Broken Open

by Lauren Dane

  He wasn’t just there. He was utterly present and focused on her.

  Thrilling. Flattering. Dizzying.

  He bent and she tipped her face up to meet his kiss. He was a master class–level kisser as he gave a long, slow perusal of her mouth. Exploring her, tasting each part as if she were delicious. A lick against her top lip. A lave with the flat of his tongue over the curve of her bottom lip. He tangled his tongue with hers. A quick flick here, a nibble there.

  Ezra Hurley pretty much kissed all the reasons not to fuck him that night right out of her head. Which was fine and all, since really, her reasons had been thin and dumb and he was so warm and hard and pressing that part of him she’d just asked about to her belly.

  Yeah, big.

  When he broke the kiss she licked her lips to get one last bit of his taste. “You haven’t seen my bedroom yet.”

  His smile made her clit throb. Like actual pulsing and she knew she had to take note and relay that info to Natalie because that was the sort of thing you totally told your best friend.

  “I haven’t. You’re a terrible hostess.”

  For a man with such darkness in his eyes, he also had a wonderful sense of humor.

  “I didn’t even offer you any juice or a snack.”

  “I’d rather see you naked.”

  “Well. I approve of your priorities.”

  She took his hand and led him into her bedroom. This was her intimate space. Natalie often had people in her room, but Tuesday was more hesitant. Sure their close friends had been up here, but she’d never actually had a man in her bedroom since she’d lived in that house. Hell, she hadn’t shared her bed with anyone in four years. Not since she’d been married. She supposed she still was married. Wasn’t she? Death wasn’t divorce, right?

  That hit her so hard she actually had to sit down on the edge of her bed.

  Concern on his face, Ezra knelt to face her. “Tuesday? Are you all right?”

  She considered not answering. It was embarrassing and stupid and if she did tell him they totally weren’t going to have sex that night.

  Then again, he was precisely the kind of man who wouldn’t just fuck her if she said, “Never mind, I’m fine, bone me,” either.

  Tuesday swallowed her hesitance and said, “Something just occurred to me. Hit me a little harder than I’d expected it to.”

  “Your husband?”

  What a weird conversation to be having and yet it was okay to share with him. So she did. “I was just thinking I hadn’t had a man up here. Ever.”

  He sat next to her on the bed, leaning his weight back on an arm as he looked her over. “He died when?”

  “Four and a half years ago.”

  “It’s been years since you’ve been with anyone?” His voice got a little thready and it made her smile, even through the memories.

  “Good lord, no.”

  She loved sex. Loved it. When Eric had been alive they’d had it often until he’d started to get sick. Looking back it should have been a clue but she hadn’t seen it. Maybe if she had sooner it could have made a difference.

  That was definitely not a road she’d be going down.

  He’d been waiting for her to keep speaking. Knowing there’d be more. And there was, of course. “I just don’t here.”

  He rumbled in his chest, again, approval and agreement. It was a good, solid sound and she liked it a lot.

  “I do what I need to do but I don’t bring it here.” Said in her head, those words made her feel tough and independent. Out loud they made her sad that she’d lived like that and considered it enough.

  “This is a seriously sexy bedroom.” He shrugged, not getting worked up at what she’d said. “Their loss.”

  He wasn’t going to push about Eric. About anything. She breathed a little easier.

  She swung herself around to straddle his lap. The surprised pleasure on his features thrilled her.

  “That was sort of a boner killer, huh?”

  “The stuff you say. It just shoots from your mouth. It’s awesome.” He writhed a little, stroking his totally not dead boner against her. Where only a thin layer of cotton and his jeans separated them.

  “You might want to know this, about my boner, that is. It takes an awful lot to kill it. And frankly, you’re so delicious I’m not sure it can be done when I’m looking at you, much less when you’re in my lap, those gorgeous breasts just right in front of me, the heat of your pussy against my cock. With all you bring it’d take a nuclear bomb to kill.”

