Beauty and the Brute

by Nikki Winter

  Her hands moved swiftly to undo the buckle while he stood there in a partial stupor, trying to determine how she’d flipped the scale of control so quickly. Then it occurred to him that this had been her seduction as soon as he’d decided to give into her silent demand to play the game of cat and mouse. He’d wanted her to run and she’d wanted to be caught. The confirmation came in her assured movements, the way she never lost focus of her task. His zipper hissed and Noel sucked in a breath.

  Whatever confidence she’d lost in the last hour was obviously quickly returning and he couldn’t be more thankful. Her fingers curled around his cock and freed it, leaving him with very little choice but to give her a quiet warning. “Alana…Don’t.”

  Her grasp tightened a fraction and twisted slightly. “I want to,” she breathed against his jaw. “Let me.” Her lips brushed beneath his chin. “Please.”

  It was the cadence of her voice when she begged. That was his Achilles heel—the way Alana begged. Whether it was the softest whimper or how she stared up at him through those lashes, the fleshy bottom rim of her mouth cinched between her teeth, he couldn’t resist that. He couldn’t ignore it. And she knew it.

  She raked across his Adam’s apple and he all but shoved her back into the wall, hiking her up so that those endless legs were wrapped about his waist. “To suck me? Is that what you wanted?” Noel panted.

  Alana nodded, raked her nails across his scalp. “Yes.”

  “Later,” he told her, dragging her down onto the tip of his length. “I’ll feed it to you.”

  Her mouth parted as he speared into her, shuddering at the suckling heat of her warmth. Her pussy feathered over him in a grip that made him grind his teeth together. When he was seated up to the hilt, her sigh made his hands clench against the drywall.

  Alana’s hips rolled one way and then the other. Noel spread his legs further apart, bracing himself on the balls of his feet for better leverage. He went deeper and she brought his head down, allowing her lips to flutter over his. A quick flick of her tongue and he was gone.

  Reason fled and Noel took either half of her ass in his hands, clutching it as he powered into her. He caught each groan and swallowed them, making sure that she felt every inch of his cock tunneling without an ounce of mercy. He wanted her sore tomorrow. He wanted her to remember this moment vividly—when everything changed.

  Alana’s head went back and bumped the wall. He took pride in watching the pleasurable agony contorting her face.

  “Can’t leave this, can you sugar?”

  She shook her head quickly.

  “Why?” he prodded. “Tell me why.”

  “Because I belong here,” she gasped, raising her lashes to match his glare. “I belong here.”

  He rode her harder for that broadcast, screwing his hips until she flooded his dick and bit down on the cords of his neck. Noel immediately felt his own release rolling up to take him under and it made him angry that she’d pulled it from his so quickly, shortening his goal to fuck her senseless. He nipped at her cleavage, purposely marking her as punishment because he knew she’d marked him.

  Shakily, he placed her on the ground and moved away, slamming into the opposite wall. Several beats passed and they eyed one another warily. Then, simultaneously, they both barked, “I blame you for this shit!”

  “Me?!” they yelled at the same, gesturing wildly. “This is your fault.”

  They glared. “Stop doing that! No seriously! Stop doing that!”

  Noel tossed his hands up and Alana did the same. They faced away from each other as he straightened his trousers and she made decent work of her dress. When they turned to one another again, she pointed a manicured finger entirely too close to his left eye for his liking. “This. It’s permanent. You wanted me and now you’ve got me, squidbilly. Live with it. You pull any shit and I’ll sledge hammer your ankles courtesy of Kathy Bates. We clear?”

  He grasped that finger and gently cradled her entire hand. Raising a brow, he asked, “Done?”

  She gave a short nod.

  “Good.” There was no rebuttal. He didn’t need to express himself with loud declarations and more promises. No. He only needed to do one thing. He tugged her forward and she came without objection. Lowering his head, he waited. Waited for that submission. Her lids closed and her mouth titled up just so. There it was. The kiss that had told him long ago his curiosity with her would never be satisfied.

  “You do realize,” Alana murmured against Noel’s shoulder some time later. “That there’s no music playing, right?”

  He simply tightened his arms about her and continued his senseless sway in the middle of his now empty ballroom. “I can solve that,” Noel retorted before calling out, “Music on.”

  A jingle echoed through the room and Alana chuckled. “You and all your fancy gadgetry.”

  Snorting, he spun them about. “Darlin’, I lived in a town where my entire family could literally holler down the block for a borrowed cup of flour. I’m entitled to my fancy gadgetry.” To the sound system he said, “We might make a baby playlist, track eight.”

  “Why is that a thing?!”

  “Quiet!”

  “You’re turning on songs that may involve possible womb fertilization and you want me to be quiet?!”

