I burst out into a tiny giggle. “Hey, sometimes the temperamental ones are the most talented. I have my own Claude at Sakana. His name is Basil.”
Carter laughs too. It’s a nice, warm sound that fills my ears and makes me feel relaxed.
It hits me that I’m actually having a good time with Carter Caldwell. Go figure.
Our laughter dies down and the moment turns serious. Carter turns to me. His dark blue eyes are even darker in the dim evening light, and my heart skips a beat as he leans in close. Somewhere along the line, he lost his Stetson. Before I can think about what I’m doing, I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him close. Carter’s mouth hovers inches away from mine. He lingers for a moment, and I breathe in, inhaling his wonderful musky cologne. Then he dips lower and captures my lips with his.
The kiss explodes from the depths of my body. From a place I didn’t even know existed before this moment. Before this man. The room twirls around me, decreasing in size with every second. Carter’s tongue slips into my mouth, and I moan against it as he begins to nibble and suck my lower lip. My belly turns into a quivering mass of arousal as I press my body against his. Carter wraps his hands around my waist and gently pushes me against the brick wall, pressing his body against mine as the kiss grows deeper. I can feel his hard cock through the thin material of his pants and grind against him, thinking of how it will feel when he slides inside of me for the first time.
When Carter breaks the kiss, my heart gallops. He brushes hair away from my ear and leans in close.
“Let’s get out of here,” Carter whispers. “There’s something sizzling between us, and I’m going to die if I don’t find out what it is. Besides, your taste has given me an idea. Something I’ve always wanted to try. You’re the woman. This is the time.”
His eyes flash in the darkness, and I don’t even think about his cryptic words or what I’m doing before I throw every ounce of caution I possess into the wind and agree.
Taking my hand, Carter leads me away from the private balcony and down a restricted hallway. The fact that this might be a horrible idea doesn’t even occur to me as I follow close behind, my heels clicking on the tiled floor. We’re silent, and somehow that just makes the moment even more intense as I follow Carter into the street where a fancy town car hugs the curb.
Carter helps me into the backseat. Before the door is even shut behind him, we’re on each other again. The car jolts forward, and I pull Carter on top of me, fumbling with the button of his shirt with clumsy fingers. As Carter shoves a muscular thigh between my legs and grinds against my crotch, I groan into his neck. It feels so good – I know I should stop, I shouldn’t be doing this – but I can’t help it. I want Carter more than I’ve ever wanted anything, and I know I’m not going to be satisfied until he wears my body out with multiple orgasms.
The car slows to a stop and Carter passes a wad of bills to the driver, barely even looking as he covers my face in desperate kisses. He opens the door and scoops me into his arms, carrying me down a dark hallway. After a short elevator ride, Carter reaches into his pocket and fumbles with his keys, jamming them into the lock and pushing the door open. Darkness bathes the inside of his condo, but neither of us bothers with a light switch. Carter pulls me inside, releases me, and slams the door behind us.
“Wine?” he asks, pointing toward the pristine chef’s kitchen.
“I’d love some.” Anything to calm the rapid pounding of my heart.
When he returns, I hiss in an inhale. Along with two wine glasses, he’s holding a kitchen towel.
I take the wine he offers and hold my breath, wondering what’s coming next. What this thing is that he wants to try. With me.
“Turn around, Pepper.”
I only hesitate for a second before I comply. The towel covers my eyes, and I feel Carter securing it with something, I’m not sure what. Now that I’m blinded, my heart seems to take off again, finding another gear in its attempt to escape my chest cavity. All my remaining senses are heightened. The lemony fresh scent of the clean towel assails my nostrils. Every cell in my body fires with sensation.
I barely have time to breathe before his hands go to work, divesting me of every article of clothing. He shimmies my pants down, and they pool at my feet.
“Step out of the pants,” he demands, holding me at my waist. “Now.”