  This was happy in a way she hadn’t felt in so long. It rushed through her as she soaked it in. She hadn’t even realized how starved she’d been for this. Not just sex, but zing. That connection with someone that lifts them into a totally different category in your life.

  Bittersweet pleasure bloomed through her as she leaned down and buried her face in his neck as she’d been craving for hours. She smiled against the skin right where it met his shoulder and took a deep breath.

  His fingers on her sides tightened and she again thought about the size of his hands. Also big there.

  He held her, fingers spread against the fabric of her dress, but he seemed to burn through the material to scald her skin.

  She pulled back so she could look at him and right away she was smiling because Sharon and Michael Hurley really did make four stellar human beings in the looks, sex appeal and charisma department.

  His grin slid from amused into sensual confidence and promise. Like he hit a switch, though she knew it wasn’t put on. She’d seen his stage persona and how he acted with other people. She knew this heat between them was totally real.

  It was more that all this simmered beneath a surface he worked very hard to keep intact. He drew that away sometimes to let her see to the heart of his emotions and that made her sort of...gooey. It flattered her that he’d share so much intimacy. It was erotic. Simple and so powerful.

  She shivered and he reached up to pull her back down to him. Once he was near enough, he stretched up to kiss her chin and then her neck.

  He held her as he licked over her collarbone, which she’d never considered exciting but clearly Ezra had some sort of collarbone secret because it worked. One of her hands fisted in the coverlet where she’d leaned her weight as he pretty much set off fireworks by kissing her freaking collarbone.

  * * *

  SHE LET OUT a moan that echoed through her body straight up his cock, which was already hard to the point of pain.

  He slid a palm up her back to where her dress was tied and paused a moment to be sure she was still with him. That’s when she undulated, grinding herself against his dick. Close enough he felt the heat of her.

  She sat up above him so he moved to sit, as well, holding her in his lap as they perched on the edge of her bed.

  Two or three seconds and he peeled the dress away from the most incredible breasts he’d ever seen. And—not that he’d ever say it out loud in the same state as Tuesday—he’d seen enough breasts to be somewhat of an expert.

  So he couldn’t be blamed for being focused on the tight, dark nipples capping some seriously fine C cups through the sheer peach-colored material of a bra that also fastened around her neck. Clever.

  “That was unexpected. But I like it.” He bent his head to press his lips to the left curve of her cleavage before he popped the back open and got rid of the bra. “I like this even more.”

  He took her breasts in his hands and she sucked in a breath, her hands braced on his shoulders as she arched her back.

  “Can’t lie—I like that, too,” she gasped out as he tugged on her nipples.

  He needed more. More access. More everything.

  He half stood, bringing her with him and spun, dropping her on her back on her bed before settling between her thighs.

  That’s when he finally noticed the dragonfly tattooed on her belly, just beneath and between her breasts. An art nouveau design with an Alphonse Mucha flair in delicate, simple lines.

 
“Beautiful.” He licked over it and up the bottom swell of her left breast. Her fingers slid into his hair, holding him in place.

  He delighted in her responses. The way her skin, nearly bronze in the low light, pebbled up as he licked over it. The sounds she made would never let him misunderstand what she liked and expected. A soft, ragged moan of pleasure, an impatient huff, a pleading sigh. She tugged a little harder than necessary when he did something she didn’t like and arched into him when he hit a good spot.

  There was something so fearless and fierce about her, about the way she liked what she liked and demanded it. It was a sort of full-tilt sensual experience, but it was real and raw and made him hot all over. It fed that gnawing hunger that drove him so hard he was dizzy with it.

  Everything about her pressed against him in the best sort of way. The air smelled of her, of that unique warm, spicy floral scent she wore. Of her sex. Of her skin. He came to attention when he realized he’d be leaving his scent all over her things. Yes, he liked that a lot.

