by Marie Harte
Relieved that Seth hadn’t said anything about his embarrassing situation with his deadbeat family, Brody relaxed. “Not just a writer, a great writer. I said ‘great.’”
“Big mouth,” she grumbled and sipped her coffee with pleasure. “Oh, this is good.”
“I can’t cook, but I can do coffee.” He grabbed a cup for himself and sat next to her. “Okay, so what do you need to know?”
An hour later, he surprised himself by having fleshed out a design for the site. With Abby’s skilled help, at any rate. She was all business as she talked about design and spacing and metadata. He ignored her code talk though, and seeing that he had no interest in applets and JavaScript, she left well enough alone.
“Great, Brody. This is just what I needed to get you guys started.”
“Yeah, well, we need that site. Not that business isn’t still great, which in this economy is saying something. But every little bit helps.”
“Yeah, it does.” She fetched herself more coffee. “Now tell me something.”
He tensed. I knew it. She knows about Jeremy. And Alan. And—
“How did you get Mutt to obey?”
“Who—what?”
“Mutt. He’s been calm and totally terrific since I’ve been here.” She looked around. “Although that does look like a brand-new dish towel. He still eating those?”
He relaxed. “Yeah. He and I finally had a come-to-Jesus moment, and now he no longer jumps up on people. Or their crotches.”
“Ouch.”
“Tell me about it.” He chuckled, the first time he’d genuinely done that in a week. “He’s a good guy. But I don’t think ‘Mutt’ is cutting it anymore. He deserves a better name.”
“Thank God. Well? What have you decided to name him?”
“Me? You’re the writer. Give me something good.”
She shook her head. “I’ve tried. You vetoed all my good stuff.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You didn’t like Killer or Death Dog. How about Marvin, Jethro, or Gomer?”
He shook his head. “Not feeling it.”
“Vader? Shaggy? Wolfen?”
“Nah. Those don’t work either.
She sighed. “I’m tapped. So when are we going bowling?”
“Oh, uh. I don’t know.”
“We don’t have to. We could just have sex here instead.”
He had the coffee cup to his lips and could only be thankful he hadn’t taken a sip, or he’d have spit it all over himself. He carefully lowered the cup to the table. “Say that again?”
“Sex. Here. Now. Unless we’re done with that.” She sounded so damn casual about it. “That’s no problem. I admit, you’re really good at it, but I understand if you need something new to spice things up. No problem. And really, it’s okay. No hard feelings.” She smiled at him. “I was thinking about maybe dating again. I think it’s time. But I need someone I can trust. You know people. Rick seems like a good guy. What do you think?”
What the ever-fucking hell was she talking about? He rose, dragged her off her stool, and tugged her with him.
“Wait. Brody? Are you okay?”
“Okay? Okay?” he yelled. “No. I am not okay. ‘Unless we’re done with that’? Are you fucking nuts? Yeah, there are gonna be hard feelings. Fuck bowling. Fuck everything. Right now, you and I need to have our own come-to-Jesus meeting.” Over his shoulder, he growled, “Mutt, stay.”
The dog whined but didn’t continue up the stairs. Brody dragged her into the bedroom, closed the door, then pulled her into his arms. She felt right against him, fitting him perfectly and warming all his cold spots.
Then, before she could question why he’d gone all caveman on her, he did what he’d been missing for ten days. He kissed her and swallowed the little moan of pleasure that made him hunger for so much more than her body. He wanted all of Abby. Right here. Right now.
***
Brody kissed her like a starving man, and Abby met him halfway. God, he felt so good. She’d missed this, missed him. He’d somewhat returned to the old Brody in the kitchen. Shaking him up with a request for sex had been sneaky and totally spur of the moment. That it had worked soothed her wounded ego—and hurt feelings—that he might have tired of her so soon when she’d only gotten started on her need to be with him.
“Yeah. Kiss me. I missed you,” he murmured against her mouth, and she sighed into him.
