by Whitley Cox
“Ready to go?” she asked, brushing a strand of hair off Mira’s cheek. “Little one is already asleep.”
Adam nodded, pecking another kiss to the top of Mira’s head. “Yeah, I know. She’s pretty wiped.”
Violet bit her lip and stared down at him coyly. “I’m not. You want some company once she’s gone to sleep?” She bobbed her eyebrows seductively.
Warmth spiraled through him. Violet hardly ever initiated sex. Not that she wasn’t willing, because she was, but Adam suspected her reluctance stemmed from her remaining uncertainty about whether she was ready to move on. That if she initiated sex, it meant she was betraying Jean-Phillipe. So the fact that she brought it up was a good sign. A step in the right direction.
Her fingers played with the hair at the nape of his neck and he had to fight the urge to close his eyes and purr like a lion from how good it felt. “I do have to teach in the morning, but I could be persuaded to have a nightcap,” she whispered.
Adam reached behind her and pinched her butt. “How much persuading do you need?”
“I’m right here,” Mitch said with a disgusted look on his face. “That’s my baby sister you’re planning to defile.”
“It’s to practice our dancing,” Violet said innocently. She glanced back down at Adam and shook her head, mouthing, “No, it’s not.”
“Yeah, naked dancing,” Liam tossed in, wandering back out to the sundeck with a lowball of scotch. The man rarely drank beer, said he was too sophisticated for that shit.
“Clothes just get in the way,” Adam added with a laugh. “I like to be streamlined when I dance. Aerodynamic.”
Zak snickered. “Yeah, but doesn’t your dick flop around?”
“Okay, okay,” Mitch scolded, his hands placed on either side of Jayda’s head. “Little ears here. Little ears with big mouths.”
“What, Daddy?” Jayda yelled.
Mira stirred on Adam’s lap and opened her eyes sleepily.
Everyone on the deck started laughing.
“And on that note,” Adam said, pushing himself to up standing with Mira against his chest, “I say we hit the road.”
19
Monday afternoon, with a pleasant ache between her legs and an Emerald City Bakery box in one hand and a chai latte in the other, Violet stared at the front door of the dance studio. She’d ducked out on her lunch break to grab a bite, intending to buy a healthy salad or a gourmet wrap from that raw food truck by the Ballard Locks, but instead she found her feet taking her to Emerald City Bakery. Again. She wound up staying over at Adam’s last night after the barbecue at Mark and Tori’s, only to sneak out early in the morning before Mira woke up. So not only did she need a sugar pick-me-up to make it through the day, but she’d also had them add an extra shot of espresso to her chai latte. It was shaping up to be long day.
She tucked the bakery box under her arm and made to open the door, only to nearly drop the cheesecake and instead let go of the door to save her sweet confection.
“Damn it!”
“Need a hand?” came a deep and sexy rumble behind her.
She lifted her sunglasses-clad eyes and then had to keep lifting them up because the man behind her was crazy tall. He was also crazy built, with tattoos on his biceps and down his forearms and the most irresistible smile.
Swallowing, she nodded. Fear niggled at the back of her neck. The memory of the phone calls and the creepy mail cannoned into her mind. Was he dangerous?
Like a true gentleman, he held the door open for her.
“Thank you,” she finally managed, thinking and hoping he’d be on his way, only instead, he followed her in.
Who was this guy? He wouldn’t attack her with Kathleen in the studio as a witness, would he?
“No worries.” He pulled off his sunglasses and gazed down at her with striking light-blue eyes. “Hey, Vi!”
She nearly dropped her cheesecake. “Mason!”
He scooped her up in a big hug, lifting her feet clear off the floor. “Been too long. How ya doin’?”
“Is that my Mason?” came Kathleen’s voice from the office. Seconds later, her face appeared, all smiles for her son.
Violet shook her head as her feet met the Earth again, relief flooding her. She set her cheesecake and latte down on the bench. “It’s been way too long. I’m doing well. How are you?”
