by Susan Stoker
Before Blake could respond to her sexy-as-fuck statement, she leaned over and ran her tongue up a prominent vein on the outside of his arm. He jerked in reaction. Luckily he’d just pulled up in front of her apartment; otherwise he probably would’ve wrecked her car. He felt her hot, wet tongue as if she’d licked his cock rather than his arm.
He pulled his arm out of her grasp and slammed the car into park. Without a word, he exited the vehicle and walked around to the other side and opened her door.
Alexis hadn’t moved. She was still facing the driver’s side and had her seat belt around her. Her head was resting on the seat, and she looked like a twisted pretzel as she sat there, trying to keep him in her eyesight merely by moving her head but not changing position in the seat. Blake leaned across her and clicked her seat belt open, then easily turned her and took hold of her hand, helping her to stand.
She sighed and looked down at where he was holding her up for a moment, then met his eyes. “See? It’s so damn sexy.”
Blake couldn’t respond; he was on the edge. Wanting her more than anything, but knowing there was no way he’d ever take advantage of her when she was so drunk. But damn, Alexis pushed all his buttons.
“Come on, Lex. Let’s get you upstairs.”
“Are you coming too?”
“Yeah.” But not for what she was probably hoping if her puckered nipples and dilated eyes were any indication.
“Good,” Alexis told him, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his chest trustingly.
Blake gave her car keys to the valet and ushered her to the door. He was carrying her more than she was walking, but at least they were moving.
The doorman spoke quietly in his Indonesian accent as Blake approached. “Is Miss Grant all right?”
“She’s good, Osman. Just had a bit too much to drink at lunch,” Blake reassured him.
“That’s not like her.”
“It’s not,” Blake agreed. “But I’ve got her. She’s safe.” He met the smaller man’s eyes. Whatever Osman saw seemed to reassure him as he nodded and held open the door.
Blake and Alexis were quiet in the elevator as they made their way up to her apartment. He held on to her as he helped her weave her way down the hall to her door. Within seconds they were inside, and Blake led her straight to her bedroom.
“Can you get changed on your own, or do you need my help?”
Alexis looked up at him with huge eyes. “Change?” She went to look at the watch on her wrist but gave up trying to read it, looking up at him instead. “But it’s early . . . isn’t it? It’s still light outside.”
“Trust me, Lex. In a few hours you’re gonna feel like you’re gonna die. You’ll fare better if you put on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt.”
She looked confused but nodded anyway. “Okay.”
“So? You need me to help you? Can you get the wire off by yourself?”
“I can do it.”
Blake wasn’t sure she could but gave her the benefit of the doubt. “Okay, sweetheart. I’m going to get you some water and maybe make you some toast. You think you could eat that?”
“I’m not hungry,” she told him, looking befuddled.
“I know, but it might help . . . later.”
She shrugged. “Okay, Blake. Whatever you think.”
Blake couldn’t help himself; he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and took her into his arms. “Whatever happens later, Lex, don’t be embarrassed, okay?”
She looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed, frowning. “Is it gonna be embarrassing?”
Ignoring her question, he said instead, “I’m so fucking proud of you, Lex. Just remember that.”
“’Kay. I’m proud of you too.”
He smiled at that. “Change,” he ordered, stepping back, keeping a hand out to make sure she was steady on her feet before taking another step toward her bedroom door. “Put the necklace and the mic on the dresser. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded then but didn’t take her eyes off him as he walked backward to her doorway, then disappeared into the hallway.
Fuck. He’d liked Lex before, but a drunk, turned-on Lex, saying whatever popped into her brain, was cute as all get-out and almost impossible to resist. But he would. He’d never do anything to her without her full and sober consent. He didn’t even want to pump her for information about how she felt about him, not that he’d needed to in the first place. She was more than eager to tell him. Prying for information while she was drunk felt wrong somehow. He needed to distract her; maybe they could watch a movie or something until she passed out or fell asleep.
