Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Exactly. So my parents always felt like Eleanor was more successful and would always be more successful until I gave up and tried to be like her.” That really annoyed me. And it was even worse to realize that it still did annoy me.

  I shook my head. “Enough about that. Come into the living room and let’s talk about our mutual problem.”

  “Mutual problem?” He took a seat on my big chair and I tucked myself into a corner of the loveseat. “Do you mean the make-out twins?”

  “Do you call them that?” I giggled because it was such an apt and yet childish moniker. “Because I feel like it’s just so fitting.”

  “I started calling them that when it started to seem like they spend every second of every day with their tongues stuck down each other’s throat.”

  “So classy,” I agreed. “Have they done the dry sex grinding thing for you yet?”

  “On the hood of my car.”

  “Wow. At least it’s not your car, huh?” I could not help but think that the poor mechanic who had loaned Damion his car probably had no notion that the vehicle was getting used like a stage at a strip club. “Hopefully they don’t scratch the paint.”

  “Yeah. I don’t think I’m concerned about that.” He gave a shake of his head. “And I didn’t come here to talk about them. I want to talk about us.”

  I started to argue that there was no us when he voluntarily held up his hand.

  “Okay. So not us. Just what happened the other day when you drove me down to Fenton to pick up my car.” He actually looked uncomfortable. “I want to apologize for flying off the handle and pretty much losing my temper.”

  “Wow. I was going to apologize for kind of the same thing.” I didn’t actually know where to start though. “I had no right to make the kind of assumptions that I did.”

  He was looking very uncomfortable now. What was going on? I let him squirm for a second and he finally started talking very quickly. It was kind of hard to follow. “So my IT guys found a bunch of emails that Trinity sent to you that detailed her sex life with Karl Kitson.”

  The blood drained from my face. You always hear that phrase, but I could actually feel it happening. I felt suddenly lightheaded and very uncomfortable. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. I’d like to apologize. That’s not how I—well, I guess…” He looked totally helpless. “I just want you to know that I don’t know what Trinity is into. I don’t know if those are real or fake or what they are. I didn’t read them. I just got the gist from the IT guys.”

  “Oh, that’s great,” I muttered. “So you didn’t read them. Your nerd department did. Perfect!”

  “Oh. Yeah. That’s awkward,” he agreed. Then he made a frustrated noise and stabbed his fingers through his hair. He stood up and began pacing in front of my loveseat. “I just want you to know that whatever was in those emails does not reflect any of my personal tastes. I don’t know if that’s what you thought. I don’t know what your sex life has been like in the past. I don’t know what you like and I don’t want you to think that I’m going to make assumptions. That’s all.”

  “Wow.” I actually had no words. Just that one. Wow. I could see how he had come to the conclusion that I was afraid of his tastes. I’d pushed it about the porn and maybe I did have reservations. I don’t know. It’s hard to admit that kind of thing to myself. It’s embarrassing. I cleared my throat. I needed to say something. He was staring at me as though his whole world was hinging on what I was going to tell him. Great. No pressure. “Look, I’m not—I’m not a freak. I’m not actually all that experienced. I’m not some woman of the world who jumps in and out of bed with every man who drifts into my life. I’m kind of picky about my sex partners. And I wasn’t with Karl very long—like that.”

  “And he was cheating.” Damion spoke in a low voice that made it seem as though he understood things that I did not. “So whatever freak flag he needed to fly was getting flown in someone else’s bedroom.”

  “Oh. Well, I guess that’s entirely possible.” Funny, but I’d never quite looked at it that way. “Maybe that’s true. But I just—I look at a guy like you who is so far out of my league. You’ve got money and looks and you could walk into any big soiree or shindig or whatever you want to call it. You could walk into any party and snap your fingers and a dozen women would sit up and beg. How could I ever compete with that?”

  He was nodding his head. Why did he have to nod his head? Did he actually understand or was I just being taken for a ride? “So why try?”

