Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (35 page)

“Well…then I’d kick you so you’d wake up, and then I’d go back to sleep.” A victorious little ‘so
there
’ glimmer lit her eyes.

So freakin’ adorable.

“Geez, I bet that was fun for all your past flings,” he editorialized casually, grinning when she balked. That was the exact reaction he’d been looking for. “But one night stands sleep over all the time, don’t they?”

“And that’s my point,” she recovered quickly. “One night stands are awkward the next day. Plus, they’re singular events—you never expect to see them again. Which is why a fling has to be handled differently.”

Not bad. Considering she’d just pulled that one out of her ass on the fly. Clearly, he’d underestimated her.

Remembering Connor’s addendum on his one-monthers, he then threw more chips in the pile and raised with, “So what’s your policy on notes? You know, for the guest flingee who sneaks out before the resident flinger wakes up? Connor used to have a strict no notes, calls, texts, emails, or tokens of affection rule.”

“
What
?” Her riled scowl was on behalf of all womankind. “How that man never got drilled in the nuts by a stiletto is beyond me. Of course leave a note. I mean, it doesn’t have to be a sonnet or anything. Just short and casual…rhyming optional.”

Brian hid his grin. For the umpteenth time since they’d met, he thought about just how fantastically different Tessa was from Beth and Abby.

When he’d first met Beth back in high school, he’d been a nervous wreck—his heart had started racing the second she’d said hello, and absolute gibberish had spewed out of his mouth in response. Abby, on the other hand, had been an easy fit from the start; from that first day of college, he’d felt like he’d known her forever and had been completely relaxed around her.

Meeting Tessa, however, had been like getting whacked upside the head with a club. He’d felt blindsided by her,
unsettled
around her almost at first sight, definitely at first speak. She made him feel off-balance. And borderline ornery. She got under his skin with frightening ease, and managed to find bizarre, hidden access points to his heart just as effortlessly. Around Tessa, he more often than not found himself doing things he normally wouldn’t do.

Like agreeing to have a fling with a ‘fling expert’ who’d clearly never been flung before.

Reaching over for a pen on the coffee table, he initialed next to the title of her list.

“Okay, I’m in.”

While Tessa was busy gaping at his initials, Brian took the opportunity to unravel more of the enigma that was Tessa Daniels. Basically, he started snooping. He dropped a kiss on her parted lips and headed over to the bookshelf near the kitchen to look at the small handful of memorabilia and even smaller handful of photos. There was one photo with her sister and her dad, one of just her dad when he was older, one of Willow sitting at a piano, and another with Tessa and her sister in a hospital bed, each with matching pink streaks in their hair.

Another mystery solved.

He gently picked up the old three-ring binder propped next to the piano picture of Willow. “Are these her compositions?” There were a few dozen at least, all in plastic protectors.

As if his words had finally shaken her out of her stupor, Tessa came to join him by the bookshelf. “Yes. In chronological order, each one like a special musical page of her life, from what I could remember. I used to love listening to her play.”

“Did you ever play?”

“No. I, um, didn’t get a chance to do any extracurriculars.”

Right, because their lives had always revolved around Willow.

Christ, her childhood had been a sad one.

When he heard his fierce little survivor clearing her throat to get his attention, he turned to see her gripping her list of rules in her hands, her face utterly serious, “Brian, about these—”

Just then, that familiar musical ringtone—
seriously
, where did he know that song from—rang out from her bag.

“Dammit. Hang on.” She rushed off to go answer her phone.

Hearing her enter her bedroom to take the call, Brian took a long, sweeping look around Tessa’s apartment once again. Everything about it was stark, bare. Not at all the type of vibrant home he’d expect from her. Likewise for her bookshelf. He couldn’t help but compare it to the bookshelf of memories at his own house that was bursting at the seams, and groaning over the weight of all the photo frames they kept cramming onto it.

