Coming Undone (11 page)

But he made her happy and she genuinely liked him. Judging by his return smile and the way he squeezed her hand, he wasn’t feeling too shabby either.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay, but I can’t turn down lunch.” She let him lead her to a table nearby where the kids had settled, and they both sat along with Erin and her two men.
Two
. Awesome.

“This is a great yard.”

“Thanks. It’s been a project for the last several years. I take something big each season and do it. The most recent thing was the water feature near the back corner. I like working with my hands.”

Gah, she really wished she could control her blushes better. She may as well wear a sign that said,
Yes, we totally did it.

Erin changed the subject. “I looked you up online. I admit it. I love dancing and I got curious when Brody had said you danced with NBT. I watched several clips of you on YouTube. I’m really impressed. You’re an amazing dancer. You did Giselle several times, that’s a big deal.”

“It is? Why?” Brody leaned in for her answer.

Pleasure and pride flushed through her. “It’s a plum role. The role you go up through school dreaming of dancing. Very dramatic story. Love, heartbreak, death, revenge, forgiveness. You’re not only dancing but you’re acting too. Technically it’s very difficult, so many of the greatest dancers have taken up the role. To be among those names is a hope of many a young woman coming into ballet. It was most certainly mine.”

“I’m so glad you got to live that dream. It’s amazing, isn’t it? To stand up on the stage and actually be doing what you’d fantasized about and worked for your whole life?”

Their gazes locked briefly and Elise realized Erin Keenan had a lot of depth.

“I don’t know a lot about ballet, but I was so struck by the intensity of your grace and poise when you’re dancing. It would have been wonderful to see you perform live.”

“I’ve seen a bit, she’s pretty amazing.” Brody spoke in an off-hand manner. Totally casual. And she melted a bit inside at the pride in his voice.

Erin’s eyes widened, and then she sent Brody a decidedly teasing grin. Elise thought about her brother, thought about how much fun he’d been as they’d grown up. Erin still had that and Elise envied her.

“Thank you. I love to dance, I have for as long as I could remember. I’m not one of those people who was forced into lessons or whatever. I would have spent all my time dancing if I could have.

But when your dad is a professor, you can’t blow off school.”

“Do you miss it?”

Elise paused. “Yes. But I’m getting older and I got hurt. Some things you can’t come back from. So teaching is the next best thing.”

She needed to have that tattooed on herself. Some things you’ll never come back from. But you can survive them and that’s what she did.

Brody watched her in his yard, with his friends and family, and found that he liked her there. He had his circle, and they meant everything to him, so it meant more than he could really grasp to have her there and feel like she was
meant
to be there. Rennie fit in great with the other kids. Elise made friends in her own way, but she was sort of irresistible, this huge force of nature in such a decep-tively pretty package.

He took some of the larger trays into the kitchen and began to clean them up as Todd packed up the leftovers.

“So what’s that story?” Raven brought a tray inside and began to dry as he rinsed.

“Story?”

“Very tiny blonde lady in your backyard with the kid? Hello? I know you noticed her because you haven’t taken your eyes off her for more than three minutes at a time. You’ve been stuck to her like glue and even gave Cope the stink eye when he started that game of cards and invited her to play.”

He smiled at her, wondered what it was that had turned him so upside down those years before. When he looked at Raven now, he certainly found beauty; you’d have to be blind not to. But he saw so much more. Too much to ignore and continue to love her, but enough that he’d always hold her in a special place.

“She’s a very pretty blonde lady who helped me out when I got hit by a car, and we struck up a friendship. I like her. I like her company. And as much as I’d get Cope’s back in a brawl any day, I don’t want anyone else to like her the way I’m currently liking her.

Which is all I’m going to say about it right now.”

Todd, who’d been ferrying things inside and back into the fridge, overheard and barked out a laugh. “You’ve got his number, but like Raven said, we’d all have to be blind not to have seen the way you two have been with each other all afternoon. Cope is a man whore, as Erin would say, but he’s got ethics. He wouldn’t poach anyone else’s anything.”

