Handcuffed in Housewares: Tulle and Tulips, Book 3 (6 page)

“They’ll give you crap every chance they get, though.”

“Does that mean I’ll be around them more? That you want to see more of me?”

“I think I’d like that.” He had to have heard the squeak in her voice, just as he had to know she wasn’t referring to another date.

His fingers massaged her head, moved to the base of her scalp to the spot the bobby pin had been pinching. His touch, so heavenly, had her arching her neck. Her lips pressed against the soft flesh just below his mouth. It seemed to be all the encouragement he needed.

Burton stooped lower and kissed her. He didn’t push or dive or plunder. It was a simple moment of lips against lips. In the simplicity rested a liberty she’d only known in her dreams. Emboldened, Leigh cupped the back of his neck and urged him to take the kiss deeper.

He needed no more encouragement. With his right hand he continued to massage her head. With his left, he applied a smidge more pressure. She parted her lips, allowing deeper access.

An image of him gripping her hips and planting her more firmly on the desk before plundering snapped into her mind. Instead, heartbeats stretched into long moments of exploration. She moved her hands to his neck and hair. He shifted so both hands framed her face.

Time vanished as the intricacies of Burton’s kiss entwined Leigh. She shifted on the desk and spread her legs. He stepped in, never breaking the kiss. As much as she enjoyed kissing him, and she really enjoyed kissing him, she wanted to discover more. She wanted to discover the boundaries of her new freedom. Its sustainability.

Releasing another reservation, Leigh put her hands at his waist and untucked his shirt. Her pinky touched his side and he shivered. His shiver thrilled and encouraged her.

She slipped her tongue between his lips and slid it along his. On a moan that vibrated from his throat and moved through Leigh, he moved his hands to her hips.

Another car rounded the corner. Its lights shining into the room reminded Leigh that the blinds were open. With the inside lights on anyone who passed could see them. She’d never had sex outside of her bedroom with the blinds and windows closed.

“Burton, do you have a bedroom?”

“Yeah.” Holding her immobile, he molded his body to hers until she had little choice but to lay back. “We’ll go there next time.”

The man at her front was almost as hard as the desk below her. She wanted to give in to him, to let him carry her wherever he wanted. A part of her ached to be free enough. She just wasn’t built for risky sex.

“The lights are on.”

His lips moved in a smile as he kissed a path down her jaw. “The better to see you with.”

“And everyone else.”

“Huh?” He eased up enough to look at her. His lips were shiny and lightly swollen from their kisses. “Who else is there to see?”

“Us. Everyone else can see us.”

“There’s no one here.”

“Outside.” He was going to make her spell it out, which meant she’d have to clue him in on how unadventurous she was as a lover.

Spitting it out fast was the only way she’d survive the humiliation. “The blinds are open. The lights are on. It’s dark outside. Every car and person who passes can look in and see us.”

Her cheeks flamed hotter and hotter with every syllable of every word. Even the tips of her ears heated and that only happened when she was horribly embarrassed. If she stopped, though, she would back out of the whole thing. If she backed out… She didn’t want to think about what she’d be missing if she didn’t go all the way with him.

“Don’t move.” He didn’t ask any more questions or laugh at her or do anything to make her feel uncomfortable. He did move to the window and close the blinds with a quick pull of a chord. Turning back, he looked at her from across the room. “Better?”

She watched him from where she still lay on the desk. She started to tell him she’d prefer a bed, but the hunger in his gaze silenced her. He’d given her the privacy she wanted without condescension or argument; she could give him the choice of location. “Yes.”

“Good.” Moving back into the spot he’d left, he braced his hands on the desk on either side of her hips. Smiling, he kissed her tenderly. “Tell me when you want something.”

Lifting her legs and wrapping them around his waist, she raised his shirt. She had learned to live the definition of predictability. Quiet and polite girls who never drew attention to themselves would have an easier time in foster homes. Or so her caseworker had said. She’d never tested the theory. Never wanted to.

Until now. Until Burton.

His touch called to her. He tempted her to an indulgence that would be anything but quiet. “I want you.”

The temptation to scrape her nails along his back as she eased his shirt up was almost strong enough for her to taste. Given how she’d met him she didn’t think he’d mind if she gave in to the urge, but she could only surrender to so many urges a night. Tonight’s urge was being with a man she barely knew, and not in a bed.

Growing up with three sisters had taught Burton how to read a woman’s cues. Leigh didn’t have to spell it out for him that she was very traditional in how she liked her sex. He liked traditional as much as he liked adventure, so indulging her wasn’t an issue. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to nudge her out of her comfort zone a little.

Somehow, he figured being in his office was already enough of a shift for her.

“I want you too. Damn, do I want you.” He ducked out of his shirt when she worked it over his head. Tossing it aside, he kept his attention on her. “I mean it, Leigh. Tell me if you want or need anything.”

“A condom. We need a condom.”

Her cheeks, already flushed with the glow of slight discomfort and excitement, darkened with a deepening embarrassment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet where he always put a condom when he was going out with an attractive woman—just in case.

“I’m covered.” Or he would be.

She ran her hands along his neck and tugged him closer. “Then kiss me again. I really like when you kiss me.”

He grinned. Some requests were simply impossible to deny. Conservative Leigh asking for a kiss in a breathless whisper was such a request. It filled him with excitement. It lifted his heart with a lightness, like he’d been filled with helium and could float away.

Holding himself off her torso while he did as she’d asked, he slid his hands beneath the hem of her shirt. Part of him hungered to have her naked quickly. Another part, a calmer part he wasn’t accustomed to, told him to go slowly. For the first time, he found himself easing into a seduction rather than rushing toward an orgasm.

