by Marie Harte
Mike ignored him. “And you.” He pointed at Brody. “Just tell us when you need us and we’ll get your house up and running so Abby can move in. I know you have the money, so get a move on, dumbass. Why the stalling?”
Brody looked uncomfortable. “I just… I know you guys are busy. We can take our time.”
“Brody.” Cam sighed. “Vanessa and I are making the move to live together. And she’s one tough woman.”
“No kidding,” Mike muttered, then held up his hands when Cam shot him a glare before continuing.
“It’s scary, I admit. But if you’re serious about a life with Abby, you might as well live together first. Then you’ll really know what you’re getting into.”
Brody shrugged. “I guess. She seems so happy and sure. I just don’t want to ruin things.”
“By letting her see your bedhead?” Mike snorted. “Hell. She already tolerates your shortcomings. You’re obnoxious, too loud, you cheat, and you’re not nearly as slick about corrupting my kid as you should be,” he ended in a low growl. “But somehow she still puts up with you. Quit being a pussy, get the renovations done, and don’t give Abby any more time to possibly change her mind about you.”
“Nice advice.” Cam nodded and said to Brody, “I’d take it if I were you.”
“What they said,” Flynn agreed.
“I guess.” Brody blew out a breath. “I can do this. I mean, I want to do this. I just don’t think I could take it if she left me. Never having her around again would kill me.”
They all grew quiet, and Mike forced himself to laugh. “No shit. You’re almost as bad as Cam when it comes to feelings.”
“Hey.” Cam glared. “I might be a little sensitive—”
Flynn snorted. “A little?”
Cam continued, “But at least I’m not afraid of women. I would have told Grace I wasn’t interested. And I don’t argue with Del to cover an attraction. That’s juvenile. Besides, Mike, she’s a nice woman.”
“Who could totally take him in a fight.” Flynn rubbed his chin. “Oh yeah. I’d pay to see that.”
Brody seemed to have shaken off his mood, because he grinned. “Shit yeah. Are you kidding? From what Cam said about her behemoth brother, you might not make it out alive if you screw with the Websters.” Then, no doubt to rub salt in the wound, he added, “And I don’t mean screw literally, you dirty-minded—”
“I warned you.” Mike jumped from his chair, rounded the table, and knocked Brody to the floor before he could run. He had Brody in a headlock, choking and begging for help, before Flynn jumped on his back.
“Leave him alone, you big bully.” Giving an evil laugh and trying to muscle under Mike’s left arm, Flynn had nearly managed to pry Mike free from Brody’s neck when Cam dove over Mike’s back from the other side and plowed into Flynn.
“Ha. Take that, loser. For making fun of me.”
Flynn coughed and knocked Cam back. “Hell yeah, I’ll make fun of you and your vicious girlfriend. Where she can’t see or hear me. She’s scary, bro. You sure you want to attach yourself to her forever?”
Brody laughed under Mike. “Please. Pussy boy is a goner. Almost as bad as Mike is about Del,” he ended in a wheeze as Mike tightened his arm around Brody’s throat.
“Sorry. What’s that, blondie? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
More scuffling. A chair overturned, then another, and Cam started swearing at Flynn. Considering the youngest normally refrained from any profanity, Flynn must have hit him where it counted.
Mike enjoyed the skirmish. He let Brody breathe, almost think he could win, then settled into another choke hold.
“Get off, motherfucker.” Brody yanked at his arm as Mike laughed and muscled him flat onto the floor.
“And you said I have problems?”
Everyone froze at the sound of that husky female voice.
“I knocked, but apparently no one heard me over the brawling and the swearing,” Del said from the open front door. “Is this a bad time?”
Mike and the others scrambled to their feet. “Del.”
“Well, I’d best be going. Nice to see you, Del.” Cam left through the back.
Flynn and Brody made hasty excuses and followed him out the door, leaving Mike and Del alone.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the shoulder of his grungy T-shirt, pleased when she watched the movement with eagle eyes.
She closed the front door behind her and nodded to the downed chairs. “What happened?”