“Which is why he’s out there playing cards with her and trying to see down her shirt and I’m not hitting him in the face.”

“So have you retired your bachelor shoes?” Raven’s tone was mocking as she leaned back against the counter, watching him.

“No. We’re not going steady. But I’m an adult and I can like the people I’m with. I prefer it that way.”

Raven snorted. “You’ll get over it when the novelty wears off.”

Brody shook his head and swatted Raven with a kitchen towel.

“Don’t be so negative. Jesus. You’re going to get an ulcer or something. Try the half-full method.”

When he went back out, Elise was in the process of trying to separate Rennie and Nina, and neither girl was having much of it.

“Why don’t you guys have a play date soon? How’s that?”

Maggie smiled at both girls and then up at Elise.

“Okay! How about right now?” Nina said.

“How about soon? Do you have our phone number? You two can work out a few days and times and we’ll work around it, okay?”

Elise held back a smile but Brody saw her fight it. He liked the way she was with Rennie. This wasn’t a woman who had her roles confused. She wasn’t Rennie’s best friend, she was Rennie’s mother.

But she also seemed not so rigid that it harmed either one of them.

It had to be tough, being mother and father.

The girls snatched up paper and pens and wrote numbers down while Elise chatted animatedly with Maggie. He liked that connection too. Maggie had been his first office manager back when she was working her way through school. Then Arvin had come in for a job, and within months the two had been not just a couple, but, like, cemented together. They were solid people. Great parents and wonderful friends to him. He enjoyed seeing Maggie have another mom to be close with, and it gave Elise another person in her life, helping her feel more at home in Seattle.

Elise turned to him. “Thanks for inviting us. We had a great time.”

“Let me walk you two over.”

She started to protest but closed her mouth and smiled instead.

“All right.”

Maggie hugged her, as did Erin. His sister didn’t often click with other people, and certainly not as quickly as she had with Elise.

But in truth, he had such great friends and family that it was sort of spooky how well their small group got along. Oh sure, they had their tiffs, people being pissed off at each other. That was natural given that several of them were married or siblings to other members of the group. But there was a sense of community and camara-derie between them all, of refuge and home. Standing there with his sister grinning at Rennie, and Cope chatting Elise up, he was at ease. He fit somewhere, with other people who were like him. And now Elise was one of them too, and he had the distinct feeling that her entry into his life would mark it deeply.

He told everyone he’d be back shortly and walked Elise and Rennie back home.

“Thanks, Brody! I had a great day.” Rennie threw her arms around his waist and hugged tight. This kid was hard not to love.

“Anytime.”

Elise unlocked the door and held it open. “Go on upstairs. Bath and pjs.”

Rennie started to argue, but she must have seen the same look Brody had in her mother’s eyes, and groaned. “Okay. Night, Brody.”

She ran off into the house and thundered up the stairs.

“Thanks again. I had a great day too.” She took a deep breath and slid her palm over his throat and to the back of his neck. “I don’t know what your plans are tonight. But if you’re free in three hours or so and find yourself standing on my porch, I’d let you in.”

“Are you inviting me into your parlor?” He wanted in her body right then. If it weren’t for that kiddo upstairs, he’d be on her.

“Yes. If by parlor you mean my bedroom so we can have sex.”

He laughed, dipping to kiss her quickly. “I’ll make it a point to be standing right here in three hours.”

“Okay then. I’ll try not to keep you up too late since you have to work tomorrow and all.”

“I’ve gone to work tired many a time; I can’t think of a better reason than being worn out by you.”

She smiled and stepped back, letting go of his neck, but he still felt her touch there.

He headed back home with a smile on his face.

9

Elise liked him. He was sexy and masculine and he made her laugh.

He was nice to Rennie, wasn’t overly pushy, although he had alpha male written all over him and she could see he liked managing people. Elise didn’t want to be managed. She’d had enough of that.

But they had great sexual chemistry. He always made her come. He seemed to love oral sex and he had a great imagination. Not much to complain about really.

So when she opened her door and found him standing on her porch, she took his hand and led him back to her bedroom. They didn’t speak, not breaking the spell of the quiet house. She locked her door and turned to face him.

