Sweet Charity

by Lauren Dane

  He laughed. “I’m a tool?”

  “Why are you avoiding the subject? We both know why you’re here.” She stood and began to clear away the dinner dishes. He helped her, startled by their easy rhythm in the kitchen.

  He could tell she was upset, her mouth, that luscious, gorgeous mouth of hers, compressed into a hard line.

  Wanting to soothe her, he turned her to face him. “Honey, don’t be upset. I just think we’re better as friends. It’s not about you.”

  “Oh my God!” She slammed her hand down and apple pie flew everywhere. She looked down and saw she’d put her fist into the pie dish. “Look what you made me do with that it’s not you it’s me bullshit!”

  Fascinated, he watched her eyes flash, her face flush and, he couldn’t miss that her nipples pressed against the front of that dress. He groaned.

  Her angry movements were precise and mechanical as she wiped her hands off on a kitchen towel before she finally turned her attention back to him. “For the record, of course it’s you. I am normal. I can admit when I want something. I can talk about things instead of pretending they don’t exist. What is your problem? You tell me right now and I’ll back off. Give me a real reason why you treat me like I have cooties when you’re staring at my nipples like you want to lick them.”

  He dragged his gaze back up to her face. A bit of the crumble topping from the pie had landed on her cheek and even though he knew he shouldn’t, he reached up to flick it away but ended up kissing it instead. The sweetness of the sugar melted on his lips as her taste married with it.

  Chapter Five

  Just one taste…

  She froze, not tense, but waiting. He took her mouth and she sighed into the kiss, molding her body to his and he felt every lush curve.

  And that one taste exploded within him and there was nothing but his need for her, nothing but her scent in his nose, her taste on his lips, her moans in his ears, her ass in his hands as he pulled her closer.

  She sucked his tongue and it shot straight to his cock. Trying to swim to the surface of his desire, he pulled away, trying to breathe air she wasn’t heavy in, but she grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him back.

  “Oh no you don’t, Gabriel. Give me more, damn you.”

  With a groan, he was lost, his mouth finding the fine line of her neck just above the collar of her dress. Without even thinking, her breasts filled his hands and she arched, whispering a tortured yes.

  Okay so just this. He’d touch her. Through the dress. Kiss her some more and then he’d stop.

  Charity felt his resolve melting as triumph filled her. This was what they should have shared before. There was something barely leashed about him and she wanted more. The edge of it titillated her, sent shivers through her body.

  She heard the sound of the pins holding her hair hit the floor and counter as it fell around her face. One handed, he pulled her head back, exposing her neck while the other hand untied the bow at the neck of the dress and began to unbutton it. Oh yes oh yes! Her entire body threw a party and sang hallelujah as he skated his mouth, hot and wet, across her neck and down, over the curve of her cleavage.

  She was wet, so wet and so turned on she squeezed her thighs together and ripples of pleasure echoed through her. His fingers tightened in her hair as he brought his mouth up to kiss her again. She’d never been handled before, not like this. Rough but not violent, so very in charge. The earth beneath her feet was insubstantial as her buttons were pushed in a way she’d never even imagined.

  Horizontal. They needed two things—to be naked and horizontal. She backed toward her stairs, bringing him with her. He paused and she might have let out an actual growl.

  “If you stop, I’ll tell everyone in town you wear women’s underpants. Don’t test me.”

  He looked into her face, his eyes clearing a bit and then laughed. “Don’t walk backwards in those heels, you’ll fall.” And with that, he picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of feed and took them upstairs and into her room.

  Before he could back out, she finished unbuttoning her dress and let it fall into a pool of fabric at her feet.

  He exhaled, blinking as he took her in, garter belt, stockings, no panties and a push up bra designed to highlight her natural attributes. “Beautiful. So fucking beautiful I don’t know where to look first.”

  “Show me, Gabriel. I want to see you.”

  “Come over here then and undress me.”