Like a woman who couldn’t think straight, she let him move her and undress her without protest. When he had her completely naked, he looked down on her with fire in his eyes.
He backed her up until her knees hit the edge of the bed. “Lean back,” he ordered in a guttural voice.
She quickly lay down and sat up on her elbows to watch him undress. He took off his sweatshirt but not his jeans. “Tease,” she said, exhaling.
He didn’t smile. He didn’t laugh. Just stared at her until she thought she’d done something wrong. “You are so beautiful, you make me ache.”
She blushed at the compliment. Because he’d said it with such intensity, she knew he believed it to be true. “Brody…”
He joined her on the bed. Leaning over her, he kissed her, brushing his bare chest against her breasts and stimulating her already sensitive nipples. He continued to rub against her while his tongue penetrated her mouth, and he began thrusting in a rhythm begging for sex. She clutched his shoulders, his arms, and reached around his back, urging him for more.
“Yes, please,” she moaned when his lips trailed to her ear.
“You’re so warm. God, I want to bury myself inside you.” He nipped her lobe then thrust his tongue in her ear.
She jolted into him, her breasts plastered to his chest. She loved the way he kissed her, touched her. Like she was precious and desirable. Like she mattered.
He continued to kiss her neck, sucking just below her ear while one of his large, calloused hands cupped her breast.
“Yeah. Gonna fuck you so hard, Abby. All of me inside you.” He trailed a blaze of kisses to the hand holding her breast, then took her nipple in his mouth and sucked.
“Brody.” She gasped, threading her hands through his soft hair. “Do that again. Yes. More.” She couldn’t stop herself from moaning and writhing under him. It had only been a little more than a week, but she’d felt so empty without him. Just seeing his smile or his golden eyes soothed her need for him. But this… Their intimacy involved more than bodies touching and seeking pleasure. This caressing, his taking his time. This wasn’t fucking. She might not be as experienced as he was, but she could feel his care in every caress.
He sucked and kneaded her breast while fondling its twin. Then he turned his mouth to her other nipple and gave it the same petting and licking. She was so wet she feared she’d make a mess on his bed before he ever got inside her.
And speaking of that… “I’m—I’m protected. If you wanted to come in me,” she whispered. After their last encounter, she’d made a hasty appointment with her doctor and done her research. Abby knew now to be a safe time for them to forego protection. She’d been all too aware of the fact on her way over this morning, though she’d told herself over and over she hadn’t come for this, but to make sure Brody was okay.
He froze and leaned up from her. “So you’re saying I can come inside you, and it’s okay? No chance of you getting pregnant?”
“No.” She stroked his hair, loving the burning desire in his eyes. “I’m on the pill, and even if I wasn’t, it’s the wrong time for me to be pregnant.” She swallowed, seeing the intensity deepen. “I haven’t been with anyone but you in a long time.”
“Yeah.” He sounded hoarse and caressed her breast, stroking and pinching her nipple while he watched her with an expression she couldn’t read. “Me neither. Not in like six months.”
He returned to her breast and bit he
r nipple lightly, enough to send a streak of erotic fire straight to her core. “God, you’re too good for me.”
She moaned and tugged him up to kiss her mouth again. “No, you’re too good for me. Out of my league, but I’m batting anyway.”
“Sex and baseball,” he murmured around her mouth. “You are perfect.” Then he stopped talking and kissed her until she couldn’t breathe. His hands were everywhere, his knee riding against her clit, stirring her to near orgasm time and time again before he’d back off, then rub some more.
“Brody, please.”
“Not yet. Not rushing this,” he growled and moved slowly down her body, leaving kisses as he went. He spread her thighs wider and paused until she looked down at him. “I love sucking your tight clit. You taste so good. So sweet. And I love it when you come all over my mouth.” Apparently seeing in her face something that satisfied him, he did his best to make her lose her mind.
He sucked her with delicate draws, fingering her folds before easing a finger, then two, inside her. He licked her and nibbled her clit while pumping those fingers into her, at first lightly, then with a more forceful pace until he hit that spot inside her that made her see stars.