  Noel glared and dipped her as “To be Alone” began to fill the previously silent space. “We’ve had this talk about my playlist names.”

  “And it’s becoming a bothersome conversation,” Alana retorted as she straightened.

  He smirked. “Are you annoyed because you think I played them for someone else?”

  “I’m annoyed because they sound perpetually tacky.”

  Somehow, she knew not to ask if he’d done that—played the songs for someone else. Noel wasn’t the type. He’d told her that he didn’t want to be monotonous or predictable, that he never wanted to be judged for the actions of others and she could understand that now. He wanted her to never forget whom it was that she was with, hence his determination to throw her off at any given moment. That told her that the answer would be no. That this was…special to him. The same way it was to her.

  After his home had emptied and the cleaning service he’d hired had done their job, they’d had a long talk about her fears and what justified them. He’d understood. Without her having to lay out every disheartening detail he’d understood that Alana had been dicked around by her parents, she’d been dicked around by her first love and she’d been dicked around by the people who were supposed to protect her.

  He understood that arm’s length had never been far enough for her. That she needed people outside of her perimeter, her box, so that she could watch and judge their true intent at all times. Noel had been given access to that box and it shook her how quickly she’d handed it over. But she came to an understanding also—it was his box now. He shared that perimeter with her. He wouldn’t violate it or her.

  Humming, he lifted her from the floor and twirled. When he placed her feet on the floor again, he slowed his movements. “Alana?”

  She lifted her head and caught him staring at her in that way. “Yeah?”

  “What made you stay?”

  It was the one question he hadn’t asked her all night and because of that, she’d assumed that he’d already figured out the answer.

  “What can I say, squidbilly?” she sighed. “There’re some things a body can’t explain—”

  “—You want what you want,” he completed for her. A beat of silence passed before he stated, “And that’s me.”

  Alana curved a hand over his jaw, swiped her thumb across his mouth. “And that’s you,” she confirmed.

  Thirteen

  Several months later…

  “A little more to the right. Yes! That’s perfect! Drop it boys!”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Absolutely positive.”

  “You said that the last three times.”

  Alana stood back and looked a bit closer at the placement of
her new desk, nodding at the two men who’d so graciously offered their help. “Meh…maybe—”

  Groans sounded out and she laughed, putting up her hands. “Okay. Okay. The desk stays.”

  All she received was a grunt and a slight sneer. Ask a man to move something a time or six and they got cranky. Good lord. Walking closer, she watched them seat it before she hopped on top and swung her legs. “Lovely, isn’t it?”

  One of the men smirked. “How long do you think you have before Nyssa takes a sledgehammer to it?”

  She blinked. “Why would she do a cruel thing like that?”

  “Maybe because,” the woman in question said from the doorway. “You moved all of your shit into an office and hired me a new assistant without telling me!”

  Alana raised a finger. “My shit needed a new home,” she said. “And your assistant was vetted and placed by me—which means he’s able to fill my exquisite shoes. Therefore, I don’t understand your yelling.”

  “She doesn’t understand my…” Nyssa’s voice trailed off and she looked to Noel. “Why is this a thing? Why is she this way?”

  Alana’s fears that she’d be called to the carpet for getting romantically involved with a client had apparently been unfounded because upon discovering her and Noel’s relationship, Nyssa had simply stared and went, “Why do I need to know who’s face you’re riding in your spare time? Why is that my business? Why did you put that image in my head?!”

  Amazing and impossible that was her boss.

  He rolled his shoulders. “I have to hide the majority of my underclothing, my playlist names keep coming up changed and I’ve had to gift her sibling with season passes to Copperheads games just so he would stop showing up at our home unannounced. I am quite literally the last person you should be asking that question because I don’t understand her at all. I just do what she says. Otherwise no legs. And I really love the legs. I’m planning to marry those legs.”

  Alana frowned. “I don’t know if I should be insulted or not. However, my ring is heavy enough that I’ll ignore it for now.”

  “Of course my love for you is strong, darlin’ but…legs.”

  She stuck them out and waggled her brows. “They are quite nice.”

  From where he stood beside Noel, Sansone tucked in his lips and avoided Nyssa’s stare.

  “You just let her take over an office?”

  Sansone grimaced. “She had all of the furniture…and I didn’t want to be—”

  “Rude?” Nyssa demanded. “Are you about to say rude?!”

  Somehow, Alana had made the mistake of believing that the admittance of love would stop these loud and ridiculous fights. She’d been wrong. They only seemed to get louder and more ridiculous as time went on, including insults about Sansone’s ability to wear red and Nyssa’s questionable mental health. She found it entertaining. Even more so after having won the pool in her office because the pair’s behavior had broadcasted what everyone else already knew—they were banging harder than pots and pans in the hands of toddlers. She really loved her work environment.

