Teasing him amused her. He got the cutest little furrow in his brow when she agitated him. Delicious really. Plus, he thrust into her a bit harder, and who could find fault with that?
'Fine, fine. I love you too, by the way. You're very handy when you're naked.' And he fucked like a rock star.
He stroked into her, deep and hard, keeping his rhythm steady. The subtle stretch of her skin around her clit, along with the way the angle he kept brought his cock over all the right spots, warmed her, filled her cells with pleasure. Instead of the hot rush of climax when she'd been on top, this was languorous and decadent. Much like him.
'I like that smile.' He flashed that grin of his. 'It means something naughty in store for me.'
He pulled out and untangled himself from her legs despite her protest about it.
'I was busy here the last time. Before you started bitching.' With that, he pressed his mouth to her cunt and kissed, leaving her arching and breathless.
On and on he went, his mouth, tongue, lips and even teeth working in concert to blow her mind as he went down on her. She was ready, already close, but he kept her dancing right on the edge of climax until she pounded the mattress with her need to come. He sucked her clit in between his teeth, gently but surely, and it shoved her right into orgasm with one gasped whisper of his name.
Her muscles still jumped as he slid his cock back into her pussy with a satisfied sigh. His lips met hers, tasted of her, of them. She hugged him tight as he fucked her. Harder and harder and she knew he was close. Her nails scored into the hard muscle of his shoulders, her calves ached, holding him as close as she could get him, and he grunted in her ear as he thrust as deeply as he could and came.
He lay against her as his heartbeat slowed, their sweat and body heat fusing them together in a not altogether unpleasant way. 'Tomorrow after breakfast, when the girls go out with their friends, you and me, naked all afternoon.'
'Charles, where do you propose we put Pickles during this time? Because, while I am not opposed to sex with women, I am opposed to sex with her'.
Oh. Yeah. He had to deal with that issue.
I'll talk to her in the morning. And then we can talk about the whole sex with a woman thing. You know it's one of my favourite subjects.' He grinned up at her and she sighed.
'I'll take a walk then, shall I? Or maybe I'll go into town. We're getting low on milk and bread.' She stretched and he admired the long line of her body, the dips and curves of her.
'Why don't you stay? I want you to be there, I want to underline to her that you and I are together.'
'Dix, I don't want to be an underline.' She sat, arranging the comforter around her legs but leaving her breasts bare. 'I appreciate how much you've worked to make it clear to her that you and I are a couple. And I don't blame you for this little stunt. But she knows we're together. She knows I'm not a passing phase. She. Doesn't. Care. She wants you back and she'll do anything she can to drive us apart. It's boring but true.'
'Well, what do you suggest I do? If you would just move in with me, we'd have that to stand on.'
She froze. 'What? I live two hours away from you, which means my job is two hours away. I don't think I want to commute like that every day just to tell your ex something she already knows.'
We can move to Lancaster. We'll get a house near enough to the station so you can commute and so can I. That's an hour out for each one of us. I can work from home two days a week anyway. Don't you want to be with me every night?'
She sighed. 'Why are you bringing this up right now?'
'Because it's time and because you won't marry me. I want something more from you, Kate.'
'I won't marry you right now and you know why. Anyway, what about the girls? Adrienne already hates me, if you and I move in together and she has to commute to school, or she loses the place she's lived in for as long as she has, it'll only make matters worse. It's just two more years until they both graduate.'
He truly admired the way she thought of his kids. She didn't push them out of the way, wanted him to keep his focus on being a good father. It was one of her best qualities. Still, it wasn't insurmountable.
Sighing he pushed the hair from his eyes. You and I are smart people who love each other. We can work this through somehow. They already spend most weekdays with Eve because of work and school. We can work this out. And Aid doesn't hate you, she's just getting to know you. Kendall likes you.' Thank God for that. His oldest daughter had taken to Kate from the first time they'd met. Eve didn't like that much but, so far, he couldn't see that she'd interfered or criticised Kate to the girls. He had the feeling that was next on Eve's list though and it ruffled his feathers. He shouldn't have to tell Eve things like Don't badmouth my girlfriend to our daughters.' He shouldn't have to tell her lots of things, but Eve's behaviour had only become more and more childlike and annoying the closer he and Katherine had become.
