by Bella Andre
Drake hadn’t minded being two bachelors—one human, one canine—rattling around his cabin and New York City penthouse. But when Rosa was with them, his space became warmer. Brighter. So much more alive. Even as she worked quietly with great concentration, she was all those things.
At last, she looked up at him. “Oh no!” She jumped up, dropping the canvas on the chair. “I forgot the pie.”
“I got it.”
Halfway across the room, she was close enough for Drake to pull her in for a kiss. She immediately melted against him, her arms circling his neck as she kissed him back. He was a beat from carrying her into the bedroom again when he heard her stomach rumble.
“You’re hungry. Come share my pie.”
“Is that slang for something dirty?”
He laughed so loudly that Oscar lifted his head to see what all the fuss was about. Drake’s cabin was so small that he was easily able to put his hands on her waist and spin her around to sit on his kitchen countertop. “Stay there while I get a fork.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You’re kind of bossy,” she teased as she dipped a finger into the pie and brought it to her lips. “Come back to my cabin,” she said in a low voice that was supposed to sound like his. “Go pose for me. Sit on the kitchen counter and don’t move.” She licked warm apple filling from her fingertip, her eyes closing for a moment of bliss before she opened them to say, “It’s pretty sexy, actually.”
Hell, she was the one who was both sexy and sweet, sitting on his counter in nothing but a pair of panties and a Montauk sweatshirt, with tangled sex-hair and apple pie on her lips. He nearly slammed the cutlery drawer shut on his hand as a powerful realization hit him right there in the middle of the kitchen.
Rosa was it for him.
This had happened to so many of Drake’s cousins that he didn’t try to fight it, even if other bachelors his age might have gone to battle, with everything they had, against falling in love.
Or maybe the reason he didn’t need to fight it was simply because from the first moment he’d set eyes on Rosa until this very moment in his kitchen, he’d found endless reasons to love her.
The way she was filled with light, inside and out, even when darkness would have surrounded anyone else in her position.
How much it had obviously hurt her to hear about the loss of his mother and his father’s relentless pain.
The fact that she still deeply loved her own mother even if her heart had been torn apart by the way her mother was dealing with the photos.
Rosa was so much stronger than she knew, and he wouldn’t stop looking for ways to make her see it too. Yes, he knew that her life was anything but simple right now, but Drake was finally starting to see that keeping things simple didn’t always mean they were better. And he sure as hell wasn’t afraid to take on her demons, not when he wished he could have gone to battle for her by doing more than just calling Smith for help.
She was, he knew now, worth any risk.
Even the risk of repeating his parents’ mistakes.
He wanted to say, I’m falling in love with you. But he knew better than to do that just yet. He didn’t want her to claim it was hot sex talking. Or to say that he only loved painting her. Or that he hadn’t had any sleep last night and would feel differently after he had.
Besides, given that her life was complicated enough already, it definitely seemed smarter to focus on the simple things—food, laughter, pleasure—to give her a chance to learn to trust again.
Soon, however, he’d put on the full-court press to make sure she knew that he wasn’t going anywhere...and that she shouldn’t either, because he didn’t need her to protect him from anyone or anything. No, what he needed was Rosa, messes and all.
Drake pushed the fork into the pie, then lifted it to her mouth. “Open up.”
“See?” she said with a little smile. “Bossy.” But she happily took the bite he offered and then the next before she’d even finished the first. “Mmm, I need more.”
“Never thought I’d be jealous of an apple pie,” he grumbled as he answered her request with a third bite that was all apple.
“It is really good,” she said when she’d finished it. “But I’m thinking we can make it even better. How do you feel about being each other’s plate?”
Drake couldn’t get his shirt—or her top—off fast enough.
“I take it,” she said through her laughter, “that’s a yes?”
“It’s a hell yes. You first.”
For as hard as his blood was pumping and as fast as his heart was racing, he was amazed by how gentle he was able to be as he laid her down on the counter, wearing only her panties now. He wanted to feast on her, and it was damned tempting to forget about the pie altogether. But since he also hoped that this sexy game was her way of opening up to him a little bit more, he didn’t want to screw things up by changing the rules. Not when she’d had way too many rules changed on her already.
Dipping his finger into the pie, he lifted it to her breasts and circled one nipple with the warm, sweet filling. Her eyelids fluttered to half-mast as he bent to lick it off. It was hard to go slowly, to savor, when all he wanted was to devour—especially when her hands had tangled in his hair to bring him closer. But he wouldn’t rush giving her pleasure as he licked every inch of her left breast, then started all over by painting apple pie around her right nipple and giving it the same hungry treatment with his tongue.
“My turn now,” she panted when he lifted his mouth from her skin.
“I’m not even close to having my fill yet.” He scooped up an apple chunk, and when he dropped it into her belly button, her slightly breathless laughter was easily the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. Quickly, however, humor shifted to an aroused moan as he purposefully nipped at her skin while biting into the apple. One more bite—one more sexy moan—and the piece of apple was gone.
