Made for You (The Best Mistake)

by Lauren Layne

  It took Brynn several seconds to realize that she was upside down, staring at Will’s back. Not a position she thought she’d be in. Ever. Good view, though.

  She reached down to pat his very nice butt when she realized they weren’t heading in the direction of her bedroom.

  “The stairs are the other way, cowboy.”

  This time it was her butt that was getting patted. “Nice girls do it in bed, Brynn. Wild women like you? They do it on the couch.”

  Brynn squealed he tossed her unceremoniously on her couch. Her white couch. She gaped at him. “We can’t do it here, it’s white.”

  Will was already unbuttoning his shirt. “Exactly.”

  Brynn struggled to get into a sitting position, not letting her shoes touch the pristine upholstery. Just because she was letting loose didn’t mean she didn’t have some standards.

  She froze when she felt Will’s warm palm on her inner thigh. Her eyes fluttered shut as his hand slowly slid upward until his pinky finger brushed her there. And then he was cupping her new black satin panties and she was lost.

  “Fuck the couch,” she said, slumping backward and pulling him on top of her.

  “It’s not the couch I’m after.” He slipped a finger under the elastic of her panties, his finger barely touching her as he stroked and teased.

  “Will.”

  He plunged a finger inside her, roughly and uncompromisingly, and Brynn arched her back in surprise.

  Will shifted until he was lying over her, his lips finding hers as he added another finger and began touching her in firm, sure strokes.

  Brynn’s fingers played over the sharp lines of his abs as she returned his kiss hungrily, even as she writhed beneath his hand. It wasn’t enough, and she was on the verge of begging for more when he shifted the angle of his hand slightly until his thumb found her sweet spot. He pressed and circled, once, twice, and then she was lost, her body shuddering in a helpless orgasm.

  When she finally stopped shaking long enough to open her eyes, she was horrified to find him studying her face with a small smile.

  “Were you watching me?” she accused, squirming in embarrassment.

  “What’s the point of doing all that work if I don’t get to watch?” he asked, giving her a swift peck on the lips before rolling off her.

  She whimpered at his absence. “You’re leaving?”

  Will gave her a smoky look as he deftly unbuttoned his shorts and stripped down to a pair of tight black briefs. “Not even if you paid me.”

  The sight of a mostly naked Will was so arousing and achingly familiar that before she’d realized she’d moved, Brynn pulled herself into a sitting position, resting her hands lightly on his hips. Keeping her eyes on his, she pulled him toward her until his waist was at her eye level and he was standing over her. Other than using a single finger to tuck her hair behind her ear, Will didn’t move. Brynn was in control and vulnerable at the same time, and the combination was intoxicating.

  The old Brynn had never been much of an initiator in sex, but this was the new Brynn. Moving ever-so-slowly, she dipped her head forward, planting a lingering kiss on his erection through his briefs. His hips bucked forward and he let out a sharp hiss before closing his hands around her head.

  “Brynn…”

  She kissed him again, parting her lips slightly to let his warm breath rush over him before carefully curling her fingers into the waistband of his briefs and pulling down, exposing him to her gaze. To her mouth.

  Will let out a string of curse words that belonged in a trucker pit stop as her lips found his bare skin. She teased him slowly, and he let her, her lips brushing and tongue flicking lightly until finally she wrapped her lips around him and sucked, just once, but enough to have him uttering a hoarse “fuck” before tugging her head back roughly.

  “Not like that,” he whispered, his fingers brushing his cheek.

  Brynn felt her cheeks heat in mortification. She’d forgotten that Will had turned sex into a pro sport over the years. He’d probably had a thousand women do that a hell of a lot better than her awkward attempts.

  “No” he said sharply, his fingers tightening. “Stop whatever you’re thinking. I just don’t want to do it that way. Not the first time.”

  “But it’s not our first time,” she said, trying to joke her way out of her embarrassment.

  Will’s grip loosened slightly and he ran a hand over her cheek. “It’s the first one that counts.”

  Brynn didn’t have time to ponder what that meant because then he pushed her back onto the couch, following her down and planting gentle kisses along the tops of her breasts before tugging her top down and slipping a tongue under the low cut of her black bra. She whimpered when his tongue flicked her nipple and together they awkwardly shed her shirt and bra until she was wearing nothing but a tiny skirt and damp panties underneath him.

  “Pretty,” he said softly, before wrapping his mouth around her nipple.

  She’d never been well endowed, but Will made her forget about that as he loved her, giving gentle attention to each breast until the new Brynn took over, pulling his head firmly against her as he sucked hard.

  “I feel like we’re doing things all out of order,” she said, her back arching.

  Will chuckled, blowing warm air over her cold nipple. “Baby, if you think there’s an order to sex, you’ve been doing it all wrong.”

  She wanted to protest, but then he tugged her panties to her knees and was inside her with a firm hard stroke, and somewhere amid the searing pleasure she wondered if he was right, that she had been doing it wrong, because it had never felt so right as right now.

  Brynn let her hands roam wherever they wanted, nails raking his flat nipples before clutching greedily at his firm hard butt, pulling him tighter, harder against her.

