When her hands fell to the curved back of the couch, I nuzzled her belly and then kissed my way down to the place I’d wanted to be from the moment I first met her.
I took my time. Kissed the insides of her thighs, lightly kissed the sensitive skin between her legs. When I took my first tentative lick, she whimpered. I smiled. Damn every other man she’d been with who hadn’t done this for her.
Screwing two fingers in and out of the slick wet heat, I listened as she gasped and whimpered. She lifted her hips beseechingly, and then cried out when I blew a puff of air against her clitoris.
Damn, she was responsive. This time, I flicked my tongue across her clit.
She climaxed, hard and fast.
It should have made me feel like the biggest damn man on the planet, making her come from something she said she didn’t like.
How could I feel humbled instead?
Why did the feel of her clutching me closer send a shudder through me?
Why did the sound of her voice breaking as she gasped out my name make me feel like I was going to break?
Emotions, too messy to think about, tried to well up inside me, and I shoved them all down.
Sex, bringing a woman pleasure, that was one thing I understood, something I was good at. So I focused on it and made her come again. She was salty against my tongue as I licked and nuzzled her, dipping inside her. Used my teeth on her clitoris, tugging on her gently until she was so sensitive, even the lightest brush made her shiver.
Her hands slid from my shoulders and I crawled up her body, staring down into her flushed face. “You’re a liar, Miss Carly.” I drawled her name, reaching for my defensive sarcastic humor.
Her lashes barely fluttered. A weak smiled curled her lips as she murmured, “Um?”
I kissed the corner of her mouth. “You said you didn’t like it. I’ve got scratches all up and down my back that say otherwise.”
Carly curled her arms around my back and brushed her lips across mine.
I was prepared for her to turn away as soon as she realized why my mouth was wet. Not every woman liked to be kissed after a man had gone down on her. If she didn’t want me to kiss her, that was fine. But when I licked at the entrance to her mouth, she let me in with a sighing little hum.
After a moment, she started to rock against me, her nipples hard points against my chest. The only thing separated us now was a wish and a prayer and when she lifted her hips, either the wish or the prayer slid away.
Fuck. I had to stop us.
“Carly, I don’t have a rubber with me.”
She bit my lower lip. “Do you need one?”
I groaned and closed my eyes.
“Current medical opinion says yes.”
She arched against me again, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. Slick, wet satin slid along my cock, and I clenched my hands in the cushions to keep from saying the hell with it and driving into her.
“I’m on the pill.” She pulled her head back, and in the dim light coming from the kitchen in the back of the house, she stared up at me. Her eyes were wide, dark.
I was staring into the face of temptation.
The face of seduction.
I was lost, found, and lost again.
Then she lifted a knee and pressed it to my hip.
“You’re clean.” She grinned at me, a grin that was all wicked heat and wild promises.
My surprise must’ve shown on my face because she looked slightly embarrassed as she continued.
“See, well, when you started working for me, you did a physical. There was blood work...and I’m nosy enough to check.”
Blood rushed up my cheeks. Maybe if it had been anybody else, I’d have been aggravated at the invasion of my privacy. The physical had been for insurance reasons, not to make sure I was clean for sex. I knew I should’ve been aggravated, but something inside me was pleased that she’d wanted me enough to check.
Sliding one hand into her hair, I tangled my fingers in her curls. “You frequently check out the health status of your employees like that, Carly?” I whispered, pressing my mouth against her ear.
“No.” The word came out breathless. “Only for you. Are you going to yell at me?”
She did that thing with her hips again, and I swore.
Fuck it.
“Can we just pretend I was pissed?”
“Yes. And I’ll pretend I’m sorry. Now damn it, Bobby...I need–”
The rest of her words were lost in a wail as I thrust into her, hard, deep, not stopping until I was buried in the welcoming wet heat of her pussy. Even as her wail faded into a whimper, I flexed my hips and rocked, felt the knot of her clit. Her nails sank into my shoulders as I pulled out. I hissed at the sharp bite of pain. I drove back into her again, flexed and rocked.
