Voyeur (16 page)

"I love being able to look over and see your gorgeous tits through that sheer fabric right now, honey, love the way your nipples poke against it to make those dark little points. And I loved being able to see you in the kitchen, too. You might think I was busy opening up the lasagna and pouring

the wine, but in between I was looking at your beautiful naked pussy and your nice little ass."

She pul ed in her breath and knew instinctively that her nipples jutted even
more
prominently at the transparent fabric now.

"By the way," he added, "as much as I liked coming on your ass, I should probably mention I did it for a practical reason, too. I forgot a condom."

For the first time since they'd met, guilt laced his expression.

Laura gasped—she hadn't even realized! How incredibly irresponsible of her!

"The good news is," he said, "I've never forgotten
before.
”

She lowered her chin in doubt. "Never?"

He shrugged those strong, sexy shoulders she'd dug her fingernails into earlier. "Okay, when I was young a few times. But long enough ago that if anything was wrong, I'd probably know it by now. Anyway, I remembered about halfway through, and I know it’s not foolproof or anything, but figured

pul ing out couldn't hurt—and as it turned out, it was pretty damn fun."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Wel , I'm notoriously careful, so no worries from me. Notoriously careful until now, that is," she added, letting her brows knit. "And I'm on the pil , too."

"Good to know," he said with a hint of a grin, then glanced to a large wal clock. "Time to check the lasagna."

Laura cleared their salad plates as Braden opened the oven to send the scent of Italian spices wafting through the air. "Mmm, think it's ready," he said, and she wasn't sure she'd ever seen a sexier or more endearing sight than Braden in his black boxer briefs, wearing two big oven mitts as he

extracted the tray. Maybe it was about sex and food—two primal needs being met by the same handsome source.

As he started cutting the lasagna, Laura asked, "So how old are you, flyboy?"

"Thirty-five," he said with a quick glance.

And they said men reached their sexual peak at eighteen? She wasn't buying it. She also found herself liking that he was older than her—his age

somehow fit the sophisticated man-of-the-world image she held of him,

"You, snowflake?"

"Twenty-nine."

He grinned, scooping squares of lasagna onto two plates. "Big three-o coming up."

"You look like you survived it okay." Boy, did he ever.

"But I hear that particular milestone is a lot harder on women."

"For most maybe," she said, "but I'm kind of looking forward to it. To me, thirty is like . . . real adulthood. A last leap into true maturity. Al grown up."

His lids lowered, darkening his eyes. "Oh, you re al grown up already, honey—trust me on that" And then he smoothly reached out, beneath her kimono, to swipe his middle finger through the moisture between her legs. She sighed at the flash of pleasure and wasn't sorry she'd agreed to

wear only the skimpy robe. In the end, it seemed, everything he asked her to do brought her far more pleasure than regret.

"So tel me about being a corporate raider," she said a moment later as they sat down to dinner and Braden poured them both a second glass of wine. "Are al your takeovers
hostile?"
She raised her eyebrows, half teasing but truly curious.

Braden smiled at her playfulness. "Most are friendly, actual y," he admitted, much as he might have enjoyed making himself out to be some bad-ass rocking the corporate world. "I look for companies in trouble, find investors to go in with me, and arrange a buyout. Then I restructure the company—

sometimes sel ing off parts of it, other times just reorganizing it to be more cost-effective. When a company is seriously in trouble, I can be doing

them a big favor and they usual y know it. Hence the lack of hostility," he said with a grin.

"So you own al these companies, huh?" she asked, clearly impressed.

"Wel , I own
pieces
of a lot of companies. Sometimes I sel the pieces off after I've made a good profit, and I use the money to orchestrate the next takeover."

She tilted her head. "How does a guy get into this line of work, anyway? Did you tel your mother you wanted to be a corporate raider when you

grew up?"

He chuckled. He loved her intel igent sense of humor and couldn't remember the last time he'd found that particular element in a woman he was

dating. "Actual y, I started as a stockbroker fresh out of col ege. I was into deep analyzing companies and discovered I was good at it. Made a

bundle for my clients—and for myself, too. Enough that I was able to start dabbling with smal buyouts and, soon, enough that I didn’t need the

brokers commissions anymore."

