Naughty Little Secret (18 page)

“Lauren,” he rasped, his voice on edge. “Don’t look away.”

Helpless, as if his gaze held her captive, she shook her head, but her stare never wavered.

He lifted her legs on either side of his hips, and she locked them behind his back, taking him deeper than ever before. Next, he reached up, cradled her face in his hands. The intensity of his eyes, the raw, scorching need burning from his gaze scalded her senses.

“For ten fucking years, I’ve wanted you. Waited for you.”

Each phrase, he punctuated with another demanding thrust into her body, another nudge at her heart and soul. He stretched her wide,

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scraping every sensitive nerve in her channel. Her body trembled with need. Her mind spun. All this time, he’d thought about her? For the last week, Mysterious and Noah, the same man? That thought alone was enough to blow her mind. But to think that he’d wanted her for ten years…

He covered her mouth with his, and Lauren gave in to sensation, not having the will or the strength to resist. Just like his cock, his tongue slid deep, taking total possession. She was too aroused, too aware of this man, to refuse.

“I love you.” He looked right into her eyes, pushed deeper into her body, as he said it. “I’ve always loved you.”

His words illuminated every dark corner of her body, echoing through her heart. And she burst into a million pieces, exploding all around him, rocketing up to a hot swirl of stars, bright lights, and searing pleasure that slammed her with every pulse of her womb.

Noah tore his lips away and tossed his head back on a dark groan of pleasure, roaring as he filled her one last time and released inside her.

One look at his flushed face told her he’d not only given her pleasure, but his heart. A bit of his soul. That expression told her that he intended to take hers as well.

Lauren feared he already had.

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Lying with her head pillowed on his chest, Lauren listened to his slowing heartbeat. Heavy lassitude wound through her limbs. Tangled together, she and Noah were both damp with a sheen of sweat. Bliss ran sweet through her body. Despite her best intentions, she’d fallen for him hard.

He was her mystery man. He’d been sneaking into her house, stealing into her body with torrid passion time after time. And those words of love he’d uttered just before her orgasm…totally stunning. The shock and disquiet punctured her lazy satisfaction. Euphoria slowly deflated.

Uncertainty blasted her when Noah turned his gaze to her, intent and questioning.

Lauren didn’t know what to say. He wanted her to be happy about his revelation. To laugh and say yes to more. She wanted to…but wasn’t ready for love and devotion with anyone, even Noah. Especially Noah.

He was all drive and single-minded intensity, all plans and strategic execution. He’d turned that dedication and ability on her…and if she wasn’t careful, she’d be a goner. What was she saying? Where he was concerned, she already was.

Bad move.
His declarations of love aside, it would only be a matter of time before he dumped her for a calendar model or some other twit who had more in her bra than her head. And where would she be? More alone than ever. Completely broken-hearted. No thanks.

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Even knowing that, she couldn’t quite let him go. She should and she would. But not yet. And no wonder. He could drive her to insane heights of pleasure. He was sexy, sharp, steadily employed, kind—everything she wanted. Good with her girls, fun to hang out with.

He claimed to love her, despite being three weeks out of a relationship with Misty and her silicone pom-poms. Was that possible?

Lauren frowned. She had no idea. He
had
cooked up Mr. Mysterious just to get near her. Because he thought he loved her? Maybe. More likely, he’d done it because she’d been a challenge. Noah did love to take on difficult tasks and beating the odds. Maybe he saw her as his ultimate quest if he thought he’d wanted her for ten years.

She sighed, trying to process it all. Not happening—at least not in the next five minutes. What came next?

The question itself scared the hell out of her. The answer terrified her even more because she wanted to stay and give them a chance. But in the back of her mind, that voice… How long before Noah’s something shiny and new—probably wearing a D cup and possessing great legs barely covered by a little black skirt—snagged his attention and permanently diverted him elsewhere, leaving her with a broken heart?

Noah had such a long string of women, she could probably wrap it around Texas Motor Speedway—twice.

