Brother's Best Friend (Contemporary Romance Box Set)

by Katy Kaylee

  7

  Katie

  I stood on Ryder’s terrace wondering what the hell just happened. The guy made no sense. Why was he always acting like the injured party when he’d been the one to bring it on himself? He complained that people only saw him one way, but it was the only way he let people see him since he didn’t want them to know about his visits to the vet community. He also acted like I was the one who hurt him when he was the one to betray my family.

  Gathering my wits, I followed him inside, catching up to him as his very fine naked ass was walking into a bedroom.

  “Hey! What’s your problem? Why do you have such a chip on your shoulder?” I tried to ignore the fact that he was naked. His dick still long and hard pointing at me. God, he was a perfect specimen of a man.

  He scoffed in derision, shaking his head. He put on a robe which both made me glad I wouldn’t be distracted but disappointed because he was like a Michelangelo sculpture. I wondered if I could set up a PR stunt where he’d be sculpted.

  I finally made it into the room and once again, my mouth gaped. It too had floor to ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. “How is it that a man who has everything is so miserable? You think you’ve got it bad because people think you’re a womanizer? Do you know who has it bad? Danny.”

  He whirled on me. “Don’t. Don’t you dare try to pin whatever is wrong in his life on me.”

  I stared at him and realized that it wasn’t anger I saw in his tormented blue eyes. It was pain. That didn’t make sense.

  “Whatever problems he has are his, not mine.” He sliced his hand through the air as if he was cutting himself off from me and Danny.

  “You were the start of them.”

  “No!” This time he pointed a finger at me and his jaw clenched tight. He looked like he might say more but then he turned away.

  “Why do you keep running away?”

  “Because talking won’t change anything.” He disappeared into the bathroom.

  Undaunted, I followed him in. He cut me a glare as he reached into the shower the size of a walk-in closet and turned on the spray.

  “Ryder, I’m just trying to understand what is going on with you.” He had no reason to act like the injured party.

  “You don’t give a shit about me.” He stepped into the large shower.

  “That’s not true.” I realized I was contradicting myself. Until earlier today, I didn’t really care about him. I was too angry at what he’d done. So it was so odd that I was truly curious why he felt like Danny and I had done him wrong.

  “You tell me, Katie,” he said from the shower. “Why do you hate me so much?”

  “You know why. Because you betrayed Danny.” I left out the part where I felt like he’d used me. “Now your turn. Why are you so pissed at me?”

  His head popped from around the tiled wall of the shower. “Because you believe I’m the type of man that would betray Danny.” He disappeared into the shower again.

  What? Was he saying he wasn’t that type of man? But he’d slept with Phoebe a week before the wedding. He was exactly that kind of man.

  I shook my head like it would settle the craziness of this conversation into an organized, understandable way. “But you slept with Phoebe.”

  He said nothing, so I poked my head around the tiled wall.

  His hands were braced on the tile with his head under the spray. “The fact that you think so proves my point.” After a moment, he lifted his head and picked up the soap to start washing.

  I left the bathroom and went to sit on his bed, trying to make sense of what he was saying. He was angry because we thought he was the type of man who’d sleep with Danny’s fiance. The only way that worked was if he hadn’t slept with her. That just didn’t make sense. Phoebe confessed to it. She was in her underwear in Ryder’s room when she did.

  A few minutes later, he exited the bathroom, stopping short when he saw me sitting on his bed.

  He smirked. “The last time I came out of my shower and found an unwanted woman in my room, Danny tried to kick my ass.”

  I looked up at him. “Are you saying you didn’t sleep with Phoebe?”

  “I shouldn’t have had to say anything, Katie. Not then. Not now.” His voice was tight. “That’s the point. After twenty years of friendship, both of you believe I’d do that.”

  My breath came out in a whoosh as I realized that if he was telling the truth, he was right to be angry. Worse, Danny had been the one to betray Ryder. And me because I’d believed Danny. More to Ryder’s point, I’d believed he was the type of man who would betray his friend.