Blake had no doubt that she’d be throwing up later. He didn’t think she could drink as much as she did and not throw up. Hell, most men he knew wouldn’t be able to. He’d stay until she was over the worst of it, then get back to Castle Rock with the audio and video tapes. He’d discuss with Logan and Nathan their next steps. He’d do all he could to keep Alexis out of it, but he was afraid that wouldn’t be possible anymore. She was neck-deep in the middle of the op, and now that it’d started, they needed to see it play out.
He’d told her she was done out of sheer frustration and because he was scared for her. Hopefully, she’d only need to meet with the gang one more time to get information about upcoming jobs and how they were contacted to do them. That should be enough ammunition for the task force to start making arrests. If luck was on their side, the gang members wouldn’t have any idea that it was Alexis who had been their downfall.
When Blake came back to her room after getting her some water and food, she was lying on her bed, wearing a pair of black sleep shorts and a tank top. She sat up, and he took a deep breath at the vision in front of him. The tank was tight, outlining her curves clearly. He could see her nipples straining against the front of the material and her slight love handles. It was sexy as hell on her. He wanted nothing more than to strip the tank up and off her so he could see, and touch, her exquisite body.
She moved to sit cross-legged on the mattress, and Blake almost swallowed his tongue. She was covered . . . barely. The shorts pulled up her thighs with her movement and, if he was a different kind of man, gave easy access to her sex. All it would take was pushing the scrap of fabric to one side, and he’d see all of her. His mouth almost watered at the thought of her pink pussy. Blake knew she had absolutely no idea how sexy she was or how much willpower it was taking for him to keep his hands to himself.
He put the glass of water, the pills he’d found in a cabinet in her guest bathroom, and the two pieces of toast on her bedside table. “You feel okay?” Blake asked softly, not able to completely keep from touching her. He put one large hand on her knee, running his thumb over her smooth skin, and the other he used to brush a light-brown lock of hair away from her face.
“Dizzy,” Alexis responded, her eyes closed, leaning into his hand. “But okay.”
“Good. Here, drink as much of this as you can, and take the pills too.” He leaned over, snagged the glass of water, and held it out to her.
Opening her eyes and gazing at him trustingly, she took the glass from his hand, the warmth of her fingers brushing against his, making his cock jump in his pants. She drank half the water before stopping to breathe. She threw the pills into her mouth without even asking what they were, trusting him enough to do whatever he asked, and washed them down with another long swallow.
Blake handed her a piece of toast, and she nibbled on it without saying a word, her eyes having shifted from his face to his forearm as she ate. After she’d eaten the first piece, he tried to get her to eat the second, but she shook her head, then washed down what she’d eaten with the rest of the water from the glass.
She lay down then, curling on her side, bringing her eyes back up to his.
“Tired?” Blake asked.
“A little,” she said, softly. “Will you stay in here with me?”
She sounded a little better, although he knew she was still very drunk. “Until
you fall asleep.”
“Will you be here when I wake up?” she asked.
“Yes. We need to talk about what happened.”
She wrinkled her nose, and Blake thought she looked exactly like a little kid who was just told there was no Santa Claus. “I drank too much—that’s what happened,” she declared.
“No, Lex. They made you drink too much. There’s a difference.”
“They didn’t hold a gun to my head, Blake. They didn’t make me. I could’ve said no.”
“Would you have gotten shitfaced at eleven in the morning if you weren’t there undercover trying to get information about the gang?” Blake asked bluntly.
She scrunched up her face and shook her head. “No, but—”
“Do you think they would’ve opened up if you hadn’t done those shots with them?”
“Probably not, but I could’ve—”
“They made you drink too much, Lex. Period.”
“Whatever,” Alexis said in a huff, sounding very put out.
Blake couldn’t help it. She sounded exactly like she did when she was completely sober and irritated with him. He chuckled.
Her face softened, and she reached out a hand and ran it up his arm, which was bracing himself up next to her. “I like it when you smile at me. You don’t do it enough.”
