Private Arrangements

by Brenda Jackson

  His mouth latched on to her, and then it was on. Every single rumor she’d heard whispered about him and his deadly steady, lickity-split, seemingly mile-long tongue was true. The man definitely knew how to give pleasure while he enjoyed the ultimate feast. Somehow he seemed to close his mouth in a way that made his jaws lock on her as his tongue greedily devoured her like it was a treat he’d developed a sweet tooth for, a craving he couldn’t get enough of.

  Never had she been sensually mauled this way before. Never had any man used his tongue to pleasure her to this degree. His tongue went deep, stroked hard, and she couldn’t stop the moans as tension built within her, making her already electrified senses reel.

  “Jonas!”

  She screamed his name when her body fragmented into tiny pieces with the most intense climax she’d ever experienced. Instead of letting her go, he slid his hands beneath her, lifting her hips, pressing her more firmly to his mouth while his greedy tongue possessed her mega-stimulated mound. The sensations surging through her were over the top, off the charts, mind-boggling and earth-shatteringly explosive.

  And before her heart rate could slow down, he quickly shifted positions and pulled her up in front of him, on her knees with her back to him. She heard the sound of him tearing off the rest of his clothes and ripping into a condom packet with his teeth.

  Before she could recover from the orgasm that still had her mind reeling, her teeth chattering, he grabbed hold of her hips, spread her thighs and proceeded to slide his hard shaft into her from behind.

  She continued to shudder as he began riding her, locking his hips to hers with every hard thrust. The sound of flesh beating against flesh as his skin slapped hard against her, his testicles hitting her butt cheeks, made her senses start reeling all over again. He glided his hands under them and cupped her breasts as he rode her. Each stroke into her body was long, sure and done with a purpose and not a wasted effort.

  And when she threw her head back and tilted her hips at an angle to give deeper penetration, Nikki heard Jonas’s deep groan before he frantically bucked against her body while using his hands to keep the lower part of her locked tight against him.

  “Nikki!”

  At that moment she didn’t want to think of how many other names he’d screamed or that she would be added to the list. Another notch on his infamous bedpost. What mattered most at that moment was that they were in sync, connected with his engorged sex planted deep within her womanly core while her inner muscles clenched, relaxed and then clenched mercilessly again, draining him like he was draining her. He was once again showing her just how hot and explosive lovemaking could be, and she felt deep satisfaction all through her bones.

  She came again as fire consumed her, raged out of control and compelled her to cry out his name once more as she enjoyed every last moment of the experience. And before she could fully recover, she felt him pulling her up off the floor and gathering her into his arms.

  “Now I’ll feed you and then we’ll do this all over again in my bed.”

  And she knew at that moment he would make good on his warning that before he was finished with her they would do it all over his suite.

  Chapter 9

  The ringing of the hotel room’s phone stirred Jonas from a deep and peaceful sleep. He slowly opened his eyes and squinted against the bright sunlight shining in through the window. It took a split second to recall where he was and why his body felt so achy. He couldn’t stop the smile that touched his lips when the memories of the night before came flooding through his hazed mind.

  He glanced at the spot beside him and saw it was empty. Except for the ringing of the phone there wasn’t another sound. He didn’t need to be told he was alone and his bedmate of the night before had vanished. Pulling up in bed, he reached out to answer the phone. “Yes?”

  “Hell, I was about to hang up. What took you so long to answer? I tried calling your cell phone all night. Where the hell were you?”

  Jonas rubbed his hand down his face, frowning at all the questions Gannon was firing at him. “The reason it took me so long to answer the phone was because I was asleep,” he growled.

  “And the reason you couldn’t get me last night was because I was busy.” That was all his brother needed to know. There was no way he would admit that he’d been trying to screw Nikki’s brains out. Which made him wonder how she had gotten out of the hotel room. After the intensity of their lovemaking, he was surprised she could still walk.

  “Well, since you’re up you can join me for breakfast. I can’t wait to tell you about all that went on at the Doll House.”

  Jonas rolled his eyes. Gannon might be bursting at the seams, but personally, he could wait. Besides, he was very familiar with the gentlemen’s club so nothing Gannon told him would come as a surprise. “I’m not up yet, Gan, so do breakfast without me. I need at least another three hours of sleep.”

  “Uh-oh. That means you scored last night. I have a feeling you didn’t sleep in your bed alone and probably aren’t alone now.”

  Jonas had no intention of appeasing Gannon’s curiosity about his sexual activities, especially when they involved Nikki. “Goodbye, Gannon. I should be well-rested by lunchtime.”

  “I’m visiting that brothel today.”

  Jonas shook his head. “Make sure you have plenty of condoms.”

  “Dammit, Jonas, I’m not a kid. I know how to handle my business, thank you very much. Just make sure you’re handling yours.”

  Jonas blinked when the sound of Gannon’s phone clicked loudly in his ear. He drew in a deep breath. Okay, the kid was thirty now, but old habits were hard to break. The five of them were so used to looking out for their baby brother they sometimes forgot he was now a man. And Jonas had to constantly remind himself that he was only two years older than Gannon. Two years but with a hell of a lot more experience.