  “Why would Phoebe say you did?” I thought Phoebe was all sorts of crazy, but I couldn’t imagine she’d confess to cheating on Danny without actually doing it. What would she have gotten out of it?

  Ryder started to dry off with his towel. “How the hell do I know? Except for the note I found after I left your place that weekend telling me she was sorry about what happened, but that she wanted to be with me. Asking me to take her to Nashville with me.” He looked at me then with those piercing blue eyes. “I wanted to take you.”

  “No.” I knew that wasn’t true. “You said things that weekend that I believed, but just a few days later you had some blonde bimbo on your arm as you strode through the San Diego airport like a white knight, so don’t pretend that you really had feelings for me.”

  “When you didn’t answer my text, I knew you’d believed Danny and Phoebe, so what was the point?” He disappeared into the bathroom and came out again without his towel. “What was it you said about me the other day? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? I hadn’t realized that you both thought so little of me. I thought we were friends. What an idiot I was, right? I mean my own mother didn’t even like me enough to stick around. But now I know better.”

  Guilt lanced me, even though I still wasn’t sure what to think. If he was telling the truth, then he had every right to be angry and resentful. He was right; he’d been a part of our family for twenty years when the incident with Phoebe happened, and we’d believed her over Ryder. Then again, I’d never spoken to him to about it until now.

  I looked up at him, hoping he could see the sincerity in my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “First, I shouldn’t have had to have said anything. You should have believed me. Second, no one asked. Third, it wouldn’t have made any difference. You wouldn’t have believed me then, just as you’re not sure you can believe me now.”

  “Ryder.” I stood and blocked him from walking away. I wasn’t sure what I’d say. What I could say. All I knew was that I wanted to comfort him. I reached up and pressed a palm to his cheek.

  He looked down on me. At first, his face was fierce, as if he was keeping his guard up. But eventually, his eyes softened, and he lowered his head until it rested against mine.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”

  I hadn’t expected that question. “Would it have mattered?”

  He lifted his head to look at me. “Yes.”

  “That’s why.”

  He shook his head, and I saw regret in his blue eyes. “I was drunk that night, Katie. I shouldn’t have—”

  “I wanted you, Ryder. I wanted you to be the first.”

  He let out a breath. “I would have been more careful.”

  I smiled. “Do you think I didn’t enjoy it? Come on Ryder.” I took a long gaze down his chest to his dick, which was still thick and full, although not fully erect. My fingers itched to touch it. To taste it. “How many women can say their first time was with an NFL quarterback?”

  He flashed a quick grin. “You were tight. I should have guessed.”

  “And to answer your question earlier, no, I’m not a prude which I think I’ve proven because I’ve just had a very serious conversation with you while you’re buck naked.”

  His grin was sheepish. “I was being contrary.”

  “I know.” I looked at him, biting my lip because it was all I co
uld do to keep myself from getting naked too.

  He tilted his head to the side and studied me for a moment, as if looking for something. Finally, he nodded down to his dick. “You can touch him. I know you want to.”

  Hell yes I did. “You’re still arrogant.”

  “Tell me it’s not true.”

  I looked down at his dick that started to grow in front of my eyes. “It is true,” I admitted. I tore my gaze away from it back to his eyes.

  This smile was sweet. “Katie.” His hand brushed my cheek, and then he leaned forward pressing his lips against mine. His kiss was soft, and yet it sent a firestorm of sensation through me. It was like every cell in my body had been sleeping and his kiss woke them up.

  I moaned against his mouth, parting my lips and inviting him in. His arms banded around me, pulling me close as he slanted his head and then delved his tongue into my mouth.

  In the back of my brain, a voice said I shouldn’t do this. I still wasn’t sure about what happened between him and Phoebe. I didn’t want to be another conquest in a long line of women. He was my client. Good lord, if my boss found out, I’d be fired for sure.

