Carter (Bourbon & Blood Book 3) (4 page)

Josie didn’t say anything else. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t be wrong, so instead she just kept her mouth shut. Placing the book back on the shelf, she wheeled the cart back to its home behind the circulation desk and then used the computer there to log herself out for the day. She needed to change back into her own clothes before she saw Carter. If he ever saw her in the Mom pants she was currently not rocking at all, she’d die of shame.

There was a dress hiding out in the back of her closet. An impulse buy at the mall in Lexington that she’d never had the courage to wear. It was now or never, she thought.

Heading home, she took a quick shower and shaved her legs in record time. After applying lotion and perfume, she touched up her makeup and then went to her closet and retrieved the secret weapon. Slipping the dress on over her head, she tugged the zipper at the side, sucking in everything she possibly could until it finally closed.

One look at the mirror and she almost chickened out. It was cut low—impossibly, indecently, terrifyingly low. It hugged her breasts, pushing them up and amplifying them to epic proportion before nipping in at her waist and then flaring over her hips. The skirt was full but impossibly short, revealing more of her thighs than she’d ever done other than when she was at the beach. On her feet, she wore her second favorite pair of heels—black, strappy and a mile high. If she was lucky, the top of her head would actually reach his shoulder. God, she hated being short.

Before leaving the house, she grabbed her trench coat and slipped it on. The last thing she needed was her nosy neighbors seeing her slipping out of the house looking like the Whore of Babylon. They’d be on the phone to her father, reporting her sinful ways before he could even ask for an Amen.

Driving through town, most people were already home for the day. Luckily, Fontaine practically rolled up the sidewalks after five. Josie pulled her car around behind Revision. There was a small alley there where Carter kept his truck. It was cut off from the street and the only way anyone would see her car is if they actually walked behind the building. It was about as private as you could get in Fontaine where everyone on the street knew when you peed simply because your next door neighbor saw the bathroom light turn on and then called in a report.

Climbing from the car, she paused at the bottom of his steps and looked up. Carter stood in the doorway, looking straight at her, a smirk curving his lips.

“What are you looking at?” she demanded. Lord, but he got under her skin.

His smirk stretched into a full blown, devastatingly sexy grin right down to the crinkly lines at the corners of his eyes. He looked like a pirate—like a hot, sexy, fantasy pirate. “The fruits of my labor… I knew if I told you how respectable you were, you’d do your damnedest to look the opposite. You are a contrary creature, Josephine Marcum, but at the moment, that is totally working in my favor.”

She hated him. She was still going to seduce him, or maybe let him think he was seducing her. That had yet to be determined. But at some point, they were going to be naked together and she was going to come back to that whole pirate thing in a big way.
Now or never, Josie. Now or never.

C
arter watched
her walking up the stairs. He wasn’t sure what the hell that dress was made of but he’d remember to say a prayer of thanks, though that would probably finish paving his road to hell. There was lots of jiggling. Why the hell women tried to avoid having things jiggle when to his mind it was the best damn thing about their bodies, he had no idea.

Every step and her perfect breasts threatened to spill out the top of that piece of lingerie that was masquerading as a dress. By the time she reached the door, he could barely breathe. He sure as hell couldn’t talk. So he just stepped back and ushered her inside.

“I’m feeling a little underdressed,” he finally managed as he walked into the kitchen and flipped the steaks he’d put on.

“Dinner? Were you expecting someone else?” she asked.

“Just you. I thought since you’d had to come all this way to retrieve your shoe, I could at least feed you,” he replied. It was a way to keep her there longer, a way to get her relaxed enough and at ease enough to charm her right out of that dress and whatever delicious things she was wearing under it.

“Carter, do you really want to have dinner with me?”

He looked back at her. It was a confusing question but she was a confusing woman. He’d learned that about her the hard way. “Why wouldn’t I want to have dinner with you?”

She perched on the arm of the couch, one leg draped over the other. How the hell she could be that short and her legs could look that long was a mystery. “Carter, we both know I’m not here for my shoe, and you didn’t invite me here for dinner… And we both know it isn’t steak that I’m hungry for. You’ve got me where you wanted me. Do something about it.”

He turned off the burner. If she wanted to be direct, that was fine with him. Closing the distance between them in three long strides, he closed his arms around her and hauled her against him. Her Cupid’s bow lips had been driving him crazy for two damn weeks, but he didn’t plan on rushing a thing.

“What are you waiting for?” Josie asked.

“Anticipation isn’t a bad thing,” Carter replied. “If you’re doing it right, it’s part of the fun.”

Carter slid his hands over her back, mostly bared by the sexy cut outs of the dress. Christ Almighty. For such a very good girl she sure as hell had a bad girl’s wardrobe.