She clenched down around me as I withdrew again, and I had to force myself past the tightening grip of her pussy. She shoved her hands into my hair and dragged my mouth down toward hers.
We were greedy, desperate, our bodies taking, needing...
I was fucking crazy to think I could live without her.
Everything else seemed to disappear. Nothing mattered but her body beneath mine, the wet glide of my cock inside her, the way she moaned as we drove each other straight into madness.
She orgasmed, and as she twisted and bucked beneath me, I turned my face into her hair and gave in to the primal need inside me. My entire body felt like it exploded as I emptied myself into her.
While we clung to each other, I mouth the words I knew I had to hide from her.
I love you.
In the moments that followed, I shifted on the couch and pulled her until she was cuddling with her back to my front. As we settled, I had to acknowledge the truth of it. I didn’t think I could just walk away. I’d leave if I had to. If I knew there was no other way. But until I knew that was the only choice, leaving Carly Prince just wasn’t an option.
I’d only been half-alive before I met her.
Leaving her would probably be the end of me.
17
If I’d been smart, I would’ve gotten up in the middle of the night and done something about the boxes and suitcases, especially since I’d come to the brilliant revelation that I was a dumbass. I wouldn’t have been able to unpack completely, but I could’ve at least gotten things out of sight and avoided a whole mess of issues.
But I wasn’t smart. Not even a little bit.
And my wake-up call didn’t help my brain function at all.
I went from semi-erect to dying in the blink of an eye as the wet heat of Carly’s mouth closed around my cock. Within seconds, I was awake and gasping for air. I opened my eyes to see her dragging her head back up, taking her time circling the tip of her tongue around the crown of my throbbing cock.
She stopped long enough to shoot me an impish grin, and then she returned to the business at hand. When she slid her way back down, I closed my eyes and grabbed the cushion beneath me. This was one morning I had no intention of rushing.
We moved from the couch to the shower, and while I was done far sooner than she was, I still wasn’t fast enough. She walked in while I was still scrambling to shove boxes and shit into the closet.
“What’s...?”
She stopped in the middle of the floor, the words dying in her throat as she took in the empty suitcases. I could only watch as everything fell apart. Her gaze slid to me and I readied myself to see anything there – pain, surprise, shock, anger.
I saw nothing.
“You’re leaving.” The words were flat, emotionless.
Shit.
“No,” I said, moving toward her.
She backed away before I could touch her, her hand held up as if she intended to slap mine away. I would’ve deserved it if she had.
“You’ve got suitcases out, boxes packed. That’s usually a sign of somebody leaving.”
“I’m not.” Dragging a hand through my hair, I fumbled for something to say. Bullshit and sarc
asm just weren’t going to cut it this time. If I didn’t want to lose her, I had to be real. “Look, I thought for a while it was the best thing to do. Me being here...there’s some crazy fuck after you because of me and–”
She laughed. The sound was brittle, cold. It reminded me of chunks of ice breaking after a freezing winter.
“Has it dawned on you, you bastard, that maybe some crazy fuck is after you because of me?”
I came up short. No. Actually, no. That hadn’t dawned on.
She smirked, reading my answer in my silence.
But as that silence stretched out, I knew she was wrong. Knew that whole idea was wrong. I’d been getting by on my wits and instinct for as long as I could remember. I’d had to. Living with a mean drunk, I’d learned to gauge things fast. After my mom died and I ended up out on my ass, alone in the streets, I’d had nothing else but my wits and instinct to survive on. I trusted them, even when I trusted nothing and nobody else.
She was wrong. She didn’t want to hear it and maybe she didn’t need to, but this was about me.
“I’m not leaving,” I said softly. “Like I said, I was going to, but I changed my mind.”
