Miss Firecracker (11 page)

Neither.

Blake slid his hands up the inside of her thighs. He bent his head and fastened his mouth to her clit.

After all the teasing and build up, his relentless attention to that swollen bead set her off. She came fast. She came hard. Waves of pleasure crashed over her, until she slumped against the wall, her arms too wobbly to keep her upright.

Through her ragged breathing and pounding heart, she heard Blake stand. His hands, smelling of cherries and of her, curled around her face. She blinked up at him.

“I need to fuck you. Now.” He lifted her off the stool as if she weighed nothing.

Willow wrapped her body around his, still half-shaky, still a little unsure on his plans.

He took her to the end of the bar where a brass handrail separated the waitress station from the counter. He buried his face in her neck. “I wanted to take my time with you, but I’m too far gone to be gentle or easy or slow.”

“Whatever you want.”

Blake spun her around and set her on her feet. “Grab onto the rails.”

She heard the chink of his buckle loosening. The zip of his zipper lowering. The rustle of his pants sliding down. The crinkle of the condom wrapper as he put it on.

All sexy sounds that rebuilt her desire to fever pitch.

Then his mouth was by her ear and his hands were on her hips. “Bend over and grab onto the rails. Good. Now put your feet on the tops of my boots.”

Blake had a wide stance. And when she stepped up, she knew why. His sex was perfectly aligned with hers. The tip of his cock circled her entrance once and plunged in. “Sweet Jesus do you feel like heaven, Will.” He pulled out. “Hot.” He slammed back in. “Tight.” Back out. “Wet.” Back in. “Perfect.”

She held on, giving herself over to the moment, giving herself over to this man. Tingles radiated from a spot deep inside her, awakening the tight, achy knot of need, warning something explosive was about to be unleashed.

“Do you know how sexy you look? With your skirt flipped up? With the way you arch toward me every time I push into you?”

“Blake—”

“I can’t hold back. I need…” His strokes quickened. Deepened. Then Blake shouted and his cock jerked inside her. He groaned when she squeezed his thick shaft with her interior muscles.

Enthralled with his primitive response, she didn’t notice his hand dipping between her legs until he started lightly thrusting again in time to his stroking finger.

“Come for me.” He canted his pelvis, changing the angle so the head of his cock rubbed inside on the spot below her pubic bone.

Willow lost it. Her pussy and clit pulsed together, sending her into an orgasm that robbed her of breath.

Through the sexual haze floating over her she felt Blake place his hands over hers on the rail. He murmured, “Now I know the real reason you were crowned Miss Firecracker. Damn woman, you are explosive.”

“Seems a great big match is what it takes to set me off.”

He laughed and brushed his lips across the back of her head. “Please come upstairs with me.”

She liked that he didn’t assume. “I’d like that.”

B
lake led Willow
up the dark staircase to the apartment.

What about Willow brought out his beastly side? He’d never acted so aggressive. Was he giving her something to remember him by? Or a reason for her to ask him to stick around?

And Willow’s uninhibited response had stunned him. Especially dropping to her knees and sucking him off in the storeroom with a bar full of people right outside the door.

She stopped abruptly, knocking him slightly off balance. He turned but he could hardly see her. “What’s wrong?”

“You weren’t even listening to me.”

“Sorry. You’re right.”

“You aren’t going to lie?”

“I don’t lie. Besides, what’d be the point?” Blake backed down a couple of steps until they were almost eye-to-eye. “But I will give you an excuse.”

“What?”

“I was thinking about you. How sexy it was you were all in for the games we played.” He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “I can’t wait to do it again. Does that make me a pig?”

Willow watched him intently.

Blake kept stroking his thumb over her temple. “Will?”

“I’ve never met anyone like you,” she blurted.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Good. I think. But being with you makes me want to do very bad things.”

“Things are only bad if they’re illegal or if someone gets hurt. And as far as I can tell, nothin’ you and I have done qualifies on any level.”

