Hot Read: The Originals (Seattle Steelheads Book 5)

by Jami Davenport

  Brett pulled his head back, his eyes bloodshot, his face pale. “God, I’m sorry. Sorry you had to witness that.”

  “I’m not sorry. I’m here because you needed me.”

  He frowned, “I do need you, Estie, so much it scares the crap out of me.”

  “I need you too, Brett.”

  “I know.” He stared deeply into her eyes, as if she had the answers she swore she couldn’t possibly have. This man held her in higher regard than she held herself, which was both flattering and scary.

  “Can you talk about it?”

  Brett shook his head. His expression flipped from needy to closed off and distant. “I do talk about it. I’ve been in therapy for years. Usually, I can keep the wolves at bay, but the stress I’ve been under lately seems to have set them free.”

  “I’m here. I’d listen to anything you want to say.” She waited, hoping that he might think enough of her to tell her what he’d been reliving that would cause such an extreme reaction.

  Indecision crossed his face, as if he were about to admit something to her then thought better of it. “It’s enough that you’re here.”

  “I’ll do anything I can.” And she meant it. Oh, lord, how she meant it. Every conviction, every lecture she’d given to herself didn’t amount to crap right now.

  “Don’t leave me alone tonight.” He pleaded with his eyes. His vulnerability sucked her in, pulled her under, and she wanted to be there for him more than anything else in her world right now. Tomorrow might be another story, but right now was what mattered.

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  “What about…about…” He seemed to stumble over the words. “You have another man’s ring.”

  Estie held up her ring finger. “I didn’t tell you the whole truth earlier. Richard and I are through.”

  He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “Through?”

  The hope in his voice shot guilt through her. “As business partners and any other kind of partner.”

  “Forever?”

  “Forever.”

  Part of her shouted, What the fuck are you doing, woman? The rest of her couldn’t deny the rightness of what she was about to do.

  Maybe her attraction to Brett was nothing more than a crush. Maybe right now she just flat out didn’t give a shit.

  Estie turned her face to his and pressed her lips against his lips, which were cold and tense. It didn’t take long to warm him up, though, because the minute their lips collided, the entire world burst into hot, consuming flames, leaving the mortal world behind as they blasted off to places unknown. Estie had never been much of an explorer but she sure as hell was now.

  They’d travel together side by side, neither in the lead nor following, just two people on the same path. She’d never been on the same path with anyone before. Not like this.

  Never. Never. Ever.

  And it was as scary as fucking hell.

  Brett drew back and held Estie’s flushed face between his hands. He stared into her bright blue eyes. His head reeled from the power of that kiss and the words she’d just spoken.

  “Are you sure your relationship is over?” Brett did not share, even for a night. Call him possessive and behind the times, but that was how he rolled.

  And Estie? How did she roll? Did she plan on using him as her sex partner for a short while only to walk away, leaving him heartsick and lonely? He’d be better off sending her back upstairs than to put himself out there only to have his hopes and dreams slammed to the ground. Yet he couldn’t give her up. As long as there was hope, he’d fight for her, just like he’d fight for his team to win the next playoff game, despite the odds.

  Yet he’d asked her to stay the night, and she’d said yes. His angel. His fantasy. His obsession.

  Looking into her deep-blue eyes wiped away his misgivings or doubts. When she pulled away from him and stood, his heart sank. She’d had second thoughts.

  Instead, she shooed the dogs out of the bedroom and shut the door, turning to face him. “We don’t want the kids watching, do we?”

  He shook his head slowly. His heart pounded so loud that his ears hurt. His felt his face freeze into a mask of conflicting emotions as he tried to second-guess this beautiful woman.

  Her slow, seductive smile clued him in to her intentions, and his dick took notice along with every other organ and cell in his body. Her long hair fell over her shoulders and across her perfect breasts. The woman rocked sexy in flannel like he’d never imagined. From this point forward, flannel would do it for him more than lace or leather.

