Mina's Heart (11 page)

After that cryptic comment, she kind of wanted Wilder to translate. She looked to him, but he just sighed. “If he won’t speak plainly to you, feel free to give him hell. It’s the least of what he deserves.”

She felt like they were having a different conversation from her. Ever grinned, and Wilder sighed as he unraveled the design he’d so painstakingly woven. “Are you coming on the picnic with us? Is it a double date?” she asked.

The shades of sadness flickered across his face and clouded his eyes. “No.”

She’d stumbled onto a sore spot. Not sure what to do or say, she looked to Ever. The smile had vanished from his face, and he regarded his brother with fierce sympathy. He shook his head, a signal that she needed to let the subject alone.

As Wilder finished removing the rope, he coiled it up and gathered the rest of what he’d laid out on the counter. “Now that I’ve crashed your party, I’m off.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to join us?” Mina felt bad for him. What if he’d come to Ever’s apartment because he needed to talk?

Wilder chuckled, sounding a lot like Everett. “Thanks. I’m sure. You two have fun.” With that, he disappeared through the front door.

Mina looked around. A set of keys lay on the counter near where Wilder had been sitting. “Ever, I think Wilder left his keys here.”

He nodded. “Looks like. Can you run them over?” He pointed to the wall behind him. “He lives there.”

“You have apartments next to each other?” She found that a little unexpected.

“Yep. He’s building his house next door to where I’m building mine. We shared a room for eighteen years, by choice. College was the only time we’ve spent apart.”

As she took the keys next door, she reflected on the closeness between Everett and Wilder. They had an enviable connection. She’d always wanted a sister who could be a close friend and confidant, but her parents hadn’t wanted more children. Mina wasn’t certain her father had wanted children in the first place.

When she returned, Ever handed her an oven mitt. “I need to jump in the shower. Can you watch the quiche? It should be done in four or five minutes.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she’d prefer to get into the shower with him, but she lacked the courage to say it out loud. She took the mitt from him instead. “Sure.”

EVERETT TOOK A quick shower and tried not to think about the way Mina had looked the night before, bound and blindfolded, writhing and moaning as he licked and sucked her pussy. He wanted to see her like that again, only this time without the restrictions they’d both placed on the night.

After he dried off and fixed his hair, he realized he’d left his clean clothes in the bedroom. Rather than put back on the sweats he’d slept in that were now a soggy, crumpled heap on the floor, he deposited his dirty clothes in the laundry, wrapped a towel around his hips, and headed into the hall. With any luck, Mina would be busy with the food, and she wouldn’t notice a towel-clad man hurrying from the bathroom to the bedroom.

No such providence. He emerged to find her standing at the opening to the kitchen. Her dark gaze traveled from his face, down his neck, and over his bare chest. It lingered in the area his towel covered, and he felt his body respond to her unspoken appreciation. At last she shifted her gaze down his legs and to his feet before she raked it back up.

“See something you like?” He didn’t have the ability to stop flirting, especially when a beautiful woman he desired regarded him like dessert.

Half her mouth lifted in a sultry smile. “Lose the towel, and then I’ll tell you.”

He struggled to remember his resolve and her status as a virgin. He managed what he hoped was an amused grin, and he disappeared into the bedroom. If she came after him, he might not pass that test.

MINA DEBATED FOLLOWING him, but he closed the door solidly behind him, a definite hint that he didn’t want her in there. It wasn’t quite a rejection. His manner had seemed more like he wanted to wait, that he had planned a series of activities for them today and nothing she could say would derail his plans. She understood on a very primal level that he needed things to happen on his terms.

She wasn’t sure she was willing to accept that. A bigger part of her wondered whether the debate mattered. She’d be gone as soon as her mother agreed to move.

She returned to the kitchen, where three quiches cooled on the stove. She didn’t know if two were for Ever, or if Wilder had planned to accompany them until she’d brought up his lack of a date. Seriously, though, if Wilder wanted a date, she didn’t see how he’d have trouble finding one. He was very attractive—not as handsome as Everett, but definitely a hottie.