  He glanced around the room. One thing was for certain: Gannon was right, he needed to take care of his own business. And the first thing that topped the list was Nikki. The first order of business was to find out why he’d awakened alone in bed this morning. He was usually the one to decide at what point a woman left his bed and couldn’t recall when it was ever the other way around.

  But then he couldn’t ever recall having sex with any woman with the intensity of last night’s session. Nikki had drained him dry. He hadn’t stood a chance against the contractions of her inner muscles. He had come more times than he could remember and had been putty in her hands. But then, she’d also been putty in his. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d enjoyed getting between a pair of spread legs so much. And they hadn’t been just any woman’s legs. They had been Nikki’s.

  And then there had been his obsession with tasting her. He had gone down on her more times in a single night than he’d done all year. It seemed that once he’d tasted her, he hadn’t been able to get enough. It was as if her clit had been created just for his mouth. At least his tongue had evidently thought so. Even now he was convinced the taste of her had lingered, and a part of him was glad that he could taste her again. He licked his lips and found her there. His curly-headed, jeans-wearing, tasty-as-hell fantasy girl.

  He closed his eyes, not wanting to think of any female as being his fantasy girl. He hoped like hell that last night had effectively cleansed his desire for her from his system and that he wouldn’t get hard each and every time he thought about her.

  He frowned. If she was out of his system then why were shivers racing through him at the thought of seeing her and making love to her again? And why couldn’t the memories go away? The memories of him on top of her. Her on top of him. Their bodies mating, moving together in an urgency that took his breath away just thinking about it. The feel of being inside of her, and how her inner muscles would clench him tight, while he took her with a hunger that bordered on des
peration and greed.

  He shook his head, trying to free himself of the memories and saw that he couldn’t. The vision of her naked body, the intense look on her face when she came and the sound of her letting loose in pleasure were things he couldn’t forget, so there was no use trying.

  But he knew he eventually would forget when he moved on to another woman. He frowned at the thought that he didn’t want another woman right now. He liked her well enough and there was no reason to move on. Surely one more night with her wouldn’t hurt anything. A powerful force of pleasure rushed through him at the thought.

  He would grab a few more hours of sleep and then he would get up, get dressed and get laid.

  As the sunlight slashed its way through the curtains, Nikki lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling. Each time she moved she felt aches from muscles she hadn’t used in years. But thanks to Jonas, she had certainly used them last night.

  Granted she’d only made love but twice in her entire life—once in college and the other when she’d thought she’d met the man of her dreams four years ago, only to find out he’d shown interest just to make his old girlfriend jealous. She’d thought both times were okay, decent at best. However, what she’d shared with Jonas last night went beyond decent. In fact, there was nothing decent about any of it. They’d gotten downright corrupt. Never in her wildest dream had she expected to share something that naughty with any man. Did couples actually go that many rounds, try out all those positions even on a good night? She’d never experienced anything so amazing, so hot and erotic. And so spine-tingling sensational. Her dreams and fantasies hadn’t come close to the real thing.

  She remembered how she had checked out his body, studied all his tattoos. She had liked the fierce-looking bull on his stomach, but her favorite had been the Libra sign on his side.

  She pulled in a deep breath thinking he had certainly given her fair warning. Nothing could have been closer to the truth. She wondered if other men had that much energy and enjoyed sex that much. And she knew that’s what it had been, nothing but sex. He hadn’t made love to her. She had made up her mind to stop equating sex with love.

  So where did that leave her?

  She knew the answer to that one. It left her right where she had lied about being for the past two years. She could remember the day she had looked herself in a mirror and decided to give up on marriage and babies and instead join the ranks of the single ladies. There was no man out there to put a ring on it so she’d decided to live her life, have fun and not have any regrets.

  She closed her eyes to fight off the regrets. She really shouldn’t have any. Any other woman would be smiling this morning from ear to ear. But then, any other woman probably would not have sneaked out of Jonas Steele’s bed and fled to her own hotel room, where she’d slid into bed and eased her overly sore body beneath the covers.

  Now it was morning and she was awake, her body still sore, and her heart fighting a losing battle against the memories stored in her head. And they were memories that made her blush just thinking about them.

  After having sex that first time—on the floor of all places—Jonas had planted her naked body into the chair to eat dinner. And then he proceeded to sit across from her—naked as well—while they ate. He had carried on a conversation with her as if it was the most natural thing to share dinner with a woman in the nude.

  Probably a natural thing for him, but it had definitely been odd for her. At least it had been at first. That was before dessert time when he had crawled under the table to where she sat, told her to spread her legs and then used his tongue on her like she was an ice cream cone, slowly licking her before plunging in deep with long, penetrating kisses. She had lifted the tablecloth to look down, observing the way his mouth was paying very special attention to that part of her, watching how he would flick his tongue left to right, right to left and then to the center before gently scraping against her clit with his teeth. Moments later, she couldn’t help but lean back in her chair and stretch out her legs to spread them farther apart while he made her moan and groan. Never had she experienced anything so scandalous.