Moving his fingers in a dance along her stomach and sides, he held himself back from moving toward her breasts. She wanted his touch. He knew it from the way she arched her back off the desk. She leaned into the kiss, pulling him into her arousal.

Her hands never stopped moving over him, and every inch of skin she touched leapt to life as if her fingers jolted him with electricity. She touched the lowest part of his back, the sensitive spot just above the waist of his jeans. The electric jolt that ramped his blood pressure higher and higher streamed through him—blood and muscles—to his dick.

He rolled his hips, rubbed himself against her. She jumped, ground herself against him. The veins in his neck strained with the force of his restraint. He moved from kissing her lips to nibbling a path down her neck. His hands worked their way eagerly toward her breasts.

Restraint wasn’t going to last as long as he’d hoped. Fire coursed through him until he was sure he would combust. Every muscle, even ones he hadn’t been aware of in too long, tensed with readiness.

He hadn’t been this aroused at the idea of sex in Hearth and Home. He hadn’t been this aroused at the idea of sex ever.

“Burton.”

“I don’t want to rush this, Leigh.”

She pressed into him. His eyes rolled back in his head and his ass muscles clenched.

“You’re making it
really
hard not to, though.”

“Then don’t try.” She trembled, a full-body quake beneath him. “You can go slow the next time.”

“Okay.” He pulled her off the desk and stepped away long enough for them to strip each other. It wasn’t the dramatic and frenzied ripping of clothes they showed in movies, but there was a definite urgency driving them.

Leigh picked his wallet up from the desk and handed it to him. As he pulled out the condom, she resumed her reclined position on the desk. Her hair fell around her shoulders and over the wood of the desk. Work would never be the same again.

He was grinning again when he moved back to his previous position.

“You’re not the woman I expected you to be.”

“Should I take that as a compliment?” She played with his hair and stared into his eyes.

“Definitely.” Pausing his craving for a moment, he kissed one corner of her mouth. “My first impression of you was entirely off base.” He kissed the other side of her mouth. “You’re conservative, but not stuffy.” He kissed a pulse point in her neck. “Willing to try new things.” He kissed the other pulse point. “And you’re generous with your kindness.”

“I must have made one hell of a first impression.”

He retreated enough to look her in the eyes again. “I began adjusting my opinion the moment you turned and looked at me.”

“Guess it’s good neither of us judged the other by the cover.”

“Or lack of cover in my case.”

She angled her head as if she was studying him. Her eyes twinkled when she winked. “I can’t say I minded your lack of cover.”

He laughed. It was a laugh that started deep in his belly and rumbled through his entirety. It was the kind of laugh he hadn’t felt like sharing with a woman since before his ex was his ex. “Ditto.”

“Well, if you feel the same way—” she arched up and bit his chin playfully, “—would you stop yammering and have sex with me already?”

“You bet.” He was laughing again when he pulled her a little closer to the edge of the desk. He held her hips and positioned himself for a quick thrust. The instant he slipped into her warmth his laughter died and every molecule of his being heated. It wasn’t a calm heat, or even a fully welcoming heat. Like he’d stepped into the flame of a blowtorch, it was an intense and focused heat.

Writhing and rolling her hips, Leigh didn’t give him time to adjust or decide how he felt about the intensity of the moment, not that she knew how he was feeling. Her movement sparked more fire, launched him higher.

Intentions of taking his time to explore her body, to indulge in the delights of her curves, evaporated with every withdrawal. She closed her eyes and relaxed every time he thrust. When he withdrew she stared deep into his eyes and squeezed. Her inner walls teased him with complacency and then begged him to stay a beat later.

Gentle glide in.

Pulsing pull out.

They moved in harmony.

Closer.

They’d put their issues and hang-ups aside, and in return were being rewarded with moments of perfection.

Closer.

On a withdrawal he paused. Her eyes drifted shut when he spoke. “Keep them open. I want to see your eyes.”

She obeyed. He stared past the conservative surface and smiled at the sexy temptress hiding in the shaded green pools. He didn’t thrust like he had been. He instead eased slowly in, reveling in the miniscule and countless pulses of her convulsing muscles as she neared her orgasm.

Her eyes flared wider. Her throat bounced with a swallow. All the way in, he tilted his hips forward, nudging her g-spot and then keeping the pressure steady for a moment. With tiny pumps of his hips, barely moving away from her, he carried her closer. She rose higher and higher off the desk, trying to get closer, trying to keep him in place when he released the pressure.

She sucked her lower lip beneath her teeth and Burton was sure he’d lose it. Words couldn’t have helped them communicate more clearly as they touched and stroked and petted each other. Each time he rolled his hips forward her fingertips dug into his skin. When he eased off so did she.

Pressure.

Her mounting pleasure seeped into the pulses of energy that escaped from her fingertips.

Release.

She fed a hunger he hadn’t recognized in himself.

Pressure.

She brightened the darkness that had grown in his heart.

Release.

She reawakened the dreams that had once lived in his soul.

Pressure.

When he would have eased off again, she dug her heels into his ass and held him still. Then it became her turn to apply the pressure as she worked her inner muscles along his length. Warm, tight and gripping she beckoned.

The base of his spine tingled. Every muscle in his core and beyond contracted and coiled. With a final flex of her inner muscles, he popped the lock on his control. Their moans of release mingled as they sailed over the edge and into the stars together.

Getting handcuffed to a toilet hadn’t turned out how he’d planned. Looking down at the curvaceous woman still clutching him deep inside, Burton realized it had turned out better. Much better.