His stare intensified. “Why does that sound like a compliment?”
“Because…it is one.” I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. I was in trouble, but then an image flashed before me, of him and my intern having sex. I blinked away from him, slipped by, and mumbled a shaky, “So, do we need to buckle in or something? How does this work?”
His volume raised, the intimate quality vanishing and becoming casual again. “Ah no, we just take our seats. Unless you want to stand during lift off. You hold onto these handles here and enjoy the ride.”
“No,” I nervously smiled. “I’d rather sit if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” He followed me back to the oval living room and sat on the couch opposite me as I fiddled with my hair. “Would you like a drink?”
“It’s not even noon,” I muttered. “Fuck it. Yes, please. Something…not too strong.”
I’d almost said, something strong, but that made me sound like a lush. If he handed me a Valium right then I would have chopped it up and snorted it just to get it in my bloodstream faster, and I didn’t want him to know that’s how nervous I really was.
“Mr. Cocker?” Captain Gardner had opened the door. We glanced to him and he said, “Air Control has given us the go ahead.”
“Great, thank you.”
My anxious gaze hovered over seemingly hundreds of levers and buttons in the cockpit’s console. It was intimidating and my eyelashes fluttered closed for a moment. The door followed my example.
Ethan asked, “You okay?”
Under my breath, almost talking to myself, I said, “There’s no way they know what all the buttons are for. There are too many of them.” I opened my eyes and saw Ethan’s smile. “I sound crazy.”
“You haven’t flown much?”
“Of course. But that doesn’t mean I ever get used to the fact that we’re a big hunk of metal in the sky and no wings are flapping!”
His easy laughter made me smile. Shaking his head and grinning, Ethan leaned for the bottles on the table between us and lifted two glasses. “Hold these.” I took them and he uncapped a bottle of Woodford Reserve. “Tobias, my cousin-in-law I like to call him, he loves this stuff. So he gave me some to keep on the plane right after I bought it.”
“How long have you had this?”
“Few months.” His eyes flashed to meet mine as he poured into the glasses I held for us.
“Only that long?”
He capped the bottle and returned it to its home as the plane picked up speed. “Had to find the right one. So all these rooms, they were already here. I bought this off a woman from Texas, oil money, and she was just like you, afraid of flying. Didn’t want this baby anymore.”
“I’m not afraid,” I thinly argued.
Ethan took his glass from my hand and touched my palm. “Then why are you clammy, Ms. Reed?”
I swallowed and met his eyes. “I’m not afraid. I’m just a tiny bit anxious.” As the plane’s nose lifted off the tarmac I closed my eyes, the whiskey shaking in my hand.
“How about this?” Ethan asked, an idea occurring to him.
With our eyes locked he took his shirt off.
One button at a time.
Now that got my attention.
13
CHARLIE
“What the hell are you doing?”
He gave me a wink and pulled the grey tank top off, too, revealing skin that had a light, evenly tanned gold to it. No tan lines, that was his normal coloring. His chest was perfect, the indent deep that differentiated his right and left pectoral muscles, abs so tight I wanted to run my nails up them to see if they sang like a harp.
My mouth was open in surprise and I cut a quick look to his face. “Wow.”
“Thank you,” he smirked.
“Not that wow! Wow, you are unbelievably full of yourself! I’m your boss.”
“So tell me what to do,” he smiled.
“Oh my God!”
His voice deepened. “Yes?”
“Jesus!”
“You rang?”
I leaned back, head swinging toward the kitchen so I didn’t stare at his body. I was throbbing, wet, and angry. In order not to drink him I drank the whiskey. The burn of the amber liquor was so intense. I’d tried it before, this wasn’t my first taste, but everything was heightened with Ethan shirtless on the couch across from me, a smirking, half-naked reminder that we were completely alone. The pilots wouldn’t peek out here. They’d have no cause to, and I’m sure a playboy like Ethan was turning out to be had them trained to leave him and his lady passengers alone.
