Wicked Lovers 05.5 - Wicked To Love (3 page)

Grabbing his face, she plastered her lips across his, then plunged into his mouth. He didn’t resist a bit, merely opened wide to take her for a long, electric second. Then the jarring of his thrusts overtook everything. She wriggled on him, feeling her insides heat up, her breasts bounce, her pussy clamp down on him.

“
You feel so fucking good,” he growled against the curve of her breast. “How were you right in front of me for this long, and I didn’t see you?”

Exactly what Em wanted to know, but she couldn’t speak. Every drag of his cock inside her hit so many sensitive nerves that it made her nearly mindless. With each move, he stimulated her G-spot and bumped her cervix. She tightened, tightened, held her breath…

“
Brandon…”

“
You’re going to come, baby, aren’t you? I can feel you clenching that pussy on me. So responsive…” He pumped her harder, his fingers digging into her hips, and he moved under her in short, rhythmic strokes. “I’m not far behind you. Let go, and I’ll catch you.”

Em gave him a shaky nod and squirmed as he plowed into her again and again. He brushed her clit with every stroke. Still sensitive from her last orgasm, it didn’t take much more to shove her to the precipice. And then she heard nothing but her heartbeat hammering in her ears, felt nothing but the pleasure crashing through her body like a maelstrom as he thrust deep, groaning long and low, the sound dripping with satisfaction.

His knees began to give way at the same time his arms did. Brandon pulled free of her body as she slid down the wall to her feet. The question of her own legs supporting her was touch and go, but she braced one elbow on the bar beside her and managed to stay upright. In front of her, Brandon put his hand on his hips and tried to catch his breath.

And it hit her. She’d just let her boss—former boss—fuck her in her foyer. Now what? Em hoped like hell he didn’t regret it. That would hurt. She might later, but for different reasons. Right now, she was basking in the closeness they’d just shared and praying that he wouldn’t throw on his clothes and run out as if his ass was on fire, then exit her life forever.

“
What the hell happened?” He braced his hand on the wall above her, looking down into her eyes.

As she did anytime he got close, she lost herself in his searing, dark gaze. Her stomach tightened with nerves. Was it wrong to want him all over again, at least to be close to him for a while longer? If he didn’t want to have sex with her again… well, she hadn’t expected it in the first place. But a hug would be nice.

Needing contact, she reached up to touch his bare chest, as she had only minutes ago. But now that the passion was spent for the moment, she had no idea what he thought. If he was done with her. Everything felt awkward. Em lowered her hand.

She lifted her chin. “We got carried away. I won’t say I’m sorry.”

“
Hell, I’m not sorry. Just stunned.” He frowned, then took her hand, squeezing it. “Let’s find the bedroom.”

Did he want to have sex again?

Tamping down her excitement at the idea, she guided him down the shadowed hall. When she glanced over her shoulder at him, his gaze met hers with a probing expression. He was going to want to talk, and she didn’t know what to say. Didn’t the puddle of clothes they’d left behind and the passion they’d spent say enough for now? Dear god, was he going to bring up Kayla?

When they reached her bedroom, he pulled back her sage green comforter and settled her between the ivory Egyptian cotton sheets. Normally, all that soft thread count comforted her, but she watched, tense, as he prowled into the adjoining bathroom.

A moment later, he emerged, condom gone. He lifted the sheet and settled in beside her, watching her intently. She’d known him long enough to guess that he wanted to hear what she was thinking. Em didn’t know what to say.

“
Obviously, we have a lot to talk about,” he murmured. “Let’s start at the top. You were quitting because of Kayla’s visit?”

Em swallowed a ball of nerves. Wow, he got right to the point. At work, he was politically savvy and found really gentle ways to phrase delicate matters. Not so now. His directness was disconcerting, but if he was going to be straight with her, she might as well do the same. After all, three years of suppressing her feelings hadn’t gotten her anywhere.