“Hi,” he said quietly, drawing her against him.

“Hi. You smell good. Like autumn. I love the way it smells here at night. Like wood fires and cold air.” She pressed her nose into his neck and breathed deep.

“You feel good. I like this room. I’d like it more if you took this off.” He pushed the robe from her shoulders and it fell into a pool 

of fabric at her feet. His hands, big and bold, swept down her back to cup her ass.

Instead of the normal, urgent, rip-off-clothes-and-fuck frenzy they’d had before, their pace was slow and sensual. His lips cruised across the swell of her cheek, to her ear and down her neck. His hands caressed, kneaded, seduced instead of demanded.

She gave to him, let him take, leaned her head to the side, giving him access to the hollow of her throat. A shiver of delight passed through her at the feel of his teeth grazing the hypersensi-tive skin along her collarbone.

God, he felt so good.

And she wanted more.

Pushing him back a bit, she managed to get his shirt up and over his head, and despite it not being the first time she’d seen the glory of his body, she still stopped to stare a bit. When her gaze reached his face again, he wore a smile, a knowing, male smile, and her own lips quirked up in response.

“You’re hot.” She shrugged. “What else can I do but stare a little?”

He laughed, startled. “Feel free to objectify me whenever you wish.”

“Take your pants off and I’ll do it some more.”

He did, removing his shorts along with the jeans. He really was gorgeous. All barely leashed power just beneath the skin.

He drew in a shaky breath. “I want to take it slow and easy, but then you look at me like that and all I can think of is how good you feel wrapped around my cock when I’m inside you.”

She’d never imagined anyone ever saying such a thing to her. So raw and beautiful, honest and frankly sexual. It was invigorating to have someone want her like that. Thrilling.

This man here before her was hers in a sense, in her bed, wanting her in his life both in his bed and out of it. That was a powerful lure. To be wanted that way soothed some jagged spot inside she hadn’t known was rubbing her raw until his presence eased it.

She stepped in and licked up his side, over each rib, tasting him.

The groan he made shot through her like a bloom of pleasure, knowing she made him feel that way. When he moved her hand to his cock, she nearly swooned at the feel of him, so hard against her palm.

She kissed his chest and down his belly until she got to her knees. Then her mouth went to his cock, tracing her tongue down the length of him and back up again. He cradled her skull in his hands as she continued to kiss and lick.

She took him back as deeply as she could and pulled away, over and over.

“Damn, you’re so beautiful. I’ve never seen anything as beautiful,” he murmured, his hands gentle in her hair, fingertips brushing against the nape of her neck.

She was like a butterfly, a bird, something magical and small and so very beautiful. The room smelled so strongly of her. Not perfume, not really; just an essential sort of sweetness with a small amount of spice. He’d had more skilled mouths on his cock, but this woman had something else, something ethereal that no one he’d ever touched had possessed.

Something surged through him from the balls of his feet, lodg-ing in his chest. “Up here, beautiful. I want to lay you out, I want to be over you, inside you, when I come.” He swept her up, kissing her before he laid her down on the bed and followed.

“I need you,” she said in that soft voice, and it broke at his control like waves. “You didn’t let me finish.”

He kissed a nipple and then the other one. “Oh I’m going to finish. I promise.”

“Hurry.”

Her belly was warm and strong against his lips as he kissed it.

Her scent, sweet/spice salted with the musk of her body, with the way
he
made her. “I have to taste you first. I think I’m addicted.”

Her laugh was taut with need, and it melted into a sigh when he took the first lick of her. Such an intimate thing, his mouth on the center of her. She was rich and deep, and he couldn’t seem to get enough, so he rejoiced that she seemed to want him as much as he wanted her.

Her thigh muscles bunched and relaxed as she rolled her hips, arching up to get more from him. He loved that. Loved that he made her needy and shameless when it came to taking her pleasure.

Almost as much as he loved giving it to her.

When she came, he tasted it to his bones, felt the fine tremor of her body as she tightened and then relaxed on a stuttered sigh.