by Shayla Black
She tightened, trembled—her legs, her back, her pussy. He slid the little vibrating toy over her clit again, ruthlessly flicking it over the most sensitive part of her little bud until she clawed the sheets, heaved in a huge breath, keened in a high, tight cry.
“That’s it. Come for me, Emmy. Let me feel you.”
The fluttering walls of her sex clamped down on him, sucking him deeper, making it damn near impossible to move. Fuck, that felt good. And when she all but growled out her release, it somehow aroused him even more. It was hot. She was hot. But he wasn’t ready to give into the pleasure searing his spine yet.
Brandon tossed the toy on the nightstand, withdrew from her body, and flipped her to her back. Em barely had time to blink up at him before he shoved her legs wide, climbed between them, and slid deep.
With his cock nudging her cervix, he arched to penetrate her even more. Her nails clawed at his back as she tilted up to meet him, taking him deeper still. But it wasn’t enough. He had to be the man who’d given her the most pleasure ever, the one she wanted above all others. The person she turned to when she laughed or cried, railed or teased. He definitely wanted to be the man she thought of when she came. He vowed to do whatever it took to be that man for her.
Unleashing every bit of his need, he fucked her with long, deliberate strokes, hitting her sensitive spots, circling his hips to hit them again and again, even as his thumb toyed with her clit. He didn’t pause, didn’t let up until she screamed out again, this orgasm so powerful, it threw him over the edge into an apocalypse of pleasure unlike anything he’d ever felt. He shouted her name, the edges of his vision going black as he released everything he had inside her.
Long minutes later, he withdrew from her limp, sated body, disposed of the condom, and curled up around her. Almost immediately, the need to be with her, inside her again, hit him. It wasn’t purely sexual, though he loved making love to her. He wanted to…connect with her on a level that was deeper still. Cement their bond. Brandon frowned. He’d always liked Em, respected the hell out of her. But this feeling was totally new. Exactly how deep did his feelings run?
Before he could follow that train of thought, he heard the chirping of his cell phone from the front of her apartment. And he remembered it was Monday morning. He hadn’t told a soul where he was going, simply ran out of the office, followed Em through the parking lot, and peeled out before following her here.
“Please tell me it’s not eleven o’clock,” he muttered.
Em glanced at the clock. “It’s eleven fifteen. And that ring tone is the mayor’s.”
She’d know. She’d set it.
Grimacing, he jumped up and grabbed his cell just before the voicemail kicked in. “Hello, sir.”
Brandon grimaced and listened to the testy politician, interjecting affirmative sounds when appropriate. Inside, he wanted to scream. Yes, this fucking meeting was important.
But so was Em, damn it.
Still, if he wanted to implement the sweeping changes that he and Em had worked so hard for, he had to leave now.
Quickly, he thrust on his clothes, then whirled for the bedroom. Instead, he found Em standing a few feet away in her big terrycloth bathrobe. “You’re leaving.”
“This is the meeting with the mayor and his staff. We have to talk about how to appropriate the new budget money, assess the needs of each fire station and allocate funds and equipment—”
“I know.” She smiled sadly. “I set up the meeting for you. I left you prep notes on your desk Friday afternoon.”
Of course she had.
“I don’t want to leave you, Em. I’d rather stay with you all day.”
“You have to go. Give those firefighters what they need to get the job done. Don’t let anyone else lose a husband, father, brother, or son.”
Brandon hated going now, but she was right. It had taken months to win the budget victory. If the mayor was willing to meet with all the players and get this done now, he couldn’t throw that away. The opportunity wouldn’t come around again soon, and he was already late.
He slanted a hard kiss over her mouth. “After this meeting, we’re going to talk.”
She nodded, handed him his keys from the bar, then opened the door. “Sure.”
Nothing about her tone sounded happy, and he couldn’t fix it now. He’d show her later.
“Seriously.” He forced her gaze to meet his. “We will talk about this later.”
Then Brandon left. Making record time to the office, he grabbed her notes and charged into the meeting, all apologies, then dug into the business at hand. A million times, his mind wandered to Em. Every time, he forced his thoughts back. He gave his full concentration so no other firefighter lost their life for so senseless a reason as poor planning. In the end, thanks in large part to her notes, he negotiated the best deal. Em would be both delighted and proud.
The second he left the meeting, he replayed their morning together over and over. They’d leapt from being boss and assistant, from being friends, straight into being lovers. No question, Em had started a fever inside him. A few hours away from her, and already he hungered to touch her again. But he didn’t just crave the sex, hot though it was. He cared deeply about her happiness. He’d do damn near anything to reassure her that he was there with and for her. Caring, respect, friendship…weren’t those good places to start building an actual relationship?
“Good meeting, Ross.” The mayor shook his hand. As they walked to the elevator, he leaned in with a grin. “Whoever she is, since she’s making you smile, I’m guessing she was worth the tardiness and distraction.”
Brandon didn’t even question how the mayor had known. After all, he’d shown up late with mussed hair and wrinkled clothes. But he’d gotten the job done, and now it was time to see Em. And to tell her the good news.
On his way to her place, he stopped for flowers and a bottle of her favorite wine. He also changed into jeans and a T-shirt. As he wandered down the hall of his house, he stared into all the half-empty bedrooms he’d originally intended to fill with a wife and children someday. After Kayla’s departure, he hadn’t let anyone into his life so he could make that happen.
Was Em that someone?
