I captured her lips. I held her face firmly in my grasp and ravaged her mouth. I poured everything I had into that kiss, teasing and tasting. Taunting and giving. Her lips were a buffet and I planned to stuff myself until I was full.
Charlotte wrapped her hands around my wrists and squeezed, pressing just a little bit closer, applying a bit more pressure against our lips. Her tongue traced the outline of my lower lip, and she sucked it into her mouth, making me groan. I tilted my head in the opposite direction and kissed her that way, and I stroked her with my tongue.
But it wasn’t enough.
Roughly, I pulled her head back to give me better access, and I swept my tongue inside her mouth, releasing her face and letting my hands roam over her body. I didn’t bother with the buttons on the front of her blazer, instead ripping it open. The sound of skittering buttons floated across the floor.
Charlotte’s chest heaved and her swollen breasts pushed against my chest as I ripped away the jacket and tossed it aside.
Sliding my hands around the curve of her waist, I reached down, gripping her ass, and squeezed, tilting her pelvis so it came into contact with the hard rod in my pants.
She groaned and I thrust up against her, pushing her back against the counter and dry humping her right there through our clothes.
My lips slid down her neck, sinking lower, until I was able to close my mouth around her rigid nipple piercing through her clothes. She cried out when I clamped down around it, the dampness of my mouth soaking through her clothes and leaving a ring of desire on her chest.
Her fingers threaded through my hair, squeezing my scalp and urging me on, urging me for more.
I abandoned her breast and crouched down, gently running my hands up her calves, behind her knees, to roughly yank the tight knit skirt up around her hips. Excitement pounded through my veins and my hands shook with a fine tremor. It wasn’t secret that I liked sex, but this…
This went beyond excitement.
Her butt hit the counter when I lifted her up and guided her down, pushing her thighs apart with my hips and stepping in between.
She was too far back for the kind of contact I wanted so I grabbed her knees and pulled, yanking her crotch right into my throbbing and anxious dick. She cried out and her head fell back, spilling long waves of hair over my hands where I kneaded her waist.
I snatched her hand and boldly placed it between us, rubbing it along my hard length. “Can you feel how much I want you? One night wasn’t enough, Charlie. I want more.”
Her little hand wrapped around the head of my cock and squeezed. My eyes rolled back in my head. “More,” I whispered.
She squeezed again, and my penis jumped, straining against the jeans keeping it contained.
“Tell me you want me,” I demanded, pulling back and looking into her heat-glazed eyes.
“I want you.” She obeyed.
Our lips collided again, burning against each other, creating little sparks that shot off into the air around us, creating an electric charge in the room. I went for the buttons on her shirt. I wanted to be naked and inside her. Now.
“Wait,” she said, but I was too far gone to hear her.
She yanked her lips away, leaning back against the cabinet. The sounds of her breathing were fast and hard. “Tucker, wait,” she said again, more forceful this time, placing a hand against my shoulder and stopping me from scooping her close again.
“I can’t do this,” she gasped.
“Yes, you can.” I reached for her again.
“No.” Charlotte pressed her lips together and looked at me with pleading eyes. “I can’t do it to him. To Max.”
“We already did,” I argued, thinking back to the sex-filled night we shared.
“I can live with a momentary lapse in judgment, but this… We’re talking about—” Her voice stalled.
“Forever,” I finished. “We’re talking about forever because you and I both know the pull between us is never going to go away.”
“I know,” she said, hollow. “But, I just… I can’t.”
Anger burned through me, at myself, my brother, and at her. “Tell me what you felt for him is stronger than what you feel for me.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Tell me, Charlotte. Tell me that the passion burned so hot between you two that it scorched your skin. Tell me that he took you up against the bathroom wall and then again on the floor. Tell me that you screamed his name the way you screamed for me. Tell me you didn’t schedule sex with him one day a week, like it was one more thing to cross off your to-do list.”
She gasped and her eyes sprang open. “Saturday,” she whispered. I wasn’t sure if she was shocked or not that I figured it out.
“Can you tell me any of that?” I demanded, taking her chin in my grip and forcing her to look into my face.
“No.”
“Then… why?” Why won’t you take a chance on me?
“He was my best friend. I can’t betray him. Not even his memory.”
I heard the finality in her tone, the decision. I shoved away from the counter, my fist balled tight, and all I wanted to do was hit something. She was choosing my dead brother over me.
It hurt like hell.
Expelling a deep breath into the room, I walked away, into the bedroom, where I reached in the closet and pulled out my leather jacket. A quick glance around told me I owned nothing else here; there was nothing for me to even pack.
Everything in this house belonged to Max. Including the woman with my heart.
She was still sitting on the counter when I stepped back into the room. I remained on the opposite side of the island, keeping it between us as some sort of defense.
“I’m not going to push you. You’ve been through enough.”
“Tucker,” she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
“There isn’t anything left for me here, so I’m going home.” I wasn’t about to drag this out any more than I had too. That wasn’t my style.
