“Wayne?” His expression went tense.
“You’re off the hook.” Darn it, her voice trembled. Heat rose in her chest. Absolutely unacceptable. She would not fall apart. Not here, not now. Not in a hallway outside the ladies’ room when she was on a sort-of date with Wayne. Definitely not in front of Brek.
“If you’d pick up your damn phone, you’d know that’s not what I want.”
Oh no. He didn’t get to be pissed. He had no right to be angry. To cuss at her. He was the one who had gotten her all kinds of turned on and then left her with her panties around her ankles.
Mortifying.
She focused on the back of Wayne’s head across the room. Brek stepped in front of her. “Hear me out. Please. I’m sorry about the bike. I’m sorry I didn’t handle that well.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “I’d like to make it up to you.”
“You’d like to make it up to me?” she asked, incredulous.
This time she shoved past Brek, but he whispered from behind. “You’re on a date. With someone else, V.”
She spun around. “You told me to do something crazy. To try something new. So, I did, and it was scary. It was scary, Brek. And then it was humiliating.”
Great. Now she was whisper screaming. She jutted her chin in defiance, glaring with all she had.
“I made a mistake. I’m sorry.” Brek held his hands palms up.
“Is everything okay over here?” Pam asked, her eyes darting between Velma and her son.
Velma turned her head toward the restaurant and shoved her hair out of her face. The room had gone silent. Everyone stared at them.
Maybe she had screamed more than whispered?
Oh God.
A blush of itchy hives crept up Velma’s chest.
“I should leave.” Velma’s cheeks burned. Turned out, yes, this day could, in fact, get more embarrassing.
“Right. Let’s go home,” Brek agreed.
Everyone in the room seemed focused on them. No, she couldn’t look anymore. She wanted to crawl under the nearest table and hide. She wouldn’t, but she wanted to.
“Ma, thanks for the fun time. Velma’s comin’ home now,” Brek said calmly. “Would you mind letting her date know?”
“Please tell Wayne I’ll call him,” Velma said as carefully as she could, being that her love life was flipped upside down.
“Nope. Don’t tell him that,” Brek corrected.
“Have you two finally decided to see each other?” Pam lifted a manicured brow. “Officially?”
“Negotiations are currently taking place,” Brek replied.
Velma shot Brek a look, daring him to say anything more.
He didn’t. He just shrugged at his mother.
She pressed her hands together and tapped her index fingers to her lips. “Well, then, I’ll find someone else for Wayne.”
Pam’s eyes sparkled. She patted Brek’s arm on her way to apparently have a chat with Wayne.
“We need to talk.” Velma grabbed Brek’s arm and pulled him outside to the sidewalk next to his bike. She stood as tall on her toes as she could. “Have you lost your mind?”
He closed the gap between them, his mouth on hers, kissing the stuffing right out of her. Everything she had built up in her head melted away as she kissed him back furiously.
He broke the seal of their kiss. “I’m sorry. About before.”
She swallowed down all the emotion from the day. “Why did you stop? In the garage? What did I do wrong?”
“This is all new territory for me—the whole caring thing. So that was me respecting you.” He was all hard muscle and kind eyes. “We both know what this is. I won’t leave you hanging again. Now’s the time to say no if you don’t want this.”
She remained silent and kissed him again.
Chapter Fifteen
Velma held on to Brek’s muscled abs as he parked the motorcycle at their apartment building. His spicy scent overpowered her senses. The whole ride, she’d rehearsed what she might say. She hadn’t said no, and this time he seemed intent to see this thing through. So, they would talk about boundaries and create a plan.
Velma’s breaths turned shallow while she fought with the thick black clasp on her chinstrap.
Brek climbed off and unhooked his helmet easily.
Her clasp wouldn’t release. She pressed and pulled harder. The strap bit further into her jaw as her breathing became erratic. “I can’t get this darn thin—”
“Here.” Brek’s warm grip surrounded hers. With barely a flick, he released the clasp and removed her helmet.
Shaking, and with no grace, she climbed off the bike. Velma ran her hand over her hair and glanced to the variety of pebbles scattered across the asphalt. She studied them like they held the solution to all her life’s problems.
Brek placed his hands along her jaw, one on each side, and tilted her head up. “You can change your mind. Anytime.”
His thumbs stroked her temples.
Her stomach did a little flip at the sensation. “No. I just…I’m not good at this stuff.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
What was he even saying? “Yeah?”
“V, you’re overthinking things. Catch your breath. I’m still me. We’re still us.” He settled both hands against her shoulders, and the fingertips of his right hand brushed little circles against the sensitive skin just below her jawline.
She nodded. “Let’s go home.”
Focused on the sidewalk, she hustled toward the building and inside the elevator.
He stepped into the elevator and pushed the button to their floor.
“Havin’ second thoughts about us?” he asked, his expression genuine.
“No.” She wasn’t.
“Then don’t run from this.” The words were practically a plea.
The silver doors slid open. He looped his arm around her waist, his long strides propelling both of them down the hall.
Brek shoved the door to their apartment open. She hurried to her bedroom. Brek kissed her as soon as they got there. All fire and tongue, melting her against him.
