by Zoey Parker
She’d never tried seducing a man before. The one or two who had fumbled their way into her pants hadn’t been all that interesting, and hadn’t sparked her desire to try again. But Kellan was different, his presence was magnetic. The touch of his lips had her toes curling in a way she had always thought was pure myth.
She planned on finding out exactly how much her toes could curl tonight.
When the front door opened she pulled a robe over her shoulders. She took one last look in the little mirror. She didn’t look half bad, she decided. In fact, she looked good. She ran her fingers through her hair, making it look sensually rumpled. She didn’t bother with makeup, though she was tempted. It was too late anyway, and chances were it would just get all messed up.
“Emma?” he called.
She stood up and opened her bedroom door. “This is it,” she whispered to herself. She walked out of the bedroom and looked at him. It must have started to rain because Kellan was damp with droplets. Rocco shook off his own wet and pranced around her legs.
“Oh no,” she said, sidestepping the mutt, “you go lay down in your bed. You are all wet.”
While Rocco didn’t understand the whole statement, his ears pricked at the phrase “go lay down.” With an aggrieved huff he wandered off to Kellan’s room, leaving the two humans very much alone.
“I called Rudy while we were on a walk. Turns out Samantha is the one who told your mom to come.”
Emma felt a lash of heat ripple through her. “Oh really?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what she was thinking.”
Emma looked into his face. His brows were smooth and his eyes open wide enough that she could see that he really didn’t know. For all his talents with people, he really was oblivious. “Then you are an idiot.”
“What?”
Emma shook her head, making her loose hair fan out around her face. “She wants you. She wants you bad, and she thinks I am standing in the way of you having her.”
He continued to look confused. “But you aren’t.”
Emma chuckled, low and unamused. Her eyes were glittering with the kind of anger that was born out of frustration and possessiveness. It wasn’t quite jealousy, but it was pretty close. “But she thinks so. She’s made it clear she doesn’t want me around. I can’t blame her. I’m definitely the better woman.”
His lips curled into a smile. “I won’t argue about the better woman thing. It’s really no competition from where I am standing.”
She liked the way that sounded. Maybe seducing him wouldn’t be that difficult. “Oh really?”
He ran his tongue over his lips, they glittered softly. She wanted to kiss them, wanted to melt into them. She managed to keep her distance, at least for the moment.
“Listen, I hate to burst your bubble, but even if you weren’t around, I’m not going for Samantha. I don’t like her.”
“I know I’m not the worldliest person when it comes to this kind of thing, but I’m fairly aware that people can have sex with someone they don’t like.”
He shrugged and tugged off his damp jacket. With a haphazard gesture he tossed it across the back of the couch. She frowned at him. She didn’t like to think of herself as a nagging housewife, but she had spent her boring hours trying to make his bachelor pad a little less cluttered. Besides, rainwater could make things moldy.
With a stern look from her he picked it up and hung it in the closet. “Yeah, all right. I’m sure I could. But that girl is like a virus. She likes to latch on and stick around even when you are done with her. And yeah, she’s hot but there is nothing else there. She doesn’t talk, she isn’t nice, and hell, I’ve heard from a couple of the guys that the sex isn’t that great.”
“Poor Samantha.” Emma took a deep breath and blew it slowly out of her nostrils. She wasn’t going to let that woman ruin this moment. She wasn’t even here. With a deft movement she tugged the sash loose and opened up the robe. “Poor, poor Samantha.”
Maybe it was the tone in her voice, or the flash of skin as the robe opened. Either way, Kellan’s head whipped towards her. “What are you wearing?”
“Not much.”
“Jesus, woman. Put yourself away.” He took a step back. His misty hazel eyes were wide.
“No.” She kept her tone firm. With more grace than she had known she was capable of she sauntered over to him. She thought of Hannah’s expert sashay. His gaze darted down to the swell of her breasts, the movement of her hips. “I don’t think so. You see, I plan on using you tonight.”
He blinked as if she’d struck him across the face with a pan. “You…what? Use me? How?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, going up on her toes. Her lips nearly brushed his as she talked. “Kellan, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m stressed. This is worse than finals. Hell, this is like three weeks worth of finals with no notes and no study time. Everything in my life is screwed up one way and down another and I am just not okay with that. What I want, what I need, is to relax…and you are real good at helping me with that.”
He cleared his throat. “You think so?”
“Well, you’ve put your mouth on me often enough to give me an inkling. More than that, our little encounter in the kitchen had me thinking that you’d be real good at making me forget all my problems.”
She felt his muscles tense, the clutch of his fingers still at his sides. He was like a wire that she was tightening. If she kept going, she was almost sure he would break. She wanted him to break for her. After all these years wondering what Kellan would be like, she wanted the reality of it.
“Emma, I’m not sure this is a good idea.” He didn’t move as her arms slithered around his middle.