  “I love you,” he whispered. The words tumbled from his lips without any coherent thought on his part but came straight from his heart. A private man, Brett rarely voiced his feelings, preferring to keep everything inside, but he’d spoken the truth, and he’d gladly suffer the consequences.

  Estie’s hands flew to her mouth, and her eyes opened wide in shock. He half expected her to bound away like a deer. Only she didn’t.

  After a long, painful silence, she swallowed and shook her head. “You can’t love me. You don’t know me.”

  “I do know you. You’re a kind, sweet, caring woman. You love animals, and my animals love you. That’s all I need to know.”

  “Brett.” She spoke his name softly, a thousand promises on the tip of her tongue, a lifetime of memories in her smile, and a thin, ragged thread binding them together. One slight breeze, one twitch, one wrong move, and the bond would sever, most likely irreparable. He didn’t want to sever it tonight. Tonight, they lived in a reality of their own making. Tomorrow they’d pay the price for their lust.

  Lust? What a stupid term. It reduced what was going on between them into something purely physical; this was life changing and crucial to breathing.

  With shaking hands, Estie slowly unbuttoned her flannel pajama top. Brett licked his lips and held his breath as she revealed inch by creamy inch of skin. He balled up the comforter in his fists, fully aware that his cock took a hard stand, waiting for its reward. She slipped the top off her shoulders and it dropped to the floor. Brett’s heart went into cardiac arrest while his lungs followed suit with respiratory failure. He wasn’t alive. He couldn’t be.

  His gaze fell to her breasts, small and perfect, with rosy-red nipples, and happy to see him. Fucking hell, he was happy himself, deliriously happy.

  God, she was beautiful. No words could describe her beauty. No camera could do her justice. No man deserved her. And especially not a man as damaged as him. But fuck it; tonight, she belonged to him. To hell with practicality and reality.

  To hell with anything that kept them apart.

  Her pj bottoms joined her top on the floor, leaving her in nothing but a conservative pair of cotton underwear, just as sexy as the flannel. Brett’s eyes traveled the length of her long, lean body, and he swore he’d never seen anyone so beautiful, body and soul and heart. Definitely heart. He fumbled in the nightstand for a condom and rolled it onto his straining cock, never taking his eyes off her.

  “I really do love you.” He said it again, wanting something from her, a reaction of some kind. “I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you.”

  She shook her head, almost as if she didn’t believe she was worthy of his undying devotion. “Brett, let’s take it one day at a time, like you prepare for each game one game at a time.” Leave it to Harris’s sister to use that particular football analogy on him.

  “I do mean it. With every breath I breathe I mean it. With every beat of my heart I mean it.”

  “Brett. Please. Don’t look past tonight. Enjoy the moment, as if it were one special night in a lifetime of ordinary nights. No regrets. No doubts. Just you and me.” She bent and slid her underwear down her long thighs until they settled around her ankles, then she stepped out of them. She put one knee on the bed, and his eyes focused on that spot between her legs. She shaved, leaving nothing to his imagination, which was fine with him. He’d done enough imagining for the past month. Now he wanted r
eality.

  He ran a hand up her thigh, and she shivered, her eyes closing at the contact. A soft moan escaped from her throat. He was going to die tonight and be reborn again. He knew it as much as he knew he’d be a long shot to get the team into the Super Bowl, but then, Brett had always been a competitive underdog. He’d give her a night to remember, a night she’d never forget, and a night to repeat over and over again.

  He’d make her forget Richard or any other guy ever existed—past, present, and future.

  Reaching out for her, he held either side of her waist and gently lifted her body on top of his. She straddled him, knees on either side of his thighs, balancing her body with hands on his shoulders. Her long hair feathered across his chest, tickling the light brown hair dusting his pecs and rib cage. She stared down at him, a seductive smile on those sweet lips, and he loved the contradiction of sweet and sexy.