But one question kept circling in her head: If Brandon was with his former friend’s ex-wife now, why was he in bed with his secretary?

“
You’ve said for years that you’re in love with her. When she came to the office last Friday, and you left early with her…” God, she couldn’t look at him and give him the words to break her heart. She rolled to her back and stared at the ceiling, covering her breasts with the sheet. “I invented reasons to call you over the weekend. A few times. You never answered. I assumed you were…busy.”

“
With Kayla? No.” He sighed. “Em, we just had a drink together. She came to apologize for the way things ended all those years ago. She’s apparently in therapy and looking for ways to mend fences so she can forgive herself.”

“
The way things ended?”

“
Jack Cole was my friend. We had an affair…while he was still married to her. I never told you that part. I’m not proud of it. We weren’t together long before she left me, too. I thought she was the one that got away or whatever, and I’d been carrying a torch for her.”

Brandon paused, and Em worked up the courage to look his way. He was staring again, this time with an expression she couldn’t begin to decipher.

“
But you’re not?” she blurted before she could stop herself.

He rolled on his side and braced his head on his hand. With his free hand, he gripped her hip and urged her to roll closer and face him. “No. The hour I spent with her surprised me. I felt nothing except sorry for her. She’s really screwed up her life since she left me. She got married again, got divorced again. She drank a little too much. She’s finding her way out now. I told her that I was happy for her if she was getting her head screwed on straight. But I turned down her invitation to go out sometime.”

As he spoke, it was like the fist that had been clutching her heart painfully released little by little. She realized that she’d been holding her breath and let go. “Oh.”

“
So now I’ve spilled. Your turn.”

Em tried to wriggle away, but Brandon wasn’t having any of it. Being emotionally vulnerable to a man who’d never treated her as anything more than an efficient assistant was a little like bungee jumping—a whole lot of terrifying. Some people found it fun. She hadn’t. She didn’t think this was going to be worth many laughs, either. But she wasn’t chickening out.

“
I’ve…had feelings for you for a while. It seemed less painful to leave than watch you be happy with someone else.”

“
Just feelings? You quit a job you love to avoid me. You had sex with me when you thought I was committed to someone else.”

God, what did he want?
“Okay, strong feelings.”

Brandon looked like he wanted to press harder, but he didn’t. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? At least give me a hint?”

Em bit her lip. How could she answer that without baring her soul?

“
Don’t try to phrase things in a way you think will be easier for me to hear,” he demanded. “Just say it.”

She sighed and shook her head. “I thought you were in love with someone else. I had to see you every day, work with you. If I told you or hit on you, and you rejected me, it would have been awkward. I didn’t want personal stuff in the way of all the good we’re doing for the first responders. Some of the equipment we’ve recently pushed the city to buy would have saved my dad’s life.” She teared up. “I mean, it’s been seven years since he died. I’ve gotten on with my life; he would have wanted it that way.” She sniffled. “But I’m still damn angry that penny pinching contributed to his death. All I’ve ever wanted to do was keep another family from losing their loved one.”

In fact, she didn’t really want to leave her job now, but she’d been certain that Kayla was back in Brandon’s life… And she’d been unable to pine for him any longer and live with the pain.

But since he wasn’t carrying a torch for Kayla, what now?

#

“
I know,” he reassured, caressing her shoulder. “You’ve done a lot of good for the firefighters. Your father would be proud.”

Inside, his thoughts raced. Em had hidden her feelings for him for weeks? Months? Years? All because she’d believed he would have chosen Kayla over her.

Maybe…she’d been right—until a few days ago. Before, he hadn’t been able to let go of Kayla. She’d been like a ghost haunting him. Many times, he’d questioned what he’d done wrong to drive her away. Seeing Kayla again had enabled him to understand that he’d done nothing wrong. She hadn’t been capable of love or devotion five years ago. They’d been all wrong for one another.

But maybe if Em had spoken up sooner, he would have looked at her in a whole new light and decided to let go of the past. It didn’t really matter now. All that mattered was that Em had opened his eyes today. In fact, he couldn’t stop staring at her.

