The Driven Series

by Bromberg, K.

  “Sweet Jesus,” he mutters on a pained draw of air.

  I move one of my legs to prop it up on the next riser and stop as I feel his finger trace the top line of my stockings and then up the strap of my garter. I look coyly back over my shoulder at him, “Is there a problem, Ace?”

  He just smirks at me and shakes his head subtly, his eyes steadfast on what I can assume is the mixture of lace and satin beneath. “Woman, you really don’t play fair do you?” he exhales in a groan before tearing his eyes away to look up at mine.

  “Whatever do you mean?” I bat my eyelashes at him and purposely bite my lower lip. I love watching his mouth part and his tongue dart out to lick his lower lip as his eyes darken and cloud—his stare unwavering on mine—green eyes to violet. I love knowing that I can bring him to such a state of desire without even touching him. And it’s all because of him that I can do this. He makes me feel confident and sexy and desirable when all I’ve ever felt before is run of the mill and unable to own my sexuality.

  Colton’s eyes remain on mine but his fingers feather over my flesh to the edge of my panties. My muscles quiver at the proximity of his touch—so close yet so far from where I want his fingers to claim. Where I need them to. “Two can play this game,” he murmurs as he steps closer. “I seem to recall you saying predictability doesn’t suit me. Why don’t I show you how absolutely right you are…right now?”

  I bite down harder on my lip to stifle a moan as his deft fingers pull my panties aside and he slips a finger into my molten core. I brace my hand on the stair rail beside me as he pulls out, sliding up and down the folds of my sex before tucking three fingers in me. “Oh, baby, I love how wet and ready you are for me.” He growls as I gasp out. “Do you have any idea what that does to me? How much knowing you want me turns me inside out?”

  “Colton, please,” I plead. Right now I am not beneath begging for him to fill me. To take me to that unprecedented edge that only he can help me climb at a lightning pace.

  “Tell me what you want, Rylee.” He chuckles as he withdraws his fingers, and I groan at the sudden feeling of emptiness.

  I throw my head back. My eyes close as my body convulses with such need that its evidence glistens on Colton’s hand. “You. Colton.” I pant. “I. Want. You.”

  He runs his finger over my bottom lip before leaning in and replacing his fingertip with his tongue, darting it between my lips before pulling away. I can’t help the whimper that falls from my mouth. “Tell me, baby.”

  “Only you, Colton.”

  In a flash he has me spun around, my back pressed up against the wall of the stairwell. His chest heaves and his jaw clenches as he looks at me with such intensity that I am lost to him. The outside world ceases to exist in this moment as I stand here exposed and unbidden. I am stripped physically and emotionally. I have never been more his.

  Colton lifts my skirt back up, and forces my legs further apart. He smiles lasciviously as he sinks slowly to his knees, his eyes never leaving mine.

  My rational thoughts should kick in now. My head should be treading atop of the waterfall of lust I’m drowning in and tell me that I’m in the stairwell at his work, but it does no such thing. Instead, my traitorous body shudders in anticipation, and when Colton notes it, his eyes spark and smile taunts as he leans into me. Within seconds a single laugh slips between my trembling lips as he rips my panties off of me effortlessly and stuffs them in his pocket. My mind and body are so focused on him, on what I need from him, that I don’t give the fact that he’s ruined yet another pair of underwear a second thought.

  His fingers part my folds, his eyes never leaving mine, and he closes his mouth over my nub of nerve endings. My hands fly to fist in his hair, and I fight with everything I have to not close my eyes and give into the ecstasy of his clever tongue. I want to watch him while he drives me up and over, but the sensation is so strong that it overtakes me and I arch—my neck, my head, my back—pushing my hips out so I can rock against him.

  He pulls my leg up and drapes it over his shoulder before adding his fingers to the mix. They press, push, and circle inside of me. My muscles clench so tight that when my climax claims me, I feel like my body shatters in a million pieces of ecstasy. Colton runs his tongue up and back over my sex before licking inside of me, drawing out every last tremor of my orgasm.