“Nothing. Brotherly squabble.” Over her.
“Great role model you are,” she muttered. “Where’s the kid? Thought I’d swing by to say hello to the scam artist.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen and noted the time. Normally Colin would be in bed by nine on a Friday night. He glanced back at Del, noting her jeans, the clean but worn sweatshirt, and the braids at her temple blending into the length of hair he was dying to sink his fingers into again.
He walked toward her, gratified when her eyes narrowed.
“Don’t even think of putting me in a headlock, buddy.”
He stopped a few feet from her and smirked. “Oh, so now you recognize I can do some damage. Guess seeing me knock Jim on his ass didn’t enlighten you to the fact that I’m not a huge wuss. But giving Brody a noogie convinces you I’m a tough guy?”
“Ha. What tough guy? Yeah, you’re a wuss, just not when it comes to fighting.”
“Oh?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Everyone acts like you’re some kind of saint. Mr. Nice Guy. How was your dinner last night?” she asked, her voice bland. “Did you and Grace have fun?”
“We did, actually.” Was that jealousy in her gaze? “The food sucked, but she turned out to be a nice woman just wanting to meet new people.”
Del snorted. “Yeah, right. Woman was man hungry. She’s lulling you with big blue eyes and that pathetic helpless routine. I thought you were smarter than that.”
“You’re just jealous.”
She growled at him, “You’re an ass.”
“Oh? At least I wasn’t scared of that kiss in the parking lot.” He buffed his nails on his chest then casually glanced at her, more than pleased to see her lips firmed into an unhappy line. The woman wanted him, but she didn’t like it. Hell. Join the club.
“I wasn’t scared.” She huffed and walked around him, looking around his clean but—according to Maddie—boringly brown house. “So you never answered. Where’s Colin?” She craned her head to look down the hallway.
Mike subtly moved closer, boxing her in. She could escape to the kitchen or out the back door. No going around him to the front. Through him? That was another story.
“Colin is sleeping over at his buddy Brian’s house tonight.” A broad grin curled his lips when she audibly swallowed. “Good timing, you finally growing a pair and showing up.”
She licked her lips, and he barely contained a low growl. “Bull. I wasn’t scared of you before. I was tired of dealing with McCauley nonsense.”
“Oh?” He stepped closer, and she backed into the kitchen table, then stood firm.
“Yeah. I did you a favor. That was it.” She glanced at his mouth and flushed, then planted her hands on her trim hips. “Your macho stunt the other night had those idiots ratting me out to my brother, who told my dad and the guys at work. Now they’re all giving me crap about how my date”—she put in air quotes—“had a problem with his temper, and that I’m probably to blame.”
“You are.”
She opened her mouth and closed it. “First of all, it wasn’t a date.”
“Was to me.”
“Second,” she said, ignoring him, “my presence had nothing to do with your temper.”
He wanted her. Bottom line, no matter where his head had been lately, his body had been living in a fantasy world with Del at its center. He dreamed about her. He jacked off to thoughts of her and had been since he’d first seen her. He knew if he didn’t soon
sate this craving, he’d lose his freaking mind.
Taking the lead with her, he closed the distance between them, lifted her in his arms, and kissed her while he walked them to the nearest wall. Then he pushed her against it and continued to taste her sweet lips.
Past the protest she started but never finished, through the warmth under her thin clothes, Mike consumed the woman never far from his thoughts. She tasted minty, like the candy he’d seen in her car. The feel of her took his breath away. She gripped his forearms, and he gentled the kiss, not wanting to push if the embrace wasn’t welcome.
Her strong fingers yanked his shoulders closer, and he groaned, in lust with the feminine strength gripping him tight.
He left her mouth to trail kisses along her jaw to her ear. He sucked on her neck, aroused anew when she lifted on her toes and arched away from the wall, her breasts straining against his chest. Del had a sizeable rack, and it took everything in him not to slam her back against the wall and fuck her raw.
