His fingers dig into the skin of my ass, and he pulls me down further, moving me in a to-and-fro motion, which makes me grind down on him. I’m so close, but I can’t seem to go over the edge. I need something…something more.
I whimper in frustration, and Brandon pauses and looks up at me. My face is flushed and my chest is heaving with my rapid breaths. “I-I don’t…I can’t…”
Brandon’s face creases into an understanding smile, and he pushes me back a little until his whole face is visible, the sides of his mouth and chin glistening with dewy wetness. I blush and move to close my legs, but his next words stop me.
“It’s okay, sweetness. You don’t have to worry about anything.” He rubs his face on the insides of my thighs and in the crease between my legs. The slight stubble on his cheeks grazes me, and I shiver. “Just relax. Let me take care of you.”
He pulls further back, but his eyes remain fixed on my pulsing sex and my wet thighs.
“Fuck, your hole is so small I can barely see it.” He brings his head forward, hitching me higher so I’m lifted above him again.
He removes one hand from my ass and brings it around to the front, inserting his fingers in between mine and pushing them further apart.
“Yeah, there it is,” he whispers huskily. “Hidden in the plump folds of your little pussy.”
His fingers apply a little pressure inward, and I can feel my juices seeping out of me. I expect him to lean in and lick me again, but he waits, watching as the beads trickle down my lips until they reach my opening before he swoops in and catches them on the tip of his tongue.
It’s dirty and it’s hot, and I still can’t come. I clench my legs around his head and rock my hips a little. Brandon looks up at me, his intense eyes on my desperate, needy ones, and jerks his head forward, jamming his tongue in my folds. He keeps moving it until I can feel him inside me, softly moving against my inner walls.
The intimacy of the moment, his tongue inside me, his eyes holding me captive, his fingers intertwined with mine, holding my core open. I feel invaded to my soul. Conquered. In this moment, he owns me. And I come. Violently, without reservations. I feel as if I’ve been broken into pieces and put back together again, the seams of my existence melding effortlessly at the hands of this man. Fully clothed, on his knees, for my pleasure.
Brandon holds me up until my shivers calm and my breath returns to normal. He pulls me down into his lap and closes his arms around me, my head resting on his chest, his chin on top of my head. He is quiet as he rocks me, but I can hear his heart beating a mile a minute.
This is the peace I was searching for. My home. It’s where Brandon is. I know we have a lot to work out. There are secrets he’s not telling me, and my future is uncertain. But in this moment, as he holds me in his lap on the carpeted floor of James’s office, I believe in us. Everything will be all right, as long as we are together. As long as I find my home in his arms at the end of each day, we can face anything.
Chapter 4
Julia
I wake up with a satisfied smile on my face, my body enveloped in familiar sheets. There’s a residual feeling of warmth and safety which surrounds me, and I want to roll over and bask in it. So I do. For a few minutes, before the memories of last night blast through my brain like a hurricane-force gale bursting open a closed door. Oh God. Brandon. And his mouth. And the magic they created between my thighs. It was all real. It happened. Not a dream, but the reality of my life. My smile grows until it covers my whole face.
I look around and realize I’m in my old room—my old, empty room—still dressed in last night’s clothes. Brandon must have put me to bed in here after I drifted off in his arms. Who knew that mind-blowing orgasms made me drowsy?
But where is he? I get up off the bed and walk to my bathroom, searching my dresser for a note he might have left. But there is nothing on my dresser or my nightstand, and my heart sinks a little.
We need to talk. About the secrets he fears, about my plans, about how we will approach James. I’m pretty sure after what happened yesterday that Brandon and I are together now. Remembering his ferocity and his lust makes me shudder. Yes, we are definitely together. And I know we need to tell my brother before anything else happens. I won’t hide us like a dirty secret, and I would never betray James’s trust like that either. He loves me, and Brandon is his best friend. We need to tell him before things progress further between us. And if I read the need in Brandon’s eyes right, things will progress quickly. Very quickly.