“I’m going to come. Oh Brody.”
“Yeah. Come for me, honey. Drench my tongue.” He sucked again and shoved those fingers deep. Then one hand crept over her belly to cup her breast. He pinched her nipple at the same time he drew her clit into his mouth, and she cried out and came in a rush.
He continued to lick her, moaning with her as she released the tension and worry and surrendered to him on every level. After easing her through her climax, he pulled back and kissed his way up her belly to her mouth again.
“So good.” He kissed her, and she tasted herself on his lips, an arousing pleasure to know he wanted her as much as she’d wanted him.
Her heart raced, unable to come down gradually off her endorphin high. “Brody, you’re amazing.”
“Not as much as you,” he said, his kisses growing in intensity once more. “I need to come in you. You sure you’re okay with that?”
“Yes. I want you in me. All of you.”
“You’re sure?”
It was as if he was asking something else, and she wanted to share with him the joy she’d just experienced. “Well, only if you let me kiss you.”
He smiled and moved his head closer, but she put a hand over his lips. “Not there.”
His breathing grew shallow. “Yeah? Where?”
“Take off your pants and I’ll show you.”
He moved off her and stripped in seconds.
She chuckled. “You sure can move when you want to.”
He walked back to the bed, but before he could join her, she stopped him. “No, wait.” She pulled herself to the edge and reached for his hips. Then, dragging him closer, she looked at the hard, insistent part of him. “You’re pretty wet yourself.” She licked his slit, taking the moisture into her mouth, loving the light taste of him. Brody smelled like soap and man, clean and fresh and sexual.
“Damn, woman. I nearly came eating you out. It was hard. And still is,” he teased.
She felt her heart crumble before him, loving that he’d lost that tough shell with her, that he’d reverted to the caring lover, the charmer from before. The real Brody.
“I love this.” She looked up at him while she licked him from tip to root. I love you.
He pushed her hair aside and kept his hand on her cheek. “Yeah.” He sighed but didn’t close his eyes. He watched her like a hawk as she licked and sucked the head of him. “All of it. Take me in your mouth, Abby. I want to fuck those lips.”
She opened wider and let him pump in short thrusts into her mouth. Threading her hand between his legs, she cupped his balls and felt him jerk. A spurt of fluid hit her tongue, and she sucked him harder.
“Oh yeah. Wait. Stop. I want to come, but not in your mouth. Let me have that hot pussy.”
Feeling naughty and loving every second of it, she pulled away from Brody and flipped onto her back, then stretched out on the bed and spread her thighs wider. “This pussy?”
She fingered herself, enthralled at the attention he gave her while he started jerking himself off.
“That’s it. Touch yourself,” he said in a gravelly voice. “Play with that plump little clit. Come again, but this time, while I’m in you.”
“I don’t know if I can,” she said honestly, then bit her lip. “You’ll have to make me.”
He growled and pounced, and before she knew it, he had her hands pinned over her head to the bed and his thick thighs nudging her legs wider. “Wrap them around my waist. I’m coming in.” He angled himself at her entrance and slid through her cream. So deep, so full.
Brody moaned her name as he took her with hard, punishing strokes that had her begging for more. No one had ever made her feel so good, and his possessive hold, the strength keeping her from moving, turned her on like crazy.
She cried out as he surged faster. “Harder. Yes, yes,” she said on a moan as she—impossibly—came again, this time clenching him inside her. The pleasure was indescribable.
He shouted her name and thrust as deep as he could go. He shuddered as he came inside her, and the knowledge that they’d shared something as intimate as two people could meant so much she couldn’t say. She hugged him tight, praising and whispering his name.
They kissed again, a gentle meeting of mouths that conveyed all the feeling she had balled inside. That passion and need for him, and only him.
He answered with tender nips and strokes, holding her tightly to him. “Oh, Abby.” He kissed her again, and to her astonishment, began moving inside her.
