Anyone but Alex (The English Brothers Book 3) (18 page)

“Tell me,” he growled softly
, holding her green eyes hostage with his.

“
I want you to touch me,” she whispered.

“How?”
he demanded.

Her eyes were obsidian pools as she stared back at him.
She slipped her trembling fingers to her chest, trailing them between her breasts where they rested. “Here.” Then she moved then again, over the soft skin of her tummy, underneath her panties. “And here.”

His
breath caught and his eyes fluttered for a moment, drunk with the carte blanche she was giving him, before his blood surged, hot and demanding, as untapped wells of desire rose to flood his senses. He’d never known want like this, never truly known what it would feel like to marry passion with love. Now that he knew, he didn’t know how he would ever return to his old life again. Whatever came after Jessie would never be able to chase the high of having her. At the same time she was offering him unforeseen heights of pleasure, she was destroying everything he’d ever known.

And yet.

All he wanted—in the entire world—was to pleasure her.

“Done.”

Letting his hands smooth up the sides of her hips, he held her in place as he dropped his lips to her shoulder, skimming them along the delicate curve that led to her throat. She trailed her fingers up his back lightly with a touch that made him shiver as his hands skated from her hips to her waist.

His
lips dropped lower to the miracle that was the base of her neck, licking, nipping, resting, as her fingers continued their ascent, following the line of his spine to his collarbones, where they split, discovering the hard outline of his form with the feather touch of her fingers.

His lips descended
still lower to the smooth planes of her chest under her neck, the lightly freckled skin smooth and even under his unworthy lips, which brushed, gently dusting, seeking, daring to move lower with every deep breath she took.

Her fingers found their destination in the soft, short, curled hair on the back of his neck,
as her palms cradled the soft skin behind his ears. And his hands found their journey’s end at the same time, cupping the fullness of her breasts as his lips found their own heaven, sucking one of her waiting nipples into the hot wetness of his mouth.

“Alex!” she
gasped, arching her back as his teeth grazed the taut, delicate skin.

As he gently loved one hard bud with his tongue, his thumb brushed slow, deliberate circles around its twin. And then his lips shifted, loving
the second nipple as he had the first, his thumb and forefinger rolling its slickened mate until a cry rent from the back of her throat.

Her ankles had locked around his back
, and her fingers curled into his scalp as she yanked his head up roughly to slam her mouth into his, swallowing his deep groan as they feverishly collided, their tongues delving into one another’s mouths to taste and touch, furiously seeking relief from the growing hunger between them.

Reckless and impatient, t
hey were being swept away by their feelings, so how Alex managed to swim to the surface of reason for one last moment, he’d never know. He pulled away from her abruptly, needing to be sure of exactly where they were going.

“What do you want?” he demanded,
his voice strained and breathless as he reached up, almost roughly, to clasp her face.

Her tongue slipped out to wet her lips.

“You. Your bed. Now,” she said between panted breaths.

His self-control was almost gone. But, t
his wasn’t just some random woman. It was Jessie. Her words scorched a path from her mouth to his heart, then even lower, where he throbbed in readiness for her.

“Jess,
” he groaned. “
Please
be sure. Once we start, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”

“
I’m sure. I want you, Alex,” she whispered. “I always have.”

Completely h
elpless.

Because he
wanted her just as much as she wanted him. Because he needed her laid out on his bed, her black hair on his white pillow, her body soft and wet and willing beneath his. Because here, now, tonight, with this extraordinary woman who made him feel things he never thought he would feel, everything he thought he needed and wanted in his life slipped away, until all that was left was Jessica Winslow. All he needed and wanted… was her.

Tucking
his hands under her backside, he lifted her off the table, her ankles still locked around his back. Without surrendering her lips, he carried her through the darkness of his apartment, through the living room, down a hallway, kicking open his bedroom door, and not stopping until he was sitting on the edge of his bed with the half-naked girl of his dreams still wrapped around him like the miracle he never saw coming.

Jessie had never experienced anything close to the sheer and desperate longing she felt to give herself—completely, entirely, without reservation—to Alex.

Her
whole body hummed with need for him, with awareness, with the promise of what was coming next. Straddling his lap, she urged her hips forward, rolling over the enormous bulge straining against his jeans. Her breasts, sensitive and throbbing from his earlier attention, rubbed against the hard smoothness of his ripped chest, making her gasp with pleasure as he ran his hands through her hair, pulling her lips to his.

His mouth was more demanding than it had been in the kitchen,
but her eager tongue met his measure for measure, stroke for stroke. Her hands dropped to his pecs, flattening before trailing along the ridges of muscle that rippled and flexed under her fingertips. She edged back slightly so she could unbutton his jeans which opened with a pop, but before she could reach for his zipper, he surprised her by grabbing her wrists and looping them back around his neck. Sliding his fingers down her back, he stopped at her ass which he cupped in his strong hands, forcing her legs wider as he thrust up against her. 

Jessie
moaned, partly because her body was responding to Alex in ways she’d never felt before, but also because her frustration was mounting. She liked foreplay as much as the next girl, but for the first time in her life, the destination felt more important, more crucial, more necessary than the journey. She sensed he was purposely moving slow, but what Jessie really wanted was to do the deed. She felt urgent, somewhat because she was still worried about how she’d rank among the multitudes, to get it over with.

Teasing the hairs on the back of Alex’s neck and loving the way he shivered lightly, she arched her back again, pushing her breasts into his chest before clasping his head b
etween her hands and forcing his neck to bend. Submitting to her request, Alex scorched a trail from her mouth down her chin, over the throbbing pulse in her neck to her chest, finally drawing one of her rock-hard nipples into his mouth. His cheeks caved in as he sucked her to the edge of pain, releasing the bud with a loud
pop
before shifting to the other. Jessie panted, writhed against him, whimpered from the sharpness of the pleasure, and curled her nails reflexively into his scalp.

