Читать книгу Texas-Sized Scandal - Katherine Garbera - Страница 14

Three

He knew that he needed to do something to win her back.

He had no regrets about the PDA at the opera the night before. He was never going to be able to keep his hands off her. She called to him like nothing else in his life ever had. It intrigued him and kept him coming back for more.

But she was still nibbling on her lower lip and looking over at him, her blue eyes full of regret, longing and resolve. That didn’t bode well.

“I’m sorry about the press. I have my man on it and he’s going to put a spin on it that’s going to make this all seem like nothing but harmless fun,” he said. “That’s what you want, right?”

She blinked rapidly and shook her head. He tried to keep his mind on her emotional state, but she wore a pair of leggings that hugged her curves, revealing her belly button and midriff. His fingers tingled with the need to reach out and touch her, caress her.

When she was in his arms, none of the other stuff mattered. It didn’t matter that he was the reason the social bloggers and society pages were following her. He was the scandal. Not Melinda. She had spent her entire life doing good deeds in her work as a philanthropist. He’d never met someone who always thought of others before themselves.

He did a lot of good work at Conti Enterprises but in his gut, he knew it was to prove he wasn’t like his father. Somehow, he was pretty damn sure that tinged the good deeds.

Neither did his family name matter once he held her in his arms, nor the fact that they really were very different people. Only the attraction and the passion between them mattered. That and the fact that she liked walking on the wild side with him. He knew she wasn’t used to dating a man like him. Sure, she’d dated wealthy bachelors but most of them had been doctors or lawyers. Not sons of dangerous gangsters.

Once again, he realized how much he hated that part of himself. He was constantly at war with that side of himself and it had cost him opportunities all of his life. He knew that one day it would cost him Melinda Perry as well.

But it wouldn’t be today.

“Slade—”

“Don’t. Don’t do this. Give me a chance before you kick me to the curb,” he said.

“I shouldn’t...but I want to,” she said, biting her lower lip again.

This time he groaned. He reached out and rubbed his thumb along her lower lip. She had the kind of mouth that always inspired wet dreams in him, even when he sat across the table from her at a charity meeting. He couldn’t help it. She was so prim and proper when they were in public.

But in private...

She bit his thumb and then sucked it into her mouth. He put his hand on her waist—God, she was so soft—and then he drew her closer until her body was pressed against his. He ran one finger around the waistband of her leggings and then let his finger slowly move up her spine.

She shivered in his arms and arched her back, thrusting her pelvis against his. He rubbed his erection into the notch between her thighs as she parted her legs to accommodate his hard-on. She put one hand on his shoulder and tipped her head back. Their eyes met and he knew this would solve nothing.

He wanted to believe that a day spent burning up the sheets would make all their problems go away, but he knew it wouldn’t. That this wasn’t going to do anything but distract them for a little while.

And since he’d sort of gotten used to being a distraction for her while her father had been under suspicion of financial wrongdoing, it was a role he fell easily into. He liked it because this was the one time when it didn’t matter that he was the son of a dangerous man—a reputed mobster who had a long list of crimes he was suspected of committing, though there had never been any witnesses to convict him.

Except Slade.

No. He wasn’t going there now. He was holding this gorgeous woman in his arms, and he planned to distract them both from the real world and their problems.

Cupping her butt, he lifted her off her feet and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he brought his mouth down on hers. That sexy mouth of hers melted under his and she pushed her fingers through his hair, holding him to her as she angled her head to deepen the kiss.

Her tongue rubbed over his and he sucked it deeper into his mouth as he moved toward the kitchen counter. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the closest flat surface and he couldn’t wait one more second. He set her down on the counter and stood between her spread legs. She didn’t scoot back, still kept her ankles locked together, holding him with a grip that he knew he could break. But why would he want to?

He had everything that he’d always wanted right here in his arms. The publicity was a road bump, but they’d get past it and move on. They’d figure this out, but not right now. Right now, he had other things to focus on. Like the feel of her hand roaming down the front of his pants, cupping him and stroking his erection while she kissed the side of his neck.

“You like that, don’t you?” she asked, her voice deeper than normal. A husky tone that sent shivers down his spine and made it damn near impossible for him to talk.