“Drake,” she said as she tried to sit up, “I want to do the same to you now.”
But he had already hooked his fingers into the sides of her panties and was pulling them down her legs. “I need one more taste first.”
Tossing the cotton aside a moment later, he lowered his mouth to her sex. And she was so much sweeter than pie as she shattered against his lips, his tongue, his fingers, that he already knew he’d never get his fill of her.
* * *
Up on the counter, Rosa was at the perfect height for Drake’s lazy exploration back up her torso with his lips and tongue while she slowly resurfaced from yet another mind-blowing orgasm. “As soon as I can figure out how to move again,” she said, “you’re in for it.”
He grinned against her soft skin. “Don’t rush on my account. If you hadn’t noticed, I’m having a mighty good time already.”
“Me too.” She could hear the surprise in her own voice. She could still hardly believe that she could feel so relaxed—or have so much fun with anyone. She pushed herself into a sitting position, then hopped off. “No need for you to get on the counter,” she said as reached for the button of his jeans, then unzipped them and pushed them to the floor. “Wow.” His erection was so big and hard and beautiful that she almost dropped to her knees to worship it, before she remembered she was supposed to do this with pie.
“Rosa.” She was just swiping some pie with one finger and dropping down when he put a hand beneath her chin and tipped her face up. “You don’t have to—”
“I want to,” she said, bringing his hand between her thighs. “Can’t you feel how much I want you like this?”
Heat flared in his eyes as he told her, “I love how much you want me. Just as much as I want you.” Without missing a beat, he thrust his fingers into her so erotically that she had to reach for his shoulders to hold on. “Come for me again, Rosa. Just like this.”
He didn’t give her time to think, just covered her mouth with his and thrust his tongue against hers in the same perfect rhythm in which his hand was moving between her thighs. Within seconds, he’d stoked her
to blazing hot again, everywhere he touched aching for more, more, more.
Her knees buckled from her release when it came sudden and fierce, but he held her so steady with his free hand that she didn’t need to think, didn’t need to worry, didn’t need to do anything but let herself drown in an ecstasy that felt like it would never end.
“God, I love that,” he murmured against her lips between kisses.
“You’re going to love this too.”
She made sure to take him by surprise this time, not only with the layer of pie she spread over his shaft, but by how quickly she got on her knees to lick it off. He throbbed hard against her tongue, every last inch of him so delicious that she wanted to eat him up in one greedy gulp. But he’d taken such care with her again and again that she took her reckless desires in hand and made herself go even slower on her second pass with her tongue over his rock-hard length.
“Rosa.” Her name falling from his lips was somewhere between a growl and a prayer. “It’s so damned good. Too good.” He tangled his hands in her hair, and she swore she could feel him warring with himself over remaining gentle when it was clear that he was barely holding back dangerous.
She loved that she could make him feel like this, so aroused that he nearly forgot to be careful. But nearly wasn’t good enough. She wanted every ounce of his passion with nothing held back—just the way he made her feel every time he kissed or touched her.
Before he could attempt to regain control, she took him deep. His thigh muscles clenched against her hands, his fingers tightened in her hair, and when his hips moved, she moved with him. Took him again and again until the only sounds in the room were his groans and her gasping breaths.
She was so lost to the pleasure of loving him this way that she was taken utterly unawares when he pulled back so that he could pull her up off her knees and lift her back onto the counter. Her mind was too fuzzy with arousal to be able to do anything but watch as he quickly pulled a condom from the pocket of his jeans, jammed it on over his erection, and yanked her hips to the edge.
“Wrap your legs around me.”
But she was already there, already moving to take him inside when he slammed into her. Both of them held on for dear life as they took from, and gave to, each other again and again and again, her fears, her shame, her worries all falling away. Because in this moment, as he loved her with everything he had—and she loved him right back—there wasn’t room for anything but him.
* * *
Drake put a big slice of apple pie on the floor for Oscar before they went to take a bath to clean the sugar off. Getting into the tub with Drake and slipping and sliding against all his sexy muscles made her burn for him all over again. But before she could make a move, the warm water lulled her half to sleep.
Dimly, she could feel him running a soapy washcloth over her. The next thing she knew, she was wrapped in a towel and he was carrying her over to the bed.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” she whispered. “I was going to seduce you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that rain check,” he said as he pulled back the covers and laid her down. “But for now, I think we could both use some sleep.”
Drake got in beside her and put his arm around her waist. And as he pulled her close, the last thing she remembered before sleep took her all the way under was—finally—feeling safe.
Chapter Eighteen
Rosa woke up sprawled across Drake as though his body were her personal mattress, his chest her pillow.
Last night, she’d been too exhausted to seduce him the way he’d continually seduced her. Heck, it barely took one of his smiles and the lightest brush of his fingertips over her cheek for her to end up completely lost in him. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t use him to drown her sorrows, but she’d simply been unable to keep herself from kissing him—and then showing him on an even more intimate level just how good he made her feel. Inside and out.
