by Lauren Dane
You poor thing,' Leah said softly, yet with her tone somehow filled with pride. 'I know how you get when you don't sleep or eat.' He laughed. 'OK, I had a burger last night.' 'Ha. I knew it.'
'But no fries,' he told her. 'And only a single.
Leah raised an eyebrow. 'Wow . . . you must really have been upset.'
'I was,' he told her, joking cast off. 'Why would you think anything else?'
She leant in to kiss him, lingering, then slid the ball of her thumb over his lower lip after the kiss. She looked deep into his eyes. 'And here you are.' 'Here I am.'
She was quiet for another half a minute, and that was fine. He could give her that. When she kissed him again, Brandon let her. He even kissed her back.
'I can't say yes,' Leah said.
The look in her eyes made him want to flinch, but he kept very still. 'Not right now,' she said. 'I just can't. I'm sorry.'
He already knew her list of reasons. He was too young, she made more money, they hadn't been together long enough, he hadn't met her parents. She had met his, which had freaked her out and, as much as he loved his parents, he understood why. He understoodall about Leah. He could see her excuses ticking through her brain, one after another, but, when it came right down to it, Brandon knew there was only one reason, one real reason why she wouldn't say yes.
'I meant what I said earlier, and I'm not ashamed of it.'
I'm not ashamed.' She sighed and reached for his hand to pull him closer.
Brandon kissed her slowly and thoroughly, then got off the bed. He wanted more than anything to get the hell out of that rat-trap motel, but he knew this was one of those now-or-never situations. He pushed the hair out of his eyes and straightened his back.
'I love you. I love being with you, and I love what we do. I'm not ashamed of any of it, and I want to spend the rest of my life doing it. With you.'
He could see her struggling.
'I like what we are together,' he said.
'I like it too. I love it. I love you. But I need some time to think about this.' He nodded again. 'OK. Well, I'll be at the Penny Pincher. Call me.' Her eyes narrowed again. 'You're really walking out?' 'I'm really walking out.'
She crossed her arms, one finger tapping against her elbow. She was trying to give him the face, but, though Brandon most always gave Leah what she wanted, this time was different.
'On the way up to this floor,' he said, 'Dix and I rode in the elevator with a man dressed like a zebra. Full-on latex and vinyl costume. Hooves. Ears. A mane. He had pink and purple stripes, he weighed about three hundred pounds. And he was totally living that moment, Leah. That guy ... he was absolutely overjoyed to be walking around dressed like a zebra.'
Her mouth tipped on one side. 'Please don't tell me you want to dress like a zebra.'
'No. My point is, he was happy to be what he was. He was OK with it. More than that, he was proud of what he was.' Brandon paused. 'I feel that way when I'm with you.'
He took a few steps towards the door. 'I know you can't say yes right now. But can you tell me that you're not saying no?' She nodded. 'If I told you to stay right now, would you?' He nodded after a second. 'Yes. If that's what you wanted.' 'But you really think you should leave.'
Yeah. I think I should.' He could stay. They'd make love again. She'd cuddle up to him all snuggly and contented and put off their conversation again and again.
Then leave,' Leah said with a lift of her chin. 'Go, if you think you have to.'
He nodded one last time, wondering if he were being the biggest douche in the world, or if this meant too much for him to give in right now. He back-stepped towards the door, watching her as he went. She didn't look away. She wasn't crying, at least. He couldn't have handled that.
'That guy,' Brandon said in the doorway. 'He knew who he was. Well, I know who I am, too.' 'I know who you are, Brandon.'
And you know who you are. So why can't we be those people together?' he asked her and waited for an answer he could see she tried, and failed, to give. 'I'll call you,' she told him.
He wasn't sure he believed her, but there wasn't much choice for him to do anything but go.
Chapter 9
She moved so they lay side by side instead of the traditional sixty-nine with her on top.
'Me first. I know how much you prefer one-at-a-time oral.' His voice held a smirk but also gentleness. Good sweet Clay Aiken she was a goner.