My emotions rise again at the thought, and I hurry to the en-suite, excited to begin the day. I get dressed in business casual clothes, remembering James telling me he would like for me to come to his office today with him. He wants to show me around, and I agreed because I need to see the place and get a feel for it to decide whether I would like working there.
When I get downstairs, my feet halt in the doorway of the kitchen. There, leaning against the marble countertop with a mug of coffee in his hand, is Brandon. He’s dressed in a charcoal-black suit with a white shirt and a gray tie. His broad shoulders fill out the material in a way that would stop traffic. But it’s not his powerful body relaxing in the kitchen with all the grace of a resting panther that makes my breath hitch in my lungs. No, it’s the expression on his face. Hungry. He looks like a predator who has just spotted his prey.
With indolent grace, he straightens from his position and puts his coffee mug down. Then slowly, deliberately, he licks his lips. Heat flashes through me. That one act tells me everything. He has every intention of devouring me whole.
I blink, and my surroundings come into focus again. Clarissa is sitting at the other end of the kitchen counter from where Brandon was leaning with his gaze fixed on the door. He was waiting for me, I realize, and I take a step forward. Brandon sees the movement, shakes his head, and glances at Clarissa behind him. She’s finishing up her cereal, and her laptop is open in front of her, one hand caressing her growing belly as she eats and reads at the same time. I smile and approach her, feeling Brandon’s eyes on me the whole time.
“Hi, Clarissa,” I greet her.
She looks up and smiles. “Julia! I didn’t see you there.”
“Yeah, you were pretty absorbed in your laptop. What are you doing?” I ask her as I go around the counter until I can see the screen of her computer.
“I’m just looking at some of the mock cover arts for my novel. My publisher sent me a few, and it’s really hard to choose which one I want,” she replies as she swipes her finger across the screen to show me the choices.
“Oh, wow. They all look beautiful,” I say, admiring the couples on the images displayed.
“Yes, they really do. Anyway, I think I’ll look at them after breakfast. How are you feeling? Did you sleep well last night?” she asks as she closes the lid of her laptop.
A strong, tan hand comes around me and places a hot, steaming cup of coffee on the table in front of me. I turn my head to look over my shoulder at Brandon.
“I made it sweet,” he tells me, his dark eyes roaming over my face and hair.
The last word makes me blush as memories from last night bombard me again. Sweet. He said I tasted sweet. I quickly pick up the cup and lift it to my lips in an effort to hide my burning cheeks from Clarissa’s gaze.
Brandon moves back to his previous position, but turns so he can keep me in his sights as he continues drinking his coffee.
When I turn to see Clarissa, she’s looking at Brandon with a kind of curious wonder. I don’t know what to make of it as she turns to me and a small smile flits across her face.
“So, James had to leave early for a meeting today. He wanted you to go with him, but you were sleeping, and he didn’t want to disturb you. But Stone can take you to the office, since he’s here and all,” she adds the last part with a touch of amusement.
I take it that it’s unusual for him to be at their house early in the morning. My heart warms at the implied meaning. He’s here for me. I l
ook toward him, and he dips his head in reply but doesn’t speak.
Clarissa is glancing between the two of us with a suspicious look on her face, so I school my features into a smile devoid of all the heat and need I feel right now, and reply, “Yes, I can go with him. Are you coming with us too?” I ask her since I know she sometimes goes to the office to be with James. When I used to call him, we would always talk on the phone if she was there with him. She told me James installed a desk for her in his office so she can continue to write there, and he loves it whenever she visits him.
She pauses for a moment before shaking her head. “No, not today. I need to decide on my cover and then rest a little. Morning sickness is not fun,” she murmurs ruefully as she covers a yawn with the back of her hand.
There is more to it than that, I think as I catch her glancing at Brandon again. But he doesn’t seem to notice her look. His gaze is fixed on me, and his body is radiating impatience.