She stepped close enough that her breasts brushed against his chest with every breath. His hands flexed at his sides. She ran her tongue over her own lips and felt him shudder against her. His eyes had zeroed down into pinpoints.
“I’m sober,” she reminded him. “I am stone cold sober and I just had a near death incident. Forgive me if I want a big strong man to make me remember why I’m alive.”
“Emma, seriously.” He stepped back suddenly, pulling himself out of the ring of her embrace. She stumbled just a little, and all the confidence she had gained evaporated.
She huffed out an uneven breath. This was a mistake. She never should have thought she could seduce him. She had no practice, and he’d had girls like Samantha throw themselves at him. Just the thought of that plastic Barbie had her blood humming with a vengeful need. Sure, he might say he didn’t want the leggy bimbo, but what guy would really say not to that?
“Fine.” She whirled away and took two long steps down the hall. Her robe was like a cape behind her, fluttering with her frustration.
“Where are you going?” he demanded.
“To call Joe. If you won’t help me, maybe he will,” she responded flippantly.
“He won’t. You are my wife.”
She whirled back. Her eyes turning to hot slate. “Oh, am I? I mean, it’s on paper, but you’ve made it very clear to everyone that you aren’t really my husband. So, by default, I’m not really your wife. Joe’s a smart boy, college and everything. I’m sure he has had practice. Yes, you know, the more I think about it, the more I like it. He’s more my speed anyway.”
The words hit home. She saw his jaw become a hard angry line. He closed the distance between them and pressed his body to hers. She felt herself pinned between the cold wall and his hot form. Bright hazel eyes flickered down at her. He gripped her arms and pushed them against the plaster. She pushed herself towards him.
“You play a dangerous game, little girl,” he hissed. “I know what you’re doing.”
“I am not a little girl.” She surged against him, molding her body to his like a wave of barely restrained need. His hips twitched in response. “Maybe you haven’t noticed.”
“I’ve noticed.” His fingers skimmed down her wrist, towards the curve of her side. “I’ve been doing nothin
g but noticing. You’ve been driving me nuts.”
“Prove it,” she baited.
With a growl his mouth came down, hers went up. She couldn’t call it a kiss, not really. It was an onslaught of lips and tongue and teeth. Their mouths mated like it was a battle. He smelled like rain and masculinity and she wanted to drown in it.
“Do you want this?” He ground himself against her.
She felt the unrelenting throb of him shove against the tenderest part of her. “Yes!” Her voice echoed off the walls. “Yes, I do! Give it to me, Kellan. Give it all.”
“Fine,” he snarled. “Fine.”
With one move he hefted her up and took her into her own room. The lights were off and he didn’t bother turning them on. Her eyes weren’t quite adjusted to the dark when she felt her back greet the familiar cotton of her bedspread. She heard rather than saw fabric hitting the floor, the slide of a t-shirt over flesh, the metallic whisper of a zipper. When he prowled over her supple form she knew he was naked without touching him.
He perched over her, the foldout bed shifting with his weight so she slid into the natural sag of the mattress. Her newly adjusted eyes could make out the outline of his wide body sinking down her own form. The distant sliver of light that came through the gaps around the door illuminated the wrought muscles in his arms.
Her hands found him in the dark. Warm, his skin was so deliciously warm. She traced the solid outline of his body. Her fingers sliding up one way and down the other, touching every bit of his back. She could feel the outlines of scar tissue. Some were the satiny lines of tattoo work. Some were the deeper, harsher rigid skin of long healed battle wounds.
His palms slid beneath her red dress and cupped against her womanhood. She couldn’t see what he did. All she could do was feel it. She arched, acutely aware of his fingers sliding over her sex. She was shocked with how wet she was, suddenly and completely wet.
“Kellan,” she gasped.
“Not quite ready,” he whispered in the dark. “Let’s fix that.”
He slid one finger into her, and she groaned. She was enthralled with his touch. That single digit worked in and out, caressing her walls until he found that perfect spot, the perfect rhythm, and then he played it relentlessly. When she was soft and pliant with her need he slid a second digit into her. The hungry stretch of her body welcomed the pleasure.
“There’s my sweet college lady,” he murmured against her thigh. His breath was cooler than the heat of her skin. “Give in.”
“To what?”
“Pleasure.”
His hand shifted before he kissed her His tongue slithered over her, quick and light, like the kiss of a snake. It darted over her again and again. His hand moved in countermotion to his tongue. Shocks of pleasure pulsed through her with every movement.
“Oh god,” she moaned. “Oh god, don’t stop.”
A fire began inside her body, stoked by the way he teased her. She began to move her hips, arching against the need he fed. She was a furnace, and he stoked her. He seemed to know just how she needed to be touched, tended, and pleasured.
“Is this what you need?” His breath tickled along her body.
