Provoke Me

by Cari Quinn

  “I enjoy a hell of a lot about you, so probably.” He shifted his thigh between her legs and rubbed. She responded in kind, grinding against him in blatant invitation. “I also enjoyed meeting your friends,” he added, though it was getting harder to remember anything but the wet heat scorching through his pants.

  “I’m glad. They liked you too.” She angled her head, giving him a direct glimpse into her eyes. “You fit right in with us.”

  He laughed at that. “I don’t fit right in with anyone.”

  “Really? I think you fit inside me just fine.”

  His laughter subsided but the subtle warmth at her words didn’t. “Not exactly what I said, but I can’t argue.”

  “So don’t.”

  This time when she kissed him, there was nothing brief about it. Her tongue tangled with his before gently exploring his mouth as if they’d never kissed before. The newness of having her in his arms—out in public, where anyone could see—exhilarated him. For once, he could be watched instead of doing the watching. But it wasn’t only about putting on a show. This felt real. As if they were starting something that could be permanent, if only he’d let it be.

  He slanted his mouth hungrily over hers as if he could somehow take her inside and bring her with him when everything got to be too much. In a few short days, he’d come to crave her. Driven like a fiend for more of her kisses, her touch, her smell, even her smart mouth. Every part of her made him want.

  And every hour that ticked by, he was closer to leaving her.

  “Come home with me.”

  He wasn’t certain if he’d spoken aloud or if the thought just resonated in his mind until she slipped back and smiled. “Nuh uh. Not unless you promise to stay in bed with me all night. And if you feel that familiar urge to prowl,” her fingers closed around his cock, “wake me and I’ll chase that urge right out of you.”

  “I don’t make promises.”

  No matter what, he didn’t lie. He kept secrets, but he didn’t mislead with his words. Or at least he tried not to. With Kelly, he found himself straddling the line between his desire to make her happy and the truth.

  She shrugged. “Then I don’t sleep in your bed.”

  “There is another option, you know.”

  “What’s that?”

  He cupped her cheeks and brought her mouth right back to his, where it belonged. “We don’t sleep.”

  Kelly let out a helpless laugh. “We’re both going to crash and burn if we keep up this pace. No one can survive on sex alone.”

  “Let’s try.” Staving off tomorrow seemed like an excellent plan to him. “I want you alone in my bed tonight. No one watching, no one but us.” He stroked his tongue over her top lip. “I want you in every damn way you’ll give yourself to me.”

  “I’m going to need that week apart to recover.” With a sigh, she drew away and turned toward his car. When he didn’t follow, she glanced back and grinned. “If you don’t make it snappy, I’ll get the party started without you.”

  He made himself smile. What good did it do to dwell? He’d stated his feelings on the subject of long-distance relationships at dinner. This was too new, too perilous to risk altering his plans. For all he knew maybe the week apart would blow out the flames between them completely.

  Sure it would. Too bad there weren’t any bridges to perdition he could purchase for a song while he was buying that load of crap.

  He got in the car and flicked the A/C on high before pulling out of the lot. It was still stiflingly hot though he’d been so wrapped up in his thoughts he’d scarcely noticed.

  Halfway home he glanced over at her, wondering why she’d gone so quiet. His heart knocked against his ribs as he saw her slumped against her door, her cheek smushed to the glass. She was out cold.

  Spencer let out a long breath. Guess there would be no staving off tomorrow after all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kelly woke with a start, the unfamiliar surroundings jolting her awake. These weren’t her sheets. This wasn’t her soft, well-worn pillow under her cheek.

  She lifted her head, realizing she wasn’t sleeping on a pillow at all, but a chest. Spencer’s chest.

  When she let out a surprised grunt, his big hand cradled the back of her head and pulled her back down. “Shh. Sleep.” His slurred voice lulled her into closing her eyes. Her fingers curled into his bare stomach. “It’s not morning yet.”

  She smiled and settled in.No, not morning yet.

