Tangled Web Series Box Set

by Jade C. Jamison

  She really hoped he wouldn’t, but she didn’t want to press the issue, especially since he was acting more normal again. They ate in a silence for a few moments and then Erin said, “I know you used to write all the lyrics for Spawn. Are you still doing that in your new band?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but I’m also writing some of the music too.”

  She smiled. “That’s impressive. That why it sounds so different?”

  He shrugged. “That’s part of it. Johnny used to write all the music for Spawn.”

  “Johnny…J. C.?”

  “Yeah.”

  She took another bite of chicken. So far, so good, but in the back of her mind, she was worried about the wine. Maybe she could try distracting him a little later.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  OKAY, SO RILEY was coming on a little too strong in the asshole role, so he dialed it back a bit. But he got pissed at himself for that too because that had been the whole point. If Erin just wanted a little romp with a rock star, he could give her a taste of the whole gamut. He could treat her like trash, make her feel like a whore if that’s what she really wanted.

  The problem was he liked her way too much. Every time he started to turn on the heat and act like a dick, the hurt in her eyes made him pull back. He felt guilty.

  And then, goddamn. She just had to bring up the new music, didn’t she? She had to tell him she liked his new stuff. That made him feel great. He’d been so worried about what Spawn fans would think, especially because so many of them embraced Johnny’s new project and much of the buzz in the fan community was that Riley had no talent. So he’d been worrying himself sick wondering what fan reaction would be. He knew Erin was a serious fan, so having her assure him his new stuff was not only viable but good did loads for his confidence.

  He wondered if he’d be able to pull it off. She might not care about him, might think this was all just a little jaunt in the park, but he just couldn’t stop falling for her more and more.

  “Are you ready for dessert?” she asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  He looked up from his empty plate. Yeah, he was, but he didn’t know that she meant the dessert he was thinking about. And he really was thinking about the goddamned bottle of wine too. That had been a fucking stupid move. But he was at war with himself. He hadn’t wanted a drink this badly for a couple of years and, even though he’d been considering it, he hadn’t even seriously thought of giving in until he’d actually bought some. But, for now, he was going to chill.

  Erin got up from the table and opened the refrigerator, leaning over to see in. He had a nice view of her sweet ass. Jesus. He wanted to take her right there. But he’d behave himself…for now. He’d already freaked her out enough by being a rat bastard. She fetched a round pan of cheesecake out of the fridge along with two bottles of the soda he’d brought over earlier in the week. Then she walked over to the counter and got two small plates out of the cabinet. Riley finally asked, “Do you need any help?”

  “No, I got it. Thanks.” His eyes moved to one of the two tall white candles on the table, the flame flickering gently, swaying to a quiet tune only it felt. It certainly didn’t match what was coming from the speakers in Erin’s living room, songs from the middle of Korn’s Follow the Leader disc. He smiled. Erin really was a metalhead. It wasn’t just a show because she’d wanted to dally with the bad boy on the other side of the tracks.

  Ah, yes, more of the conflicting thoughts and emotions. Wouldn’t want it to be easy to be a raging asshole. Or…what was it she’d called him a few days ago? An incorrigible ass? Yeah…he was gonna be that tonight. He had to power through his guilty feelings and make her hate him. If he saw a look of hate in her eyes, it would be easy to walk away. Right now, it just hurt.

  It was hard, though, because she was sweet and gorgeous. He glanced around the kitchen, realizing she’d put a lot of work into this meal. He had no idea how long she’d worked on it, but she’d done a lot. And then…she was in that simple, plain-Jane dress, but it hugged her curves and made him think all kinds of dirty thoughts.

  She turned around, smiling, and set in front of him a slice of cheesecake, a fork, and an opened bottle of cream soda. He couldn’t help but smile back, and she looked like she had some secret. He liked that but he also felt a little wary, and he knew why. He was feeling guilty about all the thoughts he’d had over the last twenty-four hours and he was projecting them on her. Still… “So what’s wrong with it?”

  Erin had turned back to the counter and was walking back with another soda. “What? What do you mean?”