  Will began to move faster, his hand moving between their bodies and finding her sweet spot as they both watched down where their bodies were joined. His fingers ceased their playing long enough to grab Brynn’s right hand and guide it down until she was touching herself.

  With a groan, Brynn began to touch herself in the small circular motions she liked, as his greedy eyes took it all in.

  It was dirty and elemental and so fucking good, that Brynn barely had a chance to register that she was going over the edge again until lights exploded in front of her eyes. She hadn’t yet caught her breath when he grabbed both of her hands, this time pinning them above her head as he rode her harder, his eyes burning into hers as he let out a sharp yell, thrusting into her one last time before he let his own shudders take over.

  Neither of them moved for God knew how long, until Brynn finally wiggled her fingers, which were starting to fall asleep.

  “I’ve gotta pee,” she whispered.

  Will grunted and rolled over just enough for her to scoot out from under him, as she half walked, half waddled to the bathroom wearing only her tiny skirt.

  She didn’t bother to look in the mirror, knowing she wouldn’t like what she saw, but as she was righting her skirt after peeing, she felt an unfamiliar bandage.

  The tattoo.

  Her fingers shook in nervous anticipation. Allowing another person—especially Will—to select a tattoo was one of the riskier things she’d ever done. And so wildly out of character, she didn’t feel even remotely like herself.

  And she kind of loved it.

  Brynn shimmied her skirt down to her ankles and very carefully removed the bandage from her upper hip. She was surprised that it didn’t hurt, especially after the grinding gymnastics she and Will had just done on her couch.

  She braced for the worst as she stood on her toes so she could see the tattoo in the mirror. She’d been expecting something funny, or clever, or downright embarrassing, but she frowned when she realized it wasn’t a picture at all. It was a saying.

  There it was in tiny black letters.

  One step closer…

  Her mind went blank, and she waited for understanding to registe
r. She didn’t hate it. It felt…intriguing.

  But why?

  She was obviously missing something. One step closer to what?

  It was unlike Will to be cryptic.

  And that bothered her more than anything.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Hollywood can never compare

  to a good book.

  —Brynn Dalton’s Rules for an

  Exemplary Life, #61

  I’m telling you right now, up front, I don’t like gore.”

  Will grimaced as he set a bowl of popcorn in her lap. “And I’m telling you up front, if you call my classic horror collection ‘gore’ one more time, you’ll never get laid again. At least not by me.”

  Brynn gave him a smug look. “What makes you think I need you?”

  “You may not, but she does,” he replied, gesturing crudely between her legs.

  “That’s disgusting,” she said, stuffing a handful of popcorn in her mouth. And so true.

  They were lounging on Will’s nonwhite couch, and she was wearing ancient booty shorts from college, and one of Will’s undershirts. Her hair was a mess, and she didn’t have any makeup on beyond the remnants of yesterday’s mascara.

  And she felt the most fabulous she had in months. Years. Maybe forever.

  “I could get used to this whole life-vacation thing, ya know?”

  Will gave her a bland look over her shoulder. “Perhaps that’s a sign that this shouldn’t just be a vacation.”

  She took a small sip of wine and considered. “Nah. If I live like this forever I’ll get huge.” Again.

  “Great, maybe your boobs will grow.”

  Instead of getting offended, she found herself grinning confidently. “You like my boobs.”

  “Sure, when I can find ’em.”

  Her smile only widened as she licked buttery salt off her fingers. This was just right. Her and Will bickering like old times with the added benefit of sex. And wine.

  And apparently horror movies.

  “So how many of your lady friends have you subjected to this?” she asked as he finally pulled a DVD case from the shelf.

  “What do you mean ‘subjected’? Chicks love this.”

  “You haven’t put any of them through this, have you?”

  His hands paused for a second. “No. None.”

  Brynn’s smile faltered slightly. This wasn’t supposed to be special—it was supposed to be like any other of his short-lived fling.

  She certainly wasn’t looking to be different in Will’s life.

  Although perhaps it was inevitable that their situation be unique. Lifelong enemies didn’t become temporary lovers every day. Though Brynn was no longer sure that sex was all they were doing anymore. There’d been plenty of it over the past few days, and yet here they were getting ready to watch his scary-movie collection together.

  Not at all typical fling behavior.

  When she’d hatched her ridiculous, spontaneous seduce-Will-Thatcher plan, she’d had it in her head that they’d alternate between tearing at each other’s clothes and going back to having nothing to do with each other.

  But it had been a week since they’d screwed on her couch, and the days that had followed hadn’t been anything like she’d been picturing. She hadn’t counted on moral support, or lazy Sunday breakfasts, or friendship.

  But here they were.

  “Okay, so what is this?” she asked skeptically as he plopped down beside her on the couch and dug his hand into the popcorn bowl. “Psycho? Scream? That Nightmare on Elm Street business?”

  He shook his head, eyes already locked on the screen with a dreamy expression. “Night of the Living Dead. Totally classic. You’re going to love it.”

  Brynn let out the smallest of sighs even though she wasn’t the least bit put out. She’d never been a movie buff, but she had to admit, there was something kind of nice about being curled up on a rainy summer night with margaritas and popcorn. And a hot guy.