  Tilting her head toward him, she lowered it until their lips touched. God, her lips felt like wet silk. She kissed him. Her kisses were alive and passionate, slow and torturous. Brett buried his fingers in the back of her hair, threading them through the long strands, and held her mouth to his. He coaxed her lips open—not that it took much coaxing—and slipped his tongue inside warm, moist heaven. Her tongue mated with his, dancing, sparring, teasing, retreating, and he matched her move for move. His heart pounded in his ears, while his breath came in short gasps. He deepened the kiss, and she arched above him. Her midsection scraped across his belly and pressed against his dick, so hard and primed he was in pain, but a good pain. The type of pain he’d take any day or night of the week.

  He groaned as she teased his cock with her wet crotch, not giving him a break as their mouths hungrily made love to each other. She pulled back, gasping for air. He took advantage of the opportunity and slid his hands down her back, lifting her high enough to be lip to nipple. He took one rosy-red nub between his lips and sucked like a man needing the type of nourishment only this particular woman could give.

  His nostrils flared as he caught the scent of her arousal, heady and sweet, powerful beyond words. He kissed a trail to the opposite nipple, sucking until he was satisfied with how red and swollen they’d become from his careful administrations. Estie panted above him, his dick sandwiched between her thighs. Seeing her so high on him made his cock twitch with need.

  Not yet, buddy.

  Brett ducked his head again, taking a small fold of skin near her nipple between his teeth and sucking hard. She whimpered, but he didn’t stop until he’d marked her as his with a nice love bite on her soft skin. He added a second bite to the other breast, wishing he could permanently brand her as his, like she’d branded herself across his heart with that first smile.

  She clutched at his biceps and rubbed her crotch against his dick. Brett almost smiled, and with a quickness he usually kept under wraps, he flipped their positions with a move so smooth, one moment she was on top and the next he was. Her beautiful lips parted in wonder, as if she couldn’t fathom how he’d done that.

  “Smooth move, huh?” He grinned through gritted teeth. God, holding back was killing him.

  “Really smooth, Romeo. Don’t like being on the bottom, do you?”

  “I like being on the bottom just fine as long as it’s you on top. Hell, I’d hang from the ceiling upside down if you’d suck my dick.”

  “You want me to suck your dick?” Her fingernails dug into his shoulders.

  “Absolutely. And fuck me. Slow, fast, hard, soft…any way you want.”

  “We can try all those ways.” Her pupils dilated, and she pressed those slim hips against him. “Which way do you want it first?”

  “That’s for me to decide this time. You’ll get your time later.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “Honey, I’m keeping you any way I can as long as I can. If it needs to be in suspense, so be it.”

  She wrapped those long, heaven-sent legs around his waist. “Are you still deciding?” The evil vixen grinned at him. Brett had always prided himself on his control, but Estie was about to blow it out of the water. Not going to happen. This was his show, not hers. Though he certainly looked forward to her part of the night’s program.

  “Brett,” she rasped in a hoarse whisper. “Sink your big dick inside me.”

  He stared down at her, grinding his jaw in an attempt to distract himself from the inevitable. He wanted this to be slow and sexy for her, to be so fucking incredible she’d never want anyone but him.

  But he didn’t know how long he could hold out, not with her legs wrapped around his waist and her hot pussy teasing his dick—a dick that demanded release.

  “Estie, I want this to be slow for you.”

  “Slow can wait. I want you now, Gun. Now,” she ordered, reminding him of a lieutenant he’d served with.

  “Honey, you’re in no position to be giving me orders, are you?”

  The corners of her lips twitched in a suppressed smile. “No, sir, but perhaps we can work out a mutual arrangement.”

  “I believe we already have.”

  “Then just fuck me.”

  His body shuddered upon hearing those words on her sweet red lips. Lust stormed through him hard and fast, stronger than gale-force winds in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

  “Please,” she pleaded with him. And who was he to disappoint a beautiful lady, especially this beautiful lady? Like he could stop himself.