Mason nodded, looping an arm around his mother’s shoulder, though it looked a tad odd because he absolutely towered over her. “I’m great. Just moved back to town a couple of months ago. Bought a bar, and now I’m going to have a baby.”
Thank God she didn’t have any food in her mouth, because she would have spat it out if she had. “A baby? I didn’t know you were seeing anybody.”
He was all super-sexy smiles. His dark facial hair was sculpted to perfection over his chin and upper lip, and his hair was all wild and wavy with some length on top but short on the sides. She’d always had a bit of a crush on her older brother’s best friend, and like a fine wine, Mason had only gotten better with age.
“No girlfriend, no wife,” Kathleen cut in, slapping her son on his well-defined chest. “Mason is going it alone.”
Violet shook her head. She reached for her latte and took a sip. She needed caffeine. “What do you mean?”
“I found a surrogate and an egg donor, and I’m having a baby myself.”
Violet’s eyes must have damn near popped out of her head for the laugher that followed from Kathleen and her son.
“I get that a lot,” Mason said, his incredible arm muscles bunching and flexing as he removed his arm from around his mother’s shoulder and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I did some traveling after I quit the corporate world. Really did some soul-searching. And I realized what I wanted most was a family. I’m not getting any younger, and I haven’t found the right woman, so I’m doing it myself.”
“But you won’t have to go it alone,” Kathleen cut in. “Your father and I are so excited for his baby. We’ll help raise this little girl. She’s going to be nana’s little angel.”
“A girl?” Violet’s ovaries did a little hip-hop.
Mason’s smile was big and bright. “Yeah. My surrogate is about thirty-three weeks along. She’s due mid-August.”
“That’s so exciting. I’m really happy for you, Mason. You’re going to make a wonderful father.”
“What? Mase is going to be a dad?” The door chimed at the same time Mitch’s voice interrupted their conversation. “I was in the neighborhood and wanted to pop in with the new prints I just had developed.” Mitch wandered in and, forgoing a handshake because they were bros, he and Mason hugged it out. “Good to see you, man. It’s been too long.”
Mason laughed as he pulled away. “It has been. I just got back into town a few months ago. Been meaning to call you. It’s just been crazy. I bought a bar.”
Mitch made a face of approval and nodded. “Cool. I’ll have to come check it out.”
“Sweet. Yeah, it’s the Prime Sports Bar and Grill, not too far from Pier 55. A couple blocks up.”
“I’ll definitely come by and check it out. So what’s this I hear—you’re going to be a dad?”
Mason was still all smiles. How on earth had a woman not snatched this gorgeous piece of man meat up already? Those eyes. That smile. Those arms.
He chuckled and rocked back on his heels. “Yeah. Going the surrogate route. I just really want to be a dad. Baby will be here in August.”
Mitch stuck his hand out and Mason shook it. “That’s great, man. Congratulations. Babies are always a blessing. And girls are awesome. I’ve probably got a lot of Jayda’s stuff I can give you too.”
“Thanks.”
“And what about your single dads group?” Violet offered. “He could join, couldn’t he?”
Mitch perked up. “That’s right, you can.”
One of Mason’s thick, dark eyebrows lifted. “Single dads club?”
“Yeah. The Single Dads of Seattle
. We get together every Saturday night and play poker. The guy who started the club lives on Washington Lake. Killer place.”
Mason stroked his beard. “Could be cool.”
“You should totally join. Once baby is here and you’re officially a single dad. I’m new myself, so I don’t know the rules on joining before the baby arrives.” Mitch wrinkled his nose. “Liam’s a lawyer, so he might be really strict on the rules.”
Mason snorted. “No worries. I’m pretty busy with the bar anyway. Trying to get it to a place where my general manger can take over for when the baby gets here.”
Kathleen bounced up and down on her heels. “I can’t wait to be a nana. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” She clutched Mason’s arm. “Are you here to take your mother out for lunch?”