  “What?”

  Damion sighed. He was standing in front of me. I had to look up at him and he had to look down at me. Then he cupped my face in his hand and lightly stroked his thumb across my lower lip. “Why try for something if you’ve already told yourself that you’re not good enough to have it?”

  I didn’t have an answer to that. In fact, in my mind there didn’t seem to be an answer. But maybe I didn’t need one anyway because that was when Damion sat down on the loveseat beside me and took me in his arms. There was nothing sexual about that embrace. It was comforting and warm and friendly and accepting and everything that I never would have expected from a guy like him. Which really makes me wonder if I know anything about guys at all. That might explain a few things.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Damion

  I liked holding Lena in my arms. I was never the kind of guy to want to snuggle before Lena. Maybe it was the total lack of expectations. I don’t know. I’m not even sure that I care. I just know that sitting there on her loveseat, I stopped worrying about how much time was passing. I didn’t think about whether or not the couch was particularly comfortable. I didn’t feel the need to worry about whether or not my breath smelled bad or my deodorant had given up for the day. I didn’t think about whether or not my hair was standing up or what I looked like at all. None of that mattered.

  The couch was comfy enough for me to wedge myself into the corner. I tugged Lena closer, until she was practically in my lap. I didn’t care. She felt good. The light floral scent of her was enough to make my head spin. I pressed my nose lightly to the top of her head. Somehow the scent of her hair was intimate. I could smell the citrusy scent of her shampoo.

  Unable to resist, I gently wrapped a strand of her long brown hair around my index finger. It was so soft. Rubbing it lightly between my fingers, I was careful not to pull. I used the fingers of my other hand to touch her cheek. That was soft too. She was staring up at me. Her eyes are the most incredible shade of blue.

  “What are you thinking?” she whispered.

  This did not require any thought. I answered right off the cuff. “Your eyes are beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

  “My eyes?” Two frown lines appeared on her forehead. “They’re blue. Plain blue.”

  “Not plain at all,” I argued. Had the woman never actually looked at her own eyes? “They’re aquamarine. It’s like blue and a little bit of green and just enough brightness to make me think of the ocean.”

  “Aquamarine?” She wrinkled her nose. It was so freaking adorable that I had to touch it too. “You make them sound fancy. They’re just blue. I promise. Check my driver’s license.”

  I exhaled a little sigh. “I’m not going to argue with you about that. If anything, I’m glad that nobody else realizes how beautiful your eyes are. They’d all be bugging us to sit there and stare at them. Painters would be chasing you down so that they could do their best to learn how to paint such a beautiful array of color.”

  “You’re ridiculous.” Her lips turned up and her white teeth appeared and suddenly I could not help myself anymore.

  I leaned down and I captured her lips in a kiss. I had kissed her before. By the pool. This was different. I could not tell you why it was different. But it was. The feeling was different. There was no sense of surprise or regret or that feeling when you kiss someone and you know that they’re worried they should make you stop. No. None of that.

  Lena kissed me
back as though she needed my lips to breathe. Her mouth moved against mine. Heat suffused my body. Fire roared through my veins. I almost could not sit still. She tasted like wild woman. Then she parted those lips and her tongue swept inside my mouth and I tasted faint traces of lemon and raspberry. It was intoxicating. She made love to me with lips, teeth and tongue. She was wild in my arms. I held tight and let her lead because I never wanted to let go.

  She was making incredible noises in the back of her throat. I almost could not stand it. Blood rushed through my body. It pooled in my groin and in no time at all I was squirming and struggling to hide the fact that I had a raging erection sitting like an iron bar between my legs. Then before I could even get a grip on the fierceness of my own desire, I felt her hands moving against my chest.