'So what? You'd give up your weekdays with your daughters? Be a weekend dad? They adore you, Dix, and they should, you're a great father. I am really not comfortable with having you spend less time with your daughters so we can live together. Even if they spend all that time with Pickles, they will blame me if you move. It's only natural. I would too in their shoes.'
'That is just an excuse to keep yourself away from me.' He narrowed his gaze at her, moving towards her to take her again.
Until he heard Adrienne call his name from the bottom of the stairs. Kate raised that damned right eyebrow at him again and he snorted.
'Go on. I need to shower anyway.' On her way off the bed, she kissed him and he grabbed her, delivering a very thorough kiss instead of a quick peck. She got up and he admired how good she looked from the rear, her juicy, tight ass swaying as she walked.
'This discussion isn't over, darling Kate. There are solutions if you really want to find them,' he called out as he pulled a pair of boxers and sweats on, following with a sweatshirt.
Yeah, yeah. Tell it to Pickles,' she said before she shut the door on him.
Chapter 2
Leather slid through Brandon's belt loops, one at a time, with a sound that sent a spiral of desire straight to Leah's too-long-denied clit. Thwap. Thwap. Thump. He gripped the belt's buckle end in one of those big hands and yanked it free, finally, to dangle from his hand.
He was grinning, the bastard.
'Look at this nice new belt.' His voice dipped, husky-low. Leah kept her chin high, expression neutral. 'I see it.'
Brandon didn't seem swayed by her lack of reaction. Looping the leather in his fists, he tugged it with another thwap that weakened her knees so much she had to grab the back of the nearby desk chair to keep her balance. Her pussy pulsed, her clit a tight, hard knot against the silk of her panties, but Leah was so not going there.
Not in Brandon's parents' basement with them doing God knew what just above. The house was quiet, but that didn't mean they were asleep. And it was the rumpus room for fuck's sake!
'What a nice belt this is.'
God, he knew just how to tease her. Thwap went the leather in his hands and he tucked the end through the buckle to make a loop just large enough for both his wrists. He held it up. 'Leah, don't you want to help me use this belt?'
She'd given him that belt, supple black leather with a plain silver buckle, just over a week ago. She'd given it before Christmas because they'd be spending the actual day with his family, and how, exactly, do you gift your lover with a belt you intend to tie him up with and have him open it in front of his parents?
She should've waited, she thought as his tongue swiped across his lips and all she could do was imagine it buried between her legs. Above their heads, Leah heard the skitter of claws on linoleum. That would be Scamp, the Longs' appropriately adorable mutt. That, along with the squeak of the back door opening, was also a reminder that, although the house was dark and mostly quiet, they weren't alone.
With the belt still dangling like sin from his fist, Brandon reached over his shoulder with hi
s free hand to grab at the neck of his white T-shirt and pull it off over his head. It snagged on the belt and he tugged it free to toss the shirt onto the faded and spring-busted recliner in front of the battered television. Most of the white-painted basement had been decorated with cheery bright furniture and posters on the walls, a billiard table and Brandon's dad's prized possession, a vintage KISS pinball machine. But this guest space contained, in addition to the lumpy pull-out sofa, the cast-offs from when the Longs had redecorated. The fact Brandon had told her he'd received his very first blow job on that chair might have offended her except the thought of it had turned her on so much she couldn't look at the chair without wanting to make him forget any other woman had ever touched him.
'Brandon,' Leah said warningly and watched his pupils dilate. Fuck. She was only going to turn him on more, at this rate. Herself, too.
This could be a problem.
Bare-chested, he stood straight. It was just an illusion that the top of his dark head brushed the ceiling beams. At least she thought it was. He was seventy-thousand feet tall, after all, and she knew every single inch of him.