He nipped her earlobe and jerked when her hands moved down his torso to his waist, then under his T-shirt. Her touch, over his naked skin, turned his cock from hard to rock-solid-ready to fuck.
“You’re so hot,” she whispered as she angled her head, giving him better access to her throat. “Full of muscle, no give.” She raked her short nails over his abs, and he bucked uncontrollably.
He hadn’t realized he’d planted his hands on her hips until he squeezed. But he wanted to feel more of her. He dragged his hands up her belly, over her rounded, firm breasts with their pointed nipples, to her neck, where he gentled his fingers around her throat. He put pressure there, angling her head to the side so he could let her know what she was in for. No games, no more teasing.
He whispered into her ear, “You don’t want this, you need to leave, now. I’m done waiting. I want you. Gonna fuck you right here, right up against the wall.” He slid a leg between hers and ground his knee against her clit. “Yes or no? Because I can’t wait any longer.”
Two days had been too long for her to come to her senses. Yet it had been much longer than that. He’d been waiting for months, since he’d first been out-bowled by the sexy rebel in boots and tight jeans.
She gasped when he sucked at her throat, then yanked him back by the hair to stare into his eyes, hers so light he swore they glowed. “I’m here, and I’m ready. What are you waiting for?”
The magic words. Not pausing a moment more, he kissed her hard—taking, not asking. Like before, she melted into his embrace, and he knew she liked him taking charge. With Del, he didn’t temper his strength, because she pulled at him and squeezed, demanding more. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he yanked off her sweatshirt in one move.
Then he ran his fingers through the smooth, golden strands of her hair. “I want to feel this over my cock while you suck me,” he growled. “Later. After you come all over me the first time.”
Her eyes glittered with lust. She seemed as into their encounter as he felt, if that were possible. Mike was lost to everything but Del. He shoved his face between her breasts and inhaled, taken with her musky scent. So sweet, not cloying, but pure.
He sucked her nipples through her lace bra. Nothing so standard as white cotton for his exotic playmate. Del wore black lace, through which he could see her rosy nipples. With a groan, he kissed both breasts until she squirmed and begged him to take her.
“Music to my ears,” he murmured and unhooked the lace binding her beautiful breasts. Freed, they remained full, high, and so fucking amazing he could do nothing but stare.
“Come on, Mike. In me,” she rasped and grabbed his hand, shoving it down the front of her pants.
He loved a woman not afraid of her sexuality, and Del’s passion lit a fuse he was hard-pressed to ignore. He didn’t want to scare her by being too rough. Yet her frenzy stirred him. Too much.
He yanked her hand away and delved into her jeans, past her underwear to the slick heat of her.
“Fuck,” he swore as he slid a finger inside her. “So tight.”
“Yes.” She moaned and leaned her head back against the wall while he shoved his finger in and out of her, fucking her with his hand.
He rubbed her clit with the heel of his palm, his finger buried inside her, and she rode him with an urgency that showed she neared her end. Watching her, seeing her pleasure in his touch, aroused him past the point of no return. He prayed she wouldn’t change her mind and tell him to stop, because God help him, he didn’t know if he could.
He had to feel her come, to see her in climax, that beautiful release so close he could all but taste it.
Moaning, he leaned close and stole another kiss, mashed against her breasts and immersed in the minty taste of Del. She sucked on his tongue, raked her fingernails over his chest, and pinched his nipples.
He growled into her mouth, sensitive to her touch and needing more.
But her panting and frantic gyrations warned him to be patient. He pulled from her mouth and watched her seize in the most beautiful orgasm, her rosy lips parted on a cry, her breasts flushed, the nipples hard and full. Her flat belly contracted, and he stared from her face to his hand, buried beneath her jeans. He could feel the thin strip of hair on her mound, but her folds were nude, slick, and soft.
“I want to eat you up,” he confessed. “To feel you come all over my mouth.”
“Yeah,” she sighed and pulled him close for another kiss. This one slower, but no less devastating.
“You move a little more and I’m going to come in my jeans. Not what I have planned for you.”