He pulled back and winked. “Don’t move.”
She blinked as he disappeared behind the door and immediately popped his head back in.
“Don’t freak out, either.”
She opened her mouth to respond when he turned on his heel and left once more.
This time, her chest heaved full-on breaths. Each inhale drew excitement, and a dash of fear. What had she gotten herself into?
She should go and see what the heck Brek was doing.
Gosh, the room had gotten uncomfortably hot. Carefully, she removed her sweater and dropped it into the wicker laundry bin.
Her gaze moved to her bathroom, her only escape. She just needed a minute to get herself together.
She pulled the pocket door closed and glanced to the garden tub. An impromptu shower seemed like a better idea. Unzipping the side of her dress, she stepped out of it and pulled open the plexiglass door to the walk-in shower.
Warm water did little to rinse away the turmoil raging inside her. Not confusion about Brek. She understood down to her marrow that he would never hurt her. No, they would figure out their limits and discuss rules, and then she would learn everything she could from him.
The spray of water pounded against her as she lifted her face to the stream, closing her eyes and bracing her hands on the dark-gray tiles of her shower.
The rattle of the shower door opening jolted her attention away from the showerhead. She covered her breasts with an arm and shook the droplets of water from her eyes.
Brek.
Not just Brek. Naked Brek. Sure, she had felt him up over his T-shirt when she rode on the back of his bike. And, yeah, the definition of his back was etched in the recesses of her mind from the times they kissed and she had held on tight. She’d seen him without a shirt countless times, but, totally bare, he was a Greek god with b
rilliant ink across his arms, chest, and down his right leg. Her gaze moved back to his arms. Arms that led to abs with muscles defined into a V leading to—she forced her eyes to meet his.
“You want me to leave?” A sly smile tilted at the corners of his lips.
At the husky purr of his words, she was pretty sure she almost had an orgasm right there. The warm water poured over her, circling the drain like her commitment to boundaries.
She pressed her palms to her eyes and shook her head. “No. Stay.”
“Then I’m coming in. You good with that?”
Finally, she dropped her hands and smiled a shaky smile. She nodded. His eyes were soft, his body rigid.
He prowled through the small space between them, turning her so his chest brushed against her back. The air shifted in the quickly steaming stall.
“This is how it’s gonna go,” he whispered into her ear, the length of his erection settling in the cleft of her bottom, pressing up toward the center of her spine. His wet hands slid along her elbows and over the sides of her breasts. “I’ll take lead, but you’ve gotta tell me when I do something you don’t like.”
She moaned when his fingertips stroked lightly over her nipples. At the moment, certainty took over that she would enjoy everything he chose to do to her body.
Fine, so she didn’t have loads of experience in this department. Handling things alone in her bedroom at night hardly counted. No, the things they were about to do, or rather were doing, were carnal, instinctive. She had never been confident with a man this way. But there were no mistakes here. Just Brek.
He ran his hand over the slope of her breasts, down her belly to the wisp of curls at the apex of her thighs. He slid a finger inside as his other arm braced her so she didn’t collapse into a puddle and slip off down the drain. “You with me?”
This was new. Sure, she had made herself come, but this…this was something totally foreign. Different. Exciting.
“What?” She hitched her leg slightly to give him better purchase, his fingertips venturing farther.
“I do something that doesn’t feel good, you talk to me.” He continued his beautiful assault on her senses. “I do something you like, you talk to me. I’ll return the favor. For example, right now, the water bouncing off your tits is fucking with my head. Makes me want to do this faster so I can play with ’em. But, see, that’s not the guy I am. I’ve got a problem because I really want to touch your tits, but my hands are busy.”
“That is a problem,” she said on a breath.
“Looks like you’re gonna have to help me out here. Touch your nipple.” He slid another finger against the one already between her legs.
She followed his command and ran a hand over her breasts, like she did when she was alone and doing this to herself. The friction elicited a moan from the depths of her.
The hardness of his erection twitched against her backside.
She cleared her throat. Her head lolled back against him. “I like that. A lot.”
“Which part?” His hand continued doing magnificent things to her.
“Mmm.” Words escaped her as his thumb rubbed against her sweet spot. The sensations of the water, her hands, his hands, were overwhelming.
“We should go to my bed.” She had no idea where the words had come from. She would gladly stay in the shower forever. They could just live there, the two of them, alone in the water.
He turned her to face him. “That’s what you want?”
She nodded. His mouth crushed down on hers. Finally, he let her go, and she turned off the water to follow him out. He immediately wrapped a bath towel across her shoulders and dried her off, before doing the same for himself.
Holding the towel in place, she followed him to the bedroom.
He’d pulled the blackout curtains closed and laid out all of her candles from the living room—even her emergency the-power’s-off candles from the hall closet. They flickered in the dim light.
Her breath caught. “You did this for me?”
“Thought you deserved special.” He held a hand out to her. This was it. Deep down, she understood he was asking her to trust him. He was Brek. Her Brek.
She released her grip on the towel and stepped across the invisible line to meet him in the center of her flannel sheets. Laying her back against the pillows, he knelt over her body, his hand stroking the length of his erection.
