by Kage, Linda
“So do you make lots of lattes?” she asked, eyeing the machine. He didn’t look like an espresso enthusiast to her. She would’ve guessed him for a regular coffee drinker.
Braxton flushed and finally grinned. “Never have,” he admitted.
Lenna stopped looking at the latte maker espresso machine to turn toward him with an expression full of confusion and crinkled eyebrows.
“So, then why do you have a latte maker?”
Braxton’s lips quivered as if he was trying to hold back a smile. “What?” he asked innocently. Then he caved. His shoulders slumped. “Okay, fine. I thought it looked cool.” When her mouth fell open with incredulous disbelief, he argued, “Isn’t everyone allowed to have at least one basically worthless appliance in their kitchen?”
Lenna threw her hands in the air as if calling defeat. “That’s it,” she announced. “We’re making lattes.”
“Okay,” he said. “Fine by me.” But when she continued to stare at him, he frowned. “What?”
“Well, I don’t know how to use this thing,” she said.
He snorted. “And you think I do?”
Lenna rolled her eyes as she sighed. “Where’s the manual?”
In return, she received a blank look. “Uh…” He glanced around the kitchen as if he thought the instruction booklet would appear in thin air before them.
She groaned, setting her hand against her forehead, “You threw it away, didn’t you?”
Once again, Braxton didn’t have a ready answer. “I might not have.” He opened a drawer and peered inside.
Lenna joined the hunt and was the one who discovered the manual a few minutes later.
“Voilà!” she exclaimed, cheerfully holding it up.
As she read through the instructions, she called out the different supplies they would need, directing Braxton to fetch them from his cabinets.
“Okay,” she announced, once they were ready to start their project. “First we need to pour the cold water into the water chamber.”
Braxton looked at the warm water he’d taken from the faucet. “Should I chill it in the freezer first?” he asked.
She laughed. He looked so boyishly sincere.
“Just give it here.”
He promptly handed over the measuring cup.
“Alrighty then,” she murmured, returning to the instructions. “Now…we place the coffee basket—” She paused to glance at the machine. “Where’s the coffee basket?”
“The coffee basket?” Braxton asked, raising his eyebrows. Then he lifted one finger. “You wait right here. I’ll go ask Little Red Riding Hood if we could borrow her basket.”
Making like he was actually going to leave the room, Braxton started for the door. Lenna laughed and grabbed after him. She caught him by a belt loop and tugged him back. He turned toward her as she did so and gave her a devastating, yet ornery, grin that stopped her heart for a full second.
Wanting to ignore the sexual pull, she quickly let go of him and turned away. Focusing on the machine, she said, “Here it is.”
Keeping her back to him in the vain hope of ignoring how absolutely tantalizing he was, she put a bigger effort into fixing their lattes. “So.” Turning her attention back to the instructions, she read aloud. “Once the liquid starts to flow, it should have brown foam on top.”
“Brown foam?” Braxton wrinkled his face in horror. “That doesn’t sound healthy.”
Lenna threw back her head and laughed. How did he make everything cute and hilarious yet so freaking erotic?
Braxton came up behind her.
“Why do you have to look so sexy doing that?” He set his hands on the counter, one on each side of her. Though he left her plenty of room to move and didn’t lay a finger on her person, he’d successfully trapped her.
She sucked in a gasp as his breath brushed her ear. “Can I ask you something?”
Finding it more and more difficult to concentrate on her latte making, she managed to nod. “Sure.”
“It’s about this no-sex policy we started.”
Lenna dropped the measuring cup, dumping coffee grounds across the countertop. As she rushed to catch the clattering plastic and contain the spilled grounds, Braxton covered her fingers with his to stop her.
“Because I was just wondering,” he murmured, “is just sex prohibited or can we not fool around either?”
Then, as if to answer his own question, he bit her earlobe and sucked it between his teeth, tickling it with his tongue, just before he slipped a hand around her waist.