  The next time she woke she couldn’t make the same assertion. Sunshine streamed through the slats of his partially open blinds, warming the bed where she sprawled like a lazy kitten. She yawned and stretched, reaching for Spencer though she already knew she was alone. She already missed his long, solid body, his muscles under her hands, his smell. He was better than any pillow.

  After dozing a couple minutes more, reality filtered into her brain. She bolted straight up in bed.

  Bright sunlight? What the fuck time was it? It wasn’t her day off.

  She glanced at his alarm clock and did a double take at what she saw.Eleven fifteen?

  “Oh my God.” She jumped out of bed. Yet again, she had only club clothes to wear. Hardly suitable for work. She also didn’t have a vehicle. For a full minute she stood in the center of Spencer’s bedroom and held her head.

  Why hadn’t he awakened her?Why?

  A folded piece of paper on the nightstand caught her eye. She snatched the note and read Spencer’s message with building anger.

  Relax. You needed your sleep. I’ll say you called sick but will be in later. Call me when you’re ready and I’ll take a break and come get you.

  Already he thought he could tell her what to do in bed and out, even when they were off the clock. Hell no. True, she’d been the one who’d overslept but he’d never set the alarm. He hadn’t even tried to wake her. It was nice he was concerned but still, it wasn’t his place. This was her job. Nothing ranked before that, even sleep.

  Even him.

  She’d never been late. Not even earlier that week when she’d had to steal his car to get there on time.

  Dammit, he probably didn’t even have a bike. She could check out the garage—

  Her phone rang in her purse, which she found on the chair next to his dresser. Fuming, she pulled it out of her bag and yanked it to her ear. “Do you have any clue how pissed I am right now?”

  His smooth chuckle infuriated her more. “Sleep well?”

  “Spencer, you better get your ass over here and get me. Now.”

  “So much for gratitude I let you sleep in. And here I was trying to be a nice boss.”

  “You’re lucky I’m not your boss, because I’d be reaming you good right now.”

  “Ream me. Free pass.”

  She hated that just his voice made her wet. Absolutely hated it. “You’d just use it against me later.”

  “You already owe me. I expected something last night and you went to sleep without giving it to me.”

  “Excuse me? You expected something? What am I now, your sex slave?”

  “I could have just taken what I wanted, you know. While you were lying in my bed, all warm and loose and beautiful.”

  “Stop calling me beautiful.”

  “Okay, you’re ugly, but you still make me horny as hell.”

  She knocked her head against the wall. This new playful side to Spencer was fun, but it was also unnerving. She didn’t know what to make of him when he was like this.

  “I would’ve clawed your eyes out when I woke.”

  “You would’ve clawed my back, not my eyes. Trust me, you wouldn’t have minded.”

  Because she had no argument to that, she waited.

  “Are you still naked?”

  “Spencer,” she said, the last of her anger draining so quickly she had to sit. She let out a baffled laugh. “I’m seriously late.”

  “I’m seriously hard for you. What are you going to do about that?”

  Her palm tingled as
she remembered stroking his thick length. She sucked in a breath. “Never mind. I’ll call a cab.”

  “And you accuse me of being stifled. What’s the matter? Never had phone sex?”

  “Phone sex?” Had he lost his damn mind? “You’re at the store. I’m almost six hours late. And we’ve already had more sex this week than I’ve had in five years!”

  “Really? Even with that list? I’m shocked. Well, the week’s not over yet.”

  “Can we discuss this later? I need to get to work.”

  Her voice must’ve pitched higher than she realized because he sighed softly. “Actually, I’m closer than you think. When you didn’t call, I got—” Before he could say the next logical word in that sentence, he paused. Of course. “Come unlock the door for me.”

  She nearly snapped back a retort about using his keys, but she didn’t. Instead she ran downstairs to open the door, conveniently forgetting she was still naked until Spencer’s gaze raked down her nude body.