I took one last look at her, then turned and walked away.
She let me go.
30
Charlotte
I let him go.
I saw the veiled hurt in his eyes, and still I let him leave.
As soon as the front door shut, I burst into tears. Big, fat, ugly sobs ripped from somewhere deep inside my chest. I felt hollow, utterly empty.
The last two weeks had been a blessing and a curse. A blessing because Tucker had stayed. He let me take care of him, and having him here was like coming home to a surprise party. I just never knew what was going to happen.
One night I found him making pizza in the kitchen. Flour was everywhere, the cupboards were splattered with sauce, and cheese was all over the floor. The oven was smoking, and I’m not sure how it happened, but the pizza was still raw.
We ordered in that night.
Dominoes tasted better than Tucker’s pizza.
A few days after that, when I came home he was in the shower… singing. His voice touched a part of my soul I never knew existed. Every word, every melody that came out of his mouth moved me in some small way.
At night, I would lie in bed alone, longing to get up and go to him, wanting so badly for him to quench my thirst for his body. Sometimes he would snore so loudly that I would lie there and giggle because he sounded like a lawnmower.
And now he was gone.
There would be no more messes in the kitchen. No more singing that reached my soul. No more giggles.
My body would still want him. My body would crave him until I died. It was a bold statement, but I knew it was true because he was the first man who ever taught me about passion, about the kind of pleasure a man could evoke from a woman.
But even still, I couldn’t bring myself to betray Max like that.
How could I move on, living a life that made me insanely happy, when I realized that my life with Max had been anything but?
And to make it wo
rse, the man who seemed to be able to give me the happiness that Max never could was his own brother, his other half.
Wiping the flowing tears off my cheeks, I jumped down off the counter, my knees threatening to buckle beneath me. With another sob racking my body, I flung myself across the couch, feeling as if the pain was going to rip me in two.
I wished Max was here. I needed my best friend.
I remembered the letter. The folded single piece of paper that was in the envelope with the flash drive he mailed me. I shoved off the couch and hurried into the bedroom, where I put it in a drawer when I was getting clothes to take to the hospital when Tucker was there.
I couldn’t believe I forgot about it until now.
My hand closed around the paper and I sat down on the edge of the bed, wiping away another tear. I unfolded the wrinkled paper and looked down.
It was a letter. Written by hand, by Max.
Tears welled anew, just looking down at the last thing he would ever tell me. Looking at the last words I would ever know from him.
With a sniffle, I focused. And I began to read:
Charlotte,
If you’re reading this, then I’m likely dead. I’m sorry I never told you, but I was approached by the FBI to gather evidence against Wallace (Jr. and Sr.) for corporate espionage. They aren’t the only ones guilty within the company, but they are the main players. I found the evidence the Feds need, Charlotte. And now my life is in danger.
Please forgive me for never telling you about this. I did it for your protection. If you had known, they would be after you too.
Unfortunately, I must send you this because I’m afraid I won’t be able to deliver it myself. I trust you more than anyone else in this town, and I know you will make sure these men are brought to justice.
Give this flash drive to Agent Carson of the FBI. He will know what to do.
Also, I’m sending for Tucker, my twin. If there is anyone that can keep you safe until you can deliver it, it’s him. You can trust him. He’s the best man I know. You’re going to like him. He’s exactly the kind of guy you need. He’s the yin to your yang. The sugar to your coffee. Please tell him that even though we drifted apart over the years, he will always be my other half. My better half.
You and I… we’re very similar, aren’t we? It was easy to be together because we never challenged the other. We coexisted, but we never really united as a couple.
I’m not saying this to hurt you. I love you. I always will. I’m telling you this because I want you to have more in your life. The light in your eyes fades a little bit more every day, Charlotte. Now that I am faced with death, I realize that there is so much more to life than work. My time might be over, but yours, yours can just be beginning.
Use my death as a catalyst, a catalyst for great change, great happiness. For then, my death will serve a greater purpose.
You’re my best friend, Charlotte. I want you to be happy. When you find love—when you find the man who makes you feel alive, grab hold of him and don’t let go.
I love you always,
Max
The letter fell from my grasp and drifted to the floor. How horrible it must have been for him to think he was going to die. Yet Max approached it the same way he did everything else: with direct and methodical planning.
My heart hurt for him; my entire chest physically throbbed.
Beneath all the pain and sorrow, under the tears and guilt, I realized something else from Max’s letter. He felt the same way I did. He realized we didn’t have an epic love story; he realized we were more like best friends than anything else.
And he had been right.
We did coexist. We were like roommates who shared a bed, business partners who collaborated at home. And there was nothing wrong with that. It worked for us. We were something to each other that no one had ever been: best friends.
And in the face of his death, Max knew he had to tell me. He understood that I would be loyal to him even if it meant being alone.
He’s the yin to your yang. The sugar in your coffee.
Max knew I would fall for Tucker. He approved.
