His head swung to hers. “A video?”
“Yup,” she said, handing him her phone.
He pressed Play and watched as he and Alexa kissed the shit out of each other as they danced, off in a far corner of the room sometime after Kaylee and Bruce said their vows. The kiss went on forever, as if they’d been the ones to have gotten married. It was hot as hell to actually see Alexa kissing him, her hair wild and curled, arms flung around his neck as if she couldn’t get close enough to him.
Loud hooting and hollering from the guests filled the quiet room as he picked Alexa up in his arms and carried her through the pews and out the door to the lobby beyond the ceremony room, which is where the video ended.
So the whole how they got to the hotel and did they have sex were all still up in the air.
“I don’t think we were coherent enough to even have sex,” he reasoned, but that video scared him. Because it showed him acting how he always wanted to act, but couldn’t. He’d spent so long holding back his own feelings, making sure he didn’t spook Alexa, that seeing that one moment of inhibition on his part was heart-wrenching.
“Remember when you asked me to date you?” she asked, as if she were somehow reading his thoughts.
“Um, it was pretty difficult to forget,” he said slowly, his pulse kicking up. What the hell was she doing bringing up the subject they’d purposely not talked about for ten years?
“Were you attracted to me then, too?”
He stilled, every muscle on alert, because this was dangerous yet familiar territory where he had to act as if every atom of his body didn’t want to throw her to the ground and fuck her.
But then a kind of calm came over him. Maybe it was just a really bad hangover, but he didn’t care what happened if he said the wrong thing anymore. He was so damned tired of protecting this friendship that he answered her question honestly. “What the fuck do you think?”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“I told you I was in love with you back then, Alexa. Did you think that meant I wasn’t attracted to you, too?”
Rising from the chair, she pulled her sweatshirt off, revealing that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
“What are you doing?” he asked, setting his bowl aside, blood rushing to his head.
“It was a rough night, we’re accidentally married so I couldn’t cheat even if I wanted to, I just sold a casino I spent the whole of my twenties running, and I’m horny as fuck. Are you up for this or not?”
“This is against your rules,” he pointed out, taking care not to look at her chest in case she changed her mind. Her bare breasts weren’t something he could unsee.
She pulled off her pants next and stood stark naked in front of him. “Fuck the rules.”
Carter allowed himself a moment to stare because her body was unbelievable. The chance to be with Alexa almost didn’t seem real to him. He’d imagined being with her so much over the years that now that it was possibly finally happening it wasn’t computing in his brain. Only his dick, which was way ahead of him and ready to go. But that kid who once asked her out and was rejected was still in there somewhere, wondering if all he’d ever get from Alexa Lawson was the same inconsequential hookups she was famous for. Either fucking way he was taking the opportunity, but part of him told him to be cautious because she’d run at the first sign of them getting serious.
“I’m not fucking you for the first time in my media room,” he told her.
“I don’t give a shit where we do this, just as long as we do it.”
Well, he’d given her fair warning.
He hoisted her into his arms and carried her up to his bedroom.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ALEXA SAT DOWN on Carter’s bed, for the first time completely unsure of how to behave in a man’s bedroom. Except that it wasn’t just some guy’s bedroom. It was Carter’s. Which meant something. It meant a hell of a lot and she was vaguely terrified, but at this moment she was tired of fighting her attraction to him. The gamble was the gamble, and if they slept together and it ruined everything he was leaving anyway. Either way the outcome was essentially the same, with her alone in Vegas, so they might as well have as much fun while they were sober as they’d had in that drunk wedding video.
She watched as he strode away from her instead of kissing her like she wanted him to. “Are you planning to deliver amazing sex or what?” she joked, trying to lighten what had become a serious mood.
Carter ignored her and opened his closet, pulling at a door inside.
“What are you doing?” she called.
He came back out with something in his hand that she couldn’t see.
“Scarves?” she asked when he turned around.
He didn’t answer.
“Carter, what are you doing?”
“Lie down.”
“Are you doing some BDSM shit right now?”
He raised an eyebrow.
She raised her own eyebrow and waited. After that move with the vibrator in public, who knew what he was capable of, and she was curious to find out. Was it this seductive anticipation that kept women in Vegas chasing after him?
“Am I getting the Carter Hayes treatment?”
“You’re not going to get anything if you keep up the snark.”
“I’m not just another girl in your bed, you know,” she said, for the first time experiencing some insecurity where Carter was concerned. “I’m your wife.”
“Trust me. I know exactly what you are.” He stood at the foot of the bed, watching her expectantly.
Slowly, she scooted to the top of the bed and lay down.