“I’ll just go get my purse,” I say to him, putting my cup down.
“I’ll wait in the car,” he replies as he turns to leave, dipping his chin to Clarissa on his way out.
I wave to Clarissa and hurriedly walk up the stairs to my room, eager to be alone with Brandon again. When I get to the front door, I see Brandon is in the driver’s seat of his car with the engine running. I smile and shake my head. So impatient.
Before he has a chance to get out and open the car door, I walk to the passenger’s side and get in. He doesn’t look at me, simply speeds away from the house as soon as my seatbelt is clicked into place.
I turn to look at him, and I’m about to say something when he zooms past the gate of the house, turns a corner, stops the car, and puts it in park. Immediately, he snatches my wrist in his large hand and pulls me forward, his other hand sliding into my hair and angling my head closer. His lips fall down onto mine, and then he does what he promised to do from the moment our eyes met across the kitchen counter. He devours me. Hungrily, devastatingly, completely.
I kiss him back, and he growls and pulls me closer until I’m halfway out of my seat and leaning over the console, his hands holding me upright in the air.
The position is reminiscent of last night when he held me above his head with his hands and kissed a different part of my body. But my response is the same. I do what I did then, relaxing my body. Submitting. Letting him take control. His guttural groan and hands clenching tighter tell me his appreciation, and his kiss grows softer, slower, until his tongue is licking at my lips and his mouth is roving over mine.
Slowly, he pulls back and gently guides me back to my seat. His hand doesn’t release his hold on my wrist as he brings it to his mouth and brushes light kisses on my knuckles.
“Sweetness,” he whispers into my skin.
I keep looking at him, my heart in my eyes. After a few moments, he releases my hand and rests it on his thigh, his hand coming down on top to cover mine. He starts the car with the other hand and eases it onto the main road.
“What do you plan on doing today?” Brandon asks me after a while of driving in silence.
My lips are still tingling from his mouth. I lick them, and his hand tightens briefly on mine, pressing it more firmly into his muscled leg. “James wants to show me around the office to help me decide if I want to work there long-term.”
“Do you?” he asks, coming straight to the point of the matter.
“I don’t know. Everything is so uncertain right now. I graduated only a few months ago, and I’ve just gotten back home. I would love to work with James in his company, but I’m not sure if I want to start right away.”
“You have all the time in the world to decide.”
“I know. James would never pressure me. And I do love working with numbers,” I tell him.
Brandon gives me a quizzical glance. “I know you majored in accounting, but I never got the chance to ask you why.”
We had chances. We had plenty of chances. He just didn’t take them. But I don’t want to bring up the past right now. Brandon has asked for time, and I will give it to him.
“I love numbers,” I begin. “Have always loved them since I was young.”
He keeps silent, and suddenly I want to explain more. To make him understand such an important part of me.
“They’re permanent, you know? They always add up, they follow rules. They’re always there. Just there. It’s not like they will be present one minute and gone the next.”
Memories of my childhood and the sudden upheaval caused by my parents’ death crowd into my brain, but I push them back and concentrate on the present. This moment. This man.
I look at Brandon’s large hand covering my smaller one. The perfect word comes to mind. “Solid.”
He looks at me out of the corner of his eye, his attention on the car speeding by us.
“Numbers. They’re solid,” I repeat and squeeze his thigh lightly.
His muscles flex underneath my hand, and he clears his throat before gritting out, “Yeah?”
There’s so much I hear in that one word. Fear. Anticipation. He’s asking me for trust and for patience. He’s deathly still as he waits for me to answer. “Yes,” I reply.
His breath whooshes out of him in a sigh of relief. Numbers, I think. He’s been there for me like numbers in my life. His presence around me has provided me comfort in times when I needed it most.
We are silent for the rest of the drive until we reach the office. Brandon parks at the curb and gets out to open my door. But he doesn’t hold my hand as we walk inside. And it’s strange, because although we’ve never held hands before, I feel the lack of that action keenly. I walked into this office with him acting as my security guard many, many times before I left. But it feels like this is something we should be doing now. We should be holding hands, now that we have confessed how we feel about each other.