I could feel his heated gaze and I wanted to throw this at him for being so damn sexy. Every part of my body — not my mind — wished I could straddle his lap and lace my fingers into that golden-brown mop of soft hair. I wanted to force his handsome face down between my legs. And with each passing second I was forgetting my sweet young intern and how she was probably wondering why he hadn’t called.
I saw movement from my periphery and slowly looked over. Ethan was leaning back on the couch opposite me, rubbing his abs while watching me. He lifted his glass to his lips and licked around one half of the rim while I stared at him in shock. Then he took a slow sip, never losing eye contact. I wasn’t breathing anymore. I didn’t know what to do. My chest was tingling. My legs felt hot. And between my thighs was so slick I was afraid I’d slide onto the floor if I moved.
I licked my lips as he licked his.
Then he smiled. “Ms. Reed?”
“Mmm?”
“Got your mind off the take off, didn’t I?” His smile spread to a grin as my eyes widened.
“You jerk!”
“We’re in the air,” he shrugged. “Been leveled off for a while now. And you never even noticed.”
I started laughing. He’d tricked me. “You…Okay, wow! So you’re not as arrogant as I thought.”
He reached for his button-up shirt, the tank ignored, and set the glass down as he said, “Depends on your definition of the word.” He glanced from me to the shirt. “You care if I leave this off?”
“Do whatever you want. It doesn’t affect me.”
He didn’t believe me for a second. “Yeah right.”
“It doesn’t. I’ve seen male chests before.”
A low laugh escaped him as he slipped his arms through the sleeves, the front unbuttoned. I wanted it to stay that way but there was no way in hell I’d confess such a thing. It’d be like putting myself on the floor and asking him to walk all over me, to give him that much knowledge…and power.
Still I wanted the shirt off.
I would settle for open, that would be good, too.
Ethan paused, his thick fingers holding the first button and hole near each other. His gaze rose and he eyed me. “Tell me to leave it off.”
“No.”
He opened the shirt wider, letting it hang like that. “Hey Ms. Reed, I’ve got another idea. You want to make a bet?”
“Another bet?” I asked, half-smiling like he was ridiculous. “Come on. You really want to lose twice?”
“I don’t think I will lose.” He touched his nipple and circled it slowly then dropped his hand as if he hadn’t done that.
I drank more whiskey. “What’s the bet?”
“You have to say you’ll stick to it first.”
“I will not say that before I know what it is.”
“Scared?”
My jaw tightened and I kept my glass to my lips, lying, “No, I’m not scared.”
“Prove it. Say you’ll honor the bet.”
“Fine!” I waved the glass in the air and rolled my eyes. “I’ll honor your stupid bet. What is it?”
“I bet you’re wet right now.”
I shot upright and objected, “No way!”
“You said you’d honor the bet!”
“How am I supposed to do that?!” I barked.
He grinned, and for the first time I saw a little dimple in his cheek. Just the one super sexy ind
entation.
“I’ll have to feel you to make sure.”
I gasped, “What?!” and he waved a finger.
“Ah ah ah, you said you’d honor it. But you’re a grown woman. You can say no. And I won’t hold it against you.”
My eyes narrowed. “I can feel you baiting me, Mr. Cocker.”
“If you say yes and I’m right, I win the bet.”
“And what do you get?”
He rested his foot on the table, legs spread, shirt open. “It’s what you’ll get.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“Ms. Reed, if I’m right and my fingers slide around, then I will take you somewhere less cloudy next weekend.”
I stared at him, wondering how I’d gotten myself into this. “There’s no way I’m letting you touch my…”
“Pussy?” he finished on a smirk, hand sliding halfway down his thigh so that it rested on the inner curve.
There was an invisible cord of electricity between us. “I’m your boss,” I murmured, eyes locked with his.
“Not really,” he rasped, voice thick.
“I sign your paychecks whether you need them or not.” I glanced around. “And apparently you don’t.”
“Unless you beat me at golf. Then I work pro bono.”