Wait.
He’d already talked about another woman, the divorcée. Noah claimed to love that woman, too. If so, Lauren wondered why he was in bed now with her, professing his devotion? Damn, the bastard was emotionally two-timing her before the tingle in her orgasm had worn off.

And he’d seemed so sincere when he spoke about loving her. Unless…

Oh, holy hell!
She
was the divorcée. He wasn’t in love with two different women or cheating when he’d sneaked in, stripped her down, and buried himself so deeply inside her it was as if he tried to reach her

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soul. He’d been talking about her all along. In fact, he’d been talking to her—about her. Not just talking.
Lying
to her about there being another woman. And using her own advice to orchestrate her surrender.

A hot wash of anger burned away the last of her pleasant satiation.

She’d said she wanted excitement and a spicy sex life. He’d dressed up as Mr. Mysterious and given her pleasure—way beyond her expectations. She’d told Noah she wanted someone steady. He fit that bill, too. Lauren wanted someone good with her girls. He’d invited them to swim, grilled them some of their favorites, then made solemn little Emma smile. In short, he’d listened to every word she’d said and tailored a courtship just for her.

Hell. Put like that, Lauren wasn’t sure whether to be stunned or flattered or pissed as hell.

She sifted through her memories of their conversations, and her heart stopped beating. Everything he’d told her he wanted with his fictional divorcée—marriage and babies and love… He’d said he loved
her
, but what did he know about love? What did he know about staying with a lover beyond the orgasm? Nothing.

She sucked in a ragged breath. A lasting relationship between she and Noah? No. Impossible. He’d get bored and leave her. That was inevitable. If a professional cheerleader couldn’t hold his attention, how was a woman with ten additional years and pregnancy stretch marks supposed to manage? When he left, she’d have to deal with not just disillusionment, like after her marriage, but a gaping hole in her heart.

No thanks.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder… He’d planned this whole seduction for how long? Weeks? Months?

“Lauren?” He rolled to face her, the sheets whispering intimately, like a lover beckoning. “Talk to me, sugar.”

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Talk to him, like bare her soul? No. Trusting anything he said would be unwise, but very tempting…

She looked away and swallowed against the hope and questions shining bright in his eyes.

Edging to the other side of the bed, Lauren put space between them and grabbed the sheet, covering every inch of her nudity she could. The scrap of linen didn’t help much, considering he was laying on the rest.

And didn’t appear to be in a hurry to give her more.

“You planned this, didn't you?” Her voice shook. “The way you plan a-conquer-and-overcome strategy at the office. You laid out and followed through on the steps of this—this deception.”

He frowned, then spoke softly, “I planned this, but not to deceive you.

I did it to show you how I felt about you, in a way you wouldn’t feel threatened by. You said yourself that you would have run like hell if I simply told you I loved you and wanted to be with you.”

“Totally beside the point. Ask me out on a date, like a normal guy.

Don't manipulate—”

He grabbed her arm. “If I merely asked you out and caught you at a weak enough moment to get a yes, you would have found a hundred ways to keep me at a safe distance so you wouldn’t have to risk your heart.”

“Because I’m not ready for this.”

“You are,” he disagreed. “I've waited and watched. I know you’re scared but there’s no reason. We’re going to be great. We already are.”

“No, and I don’t think you’re ready for this, either. You take the decision out of my hands and think everything is great? You make choices for me, decide who I have sex with, when and how? That’s not great. That’s not love.

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“Next, you talked to me about pursuing a gun-shy divorcée. Oh, wait.

That would be me. Duh! How silly of me to assume you were honestly asking me for advice with a genuine problem.”

“So I didn’t go about this the best way, but you being stubborn and stand-offish and needlessly afraid
is
a hell of a problem. Yes, I asked you for advice. Who better to go to than the source for accurate information?”

He still didn’t see anything wrong with his strategy. Unbelievable. The fact he’d gone to all the trouble to ask her advice, to invent Mr.