  God, he was a fucking asshole. Look at the pain in those green eyes, asshole. You did that. “Oh, nothing.” He took a swig of his soda and avoided looking at her.

  Before he could grab the fork, she picked it up and sliced off a tiny bite from the cheesecake on the small plate between them. She held the fork out to him. God…could he trust her? Was she wanting to get him back for being such a jerk tonight? It would be so easy.

  But he did trust her. He couldn’t help it. He leaned forward and let her slide the fork in his mouth as he closed his lips over it. Then she placed her other hand on his inner thigh. Fuck…he couldn’t stop himself from feeling comfortable. He liked dessert already, and he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his plan with the heat of her hand radiating through his jeans.

  He also couldn’t help the small, sly smile turning up his lips. She asked, “What do you think?”

  He swallowed the bite. “About the cheesecake?”

  Oh, God, that seductive look in her eyes. She had a plan. “Sure.”

  “It’s, uh, smooth and sweet.” What the fuck? Chill your shit, Riley. He was losing his cool. He was acting like he was fourteen. Of course, he was kinda feeling like that too. He felt her hand sliding up his thigh, ever so slowly, as his jeans tightened. Yeah, right, his jeans tightened. No, his cock was expanding and it couldn’t fit in there anymore. He closed his eyes. He was going to enjoy the sensation and whatever other exquisite torture she had in mind for him.

  She slid her hand back toward his knee. Oh, fuck…don’t stop now. But he knew it was all just part of it. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She had a devilish grin on her face and said, “Now my turn.”

  Yeah…he’d gladly put both his hands on her thighs, but she had the fork in her hand and snapped her wrist at him, then slid the plate closer to him. He grinned and scooped up just a sliver. He saw her hands move to her neck and she unbuttoned the top of her dress. He was distracted and paused until she furrowed one brow and looked at the fork in his hand.

  As though he were an errant slave, he blinked and moved the fork toward her mouth, but he was painfully aware that she kept unbuttoning the dress. Once he had the fork in her mouth, she clamped her teeth down on it, her lips curled in a snarl. She had a twinkle in her eye.

  And who the fuck was Riley kidding when he thought he could treat her like trash? She was too cute and too funny and…way too sexy. She stirred something deep within him. He wanted to say something but he was afraid of breaking the mood. He slid the fork out of her mouth and just watched as she moved down the front of her dress, one button at a time, ignoring the beat of Korn’s “Seed” playing in the room, taking her sweet-ass agonizing time. He could barely take his eyes off her fingers, couldn’t even clamp his mouth shut, but he scooped up another bite on the fork and brought it to her mouth. Her smile was wide and she opened her lips again. Once she had the cheesecake in her mouth, she bit her bottom lip and looked at him through half-closed eyes. He wondered what she was thinking.

  She reached over and took the fork from him. But instead of scooping up another bite for him, she set the utensil down on the table and scooted her chair closer to his. She got so close, her legs fit in between his, but she didn’t get too close. She was so close, though, that he could feel the warmth radiating off her.

  He could hear her breathing. Her breath wasn’t smooth and silent, and he knew that meant she was getti
ng a little worked up. Still, he kept his distance, because he didn’t know what she had planned. Then she brought her hands up to her breasts. At first, he thought she was going to cup them, and just that thought made his pants feel tight again. Instead, though, she moved her fingers underneath the fabric and pulled the sides apart.

  Holy fucking shit.

  She had some kind of lacy red lingerie underneath her goddamn dress. The sleeves of her dress were hanging off her shoulders now so he could only see a little of the lingerie but shit. But what drove him absolutely out of his mind was when she grabbed his hand and pressed the palm against her breast. He felt the rigid nipple against his hand and she let out a heavy breath, closing her eyes and leaning forward.

  Jesus Christ. He knew one thing. There was no way he could walk away from this.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  THE LOOK IN Riley’s eyes was classic. The moment Erin put his hand on her breast, his pupils got so wide they nearly ate up his entire eyeball. And she’d noticed how he was bulging against his pants, too. He was as hard as stone. There was no ignoring it. She’d managed to seduce him and, she hoped, taken his mind off the stupid bottle he’d brought.