We stared at each other. “This bet almost makes me a prostitute.”
He laughed, “No, it fucking doesn’t. It makes you a gambler, which we already know you are. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
He’d stolen my ability to argue, so I shrugged a shoulder and lamely said, “Still. It’s my corporation whether I’m paying you there or not, I’m still your superior.”
“Alright, if you insist on being my boss because it gets you off, tell me what you want me to do, Sir.”
My core was humming. “Mr. Cocker, why don’t you change the subject so the air can cool down a little?”
“Your voice is trembling,” he frowned, taking his foot off the table and leaning toward me. “I’m not scaring you, am I? I’m flirting, you’re in no danger.”
“I’m not scared, I’m…”
I bit my lip.
“You’re what?” he asked, curious. “Because I’ve got a sister, a ton of female cousins and my mother is the best woman I’ve ever known—”
“I’m turned on, Ethan.”
Could my heart beat any louder?
He set his whiskey on the table between us and stood up. I swallowed in anticipation as he walked around, grabbed onto the back of the couch next to my right shoulder and leaned in really close to my lips. He slid his hand under the front of my pants, fingers flattened. I stopped breathing as he dipped under my panties and oh so slowly followed the curve of my mound until his fingers crooked and slid under my cleft, into the slit. His lips parted and I could smell the whiskey on his breath as his breathing paused with suspense. I was frozen.
“Looks like I’m taking you to Turtle Island next weekend, Ms. Reed,” he rasped, and then closed his eyes a second, swept away by how good my wetness felt to him. I was throbbing and wondered if he could feel it. I wanted a kiss. I wanted his fingers to move. To stroke me and make me cum. Ease this ache he’d started. I was too stunned to do anything at all.
Removing his hand Ethan stood, towering above me as I stared up at him. He walked toward the plane’s kitchen, then stopped and licked his fingers. Glancing back to me, he asked, “You hungry?”
Fuck yes, but not for food.
“Sure,” I stammered. “Let’s have lunch.”
14
ETHAN
My experience with women has been abundant, to say the fucking least. My parents passed down great genes to Emma, Eric and me. He’s the baby, but now he plays football and is bigger than I am. Emma’s shyly beautiful, a killer combo. So not one of us had trouble getting laid if we wanted to. And all three of us have attracted nut jobs at least once, someone who wanted to lock us down and wouldn’t take no for an answer until it was shouted.
And then you add my money, and it’s safe to say that I will never lack for a female’s touch even if I got all crotchety and jaded. And that never got old, if I was being honest with myself. I liked single life until I saw Tobias looking at my cousin Hannah. Then everything changed.
But I had no idea where I’d find her.
My her.
Not only was something visceral happening to me that I’d never felt before but also on paper this blew my mind. She didn’t need my wealth. Charlie had her own cash. Own passion. Own purpose. Ran a damn corporation before she was even in her thirties, which was impressive as hell to me, and on top of all that, she looked like she could suck a guy off until he held a ring up for her. I had all kinds of dirty things I wanted to do. Every curve of her skin from her wrists to her ankles to the slope of her neck just under her soft earlobes, I wanted to touch, taste, and own. I wanted her. Especially now that I’d just slid my hand down her elegant pants. That felt almost taboo. This whole pauper-princess thing was still with me. I had her on a pedestal. Normally it was the other way around. I loved it.
“You like Salmon?” I asked, walking the plates over to the dining room, with her following. As I put them down I saw the tent in my pants. I gave her a smirk and she smiled weakly. “You like this more than Salmon?”
“Ha ha,” she muttered. “I just noticed that you were…I don’t want anything but lunch, thank you.”
“Uh huh. Sure ya don’t.” Tearing the Cellophane away I kept glancing over because she was staring at my crotch again.
I was hard and pulsing.
I didn’t even try to hide it.
Balling up the plastic I tossed it across the room into a trashcan. Her eyes darted over in time to see me make the shot, then returned to me.