  “Now this is something I wouldn’t mind coming home to more often,” he said, still talking into the phone as he entered the foyer and kicked the door closed. He set the paper bag he carried on the hall table and advanced on her, his expression betraying his intent.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” she said, reading the gleam in his eyes. She backed up, fighting the arousal welling inside her. One glimpse of his hard jaw and sexy stare and she was a gooey mess. “You might be able to take breaks whenever you want, but if I’m off the clock, I’m not getting paid.”

  “I’ll reward you in other ways.”

  She didn’t doubt it. “What’s gotten into you?”

  “You.” He caught her around the waist and pushed her against the wall, his mouth closing around her earlobe. “I thought about getting inside you all day long. Do you know what it did to me to imagine you lying naked in my bed? Every time my phone rang, I hoped it was you. I pretended you’d call me back here and tell me you were thinking of me too, that you couldn’t wait to have me inside you…”

  “Oh. Well. That’s nice.” She bit her lip on a sigh. “I’m not used to men being driven to distraction over me.”

  “New territory for me too. I keep thinking if I fill myself up with you, it’ll pass.” He wrapped his hand around her breast, stroking her in that rough way that never failed to crank her motor.

  “How’s that working out for you?”

  “As well as it looks. I hope to God you’re wet,” he muttered, his other hand delving between her damp thighs.

  “God was listening.” Her laughter ended on a raw moan when his index finger found her clit, insistently circling the distended flesh.

  He grinned. “And here I thought I was on his permanent shit list.”

  “Apparently not.” She hooked a leg around his hip and opened herself up to him. “Since I’m already late…” she murmured, shocked to hear herself being so brazen about something that had been so critical to her even two weeks ago.

  Right now, right here, a spotless record meant nothing. Less than.

  Sunlight slanted in from the window beside them, highlighting his hair as he yanked down his zipper. She could picture him taking a turn as a fallen angel, as comfortable in the flames of hell as surrounded by the harps and gossamer clouds of heaven. He could tempt her to sin—or she could save him from the brink.

  The choice was hers to make. And survive.

  He gripped his erection, jerking on it just enough to make her eyes cross with longing. A little knowing smile lifted his lips. Dammit, the man knew just what to do to make her pant. Slowly he dragged the head of his cock up and down her slit until she was writhing for him.

  She loved not using a condom, a feeling she’d never before experienced. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea, but they were protected and she trusted him when he said he was clean. And she needed him inside her, naked. Completely bare.

  He didn’t tease her long. With one sure plunge, he buried himself deep, his hips flexing to drive him home. She grabbed his shoulders, holding on as he began to batter her body with methodical thrusts. The room filled with the sounds of slapping skin and gasps turning to groans.

  Kelly’s eyes slid closed. Or rolled up in her head. She wasn’t entirely sure. She wasn’t one to go on and on about a man’s cock, but his had to be made of gold. How else could he hit every spot inside her just right, his cock unerringly wringing more joy from her body than she’d ever imagined?

  She’d had good lovers before. At least she’d thought she had. But since Spencer had come into her life, they’d become as real to her as shadow puppets, fleeting reminders of all she’d been missing.

  This was sex. Loving the man who so effortlessly played her body just made it even better.

  His broad palm closed around her breast, his thumb and forefinger pulling on her swollen nipple. She arched, straining for an orgasm she knew she’d never reach this way. Not unless she helped herself.

  Her eyes flew open again as she reached down between them. He hiked her thigh higher on his waist and watched her, his features tight with lust. She rubbed her clit slowly, going faster when he increased the tempo of his thrusts. For once it wasn’t a contest or race, simply the mutual exploitation of pleasure.

  She could see herself in his eyes and, trapped there, her fingers picked up speed, her pussy tightening around his cock every time he entered her. In and out, on and on. His expression glazed when she finally clenched, her orgasm showering him as he drove into her. She couldn’t stop shaking but he held her even as he shattered her into glittery pieces all over again.