She was right; he didn’t. Ever since he was a teenager, he didn’t like putting his emotions on display or letting go of the control he’d always kept around his feelings. But it was getting harder to maintain that control around her, especially since they’d kissed. “I’ll try to be better at that.”
Alexis licked her lips and looked up at him with wide eyes. “Good. Are you going to make love to me?”
“What?” Blake asked, sitting up in shock.
“You said I’d be embarrassed later. You said you wanted me, and I figured you realized I hadn’t done it before, so I’d be embarrassed later when you got naked with me. No one’s seen me naked before, so . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Fuck me,” Blake breathed. How in the world had the beautiful woman lying on the bed in front of him never had sex before? He’d known she was inexperienced—it wasn’t something she’d hidden very well—but he had no idea that she’d never had sex before. “You’re a virgin?”
She rolled her eyes, and he loved seeing some of her innate sass come out, even when she was drunk as a skunk. How in the hell she’d hidden this part of her personality from Kelly, Damian, and that asshole Chuck, he had no idea. “I hate that word. It’s stupid. Virgin. It makes me feel like we’re back in the stone ages. I haven’t had a real dick inside me, no, but I’ve seen videos. I know how it works.”
With every word out of her mouth, Blake came closer and closer to saying fuck it, and taking her as he longed to. “A real dick?” It wasn’t what he wanted to ask, but the question popped out anyway.
“Yeah. I have vibrators . . . dildos . . .” She gestured to the night table, and it was all Blake could do not to pounce on the handle and jerk it open to see exactly what kind of toys Alexis Grant used on herself when she was alone and horny. “I don’t think I have a . . . what’s it called? That thing in romance books guys always have to push through and it makes the girl bleed?”
“Uh . . . a hymen?” Blake asked, completely flummoxed by the conversation.
“Yeah!” she exclaimed happily, propping herself up on an elbow, making her tits move and bounce under the tank top she was wearing. “That’s it! I don’t think I have one anymore because it doesn’t hurt when I push my dildo all the way inside me . . . but I hope it doesn’t feel like a real dick, because the one I have is really hard and is kinda painful. The first time I put it in, it hurt really bad. I didn’t use it again that way for another year . . . so I don’t do it all that much. I like my vibrator on my clit more. That feels good. It sucks guys don’t have a clit. You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Okay, I think we’re done with this conversation,” Blake said in strangled voice, shifting his hips away from Alexis, not wanting her to see what her not-so-innocent words were doing to his body.
“Good.” And with that she sat up and brought both hands to the bottom of her tank top and went to pull it up and over her head. “Don’t laugh at me, okay? I’m kinda fat, and it would suck if you laughed.”
Blake quickly caught her hands, but not before he got a glimpse of her soft belly and the underside of her tits. Jesus, he wanted his hands on her. Bad. “You are most certainly not fat. Why don’t we just lay here together for a while first?” he suggested.
“Oh. You need more foreplay. ’Kay. Will you lay behind me with your arm between my boobs? I’ve dreamed about that too.”
Blake took another deep, fortifying breath. She had no idea how much strength it was taking for him not to come in his pants. Every word out of her mouth went straight to his dick. He almost felt dizzy with the blood loss from his brain.
“Sure, Lex. Turn over.”
She immediately lay on her back and shifted over to her side. Blake glanced down at her long legs and saw for the first time a bruise forming on her upper thigh. He’d been so distracted by her shorty shorts earlier he’d missed it. He stopped her from rolling with a hand at her waist. He brushed his fingertips lightly over the mark. “What’s this from?”
Alexis lifted her head from her pillow and braced herself on her elbows, looking down at herself. She scrunched up her nose in concentration, then said, “I don’t . . . oh wait . . . maybe from Chuck?”
“Chuck?” Blake bit out.
“Yeah. He was really handsy. That must’ve happened when I went to leave. I told you he touched me. He grabbed me and it hurt.”
