Damage Control (7 page)

Maybe it was time to stop fighting and take what she really wanted. At her age, it was well past time to start exploring her sexuality a little further.

“Did you really come here to watch TV tonight?” she asked him. If he said yes, she might have to kill him. He was the one who'd wanted more than friendship. He'd told her they were good together.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether or not you'll be mad when I say no.”

Chapter Four

Brian watched the play of emotion on Andrea's face and went hard as a rock. She might deny it, but she still wanted him. It was right there in her eyes, no matter how much she tried to hide it. Coming over tonight with her favorite meal had been a minor stroke of genius. Now he just had to figure out a way to get her back into that king-sized bed of hers. Taking her there was his immediate concern. No way would he stop and analyze the rest of his feelings. Not yet. There would come a time when his conscience forced him to, but this wasn't that time.

Yeah, he'd come over to her apartment hoping for sex. He wasn't proud of it, but there it was. One night inside her and he was already addicted. To her scent, to her heat. To her touch. The way she'd kissed him that first time, like she'd been waiting forever to eat him alive, had cemented his addiction before it had even begun.

Pulling back on the reins a little, difficult as it was, he drank deep from his can of cola. She didn't say anything in response to his answer, and it worried him. She'd kick him out now, tell him he could go to hell. At this rate, he probably would. If he'd been a gentleman like she deserved, he would have left her alone. Would have respected her decision to remain friends. Hell, he wouldn't have barged into her house and bribed her with food. He'd always thought of himself as a gentleman, but he'd been wrong. When it all came down to it, he was just like every other dog out there, and damned if that didn't piss him off.

He wouldn't say he hadn't had one-night stands and a few flings here and there, because it would be a lie. He'd just learned early on to be discreet about them, and to make sure both parties knew the score right from the start. Long-term relationships were more his thing, since he loved spoiling a woman he cared about, but he'd been between relationships for over a year now. Yes, he wanted to settle down, but pining away for someone he hadn't even met yet wasn't his style. He'd never disrespected a woman's wishes, though. Not until he'd slept with Andrea.

Hoping to lighten the suddenly tense mood, he tried to change the subject.

“Making any progress on your project?” He glanced at the open laptop on the coffee table. She hadn't lied to him when she'd said she had work to do tonight. It brought a smile to his face.

Andrea lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Some. Not enough.”

“Do you want me to leave so you can get back to work?”

“No, but I have a feeling you wouldn't go if I asked you to, anyway.”

Did she think he was that much of an ass? Well, yeah, she probably did. All he'd managed to prove to her lately was that he was a caveman who had no control over his basic impulses and had a hard time taking no as an answer. “If you asked me to, and you were really serious about it, I would go. I'd leave without question. Don't ever doubt that.”

A smile lit her eyes. “I don't. You're a good guy, Brian. I know that. Nothing that's happened between us has changed it.”

She reached in front of him to grab another pizza slice from the box. Her fingers brushed his leg and his cock stirred against his zipper
. Fucking wonderful.
Here he was trying to put her at ease, and he couldn't manage to control his body's reaction to her.

He polished off another slice of pizza, legs crossed so she didn't see how she affected him. Curbing his reaction had become an impossible task with her sitting so close, smelling like flowers and spice and warm woman.

She moved closer. The first time it had happened, he thought he'd been imagining it. This time he was sure. Her knee rested right against his thigh. Her other leg hung down, her foot brushing his ankle. When she curled those toes around his shin, he jumped. For a woman who didn't want to sleep with him anymore, she was sending a lot of mixed signals. He figured he had two choices. He could either call her on it or ignore her. Pretending he didn't notice seemed like the safer option, so he continued eating, not even glancing her way. She didn't let up with the touching, and his suddenly dry throat made swallowing almost impossible.