His hands snake around to my breasts, still clad in my lacy bra. Some whisper soft caresses assault my senses. Before I can moan my pleasure, he unclasps my bra to free my straining breasts. The cool air hits them, my nipples pebbling into stiff, aching nubs. Carter walks his hands up my rib cage, flicking his fingertips over my throbbing flesh until I lift my hands in the air. Giving me a little pinch of correction on my ass cheek, he places them at my sides again. I feel like I’m about to jump out of my own skin. I need to be closer. I need to do something other than just stand here, an obedient statue catering to his every whim.
“Are we going to the bedroom?” I ask on a ragged breath.
“No.”
When all I want is to snatch my perception of control back, he’s unwilling to give it. I hear him moving around me, sense his heat as well as the flutters of his shirt falling. With one swipe, my panties are removed. Part of me wants to cover myself, since I know he’s staring. The other part, the blinded part, allows the scenario to unfold naturally. If the intimacy doesn’t intensify, I think I can handle just standing here, letting him look his fill.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispers.
A cold sensation captures my nipple, turning it into a straining nub. Carter circles it again and again. But not with his fingers. No. I can’t figure out what he’s doing, I can only surrender to the sensations it’s causing on my fevered skin.
I turn my head to the side, and he stills long enough to capture my lips in his. I moan into his mouth, and he accepts the sound with his tongue. My hand moves to his forearm, traveling ever downward. As soon as I reach his wrist, he stops me.
“No, Pepper. You’re misbehaving. Do you know what happens to naughty girls who misbehave?”
My heart feels like it’s going to liquify and ooze through my ribs. I can smell his musky cologne, feel his body heat. Of their own accord, my knees give a slight wobble, and he holds tightly to my wrist to stabilize me. My lungs seem devoid of air.
“What?” I manage to whisper.
“This.”
Before I even know what’s happening, he lifts me, cradling me to his muscular body until I’m laid gently down on the carpet beneath where I was just standing. The sensation of weightlessness intoxicates me as much as the scents and sounds that reverberate around my unseeing eyes. He kisses me again, placing my body the way he wants it for whatever wickedness he has planned next.
“Carter…”
As if he understands my unspoken plea, he dips his head to my breast and captures my nipple in his wet mouth. It feels incredible, and I moan again, my legs falling apart. God. I ache. I want him to touch me where I need it most. But he’s teasing me without mercy, his teeth and tongue setting my nipples on fire with need.
The exposed position doesn’t feel naughty. It feels raw and right. Intimate. When I feel his lips move back up to my mouth again, a shudder rips up my spine.
“Time to test your palate, Chef St. Claire,” he says, breaching the seams of my lips with his tongue.
An explosion of fresh strawberry bursts across my tongue. So that’s what he’s been using to torment my body into a quivering mass of submission.
“Strawberry.”
He doesn’t answer, just inches his hands down my rib cage, stopping just above my throbbing pussy. The strawberry’s still in his fingers, I can feel it, cool and moist across my fevered skin.
“I’m impressed,” he says, rubbing the fruit in circular motions right below my navel. After a few tense moments, it’s gone, replaced by his hot mouth, licking all traces of the fruit’s juices off my skin. I never knew a simple berry could be so erotic. So
decadent. So bad in the best way.
I move my hands to thread them through his hair, but he stops what he’s doing only long enough to put them above my head. With another little pinch to my flank, he corrects me.
“Don’t move. I’m not going to tell you again.”
Just who does he think he is? I’m Pepper St. Claire. I have three Michelin stars, and he only has two. I’m not going to let him manhandle me.
I’m so going to let him manhandle me.
My legs fall even farther apart. As if he senses my growing need, he places his large hands on either side of my knees and pushes them wide. I’m completely exposed, bare to his gaze. Thank God I still wax despite my vagina’s three-year hiatus. Basil would skin me alive if I didn’t.
He takes my right ankle in his hand, placing a kiss on the tender skin inside my leg. I jerk at the sensation, but he holds me tight and firm, not allowing me to wrench free.
“You’re learning,” he says, licking a light trail from my ankle to the back of my knee, and on to my inner thigh.