  Her back bowed as he found his own climax and she reveled in the exquisite sensation of his hot cum spurting inside her tight channel. His release blasted new embers of heat through her belly but she was too spent to chase them. All she could do was whimper and enjoy.

  A couple of minutes later, he eased her leg down and kissed her gently, his soft, cool lips a salve after the storm they’d just endured together. “Want to go get cleaned up?”

  “No.” She sounded completely blitzed. Not too far off the mark, actually. “I want to go to work just like this. With your scent all over me. Maybe then Leigh will keep her grubby paws on her cookies and off you.”

  Luckily he chuckled, taking the comment as the joke she’d meant it as. Well, it was mostly a joke. “She’s a kid, Kelly. Hardly a threat.”

  “Duh. I’d kick her butt in a heartbeat. A chick who spends her life in an apron isn’t scrappy enough to take me on.”

  “Undoubtedly,” Spencer agreed, chucking her chin in a yeah, right sort of way that might’ve gotten her back up if she hadn’t felt capable of vaulting skyscrapers without benefit of her push-up bra.

  “So what’s the deal with her?”

  “What deal?”

  Kelly lifted her damp hair off her neck, hoping she looked more casual than she felt. She’d never quite managed to forget the position she’d found Leigh and Spencer in that day in his office. That she’d clearly been crying made Kelly wonder if he’d been trying to comfort her, but that was almost as out there as imagining Leigh crying in the first place. Leigh never showed any emotion, period. If she hadn’t seen the remnants of tears with her own eyes, Kelly never would’ve believed it.

  “She looked teary the day I came in on you two on the loveseat,” she said pointedly, tired of beating around the bush.

  Spencer arched an eyebrow. “Came in on us? We weren’t having sex.”

  “How about playing tonsil hockey?”

  He shook his head, smiling briefly. “You’ve never cried after kissing me.”

  Yet.

  “So?” she asked when he didn’t continue.

  “So,” he countered, brushing his lips over her brow. “There’s nothing to tell. Leigh has had some…difficulties in the past and I’m her friend. All there is to it.”

  “Do you make her feel better by letting her grope you?” She crowed inwardly when he gave her the look, the one that said she was about to go too fa
r. It was her favorite of all his expressions, other than when he was about to come. “Sorry, had to ask. We both know she wants to cover you in buttercream frosting and gobble you down like her favorite cookie.”

  “Truly remarkable imagination and a dirty mind. No wonder we’re so compatible.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Speaking of dirty, you look positively delicious right now. But as your boss,” he grinned when she made a face, “I can’t let you go to work looking so thoroughly used. Seeing you like that is a secret I’m not willing to share.”

  “Unless we’re at Kink.”

  “Sharing you there is hard enough. You noticed I didn’t do so well with that the other night, I’m assuming.”

  “Really? What would sharing me well have looked like then? Encouraging Paul to take me up the ass?”

  “Hardly.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m saving that particular area for me.”

  She snorted, pretending his words didn’t give her a little tingle of anticipation. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You are so a cheater.”

  “Uh huh.” He cleaned up and then gestured for her to lead the way upstairs to the bedroom. “Go on, get ready. I’ll just make some calls.”

  “Of course. Can’t waste a perfectly good lunch hour on recreation.”

  He swatted her bare ass. “It wasn’t a waste, believe me. Now get a move on before I have to dock your pay.”

  “You wish.” But she was grinning when she headed into the bathroom.

  She emerged ten minutes later, freshly soaped and showered and smelling like his manly man soap. Her cheeks were glowing and she was pretty sure the restorative benefits of amazing sex followed by a cool shower could cure most of the world’s ills. She felt incredible, wide-awake and able to tackle the world.

  And as for the man currently sprawled on his messy bed, discussing something in low tones on the phone? She definitely wanted to tackle him too.

  When she caught the words “e-readers” and “innovate”, her pulse kicked up. Then he said her name to whomever he was speaking to and she lifted her brows.