“Motherfucker,” Blake swore, then hurried to soothe Alexis when she flinched. “I’m not mad at you, sweetheart. I’m pissed at him.”
“Oh, okay.” She didn’t quite look convinced.
“Turn over,” he ordered, trying to make his voice sound normal, wanting to get the sight of her bruised flesh out of his vision as quickly as possible.
She did as he asked, and Blake settled himself onto the bed behind her. He tried to keep some distance between then, but she wasn’t having any of that. Alexis squirmed her hips back against him, snuggling into him until his cock was pressed up against her ass. She sighed and pulled his arm around her chest.
“Put it between my boobs” she ordered, wiggling her chest and shoulders until his arm was where she wanted it. “Yeah, like that.”
Blake closed his eyes against the exquisite feeling of the heat of her breasts cradling his arm. His hand ended up resting against the side of her neck, and Alexis signed in contentment.
She grabbed hold of his forearm with both of her hands and ducked her chin into his wrist. “This,” she murmured. “This is what I’ve dreamed about.”
Blake had to admit it was amazing. He hadn’t felt this close to a woman in . . . ever. No one had grabbed hold of him and held on as if he was the only thing keeping her from shattering into a million pieces the way Lex was right this moment. She was small enough that he completely surrounded her small body, engulfing it with his own. The way she cradled his arm and hand was both erotic and sweet. It was as if she was using his arm as a security blanket.
“We’ll get naked later,” she told him softly.
“Yeah, Lex. We will,” Blake confirmed, although his definition of later and hers probably differed. He knew she would be in no condition to even think about making love in a few hours.
He lay in the bed behind Alexis until she fell asleep, or passed out; he wasn’t sure which. He counted her breaths, reassuring himself that she was breathing normally. He could feel her heartbeat under his arm, and it made him realize for the first time in his life he wanted to do nothing but lie in bed, in the middle of the day, and cuddle with a woman, just as he was doing right this moment. And not any woman. Alexis.
As she lay snoring lightly in his arms, Blake vowed that she’d be his. He’d be the only man to s
ee her naked. The only man to get inside her. The only man she’d dream about. She was his.
Chapter Eight
Alexis woke up with an urgent need to barf. She tried to throw off her blankets to get to the bathroom but couldn’t. Panicking, she struggled against whatever was holding her down, and within seconds she was free. Feeling the vomit at the back of her throat, she quickly stumbled to the bathroom and barely got the lid of the toilet up before she was puking.
And puking.
And puking.
And puking.
Her stomach heaved trying to rid itself of the poison she’d consumed however many hours ago.
She moaned as she clutched the side of the toilet as her bile swelled up from her stomach again; she was completely miserable and wished she would die. Anything would be better than experiencing the hell she was in at this moment. When she couldn’t bring up any more liquid, her body continued to rebel against her, leaving her dry heaving and gagging over the toilet bowl.
Just when she didn’t think things could get worse, Alexis felt a pair of hands gently pull back the hair that was falling in her face as she leaned over the commode. She couldn’t talk but tried to push whoever it was away. It was as if she was pushing against a brick wall.
“Shhhh, Lex. I got you.”
Oh Lord. She was dead. This had to be hell.
If she wasn’t mistaken, Blake Anderson was squatting behind her, holding back her hair as she puked her guts out.
Slamming her eyes shut, Alexis tried to control the overwhelming urge to purge every single molecule in her stomach. She vowed never to drink again. Never. Not even to find out more information about the Inca Boyz. Not even if Blake begged her to do it. Although she knew without a doubt he’d never do that to her.
“Here, sweetheart. Take this. A towel.”
Without opening her eyes, Alexis felt the soft cotton material pressed against her hand. She gripped it as if it was a lifeline and brought it to her face. She wiped the vomit from her nose as best she could, then her mouth. Finally, she sat back on her heels, feeling Blake ease back from behind her, giving her some room.