“Brody?”
“Yes. Just…let me. I’m still half hard. Fuck, I need you. Need to come again inside you. You’re so good, so sweet.” He murmured, to himself? To her? She didn’t think he knew. But then his movements grew hurried, and it didn’t take him long before he moaned and came once more.
Too tired to join him, she waited for him to finish, loving everything about this moment and committing it to memory. No matter what happened from this point on, she knew everything between them had fundamentally changed.
She wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad about the fact.
***
Brody finally withdrew from Abby’s heavenly body and stood up, looking down at her. Christ, she was like one of those paintings come to life. Where the woman had glowing, golden skin, a ripe fullness to her, and pulled emotions from him he’d never thought possible.
“Be right back,” he promised.
“Mm-hmm.” She laid there with her arms over her head, looking like an invitation to a never-ending lovefest. If he hadn’t been so bone-deep drained, he’d have gone back for more. But after an emotionally demanding week and their physically wearing lovemaking, he didn’t have it in him.
He moved to the bathroom to clean up and returned with a warm cloth for Abby. After cleaning her up, he pulled her with him under the covers and into his arms, never having felt better in his entire life.
He just lay there with her, loving how she stroked his chest, his hair. Her body heat bleeding into his. The calm he’d been sorely needing, his center, returned to him, and his entire world made sense again. With a sigh, he hugged her even tighter, until she squeaked.
“Oh, sorry.”
She gave a low laugh. “Honey, you can hug me as tight as you want after what you did for me. I swear, I don’t have any bones left. I’m one big slug right now.”
“A slug in my arms. Attractive image. I’m sorry, you say you’re a writer?”
She laughed again and planted a kiss over his heart. In his heart. He didn’t understand it, but the sex had gone beyond a physical release into something much more profound. And though scared like hell, he wanted to hold on to the feeling and treasure
it. Treasure her.
“Funny guy. I missed you, Brody,” she confessed in a small voice. “I hope that doesn’t freak you out, because it freaked me out for a little. But I’m nothing if not honest with myself. And somehow, like that fungus you once compared Colin to, you’re now etched into my proverbial walls.”
“Not sure I followed all that. You called me a fungus, I’m on a proverbial wall—whatever that is—but you’re hugging me, so that’s a good sign, right?”
She bit his nipple, and he felt a sluggish sense of desire try to wake his cock. No going after two climaxes back-to-back. “Nice try, Abby. Maybe in another hour I’ll be ready to go again. But not yet. You drained me.”
“Hush.” She snuggled against him, and he thought she’d gone to sleep when she said, “I don’t know what made you so sad, Brody. But I’m here if you ever want to talk. No pressure, no big deal. I just want you to know I…care.”
To his surprise, her announcement didn’t give him the same anxiety he used to feel when Bitsy and Pop tried to get answers from him. His natural inclination was to fold in on himself, to bury his pain deep and deal with it by not dealing with it. But Abby gave him that option to unburden himself. And he knew, just by knowing her, she’d never judge him.
“Seth told you I had visitors, didn’t he?”
“He did. But I already knew something wasn’t right. You didn’t take me bowling, and I know how much you were looking forward to losing to me.”
He chuckled. “You do make me laugh.” She hugged him tighter, and he basked in her affection. The moment felt right, and he decided to talk, because he needed to. It was time. And he wanted her to know.
Chapter 15
“My father and my brother showed up last week, Alan and Jeremy.”
She didn’t say anything, and Brody let the words pour from him, needing her to know the real him, for someone to know the truth.
“I went to live with Flynn when I was a kid. My family… They’re not good people. My mom died when I was a baby. OD’d on heroin. Alan, my father, is a piece of trash, and Jeremy’s not much better. Alan is trying to drink himself to death, and Jeremy is a druggie. Or was, because he showed up last week with some dicked-up version of an apology for all the wrongs he’d once done me.” Brody snorted. “Like a big old ‘my bad’ could ever atone for the bastard making my life a living hell.”