“
Alexxx…” she moaned, bowing away from his mouth, leaning against his arms as his lips trailed down over her tummy.

H
e tilted his face so that his jaw caressed the skin of her belly. His voice was thick and low as he murmured, “I want to taste you, Jess. I want to feel you come against my mouth.”

“Oh, God
.” She sighed, goose bumps lighting across her skin from the rawness in his voice. “
Please
, Alex.”

The arm around her back pushed her forward
, and he slid his hands under her arms to pull her from his lap. He lay her gently on the bed with her legs hanging over the end. His fingers worked quickly to release the button of her jeans and unzip them with a quiet
whoosh
. Jessie lifted her hips, feeling the already-liquid heat of her sex quiver with anticipation of Alex’s mouth touching her so intimately.

“Jesus, Jessica, you’re beautiful,” he breathed, staring at her
almost-naked body in the moonlight while pulling off her boots and jeans. She leaned up on her elbows and caught his eyes, dark and languid with tenderness and hunger. He dropped them to the white satin panties that stood between him and the throbbing skin underneath that ached for his touch. Flattening his hand over the slick material, she heard him inhale sharply. His eyes cut to hers again, and he licked his lips.

“You’re
wet. You’re so ready for me,” he said, his voice thick and low, and a little awed.

“I am,” s
he whimpered. “We could just…”

“No,” Alex insisted. “No, Jess, I’m not rushing this. Not with you. I’m going to make you come half a dozen different ways before tonight is over. I promise you that, baby. But, first, I’m going to kneel in front of you and love your clit with my tongue until you scream my name so loud, the entire city of Philadelphia knows Alex English is off the market until Christmas.” He paused. “
Got it?”

Jessie had stopped breathing halfway through his words, but now she gasped for a breath,
nodding and throwing her arm over her eyes as he laughed softly. His fingers slipped into the waistband of her underwear, and he pulled them slowly and deliberately down her long legs. Placing those long legs gently on his shoulders, he knelt on the floor at the foot of the bed and leaned forward, sliding his hands to her hips, which he pulled, slowly, gently, toward him, to the very edge of the bed.

Her breathing was so shallow, it was making her dizzy. As though he knew, Alex
rested his forehead on the smooth skin right above the trim triangle of curly hair at the junction of her thighs, and his hands skimmed her hips and waist, coming to rest, flat and heavy atop her rib cage.

“Breathe, Jess,” he whispered, the heat of his breath caressing the most intimate parts of her body as the weight of his hands
pressed down gently under her breasts. “Just breathe.”

He flipped one hand
over, smoothing the backs of fingers along the ridges of her ribs, and Jess obeyed his command, taking a deep breath and relaxing, bowing her back slightly and closing her eyes.

The same hand
slid to her waist, then slipped lower to graze the skin of her hip. He lifted his head from her belly and pressed his hand, flush and firm, over her curls. She whimpered again, awaiting his touch. His fingers moved like a whisper over her sensitive flesh, delving into her hidden valley and parting her with the V of his fingers. And suddenly his lips landed on the softest, most delicate tissue of her body, and her fingers fisted in his bedspread as her hips lifted off the mattress. His tongue brushed slowly back and forth across her clitoris, and she whimpered and panted, the sensations teasing and agonizing every time he made contact with the rigid bud of nerves before sweeping to the side again. Just when she started to anticipate his movements, his tongue switched course. Moving in a clockwise motion, he circled her clit again and again as the hand resting on her ribs slid down, over her belly, holding the outside of her thigh gently before reaching up between her legs. He inserted two fingers inside her body and Jess gasped, then moaned loudly, bringing her knuckle to her mouth to bite, to keep from thrusting her hips into his face.

The pressure in her belly mounted as his fingers pressed against the inside wall of her sex. “So, sweet, Jess
ie-girl. So sweet,” he murmured and the buzz of his deep voice against her skin made the building heat thicken and boil, her inner muscles gathering and tensing as she felt his lips pucker and softly kiss her clit as he had her tongue.

Her breathing became more frantic and erratic as her skin flushed hot, then cold
. Her hips lifted rhythmically against him, the delicious, terrifying, incomparable pressure swirling now, building higher and higher as she pressed her head back against his mattress, and her eyes rolled back in her head.

When she felt the gentle, forbidden graze of his teeth
against the sensitive folds, her body clenched, rigid and straining. She held her breath for just a moment, struggling and coiled, before screaming his name. Her body exploded. Waves of pleasure made her inner muscles writhe and pulse around his fingers as she bucked and jerked against his tongue, which lapped and licked her soft skin until her tremors began to subside.

She
was jelly. She was half-dead. She barely felt him move, but heard the quiet
zzzz
of his zipper and the rustle of his jeans hitting the floor. His weight sunk the mattress beside her, and he folded her into the naked heaven of his arms.

She felt his breath on her face
, smelled the sweet, saltiness of her come on his lips. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then brushed his lips over her closed eyelids before drawing her as close as possible and lowering his cheek to the pillow beside her.

And
Jessica, who was madly in love, whose body felt like it had been adored to the point of worship, savored the contact of him pressed flush and naked against her, deceiving herself—for just a moment—that unlike the others, he belonged to her and she belonged to him. But the moment passed as her throbbing body calmed, and she was left with the aching pain that came from acknowledging the sad and terrible truth: