“I love the way you look with your hair down.”
“Do you? Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It softens your face a little, makes your eyes pop.”
I smiled. I’d never thought about my eyes popping before. But I was pleased that he liked it.
“I’ll start wearing it down more often.”
“No,” he said after a moment, pushing a few strands back from my forehead. “I like that I’m the only one who sees you like this.”
“You’re the first to see any of this,” I said, gesturing unabashedly at the rest of my body.
“True. But there’s just something about the idea that no one else has ever seen you with your hair like this that…” He laughed at himself. “It’s stupid, I know.”
“No, it’s not. It’s nice.”
He leaned close and kissed the tip of my nose. “You understand me in a way no one ever has before, I think.”
“I hope so.”
He pushed me back against the cool wall of the shower stall and kissed me. This time it wasn’t the gentle kisses I’d grown used to, but kisses with genuine heat behind them. He wanted me. I could feel it in the way his lips pressed against mine, the way his tongue explored the depths of me. I could feel it in his hands as they moved slowly over my breasts, down over my belly, as they tugged my hips closer to him. He was so tall he had to bend significantly to reach me, but he didn’t seem to mind. But then one of his hands wandered over a bruise that was particularly tender. I jumped, hissing a little as I pulled away from him.
“Sorry,” he said softly.
“No, it’s not your fault.”
He turned me around, his hands moving around the bruises that dotted my back from my kidneys down to my ass. I could feel his anger, not in his touch, but in the quickening of his breath as he touched them. But then he surprised me by dropping to his knees, his lips caressing those marks of anger, starting with the higher ones and working his way slowly down to the lower ones.
He must have been drowning, the warm water still falling over us as we stood there. But he didn’t complain. He simply continued to kiss, his lips finding places that Juan had never touched, moving down over the curve of my ass to the top of my thighs. And then his fingers carefully urging my thighs apart as they again searched for those tender places he’d been enjoying earlier.
I pushed my hips back, granting him better access to the places he wanted most to touch. When his tongue brushed my swollen cunt lips, I had to bite my lip to keep the deep groan that jumped to the tip of my tongue from rushing out.
How could one man offer so much pain and another offer so much pleasure?
He turned me around after a moment and encouraged me to open to him. I leaned back and closed my eyes as he used his fingers to open me up, to expose me to the flow of the warm water. And then he leaned into me, nibbling at my swollen lips, my inner thigh. And then his tongue was dancing around my clit, doing things that made me want to explode with screams and moans and sighs and every other sound a lover might make.
Damn, he knew what he was doing!
He went back and forth from my inner thighs to my clit to my lips to my clit. I finally reached down and buried my fingers in his hair, encouraging him to stay in one place. He did, happy to dance his tongue around my clit until I couldn’t stand anymore. I fell, landing in a heap on the floor of the small stall, my legs tangled in his body. He laughed, drawing me close to him. We kissed for a moment and I could taste myself on him. I could taste the warmth of my own body on the tip of his tongue. It was a sensation I’d never experienced before.
After a moment, he pulled us both back to our feet and grabbed the complimentary soap the motel had provided, giving us both a quick, cursory once over. Then he turned off the water and climbed out, drying himself quickly before reaching back in for me. He was so thoughtful, so considerate of my needs. It occurred to me to argue when he carried me to the bed and rubbed the thin complimentary lotion into my skin, but I was so enjoying his pampering that I just couldn’t bring myself to stop it.
“We should get some sleep,” he said, turning out the lights before he climbed into bed beside me. I rolled into him, sliding my hands over his chest, his hip. He kissed the top of my head as he lay back, careful to keep his hands to himself. I found myself wondering if I’d done something to make him think I wasn’t interested in continuing what we’d been doing in the shower. Or maybe he was tired?
But then my hand wandered down over his cock and it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t that tired.
“Tell me how to please you,” I said.
“Brooks, you don’t have to—”
“I know. I want to.”
He was quiet for a moment, his hand wrapping itself around mine to keep me from stroking his shaft. Then he, almost reluctantly, explained what I should do.
I pushed the covers away and kissed my way down his chest, his belly, running my tongue briefly around his navel. He groaned, his hands moving from mine, one coming to rest on the top of my head. I’d read about this. Even had a girlfriend in high school who tried to show me how it was done with a carrot. But this…I wasn’t sure I could do this without inflicting some sort of injury. But I wanted to try.
I flicked my tongue over the tip of his cock and he cried out, his fingers digging into my scalp.
“It’s sensitive there, babe,” he grunted.
“Sorry.”
“Just…be gentle.”
I glanced at him, but his eyes weren’t on me. They were on the ceiling. I wasn’t sure why, but when I touched him again and he jumped, I had an idea. I was careful, sliding my tongue slowly around the bottom edge of his cock as I slipped my lips over the tip. It was softer than I expected, almost silky. And warm. And there was this pulse that was pounding against my lips.
