Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  “Brian.”

  He bucked against her hips. “Stop saying my name like that,” he rasped, his pupils dilating right before her eyes, his chest rising and falling raggedly beneath her hands.

  Pushing herself up fully, she froze when she felt the hard ridge of his erection nudging urgently between her thighs.

  “Don’t. Move.” His eyelids slammed shut, and harsh lines of tension etched across his face as he held her immobile above him.

  “Brian—” She scooted forward for better leverage.

  Before she could even yelp, he sat up fully and yanked her torso against him, his brawny arms encasing her in a cocoon of heat as every inch of his hard, sculpted chest and eight-pack abs sealed her tight against his body.

  “You suck at following directions,” he graveled.

  Guilty as charged. Then again, where in the world had he been all this time that he was only now getting that memo?

  While belatedly attempting to follow his directions, she took inventory of the changes in Brian. He looked…reckless. Hungry. Like a man fighting the hard edge of desire. And almost losing. It was intoxicating.

  She wanted more.

  She wanted him to lose control completely.

  Later, she’d probably wonder over her sanity for pushing him when he looked this primal, but for now…

  She reached up, shaped her hands over his tan, chiseled features, and smiled when his hips jerked up against hers in reflex as she slid her tongue along the taut line of his lips. A sharp jaw clench beneath her fingers…and then nothing.

  His harsh breathing had to mean he was as affected as she was, and yet the man still continued to sit there. Brooding. Practically vibrating with hot alpha sex waves while he continued to look at her like he wanted to devour her.

  But just plain wasn’t going to.

  Unable, unwilling to wait any longer for him to make the first move, she took control and shifted her hips forward, wanting that snug, rigid fit as she rocked against him.

  Forward and back, harder and hotter.

  She became lightheaded as the searing sensations started rushing throughout her system, causing her to pulse against him just as he pulsed right back against her.

  After a while, it became less about inciting his hunger, and more about feeding her own—an altogether unfamiliar craving, seeing as how she hadn’t had sex besides that one time in high school, and she never really got into ‘taking care of business’ on her own.

  Obviously, she’d been missing out.

  Her hands fisted in his shirt and her eyes drifted shut. Now if she just angled her hips…

  Holy hell.

  A hoarse, guttural sound from deep in Brian’s chest broke her concentration. But then the feeling of flying that came when he shot up to his feet and pushed her back against the couch, all while yanking his clothes off, soon had her concentration focused on newer, better things.

  Wow.

  Tense, sculpted muscles as far as the eye could see, rippling and clenching.

  “Clothes off,” he ordered, reaching down to drag her shirt up off her body.

  Front-clasp bras were now her new favorite thing—Brian’s too, judging by the volatile explosion of lust in his eyes that detonated the instant she was fully bared to his gaze.

  “So beautiful.”

  She felt the rough, raw words repeated against her neck, moments before his mouth closed over her nipple and sent pleasure lashing across her senses. Wild and untamed, he tasted, explored, incited until her nails were scoring down his back in response, and his teeth were nipping at her in symphony.

  “I need to be inside of you now.”

  Tessa didn’t even realize he’d slid off her jeans and panties until she felt him slip back between her legs. The tiny gasp she’d been unable to keep buried at the skin-on-skin contact had him gripping her hips and rocking his full length against her core.

  “Jesus, I could come just from the feel of you spilling over me,” he rumbled against her skin. “You’re so damn responsive.”

  His mouth came over hers again almost desperately, stealing what little oxygen she had left directly from its source as his thumb moved from the blade of her hipbone across her soft mound. Lower, and lower.

  Her whole body corded like a bow. “Brian!”

  CHRIST, HE’D ALMOST come right then and there.

  The way Tessa said his name went to his head faster than whiskey. And the snug grip and slick, wet glide of her sex over his violently sensitive head was his drunken undoing. He forced himself back and grabbed for the condom in his jeans. Sliding the rubber in place, he was back in a flash. Thank God he’d allowed himself that line of wishful thinking when he’d left his house this evening.

  She was watching him all the while beneath long dark lashes, her full, soft lips parted in anticipation.

  “Not sure I can be gentle this first time, sweetheart.”

  “I don’t want gentle,” came her heated reply. “I’ve been fantasizing about you since I first heard your voice on the phone, growling. Your voice has been the one in my head, my dreams. Hearing you lose control…”

  It was no use, he had to have her. Latching his mouth onto one pebbled nipple, he plunged into her in one deep thrust.

  And froze when she cried out in what sounded like pain.

  “Dammit. Did I hurt you?” He ground his teeth and started sliding back out of her. Jesus. So control-thievingly tight. “God, I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Are you alright?”

  “No, don’t stop,” she managed on a gasp, wrapping her legs around his waist to keep him from pulling out completely.

  He shuddered as he sank back in partway. “Honey, you’re so tight. I didn’t know. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Not your fault.” Her voice sounded strained. “I’ve only had sex that one time. Born again virgin,” she joked, breath hissing in at the effort.