  Her body spread out on her bed excited his senses as he took her in. She was tall. Powerful. He loved all the juxtaposition she came with. Athletic but not so much she didn’t still have the swell at her hips, the curves and feminine abundance that made his mouth water. She might dress up and wear heels, but her hands were those of a woman who used them to work.

  He’d seen the jewelry she made and the work she’d framed. Tuesday was a woman who loved creating beautiful things and he could totally relate. She was bold and strong and vibrant even as she was also cool and elegant and soft.

  Confident in a way most of the women he’d been with in the past couldn’t get near. And yet vulnerable. The whole of her was everything he craved and worried about at the same time.

  She’d taken off her little tortoiseshell glasses and left them on the table so now he could see the smattering of freckles on her cheeks and just how long her lashes really were.

  He’d seriously never seen anything like her hair. It was magnificent, an inky dark mass of gorgeous curls. It looked even better spread out around her head as she lay in bed.

  Her eyes slowly opened at she stared up at him. There was no sense of urgency. This was playing out how it should, which made him a little nervous, but it wasn’t outweighed by the need racing through him to have her.

  He hissed as she slid her hand up inside his shirt, over the skin of his back, her fingertips digging into the muscle, urging.

  She tipped her neck as he kissed down it and then down her body until he backed off the bed enough to stand. “I need that dress off. I want to see all of you.”

  Quickly, she was up and on her knees, her dress whipped off and tossed to a nearby chair, remaining in nothing more than a whisper-thin pair of panties in that same sheer material as the bra.

  He was so fortunate.

  Ezra tipped his chin at her. “All.”

  She shimmied from her underpants and continued to kneel there, facing him, utterly and gloriously naked.

  He took a long look at her. “Beauty, you slay me.”

  He yanked his shirt off and she sighed happily.

  “You should take your shirt off onstage. Or maybe not.” She frowned briefly. “But in front of me you should whenever you like. Or whenever I like. Whichever.”

  His hands moved to the buttons on his jeans and her gaze never left them. All in all, when he finally—carefully—got out of them and his boxers it was really clear how much he enjoyed her gaze on him.

  And that nearly painful erection nearly lost all its vigor when a thought occurred to him. “Please tell me you have condoms.”

  She froze. “Shit. Hang on.” She scrambled from the bed and headed into her bathroom but shortly returned with some little packets he recognized as his brand. “I do. Should I give you one for your wallet?” She winked.

  Laughing, he grabbed her as she walked by and sent them both to the mattress.

  “I wasn’t going out looking to get laid.”

  She reached between them, wrapping her fist around him and giving his cock a few slow thrusts and sending his thoughts into disarray. “Yeah? Seems to me, Ezra, that you and I have been headed right here since the first time I met you.”

  Damn, when she was so bold and demanding it sent a wave of desire through him, hot and fast like a wildfire. He wanted inside her and right that very moment.

  Instead, he forced himself to slow down and enjoy.

  “Yes. That much is true.” But he hadn’t known for sure that she’d be there and maybe he’d been a little nervous and all his attention had been on the show. He’d forgotten until that moment. He wasn’t good at the hey, I might get laid later better take a rubber game anymore. “But I wasn’t going to take anything as a given anyway.”

  He took her mouth again, starting off sweet, playful even. But within a minute or two things had deepened and he was so hard that even if he had got in her right then he’d have come too soon.

  That wasn’t on his to-do list.

  He eased down her body, licking the place where thigh met torso. She made a deep sound, a sort of gasp and moan all at once.

  He loved that she’d left the lights on so he could look his fill. He spread her open and did just that. She didn’t try to close her legs against him or shy away. Instead she watched him look at her, pleased.

  He took a lick and the sound she made in response was a lot like what he did when he tasted something delicious. He understood it because he wanted to make that same sound at the salty sweet of her on his tongue.

  He built her climax slowly, tasting her, getting his fill of her. When she rolled her hips, urging him and he wasn’t ready just yet, he pressed her hips to the mattress and her body responded just as loudly as her moan.

  Oh hell yes. She liked it as much as he did.

