Monster (7 page)

"I'm busy," I said. "I've arranged my life the way I want it. Why would I want to change it all for someone else? Most of the men I've dated couldn't accept that dog training would always be a huge priority for me. I'd be gone most of the weekends. They haven't liked that at all."

"Why didn't they just go with you?" he asked.

"They had their own lives they didn't want to disrupt," I said. "See?"

He shrugged.

I felt the heat of our conversation between us. I wanted to reach out and find out how Quinn felt against my body, over my body.

Dinner was over and I didn't know what to do from there.

Should I suggest a movie? Dessert?

That felt too much like a date.

No matter what Carol thought, I didn't need to date anyone - particularly not Quinn Markham.

-Quinn-

I couldn't stand up from the table. Talking about sex and dating with Annie had made me ragingly hard. There was no way she couldn't spot my erection if I stood up. I was pretty sure it could be seen from space.

"Thank you for dinner," I said. "It's been a treat."

It had been a torment.

I wanted to lean across the table and find out if Annie tasted as good as her cooking. I thought she'd taste sweeter than any dessert she could have made, and I wanted to know if she'd gasp and flutter her eyelids closed, allowing me to plunder her mouth, or if she'd rise up to meet me and take me as hard as I took her.

Annie was quite a woman.

"No problem," she said. "Glad to have someone else over so I'm not just cooking for me."

I grinned at her.

"I bet Urso gets some, too," I said.

She looked a little guilty.

"Not much," she said. "I know it's not good for him, but... he gets a few bites."

"How can you resist giving them treats?" I asked. "Those big brown eyes, the pouting."

"Are you talking about dogs or women?" she asked.

I was surprised at the acid in her voice.

"Both, I guess," I said. "Except sometimes the women have big blue eyes."

She scowled at me, and those big blue eyes were full of humor and mock-irritation. At least, I hoped it was pretend...

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Get out of here."

I stood up.

"It is getting late, you're right," I said. "Thank you for dinner, but I'd better let you get to bed."

Without me.

The thought made me unsettled.

I should follow her up to her bedroom, press her into the mattress and claim her body with my own. I needed to feel the heat of her around me. Needed to taste her skin, free those breasts from the clothing that kept them from me.

She stood up, almost quickly enough to knock over the chair.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I was teasing, I wasn't trying to kick you out. I'm not that much of a jerk."

"Don't worry," I told her. "I know you didn't mean it, but... it really is getting late."

More importantly, I had to get out of there before I did something that neither of us would regret, like sweep the dishes off the table and bend her over it.

"Yeah," she said, trailing off. "I hope you have a good night."

She walked me to her front door, past where Urso was snoozing lightly on a massive dog bed, and I turned to say goodbye too quickly.

I hadn't realize how closely she was walking to me, and I found myself almost pressed against her, her face tilted up to mine.

Oh, fuck.

Her little pink tongue darted out to taste her lips and it was more than I could take.

I bent down to kiss her - and Urso stood up, shaking out his fur after his nap. The tags on his collar jangled noisily.

It was like a bucket of cold water.

"Oh, um, thanks for dinner," I said again, making a quick exit to my own apartment.

Fuck me.

I leaned against the door, wondering if she was doing the same in her living room just through the wall.

If I thought I'd been achingly hard during dinner, I was nuts.

I didn't know if I'd ever been that hard before in my life, but I was about to explode just from the feel of my cock rubbing against my pants, the thought of almost kissing Annie.

I almost kissed Annie.

It was all I could think about for two days.

The look in her eyes, of desire, of passion, of need.

Forget the dog, I should have ignored him and grabbed her shoulders and made her mine.

------

Two days on my feet dealing with lazy sons of bitches and construction foremen and I still got home with enough energy to fantasize about knocking on her door and finishing what we'd almost started.

Two nights of jerking off in the shower to the thought of her lips on my cock, then getting into bed and doing it again.

I'd started to wonder about every inch of her body. Would her nipples be pink, or brown? Would she shave her bush? Would she have a delicate little clit or a demanding button?

It was all I could think about.

I was obsessed.

I hadn't felt this way about a woman since high school.

Hadn't jerked off that much since high school, either.

She did something to me.

I slammed the door of my truck and walked up the path to our doors.

She opened hers and our eyes met.

I crossed the distance between us in a few long strides, so we were so close again, as close as we had been on my first day of work, after that dinner of temptation.