“That I am. Shall we go?” Mason offered her his arm, and she entwined hers through.
Kathleen beamed from ear to ear. “Such a mama’s boy.”
Mitch and Violet chuckled.
Mason gave them both a two-finger salute. “See you guys around.” Then he led his mother out the door and off to lunch, having to practically duck under the door, he was so damn tall.
Mitch turned to Violet. “A baby.”
Violet shook her head with a smile. “I know, huh. He’s crazy.”
With the memory of Sunday night still in her mind, and the ache of Adam’s relentless attention still between her thighs, Violet was feeling rather restless come five o’clock when the last of her students left for the day. She knew Adam worked late on Mondays, that Mira spent the afternoon and evening with Zak and his kids, but what she didn’t know was whether he was teaching a class or simply in his office or the lab.
She glanced down at her ballet attire and then back up at her image in the studio mirror. Her hair was still in a high bun.
A wicked thought slipped into her brain, and before she could second-guess herself, she was off to her office and changing into a skirt and tank top.
Less than twenty minutes later, she found herself wandering the halls of the University of Washington. She had checked online for the location of Dr. Eastwood’s office, so she wasn’t entirely lost, and thankfully it was summer semester, so there weren’t nearly as many co-eds wandering the halls.
Never in her life had she ever been so brazen, so shameless. Showing up to someone’s place of work for sex, this was not the Violet she recognized at all.
She was okay with that though.
She and Jean-Phillipe had had a wonderful sex life, and in her opinion an adventurous one. She would never call him lame in bed, not in any way, shape or form. He’d been a generous lover, attentive and relentless, and she would carry the memory of their lazy Sundays in bed making love until noon with her for the rest of her life.
But there was something different about Adam. Where Jean-Phillipe made her feel beautiful and sexy as he slowly worshipped her body from head to toe, Adam made her feel like she was this wanton sex kitten with her motor always set to purr-mode. Since the moment she’d laid eyes on him, her libido had done the majority of the talking, done the majority of the thinking. His need for her was raw and real, fast and hard and driven by a primal pull she couldn’t quite explain but felt with every cell in her body. The way he took control, it wasn’t something she ever thought she would enjoy, let alone crave.
But she did crave it. She craved his dominance, craved him taking the reins and pushing her body to the limit, to the point of such extreme pleasure she thought she might black out.
And that eternal craving, the one in her heart and the one between her legs, was what had led her to his door. It was what had her lifting up her fist and lightly rapping on the dark stained wood.
“Come in,” came his voice from the other side.
Swallowing down her nerves and instead tossing her shoulders back like she’d been trained to do, she turned the handle and opened the door.
“Dr. Eastwood?” she sang in a breathy voice.
He was sitting at his desk with his back to her. “One moment.”
“I came to talk to you about an assignment. I need some one-on-one support.”
His head bobbed in a nod, but he still didn’t turn around. The faint tap of fingers on a keyboard could be heard over her racing heartbeat. “Have you gone to speak with my TA? She would be your best bet for some one-on-one support.”
“But she doesn’t have what I need.” Violet had to stifle a chuckle. Her baby-doll voice was ridiculous. Did Adam seriously not know it was a fake voice? Or did he actually have someone who sounded like that in his class? Oh, what a horrible misfortune, if that was the case. “She doesn’t have what I want.”
His chair creaked as his body stiffened. He finally got where she was going. Now whether he knew it was her yet was the next question.
“I promise I’ll be a good girl. Unless of course you want me to be bad.” She bit her fist to keep herself from laughing.
“Listen, I’m afraid this is really inappropriate, and I’m going to have to ask you to l—” He spun around in his chair, and his mouth dropped open. “Never ever leave,” he finished.
Violet’s mouth split into a big wide smile. “Hello, Professor,” she sang, twiddling the tips of her two long plaited braids around her fingers and blowing a big pink bubble of gum. “Are you sure I can’t persuade you to let me work for some extra credit? An oral exam perhaps?”