  I sag against the wall behind me, needing its support because my legs have just been rendered boneless. I close my eyes and try to calm myself, but he has just obliterated my senses with such devastation that I’ve now lost a part of myself to him forever.

  “My God, woman, a man could get drunk on the taste of you.” He groans as he places a soft kiss on my abdomen before rising from his knees. I open my eyes to his smug, satisfied smirk and eyes lidded heavy with desire. He leans in and kisses me forcefully, the taste of myself on his lips unexpectedly arousing.

  I moan into his mouth, my hands snaking down his body to cup his erection through his pants, still wanting more, still needing more. He breaks from the kiss with a tortured groan and pulls away from me. “Colton,” I murmur, “let me take care of you.”

  “Not here,” he tells me, smoothing my skirt down and smirking as he stuffs what’s left of my panties further down into his pocket. “I want to hear you scream out my name when I take you. I want to hear it when you fall apart from the things I’m going to do to you, Rylee. I want to claim you. Make you mine. Ruin you for any other man that dares to think of touching you.” He grimaces from the conviction of his words.

  “You already have, Colton,” I breathe out without thinking, reaching out to place my fingertips to his lips. “I’m yours…” My words trail off as he stares at me, his jaw working overtime as he absorbs the words I’ve said.

  A ghost of a smile mixed with an uncertain disbelief plays on his lips before shaking it away and pushing it aside. “I—we can’t continue here with what I want to do, but this,” he says, motioning to me and the wall, “will tide me over.” He flashes a quick grin at me before grabbing my hand and climbing the last flight of stairs.

  I follow him, knowing my heart and body are far from recovered from that little episode. Haddie’s words flash through my head, and I can’t help but disagree with her. When it comes to Colton, I don’t just have it bad. I’ve drowned, been consumed, and am utterly and undeniably his.

  Colton pushes open the door at the top of the stairwell, and I’m surprised to find us in the interior of a very masculine and sparsely decorated office. Assumptions aside, I know it’s his because it’s so similar to his office in Malibu. I step in behind him when I hear a gasp.

  “Oh, Colt, you scared me half to death!” the feminine voice exclaims, and instantly my back bristles at her familiarity with him. Does the woman have to be everywhere? Fuucckk!

  “Can I help you with something, Tawn?” Colton asks, and I swear that I hear an edge to the curiosity in his question.

  Tawny straightens up from where she is leaned over his desk and straightens the papers she is fumbling with. Of course she looks flawless in her cleavage defying shirt, skin-tight pants, and freshly made-up face. The woman is absolutely, fucking perfectly stunning. Her lips form a startled O shape as she looks at Colton before her eyes dart over to me and then back to him. The catty, territorial girl inside of me wants her to notice the flush on my cheeks and that just fucked smirk on my face so it’s reaffirmed that she’s nothing more than a blip on Colton’s radar.

  “Sorry. You scared me.” She exhales. “I was just looking for the Penzoil contract. I wasn’t sure if you’d had a chance to sign it. That’s all.” She smiles too sweetly.

  I’ve got a place she can shove that fake smile.

  Colton looks at her for a moment as if he’s trying to decipher something, but shakes his head absently. “Tawny, you’ve met Rylee, right?”

  Tawny’s eyes flit back and forth between us noting our joined hands before re-plastering the smile that has slightly fallen from her lips. “Something like tha
t,” she says as she steps out from behind his desk and walks—no, saunters—toward us. There really is no other way to describe it. Her eyes remain steadfast on Colton’s. She is definitely one of those women who are acutely aware of every move of her body and its effect on the opposite sex.

  If I disliked her before, I truly detest her now.

  Colton gives me a warning look as he feels my hand tense at her approach. “So good to see you again,” I lie, and I wonder if he has any idea of the future WWE Smackdown he’s just initiated. I have to stifle the giggle I feel bubbling up at the image of Tawny and me flying off of the ropes of a wrestling ring with bad costumes and even worse moves as we fight over the trophy of Colton.

  “Yes, how unexpected to see you here.” She smiles, and I’m observant enough to note Colton’s eyebrows raise in amusement at the obvious tension between the two of us.