I took him slowly, not sure how much to take or how deep to allow it to go. But his hand on the back of my head was a good guide, urging me on. After a minute, I guess I had it right because he let go of me and ran his hand slowly down my back, over my ass. I loved the feel of his hands on my body, but I was more interested in the taste of him in my mouth now. I wasn’t sure I could ever do something quite like this, but the knowledge that I was giving him something even half as amazing as what he’d done for me in the bathroom was more than enough incentive.
It was almost clinical at first, but then…his fingers were touching me again and he was making these soft sounds that were like music to a deaf person. I felt like a kid who’d just been given the keys to a Camaro. I took as much of him as I could handle, and he moaned, and that made me want to take more. And when I touched him, when I ran my fingers over his balls, teasing them in their warm sack, he made a sound that made my own juices run faster than if he’d had my clit caught between his fingers.
He pulled me closer to him, lifting my hips so that he could reach me. Just as he’d done in the shower, he nibbled at my outer lips and ran his tongue along my inner lips. I moaned and the sound vibrated against his cock. He made a matching sound and I could feel it deep in my belly.
He only lasted a moment or two more, which was about as long as I was going to make it. He suddenly sat up, pulling away from me while lifting me, tossing me against the mattress. He was on top of me, sliding inside of me, before I even knew what was going on. His touch, deep inside of me, was heavenly after all the play. I wrapped my legs around his waist, unconcerned with the bruises on my back, with the danger we were potentially in, with anything other than the feel of his cock deep inside of me and his lips sliding over mine. I buried my fingers in his hair, tugging him ever closer to me. And he, in turn, buried his fingers in my ass, pulling me into his rhythm, encouraging me to move with him. And I did, not because of his encouragement, but because it felt like heaven.
When he came inside of me, I was already riding the wave of my own pleasure, but there was something about feeling the tension in his body, of hearing his sounds of pleasure bursting from between h
is lips. I held him as close as I could, rolling with him, another wave building even as he was falling from his own cliff. And when it was done, he rolled to the side, but held me close, our limbs intertwined as if we were always meant to be one, not two.
I’d thought earlier that it would be difficult to sleep tonight after all that had happened. But with his arms around me, our legs still wrapped together, my head resting on his chest, I fell asleep quickly and slept like a child without a care in the world.
It was the best sleep I’d gotten in a very long time.
Chapter 15
Elliott
She was awake when I woke the next morning. It was a little later than I’d intended for it to be, the sun already high in the sky when I finally opened my eyes. She was watching me, her fingers playing in the hair falling over my forehead.
“Morning,” she said softly.
“Hi.”
I leaned over and kissed her cheek lightly, wondering how long she’d been awake and if the bruises on her back had caused her trouble. I climbed out of the bed and padded to the bathroom, shivering in the air-conditioned air. When I returned, she was still curled against the pillowed, the thin blankets pulled up to her shoulders.
“You okay?” I asked, falling back onto the bed beside her. “Do you want me to go find some aspirin?”
“No. I’m okay.”
“Sure?” I rolled onto my side to see her face. “It might help.”
“It’s been worse.”
That wasn’t something I particularly wanted to know.
I rolled onto my back and threw my arm over my eyes, realizing that I hadn’t told her Kipling’s deal last night. I should have.
“There’s something we should discuss,” I said slowly.
“Can it wait? I’d rather enjoy this little bit of fantasy for a while longer.”
I peeked at her. “Fantasy?”
“Yeah. You, me. This room. Silence. No reality intruding.”
“Hmmm…” I rolled toward her again, slipping a finger under the top edge of the blankets, tugging them down a little. “I think I could handle that.”
She laughed, tugging the blankets back into place. “I wasn’t suggesting more of that. I was just…we haven’t had much of a chance to talk since all this started. I thought we could just get to know each other a little better.”
“Uh oh.”
“What?”
“That’s usually what a girl says when she wants more than just a few dinner dates. That’s usually when I suddenly stop answering phone calls and texts.”
“That’s not nice!” She smacked my arm. “The least you could do is break a girl’s heart face to face.”
“Maybe.”
“There’s no maybe about it.” She turned toward me, her fingers playing over the fine hair on my chest. “You don’t really do that, do you?”
Her hair was falling around her face, thick and heavy, framing her gorgeous features like a halo, except her halo was dark rather than golden. But I liked it. I liked the way it made her skin look like the cream that rises to the top of a can of fresh milk. And the way it made her pale eyes look even paler.
“I’m not a nice guy, Brooks. I don’t know why you’re here with me.”
“Because you saved me.”
“I was doing a job.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
I tucked her hair behind her ear. “You want to know about me? I was dating a kindergartner teacher, nicest woman in the world, but then she asked a question like the one you just asked and I told her I was going to the Middle East for six months and I might call her when I got back. Then I ran into her at the grocery store not two days later.”
“That’s…that’s just mean.”
“I thought it was the easiest way to end things. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”
“Didn’t you like her?”
“Yeah, I liked her. But I made a sort of vow that I wouldn’t get involved with anyone. Ever.”