  Whom she might or might not hate. Leaning toward not.

  Brynn’s jaw dropped open as the opening credits rolled. “Tell me this movie isn’t in black and white.”

  “It’s from 1968, Princess, of course it’s in black and white.”

  Brynn slumped farther into the couch and prepared to be thoroughly bored. “I never pictured you as the type to watch old movies,” she muttered.

  He turned his head, and she felt his gaze on her profile. “Never pictured you as the type to watch them with me, but here we are.”

  It was almost an exact echo of what she’d been thinking, and for some reason, hearing him say it did something funny to her stomach. Instead of responding, she pretended interest in the movie.

  Which, in fact, turned out to be horrible.

  “That has to be one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. Zombies? Really?” Brynn said after the misery ended.

  He shook his head. “Never gets old.”

  “How many times have you seen it?” she asked, turning to face him. “You were quoting it, for God’s sake.”

  “Admit it, you liked it.”

  I liked that you liked it. Okay, this was getting ridiculous. It was Will. Just a few weeks ago she was trying to run him out of town and refusing to give him store-bought cookies, and now she was freely offering her cookies.

  “It was awful,” she said, picking out a half-popped kernel from the empty bowl. “I get that it was like a big deal way back when they barely had movies, but I didn’t get it.”

  “So you wanna watch another one?” he asked, standing and stretching as though she hadn’t spoken.

  His gray UW T-shirt rode up as he extended his arms above his head, and Brynn’s eyes lingered on the strip of flat abs he’d just exposed.

  “Or we could do something else,” she purred slyly.

  His eyes briefly ran over her, and did that hot, glowy thing that got her going every time. “What did you have in mind?”

  Brynn pretended to fiddle with her tiny shorts. “Well, it’s no zombie movie, but…”

  He pounced on her like something stalking its prey and she giggled as he went straight for her neck. “What is it with you and doing it on couches?”

  “We haven’t broken this one in yet,” he said, accidentally-on-purpose letting his hand run over her breast.

  Brynn gave a little moan, and moved to accommodate his weight on top of her. “So true, how dare we have any uninitiated furniture!”

  He dipped his head toward hers, pausing when his lips were just an inch from hers. “How about I kiss you and then we watch The Birds.”

  “How about you do me and then you can watch whatever movie you want while I fall asleep.”

  “Deal.”

  But before he could kiss her, the jarring noise of a cell phone blasted from the coffee table. Will let out a little groan before reaching out to grab it. Brynn fully expected him to silence it and get back to, well, her, but instead he looked at the screen with a thoughtful expression before answering it.

  “Soph, what’s up?” he said, holding the phone to his cheek as he pushed away from Brynn.

  Her stomach clenched in panic. He was talking to her sister? While they were in the same room? Hell, in the same house?

  Brynn frantically scrambled to sit up, clamping a hand over her own mouth as though to keep herself quiet, even though she had absolutely no intention of letting her sister know that she was in the same vicinity as Will Thatcher.

  “Not up to much, just watching a movie…” he said.

  Brynn let out a little sigh of relief. He hadn’t quite said he was alone, but neither had he volunteered that he had lady company.

  “They’re not gore,” Will was saying. “Why do you people keep calling them that?”

  Brynn’s eyes bugged out at what he’d just let slip and she clamped a hand on his arm in warning. He glanced at her with a shrug and she shook her head vehemently.

  Will merely tilted his head as though to indicate he didn’t understand, and
Brynn’s temper spiked slightly. He knew exactly what she was after, and was intentionally being difficult. It wasn’t like Brynn wanted to keep secrets from her sister, but this thing with Will…If anyone found out, she would never live it down.

  She hadn’t even told her family about her new hairstyle yet, much less her new boy toy. And they’d never be hearing about that tattoo.

  “I didn’t mean anyone specifically, I just meant girls in general called the classics gory,” Will said into the phone. Brynn sent him a look of relief, but he didn’t look at her, and his eyes had definitely lost the sex-haze of a few seconds ago.

  “Yeah, dinner on Friday sounds great, Soph. Text me the details. I’ve gotta go, ’kay?….and yeah, of course it’s a woman.”

  Brynn tensed again, but Will merely said a brief good-bye to her sister and hung up the phone.

  They both fell silent for a few painful seconds, although for the life of her, she didn’t understand why.

  “I take it you didn’t tell your sister about us?” he asked.

  “Us” felt like a strong word, but the tension in Will’s voice had her wary, so instead Brynn demurred. “I haven’t really told my family about any of this. They knew I took some time off, but not all the other stuff.”

  “And what is the other stuff, Brynn?”

  “You know, the clothes, the hair…the new car…you.”

  The last word came out quietly, and she began to feel the tiniest speck of shame unfurl in her chest. She was treating him like a dirty secret to be hidden in the closet when respectable company came over.

  Which he kind of was.

  “Look, I just don’t want other people in my personal life right now, okay? It’s nothing against you.”

  His eyes made a liar out of her, but he didn’t say anything more about it. But neither did he go back to the flirty, kissy Will, and she panicked a little at his withdrawal.

  “How about that movie?” he said, standing abruptly.