“Stop,” Lenna said in a throaty voice, even as she moved her head to the side in order to give him better access. “You’re making me forget what I’m doing.”
“I don’t think I can stop.” Another tug from his teeth caused her to moan. “I’ve become quite attached to this ear.”
Lenna moved back against him. “Okay,” she told him in a high voice. “We can fool around.”
His low chuckle had her loins tightening.
Lenna covered his fingers at her waist. Guiding him, she started to rotate his palm around her stomach. He found his way under her shirt and caressed her warm abdomen, circling her belly button. Every once in a while, his fingertips dipped an inch into the waistband of her skirt. When Braxton licked under the ear he’d been nibbling on, Lenna shuddered.
“You’re going to make the other ear jealous,” she purred, forgetting all about lattes and celibacy.
“Well, we can’t have that.” He obediently started to tease her other lobe as his fingers continued to toy with her abdomen.
He wasn’t moving up toward her bra or down into her underwear, but he was staying chastely at her waist, driving her insane.
Taking control of matters, Lenna sucked in her stomach, grabbed his wrist, and manually moved his hand south.
“Oh, God, Lenna,” he gasped when his fingers slipped inside her panties. “Are you sure?”
Hell, no, she wasn’t sure.
But she bit her lip and nodded. Braxton ditched her ear and rested his forehead on the back of her shoulder as he encountered pubic hair. Needing to grab onto something for support, she bowed forward and gripped the edge of the counter in front of her.
“Don’t stop,” she told him.
He let out a strangled laugh. “Wasn’t gonna.”
His fingers kept on their slow and steady path until he had one planted firmly in her warm center. Then two.
Oh God, three.
Lenna rocked against him. She threw back her head and smiled when he groaned.
“That feels…so good,” she told him as he stroked her, coming all the way out to slick moisture over the sensitive outer rim and then going back in for more. He repeated the action again and again with maddening slowness.
Lenna’s fingernails dug into the tiled countertop. “Don’t stop…please. Braxton. Braxton!”
He made an unintelligible sound and quickened the pace, then latched his mouth onto the back of her neck and cupped a breast with his free hand. Lenna bucked against him, and her body splintered.
She cried out a choking scream, her hips jerking erratically. Braxton held on tight, massaging her through the storm.
By the time she released her hands from the countertop, she was surprised her fingers hadn’t left grooves. She stared at the smudged fingerprints she had made, and laughed.
Oh, wow. She felt good. She felt wonderful.
Unable to contain her body’s delight, she continued to laugh.
“Oh, my God. That was fabulous, Braxton…”
Behind her, he slowly removed his hand from her panties and took a step back. “God damn. I could become addicted to this. You come apart too easily.”
Lenna spun around, absolutely glowing. But her smile fell when she saw him physically shaking. His eyes were unfocused, and a sheen of sweat matted his hair to his forehead.
“Braxton?” she said, reaching for him.
He caught her hand with both of his and squeezed her fingers a
s he looked down at her completely clothed body.
“That was,” his voice wavered. “That was so God damn hot.”
Sighing in relief, Lenna whispered his name and came toward him for a kiss. He caught her lips with his and latched on desperately. Taking her face in his hands, he gave her a mind-blowing kiss.
Wanting to pleasure him as much as he’d pleasured her, she grasped the top button of his pants. With a groan, he clutched her wrist and tugged her back.
“Lenna.” He pressed his forehead to hers and swallowed. “I can’t. Too close. What about…what about the no-sex—”
“It was the stupidest thing I ever thought up.” Pulling her hand free of his grip, she took hold of his zipper’s tab and opened his jeans.
When her hand burrowed into his underwear and gripped him, he panted. “Okay! Okay, in that case, hurry.”
She tugged his pants down over his hips, but Braxton paused her again. This time, he freed his condom and covered himself before going any further.
Lenna grinned and whipped down his trousers and underwear the rest of the way. Then she bundled up her skirt just enough to reach her own panties, which she slipped down her legs slowly.