“Ever? Why would you make a vow like that?”
There was this look of utter disbelief on her face that was so deliciously naïve that I reached up and kissed her lightly. I’d never been quite that naïve, but a part of me wished I had been.
“The world is not always a kind place. And I’m not looking to get my heart broken again.”
“Then why are you here with me?”
That was a question I didn’t particularly want to ask myself, let alone answer. I turned my head to the wall, thinking that might be answer enough for her, but I forgot just how innocent she really was.
“Elliott? What did your ex-wife do to you?”
And there was the real question, wasn’t it?
“It wasn’t just my wife. It was my mother, too.”
“Your mother?”
I reached up and scratched my nose, my thoughts going down a path they hadn’t traveled in a very long time. All the times my mother told me to lie to my father when he came home from his long travels, telling him that there hadn’t been in visitors to our little apartment, that she hadn’t driven me across town and made me sit out in the car while she visited with her “friend.” That I hadn’t seen her kiss a man that she told me was her long lost cousin from Alabama.
“My father was a long-haul trucker. And my mother…she was not the kind of woman who liked being alone. So she sought out company just about anywhere she could find it, even with my male teachers, the next-door neighbor, the milk man. I grew up watching her flirt with every man who crossed her path, always looking to get what she couldn’t have. That sort of thing…it does things to a man’s head.”
“I imagine.”
“I told myself that I would find one woman and I’d be content with her company for the rest of my life. No sleeping around, no flitting from woman to woman. Just one woman. And when I found her…she was more like my mother than I cared to admit.”
Brooks sat up, the blankets falling from her shoulders and pooling in her lap. She had no idea what the sight of her beautiful, full, naked breasts did to me. I rolled toward her and tugged the blanket up, not sure I could handle looking at her beautiful body while we had this conversation.
“How did you find out? That your wife was cheating?”
I snorted. “She didn’t try to hide it. I was active military at the time, but every chance I had to come home, I did, and I’d find little bits of evidence everywhere. In the house, the car. And when I confronted her, she acted like it was my fault for leaving her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Brooks.” I took her hand and slipped my fingers through hers. “I made bad choices.”
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t find happiness somewhere else.”
I shook my head. “People cheat. People lie. And I can’t trust people who do those things.”
“But you say that like you think you can’t trust anyone.”
I didn’t answer, but I knew she could see through my silence. She stared at me, her eyes so big and round that they reminded me of an anime drawing. I almost couldn’t stand to look at them. I studied the back of her hand instead, running my fingers over her silky skin, over the bruises on her wrist that were just beginning to show the faint outline of green that came with age.
“That’s really sad, Elliott. That’s a sad way to live your life.”
“It’s reality. The world is not a happy place.”
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t find a little happiness in it.”
“Did you?” I looked up at her again. “You married Alvarez because you thought he was the answer to your prayers. But did he make you happy? Did getting what you wanted make you happy?”
She shook her head almost methodically. “No. But I thought his money could make me happy. It had little to do with him.”
“But it didn’t. And now you’re running from an abusive gangster who would just as soon shoot you as anything else.”
“I didn’
t marry for love.”
“I did. But it didn’t turn out much better for me.”
Tears filled her eyes. She rolled her head back and looked up at the ceiling, taking a couple of deep breaths. I sat up, ran my hand over her throat before sliding my fingers into her hair and forcing her to look at me.
“You are still so innocent, so naïve. To you, the world is still a good place and that’s wonderful. I wish I could see things the way you do. But I don’t.”
“It’s a choice.”
“It’s not. It’s reality.”
She focused on me for a long second, anger suddenly jumping in her eyes. “Then why are you here with me? Why did you bother to take me away from there if you had no intention of being with me?”
“Brooks—”
She pulled away, climbing out of the bed in such a rush she nearly tripped over the blankets that tangled around her ankles. But she freed herself and marched across the room to the bathroom, butt naked and looking so beautiful that it nearly took my breath away.
“Brooks, come back here.”
She slammed the door, and I could hear her moving around inside, making as much noise as she could as she went about whatever it was she was doing. I waited, not sure what else to do. She’d have to come out eventually.
Didn’t she?
When she didn’t come out after a good ten minutes, I got up and knocked on the door.
“Brooks! Open the door!”
When she didn’t answer right away, I pounded on the thin door.
“Brooks, please!”
She opened the door, brushing past me, fully dressed with her hair once again twisted into that ever-present braid. She moved around the room like a whirlwind, straightening the blankets on the bed and picking up the comforter that got thrown to the floor during the night.
“Brooks, why are you doing this?”
“Why am I doing this?” She stared at me as if I’d grown a second head or something. “I left that house with you. I walked away from a situation that, while not ideal, was beneficial. And now…I don’t know what I’m going to do. He’ll blackball me at all the restaurants in town. And the deal we made is as good as gone.”
CONTROLLING BROOKS (Gray Wolf Security Book 4) Page 11