“What did you come here for, Josie?” he asked.

“You know,” she said, her tone low and accusatory.

He did. But he wanted her to say it. He needed that. “You’ve got to be the one to say it, cupcake.”

“I want to be in your bed, Carter… and this time I don’t want to be in it alone.” Her reply was little more than a whisper as she strained towards him, coming up onto her tiptoes. “I know you’re not shy.”

He grinned at that, twining his fingers through the cascade of her dark hair. “No, baby, I’m not shy at all. But when it’s all said and done, I want us both to know that you didn’t just fall from grace… you jumped willingly.”

She laughed. “I squeezed my ass into this dress so you could peel me out of it… Think we can get to that sometime tonight?”

Carter lifted her completely and then tossed her back onto the couch. Her skirt hiked up, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of black panties. But he didn’t linger too long to enjoy the view, instead he knelt on the couch above her, his knee sliding between her silken thighs and his palms bracketing her head, caging her beneath him.

“I’ve been picturing you like this since the night I saw you dancing on that bar,” he said. “Right before you threw your shoes at me.”

T
he last thing
Josie wanted to be reminded of was puking all over his truck and herself. That particular humiliation was dying a slow death. “Can we not talk about that now? Can we not talk right now, period? Jesus, Carter, just kiss me already!”

He did. Oh, Lord, but he
did
. His lips settled on hers, firm but undeniably gentle, molding to hers so completely that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. It was a slow kiss, just lips, tasting, pressing, nuzzling against hers. But still, it made her burn. Then she felt his tongue sliding between her lips, tangling with her own and she thought she’d die from it.

No one had ever kissed her that way. It was like every nerve ending in her body had simply lit up at the same time. Only their lips were touching, he was till holding himself above her. But that wasn’t what she wanted. She needed to feel the hard press of him against her, to feel the weight of him on her as she locked her legs around him.

She lifted her hands and locked them behind his neck, trying to tug him down. He was as immovable as a mountain.

He pulled back from her then, breaking that perfect kiss. “I’m too heavy for you.”

It was the story of her damn life. Just because she was little, just because she was short, everyone underestimated her, everyone thought she was some delicate little thing that needed to be handled with care. She needed Carter Hayes on her. Hell, she needed him in her. “No, you’re not. I’m short, Carter. Not fragile… Now would you please just fuck me, already?”

The look he gave her was scorching. His eyes raked over her and his hands followed suit. Then his mouth was on hers again—hotter, hungrier, more demanding. And she gave it back to him measure for measure. He stood suddenly, taking her with him and strode to the bedroom. Josie was still clinging to him, arms around his neck and legs locked on his hips when he laid the two of them down on the bed, his mouth never leaving hers for even a second.

Somehow, without any guidance from her, his managed to find the zipper of her dress. She couldn’t hear the rasp of the zipper sliding free over the pounding of her own heart. A low moan escaped her as his hand slipped beneath the fabric, his perfectly callused fingers grazing her ribs.

Even after she’d said the filthiest thing to him that she’d ever uttered in her life, he still wasn’t in a hurry. He was just taking his time, drawing lazy circles on her skin with the pad of his thumb. Not that it didn’t feel amazing. It did. It really did. But there were other amazing things they could do and she wanted to get to them. Preferably before she died of old age.

Then he deepened the kiss, parting her lips and sweeping inside. The sensual glide of his tongue against hers, the not so gentle nip of his teeth at her lower lip only heightened everything she felt already. Heat rushed through her, blood pooling in sensitive places, creating that delicious ache that she knew he’d ease in his own good time.

Somehow, the dress simply vanished. He’d slipped it off her arms until it was bunched around her waist, leaving her clad only in the black strapless bra she’d worn beneath it. Then it was gone entirely, stripped off her and tossed aside and she lay beneath him wearing the skimpiest lingerie she owned. He was still fully clothed. She could feel the soft, faded denim of his jeans against her thighs, the buttons of his shirt against her. It was too much. She wanted his skin on hers—she needed it.

Reaching for the buttons of his shirt, she began undoing them quickly, but her fingers fumbled.

He pulled back from the kiss for just long enough to rip the shirt off and toss it aside. She had a quick glimpse of well defined pecs and chiseled abs. Carter wasn’t big and bulky. Living in a gym would never be his thing, she knew, but his body had been sculpted by hard work, by lifting and tugging and hauling heavy furniture, by working with his hands. Nothing, to her mind, would ever be sexier than that.

