by Ranae Rose
“No,” James said, casting a guilty glance toward the flowers. “I just saw the flowers and thought of you.”
Arianna tipped her head toward Emily. “But Emily’s all dressed up. Between that and the flowers, I thought maybe there was something going on that I didn’t know about.”
James glanced down at Emily, whose tiny legs protruded from beneath the flounces of a layered skirt. Glitter winked from the edges of the tulle, matching the little shoes that’d been made to go with the dress. “This? Got it at the store while I was on a formula run. It was on clearance.” He shrugged, his uneasiness increasing.
How could he explain the thoughts that’d gone through his head when he’d seen the dress? That he hated the thought of an unwanted child, that he wanted Emily to have all the things that normal, cherished children had… That buying the outfit and dressing her up like a tiny doll had eased a little of the guilt he felt over being pissed at Crystal for dumping Emily on him.
“When we were little, my mom used to put my sister and me in dresses like that every Sunday for church.”
“Guess it’s a little weird to put her in one for no reason,” he admitted. Dressing Emily in the elaborate outfit had taken at least 10 minutes. “There are pajamas in the diaper bag if you want her to wear something else.”
Arianna shook her head. “No way – the dress is adorable. I’m just afraid I’ll spill formula on it or she’ll spit up and it’ll get stained.”
“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t spend much on it.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
James put Emily down in her swing, and miracle of miracles, she stayed asleep. Usually, she slept soundly during the ride to Arianna’s, then was woken up by the commotion of being unloaded from the car and carried up the steps. Rising, James found himself alone with Arianna – or as close to being alone with her as he was likely to ever get again, anyway.
She still clutched the bouquet he’d given her. “I’d better get these in some water.”
He watched her as she turned and bent to rummage in a cupboard, eventually pulling out an empty pitcher and filling it halfway at the tap. In a split second, he went from thinking about baby clothes to noticing how well Arianna filled out her jeans. He was officially hopeless – he’d never be able to stop wanting her.
She set the flowers in the middle of the table, and they looked good there. “Coffee?” she asked. “You have perma-circles under your eyes.”
He glanced at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. “If you don’t mind.”
He’d gotten into the habit of leaving 20 minutes early – something he’d learned was necessary when you were traveling with a baby. Emily had a tendency to either spit up or need a diaper change two seconds after he walked out the door. Today, she’d done neither, so he had a little time to spare.
“I’m all out of half and half,” she said. “There’s sugar, though.”
“Black’s fine.” It wasn’t like he’d taste the coffee, anyway. Arianna dominated his thoughts, and his senses were devoted to the memory of their single kiss, to the feel and taste of her.
She set the coffee in front of him, then settled down in the chair beside his. “Have you been getting any sleep?”
He shrugged. “I think so. Sometimes the only way I can be sure if I fell asleep between feedings or not is if I can remember a weird dream I had – something too bizarre to be real.”
She nodded. “You know, if you can’t get caught up, you could leave her here for a night. It’d give you a chance to get some rest—”
He was wrong – he did taste the coffee. It was bitter, in sharp contrast to Arianna’s overwhelming sweetness. “No way. You’ve been watching her for me every day. I’m not leaving her here overnight.”
Arianna frowned. “You just look so exhausted—”
“No. Thanks, but no.”
Her frown didn’t waver. She looked at him, and he got the distinct feeling she was sizing him up, trying to see inside his head.
“You know what I can’t figure out?” The words tumbled from his mouth. “Why you’re so nice to me. Why do you care how much sleep I’m getting?”
If she’d wanted to know what he was thinking, she’d gotten it.
For a second, it seemed like he’d surprised her into silence.
“I like you,” she said eventually. “Is that a good enough reason?”
“Seems like you’d have to like me an awful lot to put yourself through all this.” Sarcasm leant his voice an edge. He wasn’t special enough to warrant a beautiful woman like Arianna bending over backwards to basically work as an unpaid nanny for him. Who was?
“I do.”
He took a long drink of his coffee, singeing the tip of his tongue. “It’s a little hard to believe.”
“I know she’s your niece, not mine, but I was there when you found her. We were together and it just would’ve seemed … wrong to walk away and let you deal with it all on your own. You weren’t expecting it any more than I was, even if she is your sister’s kid.”
“It wouldn’t have been wrong. No one else would’ve stuck around. Hell, my sister didn’t even stick around for her own kid. Or the father, whoever he is. I think you have a hyperactive conscience.” If only that’d been the case with his sister. The thought almost made him laugh.
Arianna shrugged. “It’s too late now. I like you too much to leave you all on your own at this point.”
He almost smiled. Her words were bittersweet – exactly what part of him wanted to hear, while another part of him wondered why and how that could even be true. Yeah, there was physical chemistry between them. So much of it that if their one and only date had gone as planned, he had no doubt it would’ve been the hottest night of his life. But there hadn’t been much time for anything like that since then.
“I like you too,” he said, “though after all you’ve done for me and Emily, I’d be a pretty big piece of shit if I didn’t.”
Her lush mouth quirked down into a frown so fleeting he wondered if he’d imagined it.