  But my blood roared in my ears, drowning out all the reasons I shouldn’t touch him. The need to feel his skin sliding over mine was all that mattered right now.

  “Let me touch you, Katie.” His lips trailed down the side of my neck. “I’ve got to touch you or I’ll go crazy.”

  “Yes.”

  His fingers yanked on the zipper of my dress, and like the pro he was, my dress and the rest of my clothes were on the floor. He stepped back to look at me and I had a moment of self-consciousness. I didn’t have the boyish body he usually seemed to go for.

  His smile was wicked as he reached out and flicked a finger over my nipple. “I’ve missed these.” Then his mouth was on me, sucking my nipple deep into his mouth. I felt it straight down to my pussy, which contracted, and ached to be touched, to be fucked.

  He spun me around and then lay me across the huge bed. “I’m going to devour you.”

  My sensations were reeling. My whole body felt alive, and when his lips began their journey, starting at my lips and moving downward, it started to hum. I gripped his massive shoulders as he sucked my nipples again.

  “I love your tits.”

  I arched into him, offering him more. He sucked and licked and nipped as his fingers slid between my folds.

  “You’re so wet.” He pressed a finger inside me.

  “Oh!” My body writhed needing to get closer to him, to have more of him. “I need you, Ryder.”

  “Not yet.” He moved down my body, pushing my thighs apart and maneuvering his large shoulders between my legs.

  I’d let him down there once four years ago, but I’d been so self-conscious about it, I didn’t let him do it again. “Ryder.”

  “Please don’t stop me, Katie. I have to taste you.” He sucked gently on my thigh. “Please.”

  My pussy pulsed with need. “Yes.”

  “Thank fuck.” He didn’t waste any time. His hot tongue lapped through my folds, sending hot shimmers of sensation that made me want to beg for more.

  “Ryder.” My fingers gripped his head, pushing him into my pussy, needing more contact.

  He used his fingers to part my pussy lips and then shoved his tongue inside me. I cried out, my hips lifting from the bed as he used his tongue on me until I thought I’d implode. He withdrew from me, flicking his tongue over my clit then he sucked it in between his lips, and pleasure blasted through me. I felt like someone launched me into the heavens as my orgasm sent me soaring.

  He moved up my body and kissed me hard. “Taste your pussy, Katie.”

  His cock settled against my entrance, and I wanted it inside me more than I ever wanted anything in my life. I gripped his ass and pulled, urging him to fill me.

  He let out a long groan and fumbled with the night stand drawer. He pulled out a condom. I was so lost in him that I hadn’t thought about it. I was still on the pill, but he had a history with women, so it was good to add another layer of protection.

  He swore as he rolled the condom on his shaft. “I’m so fucking hard.”

  “I want it inside me.”

  He looked at me, at first with surprise, which I supposed came from the fact that I hadn’t been very talkative the first time we’d been together. But then his eyes turned feral.

  “Tell me what you want, Katie.”

  I swallowed. “I want you to fuck me.”

  He growled, as he pushed my legs wider and settled his hips between them. He was back on his heels, his knees wide under my thighs. His lay his dick on my belly.

  “Tell me again.”

  I reached down, wrapping my hand around him, and guiding him to my pussy. “Fuck me, Ryder.”

  His eyes flashed with a wild heat. Then he pushed his dick inside me. The first time had been quick, with a shot of pain that subsided into sweet ecstasy. This time, he took his time, moving in inch by torturous inch.

  “You’re still so tight.” He moaned, his eyes watching me as he moved deeper and deeper inside me.

  I felt so full, like I was at the max, and yet he kept going deeper and deeper.

  He groaned again, dropping his head back, and I saw beads of sweat on his brow. Was he holding back? Was he trying to treat me the way he would have the first time had he known I was a virgin? I wasn’t a virgin now, but it had been four years since the last time I’d had sex. He was the last time I’d had sex.