  There was hesitation in her touch at first. She tentatively stroked me through the fabric of my polo shirt. Her palm pressed lightly against my belly. And then she inched lower. My breath caught. She was still kissing me. The rhythm was so comfortable that I almost did not have to focus on that. I could let her lightly stroke her tongue alongside mine and revel in the anticipation of her hand dragging the hem of my polo shirt out of my waistband.

  The kiss ended. I almost protested. Then I heard her words. “I want it off.”

  The shirt? I couldn’t even speak. I didn’t care. I pulled that thing off my head and threw it across the room without even paying one whit of attention to where it landed. It didn’t matter where it landed.

  Her hands were all over my chest. I have just a small trail of dark hair that surrounds my nipples before arrowing straight down the center of my torso toward my groin. Lena lightly circled first my right nipple and then my left. I have never felt that kind of desire to have someone touch my nipples before. It just wasn’t on my radar. But when Lena’s fingers lightly teased and circled, I thought that it was quite possible I had died and gone straight to heaven.

  She pressed her lips to mine. This time I took control of the kiss. She tickled my lips with her tongue. Then she mimicked the movement with her finger on my right nipple. I felt it pucker and harden and I almost groaned out loud at the powerful pulling sensation that ripped through my body.

  Her hand skated lower. She followed the trail of hair to my belly. My whole abdomen tensed reflexively as she lightly drew her nails over my skin. She traced every contour with agonizing slowness as she inched her way down toward my waistband. My cock was reaching up toward her. I could feel it pressing against my pants as though it were determined to rip its way through.

  It isn’t that I’ve never enjoyed foreplay. I do. I’d just never had this kind of experience before. There was no sense of needing to hurry toward the finale. I had time. I wanted to have time. I did not was to rush a single second of this experience and if it took days to make love to this woman then I was more than eager to put in the time.

  I was reclining back against the corner of her loveseat. She was practically lying on top of me. I could feel each and every contour of her sweet rounded curves against me. It felt good. She put her hands flat on my belly and moved her lips to my neck. She nibbled on my jawline and then lightly licked my throat. When she set her teeth to my shoulder I felt my whole body shudder.

  “Do I get a turn?” I whispered to Lena. “Is this one of those things where we each take turns removing a single item of clothing?”

  “I don’t know.” She reared back for a moment onto her knees. She was wearing one of her comfy looking knee-length skirts. It had bunched up to a point where I could just barely see up between her legs. She started to reach for her blouse. “I suppose I could be fair.”

  “Oh, fair?” I shook my head. “How about I show you what I can do without even removing a stitch of your clothing?”

  Her blue eyes widened just a fraction and then she nodded. “Okay. I’ll accept that challenge.”

  “Then don’t move,” I told her.

  I sat up just a little bit so that I could reach everything that I wanted. Her knees were parted just enough for my fingers to play against the sensitive skin between her legs. I didn’t hold back either. I didn’t want to. I kept my gaze on her face as I touched her and the reward was so intense that I probably could have come right there in my pants.

  Her lips parted and she began to breathe in ragged pants as I stroked my fingers up and down the insides of her thighs. Her flesh was supple and warm. I felt the heat increase as I got closer and closer to the apex.

  She wiggled and spread her stance just a little more. I don’t know if she even realized what she was doing or if it was instinctive. It didn’t matter. I felt the heat emanating from her underwear. And then I touched the scrap of satin covering her mons and she shuddered. Her right hand rested on the back of the loveseat as though she needed it to keep her balanced. Then her fingers gripped the fabric of the couch so hard that it sang. Her eyelids fluttered and then slid shut.

  “That’s it,” I crooned softly. “You are so hot, Lena. Do you have any idea how hot and wet you are right now? I can feel it through your underwear. I can tell how much you enjoy me touching you.”

  My voice was shaky. I swallowed. My throat was dry. I kept stroking her. I applied a little more pressure using the side of my index finger to rub the delicate and sensitive flesh just behind the damp satin of her panties. She was soaking that fabric. I could feel the slippery wetness seeping through that fabric to meet my touch.