She smacked the gum playfully in her mouth and then bit her bottom lip, twisting on her feet and batting her eyelashes at him.
Adam groaned, a roguish grin creeping across his face as he stood up and shut and locked the door behind them. He sank back down in his high-back leather chair and reached for her. “Miss Benson, I’m quite disappointed in you this semester. You’ve been slacking off. Your assignments have been late, you’ve missed class, what have you been up to? What has you so distracted?” He brought her into his lap and immediately fished his hand up her flowy, lacy lilac skirt. His thumb pressed against her clit through her underwear, and she whimpered in his arms.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend, Professor.”
“Boyfriend?” he said with a scoff of derision. “Some jock on the football team, I assume?”
She shook her head and blew another bubble. But before she could let it pop, he stuck his finger into it and popped it for her, continuing to push until his finger entered her mouth.
“Suck,” he ordered.
She sucked, swirling her tongue around the digit in her mouth.
His pupils dilated, and his nostrils flared in triumph. He pulled his finger back out. “Good girl. Now tell me about this boyfriend.”
“He’s really quite dreamy,” she purred, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. “He’s a scientist, just like you. You know I’m attracted to brains more than brawn. Always have been.”
Adam snorted at the same time he pushed her underwear to the side and slid two fingers into her already wet and waiting channel. Her lips parted and lashes fluttered.
“Lucky for you, I have both.” His voice was a rough, gruff timber that sent a quake straight through her. “Brains … ” He raked the nail of his thumb over her clit. She trembled against him. “And brawn.” His two fingers inside her pressed up hard on her G-spot.
“Oh God.” Her eyes popped open wide. She pushed her chest out and bowed her back as the pleasure careened its way into every nook and cranny inside her.
“Now, about that oral exam you mentioned. I’m sure we come to some kind of an arrangement. I’d hate for you to have to drop my class.”
She smiled down at him and slipped off his lap, mourning the loss of his fingers inside her but smiling at the satisfaction of how hard he was inside his shorts. She dropped to her knees and positioned herself between his legs, going to work on his zipper.
The plum-hued crown of his length broke free of his boxers and shorts, and she immediately took him in her mouth.
Adam’s hand fell to the top of her head. �
��That’s right, baby.” He pulled on one of her braids. “I thought I told you I wanted your hair down when you weren’t dancing.”
Her eyes flicked up to his, and she gave him a deviant wink, smiling with him still in her mouth.
“That’s a punishable offense.”
She scraped her teeth down his cock.
He groaned and tugged harder on her braid. “I might have to spank you for that.”
She deep throated him hard and then started to hum.
Holy flying fuck!
Violet’s hot little mouth around his cock was pure heaven.
Pure. Fucking. Heaven.
And she was humming.
Humming!
Adam let his eyes close and he leaned back in his chair, his hand on her head. He wasn’t pushing her down farther onto his shaft, oh no, she was doing that herself. Taking him all the way to the back of her tonsils and possibly beyond. And she wasn’t even gagging.
Pure. Fucking. Heaven.
The vibrations of the hum sent a rush of heat straight to his balls, making them tighten and ache for release.
He opened his eyes and took a braid in his hand, releasing the elastic hair band and pulling gently to release the plait. As hot as the braids were, and as hot as the image of him fucking her from behind and using the braids as reins was, he wanted to thrust his fingers in her hair even more. Wanted to palm her scalp and tug hard, until her head tilted back and exposed that sexy neck. He did the same to the other braid, then spread her long, silky tresses over his lap, loving the way they felt in his fingers.
She brought her hand up and aided her mouth, stroking him long and deep, licking the tip, then dipping her head back down and taking him all the way to the back of her throat. Not once did she balk or hesitate. No, she didn’t. His woman was a goddamn pro at every single thing she tackled. Whether it be dancing or a blow job, she approached it all with the finesse and dedication of a savant.
