I gasped and held my breath as his tongue found my clit, as he began to draw slow, small circles around it; his mouth was so warm and soft that it made my entire body ache, but I kept my hands above my head and held myself still to let him do what he wanted to me. Spreading my legs a little further, he moved his fingers up and slipped them inside of me, fucking me slowly, and slowed the strokes of his tongue even further, caressing me torturously. I looked down and found him watching me carefully, his eyes locked on mine, and he must have seen the desperation on my face because they flashed with amusement before he turned his attention back to what he was doing to me.
He went down on me like no one ever had before, like he couldn’t get enough of me—he sucked softly on my lips until they were engorged and sensitized, trailed his tongue from my clit to my slit and back up again, withdrew his fingers from me so that he could briefly fuck me with his tongue before he focused his attention back on my clit and sucked gently on me once more. He ate me out like he actually wanted to pleasure me, as opposed to getting this out of the way so he could do what he wanted. My legs were shaking, and my chest was heaving, and it felt as though my entire body was grasping and gasping for release. But he went slow, coaxing me there, guiding me gently and tentatively to the point where I could hardly hold myself together. It was too much, the feeling burning inside of me, and it took every single ounce of control I had not to cry out in agonized need for him.
He sealed his lips around my clit and stroked me with his tongue as he moved his fingers inside of me, finding that place that made my entire body tense up. I was close, so close that I could almost taste it, and I lifted my head and looked down at him, and the sight of this gorgeous creature putting everything he had into making me come was enough to push me over the edge.
I closed my eyes and clamped my thighs around him as the orgasm hit me, running me over like a freight train. I had no idea how I kept my mouth shut because it felt as though the sensation was exploding through me, prickling my skin, pulsing out from between my legs and over my body. Finally, I gave in and reached for him, touching his hair, his neck, his shoulders, and pulling him back on top of me. He kissed me once more, and I could taste myself on his mouth, and it only prolonged the pleasure.
“Good?” he murmured in my ear, and I could hear that teasing edge to his voice as though he knew damn well how good it had been and just wanted to hear it from me.
“Amazing,” I breathed in return, and I turned to kiss him once more. I needed this—I needed him inside me. And he seemed to understand just how badly that desire was affecting me.
“Here,” he leaned over and grabbed a condom from the bedside table, and he stripped down swiftly and sheathed himself; I reached for him in the dark, wrapping my fingers around him and stroking him a few times, and he went to move down on top of me just like the time before—but I wanted something new. I knew what I wanted to give him.
I flipped over, arched my back, and glanced over my shoulder at him, biting my lip playfully. His eyebrows shot up, and he grinned, not needing to be told twice.
“Anything the lady wants,” he remarked, running his hand down my back and over my ass; he held my hip in place as he guided himself into me, and I bit my lip hard to keep from crying out in pleasure.
“Fuck, you feel so tight like this,” he breathed as he began to move inside me. And I had to admit, it did feel fucking incredible; he was so big like this, made me feel so full. He thrust into me slowly at first, letting me get used to him, my pussy already slick from the orgasm he’d just given to me, but he was soon holding my hips steady and going harder, long, quick strokes where he buried himself up to the hilt inside me with every one. I pressed my face into the covers, hoping they would be enough to muffle the noises that were coming out of me.
He slipped his hand between my legs and found my clit, stroking me in time with his thrusts; his other hand found its way to my hair, which he wrapped around his fingers and used to tug my head back just a little. I gasped, the pain mellowing at once to pleasure, and wondered if this was what he’d learned from all that wildness and all those hook-ups back when he was a carefree bachelor. It was criminal that he had gone so long off the market if this was what he had to offer.
Soon, I could feel myself getting close once more, my body moving and shifting and grinding back against him; I could hear his breath coming harder, and I wanted nothing more than to feel him come, to know that I had been enough to push him over the edge. And suddenly, with one last thrust inside me, he held himself still, and he came.
I twisted around to watch his face, and the sight of him totally lost to his desire for me was enough to push me over the edge. The pleasure swelled and burst once more inside me, his fingers pressed to my clit and his cock still buried deep into me. He slid out slowly, releasing me back on to the bed, and I lay there and tried to catch my breath as he disposed of the condom.
Now, I knew that I should have gathered my stuff and gotten out of there before his daughter woke up. I knew that was the right choice, and in my head, I was planning to say my goodbyes and get out the door and spend the night in my own bed. But the exhaustion of what we’d just done was overwhelming, and I found myself getting drowsy. By the time I felt him slip down beside me and throw an arm over me I was so tired that I couldn’t even remember why I needed to get out of there in the first place.
“You have no idea how much I needed that,” he murmured, briefly cutting through my reverie, and he leaned over and planted a kiss on my cheek just as sleep roiled up and took me over. I found myself smiling as, for the first time in a while, I slipped into a restful sleep.