“Yeah.”

She laughed at the way he grunted the word but then he took the hem of her sports bra in his hands and lifted it up over her head, tossing it aside. Her breasts were full and her nipples pert from being aroused. He reached down and cupped both breasts, rubbing his thumbs over her areolae until she was arching her back, thrusting her breasts toward him.

“You like that?” he asked her.

She just ran her finger around the tip of his erection until he was about to melt into a puddle at her feet. “Yeah.”

He loved this. Loved the way she turned sex into fun. It wasn’t a game of power with Melinda; it was always something they shared. Both of them enjoying every minute of it and neither one trying to manipulate the other.

Leaning down, he kissed the side of her neck, working his way lower. She smelled of her flowery perfume and the sweat from her workout, and it made him even harder. He loved that she always felt real to him. Not like she was trying to be someone else. Melinda was one of the few people he knew who was always just herself. She owned her life and that was a big turn-on.

He nibbled on her and held her at his mercy. Her nails dug into his shoulders and she leaned up, brushing against his chest. Her nipples were hard points—he glanced down to see them pushing against his chest. He shifted his shoulders, rubbing his chest over hers, and she leaned forward to bite his neck, her fingers going to his tie. She undid it and then moved slowly down the front of his shirt, undoing the buttons and pushing the fabric open until he had to let her go to get the shirt off.

He wore French cuffs because it was something that set him apart from his father, but right now he regretted it as he fumbled to get the cuff links off. Melinda brushed his fingers aside and took them off, putting them on the countertop behind her.

“I got you these, didn’t I? I like them because they require a woman’s touch,” she said.

“Your touch...not any other woman’s. Actually, every part of me requires your touch,” he said.

She ran her finger down his chest, swirling her finger around his nipple before moving lower toward his belly button. “Every part? Not just this one?”

She reached below his belt and caressed his hard-on through the fabric of his pants.

“Every part,” he said, but the words were raspy, and speech was quickly becoming harder for him. He just wanted to rip her clothes from her body and take her.

He always fought against his animal instincts with Melinda. He wanted to protect her from that darkness inside of him, yet she called to it. And sometimes her touch tamed it.

But not right now.

She enflamed him and it was only the sheer force of his will that kept him from acting like the animal he knew he was.

He slowly drew his hand down the side of her neck, taking his time to note all of the things about her that excited him. She had a scar on her upper arm that she admitted she’d gotten when she’d fallen out of her high school boyfriend’s pick-up truck. He rubbed his finger over the crescent shape, watching goose bumps spread down her arm, and then her nipples tightened even more.

He ran his other hand down her shoulder blade to the line of her spine, slowly caressing her back. She rolled her back against his touch, her breasts brushing against his chest. Slowly he worked his way down her back, taking time to fondle the indentation of her waist and then moving lower until he reached the base of her spine.

He cupped her butt and drew her forward until he could rub his erection against the center of her. She dug her nails into his shoulders and arched against him as he palmed her buttocks. She moaned and rubbed herself against him.

He wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her off the countertop. With the other hand, he shoved her leggings down. Once she realized what he was doing, she helped him, pushing the fabric down her legs until she was free. He stepped back and just looked at her, sitting naked on her kitchen counter and he almost came in his pants.

Her eyes drifted closed and he saw her chest expand as she inhaled. He reached up and cupped her breasts, running his fingers over her distended nipples. He loved the pink perkiness of them and the way they responded to his every touch. He rubbed his fingers back and forth over them until her head dropped back and her back arched. He needed to make every sexual experience they had top the last. With any other woman that might have been difficult, but not with Melinda.

“Slade, baby, do that again,” she moaned as she tipped her head to the side, exposing her long neck. He couldn’t resist leaning down to nip at it, sucking against the pulse that beat strongly there. Her hands fell to his shoulders, holding on to him for a brief moment, and then she moved her hands down his arms. He flexed his biceps, knowing how much that excited her.

No one had ever turned him on this quickly before. Somehow, she was a thirst that he couldn’t quench and as much as he knew that made her dangerous, he couldn’t resist her.