  But, damn it, she hadn’t wanted to care. She’d already been feeling such strong emotions when it came to Riley and it was impossible to turn them off. She was worried about him too, worried that he might decide to throw away three years of sobriety for a cheap bottle of wine. But she was also upset with him—he was acting like an asshole off and on, and it didn’t make any sense. She hadn’t said anything to set him off, at least nothing she could figure.

  And whatever resolve she had tried to muster to resist him dissolved in his presence. Just sitting next to him through dinner had made every last nerve stand at attention, begging for his touch. Oh, yeah, like she hadn’t planned everything out. She couldn’t even pretend with herself…the red with black trim bustier/ panty set was premeditated and she’d felt hot all through dinner knowing it was under her boring dress.

  She hadn’t had a plan, though, but it had hit her when she’d decided to move them on to dessert. And it had worked. And how. Just having his eyes on her, with his body almost paralyzed while she unbuttoned the dress had aroused her in ways she couldn’t even describe. By the time she was done with the last button at the waist, all her muscles were tense and alive and her panties were wet.

  Speaking of the stupid lingerie set, it was something she’d bought for Frank, about a week before they’d broken up. But she’d never worn it for him, had only worn it when she’d tried it on in the store in the mall. When she came across it today, she knew it would be perfect. And the look in his eyes told her that yes, it was.

  Grabbing his hand and placing it on her breast had been one of the boldest moves she’d ever made with a man. She’d always been a little on the shy side in the bedroom, preferring to let the man lead the way, but Riley had opened up something in her. Maybe it was cuffing him and leaving him, Jackie style, that had lowered her inhibitions but it might have been that stupid Monopoly strip game they’d played. Maybe it was just something about him.

  But she wasn’t going to analyze her brazen behavior; instead, she was going to reap the benefits. Riley’s hand closed over her breast and he squeezed it ever so slightly before he loosened his grip and then traced the nipple with his finger. Jesus…the air rushed out of her mouth and she could barely keep her eyes open. It was almost embarrassing because it was like he could read her thoughts.

  He moved his finger from her breast to her cleavage and then traced it slowly down her torso. She could feel the heat from his flesh through the thin fabric. She wanted him right now. She moved one hand onto his forearm that rested on the table and the other hand gripped his thigh just past his knee as his finger drew its way down her abdomen, brushing lightly over her navel, and then he touched the exposed flesh between the bustier and panties. She sucked in a deeper breath, her body anticipating his touch farther down. But he let his finger move over the top of the panties. It didn’t matter, though, because it felt so intense that she closed her eyes as he followed the groove between her labia, straight to her throbbing clit. She gasped again, louder this time, and she moved her hand from his forearm to run it through her hair. Her other hand, though, gripped his thigh as though she were hanging on for a wild ride. He brushed her through the fabric of the panties and all it did was make her want more.

  Then he leaned over and grabbed one of her legs, draping it over his thigh, and he followed with her other leg. Afterward, he laced his hands around her lower back and pulled her up on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and met his lips with hers. His tongue danced with hers and she laced her fingers through his soft mussy hair. She wanted to pull it, grab it, tell him to hurry up and fuck her, but she didn’t know how well that would go over. She was pressed right up against him and she could feel how hard he was. He was just as ready as she was. She tilted her pelvis forward so she could feel him right up against her and a small groan formed in her throat. She felt his firm hands on the small of her back, and the fabric in the bustier was so thin it was like he was touching her bare skin.

  He kissed her deeply once, then moved his lips to her neck. His hands, the fingers splayed apart, moved up her back, and they felt like fire. One of his hands moved up to her neck and cupped her head while she leaned back into it. His lips moved from her neck down to her breasts. She let go of his hair, dragging her hands down his back, and she sat up again, her lips slamming into his. Again, she just wanted to demand that he fuck her right there but she didn’t want to break the spell, so instead she moved her hands around and down to his fly where she started playing with the button.