A huge weight lifted off me just then, relieving me of my guilt and regret. Loving Max didn’t mean pushing Tucker away, just as loving Tucker didn’t mean not loving Max.
I had a feeling that the love I developed for Tucker would be as different as the love I felt for Max as the brothers were in personality.
I let him leave.
I let my future walk out that door. I turned him away.
I gasped and bolted off the bed, rushing through the apartment for the front door. Maybe he was still outside. Maybe he hadn’t gotten a cab yet.
Maybe I could still catch him.
The door bounced off the wall when I flung it open and I barreled into the hallway, barefoot and all. “Tucker!” I yelled, knowing he couldn’t hear me from outside but unable to keep his name from erupting from my chest.
Someone moved in the hallway and I gasped, stumbling backward.
Tucker pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against and faced me. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”
A strangled sound somewhere between a moan and a laugh escaped me. I ran to him, racing across the carpet, and smashed into his chest. He chuckled as my arms wound around him beneath the leather jacket he was wearing and my fingers linked behind his back.
“Careful, darlin’,” he grunted, and I gentled my hold around the area that was still healing.
“I never should have let you leave.” I sobbed against his chest.
“I know.”
“I thought I was betraying Max.” I buried my face in the soft leather and inhaled. He smelled incredible.
“I know.”
I laughed. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
He bent, hooking an arm beneath my legs and swinging me up into his arms. “Yeah, I don’t know why we’re still standing out here.”
In a few great strides, we were in the apartment, with Tucker kicking the door shut behind us. Setting me on my feet, his eyes took on a heated stare and my insides trembled because I knew what was coming.
He backed me up so I was pinned between him and the door. The buttons on my dress shirt gave way with one strong tug and they went flying in all directions. Once the shirt was fully off my body, he bent his head and sucked my nipple into his mouth, wetting the lacey fabric and using the rough texture to further spur my arousal. As he licked and sucked, his hands wound around my back and unhooked the clasp, releasing the cups completely.
“I want you naked,” he growled. “I want absolutely nothing between us.”
The bra was tossed aside and he reached for the zipper on my skirt, peeling it off my body, taking my panties away at the same time. When I was utterly bare, he took a step back and torched me with his heavy-lidded stare.
In seconds he pounced on me, pinning me once more to the door, and pressed his palm against the slick heat of my crotch, cupping the private space and sliding a finger right into my already aching insides.
But then he pulled away.
Breathing heavy and squirming with need, I watched as Tucker slowly undressed. He started with his jacket, sliding the leather off his body. His shirt was next, and I couldn’t help but stare at the toned, cut muscles that made up his torso.
Staring at him was one thing, but touching that was something else.
He reached for the belt on his jeans and I dropped to my knees before him. As he undid the leather, I wrapped my mouth around his enlarged cock, letting my hot breath fan over his jeans.
He groaned and a shiver worked its way up his spine. I lapped at him through his jeans, enjoying the sounds of pleasure that erupted from his throat.
Soon he had the belt and button of his jeans undone, and I slid my fingers in the waistband and yanked down.
He wasn’t wearing underwear.
Not able to wait until the jeans were all the way off, I dove forward, sliding my mo
uth all the way down the length of his penis. The skin was like taut satin stretched over an unrelenting rod. The juices inside me loosened and gushed forward, coating the insides of my thighs.
Tucker grabbed me by the hair and pulled me back, away from him, and kicked away the rest of his clothes. And now there was nothing between us.
No regret. No guilt. No clothes.
“Tucker,” I moaned, wrapping my hands around the back of his neck and pulling his face down for a hungry kiss.
His strong hands wrapped around my hips and lifted. Before my legs were even locked around his waist, he surged inside me, so deep that I cried out.
Holding me close, he walked a few steps to the area rug where he kicked the coffee table out of the way and dropped to his knees. My body was shuddering around him. He felt so delicious that my body was ready to release on contact.
“Not yet, sweetheart,” he purred, laying me out across the carpet but keeping us joined together. Supporting himself on his elbows, he looked down, pulling his fingers through my hair.
“Are you ready?”
“Please,” I begged, lifting my hips, begging him to move. His cock jerked inside me, scraping against my inner walls and making me moan. My back arched off the floor and his lips closed around my nipple, sucking deep, sending sparks of pleasure shooting from my chest all the way down into the center of my body.
He surged forward, crashing our pelvises together, and created pressure on the already swollen button in between my folds.
“Cum for me, sweetheart,” he said, lifting his mouth from my breast.
I splintered apart from the inside. Fragments of myself bounced around within the shell of my body, exploding into a surge of pleasure so great that my mouth fell open, yet no sound came out.
I couldn’t speak. I could scarcely breathe.
He began to pump within me, surging in and out, sliding the incredible length of his rock-hard cock into my body again and again.
I couldn’t do anything but lie there and let onslaught after onslaught of intense pleasure roll over my body.
Tricks Page 19