  He dropped his forehead down to hers. “Good lord, why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve gone slower. Gotten you wetter.”

  She shifted under him with an expression he could only describe as utter skepticism.

  “Um.” More doubt marred that now very serious pixie face of hers. “Honestly, Brian, I don’t think you could’ve gotten me all that much wetter,” she informed him finally, sounding like she was breaking the tragic news that the Easter Bunny wasn’t real.

  Despite the fact that half his shaft was buried inside of her in the most agonizing pleasure he’d ever experienced, he chuckled over that. Clearly, his little ‘expert flinger’ was even far less of an expert than he’d thought. “Sweetheart, I’m definitely going to take you up on that dare you just issued. But not now.” Silently praying for strength, he drew back out a bit. “Because right now, I’m about two seconds from exploding.” He slid his hand between them to circle his thumb over her sensitive nub and exhaled in relief when he heard her breath break, the tension in her legs relax a little.

  “We’ll start again. But we’ll go slow.” Painfully slow.

  Even if it killed him.

  He slid into her again, gently this time, starting an achingly unhurried rhythm even though he was nearly shaking with the intense need to take her hot and fast, possess her completely.

  Soon, however, he deemed the loss of his sanity a worthwhile sacrifice when he felt the sweetness of her response rain over him. Soft, feathery whimpers against his neck with each liquid stroke, the sweetest broken cries he could imagine, and then pure, naked bliss as she arched to meet him thrust for thrust.

  When he finally felt her orgasm start to rip through her, he lost it completely.

  Bracing one hand against the back of the couch, the other on her hip, he sheathed his entire length in her in one long, hard plunge. Deep. Aga
in and again. Without an ounce of control. Until she clamped down on him and started riding him just as desperately, her tiny inner pulses driving him past sanity, beyond civility.

  He ground his teeth to keep from shouting. Heart hammering, red-hot pleasure racing down his spine, he drove into her one last time and reveled in the feel of her snug channel pulsing all around him as he went roaring over the edge.

  Before everything went black.

  BRIAN OPENED HIS eyes and, for a second, forgot where he was. When he heard a shower faucet shut off and saw Tessa’s sweet frame in the bathroom at the end of the hall—only just barely visible by the small nightlight next to the sink—it all came back to him in a rush.

  He got up and headed over to her, stopping to lean against the doorframe with a smile when she continued the towel drying extravaganza, completely oblivious to his presence.

  “Were you just showering in the dark?”

  She jerked her head up and jammed the two ends of the towel back around her.

  Shame.

  “Yes,” she replied breathlessly.

  As he waited patiently for the rest of her answer, she shrugged, drawing his attention to her naked shoulders. All that soft, damp skin was making it hard to remember what he’d originally asked her.

  “I rarely shower with the light on. It’s a habit I never thought to stop.”

  Right. Okay, back to her reasons for showering in the dark.

  She shrugged again. “Willow was usually napping when I’d get home from the bakery. The only other bathroom besides the one connected to her room was downstairs and since I didn’t like leaving her unattended even for the fifteen minutes it’d take to stop smelling like cake and feeling like a loaf of bread, I always just showered in the dark to avoid waking her up.”

  “It’s not that weird,” she defended before he could even get a thought in edgewise. She shoved her hands on her hips, unknowingly shifting the towel up those amazing legs of hers, and effectively causing him to lose track of the conversation again. “It’s not like I need the light on to be able to run a washcloth over my own body.”

  Well hell, the image that provoked just derailed his focus completely.

  And got him hard so fast he was reeling from a head rush as he stepped forward to trace a finger over the top edge of her towel. “I like that you shower in the dark. In fact, I was thinking of joining the movement. Save on electricity, help the planet and all.” Dipping in the valley between her breasts to loosen her towel, he suggested huskily, “How about you and I save on electricity together, right now?”

  Lashes fluttering down as she watched his hands at work, she murmured distractedly, “B-but I already finished.”

  Grinning, he slid his hand past the opening of the towel and up her inner thigh. “Did you, Tessa? Did you finish in there? Without me?” He teased, intentionally misunderstanding her. “Guess I’m going to have to work a whole lot harder at proving to you that I can in fact get you much wetter.” The catch in her breathing just propelled him forward as he edged her back into the shower stall. Luckily, I do like a good challenge.” He tugged the towel open fully and skimmed it off her body, tossing it on the bathroom rug before sliding the shower door shut.

  The glass door was only slightly frosted but still, closing it encased them in near pitch darkness.

  He felt her jump when he whispered in her ear, “I forgot the washcloth. So you’ll just have to settle for me running my hands over your body instead.” Though he couldn’t see her expression, he felt her thighs clench tight in reply as his hands wandered over her hips.

  With a flick of his wrist, he reached behind her and turned the hot water on, adjusting the spray to send sheets of steaming hot water cascading down her back, streaming over her shoulders to drench her front as he slid his slick palms over all her dainty little curves.

