by RaeLynn Blue
When his arm slid around her waist, Aerial gasped. Not breaking his gaze, his hands swept across her lush curves, the dress’s fabric gliding across her skin. He tugged her to him, greedily pinning her to his body. It turned her on! The fact he could handle her, not an easy feat for most men. He squeezed her hard against him, and a tiny moan escaped his mouth. Not willing to break the spell, Aerial ached with need at the feel of his other arm wrap around her waist. His eyes held so much longing, it tore through her. She moaned in pleasure at feeling that solid muscle pressed so tightly to her. Resting both hands at the small of her back, Brice bent his head toward her.
No. Way. Brice Middleton meant to kiss her! Glee rolled through her, bubbling up from her belly, into a full-fledge giggle. He untangled his arms from her waist and brought them up to cup her face with one hand. This allowed the other hand to slide around to the back of her head. His fingers stroked the fine hairs at her nape.
Her giggling made him stop.
“Brice,” she whispered.
“Yes, Aerial,” he replied, his eyelids lowering.
“Kiss me already.” With her heart galloping like a team of angry mustangs, she closed her eyes.
He inclined his head and did just that.
Chapter Seven
Aerial tasted like soy sauce and spearmint, a strange salty sweetness, two contradictions in flavors. Perfect. It didn’t surprise him in the least—Aerial’s personality had been one of opposing contradictions. A deep half-groan rose up from his belly when she gently wrapped her arms around his neck. Deepening the kiss, his tongue further explored her mouth, bumping and teasing his own. Oh, how he could have done this very thing for days, but the blaring of car horns wrenched him back to the reality of where he stood. His eyes opened as the truck brimming with college students roared by. Breaking the kiss, he stepped back from Aerial, but kept her in his embrace. With her head titled and her eyes still closed, Aerial puckered her lips and when she didn’t feel his, she straightened and looked at him.
“Oh. You stopped.”
He smiled in spite of himself. “Was it so good you didn’t even notice when it was over?”
“Oh yes,” she replied completely missing his sarcasm. “It felt like a dream, so when you stopped, I figured if I wiggled my lips, you’d kiss me some more.”
“I would really like to, but, um, you should get inside,” Brice said.
For a few minutes, he’d allowed himself to indulge in the possibility of her, having her to himself. But only for a brief time. He meant every word, but the truth came with a sharp pain, making him wince internally. To continue to hold her, kiss her, and let her further in to his emotions, could mean his doom. She’d get the keys to his heart and with it, opportunity to hurt him. Best to chalk tonight up as a flight of fantasy, a good time, but not an event he planned to duplicate. If he entertained her further, if he toyed with the hope any more, he’d only hurt her or she’d crush him. He liked her too much to hurt her. She deserved so much more than him.
“You want to come in? I can make us some killer margaritas,” Aerial said, grinning at him. “It’s early yet. We got time. No work tomorrow for you, right?”
“No, no work for me…”
She took his hand and started for the house, humming some little song.
“Aerial, I don’t think so.” Releasing her hold on him, he bit his lip to keep from saying more.
She froze, the big loopy smile slipped from her face. It pinched his heart to see her disappointed, so he looked away, to his sports car still idling beside them. Swallowing the guilt, he didn’t talk—couldn’t speak around the lump of emotion lodged in his throat.
“Brice, don’t do this,” she said quietly. She turned back to him, reclaimed his hand. “Don’t shut me out.”
“I’m not. It’s just that…” Brice licked his lips and tried to find the right words. Her happy tone had fled. In its place confusion and more than a touch of hurt, soured her words. It tore through him to do this, but he had no choice. He couldn’t risk it.
“Look at me, Brice. Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on here.”
He couldn’t. It amazed him how much it hurt to leave. But leave he must.
She touched his face and turned him toward her. Wide eyes shined with confusion and hurt. It nearly broke him. Aerial, funny, vibrant, and joyful, now injured. And he had done it. Why did she care this much for him? She barely knew him, so why waste her tears for him? Perhaps it had nothing to do with him so much as it did with his rejection of her.