Holy crap. The vision of Brek with his hand on his…it…would be forever burned into her mind. She could watch him do that for hours.
“We’ll go slow. Tell me if you need a break.” His kissed her quickly, and then all she saw was the top of his head as he moved his lips down the slope of her chest.
This was nice. “Nice” being the least appropriate word ever. “Fantastic” was more like it. His mouth covered her left breast, and he sucked on her nipple, groaning along with her moans. She massaged her fingertips against his scalp, and he released her nipple. A mew escaped her lips, but he continued kissing her torso, down to her thighs. He stopped at her knee and opened her legs. They fell easily apart. Oh dear, he was really going for it.
She wasn’t boring Velma anymore, not with Brek. “I feel like I’m falling.”
“V,” he said, the word a command for her to look at him. “You feel like you’re fallin’? Eyes on me. I’ll catch you.” Brek’s fingertip trailed along the inside of her heat, his breath against her most intimate place.
He spread her legs further and brought her just to the cusp of unraveling before he stopped with the tip of his erection against her entrance.
The feel of him there, the stretch of skin and, oh, the heat.
His hips slid firmly against hers, his erection joining them together. The coarse hair of his legs was a contrast to her smooth calves.
“Eyes,” he said, gentler than she’d ever heard him before.
Her gaze locked onto his. Her lips involuntarily parted as he invaded her senses, inch by inch. This felt right. He felt right. She reached between them, trailing her fingertips down his abs to where they were together. She gripped his erection and guided him in farther.
“Brek,” she whispered his name like a prayer.
“Eyes,” he grunted, seating himself firmly inside her.
He didn’t move. Muscles in his arms twitched. His gaze never faltered. “Ready?”
She wasn’t ready for this. The back of his bike was a hookup, but this. This was not. This was her bed and her room and her life.
“I can hear you thinkin’ all the way up here.” He nuzzled his nose against her shoulder, his thickness still hard inside her.
To heck with it all. She ran a hand over the muscles of his shoulder. “I’m ready.”
Slowly, he pulled out and gently pushed himself back in. She arched into him and moved with his body. The length of him pulsed inside her.
His expression remained fiercely protective. “Relax against me.”
She tried, she really did. The beauty of all that was Brek overwhelmed her. Gosh, he felt so good. His skin, his mouth…everything.
He reached his thumb between them, rubbing the sensitive nerves. A coil inside her tightened.
“Relax,” he whispered.
How could she relax when his body did things to hers that should be illegal in forty-eight states?
He slowed his persistence, keeping hold of her gaze. “Pulled into your parking garage. Prettiest woman I ever saw gave me lip about parking in her spot. Those moments? I prayed harder than I’ve ever prayed for anything that you’d open up and let me in.”
The coiled spring inside her tightened further but refused to release.
“You let me into your world, and for once, I didn’t want to leave. I always want to leave, V. Always.” His mouth found hers, gently nipping her bottom lip. “’Til you.”
She moaned into his kiss. Gosh, he was good at this.
“That’s right, V. Give yourself to me.”
She opened her mouth to say something. What? She wasn’
t sure. Instead, she clenched her thighs around him, her ankles involuntarily lifting to his lower back to give him better purchase.
“You’re mine. Were from the second I saw you.”
“I can’t relax.” Even as she spoke, her body disagreed with her words. His continued persistence sent her higher, the tension building.
“Mine.” His hand moved to her hair. “You’re mine.”
“Yours,” she muttered, her head falling to the side. The tension inside became more than she’d ever imagined.
The pressure continued to build.
She relaxed, and without warning, everything in her contracted, releasing on a wave of intensity. His fingertips brushed her nipples and then pinched. Another wave overwhelmed her, her core pulsing around every part of him.
He cursed. The pleasure was so intense, she didn’t even care. He trailed intimate kisses along her neck, to her collarbone, down to her breasts. Yet, somehow, he continued thrusting in her. Then he met her stare and held her hand as they fell together.
Chapter Sixteen
Countdown to Claire & Dean’s Wedding: 3 Weeks
The last thing Brek wanted to think about was reality outside of the bubble he had created around himself and Velma the last week. He fixed the messy bed in Velma’s room, pulling up her sheets and her comforter with the little roses printed on it.
He slept next to her and held her hand. She was scared of getting close to a guy who would be leaving. He understood. That didn’t mean he couldn’t take her out to a show at the Buell Theatre.
She had enjoyed the date he planned, too. He hadn’t told her where they were going. But her face went soft and her eyes got misty when she saw the playbill for some pansy-ass old musical. It hadn’t slipped his notice how afterward she’d moved his pillow next to hers, his soap to her shower, and his guitar to her bedroom.
The fact remained that she would stick around Denver after he left. More and more, he began to think of Denver as his base. His adult life had consisted of living out of hotel rooms, planning concerts, scoping out venues, and managing one of the most popular bands of the decade. He’d been the glue that kept Dimefront together this long. He traveled cross-country, celebrating the roar of the engine, the open road, and his freedom to do the job he loved.
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