'I like to be able to enjoy it when you're eating my pussy and I can't with my face hovering over your cock and trying to balance and you know how I feel about you on top. I don't like balls in my face.'
He laughed then, relaxed and very sexy. 'Then come on up and sit on my face.'
'So romantic' She sat up and turned around, bending to kiss him because he was there and how could she resist that mouth of his?
'A man's mouth on a woman's cunt is very romantic. Her taste, the way she feels, the trust, all of it makes me want you more. No one smells like you, tastes like you. I'd do almost anything for you and your cunt.'
He said it with the corner of his mouth up in his normally sardonic smirk, but the words had a softness in them, a tenderness that felled her even as they freaked her out. Like what would he do? What a dangerous, slippery slope of girl issues that one little statement held.
Instead of thinking about it further, she did as he asked, scrambling atop him and fitting her cunt over his mouth. He gripped her ass, holding her in place just how he wanted and she found her balance, holding the newel post of the headboard.
She closed her eyes and fell into the way his mouth felt. His hands were strong and sure, she knew she wouldn't lose her balance. He wouldn't let her. And that was a whole different level of fear and excitement.
Two more years, she could wait and then they could move to the next level. His daughters would be out of high school and things would be easier.
Oh Christ, the thing he did with his bottom lip against her dit, rolling it up and against the underside, following it then with his tongue. A sound dragged from low in her belly as her hips rolled forwards. Her knuckles whitened as her hold on the newel post tightened. Her skin was super sensitive, the air caressing it, his hands burning into her flesh, his mouth warm and wet as he devoured her. Her breath stuttered as she drowned in pleasure.
Need to grind her cunt into him warred with control, control that floated away like ash as she came, shattering around him, her head falling forwards.
He moved from beneath her, licking his lips, loving her taste. She was warm and relaxed, the way she went after dimax. He laid her back and she opened her eyes slowly, looking at him with a lazy smile.
'You're so good with that mouth of yours. Sexy.' She stretched and he watched as her breasts jiggled, offered to his gaze as her back arched.
'Glad you approve.' He grinned as she sat up, her hair fell forwards in a sweet-smelling curtain.
'I'm going to suck your cock now.' She arranged pillows and he sat back against them while she got on all fours and bent over him. He loved to see her this way, her ass swaying as he watched the show. Her mouth taking his cock over and over. So fucking pretty.
She sucked slow, wet and hard. The perfect combination. Each time she pulled up, she left his cock shiny, darkened as she brought him closer to the edge. One hand fisted at the base of his cock, angling him so she could suck him better and the other braced on his thigh, her nails lightly digging into the muscle there.
'Darling Kate, you look delightfully debauched there with a mouthful of my cock,' he murmured, running his fingers through her hair. That contradiction lured him. The way she was in court or at work, buttoned up, cool, sharply professional, versus the way she was with him. Sexual, adventurous, not afraid to ask for what she wanted or to demand it. He loved the hidden facets she only showed to a few people. His secret dirty girl. Dix liked that. A lot.
He liked it even more when she took him so deep he felt the back of her throat and his toes curled.
Gulping,
he managed to croak out some encouragement but, for the life of him, once he'd said it, he couldn't remember what the fuck he'd said.
She toyed with him for what seemed like hours. Sweat beaded on his forehead and he couldn't seem to stop moaning. He was adrift in a sea she'd created. She was his only way back, his anchor.
You're a very bad, or rather good, girl. Christ, Kate, take pity on me and let me come,' he begged.
She pulled off, licking her lips, and he felt it like a phantom touch.
'Pity? Oh my sweet Charles, I have no pity. I'm a lawyer, remember? What I have is this, umm, what do I call it?' She played with her dit as she pretended to think, fisting his cock and sliding it up and down as she did.
'You're evil,' he gasped as she brought him right up to the edge and then, holy God, straddled him and slid down his cock hard and fast.
'Evil and making you come,' she agreed, as he came hard and fast as she surrounded him with her cunt. That hot, sweet place he'd dreamt of since the moment she'd left the car and headed into the airport three days before.