Once finished, he set his plate on the coffee table and turned to Andrea, wondering if she'd freak if he touched her. She didn't give him the chance to ask. Instead, she launched herself at him, her lips crushing his, the force of her small body knocking him back against the arm of the couch. Her lips were on his a moment later and he forgot to think.

He delved his tongue into her mouth, reveling in the taste of her. A taste he hadn't thought he'd get the pleasure of experiencing again. He wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her closer, but too soon she pulled back. He was about to question her when she went to work unzipping his pants.

He grabbed her wrists. “Hey, hold on a second. What are you doing?”

Her face flushed, but the smile she shot him was a hundred percent seductress. “I thought this is what you wanted.”

“It is. But maybe we should slow things down a little.”

“Getting cold feet?” She raised her eyebrows, challenge written in her gaze.

“No way.”

“Then shut up. There's something I've always wanted to try.”

He tensed, waiting for her to do something really freaky, but she unzipped his pants with shaking fingers and freed his cock. When she brought her lips down and kissed the head, he tangled his fingers in her hair and brought her face up to meet his.

“Hold on a second. You haven't done
that
before?”

She swiped a lock of hair out of her eyes. Shook her head. “Um, no. But I want to. Is that okay with you?”

Was she out of her friggin' mind? What sane man would turn down a blow job from a woman as beautiful as Andrea? “Of course it's okay. More than okay. Just…how come you've never done it before?”

The look she gave him was nothing short of impatient. “I haven't wanted to.”

“But now you do.”

She nodded. He wanted to question her further, but she apparently had other ideas. She shook her hair free from his hand, leaned down, and licked his cock from root to tip. Slowly. Then she did it again, over and over, with such excruciating leisure that he wondered for a second if she was trying to kill him. With each upstroke, she swirled her tongue over the head, but didn't take him into her mouth. Her teasing made him feel like the top of his skull would come off. He clenched his hands into fists to keep from grabbing her hair and guiding her motions. His knuckles went white, his muscles all tensed, waiting for something she seemed intent on holding back.

She swiped her tongue across the tip of his cock to catch a drop of pre-come that had collected there, and a groan slipped past his lips. Andrea smiled. “Am I doing okay?”

He narrowed his eyes. She knew damned well he was loving this. He threaded his fingers through all that silky hair and just held her, massaging her scalp
. Come on, sweetheart. I need more.

As if reading his mind, she moved her mouth away from his erection and glanced up. “Show me what you like.”

She actually expected him to have enough brainpower left to be able to do that? She had to be kidding.

“Do you want me to go slow?” she asked when he didn't respond to her request.

“No
. God, no.
Take me into your mouth. Suck me deep.” He used his hands to guide her rhythm, and she obliged, following his lead.

He couldn't let her carry on for long. He'd already been wound tight when he'd shown up at her door. After a few minutes, he eased her mouth away. “I'm too close. Tonight, I want to be inside you when I come.”

She stood, but he grabbed her hand before she could walk away. “Where are you going?”

“The bedroom.”

“No. Right here.”

The walk to the bedroom would surely kill him. He pulled a condom out of his pocket and handed the package to her. “Here.”

She chuckled a little. “You came prepared tonight?”

“I was hopeful.” She didn't even know the half of it. Jerking off to his fantasy Andrea only worked for so long until he started needing the real thing again. “I want you to ride me tonight.”

She looked almost nervous as she opened the condom packet and rolled it down his dick. Her movements were so slow that he groaned. It felt so damned good to have her hands on him again.

She stilled her hands. “I don't have a lot of experience.”

With the way she worked so hard all the time, he wasn't surprised. This Andrea was less bold than the Andrea he'd been with the first time, but he liked the sober version of her even better. He liked that he could be her first in
something.
The woman was a natural. “And?”

“That doesn't bother you?”

Bother
him? He fucking loved it. “Why would it?”

“I'm sure you have a lot more.”

Ah, damn. So not a conversation he wanted to get into with her right now, with her holding his erection in her hands. God, he was
so close.
If she blew on him, he might come. “Some.”

