Shouldn't Be (10 page)

“If you wanted to, I’d do it a hundred times.”  She was so adorable he couldn’t help but grin at her.  Somehow he managed to pull down the covers while he held her, then placed her in the bed gently.  He gazed down at her proudly, hoping she’d realize what an excellent father he’d make one day.

He brushed his teeth, pulled on a pair of lounge pants, and crawled into bed beside her.  He pulled her into his body, and wrapped her up in his arms.  Although he was as tired as she was, he didn’t think he’d get to sleep.  She was there, sleeping beside him, in his apartment.  He couldn’t stop touching her.  He felt her hair, testing its silkiness against the texture of her skin.  He couldn’t decide which was softer. 

“I am going to fall so hard for you, love.”  He wouldn’t say it while she was awake; not yet anyway.  But he couldn’t hold the words in, knowing she couldn’t hear him.  And he hoped, more than anything, she could learn to return the feeling.

* * *

She woke up to the sound of deep breathing.  She felt muscles against her back, and a heavy arm held her waist.  She opened her eyes slowly, and had no idea where she was.  Maps in casual wood frames decorated the walls.  A couple of old suitcases and a pretty carry on case rested on top of an antique steamer trunk.  The wall was painted coffee, and the carpet was cream.  Wherever she was, it was beautifully decorated.

“Are you awake, love?”  She didn’t know where she was, but she knew that voice.  Then his hips flexed and shoved into her ass, and she definitely knew who lay beside her. 

“Umhmm,” she murmured.  “What time is it?”  This must be his bedroom, and it was beautiful. 

He rolled over slightly.  “Four-thirty,” he said.  His hands trailed up over her hip to her breast. 

“I’m naked in a guy’s bed,” she observed.  She never slept naked, and she’d never woken up inside a man’s bedroom.

“Don’t I know it?”  He nestled himself closer into her body, and licked at her shoulder. 

“This is not normal for me,” she insisted. 

“What’s not?  Having a guy who wants you all the time?” he purred into her ear.  “Having a guy who wants you this much?”

“That’s different.”  He found her nipple, circling it with his rough fingertips.  Her breath caught, and she wiggled against him.  His cotton pants were soft against her rear, but she wanted something else.  “Take them off.” 

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and pulled them off quickly.  But that left skin on skin, and he wanted to bury himself deep inside her that way.  He rubbed the head against the small of her back, and over her soft round bottom.  “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she sighed.  He pulled a condom out of the bedside table and rolled it on. 

He angled her just right, pushing gently against her back.  She leaned forward, and intuitively arched her back, allowing him to slide right in.  It felt so natural, as if they were born for this.  She relaxed against the bed, but inside her was turmoil.  He moved in and out of her slowly, and after several moments of that sweet pleasure, it just wasn’t enough.

“Faster,” she urged. 

“You’ve already cum twice, love.  It’s my turn.”  He sighed into her long, damp, tangled red hair. 

“How did you know?” she asked as she turned toward him. 

He gazed into her eyes as he moved into her. “I can tell,” he whispered, before he kissed her passionately.  One arm was under her pillows, holding her hand.  The other hand roamed over her body, until he shoved it between her legs and found her clit.  She moaned loudly into his mouth as she came again, and then he came with her.

Chapter Nine

“You’re going to put me back to sleep,” she mumbled, as he played with her hair. 

“Sleep, sweetheart, it’s not even five-thirty yet.”  He wanted to look at, touch, and smell every inch of her.  He wanted to roll her up into his body and never, ever let her leave.

“I need to go home,” she asserted.  “I have to work tomorrow.”  She paused, and shoved the covers off herself.  “Today.  This morning, or whatever.”

She walked toward the bathroom, and noticed the sliding glass doors that led to a spacious balcony.  He had a beautiful view of the city skyline, lit up and reflecting on the James River.  She paused and stared, taking in the dramatic image.  She heard him rustling around in the bed, but didn’t hear his footsteps on the thick carpet. 

He stood behind her, and she jumped as he put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her into his body.  He pushed her hair off her shoulder and kissed her neck gently.  “It’s beautiful,” she sighed.  They stood locked together in an embrace as the sun turned the sky pink.  He continued to kiss and nibble her neck, and she tilted her head to encourage him.

“I have to go home to shower and get ready for work,” she said after several minutes.

“I have a shower,” he offered.  “And I can join you if you shower here.”

“But my body wash and conditioner and stuff are at my house,” she protested.

He stood silently, wanting her to stay with him but knowing she wouldn’t.  Maybe it was too soon for her, he thought, but he was sure.  He wanted her with him every night for the rest of his life.  He wanted to wake up with her for every sunrise. 