His eyes raked slowly over her body, starting at her toes. Her stomach clenched, nerves she hadn’t expected hijacking her sexual buzz. She’d initiated this with Carter, but the reality of it was just hitting her. She was so vulnerable lying there with everything visible to him. He was her best friend who knew everything about her, including the story of how she lost her virginity, which made this feel far more intimate than her usual sexual encounters. She’d wanted this to be fun, but the way he was looking at her right now, his eyes dark and hooded as they crept over every inch of her bare skin, was anything but. This brilliant plan to distract herself from selling the casinos was becoming the thing she needed to be distracted from.
He drew out a blindfold and she sucked in a breath.
“Is that all you got?” she asked, trying to even the playing field again.
He walked to the side of the bed, staring down at her, his blue eyes serious. Holding up the blindfold, he gestured for her to lift her head. When she did he tied the black silk scarf tightly around her head and heard something click into place. It smelled like the cedar of his closet and Carter, that freshly clean man scent. She wondered where he’d obtained such an item and then the pieces started falling into place, and the scarf he’d given to Maggie made more sense.
Holy shit, he really did blindfold all the women he slept with. “Is this scarf mine now?” she asked.
“Of course.”
It was harder to breathe and her heart started pounding. What the hell was she doing? Could she ever look Carter in the face again after knowing he was the mayor of depravity? A little voice in the back of her head reminded her about the whispers, the veiled comments he sometimes made that she ignored. The part of her brain that saw Carter as a man had been locked up with chains and an electric fence but now it was wide-open.
Her world was dark and she struggled to stay still and not fidget. He clearly knew what he was doing. This was a Carter she’d never known before, and she thought she’d known everything about him. Not being able to see him was somehow opening her eyes to what and who Carter really was. And she knew he was smart enough to have known that when he’d brought out the blindfold.
Deliberate footsteps got quieter as he moved away from the
bed. She dragged her fingers over his soft duvet cover; she’d been there when he’d bought it, which grounded her in their actual, prosaic reality instead of the wild scenarios she was building in her head.
Muted clicking came from somewhere in front of her and she suspected he was in his closet again, but for what she had no idea.
The footsteps got closer again and she got a whiff of him as he leaned over her, lightly caressing her stomach, rough hands smoothing over her waist. Surprised, she sucked in a breath.
“Do you trust me, Alexa?”
Normally, she trusted Carter with her life, but right now there was so much uncertainty that for the first time around him she didn’t know how to answer that question.
Finally, she nodded her head.
“Good,” he said, rubbing a reassuring thumb over her hip bone.
His fingers moved then, traveling down to her lasered mound. Only a small strip of hair remained, so she felt every small touch. Slowing, he rubbed a thumb over her crease, taunting and exploring, before sliding into her slick heat.
She was already so wet, could feel it heavy in her core. Then just as she was relaxing into the experience, something bulbous was being pushed into her.
“What the hell?” she coughed.
“They’re just balls, Alexa.”
He turned the two connected balls around inside her, the silicone brushing up against that rough patch there, making her suck in a breath of intense pleasure.
Then the warmth of him was gone, leaving her cold and vulnerable, having no idea where he was or what he was doing. She heard footsteps leave the room and she sat up, trying to take the blindfold off, but found that it was stuck.
“Don’t take the blindfold off,” Carter called from somewhere in the distance.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, hands going to the balls deep inside her, wanting to take them out.
Then the vibrating started. The balls started to pulse and spin, hitting the walls of her vagina in a rhythmic dance, each going a different way, reaching a different piece of her sensitized flesh. Clenching, she tried to contain the pleasure. Why wasn’t Carter here?
A moan escaped her as the balls’ gyration got faster and more intense. She couldn’t tell where one ball ended and the other began; her vagina just felt used, the depths never plumbed so thoroughly before. Her hips bucked of their own volition, seeking out some kind of contact, some relief from the unrelenting pressure and sensation driving up from her core and branching out to all her nerve endings.
“How does that feel?” Carter’s voice asked, but he wasn’t in the room. Instead it sounded like it was coming through a speaker system.
“What the hell, Carter? Where are you? And why can’t I get this blindfold off?”
“The blindfold has powerful magnets in the back.”
She started snorting at that, but then one of the balls shifted and pinged against her G-spot and the sound morphed into a mewl of pleasure and surprise. The fact that she couldn’t see was intense, making her much more aware of what was going on inside her, and the fact that she had no idea where Carter was or what he could see.
“Where are you?” she pressed, a little breathless.
“There are cameras in there and I’m watching in a different room,” he finally allowed.
She opened her mouth to say how creepy that statement was, but the speed increased again, thrumming against her softness. “Carter!” she yelped, feeling her orgasm climbing up from her toes and lighting bonfires along her skin.
“I’m here,” he said, but he wasn’t there, and she was caught between this weird state of needing to come, but needing his touch, needing to feel someone else. Just one brush of her clit would send her into oblivion, but she’d never gotten there before like this.
God, which Carter knew. He totally knew she’d never had a orgasm from penetration alone.