He tossed her to the bed and kissed her thoroughly. 'Why, hello there, counsellor. And how are you today?'
'A lot better now. My darling, Dix. It was only three days.' She tried to hide her indulgent smile but he won it anyway.
'I'm greedy when it comes to you.'
She made one of those little snuffling noises to indicate her amused annoyance and damn him if it didn't turn him on. Rolling her pretty ass out of bed, she sauntered into the bathroom and back out again some moments later.
She crawled towards him on all fours. Up the bed, just the way he liked it. All to please him and he loved it.
'Greedy. Pffft. Dix, it was three days. You're like a toddler who's had his candy taken away. I was coming back to you well in time for New Year's Eve.'
You left because of Eve. I missed you. You promised me this time. And I didn't want you to go away mad. This bed . . . Christ, Katherine, I slept on a plastic-cove red cootie mat last night with Bingo. You were here with Egyptian cotton sheets?'
'I was. It's a rather superior hotd bed, I will say that.' She smiled up at him as she snuggled into his side. 'I'm very relaxed right now, Charles. Don't fuck with my mood. I wasn't mad at you, still not. Don't make me change my mind.'
His phone rang — the girls' tone. Kate sighed and rolled over, digging through his pants to hand it to him.
'Hdlo?'
'Oh, Charles, I'm so glad you're safe. You didn't call and I worried.' Eve.
'Is there a problem with the girls?'
'No. But you didn't call back after I left a message last night and I was worried.'
Kate growled and moved to stomp away in a huff so he stopped her with his leg over her body, ignoring the slap she delivered to his belly.
'Don't use Kendall's phone if it's not an emergency. For fuck's sake, Eve, I'm here with Katherine. I told the girls I'd arrived safely.' 'But you didn't tell me.'
'Eve, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you need a CAT scan? Did you hit your head? Stop this. You're embarrassing yourself and me too. Just. Stop.' He flipped the phone shut and met Kate's gaze.
'Now I'm getting mad. Again with this woman. Let me guess, she put the make on you the moment you returned from taking me to the airport.'
'Doesn't matter. I'm with you. You know that. She knows that. Let's order in, I'm starved. Then we will have sex again.'
Leah and I have tickets to a . . . thing. A show. I don't know what her situation is with Brandon just now and I don't want to run off. In the meantime, we can definitely order up some snacks. I'm sure the room service at the Tenny Pincher was less than fabulous.'
A machine at the end of the hall with a three-inch-thick sticky film over the entire surface. Whatever was inside you couldn't see it through the glass. What kind of show?'
She picked up the phone and ordered some food and turned back to him. 'Now, what are you going to do about Pickles?'
'When are you going to move in with me?'
'In two years when your daughters are out of school and they won't need you as much.' 'I can be their father and live with you. Come on, Kate, this can be managed.'
And I can be the girlfriend who takes Dad away. Special. I don't want that. I don't want to be your underline and I don't want to be the reason your children feel you're abandoning them. It's not fair. Not to me and not to them. Certainly not to you. It's two years. I'm not going anywhere. Why are you so pushy about it right now?'
'Because.' Before he could explain, the food arrived and she pulled on a robe. He snorted, took the robe and went out to take care of it.
He shoved a few of the little sandwiches into his mouth and put the tray down and moved back to the bed where she looked pissed off.
'Back to Eve for a moment. She is up your ass all the time which means she'll be up mine if we live together. I don't like her. In fact, after this little series of stunts she's pulled, I can safely say I hate her. Hate. I only hate like three people. I'm not having anyholiday dinners where she's invited. I don't want her in my home. This is a big reason not to move in together since you all seem incapable of celebrating holidays without her. I'm not Mrs Brady and she totally hit on you and not for the first time.' She sat up, crouching and looking at him closely.
'What does it matter? She's not a threat to you. And we don't have to have her at our house for holiday dinners. I expect there will be times when we'll all have to mix. When the girls graduate, weddings, that sort of thing. Well, not our wedding of course,' he amended quickly.