  Nikki closed her eyes and drew in his scent, which wasn’t hard to do since he’d left an imprint on every inch of her. She couldn’t stay in bed all day. Besides, she knew from her workout classes at the gym that the best way to ease soreness out your body was to get a move on.

  She glanced out the window. It was daytime now, but last night she had seen the brightly lit Strip from Jonas’s hotel room. She had stood at his window. Well…actually, she had been leaning toward his window while he’d gotten her from behind.

  Knowing if she continued to lie there she would eventually drown in all those tantalizing memories, she moaned at her sore body as she eased out of bed.

  She would take a shower, get dressed and do what she had planned to do last night but had not gotten around to doing. She would walk the Strip.

  “Just who do you keep trying to call, Jonas?”

  “None of your business.” Jonas frowned, putting his cell phone back in his pocket as he glanced across the table at his brother.

  They were sitting downstairs in one of the hotel’s restaurants waiting on the waitress to bring their food. He had slept five hours instead of the three, and would have slept longer if Gannon hadn’t called, waking him up again.

  Gannon smiled. “Yeah, right. You found another woman and you’re trying to make a hit, aren’t you?”

  Jonas stared at his brother as he took a sip of his lemonade. Gannon would probably fall out of his chair if Jonas admitted he was trying to make a hit on the same woman from last night. He seldom did repeats and most people knew it. It wasn’t in his makeup to spend time doing just one woman. Not when there were so many of them out there to do.

  Instead of answering Gannon, he asked, “You’ve spent most of the time talking about the naughty happenings over at the Doll House. I noticed you didn’t have much to say about your visit to the brothel.”

  “I haven’t gone there yet. I got sidetracked with Nikki.”

  Jonas swung his head around so fast it was a wonder his neck hadn’t snapped. He stared over at Gannon. “Nikki?” He was grateful Gannon had pulled out his iPhone to check messages, otherwise there was no way he would have missed what Jonas knew had to be an intense look on his face.

  “Yes, Nikki,” Gannon said, studying his phone. “You know, Brittany’s best friend. Your photographer who flew in a couple days early because you needed her to start work.” Gannon glanced up. “Well, I hate to tell you but she wasn’t working today.”

  Jonas arched his brow, forcing his features to an expressionless state when he asked, “What was she doing?”

  “Shopping. Walking the Strip. Having lunch. Shopping some more.”

  Jonas tilted his head to the side and stared at his brother. “And how do you know this?”

  Gannon shrugged as he placed his phone back in his pocket. “I ran into her on the Strip and we spent some time together. I helped her carry her bags and later we had lunch together at The Glades.”

  Jonas frowned so hard he was certain anger lines appeared in his face. “You had lunch with Nikki?”

  “Yes, and if you’re getting mad because I woke you up to have lunch again, it was because I was still hungry. You aren’t the only one who might have worked up an appetite last night. I met this woman at the Doll House and she was something else.”

  Jonas glared. Little did Gannon know that his anger had nothing to do with the fact that Gannon was making a pig out of himself by eating two lunches. His anger solely rested on the fact that he’d been trying to reach Nikki and hadn’t been able to do so. Was she deliberately avoiding his calls?

  “Did Nikki say what she would be doing after lunch?”

  Gannon rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Jonas, give the woman a break. Do you
really expect her to be on the time clock 24/7? When we parted she was on her way to do more shopping.”

  He simply stared at his brother knowing Gannon didn’t have a clue as to his real interest in Nikki and that was a good thing. He picked up his water, took a sip and tried to ask as inconspicuously as possible, “So, how was she?”

  “Who?”

  Jonas let out a frustrated breath. “Nikki.”

  “Oh.” Gannon then gave him a rakish smile. “She looked good as usual. Those tight jeans hug that rounded backside of hers like nobody’s business.”

  Jonas frowned, not liking the fact that Gannon had been ogling Nikki’s backside.

  “Oops. I better not let Mercury hear me say that.”’

  Jonas lifted a brow. “Say what?”

  “Anything about Nikki’s body.” Gannon chuckled. “He told me at Eli’s wedding that she was off-limits, so I can only assume our brother has the hots for her. He’s probably already scored.”

  At that moment the waitress returned with their food and Jonas wondered if Gannon noticed the steam coming from his ears.

  Jonas felt his jaw tighten as he stepped off the elevator onto the thirtieth floor. He hadn’t been able to end lunch with Gannon quickly enough. The good thing was that Gannon had been in too much of a hurry to get over to that brothel to notice Jonas’s bad mood. Or too busy helping himself to the steak Jonas had ordered but had been too pissed to eat.

  He had tried calling Mercury, but according to his brother’s secretary, he was in a meeting. But Jonas wanted answers and if he couldn’t get them from Mercury, he would get them from Nikki. If she thought she was playing him and his brother against each other she was sorely mistaken. If she was involved with Mercury then why in the hell had she slept with him last night? The one thing the Steele brothers didn’t do was share women.