'Your parents,' she managed to say with another glance upwards as the door squeaked open and shut and Scamp clattered across the floor again.
'That's my dad letting the dog in. Mom's in bed. He's going to bed, too.'
But she couldn't fuck him in his parents' house, she just couldn't. It was bad enough his mom had greeted them with a cheery grin so much like Brandon's it had been startling, had given them this basement guest space instead of, as Leah had assumed, assigning them separate rooms. Brandon had seemed to take it as a matter of course, not noticing as he slung their bags onto the couch and showed her the tiny but functional bathroom that Leah had been shocked into silence by his parents' seemingly easy acceptance of their son's relationship with an older woman.
They'd been there for four days. Arrived on Christmas Eve and planned to stay until New Year's Day. It had been four days of whirlwind activity from morning until night, with present opening, visiting relatives, taking tours of Brandon's hometown and viewing the hot spots — his elementary school, high school, the grocery store where he'd had his first job.
The chair where he'd had his first blow job.
Her eyes flicked towards it against her will, and he didn't miss the look. Brandon hooked a finger in the button of his jeans and tugged it open. Then the zipper, notch by notch. When he pushed the denim over his hips and stepped out of it, still without letting go of that damned belt, Leah's heart set up a steady thumping that sounded so loud she was sure he could hear it. He had to see the way her mouth parted and her breath hissed in over her tongue. He never missed anything like that.
Down went the jeans and he stood there in his soft cotton boxer briefs, already bulging in the front. Lord have mercy, he was a knee-trembler. Her grip tightened on the desk chair, which swivelled a little.
'Brandon.' Leah tried to sound stern. 'This is not the place.'
He grinned again, damn him. 'Why not?'
Because your mother wears sweatshirts with pictures of kittens on the front, and I can't deflower her son in her house without feeling like a fucking slut. Because your dad looks just like you will in another twenty years and is only a couple years older than my last lover. Because I'd prepared myself for them to hate me, and instead they've welcomed me into your family like a daughter, and I den't know how to handle that.
She didn't say any of those things, because Brandon had moved step-by-step closer, and she could smell him. Soap and water. A hint of cold fresh air. They'd been out visiting his grandparents and aunts and uncles, had taken a walk around the neighbourhood. His hand had kept hers warm.
He was so tall and stood so close she had to tip her head back to look at his face, but she was helpless not to. With the desk just behind her ass, Leah let herself sit on the edge so she could lean back far enough to keep her neck from cricking. That was more of a mistake than giving him that damned belt had been, because all she could think about was the first time he'd gone down on her, in that Harrisburg hotel room. She'd told him to eat her pussy and he'd gone to his knees like a pro. How long had it been since she'd had his mouth on her cunt? The five days she'd had her period before they left Pennsylvania for Iowa, and four days here, but who was counting?
Leah was not a woman who gave up control. When Brandon leant down to offer his mouth to hers she didn't turn her head, but neither did she lean to meet him. His grin curved his lips and his breath teased her. He didn't kiss her. He was waiting for her.
Oh, they'd come so far. Six months ago she'd have said there was no way this beautiful man, sexy and self-confident, strong and secure, would ever have put himself in a place where she could get him hard with nothing more than a murmured command. She wouldn't have believed it of herself, either. And yet here they were, not mistress and slave but something far, far deeper.
I love you,' he whispered into her ear when she didn't grant him the privilege of her kiss.
Her pulse throbbed in her wrists and throat, and between her legs. Leah drew in a soft breath, not because the words were new or even unexpected, but because her world still rocked a little every time she heard him say them. He knew it, too. He was working her, but did she care?
He'd braced his hands on the desk on either side of her hips, his upper body a mere inch from hers and his mouth teasing her ear. Now Leah reached to sink her fingers into the deep, dark depths of his hair at the base of his neck. She traced the familiar curve of his skull and arched her back as his breath gusted over her skin on his hiss of pleasure.
She pulled, hard, harder than she'd have dared six months ago when this was all still new. She knew better, now, what he could take. Brandon could take a lot.