  “Yes!” he shouted back. “Because I pride myself on lending a hand where it is needed and should I remind you that you’re the one who decided to make her junior partner upon the passing of her bar exam?! Which entails an office!”

  To celebrate her passing the bar, she’d been thrown an in office party where her employers announced their choice. It was one that Noel had to miss due to an away game but his gift upon returning home had been a trip to Kioni village. He’d proposed there after having gotten Alexander’s blessing and she’d made him think that she wouldn’t accept for all of five seconds just to torment him. It wound up backfiring when he’d grabbed her about the waist and jumped off a boat they’d rented for the day to sail around the island. If anyone had told her months ago that she’d be junior partner at Blackwell & Sultana now…she might have believed him or her. Had they told her that she’d be engaged? Nawl. And yet, some things just felt natural. Some things felt right. Nyssa’s harping was not one of those things!

  “Obviously I’m beginning to regret that decision!”

  “Well that’s just hurtful,” Alana announced.

  Nyssa swung around. “Oh shut up!”

  “I took initiative! You should be pleased that I took initiative!”

  “What you did was invite another possibly dangerous individual into my office!”

  “What, exactly, is he a danger to? Your lack of sanity?”

  “You’re fired!”

  Alana threw her head back. “Ha! As if you could manage one goddamn day of your life without me!”

  “I can try!”

  “And fail horribly at it!”

  A whistle cut through the air. Both women looked to the doorway where Nyssa’s new assistant stood.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt the very entertaining and extremely irrational yelling taking place here,” Alexander said. “But it’s the lunch hour and I wanted to know if the harlot—”

  “I resent that distinction.” He couldn’t be nice, could he? No! Even after having gotten the smarmy bastard one of the greatest jobs he could ask for—just so he could harass sports legends all on his own—Alexander Stafford was still Lord Brattington!

  “—and her large, pithy handed athlete wanted to join me?”

  Noel made a face and looked down at his hands. “Pithy? Pithy?”

  Alana reached over and curled her fingers around his. “Ignore it.”

  “But he called them pithy.”

  Sansone snorted. “Can’t argue with that assessment.” This got him cuffed in the back of the head by one of those large, pithy hands.

  Alexander nodded. “Good, we’re all in agreement that my sister’s fiancé has disproportionate hands.” He looked to Alana. “Lunch or no?”

  She hopped down from the desk. “What are we having?”

  “Italian?” Noel suggested.

  Nyssa’s nose wrinkled. “I’d rather have Thai.”

  “The Thai place next to the Brazilian restaurant?” Sansone asked.

  “I think she means the Thai place across from the Dominican eatery a few doors down from the Greek take-out,” Alexander pointed out.

  The other woman nodded. “That’s the one.”

  “Still family owned?” Alana questioned as they all poured out of the room, headed for the elevators.

  “Not sure,” Nyssa answered. “But we can always check and if it seems sketchy…”

  Sansone hit the button for the parking garage. “I’m okay with Greek.” He looked around. “Everyone else okay with greek?”

  The foursome traded glances but Alexander and Alana were the only ones to chorus, “Shawarma!”

  The End

  More about the Author

  When Nikki wrote her first story in the tenth grade with the help of a pen, three packs of correction tape and a small, completely non-creepy obsession with cowboys, she knew she was destined for greatness. Now if she could just convince everyone else...

  Her days were spent guarding her notebooks with her life, and her nights were spent continuing a love affair with insomnia. Eventually, just a bit disgusted with the traditional love story, she took a dive into the deep waters of romance with a not-so-gentle or subtle push by a beloved mentor.

  These days she's taken the time to polish what she refers to as her "writing superiority." She hopes that the tales she creates will grab the reader's attention, and make them devoted slaves to her will...er, fans.

  If you want to let her know just how absolutely, positively awesome she is, you can always e-mail her at nikkiwinter19@gmail.com, friend her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nikkiwinter19, check out her works in progress at nikkiwinter.com, weywardthoughts.com or follow her at @Pyro_Nikki on Twitter.

  Nikki’s Other Works

  Titles can be found at Are, Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

  Mocha Memoirs Press

  One Shot Too Many

  Talking Dirty

&n
bsp; Under The Christmas tree

  Self-Published Works

  Kiss and Tell

  Kiss and Burn

  Sweet Series Anthology (To be released)

  What a Bear Wants

  What a Bear Needs

  Beauty and the Brawler bundle

  Beauty and the Barracuda

  Beastly Desires

  Beastly Urges (To be released)

  Burn for Me

  The Sweetest Thing

  SEAL Bundle (To be released)

  Vexed (To be released)

  Thanks for Reading!