“It’s not as filled as yours,” she commented softly from behind him, as if reading his mind. “I haven’t added anything to it in years. There haven’t really been any new memories to collect. Or anyone to share them with.” She took a deep breath, and once again, that determined, hope-filled, me-against-the-world smile was back on her face.

The woman was just too good at dealing with life’s unjust realities on her own.

He wished she’d let him help her.

“Brian, I hate to cut our night short but that was work on the phone just now. Looks like I’m going to have to pull an all-nighter. One of our freelancers bailed at the last minute and they don’t have any articles in the bank to cover this specific topic for the summer edition.” With a frustrated huff, she scooped up her hair and tied it up into a tight bun. “Since the cover is already locked, that means I need to write the article. Easier said than done, of course, since I have absolutely no experience with the topic. But I’ll figure something out.”

“What’s the topic?” he asked, frowning, wanting to help somehow.

A slow, brightening sparkle entered her eyes as she turned to gaze at him in a whole new light. “Camping.”

He beamed. “Well then today’s your lucky day. Because standing right before you is a bonafide camping connoisseur who has absolutely no marketable writing skills to speak of, and will very likely get completely distracted by the gorgeous editor in charge.”

She chuckled. “You’re hired.”

NINE LONG, CRAZY-STRESSFUL hours later, Tessa was emailing the article in for submission, and Brian was half-dozing on the double-wide recliner. Damn, the thing was comfortable—he’d have to look into getting one for his house, he thought to himself muzzily.

Better yet, he could just move hers into his place, owner and all.

Huh.

There were those crazy, random thoughts again.

Tonight, he was blaming it on exhaustion.

“Okay, the issue’s locked.” When Tessa returned and shuffled by to plop down on the sofa opposite the recliner, he scooped her up by the waist, pulled her across his lap and tucked her right next to him.

Perfect fit.

She cuddled against his chest. “Thank you so much, Brian. There’s no way I would’ve been able to do that article without you.”

“My pleasure. But you really didn’t have to give me a byline.”

“Of course I did. You came up with most of it.” She cat-yawned. “Are you hungry? Do you want me to make you a sandwich or something?”

“If I say yes will you actually be able to get up and do it?” he teased, eyes slipping closed with a groan as he pressed the side button to slide the recliner back fully.

“Good point,” she murmured, snuggling into him sleepily.

Yawning, he held her close and started drifting off.

“Brian?”

“Hmmm?”

“Are you going to keep poking me with that thing all night?”

“As long as you’re lying on top of me? Yes.”

She burrowed deeper and twined her legs with his. “Okay.”

And that was the last thing he remembered before sleep overtook him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SHE WAS SO WARM.

With a murmur of pleasure, Tessa slowly rubbed her face against the source of the heat, feeling her skin come alive on contact.

“A man can only take so much torture, Tessa.” The low, rough voice pierced through the sleepy fog she was still floating in, but not enough to make the delicious feelings go away. She shifted her hips and felt something hard brush against her inner thigh.

“Brian,” she sighed.

The arms that had been cradling her as if she were a newborn kitten suddenly turned to steel.

“Tessa, wake up,” he commanded, straight out of her most wicked fantasies.

Her alpha man was back.

Though she’d dreamt of him for weeks now, for some reason, tonight felt different. More real. Sexier. Less out of reach.

She smiled against his hot skin and felt a groan rumbling up the column of his throat. Nuzzling against his jaw, she felt reckless enough tonight to test her dream’s boundaries, to push past her own for once. Sliding her body fully atop his, she reveled at the feel of all those hot, hardened muscles.

Especially that one.

“Godammit, woman.” Strong, thick fingers speared through her hair and cradled her skull as the hottest lips she’d ever felt started searing every nerve ending she hadn’t even known she had all along her neck. “If you don’t wake up and stop smiling like the cat that caught the canary, I won’t be held accountable for my actions.”

The feel of his late-night beard grazing her collarbone jolted her awake finally. Dream and reality on tilt, she forced her eyes open.

And found herself drowning in the most intense sea-blue eyes she’d ever seen.