"Have you been thinking about it like I have?" I asked. "About almost kissing?"

"Yes," she said.

I loved that she wasn't teasing, wasn't being coy about it.

Yes.

She'd been thinking about our almost-kiss.

"I want you," I said.

Annie nodded and grabbed me by the shirt, pulling me inside her house and slamming the door behind us.

With that vote of agreement, I pulled her against me, enjoying the feel of her trim body in my arms.

"I need you so badly," I groaned.

"Then take me, "she challenged.

That was more than I could take after days of longing for her.

I grabbed her shoulders and bent to claim her in a kiss that seared me to my core. She kissed back just like I had hoped she would, all passion and need, giving as good as she got.

She was on her tiptoes to press herself against me, and I helped her out by lifting her into my arms and pressing her against the door so we were of a height.

With a sigh, she pulled her lips away from mine.

"Wait," she ordered.

I waited.

I didn't like it.

Taking a deep breath, I heard the growling I'd missed when I was lifting her up.

"Urso, crate up," she said. "I'm fine. Quinn, put me down."

I obeyed.

She followed Urso to his crate as he padded to it, grudgingly, and she locked him in.

"He isn't used to that sort of thing," she said.

It was good that she had a dog that would protect her, but all I could think about was taking her back into my arms where she felt so fucking good.

Fortunately, she seemed to have the same thought.

"I liked that thing where you lifted me up," she said, voice a little raspy and breathless. "Do that again."

"Like this?" I asked, taking her in my arms where she belonged and pressing her against the wall, keeping her up high enough that she could kiss me without an effort.

That kept us busy for several minutes.

She started inching down and I wondered what the hell she was doing until she ground her mound into my cock through our jeans and I almost came right there.

“Oh, fuck,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Too dressed,” I said.

I pinned her against the wall with my hips and chest, leaving my arms free to pull her shirt off her, leaving her in only a bra and jeans.

“You're so beautiful,” I groaned, leaning down to pull one of her perfect white breasts out of her bra and take it into my mouth.

Her moans went straight to my cock.

I reached one hand between her and the wall to unhook her bra, and she yanked it off, throwing it off to the side.

The wall wasn't enough for me to give those glorious swells the attention they deserved.

“Bed or couch?” I asked.

“Bed,” she gasped. “Upstairs. Through the kitchen.”

She wrapped her legs around my waist – god, was she trying to kill me? - to make it easier for me to carry her up.

We got to the top of the stairs when she suddenly told me to wait.

“What?” I said.

“It's a total mess,” she said.

I pressed a kiss against her neck.

“It's about to be a hell of a lot worse,” I growled against her ear, and she huffed out a laugh.

I opened the door.

If that was her idea of a mess, she was nuts. The bed was rumpled and a few balled-up socks were on the floor by the hamper.

Totally nuts.

Not as nuts as I was for her body, though.  I craved her tightness, her warmth against me. I was about to lose my mind, with her right there, for me to smell and taste and touch.

I tossed her onto the bed and stood over her, enjoying the view as she shimmied out of her jeans.

Nothing was left to keep her from me but a pair of plain white underwear. Nothing deliberately sexy, no lace, not a thong, but the sight of them drove me wild. They looked simple and perfect, setting off her hips and thighs.

I needed them off, right away.

Fortunately, she obliged me, sliding them over her hips and leaving her body bare before me.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered.

I went to my knees by the bed, grabbing her thighs and pulling her over to the side of the bed, spreading her legs.

Her dewy folds were right in front of me, all I had to do was lean over... and taste.

She was as sweet as I had imagined on my tongue, and I needed more.

Her trimmed blonde bush wasn't in the way, but I smoothed it down just to feel her gasp and wriggle against the bed as I pulled away to look at her, enjoying the view that was all mine.

The little pink button of her clit was perfectly formed, just peeking out from under the hood that protected it.

I tapped my tongue against it, a little flicker designed to tease the gorgeous blonde.

I was rewarded with another moan.

She wasn't the type of woman to clam up and go silent in bed, which made me really fucking happy. I loved hearing a woman scream and moan and beg as I fucked her, and it sounded like, if I did my job right, Annie would do just that.

It was time to torment her even further.

I took a long, rough swipe of my tongue from her entrance all the way up to her clit, sweeping through the wetness and the soft folds of perfect skin.