She pulled his hair as she turned her face to his and held him with their mouths a breath apart. It wasn't that her grip kept him still. She had her fingers tightly woven into his hair, but he was big enough to get away if he wanted to. She tugged again to remind him of that, and another slow exhale drifted over her face.
Leah leant in and, eager, Brandon almost kissed her. Her hand in his hair arrested him, and his dark eyes went wide. She'd surprised him.
The white, soft hum of arousal filtered out all the other sounds. Leah looked deep into her lover's eyes and felt her smile teasing him. 'No.'
Her hand cupped the back of his neck for a moment before sliding over his shoulder and down to his chest. She pinched his nipple lightly until it pebbled under her touch and his skin humped into gooseflesh. Brandon let out another breath, this time with a shiver. You don't want me to kiss you?'
She loved it when he asked her what she wanted, how to give it to her. How to please her. She wanted a lover, not a mind-reader. She loved it even more when he got cocky and thought he knew. Most of the time he did, without question, but there were still times like now when she was able to remind them both of the rules of the game.
'Oh, I want you to kiss me, Brandon.'
Heat had bloomed between them, more now against her thigh where his crotch pressed. It was his name, the way she said it. Turned him on, and knowing that it was his trigger got her revved up, too. He smiled. 'Not on the mouth?'
Leah wanted to smile, too. She always did when she saw Brandon's grin. It lit him up from inside, infectious, and made her want to kiss him breathless. She raised a brow instead and kept her expression cool.
Without saying anything, she put her hand on the top of his head and pushed down. The desk creaked when he shifted and went to his knees in front of her, when he pushed her legs apart under the long corduroy skirt she'd chosen for both warmth and fashion.
The material dipped between her knees and made a well into which he pressed his face. Looking down, she ran her fingers through his hair as his hands came to rest on her ankles. She still wore her knee-high leather boots, flat-heeled for walking. He'd bought her those boots.
His nose nudged her through the multiple layers of her skirt, tights
and panties. He sat back on his heels, his dark eyes alight with desire. The belt had fallen to the floor, forgotten.
Leah leant back on the desk a little and put her foot into his lap. 'Boots.'
First, he leant forwards to rub his cheek against her calf. He drew in a breath, smelling the leather. He made a fuck-noise low in his throat, and her clit pulsed. Her hips shifted, the desk creaked, and Brandon looked up at her as though he knew exactly what he was doing to her.
Which, of course, he did.
Next, he ran those big, strong hands up the leather, then found the zipper and tugged it down. Not fast. Brandon inched the zipper open without looking away from her eyes. Each separating tooth eased the leather's constriction on her calves until finally the entire boot had opened.
Heat leaked through the vents on the ceiling and the room wasn't chilly, but Leah shivered at how cold the basement air felt on her leg without the boot's protection. Or maybe the shiver came from Brandon's fingers easing the boot from her foot and how he cradled it in his lap. Her tights-covered toes pressed the bulge in his boxers.
Gently, he put her foot on the floor and lifted the other boot into his lap to repeat the process. Leah wiggled her toes, which had been slightly pinched, and Brandon captured her ankle in his huge hand. He could circle his fingers all the way around it.
Leah hooked her fingers into the soft corduroy and inched it higher, over her thighs. Winter-weight tights weren't quite as sexy as thigh-highs and garters, but, hell, it was cold in Iowa.
Brandon didn't seem to care. He ran his hands up her legs and drifted them over her knees and thighs. 'Leah.'
'Yes, baby.' She stroked his hair back from his face.
'I want to taste you.'
He wasn't asking permission, but she gave it to him anyway because they both liked it that way. 'Put your mouth on me.'
With another grin and a duck of his head, Brandon leant forwards to press his face into her pussy. Leah's legs parted wider and she gripped the desk as he lifted one of her legs to go over his shoulder. His hot breath seeped through the fabric of her tights and panties, warming her already heated cunt. He kissed her there, then rubbed his lips over her clit. Her mouth slammed shut on a groan at the pressure, which was tantalising but not nearly enough.