I can feel the wetness pooling between my exposed thighs. I ache and throb, craving his touch. Craving a release, I can almost feel before it even arrives. The strawberry’s back, blazing a trail from my inner thigh to the place I want Carter to touch me.
He wouldn’t.
Oh, my fucking God. He would.
Carter slides a finger inside of me, the strawberry rolling around my straining clit. It’s indescribable. I shudder and try to wrest myself away from the riot of new sensations. He stops cold. I moan and grind myself into his hand, but he doesn’t touch me again. With a sigh, I realize I’m not going to get what I want until I give him what he wants.
Nothing less than my complete surrender.
I’ve never done that before. Can I? Something deep inside me comes to life, emerging from a place I didn’t even know existed. It gives me the composure to still my body, so I’m not even moving a solitary muscle.
“Good girl.”
His voice contains so much grit, I’d swear he guzzled his own barbecue sauce on a rack of razors. He moves his hand against my body, and I reach down and press my own hands to his, grinding against his fingers until his thumb finds my clit. As he strokes the sensitive nerves with slow, torturous strokes, I bite my lip and arch my back.
“Oh, God. That’s so good. I’m going to come.”
“You can’t come until I tell you,” he rasps. “You’re going to come on my tongue. Not a moment sooner.”
“I don’t think–”
“You can. Now, I’m going to remove the blindfold because I want you to see me when I suck this strawberry out of your wet pussy.”
In one soft pull, he tugs the blindfold off my face. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, all I can see is Carter, poised between my legs, my aching pussy voracious for anything he’s prepared to give it.
Tossing my head back, I groan. Even if he wants me to see it, I can’t. The sensations are too intense. Too incredible to even articulate. This man’s like nothing I’ve ever even fantasized about in my wildest imagination. The strawberry’s disappeared inside of me. Or is that Carter’s fingers. I don’t even know anymore.
He lowers his head to my pussy and licks my engorged clit with the tip of his tongue. It’s not enough. Not enough pressure. I see stars. Throwing my head back, I also throw caution to the wind.
“Harder.”
I brace myself for the correction, but it doesn’t come. Instead, he finally gives me what I’ve been craving. What I need more than anything in this tortured moment. He sucks my clit into his mouth, and I come in wave upon wave of pleasure until I don’t know where I end, and he begins.
“I’m going to fuck you, Pepper. I feel like my cock’s going to explode.”
“Yes,” I whisper, not able to manage anything more as I gradually float down from the most explosive orgasm of my life.
Once I’m back to earth, I tangle my hands in Carter’s hair, wanting him to hurry. Wanting him closer. Carter gets to his knees and unbuckles his belt, pushing his jeans down his muscular legs. He reaches into a pocket and pulls out his wallet where he takes a foil square between his fingers and rips it open with his teeth. Reaching forward, I tug Carter’s boxers down his thighs until his cock bobs free. He’s huge – just long enough, with perfect girth – and I shiver as I watch him roll the latex down over his straining erection.
Carter grabs me by the hips and pulls me forward over the carpet. It stings my back and thighs but somehow that just adds to the pleasure, and I cry out. Pushing my thighs apart, Carter crawls between my legs and steadies himself with a hand against my hip. He slides deep inside of me, filling me to the hilt, and groans. Arching his back, Carter stays like that for a long second before thrusting in and out, filling me again and again.
Not able to withstand the intense sensations, I close my eyes and moan, writhing and twisting beneath Carter’s muscular body. He dips his head to mine and kisses me, sucking on my tongue and lower lip.
As Carter’s cock penetrates me over and over, I can feel my own pleasure building. I’m already prime for my second, and it hovers, so close. His body rubs against my clit with each thrust, and soon I’m gasping and choking for air, desperate for my orgasm to crash over me like a powerful wave. I tangle my fingers with Carter’s and pull him over my body, wrapping my legs around his waist as he thrusts in even deeper than before.
“You’re so tight, Pepper. You feel incredible.”