“Please,” she moaned as the balls rotated again, her thighs gripping tighter, desperate for relief.
And then it was happening, the slow, hot coiling in her middle, moving into a rich lava of pleasure as she came apart in slow motion, the sensations jerking at her entire body, milking the pleasure from her until she was replete and exhausted. Breathing heavy, the balls felt too big inside her now, like an invasion. She started to pull them out, but then Carter was moving her hand away.
“Let me,” he instructed, gently tugging them from her, his thumb casually brushing her engorged clit. She jerked, grabbing at where she thought he might be.
“Are you going to take this off now?” she asked.
“No.”
“But I want to see you.”
“Just trust me, Lex.”
She blew out an irritated breath and she heard his muted chuckle. He knew she hated being told what to do.
His footsteps faded again and she was left by herself in the afterglow of an epic orgasm, struggling to figure out how she’d never realized that Carter was into this kind of sex. It was almost as if he knew she liked being on display as she’d been, knowing he was somewhere watching her writhe and moan and come, and while he held the power of the vibrating balls, she held the power over him.
It was a power dynamic they skirted frequently. They were both stubborn and liked to be in charge and while Carter often let her bossier tendencies go unchecked, it was clear that he was in charge now.
Alexa had done her fair share of fucking, but she’d never been tended to like this before. Like he’d thought every moment out, orchestrated a plan of action and was enacting it on her. That piece of her always looking for something to fix was finally quiet. All she needed to do was feel and Carter would take care of the rest.
She gave in to it then, ceded whatever control she was trying desperately to hang on to, and lay back onto the bed just as his footsteps returned to the room.
“You knew I’d like to be watched, didn’t you?” she asked, her voice languid with pleasure.
“Yeah.”
“How do you know that?”
The mattress moved as he sat down. “Are you serious? You love being looked at.”
“Do you love looking at me?” she asked, maybe not quite as ready to not be in control as she thought.
“Of course.”
“Did you like what you just saw?”
He drew a finger down the middle of her breasts to her belly button. “You’re sweaty.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“It was a stupid question.”
She pursed her lips.
“Did I like seeing you come apart in my bed? It was like every fucking wet dream I’ve had since I was fifteen.”
She took a breath then, wishing desperately that she could see his face.
“You’re still flushed.” A fingertip lightly ran over her cheek, making her shiver. “The last time I saw you like this we’d just hiked at Red Rock and you poured water over yourself like we were in an ’80s car commercial. You knew then you were turning me on and didn’t give a fuck.”
She remembered that day well because they’d both been hot and sweaty and she’d wanted him, too.
“You’ve been provoking me for years, Alexa, and this is your payback.”
He flipped her over then, his weight vaulting over her back so he was on his knees straddling her ass.
He drew something cold and hard down the length of her trembling spine. “Do you feel helpless now?”
“Yes,” she breathed, squirming below him. His legs were pressed against her sides, the soft fabric of his pants rubbing on her skin, which meant he still wasn’t naked.
“Good.”
Taking her hands, he pulled them up above her head, and wetness pooled at her center. She was so ready for him. He clipped her hands to something so she couldn’t move them.
“Are you going to spank me?”
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“No. I don’t do pain play. You?”
She shook her head. She didn’t do any sex play, really. Her encounters were straightforward. She liked to get off without emotional attachment and that was pretty much what she did. In and out and she was done. Figuratively and literally.
“Didn’t think so,” he said, tightening the fabric around her wrists.
Lips brushed the back of her neck, rustling the delicate hairs there and sending delicious goose bumps up all over her skin. She was so aware of her entire body, the curling of her toes at his every surprise yet gentle touch, the clean smell of his duvet pressed into her nose, the fact that his hands felt far larger and more powerful than they looked.
But she was also impatient and hot and needy and could barely stand the wait anymore.
“The point is, Alexa, we see each other every day to the point that we’ve stopped actually seeing each other.”
He slid a finger inside her, twirling it until it hit that sweet rough patch, already abraded from the toy. She bucked up, needing more, needing him.
“And I want you to know who I am,” he murmured in her ear, almost sounding like a threat.
He picked up her hips so she was on her knees with her arms stretched out in front of her. The vulnerability of it, the fact that he could do anything to her and she trusted him completely, had her quivering.
She felt him position himself at her greedy entrance for just the tiniest moment before sliding deep into her with one sure stroke. Crying out, she took his length, her muscles stretching and adjusting to accommodate his cock.
“Carter,” she sighed, moving against him, willing him to give her what she needed, but he didn’t move.
“Carter, please,” she moaned, arching her ass against him.
“I like hearing you beg,” he growled, pushing into her one more time before deserting her completely. The darkness was ever-present as she tried to tame her raging want and desperation for more.
Friends with Benefits Page 10