He arched his hips, trying to get her to finish. She took the hint, rolling the condom down the rest of the way, but apparently she wasn't quite ready to let go of the subject. “It's been a year since you broke up with your last serious girlfriend,” she prodded, pushing his shirt up to rub her palm over his stomach.

He squirmed on the couch cushions. He didn't think he'd ever been so uncomfortable and so turned on at the same time in his entire life. “Sarah. Yeah. You know that.”

“So then it had been awhile for you, too.”

“A few months.”

“I didn't know you were seeing anyone else.”

“I wasn't. At least not the way you're thinking.” He gritted his teeth.

“Oh.”

“This is why I don't want to talk about this now. I didn't want to upset you.”

“I'm not upset. Just surprised.”

“Why? Because I'm not the upstanding gentleman you thought I was?” His erection would have deflated had she not been stroking her hands along his lower abdomen. He had a feeling she wasn't trying to upset either of them. She was fishing for information she was too quiet to ask for. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. If you want to make sure I don't sleep with more than one woman at a time, the answer is no. If I'm with someone, I'm with only her, no matter what the degree of the relationship is.”

At least most of the time. There were a few women he'd seen in the past, in his college days, who hadn't cared if he was sleeping with someone else at the same time. Hell, there had been those two women who wanted to be with him at the
same time
. No way was he telling Andrea about
that
time in his life, thrilling as it had been for a twenty-two-year-old guy. She didn't need to know everything about him. Even the closest of friends had their secrets.

“We okay?” he asked her, arching his hips again. “Because I have to say, if you keep touching me like you are, I might keel over and die.”

That seemed to set her at ease. She leaned in to kiss him, long, slow and deep.

 

 

 

Andrea could have killed herself for asking him all those questions. Why now, of all times, had she let her curiosity get the better of her? It was bad enough that she'd confessed her ineptitude to him. Then she'd had to go on and badger him about his sex life.

Apparently he'd been holding a few things back.

Her timing could have been better, but it was probably a good thing she now knew what she was getting herself into. No way could she stay away from him. Claire had said it was only a matter of time. Claire, as usual, was right yet again when it came to sex. Andrea had had lovers, more than she could count on one hand, but she always deferred to her sister, the expert. She'd learned that quantity didn't always equal quality. Most of the men she'd slept with could be interchangeable with each other. Different face, same old thing, time and again.

The first night with Brian, when he'd put his mouth on her…she'd thought she'd come out of her skin. Tonight she'd wanted to return the favor. What had surprised her was that it turned her on to have him in her mouth, to see him lying there, so aroused. She'd been in control, and she'd loved every second. She'd never understood the draw of oral sex until she'd experienced the pleasure—both giving and receiving—for herself.

Brian sat up and she helped him out of his shirt. His cock was so hard, a beautiful thing jutting away from his body. She was more than ready for him, her sex slick and hot. She leaned in and swirled her tongue over his flat nipple. He hissed out a breath. She knew he was on the precipice. She was, too. The only thing standing between them and ultimate satisfaction was her clothing.

She stood and stripped, loving the idea of being completely naked while he was still half-dressed. The way his gaze heated and his nostrils flared told her he liked it, too. With a gentle shove to his shoulders, she pushed him back so his neck rested on the arm of the couch. He'd said he wanted her to ride him. This was shaping up to be a night of new experiences for her.

She straddled him, aligning her folds with his cock, and started sliding back and forth over the hard length.
Oh, yeah.
She could definitely get used to being the one holding the power in the bedroom. She ground her clit against him, moaning at the pleasure shooting through her.

“
Stop teasing.
” Brian gripped her hips and lifted her a little, fitting the head of his cock against her entrance. When she hesitated, he pulled her down, thrusting his hips up at the same time. In one stroke, he filled her completely. She cried out at the sensation. Taking her cues from him, she raised and lowered herself in time with his rhythm.