“Well,” she said, “I hope my babysitting services aren’t the only reason you like me.” Her voice was light, teasing, but her eyes weren’t.
As unbelievable as it was, she actually looked wary. She pressed her hands against the table as if bracing herself for something, and her eyes were intense as they searched his, presumably ready to read between the lines of whatever answer he gave.
She was waiting to be judged. He recognized the feeling because he’d experienced it himself so many times before.
He’d hated that feeling, almost as much as he hated seeing it reflected in her eyes now.
He stood so fast his chair almost toppled over. Barely avoiding spilling his coffee, he leaned over, slipping a hand behind her head and letting his fingers get tangled in her hair. “It’s not the only reason. Not even close.”
He kissed her without caring whether he was just using the situation as an excuse. He’d worry about that later – for now, all he could think about was making sure she knew exactly how much he liked her.
Maybe he had coffee breath, or maybe he’d just startled her. Either way, she froze, unmoving as he pressed his lips to hers.
Her reaction didn’t last long. After a couple seconds of his mouth against hers and his fingers wrapped in her hair, she gave in.
Relief coursed through him, as potent as his lust. Their tongues tangled together, and a soft noise was caught somewhere between her mouth and his – a moan.
The sound bolstered his confidence in a way nothing else could have. Burying his hand deeper in her hair, he let his fingertips cradle the curve of her skull, causing an answering prickling sensation to rush over his, making his hair stand on end.
His cock did something similar, or at least would’ve if it hadn’t been for his jeans. Their restraint caused an ache in his groin. It mirrored the one in his balls – a pain he’d been living with for the past week. It only grew worse as he laid his free hand on h
er body, first on her hip and then skimming upward, over the curve of her side.
When he cupped her breast, she leaned into him, filling his palm with soft flesh that was easily felt beneath the thin cover of her cami. Vivid fantasies sprang to life in his mind. It’d be so easy to slip those straps down, exposing skin he’d never seen, not even while tattooing her.
Fantasy blurred with reality as she rose, crushing her body against his before he could lose his grip on her or break their kiss. If the full length of her torso pressed against the full length of his cock wasn’t an invitation, he didn’t know what was.
CHAPTER 6
His fingertips tingled as he ran them over the slope of her breast. Did she feel the same sensation where he touched her, beneath her clothing?
The way she kissed him back made it seem like she did, and though a breathless silence had descended on them both, the sound of her moan echoed in his mind, driving him on. In a matter of moments, he’d caught one of her top’s narrow straps between his fingers and was peeling it down over the slope of her shoulder, just like he’d imagined.
Her bra was strapless. It hugged her ribcage, supporting breasts he sometimes found himself dreaming about, half in and half out of sleep. Those fantasies had a way of evaporating as he rolled out of bed, retreating to the back of his mind and lingering there, saturating his subconscious with a relentless craving for Arianna. Now, he was living the dream, his fingertips drifting over the double-swell of her cleavage, then dipping into a bra cup and teasing the hard peak he found there.
She arched against him, her back bowing as their mouths were pressed more tightly together. His lower lip ached beneath the pressure, and then she bit it lightly.
Holy fuck. A tremor raced through the center of his being, sending a jolt of urgency straight to his cock. He wanted her so bad that in his mind’s eye, he could see himself lifting her onto the table and tearing her jeans off, bringing his waking-dream to completion by burying himself inside her. He contemplated the logistics automatically, factoring in her apparent eagerness – he could have her legs wrapped around his hips in less than a minute.
There was only one problem: he didn’t have a condom.
He had a box back at his apartment, but it wasn’t like he’d expected this, and he didn’t carry a stash around in the diaper bag just in case. He hadn’t dared to indulge that kind of optimism.
As quiet and reserved as she was, Arianna didn’t seem like she’d have a contingency supply of contraceptives on hand, either. Then again, she sure as hell didn’t seem reserved at the moment. There was definitely a side to her he hadn’t seen until now.
Maybe she was on the pill. And if that was the case, maybe she’d be all right with foregoing a condom. He knew he was clean, and as long as she was too…
She gave another one of those moans when he undid her jeans’ button and pulled down the zipper.
He reveled in her wordless approval … until she gripped his wrist, hard.
They both stopped cold, lips slipping apart.
Her pupils were dilated, her cheeks flushed and lips swollen. As she met his eyes, all he could do was stare. Just looking at her like that – what he’d done to her – was almost as good as having his tongue wrapped up with hers.
Her nails bit into his skin as she clung to his arm, her lush lips turning down at the corners. “I’m not on the pill or anything like that.”
That brought his hopes down. A little, anyway. “Don’t worry about it.”
He slipped his fingers into the open V of her jeans’ zipper. Her panties were soft against his skin, and her body heat radiated through them. Soon he’d know if she was wet beneath – if she wanted this as badly as he wanted to do it to her.
“What do you mean, ‘don’t worry about it’?” Her words came out strained. She’d let go of his wrist, but her voice was hard and cold as steel. Talk about a 180…
He met her gaze, and the look she was giving him froze him, his hand still inside her jeans, his fingertips the barest fraction of an inch away from her clit.