  Shifting my hand, I moved my elbow and shoulder and managed to cup her mons with my palm. The heat was incredible. Her scent rolled over me like the sweetness of honeyed cream. I wanted to soak it up. I wanted to taste her. I wanted so many things with this woman. One night would never be enough. One lifetime would not be enough.

  She was breathing faster and faster. I could feel her heart beating in the pulse thundering beneath the silky flesh of her thigh where it pressed against my arm. I knew she was riding the edge. Her hips were moving, jerking just a little as though she could not control what was happening to her. I willed it to continue. I pressed just a little more. And then I curled my fingers against the taut surface of her panties and I felt her jerk in response.

  “Damion!” Her voice broke on my name even as she shuddered with the throes of her orgasm.

  Her climax was sharp and poignant. I felt her body moving against me, grinding, begging me for more even as she held tight to the couch and rode it out as though it were the only thing she had ever wanted. Her eyes were closed. Her lips were parted. And there was a beautiful flush staining her neck and her cheeks. She was the picture of a woman well pleased and I could think of nothing I liked better than that.

  I left my hand where it was, caressing her lightly but making certain not to stir up any additional friction that might hurt those delicate tissues. I didn’t know her well enough to know exactly how to take her from this pleasure point to the next one. Soon though. I promised myself that I was going to have the time and the opportunity to know her very well. I wanted that. I wanted to be the man who brought a smile to her face and a scream to her lips. And eventually I was going to sink my cock into that sweetness and show her exactly what a guy like me needed from a woman like her.

  Time passed as though we were in a little bubble. I felt relaxed even though the iron bar sitting between my legs was still currently very eager to continue. My mind though, it was just completely different. I can’t even explain it. Somehow just being with Lena was enough. There was no panic that it would never happen. My body wasn’t going into hyperdrive wanting to find some kind of relief because I was afraid that if I didn’t snatch it, it would never happen. I was happy enough with the emotional satisfaction. This was a first for me and I wanted to savor that feeling because it kicked ass.

  “I think I’m going to pass out,” Lena whispered. “And my knees are asleep. I’m about to fall over.”

  “I think you should definitely fall over.” My voice was all raspy and I wondered what she would think of that. It sounded like I was e
ither chain smoking or maybe that I’d been screaming for days on end.

  Lena laughed and toppled over right onto my lap. I grunted, mostly because she was now pressed up against my still very insistent cock. But within moments the satisfaction of just having her in my arms was enough to sate whatever other urges I might have experienced.

  “I suppose I have to say that you not only met that challenge, but you exceeded my wildest expectations.”

  “Huh?” My sex endorphin-soaked brain wasn’t entirely sure what we were talking about.

  “You know. You told me that you could up the ante without me even taking off a stitch of clothing.” She squirmed around to look up at me. “Sheesh! I’m the one who had an orgasm. Why can’t you remember?”

  “I’m just basking in the reflected glow of your climax,” I teased her. “It’s one of those things that happens when a man gets a nose full of female endorphins. We just go kind of crazy and lose our minds.”

  “Oh. Nice. So that’s why men become useless when they’re turned on?”

  “Did I seem useless a second ago?”

  She exhaled a huge sigh and pressed her cheek to my chest. “Touché. I would say you were the most useful guy I’ve ever met.”

  I wasn’t going to touch that comment. The only thing I felt right now was that I needed to keep being that man for her until the world ended and she finally realized that not everyone was out to get what they could before they left her high and dry.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Lena

  “No. Nope. No way. Not going to happen. I realize that you have no idea how entirely inappropriate that would be, but let me assure you that we would go down in the annals of bad real estate history. They would probably write an entire magazine article on it.” I let that statement sit for a second before deciding that it needed just a bit more. “For a national publication,” I added. There. That should be sufficient enough to convince my not quite lover that having me tagging along to his closing at the title company would not be a good decision on his part.