  “Ryder… more… please.” He was torturing me, and I couldn’t take it.

  “Ah fuck.” He gripped my hips tight and slammed the rest of the way in. On another long groan, he withdrew and plunged again.

  Oh my God, it was even better than I’d remembered. I could feel every inch of him sliding and pulsing in my body. “Yes… so good…”

  His hips pistoned, slapping against mine. He released his grip on my hips and reached down to tweak my nipples.

  “Oh, God!” I cried out as a new wave of pleasure shot me higher.

  “Come, Katie, come on my cock.”

  He released my nipples, and his hands trailed over my stomach until they reached my pussy. His thumb brushed over my clit, and fireworks shot through to every neuron in my body. I convulsed, my pussy clenching down on him, as my orgasm rocked through me again, just as powerful as the first.

  “Ah fuck yes… I’m coming…” He gripped my hips again, this time pounding in and out, making my pussy walls sing with pure pleasure.

  He let out a grunt, and thrust in, grinding his hips against mine. I swore I could feel his cock pumping his release. He thrust again, and again, until finally, he sagged over me.

  Our labored breaths echoed through the room. As my heart rate slowed, and the haze of sex subsided, concern started to grow. I couldn’t regret what I’d just done, but I questioned whether or not I should have done it.

  “Don’t Katie.”

  I opened my eyes, to see his blue ones staring down on me. “Don’t you fucking regret this.”

  I caressed his shoulders, admiring their strength. “I don’t regret this.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Something isn’t right.”

  “I’m only questioning whether it should have happened.”

  His expression morphed into the one I knew so well; annoyance and pain.

  Before he could pull away, I tightened my grip on him. “Your publicist told you no sex.”

  He studied me as if he was trying to decide if I’d been kidding before. I hadn’t been, but I also didn’t want to ruin the moment with reality.

  “She knows I don’t always follow the rules.”

  8

  Ryder

  The first time I ever had sex with Katie four years ago, the feel of her around my cock blew my mind, but I’d thought it was just because I’d been drinking and feeling charged. But over the course of that weekend, each time we were together it was just as satisfying as the first time. It was the type of
experience I hadn’t had with a woman since, until now. What was it about her that made sex go beyond the simple physical pop of coming and permeate to something deeper?

  Not that it was like that for her. It was maddening that so soon after having the hardest orgasm I could remember since the last time I’d slept with her; she was expressing guilt. I knew fucking her was probably a bad idea. I wasn’t sure if she believed me about Danny or that she’d changed her opinion of me. But I had to have her again, even if it was just to try to relive the feelings I’d had four years ago.

  But now the sexual high was over and we were back to real life. I was Ryder Malloy, bad boy football player, and she was Katie Lawton, my publicist who didn’t quite believe in me.

  I rolled off her. “Let me take care of the condom.” At least I’d remembered that this time. Wouldn’t that have been something if I got her pregnant? What a scandal that would be. Not to mention her brother would probably try to kick my ass.

  I went to the bathroom, tossing the condom, wiping my dick and washing my hands. I took a moment to look at myself in the mirror.

  “What the hell are you doing, Malloy?” Now I was feeling regret too. No, not regret, but I was beginning to think I was looking for something long gone, assuming it had ever really been there. Either way, it was always a bad idea to look back.

  When I came back out, she was putting her dress on.

  I found a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and slipped them on. “Are you hungry?”

  “A little.”

  “I’ll make some dinner.”

  She nodded. “We can get back to talking about how we’re going to fix your image.”

  “Fucking you senseless didn’t help?” I said hoping to bring levity into the situation.

  She laughed. “The world already knows you can do that.”

  She was teasing, but I felt the comment as a barb. All I was good at, in her mind, was throwing the ball and fucking. She might be right, and I had to admit that it was partly my fault since I didn’t let the world see other parts of me. But she should have known there was more to me. Pushing away the disappointment that she didn’t see more in me, I headed to the kitchen.