Arms slid around her waist, pulling her backward. She turned her head to snuggle into the embrace, and Ever’s shower-clean scent engulfed her senses. His body seemed to wrap around her as well, holding her tight and keeping her safe. The contradictory responses he aroused puzzled her to no end. One moment she was questioning his nearly pathological need for control, and the next she luxuriated in his affection.

Her lack of experience wasn’t to blame either. She didn’t need to have dated anybody else to know that Ever was a singular man. He would eventually make sense. In the meantime, he could be a fun enigma to figure out.

He turned her around and kissed her soundly, gripping her hip with one hand and the side of her head with the other. A light, tingly feeling zipped through her body, which seemed to swell into him, trying to burst out of her clothes.

When he broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers, and she knew he’d been affected just as much as she had. It made her feel special. Then he pressed another kiss to her lips and stepped back.

“Let me pack up the quiche, and we can get going.” He put two of them into the basket and handed her the third. “We’ll drop that by Wilder’s place. He inherited his cooking ability from our mother, so he’s in danger of starving to death.”

They smelled good, and Mina’s stomach gurgled with anticipation. Everett took her to the mountains above the town. She knew the area pretty well, having grown up here, but she didn’t recognize the narrow road he turned down.

“I have to widen this a little more. Once the house is built, I’ll have asphalt put down.” He slowed his truck to a crawl as he guided it over the deep ruts.

“This is the land your grandparents left you and Wilder? Did they leave anything to Danica and Marielle?” The land was beautiful, lush with forest vegetation. But it seemed unfair that the male children would inherit everything.

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “They wanted cash. Marielle has a kick-ass condo on the beach in Hawaii. Danica’s money is stuck in a trust until she’s twenty-five. My parents could give it to her now, but they know she’ll just blow it.”

Mina hadn’t known Danica that well, but she didn’t think Danica was as thoughtless and impulsive as Everett did. Danica might not invest the money the way her older sister had, but she would no doubt use it well.

Ever brought the truck to a halt. He gestured to the right, where a clearing revealed a sloped piece of land. “That’s where I’m going to build.”

She studied the incline thoughtfully, trying to picture a house there. “You’re going to built it into the hillside?”

He nodded. “Four bedrooms, five bathrooms, three stories. Solar cells on the roof. It’ll have glass lining most of the back where it overlooks the drop-off.”

“It sounds wonderful.” She couldn’t see living in a house that large and ostentatious. Her next place would be a small, two-bedroom house or apartment in sunny California.

“It will be.” He sighed. “It’s going to take a few more years to save up before I can start construction. In the meantime, we can have a picnic and admire the view.”

The afternoon flew. Mina ate more than she thought she would. It turned out that Everett had some real talent in the kitchen. They rambled all around his property. He showed her where Wilder planned to build his house. It was close enough to walk over, but the thick stands of trees afforded plenty of privacy. He held her hand, and he kissed her a lot, the type of deep, toe-curling kisses that left her breathless and wanting more. Then he’d move on, his fingers intertwined with hers as he guided her through the woods.

Standing near a precipice overlooking a small stream, he took pity on her. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, cupping her breasts in his palms. He held her in place with her back pinned to his chest, and he nipped at her earlobe.

She melted into him, trusting him to support her weight. He hummed against her neck, making an approving sound. Wordlessly, he lifted her shirt and unclasped her bra, and then he returned to cupping her breasts, this time without a barrier. She gasped as he pinched and rolled her nipples.

“I’m going to make you come, Mina. Spread your legs a little farther apart, and keep facing forward.”

He didn’t ask, not that she expected that from him. If she objected, he had instructed her in how to stop him. Obediently, she widened her stance. The cotton shorts she’d chosen made her butt look cute, but they were stretchy as well. He’d told her to dress comfortably.

He kept one hand high on her body, holding her to his chest and stimulating her breasts at the same time. The other he slipped past the waistband of her shorts, directly into her wetness.

“Mmmm.” He opened his mouth wide and bit her neck. A hundred bolts of lightning shot from that point to where he circled his finger around her clit. “You’re so wet, so responsive. I could keep you like this for hours, play with you all day, taste you, touch you until you beg me to make you mine.”