  When the steam quickly dropped their visibility down to zero, all his other senses took over and demanded he stop letting the water have all the fun. He turned the faucet off and fell to his knees, his lips following a detour-filled path down her torso before pausing to sip at the gentle hollow of her navel. “You have no idea how sexy you are.” Shaking his head in wonder, he trailed his way down to her soft mound.

  And caught her when her knees buckled.

  His tongue dipped lower, just once, before he looked up and whispered against her heated core, “Now, let’s see about that challenge you threw down earlier…”

  TESSA WAS ALL BUT SITTING on his biceps, her back against shower wall, and her fingers were threading in his hair as he slowly, torturously proved to her over and over again that her earlier assertion had been very wrong. She was most definitely wetter now. So much so that she wasn’t even blushing over the logistics of her seating arrangement. For now.

  Of course, with the kinds of thoughts currently bombarding her brain, blushing would be completely contradictory.

  She didn’t know how much more she could take.

  He’d been torturing her for who knows how long now, bringing her right up to the brink three times, before easing off, simply to build her right back up again.

  The bastard.

  When his tongue began its decadent torment for a fourth time, it was quite possible she demanded that he let her come. The details were a bit fuzzy. All she knew was that she was set to take matters into her own hands for the first time ever when finally she felt two thick fingers slide into her as his mouth closed tight and—

  Fireworks exploded throughout her body.

  She only just barely remembered to stifle her scream so she didn’t wake the neighbors. In the whole neighborhood.

  At least twenty different kinds of instruments in a full symphony orchestra resounded in her ears. Ocean waves crested. And angels with brand new wings sang pitch-perfect high notes alongside floating harps and oddly enough, Caribbean steel drums.

  It took several long minutes for her to coast back down to reality.

  His soft kisses on her inner thighs were helping the process along, but it was also making it so she was becoming ready for him to prove her wrong all over again.

  “Okay fine,” she admitted in a husky, wholly satisfied voice she hardly recognized. “You win. You were right.”

  His pleased chuckles against her still-feverish flesh were serving to get her all worked up once more with unreasonable ease so she quickly moved to slide her thighs off his shoulders.

  Aaand there was the delayed blushing.

  She covered her cheeks with her hands even though there was no way he could possibly see that in the dark.

  “You’re blushing right now, aren’t you?” He was smiling, she could hear it. “You’re so damn cute.”

  And for some reason, that made her go a little nutty.

  She wanted to be more than cute for him.

  With a deep, steadying breath, she dropped her right hand down to the hard, hot rise of his erection. And boy was it hard.

  Looks like she wasn’t the only one getting tortured the entire time.

  Having never done this before, she decided to jump in feet-first, relying on the few romance novels she’d read in her life to guide her as she slowly slid her hand up and down his shaft. Squeezing every once in a while out of sheer curiosity.

  Soon, the sound of his low, deep groans bouncing off the tiles served to be so much more rewarding than a gold star for her efforts.

  “So now are you going to challenge me to make you wetter?” She asked, getting seriously drunk off seeing brian practically panting.

  “Tessa, you don’t want to play this game right now.”

  She swiped her thumb over the tip of him. “But I think I do,” she tossed back, licking her thumb and shivering at the nearly unbridled, feral reaction she could feel vibrating from his frame. “You had your chance to tast
e me.” Falling to her knees, she kissed the granite cut grooves carved into the slant of his hips, and pressed her lips across the sexy tan line at the base of his abs before finally building up the nerve to run her tongue along his entire length in one languid stroke.

  “Now it’s my turn.”

  HE WAS SO GOING TO make her pay.

  Definitely. The very second he was no longer at her complete and total mercy. Whenever the hell that was going to be. A long while from now, he estimated—hopefully—as he watched the curious little vixen get him back and then some, having a grand old time with what he was pretty sure was her first blow job.

  She was a natural.

  She’d just gotten through blowing a damp, teasing breath over him while speaking in some mysterious language his bloodless brain had failed to recognize, and now her hot little fist was effectively pumping him past the breaking point.

  The torturous little siren damn well knew it too.

  Because this time, when he felt the slick silk of her mouth surround his beyond-hard flesh, she didn’t just torment him with shy, liquid velvet promises.

  This time, she took him as deep as she could go.

  “You’re playing with fire, honey,” he managed to grate out, jaw clenched, breathing shot, voice savagely coarse.

  He wasn’t going to last much longer. Especially not when, instead of heeding his warning, the evil woman placed both hands on his hips and took him even deeper.

  “Tessa,” he growled, “I’m going to come in your mouth if you don’t stop.”

  And what did his gorgeous first-timer do with that public service announcement?

  She stopped breathing for a brief second, and then released a quiet moan with him deep in her throat.

  For chrissakes.

  With a limited supply of oxygen sawing in and out of his chest, every muscle in his body went rigid as a surge of heat rushed down his spine and whipped across his nerve endings.

  It took absolutely everything in him not to let go, not to take her mouth harder and faster, not to give in to the wild, primitive lust filling his veins. He only just barely fought his way back from the edge.