“I’ll head downstairs and make coffee,” he said instead. 

“Okay.”  She was reluctant to break away from him.  She turned in his arms and, facing him, wrapped her arms around his waist.  His chest was nearly hairless, and his skin was so soft.  She rubbed her cheek against it.  Although she knew she should leave, she didn’t want to.  His hands moved gently up and down her back, caressing and comforting her.  “You promised me coffee.”

“Not while you’re holding me like that.”  His voice was right in her ear. 

“Right,” she chuckled, and pulled away.  He stood by the glass doors in the soft dawn light, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him.  They’d had sex four times in the last twenty-four hours, and to be honest she was slightly sore from it.  So why was she so turned on by his nude body and his raging hard-on? 

“How can you still be hard?” she asked, as a shock tingled inside her, and her muscles clenched.  She wanted him just as much as he wanted her.  No, she needed him. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I just want you so much.”  He reached out for her hand and brought it to his erection.  She touched it tentatively, as if for the first time.  “It’s sore,” he moaned, and flinched.  She pulled away, and he let her go.

“Coffee,” she reminded him.  She smiled weakly, and took a step back.

“Okay,” he nodded. 

She made her way to the bathroom, and he pulled on his cotton pants and headed downstairs.

* * *

She exited the bathroom to find her clothes, rumpled and dirty from the night in his garage, lying on top of his bed.  Beside them, folded neatly, were a pair of sweat pants and a college t-shirt.  She gazed between the two piles, wondering which to wear.  Eventually she chose his clothes, and pulled them on quickly.

He carried two mugs of coffee into the room just then.  “I hope you like cream,” he said as he handed one to her.  She nodded, and took the cup with a smile.  He opened the glass door, and stepped out onto the balcony.  She followed after him.  “I like to sit here for five minutes in the morning, to drink my coffee and just gather my thoughts.”

His outdoor furniture was just like everything she’d seen so far inside; expensive, and expertly arranged and matched.  “Did you have a decorator?” she asked, even though she assumed he did.

“No, I put most of it together myself,” he said.

“Really?”  She sat cross-legged on a dark chocolate settee, and gazed at the dark wicker furniture.  “Everything is really pretty.”

“I wanted everything to be functional and comfortable, but with my own personal style.  I hunted for the luggage and maps in the bedroom in thrift stores and flea markets.” 

She couldn’t say anything.  She put her own apartment together by herself with help from IKEA, and it didn’t look half as good as his did.  She didn’t have a balcony, though.

“How far is your apartment?”  He turned to gaze at her.

She shrugged.  “The other side of town,” she admitted.  She lived near her parents, in her old neighborhood.  She was comfortable there.

“I was wondering, and you can tell me no,” he began, as he leaned back into the settee’s matching loveseat.  Her eyes were drawn to his muscular torso.  “If I could just get dressed at your apartment?”  Her eyebrows went up immediately.  “I mean, it makes more sense than dropping you at your place, coming back here to shower, and then going back to the city for work.  And besides that, your car is still at the office.  You’d have to take a cab to work, and there really isn’t any sense in that, is there?”

It made sense, it really did.  But was she ready for that?  She was, she reminded herself, sitting on his balcony in his clothes after a night of passion that she couldn’t even imagine.  “No, that doesn’t make any sense,” she agreed.

“So I can shower at your place?” he persisted.

“Sure,” she shrugged.

“Excellent,” he smiled, pleased with his small victory.  He was the perfect lawyer.

“How big is your condo?” she wondered, as they walked through the second floor to drop off their mugs. 

“Three floors, including the gym and the garage,” he said with a shrug.

“Hmmm…”  She shouldn’t be surprised.  He was Levi Aronson’s son.  “How many bedrooms?” she asked as she walked past the gym.  She shook her head as she stared at all of the top of the line equipment.

“Three,” he answered, as they made their way to the garage.  She started to doubt her decision to invite him to her place.  It was one bedroom, and that was about as big as his bathroom in his master bedroom.

He opened the small trunk in his sports car, and threw in a hanger with a suit, dress shirt, and tie, and a small bag that contained shoes, socks, and a shaving kit.  She didn’t want to put her dirty clothes in with his clean ones, but he insisted.  The entire drive to her place she bit her lip and stared out the window, uneasy about what was to come.  Ben, on the other hand, chatted happily. 

She glanced over at him to watch him drive.  He really was truly handsome, and manly with his unshaven cheeks.  She reached out to feel the texture of it, and he immediately became quiet.  Gently, she explored the contours of his face, his cheek bones, his strong jaw line, and his chin.  He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, and kissed her palm sweetly. 

“You make me feel so much, I can’t begin to explain.”  He held her hand in his while he drove. 