  She blinked and moved quickly, bending to grab the dress and toss it in a nearby chair before working on his shirt.

  Eight years ago, he was just barely out of his teens. The chest before her was all man. Work hard, strong, broad and hot to the touch of her lips as she kissed the spot over his heart. She pushed the shirt from his torso and placed it with her dress before moving back to his pants.

  “Sit on the bed so I can get your boots off.”

  “If I sit on your bed there’s no turning back,” he said like a warning, his voice so taut she thought it might break.

  She straightened and took her bra off. “Does it look to you like I want to turn back?”

  “Christ.” He sat, his gaze latched on her nipples. She let her hair slide to cover her face and hide her satisfied smile.

  She liked taking care of him this way. Liked taking his boots off, then his jeans and socks. He stood once more and she knelt still, ending up looking straight at the very real evidence that he didn’t want to turn back either.

  Gabe looked down at her and got weak at the beauty of this woman on her knees before him. She couldn’t possibly know how many times he’d jerked off imagining this very moment.

  She reached up and pulled his boxers down and he stepped out of them, bending and hauling her up to the bed, laying her down and rolling on top of her body.

  He wanted to mark her, wanted to grip her wrists while he thrust deep, wanted to take that spot on the side of her luscious breast between his teeth. She challenged his control. He owed her roses and sweet words but he wanted to hear her moan as he took her to that edge of pleasure/pain.

  “Don’t you dare,” she said, her eyes searching his face, seeing his internal battle. “Don’t hold back. I want all of you.” She rolled her hips and the hot, wet embrace of her pussy against his cock nearly did him in.

  “I’m not…” He choked back the words, shaking his head. He’d allow himself this taste of her and worry about the repercussions later.

  Instead of saying anything else, he took her hair and wrapped it around his fist, angling her mouth just how he needed it and kissed her. Really kissed her. He gave in and let himself possess her the way he’d wanted to for so very long.

  Shivers ran through him where her hands caressed over the planes of his back, he groaned into her mouth when her nails dug into his ass as she tried to get him closer.

  “Mmm, you taste good.” He dragged his tongue across her lips but pulled his groin away from hers, liking the desperate little sound she made in response. “Ah, ah, ah. I decide when you get more.”

  He waited for her anger but instead her eyes widened and her breath caught as she stilled. Smiling, he moved down a bit so he could finally give her nipples the attention he hadn’t all those years before.

  Kneeling, straddling her body, he took each mound into his palm and drew his hand away, taking her nipples between his fingers, pinching and rolling until she arched into his touch with a moan. Her hands sought his cock but he wanted this to be about her for the time being.

  “Hands above your head. Clasp them.”

  Swallowing as she kept her gaze on him, she obeyed and he doubted he’d seen a more appealing sight than her breasts offered up to him with her back arched.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured as he bent, licking over first one nipple and then the other. She writhed beneath him and when he dragged his teeth across the sensitive tip she sucked in air. He waited to see if it was a pain response but she pressed herself against him again. It would be
a matter of watching her responses, he wanted to do everything he’d ever imagined doing to her, things he hadn’t done with anyone, but God knew he had to keep control and not send her weeping into the night.

  Her skin was velvet soft, warm to the touch, richly fragrant with arousal and her essential oil. The muscles in her belly jumped as he kissed lower. He was glad she’d left the stockings and garters on. The absence of panties had been a surprise, a happy one of course. He just hadn’t expected her to be a no panties kind of woman.

  Her mound was smooth as he trailed the tip of his tongue over it. She spread her thighs to admit him as he traced the top of her thigh where the stocking met the hook of the garter belt.

  “This is very sexy. I like it.”

  She lifted her head to look at him. It pleased him beyond words that she hadn’t moved her hands from above her head. Her face was flushed, her hair mussed, lips swollen.

  “I hoped you’d find out I was wearing them.”

  He spread her open and took a lick. Her taste shot through him, echoing off his insides. Damn, she tasted good. Right.