  Riley stood, holding her under the ass, and pressed her up against the refrigerator. Her dress was bunched at her waist. He had her positioned higher than she would be if she were standing, so that his hard on was digging into her right where it mattered. She let out a long, heavy sigh, because it couldn’t really be considered dry humping when she was that wet, could it? “Oh, God,” she said, digging her nails into his back through the t-shirt. He nipped her earlobe and kissed her neck again and took her hint.

  “You like that, huh?”

  “Yeah…” she said, barely able to talk, her breathing was so erratic.

  So he kept grinding into her, his hips swaying in a circular motion. She heard the way she was panting and she was partly upset with herself that she’d just caved into him so easily. Her emotions were in such conflict—she wanted him but she didn’t; she wanted to hold off but not. She was fucked in the head was what she was, and she found him so intoxicating that she could no longer think, could no longer concentrate, could no longer be without him.

  Seriously?

  Yes…those were the weird thoughts swirling in her head as the tightness in her body increased and she knew she was getting closer. Riley stopped moving and pressed his forehead onto hers, his eyes burning into the ones in her head. He didn’t say anything, and part of her was glad, because she could tell he had a lot to say. He looked full of…pain.

  His hands had never left the underside of her thighs where he’d been holding her up, and he stepped back from the refrigerator, still holding her up, and walked a few steps back to the table. Ah, yes…he’d joked about the table yesterday. But there was shit all over it. Their dinner plates, the candles. If he wanted to use it as a makeshift bed, he’d have to clean it off. But she hadn’t realized what he had in mind.

  After he set her down, he placed his hands on her shoulders and, after another rough kiss, eased her around so she was facing the table. Then his lips were down on her neck again as his hands slid across her ribcage, under her breasts, and he fingered the nipples through the fragile fabric. Now she knew what he was going to do and discovered that there was, in fact, plenty of room to do it. He planned to take her from behind this time, and she was merely going to use the table top for support. There were no plates on the end of the table where they stood.


  He grabbed her bunched-up dress on both sides and yanked it down past her hips. There, gravity took over and it dropped to the floor. His lips grazed her earlobe as one of his hands slid down her belly and under the front of the panties. She sucked in a quick deep breath and leaned her head back against him as his other hand cupped a breast and massaged it. Her eyes fluttered closed as his index finger found her clitoris and started swirling, a slow, circular motion that created an electric vibration deep inside her. She let out a loud moan as he started kissing her neck, his tongue tracing a pattern on the skin.

  She was getting close already, and he nipped her shoulder but he stopped moving his finger and pulled his hand out of her panties. He brought both hands around to her back and gently pressed against the small of it, moving up toward her shoulder blades. He pressed against her and she bent at the waist, sensing that he was ready to enter her. She just wanted him to hurry. She was so close and didn’t want to beg him.

  He yanked down on her panties, almost too hard. The elastic dug into her hips and she thought he was maybe trying to tear them. They were well-made, though, unlike the last ones he tore, and could stand up to a little bit of aggression. He got them down to her knees and Erin propped her head up on one elbow and looked behind her. Riley had his wallet in hand and he pulled out a condom package. Finally. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to will herself to be patient.

  She looked at him again. What was that look in his eyes? He ran his empty hand up her spine, pushing her down, and then he entered her. Finally. She breathed out, anticipating her orgasm. He wrapped his hands around her hair and tugged until she faced forward. She was uncomfortable but his steady in-and-out distracted her from it. She rested her arms at her sides, bent at the elbows, to steady herself.

  That is, until he got close and the tug became pain. He was pulling too hard, and it reminded her of her ex, Frank. Frank often got too rough in bed, and after she mentioned it one time, he got worse. In fact, it seemed like the more she asked him to be gentle or mindful, the worse he’d get. So she debated if she wanted to say anything at all right now or ever. She felt Riley’s hand move to her hip and it found its way back to her clit. The pressure he exerted there took her mind off any pain she was feeling and her brain focused on that small, tight spot. She gasped as she got close and then felt the release build until she combusted, crying aloud as her body let go.