“
Brian
.”

He bucked against her hips. “Stop saying my name like that,” he rasped, his pupils dilating right before her eyes, his chest rising and falling raggedly beneath her hands.

Pushing herself up fully, she froze when she felt the hard ridge of his erection nudging urgently between her thighs.

“Don’t. Move.” His eyelids slammed shut, and harsh lines of tension etched across his face as he held her immobile above him.

“Brian—” She scooted forward for better leverage.

Before she could even yelp, he sat up fully and yanked her torso against him, his brawny arms encasing her in a cocoon of heat as every inch of his hard, sculpted chest and eight-pack abs sealed her tight against his body.

“You suck at following directions,” he graveled.

Guilty as charged. Then again, where in the world had he been all this time that he was only now getting that memo?

While belatedly attempting to follow his directions, she took inventory of the changes in Brian. He looked…reckless. Hungry. Like a man fighting the hard edge of desire. And
almost
losing. It was intoxicating.

She wanted more.

She wanted him to lose control completely.

Later, she’d probably wonder over her sanity for pushing him when he looked this
primal,
but for now…

She reached up, shaped her hands over his tan, chiseled features, and smiled when his hips jerked up against hers in reflex as she slid her tongue along the taut line of his lips. A sharp jaw clench beneath her fingers…and then
nothing
.

His harsh breathing had to mean he was as affected as she was, and yet the man still continued to sit there. Brooding. Practically vibrating with hot alpha sex waves while he continued to look at her like he wanted to devour her.

But just plain wasn’t going to.

Unable, unwilling to wait any longer for him to make the first move, she took control and shifted her hips forward, wanting that snug, rigid fit as she rocked against him.

Forward and back, harder and hotter.

She became lightheaded as the searing sensations started rushing throughout her system, causing her to pulse against him just as he pulsed right back against her.

After a while, it became less about inciting his hunger, and more about feeding her own—an altogether unfamiliar craving, seeing as how she hadn’t had sex besides that one time in high school, and she never really got into ‘taking care of business’ on her own.

Obviously, she’d been missing out.

Her hands fisted in his shirt and her eyes drifted shut. Now if she just angled her hips…

Holy hell.

A hoarse, guttural sound from deep in Brian’s chest broke her concentration. But then the feeling of flying that came when he shot up to his feet and pushed her back against the couch, all while yanking his clothes off, soon had her concentration focused on newer, better things.

Wow.

Tense, sculpted muscles as far as the eye could see, rippling and clenching.

“Clothes off,” he ordered, reaching down to drag her shirt up off her body.

Front-clasp bras were now her new favorite thing—Brian’s too, judging by the volatile explosion of lust in his eyes that detonated the instant she was fully bared to his gaze.

“So beautiful.”

She felt the rough, raw words repeated against her neck, moments before his mouth closed over her nipple and sent pleasure lashing across her senses. Wild and untamed, he tasted, explored, incited until her nails were scoring down his back in response, and his teeth were nipping at her in symphony.

“I need to be inside of you
now
.”

Tessa didn’t even realize he’d slid off her jeans and panties until she felt him slip back between her legs. The tiny gasp she’d been unable to keep buried at the skin-on-skin contact had him gripping her hips and rocking his full length against her core.

“Jesus, I could come just from the feel of you spilling over me,” he rumbled against her skin. “You’re so damn responsive.”

His mouth came over hers again almost desperately, stealing what little oxygen she had left directly from its source as his thumb moved from the blade of her hipbone across her soft mound. Lower, and lower.

Her whole body corded like a bow. “
Brian!
”

CHRIST, HE’D ALMOST come right then and there.

The way Tessa said his name went to his head faster than whiskey. And the snug grip and slick, wet glide of her sex over his violently sensitive head was his drunken undoing. He forced himself back and grabbed for the condom in his jeans. Sliding the rubber in place, he was back in a flash. Thank God he’d allowed himself that line of wishful thinking when he’d left his house this evening.