“
Um, I hope you didn’t feel rejected earlier, in your foyer.” He peered at her, watching her reaction. “If you did, I wasn’t doing something right.”

She flushed. God, he adored that pretty, pale skin. “Um, no. That was amazing.”

“
Had you imagined us before, together?”

Her gaze slid away and a fresh stain crept up her cheeks, but she nodded. “More than a few times.”

Em had an advantage over him there, but Brandon was guessing that he had more experience. And his mind was much dirtier. Still, he was curious.

“
Give me some examples.”

She shrugged. “On a rainy Sunday, I’d imagine that we might curl up together and watch a football game or a movie. Sometimes, when I’d cook alone, I’d imagine you in the kitchen with me, nursing a glass of wine, maybe chopping a vegetable or basting meat. And I’d think of you next to me in bed, holding me as we drifted off to sleep.”

Something wistful crossed her delicate face, and Brandon paused. Em’s fantasies weren’t just sexual. They were domestic.

Why didn’t the idea of being that cozy with Em make him panic? He was close to thirty. Maybe he was having some natural instinct to finally settle down. Or was he okay with the idea because he was comfortable with Em? Because he more than liked her?

As he sorted through the tangle of thoughts and emotions, she began trailing a teasing fingertip from his Adam’s apple down his chest, down his abdomen, down to his cock. Before she’d even reached her destination, he’d gone ridiculously hard again. Desire raged like a flash fire through him, heating him from the inside out. Every cell in his body demanded that he get on top of her, get inside her again, and take her once more.

She didn’t help his self-control when she wrapped her small hand around his cock and stroked so slowly, he shuddered and groaned.

“
Jesus, are you trying to undo me?”

Em sent a sly glance up at him from beneath her dark lashes, those hazel eyes sparkling. Something in his chest tightened.

“
Is it working?”

Fuck, yes. But since he didn’t feel capable of speaking when her thumb dusted the head of his cock, he just nodded. God, how could she arouse him again so quickly?

“
Sometimes, I’d lie in bed and touch myself and imagine your hands gliding over my skin. I’d touch myself and pretend it was you pinching my nipples, rubbing my clit.”

Brandon rolled to his back, his head hitting the mattress. Her words alone made his blood pressure shoot up fifty points. Right now, he could imagine himself squeezing the rosy tips of her breasts and toying with that responsive little clit. Her soft, insistent stroking of his cock was the worst kind of tease.

“
Would you touch yourself until you came, baby?” he ground out. Imagining her masturbating to thoughts of him aroused him even more.

“
Yes,” she breathed.

He jerked his gaze to her. She fucking glowed—with the satisfaction he’d already given her, with the need for more. He didn’t remember her ever looking more beautiful. In fact, he didn’t remember being this close to a more beautiful woman. Again, he was left to wonder how he’d overlooked her for three years. Was he fucking blind? Granted, Kayla had left his thoughts, and Em had lost the boxy gray suit and efficient braid. Now, she looked relaxed and sexy. But what made her gorgeous to him was more fundamental. She looked so lovely to him because she made him happy.

He froze at the realization.

“
And sometimes, I’d close my eyes, use my vibrator, and fantasize that you were giving me that pleasure.”

Oh, hell
. She was trying to kill him. “Was the reality like you’d imagined?”

She shook her head, and a kittenish smile tilted up her swollen lips. “It was way better.”

He raised a brow in a silent request for details. She knew him too well not to recognize it.

“
You’re human and real. I know how wonderful you are, dedicated and honest. The fact that you seemed to want me finally made it perfect.”

“
But?” he prompted. “I heard one in there.”

“
Well, you’re, um…large.”

He’d fucked her like a wild man against the wall. Brandon winced as he took hold of her wrist and stilled her hand. They needed to talk about this before she stroked him past coherent conversation. “Did I hurt you?”