As if Brandon is feeling the same distance I am, he looks down at my hand swinging by my side and then up at me, his eyes full of regret and apology. Time, I remind myself, and look forward again.
We take the elevator up to James’s floor and are greeted by his secretary, Olivia. Her face lights up when she sees Brandon, and a sick feeling twists my stomach. Was she always like this? Why am I noticing this only now? It’s because of last night. We made a silent promise to each other in that office, and everything has changed since then.
Olivia’s hair is pulled up in a perfect bun, and her makeup is skillfully done. She looks beautiful and poised as she gracefully gets up and approaches us.
“Brandon, what a nice surprise,” she greets cheerfully.
“It’s Mr. Stone,” he corrects her, his voice colder than the arctic ice on the North Pole.
She doesn’t let that faze her as she comes closer and reaches out to touch his arm. My heart jumps into my throat, but before she can make contact, Brandon hastily steps back and orders, “Don’t.”
She titters and pulls her hand back, saying, “I was just going to ask if you needed anything, Bran—”
He cuts her off, a glare in his eyes. “I said it’s Mr. Stone to you. Only my future wife gets to call me by my first name.”
Before I can fully absorb the enormity of that statement, Brandon turns his back on her, dismissing her completely as he looks at me. His eyes soften, and a warm glow replaces the unease I felt before.
“Why don’t you go inside and talk to James? I’ll wait for you here.”
I want to protest and ask him to come inside James’s office with me. I don’t want him to stay here with her. But I know I can’t do that. James doesn’t know about us yet, and he would question why I was still with Brandon when, as the chief of security, he has a hundred different things he needs to take care of.
I firm my resolve. If Brandon waited five years for me, he is not about to cheat on me now. I trust him, and I need to show him that. “You don’t have to wait for me. I’ll just talk to James and then look around the office before going back home again. One of your secu
rity team can drive me back,” I say.
“I will be driving you back, Julia. No one else,” he replies in a tone filled with steel.
His eyes glitter dangerously, and I know if the blonde secretary wasn’t in the room with us, he would show me what he thinks of my suggestion. I suddenly want her gone more than anything in the world, but there she sits at her desk, pretending to type on her computer, her eyes taking in the interplay between us.
I don’t want to give her anything more than we already have, so I simply smile at Brandon and turn and walk inside James’s office. The door clicks shut behind me.
Chapter 5
Brandon
I watch until the door to James’s office closes, hiding Julia from view. Then I turn and take a seat on one of the sofas in the waiting area, pulling my phone out of my jacket pocket and checking the emails from my second-in-command about the updates in the security software we’re installing.
I’m engrossed in my work when a voice interrupts me. “Can I get you anything, Mr. Stone? Tea, coffee or…something else?”
I look up to see James’s secretary—Olive, Olivia, I can’t remember her name—standing over me, her eyes showing her interest. She’s like a buzzing mosquito that won’t go away, no matter how many times you swat at it. Remembering the way she disrespected Julia earlier, ignoring her standing beside me and blatantly reaching out to touch me when I’ve hardly ever spoken to her, has rage filling me. No one disrespects Julia.
I don’t give her a second glance as I continue typing. “No,” I answer curtly.
After a brief second of hesitation, I sense her turn around and leave, and I take in a lungful of clean air, untainted by her cloying perfume. I don’t want to breathe in anything but Julia’s natural, sweet scent. Innocence and roses, that’s how she smells to me. Her purity doesn’t need any artificial supplements.
I look up again when I hear a door opening, hoping it’s Julia coming back out. Instead, I see a woman with auburn hair pulled into a high ponytail and wearing a black pantsuit step out of Robert’s office and walk hurriedly down the hall.
Tethered to Him (Alphamen in Suits Book 2) Page 3