  Brett positioned himself between her legs, pressing against her opening. She reached between their legs and guided him inside. The lady was in a hurry, but despite their lack of foreplay, he was determined to draw this out for her ultimate pleasure—regardless of the physical toll it took on his body. He pushed inside, and his head spun from the sheer erotic force of being surrounded by this woman. Pressing deeper, he refused to let her hurry him, but God, it was tough, tougher than trying to throw a touchdown pass against the best defense in the league.

  He might not be an overly tall man, but he didn’t lack in the dick department, and he had no doubts she’d get optimum pleasure from his girth and length, or he’d die trying. She was warm, wet, and tight. Much tighter than he’d ever imagined, tighter than any woman he’d ever had, and his dick felt fucking good inside her tight little cunt. It surrounded him, sheathed him, welcomed him home.

  Brett closed his eyes, bit his lower lip, and forced himself to go slow, inch by agonizing inch, even as a woman driven as wild as he was writhed underneath him and attempted to break his tight control for immediate gratification.

  He’d give her gratification, all right. Both of them. In his own time.

  Their sweat-slickened bodies slid against each other as he pressed himself deeper into a carnal paradise unlike no other he’d ever felt or would ever feel. With one last push, he was fully buried inside her. She stared at him, their eyes locked in an ages-old mating ritual, their souls merged as if they were of the same mind and body. He didn’t know it could be like this. As he began his slow build of thrusting in and out, she pushed against him, dug her heels into his back, urging him on. Brett fought that urge with every bit of iron will he possessed and some he didn’t know he possessed.

  She arched her back, changed the angle of her hips, and took him even deeper on the next thrust. “Fuck me. Harder,” she pleaded, her voice taking on a sexy, husky tone.

  “Oh, hell, Estie.” His body shook from the strain of holding back. His dick throbbed like hell as he sank it time and again into ultimate pleasure. She ground her crotch against his and nipped at his shoulder. He couldn’t take it anymore. Rearing back, he withdrew and thrust deep into her, picking up the pace and intensity with each thrust until he swore the top of his head would blow off. He came when she did, like a perfectly timed ballroom dancing couple. They hit the finale together, existing in the same place in space and time, as if they had melded into one in the most fucking incredible way.

  He’d never be satisfied with just sex again, because this spiritual component set
the standard and raised the bar impossibly high.

  Estie was his, body, mind, and most of all, soul. Somehow he’d show her just how much they were meant to be together.

  Chapter Eleven

  Laid Out on the Field

  Estie stared at the ceiling while a million thoughts bounced off each other inside her skull, like an emotional game of ping-pong. She reached for Brett’s side of the bed, still warm from his body, and wrapped her arms around his pillow, inhaling the unique scent of him, like a woodsy spring day. He’d gotten up at the crack of dawn to go to Steelheads HQ to work out and watch film with Tyler. She knew the drill. After all, she’d been Tyler’s sister all his life.

  They’d stayed together all night, making love and talking. She’d told him about Richard’s embezzlement and his father’s role in all of it.

  He’d held back telling her his secrets, and that disturbed her, but she pushed it out of her mind, and they finally fell into a deep sleep after they fucked each other’s brains out. She almost smiled. Brett’s breathing had been strong and steady. In fact, the sounds he made while sleeping comforted her.

  If only she found her thoughts comforting. She shouldn’t be so confused after what they’d just experienced together, and her uncertainty frustrated her even more. She’d walked on air last night until the reality of daylight laid its heavy hand on her heart.

  She’d slept with him. She’d touched his naked body, run her hands over his bare ass, taken his hard dick in her mouth. And she’d loved every single damn thing they did together.

  Yet…

  She already knew that this thing with Brett would be messy and out of her control. She wouldn’t be able to lead him around by his dick or force him into a neat, tidy little corner of her life. She’d thought she’d done that with Richard, and look where that got her. Richard had secrets she’d never suspected. Last night proved a point. Brett had secrets too—dangerous, damaging, messy secrets. Uncontrollable and unpredictable didn’t fit into her ordered life, even if it was in temporary disorder.