“Aerial, I’m not rejecting you,” he began to explain, his heart bleating in its sorrow. “Please don’t be upset. I’m a difficult man to date, and I don’t want you to get hurt and…”
Brice caught himself before he rambled on some more, but also because Aerial laughed.
“What’s so funny?” He couldn’t stop the question from popping out. Tears spilled out of her eyes and raced down her face, and into her smiling lips. He swore—the woman was a walking contradiction.
“You. You’re funny, Brice.” She shook her head. Using her two hands she put air quotes and said, “You’re a difficult man to date.”
“Yes, I am.” He stiffened at her doubt that dating him would be an arduous exercise.
Aerial put her arms back around his neck and with surprising strength pulled him closer to her.
With her lips close to his, she said, “Dating, love…heck fire, life is difficult. Not just for you, but for everyone. It also comes with risk. Just like getting on an airplane or driving your fancy sports car. We all take risks every single day. You’re not getting away from me that easily.”
He had put his hands on her wrists and intended to remove them from his neck. But her words stopped him.
“You think I’m scared?” Great. Now she thought of him as a coward. How could he get her to see this would end badly? Either for him or her. And he liked her too much to let it be her.
She looked him dead in the eyes. “Yeah, I do. Obviously, someone hurt you. Bad break-up because you’re very skittish. Don’t let it trap you.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not trapped.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Then what do you call that fortress around your heart?” Her fingers lightly raked across the nape of his neck, sending chills down his spine. It felt incredible and arousing at the same time, but he couldn’t let her distract him.
“It keeps danger out,” he confessed. He’d never told anyone about his defenses, but Aerial had managed to, once again, make him give her information without so much as a threat. She was just so damn easy to talk to.
“It also keeps out the love,” she added, and popped a kiss on his lips.
Love. As if she could ever really love him. He sobered and ducked out of her arms again. The buzz of her kisses tingled on his lips. Surprised that he escaped her embrace, Aerial put her hands on her lush hips, smirking at him. Risk. He knew life came with them but gambling with his heart had always proved reckless. Brice could be called many things, but reckless wasn’t one of them.
“You don’t love me, Aerial. You don’t know anything about me, so let’s not pretend this is some romance novel. I had a good time tonight. Can’t you just leave it like this?”
She folded her arms. “If you had a good time, why can’t we keep it going? Why are you running?”
“I’m not running.”
“You’re ready to bolt into your car and speed home. Sounds like fleeing to me.” She shrugged indifferently.
He knew she meant to bait him into coming inside. That was clear. And damn her, everything in him told him to head on home, to extinguish the burning fire before it consumed him. Like a moth to a flame, he hovered before the woman he desired.
“So, what’s it going to be, Mr. Difficult?” Aerial looked seductively over her shoulder. “I thought you were man enough to take me.”
Brice quirked an eyebrow. A challenge.
“I can take you.”
<
br /> “We’ll see. Won’t we?”
She rolled her eyes and started for the door to the house. The dress’s fabric pulled seductively as she walked, and damn her for looking so delicious and sexy. All good judgment ordered him home, but Aerial had issued a challenge—one he didn’t dare vacate. Besides, he liked how good she felt in his arms. Liked how she worked her sexuality out front, not hiding it, but also not depending on it to get her what she wanted. Confident and strong, Aerial’s loveliness didn’t stop at how much of her body she revealed, but rather in how much it didn’t embody all of her. Mysteries remained about her despite her openness.
She stopped at the door.
“You coming?”
Brice stood there, on the brink of either risking it all or playing it safe. For years now he’d kept his heart clear of danger, free from heartbreak. More than that, he’d kept everyone at bay. Far enough out of reach. If he didn’t love them, they couldn’t use it to abuse him, injure him or betray him. He’d grown used to his numb existence. Over time, he’d grown calluses on his emotions. They protected him from feeling much of anything. Blunted, his feelings hadn’t really mattered—until Aerial came like a hurricane, raining down her good-natured cheer onto everything around her—including him.
And all within the span of one damn week.