Carly sneered at me as she strode by, clutching a towel to her breasts. I watched as she shoved my closet open and grabbed the closest shirt. I got a little weak in the knees watching as she pulled the black dress shirt on and let the towel fall. Fuck. My shirt, over her naked body.
“Yeah, I wonder what changed your mind,” she said scathingly as she turned toward me.
I jerked my gaze away from the sight of her fingers slipping buttons through the narrow little holes. Never let it be said that there’s nothing sexy about watching a woman get dressed. It makes a man think about taking the clothes right back off. Especially when it’s his clothes she’s putting on.
“Tell me.” She pulled her wet curls out from under the collar. “Since it seems like this was a recent development, just when, exactly, did you change your mind?”
She crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at me, waiting for an answer.
“I...” Licking my lips, I floundered for an answer. Finally, I just shoved my hands into my pockets and risked the truth. “Last night.”
The disdain on her face deepened and she took a step to move past me. I caught her arm, needing to explain, needing her to understand.
She whirled around, her hand flying out.
I let it come. The slap sent my head snapping to the side. I didn’t let go of her arm, though. I deserved her anger, but I was still going to make sure she knew the whole truth. No matter how much it scared the shit out of me.
“Feel better?” I asked.
Tears gleamed in her eyes. “No!”
I pulled her closer. She didn’t want to come, but I wasn’t about to let her walk out like this. My heart twisted with the knowledge that I was responsible for her tears. I’d thought leaving would keep me from hurting her, but, as usual, I fucked it up.
“My decision had nothing to do with making love to you,” I whispered. It wasn’t until the words were out that I realized what I’d said. Making love. Not having sex. Not sleeping with her.
I was in too deep and I knew it.
“You’re such a fucking liar.” She practically spat the words at me.
I cradled the side of her face with my hand, and when she pulled away to avoid my touch, I contented myself with toying with the ends of her hair. If she truly wanted me to let her go, I would, but I had to tell her this first. She had to know what she’d done for me, to me.
“I’d been arguing with myself about it for a while, but the minute you showed up on the front porch, Carly, I knew I couldn’t do it. That’s when I...” My voice cracked.
Carly’s eyes darted toward me, then bounced away.
Slowly, I went to my knees, my hands moving to her hips. I pressed my face to her belly, breathing in the scent of her. My soap, the fabric softener I used...and her. Just her.
“That’s when I figured it out, Carly,” I whispered, my voice low and soft. I closed my eyes as I said the words I hadn’t said to a woman in a very long time. “I love you.”
Any answer she might have made was interrupted by the blaring ring from my phone. I wanted to ignore it, would have ignored it, but this was a special ring, one programmed into the phone by Ryan, and it was the one ring I wasn’t allowed to ignore.
Shit. Perfect timing.
With a sigh, I got to my feet and picked up the phone. “What?”
“Is she there?”
Double shit.
“Yes.” I didn’t bother with an explanation. He wasn’t stupid.
“Cameo’s coming to get you both. Neither one of you leave.”
The call ended and I turned toward Carly. I set the phone down on the table. “Cameo’s on her way to pick us up. Ryan wants to see us.”
She nodded, her jaw clenched tight. We both knew we had to talk, but we didn’t have time now. This wasn’t the sort of thing we could get part-way into and then pause it to have a discussion with Ryan.
“I need to get dressed.” Carly didn’t look at me as she walked out to the living room where we’d left her clothes from last night.
I took a few minutes to gather myself and then went out into the living room to wait for Cameo. Carly was wearing her own jeans, but had kept on my shirt. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I hoped it was a good sign.
Except she didn’t speak to me as we waited. Or when we came out of my house to meet Cameo on one of the carts people used to get around the estate. She didn’t say anything during the ride, despite the looks Cameo was throwing at us both. Even when we walked into the security office and Ryan gestured to the seats across from his desk, she was silent.