Carter groans and buries his face in my neck. When I feel his teeth there, I shiver with pleasure. He arches his back and bucks and gasps and drives into my body. When I feel myself start to come, I scream Carter’s name and press my mouth to his in a frenzy of passion. My own pleasure sets Carter off, and soon he’s shaking, increasing his tempo. I feel his cock pulse inside of me, and the sensation makes me shiver.
For a few seconds, we stay locked together, as close as two people can be. Then, Carter rolls away, pulling me with him. I can hear the thump of his heartbeat. Or is that mine? After a few seconds, our rhythms become one, melded together in an intimate duet. As we snuggle on the plush carpeting of his living room, my eyes flutter closed. Exhaustion overtakes me, and I figure I can just doze for a few minutes.
Chapter Twelve
Carter
My tongue feels like sandpaper as it rasps around in my dry mouth. I’m freezing cold too – where the hell are my blankets?
And why does my bed feel rough and hard? Under normal circumstances, it’s soft and decadent, and…
I’m. On. The. Floor.
Groaning, I open my eyes, memories flooding my brain, threatening to explode into another maelstrom of sensation. Cool air flows over my naked body as I lay in the foyer of my condo, sans one stitch of clothing.
And my frenemy with benefits is right next to me, her elegant fingers tucked underneath her chin. Emotions swirl, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it was the best sex of my life. On the other, she’s my direct competition for every fucking thing I’ve ever wanted. She’s standing between me and stepping outside of Nixon’s formidable shadow.
Pepper St. Claire.
I mouth her name as I stare at her face, gorgeous in repose. Her mouth is open, and she’s snoring quietly, her dirty-blonde hair falling in alluring tangles over her pale face.
“Pepper,” I say, my voice creaking with my sex hangover and the unforgiving morning light. “Wake up.”
Pepper’s light grey eyes flutter open, and she blinks at me. For a moment, we stare at each other. Then she gasps and sits up, covering her luscious breasts with a pale, freckled arm.
“I can’t believe I fell asleep,” Pepper groans, rubbing the side of her head with one hand. “What time is it?”
Reaching for my pants, I grab my phone from one of the pockets.
“It’s a little after nine,” I say, yawning and rubbing my mouth. “You want breakfast? I don’t normally cook for anyone but myself. Might be fun to whip up some
sustenance together. Reveal some trade secrets.”
Pepper shakes her head and grimaces as if cooking with me constitutes the most disgusting thing she’s heard. “I should get going.”
“You don’t have to leave,” I say, stomach swirling. I don’t want her to go. And I can’t explain why. “I can whip up some steak and eggs. Damn, that sounds good, actually.” I reach for my boxers and pull them on over my flaccid cock.
Pepper stares, and her sparkling eyes narrow and dim. “I don’t eat red meat. Did you forget?”
How could I ever forget anything about this feisty woman? She’s an expert at making sure her wants, needs, desires, and opinions are widely known. “Oh, yeah, okay. Well, sorry, I don’t have the ingredients for California Breakfast Rolls lying around at the moment. Or oatmeal.”
Pepper’s grey eyes flash her annoyance, but she doesn’t say anything. She reaches for her clothes and dresses quickly, pulling up her pants and straightening her silk shirt over her naked torso, effectively covering her delectable body from my hungry gaze. As the moment passes, I’m hungry for more than food.
“Last night was great,” I say, running a hand through my hair. “I can’t believe the turnout – that was insane.”
Pepper nods, standing to her full height and stretching like a cat. The position pushes her luscious tits closer toward me. I groan inside. She’s erected a wall between us again when all I want is to bust it down.
“Yeah,” she says. “I’m sure my brother is really pleased.”
“Aw, shit.” I rake a hand through my hair. “I can’t believe it. I totally forgot about Cody.”
Pepper laughs, her green eyes sparkling. I feel like worshipping at her feet. But I don’t. I don’t even touch her when my hands strain to close the gap. It’s the happiest she’s looked since I woke her. It pisses me off that Cody’s the source of her pleasure and not me.
Pony Up Page 10