'OK, first of all, that "not a threat" thing? She used that and I don't like it. Not from her and not from you. The thing is, I don't think you'd cheat on me with her. If I did, I wouldn't be with you. I asked you a direct question. Has she hit on you?'
Yes. Have people hit on you? Come on, I see the way men look at you all the time. Why are you making a big deal out of it if you know I wouldn't cheat on you? Not with her. Not with anyone.'
She took a deep breath. 'Don't. Don't you dare condescend to me. I am not your intelligence-impaired ex-wife. Can you actually sit there and compare random guys asking me out to the woman you've had children with hitting on you? You have a history with her, a life with her. You've shared some of the most intimate and important life events with her. Of course that bothers me!'
Kate got off the bed and began to get dressed in short jerky movements.
'I don't know what to say. Katherine, I love you. I want to share my life with you. I can't change my past. I can't deny that Eve was important to me once. But it doesn't matter that she throws herself at me, I'm not catching.'
'You're missing the point. Oh my God! Seriously, Charles, you are a smart guy, I'm laying it all out here and you're giving me this shit?'
He got up and tried to hug her but she slapped his hands away. 'I love you, damn it. This is ridiculous. You're acting irrationally. You say yourself that you know I won't cheat. I'm begging you to be with me and you're pissed? I'm missing the point.'
'Because you want to miss it. The point is, Charles, she's a person who is tied to you forever. In a way I cannot be. She's part of what's the most important thing in the world to you — those girls. And rightfully so, they're good kids, you've done a great job. But you act like I'm crazy to be bugged by the fact that she's totally disrespectful to me by repeatedly trying to fuck you when she knows you're with me. And yet I'm supposed to just tolerate it like it's no big thing. Well, buster, it is a big thing. I don't like it. I hate it as a matter of fact and what I hate even more is that you'd compare that level of disrespect to some random guy at my firm asking me out for drinks.'
Oh.
'You're right and I'm sorry. She's been like this for so long I just tend to ignore it and let it be background noise. Because while, yes, she's the mother of my children, she's not what you are. She can play her games, but I don't want her. I want you. Every minute of the day I want you. I wake up wanting you, I go to sleep wanting you. I used to
think I was done with kids but I look at you and change my mind. Don't freak on me here, Kate,' he said quickly, noting her body language.
'I'm not freaked. Not really. It's not like our future is in doubt. We're together and I get that. But like whoa serious, you need to deal with her. I've already told her off, but your daughters are in the middle so I can't do much more without harming them too.'
'So move in with me. That's the best way to solve this issue.' He backed her against the bedroom door and nuzzled her neck. She moaned softly and gasped when he found his way between her thighs. No panties and a skirt. His idea of the perfect Kate outfit.
She opened and hitched a long lean leg up at his hip and he took her invitation, angling his cock quickly and driving up and in as she came down. He thrust hard and fast, sweat building on his spine, on his forehead. Kate held on to him, open to his body, her gaze locked with his. Taking her this way was intimate, more than soft and romantic. The frenzied need she stirred inside wasn't something he was used to, even now after he'd had her time and again. He needed her and she gave herself to him. With her eyes open, meeting him thrust for thrust. That was something of a wonder to him.
'Make me come, Dix.'
'My pleasure.' He pressed her harder against the door, pinning her with his body. This changed her angle and she moaned, grinding herself on him. The swollen knot of her clit pressed against the stalk of his cock, slippery and hard. 'Is that enough for you?' he asked teasingly in her ear as her cunt fluttered around him.
'It's never enough. You could crawl into my body and stay there forever and I still couldn't get enough. I need you.'
'Christ, you undo me,' he murmured before nipping at her neck.
She made that sound, the one that unravelled everything within him when he heard it. Deep and low, a desperate, pleading sound as if she were willing her orgasm to manifest and then the tiny intake of breath as it did, like she was surprised.
The heat of her, the wet of her, the clamp of her pussy around his invading cock drove him on, drove him as the slap of his body against hers lured, as the rising scent of her body married with his. Sex and lust, need, craving and desire, and love too. She fit him in a way he'd never imagined. In every way, Katherine was his match, exciting and comforting.