“More,” she groaned. “God give me more.”
She felt his breath on her thigh when he chuckled. “Impatient little thing, aren’t you?”
She wrapped her legs suddenly around his middle. With a shove of her body she had him against the bed with her riding his chest.
“Damn, woman!” He laughed. “Those are some slick moves.”
“Oh, sweetie, you have absolutely no idea.”
She bent over him so her breasts, heavy and soft, swept along his face as she moved down his body. The pert peaks of her nipples drew their way down his naked form until she mounted his lap with pride. Her nightgown, still in place, made a shimmering fan over his hips, blocking either of them from seeing when she rocked her body against his in a parody of lovemaking.
He was so hard against her. She could feel him like steel encased in satin, pushing against her soaked lips. She moved over him again, her body a wave of sensuality.
“Mmm, Emma.” He reached to her hips, gripping the rounded flesh against his callused palms. “You teasing me?”
“Only for a little while,” she promised. “Just until you feel like you are going to break.”
She rocked over him, reveling in the power of keeping him pinned against the bed with her own body. Kellan Mathers was hers, if only for this moment. Would he want her again after this? Would this be their only night together? She hoped not. She pushed that thought away. It did not matter if this were only for a moment. It mattered that it was happening now, that this could never be taken away.
“I’ve wanted you for so long, Kellan.” She ran a single hand down his tattooed chest. “So goddamned long. I wanted to draw this out, take my time, but I don’t think I can.”
“Emma,” he said. His eyes glittered up at her in the dark like ghosts on a gray lake. “Emma, we got all night. Do what you want, baby. Do what you need.”
It was just what she wanted to hear. For all her planning of seduction she hadn’t lied. She wanted to feel alive. Her body ached with a need to be caressed, wanted, and given release. It was a heavy feeling, and she wanted to feed it.
She steadied her body by splaying her fingers across his chest. If she concentrated, she could see his eyes, those smoky hazel eyes that had haunted her teenage years. She could feel the smoothness of his skin beneath his palms. Emma pushed back, feeling the blunt tip of him pushing against her slick opening.
“Oh yes,” she purred.
She rolled her hips, stirring her body on top of his. The hot weight of well used fingers sliding over her hips to cup her breasts made her tremble. Awareness fed into every part of her body. She felt the cotton blanket beneath her knees, the sleek caress of his skin against her calves. His breathing pushing her hands up and down on his chest. Everything fed the fire that he had started. Heat burned along her skin.
It had never been like this for her before. Part of her wanted to understand it. Was it Kellan? Was it all those years of pent up frustration? Was it everything that was going on? Probably a mix of all three.
“Kellan…”
“Go on,” he coaxed. “Go on, take me, Emma.”
Her knees clamped against his naked hips. A thin layer of sensual sweat spilled between them. She shoved herself backwards, piercing her body with his. One moment she was empty, the next she was full of him. The weight of her body pushed him to the very depths of her.
The world fell away. The near dark of the room made the sensation all the more intimate. She could barely see him, but she could feel him. She felt the spring of hair on his legs against her ankles, and she heard the hitch of his breath become a hungry moan as she took him inside of her.
“Hot,” he groaned, “so damn hot.”
She moved, she shifted her body up and down on top of his, plunging him into her over and over again. But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. Her body simply would not cooperate with the depth of her desire.
“More,” she pleaded. She didn’t know what would bring her. She hoped he did. “I need more.”
“Grab the back of the bed,” he coaxed.
“Hmm?” It made no sense to her. “The bed?”
He didn’t repeat it. He gripped her hands and put them on the back of the couch. She dug her fingers into the soft cushion. The fabric bunched against her palms. He grabbed her hips hard enough to keep her still. His fingers laced over the swell of her buttocks. For a moment she didn’t understand what he was doing, and then he levered into her. The tip of his shaft breached the deepest parts of her. Dimly she knew it should hurt, but it didn’t. It was pleasure with the fine edge of pain.
She must have made some sound because he went completely still beneath her.
“Emma?”
“Don’t stop,” she hissed at him.
He took her at her word and pounded into her from below.
She felt every stroke of his thrusting body as he surged up and up. His shaft pushed deep, and deeper. She held on for dear life, bending her body to contain his rigid shaft.
Then, quite suddenly, the pain of it disappeared. It was as if her entire body accepted the sensual assault. His thrusts became heavy and erratic. It was glorious.
“Oh god!”
“There we go,” he grunted. “Take it, Emma. Take it.”
The fire whelmed inside of her. Her skin felt too tight.
“Kellan, oh god, Kellan!”
The fire burst with such heat that for a moment it blinded her. Her hips moved of their own accord, drawing every shock wave of pleasure through her. She was flying, and then it went higher. One moment she was inside of her body, the next she was falling into an inferno of ecstasy.