She retained a skeptical look and Blake figured he needed to lighten up.

He smooched her forehead, her nose, her chin and her throat. “You hungry?”

“You’d cook for me at two in the morning?”

“I’d cook for you anytime you asked, sunshine. So, how about a buffalo chicken wrap?”

“Sounds yummy. I am pretty starved,” she admitted.

“I’ll fix you up.”

Inside the apartment, Blake flipped on the lamps in the living room. He glanced at her and grinned. “Let me slip into something more comfortable and clean up before I get busy cooking.”

“Feeling a little sticky?”

Blake let his gaze drop between her thighs. “No more sticky than you are I imagine.”

That got her. She blushed.

He smiled again. Smirked really. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be right back.”

Blake ended up jumping in the shower. After running a comb through his tangled curls, he slipped on a baggy pair of faded cargo shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt with “Healing Touch Massage” emblazoned on the front.

He saw her sifting through the pile of paperbacks on the coffee table. “Bathroom’s all yours.”

Without turning around, she asked, “Are these your books?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you read all of them?”

“Most of ’em.”

“Really?”

Why did she sound surprised he liked to read?

Willow held up a thriller. “What did you think of this one?”

He shrugged. “Left me a little cold. Seemed the author wanted me to know he’d done his research. Too much worthless information in it.” He paused. “Have you read it?”

“I started it, but I put it down after I stumbled across the first sex scene.” Her shoulders shook with a mock shudder. “It was horrible. Very unrealistic.”

“No kidding.”

She shoved it on the table and picked up the next book in the stack. “And this one?”

“Now that one… What’s not to love about a kick-ass female character?”

“Wasn’t it great?”

“Uh-huh. Now the sex scene, above the bar?” He whistled. “Totally smokin’ hot.”

“Yeah, I could totally see it happening,” Willow added.

They realized simultaneously they were above a bar. A bar in which they’d just had smokin’ hot sex. And if Blake had his way, they would have some more smokin’ hot sex.

Willow set the book down and looked at him. “I get a lot of crap from the guys for reading.”

“Me too.”

They just stood there at smiled at each other.

“Well, I’d better get to it.” Blake sidestepped her and headed into the small kitchen. He heard the bathroom door close.

He sliced the cooked chicken breasts and tossed them in a pan with tangy buffalo sauce. While that heated, he chopped lettuce. He spread blue cheese dressing on the wheat tortilla, added a line of chicken and sauce. The final step before he rolled them was sprinkling on lettuce and cheddar cheese.

“That smells yummy.”

“I hope you like it. Would you like something to drink?”

“Water. I’ll get it.”

“No. Sit. It’ll just take a sec.”

Blake slid the plates on the table, poured them each a glass of water and grabbed the container of veggies out of the fridge.

Willow looked at him dumbfounded as he sat across from her.

He bristled. “What?”

“Fresh cut veggies? Carrots and celery. Cauliflower and broccoli. Radishes and…are those sugar snap peas?”

“Yeah. Why, do you hate ’em or something?”

She placed her hand on his forearm. “I love them. I just never…well, I never think of going to this kind of trouble. And I see that you do. This isn’t just for my benefit, is it? You eat like this all the time?”

His cheeks warmed. “It doesn’t take more time to have this kind of stuff on hand than a bag of chips. And I’ve gotten really conscious of what I eat since my dad’s stroke.” Dammit. He hadn’t meant to tell her that.

“Oh Blake. I’m sorry. When did it happen?”

“A few months back.”

“Is he okay?”

“He’s getting better but not good enough. We had to sell—” No. He would not tell her that. “Anyway, it changed a lot of things in my life. I’m becoming more vigilant about all aspects of my health.”

Her hand lightly, soothingly stroked his forearm. “I am sorry. I don’t know what I’d do if something like that happened to my dad. I worry about him. But he’s the type you can’t tell anything.”