  He turns to me, his eyes reissuing the warning to be on my best behavior as if he knows my WWE thoughts. “As you know, Tawny here is the head of my marketing team and is actually the one who came up with the lap match sponsorship idea.”

  Yes, please remind me again so I don’t reach across and slap her because it’s so damn tempting.

  “Yes,” I exclaim indifferently, knowing I should thank her properly but not wanting to. I pause for a moment, but my manners finally prevail. “And Corporate Cares is appreciative of all of the hard work you’ve put behind this,” I say with sincerity.

  “You’re welcome,” she says, her eyes never leaving Colton’s although she is addressing me. Does he not see her infatuation with him? It’s so obvious it’s ludicrous. “We’ve already landed some sponsors, but we have a few more irons left in the fire for some big name corporations. We’re wrapping that up right now and most likely will get that magic number to solidify the funding for the project.”

  “Incredible,” I say, trying to express my enthusiasm while hiding my complete disdain for her as she oozes—yes oozes, for that’s what she does—her charm all over Colton.

  I observe her watching Colton, and it irks me that I suddenly feel like an outsider. She turns slowly to me, a snarky smirk on her face, and I have to remind myself it was me that Colton was just doing inappropriate but hot as hell things to in the stairwell. Not her. And with that mental reminder, I’m more than ready to play this game.

  “If you think you can contribute in any way…Rylee, right?” she asks apologetically as I just tilt my head to the side and bite my tongue at her catty barb because she damn well knows my name. “Please feel free to let me know.”

  “Thank you—but I’m sure that any help I could provide…would be…” I look up in thought as I search for the perfect word “...inconsequential.” My eyes shift from her to Colton as I speak. A smile plays at the corners of my lips, and I arch an eyebrow in question. “Don’t you think, Ace?”

  “Inconsequential,” Colton mouths, a smirk on his lips as he shakes his head at my word choice. He holds my stare and I can see that even with this stunning woman beside me he desires me.

  Me.

  The air between us fills with an electricity as our gazes hold. I can sense Tawny’s discomfort as she shuffles from foot to foot in the charged silence. “Thank you, Tawny,” Colton says dismissing her without breaking our connection, “Rylee and I have somewhere we need to be,” he concludes, standing and reaching out for my hand.

  And hopefully that someplace he needs to be is in me.

  “YOU KNOW, RYLEE, YOU SURE are changing how I look at certain things in the world,” Colton comments as we pull into my driveway.

  “Why’s that?” I murmur distractedly, my mind still trying to process the events of the day—that Colton is here—with me.

  “I’ll never wipe down the hood of my car or trudge up a stairwell again without thinking of you,” he says, flashing his megawatt grin at me. “You’ll forever be the one who made me look at mundane things in a new light.”

  I laugh out loud as he leans over to give me a chaste kiss before getting out of the car. I watch him come around the hood to open my door, and I’m suddenly shaken by his comment. A part of me smiles at the knowledge that he will never be able to forget me while another part saddens at the notion that this won’t last forever. Even if we could, I don’t think he’d ever accept it. The problem is that I’m the one who keeps getting pulled under, deeper and deeper. I’m the one trying to stay afloat. I’m the one who needs a pit stop.

  Colton swings the door open and the comment on his lips dies when he sees the look on my face. I’ve tried to mask my sudden sadness, but obviously I haven’t been too successful. “What is it?” he asks, stepping into the doorway of the car between the V of my legs.

  “Nothing.” I shrug, shaking it off. “I’m just being silly,” I tell him as his hands slide up my thighs and under my skirt to where my naked sex is.

  I sigh at the feathered touch of his fingertips over my skin as I look up at him. The smirk on his face draws me from my mood, and I smile back at him. “You know, we need to do something about this habit you have of ripping my panties off.”

  “No we don’t,” he murmurs as he leans down and slants his mouth over mine.

  “Don’t distract me.” I giggle as his hands slide farther up my thighs and his thumbs brush at my strip of curls, my body arching into him in reaction. “I’m being very serious.”