Now he couldn’t stop feeling.
For sure, there was one emotion he definitely wanted to experience again.
Aerial smiled seductively at him as if she knew exactly what feeling he meant. With a wink and a chuckle, she opened the front door.
“See you in five minutes,” she said before going inside.
Oh yes. She would.
Chapter Eight
Aerial’s heart hammered with pure anxiousness. More often than not, she went with the flow, but now she’d totally poked the tiger. Brice turned off his car. She heard Brice’s footsteps on the old Victorian’s wood floors as he walked up onto the porch. The front door opened and she turned around to see him, face set to serious, brooding and bold, walk to her. Blinking her eyes as if she couldn’t believe what she saw, she tried to battle back her glee. Primal hunger burned in his eyes, his hands in his pockets. Smirking and walking in long strides, he reached her spot.
“You made it,” she quipped and turned her key in the lock.
Pushing through the door, she entered her studio apartment. The old Victorian house had been jigsawed into a series of miniature apartments. Brice followed her in and she switched on the wall light. The soft light illuminated the rectangular space. Sweet vanilla sugar cookie aroma hung in the air. Thankfully, she’d made up the king-sized bed and washed the dishes. The bed consumed most of the space in her apartment, but she didn’t do much here except sleep.
Brice shut the door. “I didn’t know they made stoves that small.”
“You travel a lot, so you must’ve seen one in a kitchenette of a hotel suite or something,” Aerial remarked, unhooking the choker. She turned to face him. Noting the grin on his face, she knew that Brice was teasing her.
He didn’t move from his spot just inside the entranceway, but instead took in her place. “This is a studio apartment.”
“I am an actress.”
“Yes, that is obvious by the scores of movie posters.”
Aerial smiled. She laid the choker on her nightstand—a gray plastic tub, and removed her big hoop earrings. Brice looked wonderfully out of place in her apartment. Overdressed for sure, but most importantly, too professional. The artist in her had melded different motives and designs into an eclectic mixture of patterns and décor that was Aerial Tina Gibson. Her hoops dropped to the nightstand and clinked against the choker.
It caught Brice’s attention. His eyes returned to hers. A slow, self-assured grin emerged on his face. Standing beside her bed, Aerial watched as his eyes trailed down her neck, across the v-neck of her dress and down her torso. He still hadn’t moved, but the scorching heat of his gaze weighed on her like his touch. Shuddering at the look, she braced herself for the sexing to come. She’d baited him in the parking lot, and he’d let her. When they kissed, she’d felt his erection and knew he wanted her just as much as she wanted him, but Brice needed a reason, a gentle nudge so to speak. So, she’d given him just the incentive he needed.
Now, she wanted him to make good on it.
But damn, apparently, he meant to take his time.
“You done inspecting the premises?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“I see you have a very large bed.”
“I’m not a small woman.”
“Thank God for that,” he said and came at her so fast, it took her breath away.
She blinked and Brice had her pinned to the wall beside the nightstand. His firm body kept hers in place, and each of his hands held her wrists, keeping her from touching him or moving them at all. She so hadn’t seen this coming. Before she could utter a single comment, his lips greedily claimed hers. Releasing her hands, Brice’s own slid down the sides of her body, his knee gently parted her thighs. His questing fingers glided across her thighs, sending chills through her. She moaned in the midst of his kiss, his tongue tangoed with hers and the sheer force of his need made her sigh into him even more. Her body melted into his. His scent invaded her sense, blotting out everything, but his hard, firm muscles, soft lips, prickly new growth along this jaw and the stony cock pressing impatiently against her inner thigh.
His heart pounded against her breasts. His strength and his craving clawed at her and she knew Brice had let go of whatever fear he’d had before. Her head swam at the kiss, at the sheer raging hunger and for a brief moment, Aerial wondered if she could feed him what he so desperately needed.
When he broke the kiss, he gazed into her eyes as his hands slowly lifted the hem of her dress higher until it rested at her waist. Her black satin panties ripped when he snatched them off. The swift jerk and tearing of fabric surprised her and she squeaked. Brice frowned, cupping her face.
