by Natalie Ann
22
Tempt A Man
“Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Kayla stirred a bit, stretched her arms up and wondered why she had to open her eyes when she was lying on the softest cloud imaginable. She’d never been in a bed like this before. What devil would make her get out of it?
When she felt lips on her forehead, she lifted her heavy eyelids to see the handsome devil of Hunter Bond staring down at her, his hand caressing her cheek, his eyes all soft and dewy.
Soft and dewy? Where had those words come from? No one ever looked at her like that before in her life.
Yet here was this hot guy grinning and slipping his hand under the covers. “You told me not to let you sleep longer than five hours.”
“What time is it?” she asked, her arms going over her head, then lacing around his neck to pull him down for a kiss. Talk about a great way to wake up.
“A little after six. You looked so peaceful I wanted to let you continue to sleep, but then I figured you’d rip me a new one if I did.”
She laughed. “I’d never do that.” She very rarely showed her temper. Years in different homes taught her to mind her own business. It carried over into adulthood too.
“I’m smart enough to never want to find out.”
She almost made a comment about his use of “never” but figured it was just a figure of speech. “Why don’t you come into this bed with me and I’ll show you something else?”
She shoved the covers back, his eyes going right to his T-shirt she was wearing and nothing else. How did he know there wasn’t anything else? Because the shirt was bunched up around her waist putting her bare lady parts on display. She’d even kept up with the waxing since he seemed to enjoy it so much, not griping about the expense that she used to think was wasteful.
He didn’t hesitate to take her suggestion to heart, his shirt coming over his head, his pants and underwear dropping to the ground.
“You sure know how to tempt a man,” he said.
“I know how to temp you,” she said back. She’d never thought much of doing that to other men, but with Hunter she wanted everything and anything he had to give her.
Starting with his body that she never seemed to get enough of.
With a light push of her palms, she had him on his back, her straddling his waist. His hands came around and cupped her ass and held her there.
“You have one hell of a little body on you,” he said. “I’d ask what you do to keep it that way, but my guess is it’s just good genetics.”
She laughed. She had to. Good genetics? She didn’t even know her father and didn’t remember her mother. That didn’t seem like anything good to her.
“I never sit still,” she said and hoped he just dropped it from that statement alone.
“I don’t want you to sit still now. Not when you are right where I want you. In my room, on my bed, and with any luck about to give me one hell of a ride.”
“I figured I’d give myself one hell of a ride,” she said, her mouth lowering to his. “You can be my stallion.” He snorted. “Sorry, that was cheesy. I have no idea where all my thoughts and words are coming from today.”
Romance had never been part of her life before. Part of her anything. When she was with a man, it was for company and fun. Some sex mixed in, but it never lasted.
Did she want a relationship at some point in her life? She did. Kayla wanted the family she never had. She wanted a man that loved her and cared for her.
She wanted a home that she could call her own.
Did she think she’d ever get it? Maybe someday.
What she was going to get right now was a piece of Hunter.
Or he was going to get a piece of her when his hands slid under the shirt, lifting it up and over her head. “That’s even better,” he said. “The only thing I love more than looking at your body is touching it. Maybe tasting it.”
Since he pulled her forward and latched onto a nipple like a newborn that hadn’t eaten all day, she knew he spoke the truth.
“I like what you do to me.”
“I think we like what we do to each other.”
His cock was steel hard and pulsing against her ass cheek where she was sitting on his hips. She wanted to scoot down some and just impale herself on him. Feel the fullness inside, his heat and his strength while she bobbed up and down.
“I know what I want you to do to me,” she said. It was getting hard to concentrate with his mouth on her. His hand went to the other nipple, two fingers pinching and plucking. He was teetering on more pain than pleasure until she realized the pain was giving her pleasure.
“Tell me,” he said. “I want you to tell me exactly what you want. What you want from me.”
“I want your mouth on me like before.”
“No, no,” he said. “Say it exactly.”
She gulped. She’d never been one for talking dirty. “I want your lips on my nipple. I want you to run your tongue all over it, then suck on it hard. Like you never want to let go of it.”
He didn’t say a word but did as she said, her head falling back, a moan escaping.
When his lips let go he started to move to the other side. “What else do you want?”
“I want to feel you inside of me.”
“What do you want inside of you?” he asked. “My fingers? My tongue? My cock?”
“All of them,” she said. Everything inside of her was slamming to the surface like waves on the rocks down by the beach. The part of the beach no one would go near for fear of getting hurt.
Kayla wasn’t thinking of getting hurt though. She was thinking of feeling good.
While his mouth continued to work on her nipples, she felt the bed move and heard a drawer open, then something was put in her hand.
She looked down to see the condom, opened it up and slid down to put it on him. “You’re so big,” she said. “So full and thick. I dream about this inside of me all the time.”
“If you keep talking like that I’m not going to have much left to put in you.”