“Next time,” Ryan said, his voice calm despite the hard glint in his eyes. “Let somebody know where you are.”
The words were directed at Carly, but the anger was directed primarily at me.
Shit. We already had a meeting scheduled this morning, and I was sure he planned on handing me my ass as soon as Carly was out of the room.
“Carly.” His voice softened.
She looked up from her pensive study of her nails to meet his gaze.
“You know we were just worried.”
She shrugged. “I was on the grounds, Ry. I’m a big girl. If I want to take a midnight walk, I can.”
“But you didn’t come back,” he pointed out.
She gave him a saccharine smile and I braced myself for what I knew was coming. That smile was dangerous.
“That’s because I was getting fucked six different ways to Sunday,” she said, batting her lashes at him innocently.
Oh shit.
Behind us, Cameo choked. Dave, the only one of us with a family, was standing a few feet behind Ryan, and he hid a smile behind a quick cough. Ryan rubbed his face and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. I had a feeling he was praying for patience. Or maybe a blunt object to beat me with.
My neck prickled, and I shifted casually, taking advantage of the movement to put Ridley into my peripheral vision. He stood by the window, pure, undiluted loathing in his gaze. No, it was even more than that. Whatever it was that had made him instantly dislike me had ratcheted up to full-out hatred.
I’d already known never to give that man my back, but that look made me start to wonder if it was safe for me to be alone with him at all. He would try to take me down at some point, I knew it for certain now. But he wouldn’t try a fair fight. He’d go for weaknesses, exposed points. He’d fight ugly, dirty.
Abruptly aware that others were staring at me, I jerked a shoulder in a shrug, but didn’t look at any of them. “What?” I demanded. “If you want a step-by-step replay of the night, you’ll have to see if Carly will help you. I don’t kiss and tell.”
This time, neither Cameo or Dave attempted to hide their amusement. Ryan, however, was fed up.
“Everybody, get out.” He pointed a finger at me and Carly. “Stay. Just you two, stay.
”
Carly crossed her legs, one leg swinging quick and flat. Her foot was bare, her toe nails painted lipstick red. Her eyes flashed as Dave moved past her toward the door. “Ryan, this is probably going to escape your notice, but I pay you, not the other way around.”
“This has got nothing to do with money, sweetheart.” He came around the desk and crossed his arms, staying quiet until the door shut behind Dave. “Carly...” His gaze slid from her to me, then back. “Look, sweetheart. You’re going through a really rough time right now...”
“Spare me.” Her voice was cold. So cold, I jerked my head to stare at her, but she only had eyes for Ryan.
He blinked, caught off guard. She’d gotten short with me before, of course, but she’d never spoken that way to Ryan.
“Yes, I’m going through a rough time. And it was worse than it had to be because somebody I wanted to lean on wasn’t there because of you and Jake.” She slid me a look and then jerked her head away. “I...shit. And now these letters. He was planning to quit. That’s why you were so pissed, wasn’t it? He found out about the letters I was getting. I told you we needed to sit down and talk this out, but you insisted you knew best.”
“That’s my nature, Carly.” Ryan didn’t look the least bit sorry, either. He slanted a look toward me, and the expression was flat, hard as stone. “Just like when things get hard, it’s Bobby’s nature to run.”
I bolted out of my chair and got into his face. He didn’t even try to move. “You think this shit is scaring me off?” I snarled. My hand curled into a fist.
Temper sparked in his eyes, but his voice was calm and easy. “Well, you’re the one who had your bags packed. What happened earlier? You decided you needed a quick fuck before you hit the road?”
Carly’s sound of outrage didn’t even penetrate.
Ryan took the first punch, but when I swung again, he caught my arm, trapped it and spun, slamming me face first against the desk. “You still let that temper of yours control you, kid,” Ryan said tonelessly. “Now I’m going to let you up and we’re going to talk.”
He let me go, and I would have gone after him again, except Carly caught my arm. “Bobby.”