“I would never hurt you, Aerial,” he said, and kissed her still tender lips. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“It was just…sudden. I liked that pair,” she said, heart racing and clit throbbing.
As he talked, Brice’s fingers parted her nether lips, and stroked them tenderly. Alternating between gentle stroking and caressing her nubbin with his thumb, Brice watched her closely.
“I will get you more, whatever you want, Aerial, I’ll provide,” he promised, the whisper of his voice streaked with desire. “Just tell me. I’ll get it.”
Something about the sincerity in those words caused her to arch her back in longing. Suddenly, she wanted out of the dress, out of the shoes and onto Brice’s hard cock. More than his touching, what he said had set her on fire. Simple words, but what turned her dial was the honesty and sincerity. Brice had pushed open the door, and dammit, she was coming in.
Speaking of coming, Brice’s fingers increased their pressure and speed across her love button. He cupped her ass with one hand and teased her clit with the other. Squeezing her butt, he continued to stare intently at her, gauging her responses to his teasing. Aerial closed her eyes and tossed her head to the side.
“No, Aerial, look at me,” Brice said, all his movements stopped.
Huffing out a sigh, she turned her head back to him and opened her eyes. Damn him. With her legs wide open and braced against the wall, her pelvis thrust forward, hungrily for him. His fingers weren’t enough, not nearly enough for what she needed, what she wanted. “Brice, please…”
He kissed her again, with eyes open. Quick. Fast. And then, his finger-caressing continued, ramping up in speed. “Gimme what I want, Aerial.”
She could feel her orgasm coming. Mounting inside her, the pressure piled. Her body trembled at the approaching emotions, and when she tried to close her eyes, to brace for the wonderful wave of pleasure, he stopped.
“Look. At. Me.”
She obeyed, and bit her lip to keep from screaming at him
to fuck her. At that moment, she would’ve done whatever he wanted. When she met his gaze this time, his questing fingers began again, but instead of simply teasing her clit, he took his other hand and inserted three fingers into her wet heat. She pressed against his fingers faster and deeper, but she wanted so much more than his digits.
“You want me, Aerial?” Brice asked, his gaze burning into her like wheat on fire.
“Yes! God, yes!”
“Then come for me, real hard,” he said softly, his breath gentle against her face. He leaned in and kissed her again. This time, he didn’t relent when she closed her eyes. His lips parted and his tongue licked her bottom lip a second before he nibbled on it. The sharp sting of his nip pushed her over the edge and the orgasm exploded inside her, forcing her to shriek as it bowled through her.
“Beautiful! You’re so beautiful when you come,” Brice whispered.
She thrashed about and slumped forward, but Brice caught her in his arms. Smiling, he carried her to the bed and laid her down on it. He rolled her onto her stomach. The bed gave as he knelt beside her. Fighting to breathe, Aerial waited for the room to stop spinning. If a little fingering could blow her mind like that, what would sex with him do?
“You have on too many clothes,” she said, and tugged on his slacks.
“So do you,” he said with a smirk. “Let’s fix that.”
The soft buzz of her dress’s zipper filled the air and the cool air touched her now exposed skin. She pushed herself up to her knees, and the dress fell down. Aerial liked the dress because the dress didn’t need a bra and it was strapless. A built-in bra had kept her ‘ladies’ secure. But, no longer contained, her full breasts bounced free. Swollen and aching for Brice’s touch, she cupped them. Nipples hard and throbbing, her breasts awaited his mouth, his hands—hell, his fingers at this point.
Brice replaced her hand with his and cupped one of her breasts. Dropping kisses across her back, he rolled her pebbled peak between his thumb and forefinger, making her moan. Kiss. Kiss. Pinch. Pinch. A flood of sensations spilled through her. Aerial moaned. Brice positioned himself behind her, throwing his knees on either side of hers. With her back to his front, he could now cup both breasts and he did so, kneading them before teasing her tight nipples. He nibbled along her jaw and down her neck to her collar bone and back again.