He liked that she couldn’t resist him either. She arched against him as he leaned down and sucked one nipple into his mouth. He looked up at her, wanting to remember her like this—turned on, so full of need and want and knowing he was the only one who could satisfy her.

A few tendrils had escaped her ponytail, but he wanted to feel her hair against him, so he pulled the hair tie from it and she shook her head as her hair fell around her shoulders, curling just above her breasts. He buried his head in the soft strands and inhaled deeply.

He noticed her eyes were heavy lidded as her hips began moving against him. He felt himself straining against the zipper of his trousers and reached between them to pull the zipper down and free himself.

He fumbled in his pocket for the condom he had stuck in there before coming over. She took it from him and their eyes met. Something passed over her face and he started to ask her what it was, but then it was gone. She undid his belt and shoved his pants down his legs, along with his boxers. The elastic got caught on his erection and he stepped back to shove them down his legs, taking the condom from her and putting it on.

She looked like something from his hottest fantasies. There were moments when he wondered why it had taken him so long to find a woman like Melinda, but then he knew his younger self wouldn’t have known how to handle her.

He leaned down and licked the valley between her breasts, imagining his erection sliding back and forth there. He bit carefully at her delicate skin, suckling at her so that he’d leave his mark.

“Enough foreplay. Take me, Slade,” she said. “I need to forget everything except this for a little while.”

Her words enflamed him because he wanted nothing more than to drive himself into her again and again. No woman had affected him the way she did. She seemed to accept him as the man he was. Son of a mobster and grandson of one of the richest, most prominent women in Houston. She seemed to understand that both parts of him made him the man he was.

She spread her thighs, leaning back on her elbows, beckoning him to her. He groaned at the sight of her. This was an image he hoped to carry in his mind for the rest of his days, even after this affair ended. He knew it would. He was poison to a good woman like Melinda, but not for the short term.

He stepped between her legs, cupped her buttocks and drew her closer to him. Rubbing the tip of his erection against her center, nestling it to the opening of her body. She shifted against him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he entered her. Just the smallest bit because he couldn’t wait.

She reached between his legs and fondled his sac, cupping him in her hands, and he shuddered. “If you keep doing that, this is going to be a very short experience.”

She squeezed him and sucked his lower lip into her mouth. “I don’t mind.”

He held her hips steady and entered her slowly until he was fully sheathed. Her eyes widened with each inch he gave her. She clutched at his hips as he started thrusting, holding him to her, eyes half-closed and her head tipped back.

He leaned down and caught one of her nipples in his teeth, scraping very gently. She started to tighten around him. Her hips moved faster, demanding more, but he kept the pace slow, steady. Wanting her to come before he did.

He suckled her nipple and rotated his hips to catch her pleasure point with each thrust and he felt her hands in his hair, clenching as she threw her head back and her climax ripped through her.

He varied his thrusts, finding a rhythm that would draw out the tension at the base of his spine. Something that would make his time in her body, wrapped in her silky limbs, last forever.

She scraped her nails down his back, clutched his buttocks and drew him in. Sensation feathered down his spine, his blood roared in his ears and everything in his world centered on Melinda.

He called her name as he came, collapsing against her chest. Her arms held him, one hand moving up and down his back, until his breathing steadied, and he shifted until he stood between her legs again. He looked down at her face and kissed her softly. He had no idea what he was going to do with Melinda. She wasn’t the right woman for him, but he couldn’t walk away.

He heard her doorbell ring and she looked at the two of them, still joined and naked.

“Who could that be?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “Want me to handle it for you?”

She glanced at him as he stepped back and pulled on his trousers. “No. I need to do this. Let’s go and get dressed and I’ll take care of it.”

She picked up her phone from the table and glanced at the video app to see who was there. “It’s my sister Esme.”

He lifted her off the counter, caressing her as he did so, and she batted his hands away. “Not now.”

“Give me a minute,” she yelled at the closed front door as she dashed upstairs to her bedroom. He collected their clothes and followed her upstairs to her bedroom. When he entered, she was already twisting her hair back into a ponytail and wearing a flowery patterned wraparound dress that accentuated her curves.

“Hurry back,” he said as she kissed him before running out of the room. He couldn’t last long without her.