I muttered, “Fuck it,” and strode over to her, pulling her into my arms and thickly confessing, “I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since you were bitching at me in that break room.”
“I wasn’t…”
“Do I have to shut you up?” I interrupted, and kissed her with more desperation than I thought I was capable of.
When her arms went around my neck I groaned into her parted lips, then lunged in and unlocked her jaw to mold with her for the first time. Everything disappeared as the tips of our tongues touched. She tasted so fucking good I picked her up. She hooked her legs around my hips, kissing me with equal abandon. I tore away from her and she was panting. We both were. As soon as I started walking, carrying her to the bedroom, she gasped, “Oh God, what am I doing?”
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on but I have to have you,” I rasped.
“Ethan, you can’t tell anyone.”
“You have my word, Boss.”
We fell onto the bed, ripping the clothes off each other. I yanked her blouse off, my hands cupping her breasts through her bra. I leaned down and kissed the soft flesh over the top of it, and pulled the fabric down to find her nipple hard and ready for my tongue. She moaned as I dropped to suck it and the sound drove me fucking crazy.
“I’m dying for you,” I growled, “I fucking need you.”
She moaned with pleasure, pulling at my pants and sliding her hand into my boxer briefs. “I need you, too.”
My eyes rolled back as she grabbed my length and gave it a good squeeze, stroking it from base to tip like an experienced woman with no shame.
“Oh, fuck yes,” I growled, giving her ginger-haired pussy some skilled attention. Our mouths crashed together and we tore everything off until we were naked and ready for anything.
Her gaze dropped and her eyes widened. “You’re enormous. I mean I knew you were big but…” She abruptly stopped and bit her lip like she’d said too much.
I assured her, “Keep talking. I like it.”
She shot a quick look to me with this guilty expression that made no sense to me, so I silenced her concern by grabbing her legs and lifting her ass off the bed. Her hands twisted the comforter, shoulders flat on the bed, red hair fanned out around her lust-
filled expression. I gave her a wink as my cock hovered against her pussy.
Charlie swallowed and whispered, “What are you waiting for?”
“I want you to want it. You look scared all of a sudden.”
She bit her lip and frowned.
15
CHARLIE
He was kneeling between my legs, completely naked, muscles tense and cock hard, with those gorgeous chestnut eyes hiding behind sandy locks of disheveled hair, Ethan Cocker was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. How much I wanted him devastated me. It frightened me.
If he stopped I would beg him to come back.
I knew I would.
I absolutely had to fuck him.
“Please, Ethan,” I whispered. “Please.”
Something primal glittered behind his eyes. “Please what.”
I moaned as he bucked his hips a little closer, teasing me with his thick tip pressing in. “Oh God, please!”
“Please what, Ms. Reed?”
His saying my last name like that turned me on even more.
“Please give it all to me.”
Did the pilots know what we were doing? Were they both in that cockpit talking about how we were probably fucking. It made me so wet to think they were.
“Tell me what you want me to do, Boss.”
I pressed my hips closer but he pulled back a little, so I whimpered and covered my face with my hands. Dropping them I locked onto Ethan. “I’m ordering you to fuck me.”
He smirked and with a single motion, plunged into me so confidently that I gasped and arched my ass higher. He grabbed my hips and groaned that sexy sound I’d heard in the video. But now it was for me. Thinking of that girl was torture, but I’d seen his face in ecstasy before. I couldn’t help but remember when and where. And that just made this naughtier.
He felt so good, so hard, and I cried out as he started to move. Every thrust made his cock more perfect. He made these amazing circles. I could hardly stop from screaming I was so close to cumming the whole time. He was the master of my pussy, holding me on edge, deepening that sweet burn until I wanted to claw his eyes out. “Stop it!” I moaned. “Let me cum! I need to let go. I’ve been holding on too tightly for too long. Fuck me, Ethan. Stop torturing me!”
Cocky Genius: Ethan Cocker (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 9) Page 7