“Sounds familiar. But now my dad
has
to listen.” He pointed to her plate. “Better eat.”

“Bossy.” Willow took one bite and moaned.

His cock stirred with awareness at her sexy sound. Damn. She made that noise right before she came.

She chewed and swallowed. “That is absolutely delicious.”

“Glad you think so.” Blake watched as she ate every bite and a big helping of veggies.

“What a day.” She drooped in her chair. “Amazing sex. Amazing food. You’ve spoiled me, Blake West.”

“I aim to please, ma’am.” He gathered the plates. As he rinsed the dishes, Willow scooted in behind him and pressed her face in the middle of his back. She didn’t say a word; she just hugged him for a minute or two. Then she hip-checked him, snagged a dishtowel and started drying.

Right then Blake knew he was in big trouble with this pint-sized woman.

When they finished, Willow faced him with a jaw-cracking yawn. “Will you be disappointed if I just want to go to sleep?”

“Hmm. Lemme think.” He kissed the top of her head. “Nope. I’m pretty whupped myself.” He steered her toward the bedroom.

“I have to be at the jobsite at seven which is in another four hours. Do you have an alarm clock so I can get up on time?”

“I’ll get you up, I promise.”

“Won’t you want to sleep in?”

She was probably thinking he led the leisurely life of a bartender. Work late; sleep late. He laughed. “I’ve never had the luxury.”

“Sucks to be you.” She stripped and crawled between the sheets. “Blake? You coming to bed?”

“Yeah.”

“Fully clothed?”

“Might be safer. Your nekkid body next to my nekkid body is
not
a sign my body reads as naptime.”

Willow threw back the covers. She stood and reached for a T-shirt hanging over the back of the chair. She slipped it over her head and it hung to her knees. “Happy?”

“No. I like you nekkid.” Blake stripped off his shirt, loving the way her eyes ate him up. He took two condoms out of his front pocket and set them on the dresser. “In case you change your mind.”

She snorted.

His cargo shorts hit the floor, leaving him in his boxer briefs.

He scrambled beside her and she curled around him, sighing sleepily against his chest. After a couple minutes, she murmured, “I like you nekkid too. But that’s not the reason I like you, Blake.”

“What is the reason, sunshine?”

“You make me feel like I’m the sexiest woman alive.”

“You are.”

Willow sighed again. “See? That sweet side of you isn’t fake. You’re almost too good to be true. There has to be something you’re not telling me.”

Blake stroked her back and listened to her breathe. As she floated off he was glad he didn’t have to answer.

As usual, he
came out of a dead sleep at six a.m. Willow didn’t stir even when he shifted his arm out from underneath her. For the next half hour, he laid there staring at the ceiling fan, trying to will his hard-on away.

Wake her up. She’ll help you get rid of it.

No. Be a gentleman. Wake her up and get her out of here.

Sound, safe advice. But Blake liked how Willow curled into him. He really liked the sweet scent of her skin. And her soft breath flowing across his chest.

Yeah, thinking about how good she felt and smelled wasn’t deflating his morning wood at all.

Blake counted to one hundred. Three times. Then he nudged her. “Will? It’s time to get up.”

No response.

“It’s past time to hit the road.”

A sleepy groan.

He put his mouth by her ear. “Come on, sleepyhead.”

If anything, she snuggled closer.

So Blake touched her. Sliding his hands under her shirt and tracing the vertebra of her spine. Palming the taut globes of her ass, marveling at how soft her bare skin felt beneath his rough-skinned hands.

Willow began to stir.

He upped the ante, slipping his fingers around the side of her breast. He wondered if he suckled her sweet nipples if she’d wake up fast or slow.

Now was as good as time as any to try it out.

Blake rolled her flat, bunched the T-shirt in his fist and set his mouth on her. No delicate butterfly licks. He started out full bore, balls to the wall, with hard, deep sucking.