The question almost bowled him over. He’d had a handful of hours to think of her as a lover. Was he really already thinking about her as a wife? A mother? She loved with her whole heart, and he couldn’t do better. He also wasn’t sure he could do without her any more.
Taking a deep breath, he hopped back into his car and took a winding ribbon of side streets to beat the Houston traffic and reach Em sooner. When he parked his car, he damn near ran up the stairs, roses and wine in hand, and pounded on her door.
When she opened to him, Brandon found her in a simple tank top and capri pants that hugged the sweet curve of her hips. Instantly, he remembered the taste of her kiss, the way she looked at him like he was her everything as he filled her full of his cock, her crying out his name as she came. The adoration in her eyes when he cuddled her afterward. The gentle way she glowed as she smiled with happiness.
Damn, he’d been blind. Question was, what was he going to do about it?
“Hi, baby. We got everything we wanted for the firefighters.”
“Really?” She smiled brightly and clapped her hands.
When she didn’t throw herself into his arms, he stepped inside Em’s place, grabbed her, and hugged her against him. “Really. It was perfect.”
“Thank you. You fought a great fight.”
“We did. How was your day?”
Tensing suddenly, she took the wine from him, then walked into the next room, setting the bottle in the refrigerator to chill. After that, she busied herself by finding a vase for the roses and adding water. “Fine. I’ve been thinking.”
That sounded ominous. “Go ahead.”
“You were right; I realized today that I can’t turn my back on helping the firefighters. It’s my passion. My dad wouldn’t have wanted me to quit,
and I won’t give up. So if my job is still open, I’d like it back, starting tomorrow.”
“Of course. Absolutely.” In fact, that was a huge relief to him. He’d been willing to let her go if she didn’t feel that she could work for him and be with him romantically, but if she could handle it, so could he. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to be my right hand. The firefighters couldn’t find a better advocate anywhere.”
He groped around on the pass-through bar between her foyer and her kitchen until he found her resignation letter, the one that had given him the kick in the ass he needed to question everything. He ripped it in half, then crumpled it and tossed it into the nearby bin.
“There. Done.” He beamed.
“Good,” she said tightly, then she took a nervous breath, and Brandon’s gut curdled up in alarm. “But I don’t think we should sleep together anymore.” When he opened his mouth, she cut him off. “I know you’re not in love with Kayla. And I absolutely enjoyed being with you this morning. I’ve never had anyone who made me feel so good, who cared so much about my pleasure. With you, I felt sexy.”
“You are sexy.”
Em arranged the roses in the vase, then set them on the counter beside her. “Thank you. But I can’t do ‘just sex’ with you. I know you’ve had a handful of hours to think about us together, but I have to be completely honest. I’m not built for casual sex. Nothing about you is casual for me.”
“Emmy, baby—”
“Let me finish.” She paced into the living room, putting the sofa between them. “I don’t see any reason to give you less than the truth. I love you.”
Those three words sent electricity skittering across his skin. He’d been hard when he’d knocked on her door. But now, he was like steel. He couldn’t wait to touch her, get inside her, and show her how he felt.
“If you don’t think you’re ever going to be able to feel the same, let’s not continue this, Brandon.”
It had cost her a lot to say that, he could tell. And he understood where she was coming from. She’d wasted three years on a man too mired in the past to notice her. Now, she assumed a lot about his feelings—or lack thereof. “You’re not casual for me, either, Em. I may have come late to the party, I may have been blind for most of our time together, but this morning, with one kiss, you opened my eyes. You know how much I rely on you at the office.”
Em scoffed. “You’d be lost without me. You definitely can’t keep a functioning calendar. Papers and e-mails would be everywhere. You’d rarely remember to return a phone call.”
“Right. I’m a train wreck. But I’d give you up professionally before I’d give you up romantically. I really want you back in the office, but I’m pretty damn sure that I need you in my life and that I’m not going to be complete or happy until I’m sure you’re mine.”
A tremulous smile crept up her face. “Yours, huh?”
Brandon made his way around the sofa and took one of Em’s hands in his. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you, Em.” He placed her hand over his heart, thrilled when she met his stare and he saw her love—her very soul—opening and shining from her eyes. “Stay with me, baby. Give me time to catch up and make you happy. If you want to be hands off until then, I totally understand. I want you to be comfortable. To trust me. I’ll wait—”
“If that’s how you feel, I don’t want to wait.” Her green-gold eyes danced with happiness—and a bit of mischief—as she stepped closer and pressed a kiss to his mouth. “I want you now.”
He swallowed. His cock got harder. The idea of having Em every day by his side, every night in his bed, was beyond seductive. He wanted her every which way he could get her, whether that was naked against his sheets, just holding his hand, or giving him that secret grin at the office between meetings. He wanted every chance to fall completely in love with her and show her exactly how he felt.
But he wanted her ready and trusting. “Baby, I don’t want to do anything until you’re sure you’re ready.”
“Brandon.” She cocked her head to the side.
“Yeah?”
Em brushed a palm down his chest, past his abdomen, farther south until she gripped his erection in her hand. “Take off your clothes.”
Damn, her touch felt so good, Brandon thought he was going to swallow his tongue. But first things first. “Are you going to give me the chance to show you that I not only want you but care?”
“I can’t wait,” she breathed.
“Good. Then I’ve got an idea: Why don’t you take your clothes off. Slowly. And let me kiss every inch along the way.”
She grinned and reached for the little strap of her tank top. “Yes, boss.”
Table of Contents
Wicked To Love