She smiled. “You told me to tell you what I want.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
There was the look in his eyes again. Softness but mixed with desire. A combination that could be lethal to any woman’s heart.
Once he was covered, she lifted up and settled herself around him, easing down and feeling him stretch her. She should be used to his size by now, but she still felt tight when they were together. Maybe they needed to spend more time in bed.
“I dream about this,” he said. “You here with me. Naked and on top. Under me. On your hands and knees. Your mouth all over me. You name it, I’m dreaming it and wanting it every day.”
Now she knew what he meant about the words. Hearing his voice was like an aphrodisiac in itself.
Her muscles did an involuntary clench around him. When he moaned, she asked, “Did you feel that?”
“I did,” he said, his eyes closing as she did it again. This time on purpose. “Shit.”
She liked that she could do that to him. That this big powerful man that women were probably flocking to was under her. Was letting her lead the way. Letting her call the shots.
While she squeezed him again, she lifted up and slid back down. This time she let a swear word slip when she realized how amazing that felt.
“Pinch my nipples again,” she said. How much more wonderful would it feel if she had some pain mixed in with the pleasure down below?
His hands moved up and did what she asked. Both at the same time and she let out a yelp. She wasn’t sure it was any harder than the last time so maybe she was just more sensitive?
“Too much?” he asked.
“Just right,” she said when the pulsing started to build between her legs.
There was more she needed though and she wasn’t sure what. Something in her brain told her she had two hands and to put them to work.
She was bouncing up and down just like she said she wanted to do. Hunter h
ad his finger and thumb pinching and pulling at her nipples, but her swollen nub was just dying for attention and she figured she’d give it to herself.
The minute her finger touched the sensitive skin, her body just started to gather up speed.
“That’s it,” he said. “Get yourself there. My God, watching you now...I’m going to burst any minute.”
He sounded like he was in pain, which was fine because she felt the same way.
The pressure was mounting, it was tight, and it was coiling out of control. She didn’t know she was even holding her breath until her body tensed so much that when the orgasm hit her she let out a screech and released all the air in her lungs.
Hunter’s hands gripped her hips, held her in place and he just started to slam up into her. The harder and faster he went, the more intense it felt, prolonging her own release.
She collapsed on his chest when she didn’t have the energy to even hold herself up any longer. “Wow. You can wake me up like that anytime you want,” she said when she felt it was safe enough to talk.
She was lightheaded in a way she’d never been before and was concentrating on not passing out. Of course she was lying down so it might not matter if she did.
“I’d love to wake you up like this every day, but if I suggested that you might jump out of this bed and bolt through the door.”
She turned her head to look at him, thinking he was joking. He wasn’t, she could tell. “No way, Hunter. Not anytime soon either.”
“I know. Maybe someday.”
“Maybe,” she said, knowing that he’d probably change his mind before she was even ready.
23
Pushing It
“So what do you want to do tonight?” Hunter asked Kayla when she was walking down the hall. He was in the kitchen cooking some dinner for them while she’d gone into the bathroom to shower and change into the clothes he’d bought for her.
She wasn’t thrilled when he said he’d done it, but her other choice was to put her work clothes back on. This way she didn’t have an excuse to sneak out and go home tonight, but could spend the whole night with him and even had a change for tomorrow.
“There isn’t much to do, is there? I mean if we go anywhere, someone might see us. I don’t think there is anywhere to hide on this island.”
He didn’t like the words she was saying. The thoughts she was thinking. He hated that she felt people would notice him, but the truth was they would. It was a risk he wasn’t sure he cared about anymore though.
“We aren’t hiding up here?” he said. Hadn’t that already been proven when Hailey showed up hours ago unannounced? Even his parents were on the island and could do it too, though they very rarely did.
“You know what I mean. I know there is a back entrance and I’ve used it plenty, but I’m nervous about leaving tomorrow and being seen. I think I’ll sneak out before the morning shift comes in and it gets busy. We can set an alarm for around five, right?”
He let out a sigh. “I don’t want to get up at five on a Sunday,” he said, “but I’ve got a feeling there is no talking you out of this.”
“No.”
“Then I guess I need to get a hotel room off the island again. It seems like that is the only time we can do things. When I pick you up and we go off island. The funny thing is, no one has made a comment yet about that. Not on the ferry or even around town the few times we’ve been out and about.”
“We’ve been lucky,” she argued.
He didn’t believe it. He noticed people; they looked his way and then looked the other way. They didn’t know she worked for him; they probably just assumed he was seeing someone.
“No. Very few people know you work here. I think we can go out and do things and be fine. You’re new on the island. Unless someone comes out and asks where you work, which most don’t do, we should be fine.”
She walked over to where he was flipping burgers in a pan. It would have been much easier to just order down to the restaurant and he almost did, but he would have ordered two meals. Damn it, she was right. He really was hiding this too.