  This was so much better than eight years ago. Charity let her head fall back. She gripped her hands together tighter to keep from reaching out to touch him. This rough-edged thing was seriously hot, and holy moley did he know how to go down on a woman. He’d clearly stepped up his game over the years.

  His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her upper thighs as he just pushed his face against her and delivered the best apology for prior bad sex a girl could ask for.

  Until he pulled away, actually making her whimper.

  “Turn around. I want your ass in the air and your head down.”

  It took her a second to move, she was so enthralled by the command. A command. Imagine that. And imagine even more that she actually did it! When he danced his fingertips down her spine, shivers broke out. Until he cracked his palm against her left ass cheek, making her gasp. She let her eyes slide closed as she simply let herself experience the way it felt as he blew over the heat left behind.

  He spread her open from behind and she squirmed, feeling totally exposed. His palm hit the other cheek and again the blowing. She began to have a whole new opinion of spanking as her nipples hardened where they brushed against the blankets below her.

  When he went back to her pussy she cringed inwardly.

  “Why are you pulling away?” he asked before sucking on her clit a moment, sending a wave of staggering pleasure through her.

  “Huh?” What did he ask? Why wasn’t he doing that more?

  “When I eat your pussy from behind, you keep wincing. Am I hurting you?”

  Oh that.

  “It just…I feel very exposed that way.”

  “Good. Don’t you know how beautiful you are from this vantage? Your garters sliding down the center of your thighs, framing your beautiful cunt? Your ass is fucking perfect, Charity. Round and full.”

  He drew his fingertip over the hidden star of her ass and she squealed in surprise.

  He laughed. “I take it you don’t get much action back here?” He slid two fingers into her pussy and then back up against her rear passage, pressing just enough to send all sorts of unexpected sensations through her.

  “No,” she answered honestly, albeit sort of breathlessly. And hello, she was exposed from stem to stern back there! Jeez, what woman wanted that sort of scrutiny?

  “I like you this way.” He said it and meant it. There was more than a simple statement in the words and while she was admittedly flattered, she realized he liked things to be the way he wanted them.

  And that was all right too. She’d known him a long time. She wouldn’t have done this for anyone else. But for him, well for Gabriel Bettencourt, Charity couldn’t imagine too much she wouldn’t try at least once.

  She let the tension fall away and he petted his hands over the curve of her ass. “Mmm, that’s the way. Trust me, Charity. I won’t hurt you, although I can’t say I don’t bring a little pleasure edged with pain.”

  Oh. Gabriel Bettencourt was already sexy, but this stuff? This hidden, dark stuff really blew her skirt up. She wanted to please him, wanted to show him she accepted that and more than just accepting it, she liked it.

  She gasped a deep breath in and out when his mouth found her pussy again and she nearly wept at how good it felt.

  Gabriel wanted to live in the moment when she came for hours and hours. It was a sort of accounting he needed to pay for the way he acted before but also, the sweetness of how she’d let go into him was intoxicating.

  Her soft gasps and murmurs were almost as beautiful as the way she tasted and the softness of her thighs against his palms.

  When he drew back, licking his lips, he saw his palm print marking the skin of her left ass cheek. He had to draw in a steadying breath, the sight of it staggered him. He could not have her. He couldn’t have this with her. He needed to remember that. This would be one night and then it would be over.

  That confidence in his decision slipped a bit when he noted she still clasped her hands together above her head, even after she’d rolled over. Had she forgotten or was she simply that obedient?

  “Be back in a sec. Don’t move.”

  She stayed motionless as he eased off the bed to get a condom from his pants.

  What the hell was he doing? She was beautiful and soft, she’d been with him during some rough times. Had visited the hospital when his father was recovering from a stroke. She’d pitched in when they’d had damage from a windstorm and had to clean up the mess. Yes she could damned well be the wife of a man like him who worked with his hands. But at the same time he wasn’t what she needed and there he was getting ready to stick his cock in her. He would ruin it. She was a good thing in his life. Bright. Kind and full of all the things he would hate to live without.