And now here she was, in his bed, his arms wrapped around her, his heart beating against hers. She’d never slept all night with a man. Not when there were always cameras waiting to catch her every move, and any “morning after” activity would be especially notable.
But though cameras might not be waiting right outside his cabin, she knew the world was still waiting for her to emerge. Just as that familiar tightening started to twist up her stomach, Drake shifted slightly beneath her and she realized he was waking up too.
Maybe it was crazy, but even with the same threats hanging over her, in the new light of morning she wanted nothing more than to fully appreciate these hours of peace and pleasure in Drake’s arms by making good on her seduction rain check.
Deliberately letting the feel of his big, warm, muscular body beneath hers take over everything else, she pressed a soft kiss to the pulse point on his neck. Just that quickly, she felt his heartbeat jump beneath her smiling lips.
Slowly, she ran kisses over his face—his jaw, his cheekbones, his still-closed eyelids—holding out on touching her lips to his until she simply couldn’t take it anymore. On a soft moan, as his tongue met hers, she had to press her naked body closer to his.
One of his kisses was all it had ever taken to rev up her arousal into the stratosphere. It would be so easy to let that arousal steamroll her slow seduction, but this morning her need to savor, to discover, to treasure every single second with Drake was even greater.
From the way his breathing had changed and his muscles moved beneath hers, she knew he had come fully awake. Fortunately, he still let her show him with her lips, her hands, and her body all the things she didn’t know how to say with words. All the things she didn’t think she could say.
Here in his bed, there was no shame, no fears left that he wouldn’t like what he saw when she was less than camera-ready. Nothing to stop her from giving him all of herself, at least for a few precious moments while birds sang outside his bedroom window and the surf crashed against the cliffs.
Rosa was teasingly running her fingertips over the deep grooves of Drake’s abdomen when he finally opened his eyes. So much heat blazed in them that her breath actually whooshed out.
“Come here and kiss me again.”
He didn’t wait for her to say she would, simply lifted her right where he wanted her, so that her breasts pressed against his chest, her hips were over his, and his hands were tangled in her hair as they dove at each other.
Somehow she managed to drag her mouth from his to say, “Grab the rails of the headboard.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You sure that’s where you want my hands?”
A shiver ran through her at the thought of all the other places she’d much rather have his hands. Seeing it, his gorgeous mouth quirked up at the corner. Which sent yet another shiver through her, of course.
“It’s time for me to make good on my rain check,” she finally managed to reply in a very breathless voice. “I can’t do that if you’re touching me.” And driving me absolutely crazy.
Slowly, as if he knew precisely how much she liked it when he teased her, he untangled his hands from her hair and lifted them to the headboard. “Not much time left on the clock,” he warned her in pretty much the sexiest voice ever.
Oh God, knowing that he was quickly approaching the end of his patience with letting her play sent sizzles all the way to her core.
“Then I’d better make the most of every single second.”
The muscles and tendons of his shoulders, arms, and torso flexed as she pressed her palms flat over his chest. For a handful of precious moments, she closed her eyes and just let herself feel his heart beating.
When she opened her eyes, she nearly gasped at the way he was looking at her. Not just with desire, but with something that looked like love.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
Could only yearn for a love like his.
How could she do anything but kiss him again and wrap herself all around him and wish that she never, ever had
to let go? It had never been this easy, this good, with anyone else. So good that she wanted to freeze-frame right here in this moment, forever.
The next thing Rosa knew, she was beneath Drake, his strong limbs pressed over hers.
“I know I should have some control by now,” he said as he ran sweet, hot kisses all over her body, sending her spinning around and around and around, from head to heart, body to soul, by the time he spoke again. “But when it comes to you...”
He was inside her before she could take her next breath. Somewhere along the way he must have slipped on protection, but she’d only barely been able to hang on to her senses when he was kissing her, touching her, thrilling her.
As they moved together as though they’d been made only for each other, Rosa finally gave up trying to control the magic. For this one perfect morning, she simply let herself be utterly bewitched. Enthralled. Possessed.
And when she felt herself falling, she not only trusted Drake enough to let herself go, but for a few wonderful moments in his arms as pleasure peaked higher than ever, she trusted herself too.
* * *
Working together in the kitchen a little while later, they devoured huge helpings of bacon, eggs, and toast. Oscar did his fair share, licking their plates so clean that washing them almost seemed like a waste of time and water. But since Rosa was eating Drake’s food and sleeping in his bed, she washed while he dried. They were just finishing up when Oscar nudged the back of her leg with his leash in his mouth.
Rosa laughed as she washed off the soap bubbles and dried her hands. “Time for a walk, is it?”
“You don’t want to see him when he misses it,” Drake teased. “Grouch city.”
She couldn’t imagine it. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs a little before I get back into serious posing mode on your leather chair.”