"You must be very good at what you do to make that much money at it."

"The best," he said, eyes on hers. He'd never seen any point in being modest.

"And you’re a pilot, too?"

"That’s just a hobby. I keep a little Cessna at the airport in Long Beach. Best feeling in the world, flying. Second only to sex."

"I'l stick with the sex," she said, casting a flirtatious grin.

Under the table, he grazed his palm up her thigh. "I’l help you with that."

She let out a soft giggle. "You're too kind."

"And you’re too hot. . . for me to resist." He found himself smiling, too, now, stretching farther, wanting to feel that perfectly smooth cunt again—but he couldn't quite reach.

"You’re such a silver-tongued devil," she teased.

"Hey, gotta keep up with my lover the writer." He final y withdrew his touch, deciding he'd definitely be getting more of her later, and dug into his lasagna. "Speaking of which, the book stil going wel ?"

She gave another nod. "Shockingly so."

"Why is it shocking?"

"Wel , I was completely without a story when I got here. Now it's zipping along. And I'm not even sure where it's headed—which is not the norm for me—but I'm just trusting the story to keep finding its way, and so far, it's working like a charm. The last few days have been the kind writers dream

of—where the words just flow without thought. Total y amazing."

He listened to her pretty sigh, and said, "Maybe it's like flying."

She tilted her head, gave him a slow smile. "Yeah. Maybe it is."

The pleasurable silence hung between them—perhaps a beat too long. At least too long for his comfort. He liked her, a lot, but he'd never been into

relationships, so even thinking about how pretty her eyes were or how in sync their thoughts felt at this moment seemed like a bad idea. Time for a

new topic. "You don’t seem much like Monica."

She didn't look surprised. "Opposites attract, I guess, even in friendship sometimes. Now, you, on the other hand, seem
exactly
like Monica."

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"Confident. Take charge. Sex-crazy."

He blinked. "Monica is sex-crazy?"

And she flinched. "Oh, I guess maybe you didn’t know that about her."

He gave a shrug. "We’re cousins, not best friends. I see her once or twice a year, general y around the holidays. I never realized she had a wild side."

Laura looked sheepish. "Wel , now you know. Just don’t tel her I accidental y let that out. But she’s the whole reason I had that sexy bra and panties I wore for you over the webcam. She wanted me to come here and get laid. I just don’t think she meant by you."

He laughed softly. "Wil you tel her?"

"Would you mind?"

He gave his head a short shake. "I'm a big boy. I'm sure my family knows I have sex with women."

She bit her lip, looking al too bashful. "I won't be giving her the details, though. I don't think I could."

He leaned closer, peering into her eyes, and reached back under the table to gently squeeze her knee. "Al right then, honey—it'l al be our secret."

Normal y, he probably would have told Tommy once it ended. Maybe another buddy or two at home with whom conquests were sometimes shared

on the golf course. Not to degrade her in any way, but because she'd be out of his life, someone they'd never know, a nameless, faceless woman

who would never matter again. Yet he understood how big this was for Laura—he understood, from every reaction she'd had, and every single

persuasion, That she’d been giving him an unspoken trust That she’d never given anyone before. So he could be quiet about it for her afterward,

even if the guys
would
never meet her and it
wouldn't
real y matter. He could keep the details of their mountainside affair secret.

"Thank you," she said, her voice stil , soft.

And without quite planning it, he found himself tenderly caressing the inside of her knee, just rubbing his fingers in smal circles. She bit her lip, looking incredibly innocent yet ready as she sat there in That sexy, see-through robe that showed off every private part of her so wel .

He smiled into her eyes as an idea came to mind. "Want to see some stars, snowflake?"

"See it?" he asked, having just relinquished the telescope to her. He'd shown her Orion and was now helping her locate Canis Major, explaining the latter was supposed to be Orion's hunting dog.