  “Uh-huh…I prefer you distracted,” he says against my lips. “And I also like you when you’re very serious.” He imitates my tone, causing me to giggle again.

  “You’re starting to put a dent in my drawers,” I respond breathlessly as his thumbs graze lower this time.

  “I know and I hope to be again very soon.” He chuckles against the side of my neck, the vibration soothing.

  “You’re a hopeless case.” I sigh as I run my hands up his chest and loop them around his neck before claiming his lips with mine.

  “That I am, Rylee...” he sighs when we part lips “...that I am.”

  We enter the quiet of my house. Haddie will be working late at an event tonight so the house is all ours, and I intend to take full advantage of that. “You hungry?” I ask him as I lay my stuff down on the kitchen counter.

  “In more ways than one,” he smirks at me and I just shake my head at him.

  “Well how about I fix us something and take care of your first hunger, get you nice and fortified, and then I’ll make sure I offer up some dessert for your second hunger,” I tell him over my shoulder as I bend over and peer in the refrigerator.

  “Whether it’s offered up or not, sweetheart, I’ll be taking it,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. I forget a moment too late about my bare nether region as I’m bending over because Colton runs a finger across my naked backside before landing a playful slap on it making me jump and jarring my constant ache for him into a smoldering burn.

  We eat the simple meal I’ve concocted in a comfortable exchange. He tells me about his endless meetings in Nashville and what he’d hoped to accomplish during them. I tell him about the progress on the project at the office as well as little tidbits about the boys’ week. I find it endearing that he actually listens when I talk about the boys and that he asks questions letting me know that he has a genuine interest in them. It’s important to me that he understands what a big part of my life they are.

  “So why’d your trip get cut short?” I ask him while we finish up our meal.

  He wipes his mouth with a napkin. “We started reviewing meetings we’d already had. It started to get redundant...” he shrugs “...and I hate redundancy.”

  That’s not what Teagan says, flickers through my head thinking how she told me that Colton likes to dabble with past flings while in between current ones. I chastise myself for trying to sabotage a perfectly good time.

  “Besides,” he says, looking up from his plate to me, “I missed you.”

  And now I feel like crap for my little mental barb. “You missed me?” I ask incredulously.


  “Yes, I missed you,” he says, smiling shyly, his foot nudging mine beneath the table to emphasize his words.

  How is it four simple words from his mouth could mean so much to me? The emotionally unavailable bad boy I tried so hard to keep at arms’ length, I now never want to let go.

  “I could tell by the beautiful poetry you wrote me,” I tease.

  He flashes me a heart-warming grin that makes me want to pinch myself to know this is real and that smile is meant for me. “Those were clean compared to some of the nasty ones we wrote.” He raises his eyebrows and his eyes alight with humor.

  “Oh really?”

  “Yep. I think I’d rather show you though.”

  “Is that so?” I smirk as I bite into my last strawberry.

  “Yep, and we brainstormed the meaning of Ace as well.”

  “Oh, I can’t wait to hear these…” I raise my eyebrows at him and laugh.

  “Always creating ecstasy.”

  “Nope.” I laugh. “You do know that you’ve made such a big deal about this that you’re going to be so disappointed at the real answer right?”

  He just smirks at me as I get up and start clearing the dishes, rejecting his offer of assistance. We chat about the sponsorship some until the ringing of his phone interrupts us.

  “One sec,” he says as he answers the phone. He holds a short conversation about something work related and then says, “Thanks, Tawny. Have a good night.”

  I automatically roll my eyes at the name and he catches me. “You really dislike her, don’t you?” he asks, a bemused look on his face.

  I sigh deeply, wondering if I want to tackle this right here and right now. She is an ex-girlfriend, friend of the family that his parents obviously love, and an important member of his CDE team. Do I really want to fight a losing battle here? If I’m going to be with Colton, I have to face the fact that she is going to be a part of his life, whether I like it or not. I twist my lips as I contemplate the right words to use. “Let’s just say that she and I have had a couple of exchanges that lead me to believe she’s not as innocent as she seems…and I’ll leave it at that,” I tell him.