She was ready to beg right now. “Ever?”

“Shhh. Just enjoy what I’m doing to you.”

“But I want—”

He pulled his hand from her shorts and shoved two wet fingers into her mouth. She wasn’t sure whether she should suck on them. “Mina, when I tell you to stay quiet, I mean it. One more word, and you’ll be choosing between a spanking and a gag.”

There was that threat again. What was it with him and spanking? The spanking was obviously an empty threat, but she wasn’t so sure about the gag. She opted to keep the question to herself. Closing her mouth around his fingers, she sucked them with gentle pulls. He exhaled hard against her neck and twisted her nipple. It didn’t hurt like she thought it would. Little blasts of heat pulsed from the tip, spreading over her breast.

She whimpered with him in her mouth, and when he slid his fingers in and out, she sucked and licked, simulating a blowjob the best she could. If she wasn’t allowed to tell him what she wanted, he couldn’t object to her showing him that she was willing to go as far as he wanted to take her.

He ground his hard cock against her ass. “Little vixen.”

She moaned at the accusation in his tone, giving her consent however she could, but he extracted his fingers and returned them to her pussy.

“Not a sound.” He pushed those fingers inside her, plunging them deep. “You’re going to come for me, but you’re not allowed to shout or cry out. Hold it in.”

She’d been loud the night before. No doubt her screams would echo all over the valley if she let loose. He massaged her intimate tissues until he found the spot that made her gasp. Then he spread her pussy lips with the palm of his hand. As he slid his fingers in and out, establishing a rhythm that she couldn’t hope to resist, his palm rubbed and scraped her clit.

She moved her hips, fucking his hand as they stood on the edge of the mountain. The way he plucked at her nipples drove her need higher. It stung a little, but it felt so damn good at the same time. She wanted to make noise, to say his name, to release the wealth of moans trapped inside her. They only added to the tension, the coil of heat low in her abdomen.

Pressing her hand to her mouth, she did her best to stifle the sound of her climax. Ever held her body against his as the strength left her limbs. Vaguely, she was aware that he’d withdrawn his fingers and licked them clean, and then he’d fixed her shorts.

“Ever?” She figured it was safe to speak now.

“Yes, dear?”

“I want you to make love to me.”

He buried his face in her neck, but she heard his muffled response anyway. “One day, I will. But not now.”

Any lethargy fled. She turned in his arms and forced him to meet her eyes. “Why not?”

He pressed his lips together as he thought.

She didn’t want him to take his time to formulate a response. She wanted the truth. “Everett Burke, don’t you dare lie to me.”

That got him. His eyes widened. “I would never lie to you. There’s a time and a place for every discussion. That’s not lying.”

She tried to pull out of his arms, but he wouldn’t let go. “The time and the place is now. I know you’re attracted to me. Why don’t you want to have sex with me? Why won’t you let me make you feel the way you make me feel?”

He exhaled hard through his nose. “Because you’re a virgin, Mina. It’s not just sex, and you’re not in love with me yet, so it’s not making love either.”

She yanked hard this time, and he released his hold on her. She wasn’t under the delusion that she was free because she’d pulled hard enough. He allowed her to take a step away from him. “How did you know I was a virgin? For Christ’s sake, I’m not that bad at kissing.”

His brows shot up, and she could tell he was suppressing the urge to laugh. “No, you’re very good at kissing. It was a hunch, one you just confirmed.”

She couldn’t believe this. The one time she actually wanted to sleep with a man, and he turned her down because she hadn’t said yes to someone else before she’d met him. What kind of hypocrisy was that? “This is bullshit.”

EVERETT WATCHED HER stomp around. She was pissed. If he weren’t afraid she’d launch herself at him, he’d spend some time admiring the way her eyes flashed and rosy spots of color bloomed on her cheeks. She set her lips into a thin line that made him want to kiss them until they were swollen again. She clenched her fists and muttered under her breath in Korean.

He knew she spoke the language because he’d overheard her speaking to her mother one time in a store years ago, but he didn’t understand a word she said. He spread his hands wide, palms up. “Mina. Be reasonable.”