  He wasn’t going to rush along when it came to the first orgasm he ever gave her, after all. Ezra wanted her to have his touch burned into her brain, wanted to make her come so hard he pushed every other memory of every other man away.

  Deep down he could be petty and admit it was daunting to think about competing with the memory of a dead man. Ezra wanted Tuesday thinking about him.

  Her body seduced him as he touched and kissed, nibbled and licked. All he felt, tasted and heard was her. Even the breath he gulped in was laced with her scent.

  Something about her drove him to please, to preen and show off, and when he finally knew she was ready, he kept his pace relentless, pushing her hard and fast as he slid two fingers deep.

  With a hoarse cry, she arched, and the hands that’d been on his shoulders shifted, her nails digging in, urging him on. He kept going, gentling little by little until he finally pressed a kiss to her belly and moved back up her body.

  “Now that the edge has been taken off, I have a few more things to show you.”

  Her smile was lazy and pleased. “Can’t wait.”

  He bent, licking across a nipple when a ruckus loud enough to hear easily from Tuesday’s room sounded downstairs.

  Alarmed, Ezra moved to stand quickly and quietly. “You stay here. Call 911 if necessary.”

  “No!” Before he’d even realized it, she was next to him in a robe.

  Downstairs someone yelled Tuesday’s name. At least he could thank his lucky stars he didn’t have to argue with Tuesday about staying out of the way of a freaking prowler.

  “Shit, that’s Nat.”

  Before he could tell her to hold up, Tuesday rushed out. With a curse, he found his pants and got them on. He snatched up a shirt on his way out and got it on right as he entered the kitchen.

  Natalie looked to Tuesday with a smirk but it was a fast thing, soon replaced by worry. Tuesday had ignored it, so Ezra would let her deal with Natalie on this topic. It wasn’t that he expected it not to get out if he and Tuesday finally hooked up. His family was nosy and interfering. But he didn’t even know what it was between him and Tuesday yet, so it wasn’t something he could explain.

&nb
sp; Natalie’s expression made his gut tighten and luckily before he could demand to know what was wrong she started to fill him in. “I tried calling your phone and Paddy tried Ezra. I’m sorry to bug you.”

  Paddy came in from the living room. “Is he here?” He stopped short when he saw Ezra. “Thank God.”

  Seeing his brother so worried beat at him. Ezra stepped in and took control. He touched Paddy’s shoulder. “Patrick, you’re freaking me out. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “It’s Maddie.”

  Maddie was Vaughan’s oldest daughter, one of their two nieces.

  Ezra’s heart pounded. “What about her?”

  “Appendix. Vaughan stopped by Kelly’s place on his way home from the arena, but they had just decided to take her to the emergency room because of her fever. He called Mom from there. Apparently if they’d waited even half an hour more it would have been really bad and burst. They’re operating on her right now.”

  “Jesus.” Ezra simply went into protective big brother mode as he took over from Paddy. “Let me get with Mom to see what the status is.”

  Ezra got on the phone with his parents and within minutes he’d managed to settle everyone down. His parents had recently arrived at the hospital where they met Vaughan and Kelly, Vaughan’s ex-wife and the mother of his children.

  Ezra explained everything to Paddy, Natalie and Tuesday once he’d hung up. “Dad says the hospital won’t let anyone else in where they’re waiting along with Vaughan and Kelly. Kensey is sleeping over at a friend’s house already so at least that one thing is taken care of, by the way.” Kensey was Maddie’s little sister. “Someone will call when Maddie’s out of surgery and they hear from the doctor. He said not to come down there right now.”

  “I feel helpless.” Paddy paced as Natalie put the kettle on for some tea.

  Tuesday spoke quietly from where she’d been pulling mugs down from a cabinet. “One thing you might do is make your parents and Vaughan a reservation at a hotel near the hospital. After you’ve been at the hospital all day you need a place to retreat. To shower and nap and just let go when no one else is watching.”