“Don’t expect too much,” she said when they pulled up to the gate at her apartment complex.  She pulled out her phone and retrieved her texts, and gave him the code for the day.  “We get a new code at six a.m. every morning.  That’s to keep out ex-boyfriends or one night stands.  I feel safer that way.”

“That seems very safety conscious,” he said as he entered the code, and drove up into the parking area, past the small swimming pool.  He parked in her empty space, right near her front door.

“Why do you want to come to my apartment?” she asked seriously, before she stepped out of his car.  “What do you expect?”

“I expect one more connection to you, one more open door to your life,” he said honestly, as he searched her eyes.  “And I want you to let me inside that door.  I want you to see that I’m a good guy who wants to spend time with you.”

“God, you’re such a lawyer,” she groaned, but kissed him quickly on his lips.

“Does that mean I won?” he asked, as they both exited the car.

“Yes, that’s what it means.”  She gave him a pert smile as she led him to her apartment.

* * *

She showered first, so that she would have time to dry her hair and do her make up while he was in the shower.  But part of the time, he stood beside her in only his towel and shaved.  If she had to stare at him half naked any more that day, bad things were probably going to happen.

“Do you like what you see?”  He wasn’t teasing her.  He wasn’t being flippant.  He was asking her an honest question.  It was more of his need for a confidence booster. 

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.  “I like it a lot.”

“Thanks,” he grinned, then continued with his shaving. 

She didn’t need for him to tell her he wanted her or found her attractive; the proof was jutting out from between his legs, constantly.  She almost felt bad for him.  She finished up as he was dressing, and left him alone.

She fixed a cup of coffee for each of them to take to work, then sat down and sipped hers while she waited. 

He found her easily in the kitchen.  Her apartment was practically three rooms and a bathroom.  “Your apartment is really pretty,” he said as he stood behind her, fully dressed.  “Dainty and feminine, like you.”

“I’m afraid it won’t be as good as yours,” she fussed, as she handed him the coffee. 

He wondered if she meant the double entendre.  “It will be perfect, just like you.”  He grinned at her as he took it.

“So what do you think after we spent our first night and morning together?”  It was Kaitlyn’s turn to need a little security.  She gazed up at him with hopeful blue eyes.

“I can’t wait for many, many more.”  He kissed her thoroughly as they stood at her front door.  “I just wish we could do it one more time,” he sighed regretfully, as he helped her into his car.

* * *

“How long have you worked for Aronson and Cohen?”  Kaitlyn sat in Ruben’s lap on his balcony.  They sipped wine, and watched the sun go down.  He gently traced his calloused fingertips down the back of her neck and over her shoulder blades.  She shivered several times, and turned toward him to grin each time. 

“Do you know how you make my insides go crazy?” she wondered happily.

“I’m just wondering how long we worked in the same building and didn’t meet,” he sighed. 

“The fifth floor doesn’t really mingle with everyone else,” she noted. 

He groaned audibly, but she just laughed.  “I’m not like that, am I?” he asked, as he kissed her porcelain skin.

“Of course you are, or we would have met a year ago.”  She kissed his cheek sweetly.  “Tomorrow is Sunday, and I go to brunch with my parents.” 

They’d spent nearly every minute together for several days.  She’d never felt more cherished, more content, and more fulfilled in her life.  Ruben didn’t miss a single detail, whether it was holding her hand as they strolled down his street after dinner, or allowing her to pick the songs he played for his solo set at the martini bar that weekend.  She just felt the need to warn him that he wouldn’t see her the next afternoon.

“Great, I can’t wait to meet them,” he said with a grin.

She froze.  They’d known each other for a few weeks.  They’d really hit it off over the last few days.  But was she ready to introduce him to her parents?

“Don’t you think they’ll like me?”  He had the prettiest little pout on his full lips. 

“I think they’ll love you.”  She honestly couldn’t think of a reason her parents would not like him.  He came from a good family.  He had a good, stable career.  He could take care of her.  And, from all the evidence she had, he really liked her.

“I think it’s time to get dressed,” he said.  The sun hung low in the sky, creating a striking sunset over the river. 

“Or undressed?” she purred.  “How fast can you…”

“Kaity, you are insatiable,” he giggled as he kissed her.  “And I love that about you.”  He picked her up and carried her inside.  He quickly undressed her, as if it was a challenge, and kissed her breasts and her nipples.  He always made sure she was as ready for him as he was for her.

When he pulled the condom out of his pocket she gazed up at him, a little stunned at the thoughts running through her head.  He wanted to meet her parents.  He was ready for a commitment.  He really wanted her.  She almost asked him to put the condom away… almost.