“Christ,” he breathed, staring at the lacy piece of lingerie that pooled around her bare ankles. He ran his gaze up her legs to focus on her jean skirt. Lenna pulled her blouse off over her head while Braxton snagged her hips and lifted her to sit on the countertop.
He kissed her, making love to her mouth as he gathered her skirt up around her thighs. Then he put one hand on each of her knees and moved them apart. Stepping between them, he slid his mouth to her jaw and nipped her with his teeth. Lenna gripped his hair and gasped as he thrust inside her.
She was already wet from her climax when he pushed home with so much unexpected ease that he had to clench his teeth and groan. Throwing back his head, he moved, focusing on nothing but the pressure building in his dick. With every thrust, it doubled and intensified, zinging overwhelming sensations through him from base to tip.
This wasn’t something he was prepared for.
The pleasure was like nothing before. It caught him off guard and made him pause mid-pump to remember if he’d really put on protection this time; it just felt too good for there to be a layer between them.
“What’s wrong?” Lenna gasped, wrapping her arms tight around him, which pushed her breasts against his chest.
Spotting the opened and empty condom wrapper on the counter beside her hip, he blew out a relieved breath and rested his forehead on her shoulder. If he didn’t cool it, he was going to go off in about two seconds.
“Braxton?” Soft fingers and delicious sharp nails sifted through his hair.
“I’m good,” he confessed, and then lifted his face to look into her green eyes. “Too good.”
Lenna blinked confused. “Isn’t too-good…good?”
She was so God damn beautiful. Her concerned expression flayed him alive.
“I was just remembering what you said the other night.” When his dick pulsed inside her, telling him to get with the program, she gasped and tightened her thighs around him.
“What…what did I say?” she asked, wetting her lips as she tried to wiggled her hips to make him move.
With a grin, he caught her hip, staying her. “You said it’s always a good time to tease. Didn’t you?”
Her eyes flared wide. “Oh, God, no,” she whispered before whipping her head back and forth. “No. No, I don’t remember say that at all.”
“But I clearly remember you saying it.” He pulled out, almost all the way, barely keeping the head of his penis lodged inside her.
“Braxton.” She bit her lip and panted, her body coiled and straining for more. “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh, but I do.” He put his mouth by her ear and murmured, “Let the teasing begin.”
Sinking slowly back in, he paused mid-thrust only to draw himself practically all the way back out again.
After a few more slow, shallow strokes, he made a deep, fast lunge. Lenna screamed and clutched him hard, her nails biting into his back. She looked dazed with pleasure. But he pulled back out to tease some more, barely entering before withdrawing.
When he dipped his face to tug her straining nipple between his teeth, she clutched his hair hard.
“Braxton, please,” she panted.
He licked her pearled tip and glanced up. “Please what?”
She blushed and lowered her face. “You know.”
Kissing her neck to force her chin back up, he hummed. “No. You’re going to have to tell me.”
“Please,” she repeated on a whisper, her face flushed with embarrassment. But she met his gaze and begged, “Fuck me.”
Her shy demand was probably the hottest thing he’d ever heard. All teasing forgotten, he kissed her hard, spiking his tongue into her mouth and slammed his body into hers.
She screamed against his mouth and exploded, the walls of her sex contracting around him so tight he saw stars. Raw, needy pleasure throbbed into him.
His orgasm clutched him by the balls and echoed along his entire system. Like a train wreck, it leveled him.
They held each other until the rippling currents subsided. And even then, he refused to leave her. But by the way she wrapped her legs around him, he had a feeling she wouldn’t let him leave anyway.
He loved that.
Coming down off the biggest high of his life, Braxton’s thighs trembled. Lenna let out a breath and leaned forward to rest her face on his shoulder. He kissed her hair, inhaling the scent of her shampoo, and slid his hand over her bare shoulder.