“Fuck. Not like that.” Realization dawned on him, sudden and harsh. “I didn’t mean…”
He wanted to be inside her, wanted to feel her pussy wrapped so tightly around his dick he didn’t know where he ended and she began. But he’d never let that happen without making sure they were safe, first. He told her that, frozen with his hands on her body, his hopes stuck in his throat, along with his heart.
Her expression softened a little, giving way to a look that was more wary than accusing. “Then what are you doing?”
“Let me show you.”
She let him shimmy her jeans off and lift her onto the table, which proved sturdy enough to hold her weight. Her body wasn’t as pliant beneath his hands as it had been only minutes ago, but he figured he had his own fuck-up to thank for that. He’d just have to ease her back into that state, make her feel so good she forgot all about the dumbass way he’d worded things.
Beneath the hem of her cami, the edge of the tattoo on her left hip peeked out at him. He’d done that one for her – it was an abstract design, all swirls and vivid colors that stood out bright and bold against her golden-olive skin. He’d been intrigued when she’d requested him to design it for her, and he’d drawn it directly onto her skin, allowing his marker and then his tattoo machine to flow naturally with the curves of her body, creating something as unique as she was.
It wasn’t his usual sort of work, but it was pretty damn beautiful, if he did say so himself.
Still, he forgot all about her tattoo when he got her panties all the way off.
The softer shades that colored the skin and hair the lingerie had been hiding were even more striking, and it was impossible to look away. She obviously took pains to keep the triangle of dark hair above her pussy neatly groomed. He stroked a thumb over its surface—it was surprisingly soft.
Her skin below was even softer, slick with moisture. He stroked her clit, leaning in to kiss her again at the same time.
As their lips met, she opened her thighs wider, her breath rushing against his face before their mouths were sealed together.
He took advantage of the wider space between her legs, stepping between them. His cock ached, hard beneath his jeans, uncomfortable against the zipper. He’d be in agony for the rest of the day, without a doubt. But it’d be worth it just to hear her moan again, to see her experience pleasure that defied her usual silence and know it was because of him.
That particular wish was fulfilled within seconds. As he touched her clit, establishing a rhythm and teasing the slick skin below with his other hand, a moan rose from her chest, making his lips tingle and his dick harden even more.
He slipped a finger inside her, unable to resist the promise of heat and pressure, the lure of being inside her, even if it was only like this.
Hot and tight, her body welcomed him with a squeeze he felt all the way down in his jeans, even though he was fully clothed and she was gripping the edge of the table with both hands.
He added another finger, delving deeper in search of a certain spot. When she tossed her head back, ending their kiss without catching her breath, it seemed like he’d found it.
He kept doing what he was doing, fingers hot inside her and on her clit, growing slicker by the second.
She squeezed her eyes shut, but he kept his wide open, gaze roving all over her body, taking in everything from the flush that’d spread across her face to the sight of his own fingers disappearing into her pussy, lost in soft flesh.
He was closer to coming than he’d been in too long, his entire body tense with desire that ate at him from the inside out, on a hair-trigger. If she so much as touched him—
The sound of another moan shattered his thoughts, followed by hard breathing. She arched and her body went tight around his fingers, squeezing. He could just imagine that perfect pressure surrounding his cock, that perfect body under and against his…
Her pussy drew even tighter and h
e breathed hard too, losing all the air in his lungs as the fantasy threatened to strangle what was left of his good sense. In that moment, he’d never regretted anything more than he regretted his lack of contraception.
As her breathing slowed, less irregular but still shaky, reality slammed down on him and he finally pulled his hands from her body.
“Gonna be late,” he said, dragging his gaze from Arianna and glancing reluctantly at the clock instead. “I’ve gotta go.”
When he looked back down at her, he saw that she held one hand still in the air, halfway between her body and his. Her fingertips were mere inches from his dick.
He barely suppressed a groan. The thought of reciprocation hadn’t been what’d driven him to do what he just had, but now that the idea had taken hold, it was painful in its intensity. He would’ve given almost anything just to feel her hand wrapped around his shaft for even a second, but if he let her so much as brush her fingertips across his cock, there’d be no way he’d be able to make himself leave.
He had a client waiting, a reputation to uphold. Plus Jed would give him hell if he didn’t keep his appointment, and rightfully so. He fought to remind himself why those things were important while his mind swam in a fog of unfulfilled desire.
“Right now?” Arianna asked, still half-naked, her thighs open wide enough to allow him to stand between them.
He forced himself to take a step backward. “Yeah.”
As he handed her her jeans and panties, reality came slowly back into focus. He really would be late if he didn’t hurry the fuck up, but Emily was still asleep in her swing in the living room. That small miracle tempted him to stay, to lay hands on Arianna again and refuse to let go until he absolutely had to.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Arianna said.
“Yeah, you will.” His dick twitched against his jeans. He couldn’t fucking wait.
* * * * *
Arianna sank down into a chair at the kitchen table – the same chair she’d been sitting in when James had kissed her. She’d spent several panty-melting moments there before he’d lifted her onto the table where her elbow rested now, beside a cup of herbal tea.