She pulled back and blinked. “Oh. Sorry.” She froze. “Um, not trying to be a tease or anything, but I didn’t come prepared for this.”
“Trust me, not what I was expecting either. But I’m not complaining.”
She chuckled, and the movement tightened her body around his finger.
“You feel so fucking good.” He slowly withdrew his hand, grazing her clit, and she shuddered.
“Holy shit. That was amazing.” Del released his waist and let her legs down to stand. She pushed him back, and he stared at her, watching as she removed the rest of her clothing.
“You are without a doubt the sexiest woman I know.” Trite, but damn it all if he wasn’t being honest. Del’s colorful arms matched the tribal marks over her belly and around her sides, no doubt meeting over her lower back. The artwork on her body only enhanced the play of muscle on her solid frame.
A real woman, not a stick-thin model, but a healthy female with tone and muscle most fitness instructors would envy.
“Man, I want those thighs wrapped around my head,” he rasped and licked his lips.
“Yeah, about that.” She moved closer and tore his T-shirt off him. “Christ, Mike. You are seriously ripped.”
“Comes with the job.”
“I know a lot of guys in construction. None of them look like you.” She stared at him with admiration, and he felt ten feet tall. “I want you. All of you.” She cupped him through his jeans, and he swore. “But I didn’t bring anything. So unless you have a condom…”
He nodded. “I think I have some in the bedroom.”
Her sultry smile grew. “Then what are we waiting for?” She walked away from him down the hall, toward his bedroom. Her fine ass swayed invitingly, and he stripped out of his jeans and underwear, praying he had more than one condom in his nightstand. Because he was going to need at least a few dozen to get this craving for her out of his blood. For sure.
Chapter 6
Del didn’t know where her euphoric confidence had come from, but after that earth-shattering orgasm, she felt as if she could rule the world. Had she known what she’d been missing, she would have jumped Mike months ago. Oh my God, he really rang my bell. A genuine encounter built on seeing to her pleasure first. A miracle in itself. But seeing Mike’s bare chest… That alone would have made tonight worth it.
Before she reached his bed, large arms circled her, bringing her back
to his hot body. She felt his cock along her backside, that huge monster slick and rubbing against her, showing her Mike had been far from unaffected.
“Condoms?” she asked, sounding as needy as she felt. Despite her orgasm, her desire hadn’t abated. She wanted to feel him inside her on a level that unnerved her.
“Bedside drawer,” he said against her ear as he kissed her. His soft breath, the large hands pressing against her belly, pulling her back against him, made her weak at the knees. “Oh yeah. I’ve had fantasies of bending you over. Fucking you so hard.”
She panted, enthralled at the thought of big bad Mike McCauley having sexual thoughts about her. “Yeah? Did you touch yourself, thinking about taking me?”
He thrust against her ass and slid to the small of her back. Dear God. Mike was huge.
“You have no idea.” Mike turned her head and kissed her lips, the carnal sensation of being overwhelmed stealing her breath. “Check the nightstand, Delilah.”
She hated her name. But for some reason, Mike saying it like that turned her on even more.
Unsteadily, she hurried to the nightstand and found a few foil packets. Thank God. She held one in her hand and turned. And froze.
Mike stood without any clothes, and she had her first good look at him naked. He could have passed for a statue come to life. All muscle and sinew, that square jaw, blazing blue eyes, and glory be to Andretti, but she’d never seen a man better put together than Michael McCauley. A sprinkling of dark hair feathered over his chest and down his washboard abs, all leading to that thick cock beckoning her closer.
He held himself for her, stroking a few times, then growled, “Put it on me.”
She ripped open the packet and walked to him. “You sure it will fit?”
“It better. Because I’m coming inside you in like two seconds. I’ve never been this hard in my life.”
She suppressed a shiver and rolled the latex over him, captivated by the grimace of need on his face. “Yeah, you like that? My hands on your dick?”
“Yeah.” He covered her hands with his, keeping her hold tight. “God, I want you.”
“Mmm. Me too. But this time I want to come all over you.”