I woke with a start when I heard movement, and suddenly all that endorphin-laden stupidness vanished from my head. I needed to get the fuck out of there, right now. Before his little girl woke up. I thought I could hear her in the bathroom, and I listened, frozen with fear as she made her way back to her room. How quiet had we been? Did she have any idea I was here?
I turned to look at Logan sleeping next to me; that scrub of stubble on his chin was so cute I just had to reach out and touch it. But then he shifted in his sleep, and I jumped and pulled away. The last thing on Earth that I needed right now was him waking up and asking for an explanation as to why I was getting out of there so fucking swiftly after what we had done. I didn’t want to have to tell him that it had everything to do with his daughter and the fact that I didn’t want to have to explain what the hell I had been doing in her daddy’s bed.
I got dressed quickly and quietly, and I felt a twist of guilt at what I was doing. What we had shared had been genuinely incredible, and it was clear that there was some sort of connection between Logan and me, even if it was just a physical one. Didn’t he deserve an explanation, for me to let him know that I would have hung around if it hadn’t been for his kid? No, that would only make it worse. I would just make sure that I never found myself here again, no matter what. He would probably be mad at me for sneaking off, and he would have a right to be, but surely, he didn’t want to have to explain the notion of no-strings-attached hook-ups to his daughter over breakfast the next day.
I stole one more look at the sleeping Logan and made for the door, tiptoeing down the hall and out of the apartment. I hurried down the stairs, praying that I wasn’t going to run into any of the neighbors, and just made it back to my place before I heard some movement upstairs. I winced and hoped that I hadn’t come across as too much of an asshole for what I had just done. But I had a bad feeling the ship had already sailed on that.
Chapter 6
Logan
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“What did you say, Daddy?”
“Nothing, baby,” I assured Erin, smiling at her as she continued with her coloring in front of the television. I planted a kiss on her head. No need for her to have to hear about any of this. I wanted her to live an easy, calm life, and not have to worry about the fact that I couldn’t for the life of me find anyone to take care of
her while I went to my shift at work.
I had called Ant, but she wasn’t answering her phone; knowing her timing, she would get back to me right as I confirmed someone else to come along, but that was no good to me now. I had tried my usual babysitter, Taylor, but she was out at some after-school club and couldn’t do it that evening. And now, here I was, twenty minutes from having to leave, with no one who could step in and take care of Erin for me.
I made my way through to the bedroom and tried to catch my breath. There was no point working myself to hysteria over this. I needed to stay calm and consider my options.
I couldn’t just skip out on work. I needed the paycheck something awful that month and dropping a shift would mean Elijah would start handing off more of them to other people. I needed to go. So who could I get to take care of Erin for me?
My mind drifted downstairs, and I pushed the idea out of my head at once. She had shown no interest in Erin at all, and besides, I barely knew her—we had hooked up a couple of times, and that was it. I hardly knew if I could trust her with the most important thing in my life.
Just thinking about Nina was enough to drag up a mess of feelings I had been trying my hardest to shove down for the last few days. She had come up to my apartment looking like a gift wrapped especially for me in a pair of skimpy pajamas, and the two of us had had a crazy-hot hook-up in my room while Erin was sleeping. I couldn’t remember the last time I had experienced anything like that; sure, I’d had hot one-night stands before, but this was way more than that. I still went over the moment she flipped around on the bed, arched her back, and asked me to take her from behind at least once a day.
But we had fallen asleep together, something I never would have let happen if I had been thinking straight, and when I woke up, she had snuck out of the apartment and left me alone once more. Which was a good thing, really, because I didn’t want to have to explain to Erin what the fuck was going on between us, but I felt a jolt of sadness when I saw that she was missing from the spot next to me. I had reached out my arm to cuddle her close, but she was gone. And that sucked.
I had to keep reminding myself that I didn’t know this girl at all. Sure, she was Ant’s best friend, and if my sister had kept her around for all this time that meant she couldn’t be a total wash, but we had only hooked up a couple of times and exchanged one frenetic conversation outside of that. Whatever we were doing, it was clearly and blatantly a bad idea. She didn’t seem to want anything to do with Erin, and I couldn’t keep someone around who was like that, no matter how good the sex was.
We hadn’t exchanged a word since then, and I hadn’t been able to shake her from my head. Was it the same with her? She was the one who came to me, after all, and told me that she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about me. But maybe that last hook-up had been all she needed to get me out of her system once and for all, and now she had her fill and wasn’t going to bother with me again.
But she was the only person in my immediate vicinity who I could ask to do this. I had heard her moving around in the apartment downstairs a few times today, so I knew she was in. I ran through the pros and cons—sure, I didn’t know if she was any good with kids, but she had the Ant seal of approval, and that was good enough for me. And it would only be an hour of sitting near Erin while she did her own thing before she would send her off to bed, so it wasn’t like I was asking her to take Erin on a trip to Disneyland or something.