Her hands roamed his chest, tracing the ridges of his abs as he settled against her. The hard press of his body against hers was so good, so perfect that she didn’t want to risk letting go. Following her instinct, she brought her knees up and locked her legs around his lean hips. Through the layers of fabric that remained, she could feel the hard ridge of his erection against her. Arching her hips, moving against him, she smiled at his answering groan.

“I’m trying,” he said, “To make this last… I don’t want to rush.”

“Make it last next time,” she urged him. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve had sex, Carter? Years. Literally. Years. And even then—it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good.”

He grinned even as he pressed a kiss to the arch of her collarbone. It was followed by a lick that left her shivering. “Then stop rushing and let me make this good for you.”

Josie wanted to reply, but he’d moved lower, tugged the cup of her bra down and the heat of his mouth had closed over one taut peak. She arched her back, offering herself up to him as he teased her nipple with his lips, flicking with his tongue. The gentle bite that followed made her scream. Somehow he worked his hands under her and freed the clasp, tossing the garment aside. Her hands slid into his thick hair, tugging at it as he turned his attention to her other breast, licking and sucking with equal fervor.

He hooked one hand behind her knee, forcing her to unlock her ankles. Then he moved lower, trailing hot kisses over her stomach. When he kissed her through the black lace of her panties, she shivered. His fingers slipped beneath the elastic band, tugging them down her thighs and then over the ridiculous high heels she still wore.

“I should take those off,” she said.

“No,” he replied, his hand skimming over her thigh, her calf, all the way down to encircle her ankle. “You shouldn’t. Tell me it doesn’t feel sexy to be here in my bed wearing nothing but a pair of hooker heels.”

She couldn’t because he was so right. It felt decadent and naughty and all those things that she was afraid to be. There was no chance to respond. Having him kiss her through the black lace had made her tremble, but when his mouth descended on her bare flesh, licking along the seam of her sex with slow, deliberate strokes, the whole world just fell away.

Her head fell back, her hands fisted in the bedclothes beneath her and her breath came in sharp pants as the sensations simply overwhelmed her. He parted the folds of her sex, his tongue circling the hard nub of her clit.

“Carter!” She arched off the bed, gasping and shuddering. His hands closed over hers, his fingers twining through hers. As he drove her higher, his tongue relentlessly stroking her, his hands were her anchor. It felt like she was falling, like the world was simply dissolving beneath her and the only thing holding her there were the points of contact between them.

The tension coiled so tightly inside her, every muscle quivering as he took her even higher. Every stroke of his tongue, every soft and gentle nip from his teeth, the hot pull of his mouth on her flesh, drove her on.

She wasn’t even aware of the sounds she made, of the soft, keening cries that escaped her. She had no control of her body, of the way she arched beneath him, grinding her hips against him. Need had consumed her completely and when it was finally sated, when the tension broke inside her and pleasure pulsed through her, she collapsed back against the bed, breathless and stunned.

But Carter didn’t give her a chance to recover or even process the fact that she’d just had the most earth shattering orgasm of her life. He moved over her, reaching into his pocket for a condom. Placing it on the bed, he unzipped his jeans. Of course, she thought, there was no underwear, why would Carter Hayes ever bow to such convention?

He rolled the condom on with quick, efficient and far too practiced movements. But that thought faded as he settled himself between her thighs, nudging inside her one slow, glorious inch at a time. He was larger than she’d expected, certainly larger than anyone she’d been with before. He filled her up completely, making it impossible to think, impossible to do anything but feel. With one hand hooked behind her knee, he hitched her thigh higher on his hip, surging deeper as he kissed her tenderly.

If it were possible to die from pleasure, she would have. The gentle kiss was so at odds with the power of his body moving over her, moving inside her, but those two things together simply robbed her of thought. They robbed her of all reason, and she closed her arms tightly around him, her nails digging into his back as she held on.

His lips left hers, trailing kisses over her cheek, her neck. Then his teeth nipped gently at her earlobe. And he continued to rock inside her, to thrust his hips against her and surge just a little deeper each time. She couldn’t even tell where he ended and she began anymore. It was like he’d been meant to be a part of her always.

Her thighs trembled and her belly quivered as the tension built in her again. Every part of her body was on fire. His hand moved between them, his fingers sliding over her damp flesh, zeroing in on her clit and stroking her with the perfect amount of pressure. Her eyes closed, her lips parted, but she couldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t even draw breath. Everything in her body had coiled tight, waiting for the implosion.

“Come for me, Josie,” he urged her. “You’re so close, baby. I can feel it.”

His fingers stroked over her again as he pressed into her and Josie trembled. Her body clenched and then released as wave after wave washed through her. She felt Carter tense against her, heard the harsh groan that escaped him and knew that he was right there with her.