“Move out of the way and let me cook these,” Kayla said. “You’ve done enough for me in the past twenty-four hours.”
He leaned down and started to nuzzle at her neck. “For a second there I thought you were going to say I did enough for you in the past twenty-four minutes.”
She started to giggle. He wasn’t sure he’d heard that sound from her lips before. “You did that too. I worked up one heck of an appetite and I don’t want you burning these burgers. What else are we having with it?”
He’d planned on chips but Hailey ate them all. “I put some fries in the oven.”
“That works. This is the first meal we’ve had together where we’ve cooked it. I like this.”
“You do?”
She leaned against his chest while she watched the burgers. “Yes. Most people in a new relationship go out all the time. They don’t get to this homey part of dating until they’ve been together longer. We are just kind of skipping to it. I’m easy to please and a night in cooking dinner together is fine with me. Remember, I don’t have a house to myself either.”
What she was saying made more sense. “That’s true. So you wouldn’t mind doing this again tomorrow? Staying here all day and night?”
“Now you’re pushing it.”
He turned her in his arms. “Do you want to? Just answer me that. Don’t think of anything else. Don’t think of all the reasons why you don’t want to or you think we shouldn’t. Just answer me if you want to stay tomorrow and the night again?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
At five on Monday morning, Kayla let herself into her house and tried to sneak to her room, but Amanda was in the kitchen like a strict father pacing and ready to ground her.
“So you finally decided to return.”
“Geez, you scared me. What are you doing up?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Amanda said. “I was just lying there staring at the ceiling and figured I might as well roll out of bed. I can nap later if I need to. Are you hungry?”
“You should have ten kids with the way you treat us girls in the house. How come you don’t?”
Amanda laughed, but Kayla knew it was forced. Amanda opened the fridge, pulled out eggs and then got some bread from a drawer. “Someday. I’d love that, but it just hasn’t happened. My prince is out there. I guess I’m not ready to kiss any more frogs though.”
Kayla figured it wasn’t the time to ask for clarification. Though Amanda pried a lot, she was pretty private about her own life.
“Trust me, I’ve kissed enough I’m surprised I’m not covered in warts.”
“But the prince you have now is more like a king. He isn’t giving you any warts, is he?”
Kayla laughed and walked over to the coffee pot. Might as well have a cup knowing she wasn’t going to get any more sleep. “No, he hasn’t. Maybe if he did it would be a bit easier.”
“What’s so hard?” Amanda asked as she cracked eggs into a bowl, added milk, and some cinnamon. French Toast coming up.
“It’s complicated.”
“I get some of it. You don’t want anyone to know because you are afraid you will be looked at or treated differently. What does he think?”
“He’s on the fence. He managed to talk me into staying there and we didn’t leave his penthouse. I thought it’d feel odd, but it was like a getaway. He was arguing there was no reason we can’t do more in public, that he’s seen plenty of people while we’ve been out and they don’t say anything because they don’t know I work for him. That I’m new to the island.”
“He has a point.”
“But we spent the whole weekend in a place where everyone knows him and plenty know me. The only way I felt I could safely leave was before the night shift ended and I took the back entrance out. I’m hoping since my car is new no one recognized it in the parking lot all weekend like they might my old wreck.”
She
’d actually thought of that and then realized she was probably safe. Cars came and went and in the summer there was plenty of seasonal staff too.
“You two are going to have to figure this out if you continue to date.”
“I know. But I guess I’m concerned it’s just a passing thing for him. It will probably fizzle out before we get to that point.”
Amanda put three slices of egg-soaked bread in a hot pan. “I think you are selling yourself short.”
“Just being realistic,” she said.
Too many times in her life she’d hoped for the best and ended up with the worst. Why would this be any different?
24
Bloodlines Diluted
Somehow Hunter managed to talk Kayla into spending the following Sunday with him on the island. He figured his argument of it being the weekend after July Fourth and the island being so busy that they’d blend into the crowd was enough.
Or maybe it was that he pointed out they’d been out together enough in the beginning and no one said anything, why would they now?
He knew in her mind their relationship changed with them sleeping together. It had for him too. But he needed to take the step to not be behind closed doors all the time with her.
It felt too much like sneaking around when it shouldn’t. At least not as much. And if he wanted to have a personal life, that meant getting out and doing things with Kayla too.
“This is a nice beach,” Kayla said as they walked along, their toes on the edge of the water, the waves coming in and splashing up to their ankles as they held onto their shoes in one hand.
“I figured it was far enough away for you.” They were on the east side of the island. Bond Retreat was on the southwest side facing Plymouth. Now they were walking along a small beach attached to a new hotel that was put up last year facing the Atlantic Ocean.
“Nothing is far on this island though, is it?”
“No,” he said. “My cousins Emily and Penelope Rauch put this hotel up last year. Or opened it up.”