As I sat there on the edge of the bed, I tried to slow my thoughts and figure out if this was just an excuse for me to see her again. I knew in the back of my mind that was the truth; I really wanted to lay eyes on her, to be in her presence, to enjoy the way she looked at me and the playful certainty with which she flirted with me. But I also needed the money and the shift and to keep the promise to work that I would deliver when they wanted me to. And that was more important.
Before I could stop myself, I told Erin to wait in the apartment, and I was on the stairs and heading down to Nina’s place. I knocked on the door, and she opened it a moment or two later. A wide smile spread across her face when she laid eyes on me.
“Well, well, well,” she purred playfully. “You’re coming to me now, huh? Can’t say I’m not interested—”
“I actually need to ask you a favor …” I cut her off, doing my best to shove the realization that she would have fucked me right then and there out of my mind. I had to keep focused.
She furrowed her brow. “What kind of favor?”
“I need someone to look after Erin for me,” I told her. “Just for an hour before she goes to bed. I really have to get to work, and there’s no one else around who can take her for me.”
“Oh, I, uh,” she stammered, and it was clear she was running through every excuse she could find to wriggle out of this. “I don’t think this is a good idea—”
“It’s not for long,” I promised her. “I’ll pay you.”
That seemed to catch her attention. She chewed her lip and then shook her head. “No, I’ll do it for free,” she replied, and she sounded resigned, as though she had known this was coming and couldn’t believe it was already here. “I’m really not good with kids,” she warned me. “I’ve never been good with kids.”
“Honestly, all you have to do is let her finish up her coloring, get her to brush her teeth and put on her pajamas, and then send her to bed.” I held my hands up. “It’s pretty hard to fuck up.”
“You say that like I’m not going to find a way to do it anyway,” she muttered, and she pinched the bridge of her nose and shrugged. “Okay, alright, I’ll do it,” she replied, and my heart leaped with relief.
“But if you come home and find the apartment on fire or something, then don’t blame me,” she warned.
I grinned, and before I could stop myself, I leaned forward and planted a kiss on her mouth. She seemed surprised at first, but after a moment she softened, her fingers playing against my chest. When I pulled back, she had a smile on her face, though a resigned one.
“I guess I should go up there, huh?” she remarked, fixing my shirt where the collar had come a little unstuck.
“Guess you should,” I replied, and she kissed me once more, stealing a little peck on the lips.
“I’ll expect some kind of payment,” she murmured against my mouth, and I grinned.
“And I’ll be happy to provide it,” I assured her. In fact, if I knew I wasn’t already running behind schedule, I would have closed this door, got her to plant her hands against it, and taken her from behind once more. But I had bigger things to focus on.
“Come on, let’s get upstairs,” she said with a sigh. “Show me what I need to do.”
“Sure thing.” I stepped back and let her follow me up the stairs and opened the door to the apartment to find Erin still sitting where I left her.
“Erin, this is Nina,” I told her, and she glanced up and smiled at the woman standing beside me.
“Hello,” she greeted.
“Hi,” Nina replied, a little awkwardly. But I ignored that; she was here, and that was by far the most important thing. I didn’t care if she was a little out-of-place doing something like this, as long as she was here to actually do it.
“Nina’s going to be looking after you tonight while I go to work,” I told her. “Is that alright?”
“Sure!” Erin replied cheerfully and picked up her coloring. “Can I show you my pictures?”
“Of course,” Nina replied, and she got down onto the floor in a cross-legged position and gamely held her hand out for the drawings Erin had been working on.
“I’ll see you both later.” I dropped a kiss on top of Erin’s head, and Nina shot me one last “really?” look before I headed out the door to work. At this rate, I was actually going to get there early.
When I arrived, Elijah came to find me as I was scrubbing up, and I noticed that he had a heavy look on his face. I furrowed my brow.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “I’m not late, am I?”
<
br /> “No, you’re fine,” he replied, but then he dipped his hand into his pocket and produced a small piece of paper, which he handed to me.
“What’s this?” I asked, confused, as I started to unfold it.
“We found it next to your chef’s whites a couple of days ago when you’d finished your shift,” he told me. “We don’t know who put it there, but …”
I scanned the note, and my heart dropped when I saw what was written there ...
GIVE IT UP, YOU FUCKER
… in big, spidery letters, all capitals, like someone was yelling that at my face. I crunched the note up in my hand at once, not wanting to pay it any more attention.
“Do you know who might have put this there?” he asked, and I shook my head. But the truth was, I had a good idea of who might have been trying to spook me.
“Nope,” I replied firmly. “Must have just been someone trying to play a bad joke on me.”
But the truth was, I had a pretty good idea who was behind it—and I intended to confront him about it as soon as I got the chance.
Chapter 7
Nina
I stood there in that apartment wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. I stared down at the little girl in front of me, the one who was showing me all the pictures she’d worked on over the last few weeks, and I nodded along and hoped that whatever I was doing was enough to keep her entertained for the next hour.
Built for Pleasure Page 44