment when they’ve had a gorgeous, funny, and drop-dead sexy man in there with them? I swear every inch of my one-bedroom apartment smells like him.

  As I check my appearance in Nate’s mirror, I know I’m even more invested in this thing between us than I thought, and that’s dangerous. We’re having fun, and I’m having the time of my life with him even when we’re doing nothing but talking, but I can’t jump headfirst into something that’s only a few weeks old. Even if I’ve known him for years, this is still fresh.

  When I look over my shoulder in the mirror, I notice Nate is smiling. I’ve cataloged in my mind every smile of his over the years, but there’s something different about this one.

  “Nate Becker, what’s up with your smile?”

  He jerks his head back, obviously not having realized I was watching him in the mirror as he was studying me. By the time I turn around to face him, he schools his expression, shooting for a surprised, affronted one instead. Well, the joke’s on him because, despite his efforts to hold back a smile, the corners of his mouth are lightly tilted.

  “What do you mean? I smile all the time.”

  “Yeah, but this one’s different.”

  I walk around the bed until I’m right in front of him. I love his ‘I just got out of bed’ look. His hair is mussed, his eyelids still a tiny bit heavy with sleep. Most of all, I like the five o’clock shadow on his face. It’s a little coarse and makes kissing rougher, but there’s something distinctly manly about that light beard. It goes wonderfully with his muscle-laced arms.

  He tips his chin forward. “It’s the Alice effect.”

  His answer warms me on the inside. I swear my toes curl. “Please explain yourself. I need more details.”

  He kisses the tip of my nose. “It’s the smile I get when I wake up and you’re next to me. Waking up next to your half-naked body is the best way to start my day, even though I wake up earlier than usual when you’re with me, even on a rainy Saturday like this one. Actually, I wake up earlier because you’re with me.”