Mysterious, would be flattering if it really meant anything. But Noah didn’t
love
her. Maybe he thought he did. The truth was, he loved a challenge more. And with her disavowals of love and their past, he’d likely seen her as his personal Mt. Everest.

She ripped her arm from his grasp. “I should have guessed. You plan
everything
, apparently including my seduction. Why didn’t I realize before now that you were using the very advice I gave you against me to conquer me? How damn stupid am I?”

“Conquer? Damn it, Lauren. I’m not some frat boy who’s looking for a locker-room boast and I’m not trying to ruin your life. I’m trying to love you, like I’ve been wanting to for ten fucking years.”

Ten years? “That’s not possible. I would have been married to Tim and—”

“Exactly.” He moved in, erasing her personal space, his chest against hers, their foreheads nearly touching. Then he anchored his hand around her nape. “It was hell watching him slowly hurt you, day by day, little by little, withholding the attention and love I was dying to give you.

All I could do was sit by while he shattered your heart and illusions.

Knowing you cried at night, betting your body craved what I was aching to give you, damn near ate me alive. I waited for you to recover, and these two years destroyed my patience and restraint.”

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Lauren had no idea what to say. His growl and the blast of heat from his blue eyes told her he believed every word he said. Stunned didn’t begin to cover her reaction.

“In all those years…you never said a word.”

“I couldn’t. You were a good friend’s wife. If I crossed that line—and don’t think I wasn’t damn tempted—you would have ended up hating us both for it. Remember the night Tim was out of town for your birthday a few years ago?”

One of the lowest points of her marriage. Tim had been gone for weeks. He’d flown home for two days, spent three minutes inside her body, an hour or two playing with the girls, then when she’d finished his laundry, he’d packed up and left again. And she’d cried for the lack of love in his touch, in his eyes. He’d been on auto-pilot, doing his duty, relieving his physical need. Moving on. She’d known then that divorce was imminent, but didn’t have the courage to file. It would mean so much change…

The night of her birthday, Noah had come by and found her crying.

He’d persuaded her to dress up, asked his mom to watch the girls, then taken her out. The place had been loud and crowded and so much fun.

Exactly what she needed. A bottle of wine later, she’d realized she hadn’t smiled like that in at least five years. She’d known then that she had to change her life.

Of course, she’d awakened with a colossal hangover the next day, but the resolution had remained. She followed through a few days later.

“I remember.”

“That night, in the restaurant,” he took a deep breath, and a muscle ticced in his jaw, “you looked so damn gorgeous. You smiled when everyone sang to you. You let me hold you close when we danced. I felt

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your heart race when I pressed you to my chest. I felt your hard nipples, too. That night, I could have brought you home and taken you to bed.”

Lauren gasped and opened her mouth to protest. She swallowed it.

Though she wished otherwise, he was right. He could have had sex with her that night. When he’d smiled at her, the stirrings of attraction she’d felt over the years had blossomed. For the first time, she’d yearned to be a woman with him, rather than a friend.

Fast forward two years. Now, he was way more than a friend. This past week, she had been a woman with him, learned him as a lover, experienced the touch of his sure hands, the full thrust of his cock as he penetrated deep.

Despite her disquiet, she blushed.

“But if I had slept with you that night, you would have avoided me after the divorce. You would have dismissed me as a part of your past, written me off as a mistake, and made your new life without me.”

Again, he was right. He understood her, deep down. It made her glow…even as it scared her to death.

“Walking away from you with just a kiss on your forehead…I don’t think I’ve ever done anything more difficult. For a week, I second-guessed myself. And jacked off every damn night, fantasizing about having you in my bed, all to myself. I couldn’t stop thinking about the sexy cleavage, the flash of leg, the hint of flirtation in your smile. But when you filed for divorce that next week, I knew I’d done the right thing.”

Lauren bit her lip. She didn’t know what to say.

“Since then, I’ve been keeping you close, waiting for you to recover and feel ready to date…”