"I think so."

"That bright star at the dog's neck is Sirius—it's the brightest visible from Earth besides the sun."

"Oh, I see it now," she said, her lithe body flinching in delight at finding it. "I see the dog shape." She took her eye from the telescope to glance up at him from her partial y bent position. "Although those astronomers had a vivid imagination to think that was a dog."

"This from the writer," he said cynical y, teasing her. "Okay, now let's try another one. I'd show you Lepus, the rabbit that Orion and his dog are hunting, but if you can't buy the dog shape, seeing the rabbit is hopeless for you. So let's look for Gemini, the twins."

Taking back control of the telescope, he moved it until he found the large constel ation he sought. Then, stepping back so Laura could look, he

explained how to find it among the stars he'd focused on. "The twins are like stick figures," he concluded, rubbing his hand lightly over her ass through the filmy fabric that covered it, "tilted heavily to the left. Although mythological y, they weren't real y twins—just half brothers."

Slowly, she looked up at him, her eyes fil ed with question. "How do you know about this stuff ?"

"Another hobby," he said. "I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little, but I guess this and my pilot’s license are as close as I ever got. Now get back to looking for the twins."

As she turned around, he wondered why he felt a little sheepish about what he'd just told her. He supposed he didn't go around tel ing women things

from his childhood—or how much he happened to know about the stars, either. Laura was so genuine, so sweet, That she made it easy to let out

sides of himself that didn't always make it to the surface.

"See 'em?" he asked, placing his hands gingerly at her hips. "No."

He sighed. "Then you're not looking in the right place." He leaned in behind her, arms closing comfortably around her waist, and said, "Let me look." When she did, he adjusted the telescope slightly, centering Gemini more. "Now, try again. They're right in the middle of the lens."

A moment later she said, "Does one of them have knee joints and the other one doesn't?"

He'd never thought about it like that before, but he laughed lightly and said, "Yeah, the guy on the left has knees."

"Got 'em," she said triumphantly.

"Good girl," he said, fol owing the urge to slide one hand up to caress her breast.

"Mmm," she purred in response, stil looking at the constel ation. "I didn't realize astronomy could be so much fun."

"It's about to get even
more
fun," he promised hotly in her ear, aware that his cock was growing hard against her lovely ass now. He'd been half hard through dinner, slowly growing more aroused by the mere sight of her and, admittedly, by the sweet, trusting control she let him have
over
her.

Her breast was ful and weighty in his hand through the fabric, and he massaged lightly, catching the taut nipple between thumb and forefinger. She

whimpered gently, rubbing her sweet bottom against his increasing erection and eliciting a soft moan from him as the sexy moves stiffened him

more.

"Are you stil looking at the stars?" he asked, dropping his other hand from her slender waist to stroke into her denuded pussy.

"Oh . . ." she sighed, then said, "Yes, I’m stil looking." But her voice had gone beautiful y breathy.

"You're so wet for me already, honey," he rasped, raking his fingers through the welcoming moisture—deep, deeper.

"Although," she said, her words coming between weak breaths now, "I don’t think . . . the twins ... are both guys. I think one of them ... is a girl."

He relished her sweet dewiness as his fingers made longer, stronger strokes through her slit. "Yeah?" His breath came hard, too. "Which one is she?"

"The one with the knees. I think she has knees ... so she can do this." With those words, she turned in his grasp and knelt before him, eagerly extracting his raging erection from his underwear to go down on him.

"Jesus God," he breathed as she took him deep into the recesses of her pretty, wet mouth. "Oh God, yeah."

His sweet Laura moved her lips up and down his shaft while he watched every glorious second of her enthusiastic affections. He'd noted she was

particularly good at this in the shower, but this was a very pleasant reminder, far sooner than he'd expected.

"Oh yeah, baby, suck it," he prodded her, as turned on by the sight of her head moving over him as he was by the sensations her mouth so skil ful y delivered.

He slid his hands to her face, ran the tips of his fingers down around her lips where they encased him. "Look at me," he said, lifting her face toward him.