Feeling exposed and inexperienced with the sensation, he stood there, still rooted deep but connected by more than just their bodies. He tried to figure out what was going on. For some reason, he thought half of his soul had just been sliced out of him. And he had this sneaking suspicion that if he lifted his head and looked into Lenna’s sea green eyes, he’d find the missing portion.
CHAPTER 10
Lenna woke first the next morning. She came to with a dreamy, goofy smile on her face. Next to her, her lover lay sprawled lifelessly, flat on his back with his arms flopped limply at his sides.
She’d completely exhausted him.
Grinning, she tucked her hand under her cheek and studied the peaceful expression on his face. She filled a full minute just watching the way his eyelashes rested against his cheekbones. Then her gaze moved on to other features.
His mouth was slightly open, parted enough to get a sense of just how full and lush his lips were. She’d never thought pretty lips were attractive on a man before. But these lips looked good on this man. She caught a glimpse of his top teeth as he breathed. They looked white and perfect, especially with that small chip in the one.
Wanting to be closer to him, Lenna eased herself across the mattress. It didn’t rouse him. Playful, she stretched out her foot and nudged his leg. Nothing.
He was completely unconscious. Seeing how she could take advantage of the situation, Lenna wiggled herself closer until she’d pressed herself fully against his side. She rested her chin on his shoulder and watched his face as she rubbed her calf slowly over his.
Finally beginning to stir, Braxton mumbled something unintelligible. Other than that, he didn’t budge. Since teasing had become their thing, Lenna dragged her fingernails down his chest even as her leg continued to caress.
He made another rumble but had yet to move. Her toes journeyed up the top of his foot and over his ankle. Then she went back down, tracing the underside of his heel with her toenails.
Without warning, he snapped his foot away.
Caught off guard, Lenna’s gaze flashed to his face.
He opened his eyes to scowl at her. “That tickled.”
A devilish smile lit her lips. “Oh, did it?”
His frown turned warning. “Lenna.”
But she ignored the threat and taunted, “Just how ticklish are you?” Giving him no time to retr
eat, she attacked and went straight for his stomach, squirreling her fingers over his belly.
Braxton shouted out his sensitivity and tried to twist out of reach. “This means war, woman.”
He caught her around the waist only to howl when she tickled the back of his right knee.
“But I’m not ticklish,” she goaded, laughing as he desperately wriggled his fingers across her body. Then, just to amuse herself, she pinched the inside of his thigh.
He hollered a curse and jerked out of her reach. Dear Lord, he was ticklish everywhere.
Eyeing her warily from the other side of the mattress, he scowled. “This is so not fair. You’ve got to be ticklish somewhere?”
Lenna laughed in answer. “Want to bet?”
Face filling with challenge, Braxton lunged at her. She screamed with delight, making a weak attempt to escape. He caught her wrists and bundled them together, holding her with one hand as he searched her body with his other.
She grinned and hummed as he continued to hunt. When his hands moved over the inside of her thigh, she sucked in a breath and jumped. He lifted his eyes to hers, grinning in victory. But his smile fell when he saw the unfocused, impassioned glaze in her expression.
“That felt good,” she cooed and arched her back, wanting more.
His playful demeanor fled Braxton’s face as he arched an eyebrow. “Did it?” Then he stroked her thigh again, making her purr. “God, you are so beautiful,” he murmured, leaning down to kiss her collarbone as he cupped the back of her leg and slid his thumb over the expanse of soft skin.
“Every time I’m with you, I only want you more.” He moved his kisses toward the middle of her chest until he got to the notch where her breastbone connected. He dipped his tongue into the hollow.
Lenna sifted her fingers through his hair. “I love the way you touch me.”
“I love touching you.” He licked her sternum.
A roaring filled her ears until Braxton froze and lifted his face, frowning as he cocked his head toward the doorway.
“Did you hear that?”
Lenna stiffened; every muscle in her body went rigid. “Hear what?”
“It sounded like someone just opened and shut the front door.”