  “Gabriel, if you leave me right now, if you walk out of here right now I’ll never speak to you again. I was joking earlier, but now I’m serious.”

  Even as she spoke, she stayed in place and he lost his fucking mind. In moments he had the condom on and was kneeling behind her, guiding himself into her body.

  Jaw clenched, body tense at holding himself back from slamming into her, he took his time as her body surrounded his.

  “I can’t be still,” she whispered, catching his attention.

  “You can’t?” He edged into her a bit more. “Why is that?”

  “I need more. Please.”

  He closed his eyes, done for. But still, she didn’t move. So he gave her more, sliding all the way home, bringing the sweetest gasp from her.

  “What is it you need, baby? Tell me and I just might give it to you.” He kept his pace slow, knowing she wanted it hard and fast. Torturing himself as well as her.

  “Harder and deeper and let me move. I want to push back against you,” she said breathlessly, her fingers clutching the blankets where she still clasped her hands.

  He delivered four deep, hard thrusts, his head cocked to the side so he could watch the rather delightful bounce of her breasts as he did it.

  “Like that?”

  She hissed her answer.

  “You can move back against me. Keep your hands where they are.”

  Released from his order to keep still, she arched her back and pushed against him as he fucked into her. The curve of that fantastic ass fit perfectly in the cradle of his hips. She fit right, everywhere she touched him.

  Screwing his eyes shut tight, he thought only of how good it felt to be buried so deep inside her. He would not think of anything else, damn it.

  Over and over, he entered her deep and hard and retreated. She moved with him, keeping her cunt wrapped around him as much as she could and before long, he was this close to coming.

  He reached around and found her clit, still slippery from when he’d used his mouth on her. Sliding it gently between his thumb and forefinger, he squeezed and brushed her clit with the pads of his fingers until she cried out and her cunt clamped
around his cock so hard he was done for as she came around him.

  Charity was still tingling, her muscles still jumping, when Gabriel returned to her bed. He drew a gentle line down her spine with his fingers. “You can move now.”

  She rolled to her back and looked up at him, tousled, sexy and so very pleased with a job well done.

  “I must say, that was better than pie.”

  He laughed and reached for his pants.

  “Where are you rushing off to so fast?” She arched a little, enjoying the way his hands missed the pants in the chair when he caught sight of her breasts.

  “It’s getting late.”

  She sat up, not bothering to cover her nakedness. “If this were any other night, you’d be here until way past midnight watching movies and eating me out of house and home.” She blushed, remembering what he did eat.

  Apparently he did too because his eyes darkened and he took three steps to the bed before he stopped himself. She narrowed her eyes at him.

  “This isn’t just any other night, though.”

  “No, it isn’t. You finally admitted you wanted more than being friends.” Which wasn’t exactly what he’d admitted but so what? It was what he was going to admit by the time she was done with him.

  He scrubbed his hands over his face and she wanted to laugh. He was so not going to win this. She wanted more, he did too even though he was holding back for some reason.

  “Charity, this was…it was nice. But it can’t happen again.”

  She burst out laughing. “Nice? You shut up, you big fat liar. Nice. Hah! It was hot. It was good. It was spectacular and you know it. Here I spent all this time wondering if I was horrible in bed and that’s why you never came back. But I know now. We have amazing sexual chemistry. Not nice, not okay, but amazing. Why don’t you just tell me what the deal is?”

  “I don’t want a relationship, Charity and you’re a relationship sort of girl.”

  She scrambled to her feet. “Who says? Scared, Gabriel? Worried that you don’t have what it takes to keep me satisfied?” she taunted when in truth, she was the scared one. Scared he’d walk away. Scared he meant it. But he couldn’t. They had something more than just fun in bed, she knew it.