Notorious (12 page)

“Definitely keep it simple. If she loves you, that’s all she’ll want. Just you.” Alexa cocked her head, a gleam forming in her eyes. “Just treat her right, Eric. She’s my best friend, and she’s been through a lot of crap. Don’t break her heart. It’s been broken enough.”

“I never want to break her heart. I love her too much,” he said, his voice solemn. His entire body stilled once the words slipped past his lips.

It was mind boggling, how much he meant that statement. Only a few months ago he would’ve scoffed if someone told him he’d feel that way about someone. A woman.

Alexa nodded, looking satisfied. She released her grip on his hands and stood. “You just said it perfectly. I’m glad you came by, Eric.”

“I’m glad too.” He stood, as did Brandon, and all three of them came together for a brief hug. “Very glad.”

The flowers came first—a simple arrangement of vibrantly colored wildflowers from the florist down the street. They smelled wonderful. She caught their scent as she stood behind her chair and cut hair and she received lots of compliments and oohs and aahs. And lots of curious questions. Questions as to who they might be from. She didn’t want to call Eric her boyfriend but what the heck else could she label him as? Her lover? That always sounded kind of silly to her, too dramatic.

That hot guy she fucked? That was far too simplistic and not to mention a little crass. They hadn’t declared themselves a true couple yet so it seemed presumptuous to say so.

So she just told everyone the flowers came from a friend.

The knowing looks they all gave clearly said they didn’t believe her too-simple answer. And she really didn’t either.

He waited for her outside the door of the salon, leaning against a light pole, looking too damn scrumptious for words. The perpetually messy hair, his incredible body encased in jeans and a dark-brown henley shirt. He appeared casual, slouched posture with his hands in his front pockets, shoulder propped against the metal pole. But she saw the telltale signs. The tenseness of his body, the sharpness in his gaze, he looked ready to leap. Or perhaps jump out of his skin.

More than anything, he looked damn nervous.

“Hey.” She approached him, smiling. Reaching out, she grabbed his forearm and gave him a quick squeeze. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“I wanted to surprise you.” Eric pushed away from the lamppost and leaned in, his lips meeting hers in a sweet, brief kiss. “Have a busy day?”

“Yes, but I’m never too tired to spend time with you.” And wasn’t that the truth. Curling her arm around his, she tucked herself close to his side. “Thank you for the flowers.”

“You liked them?” He sounded relieved, worried. She thought it was cute.

“What woman doesn’t love flowers?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, looking vaguely uncomfortable. “I’m not good at this shit.”

Her brows crinkled. “What shit?”

“Romantic gestures.” He waved his hand in the air. “I want to do right by you. I sent you flowers. I surprised you by coming by after work so I could pick you up. I planned to take you to dinner. Someplace intimate and quiet where we can stare into each others’ eyes over lit candles and barely eat the expensive food we ordered. That was my plan. But now I don’t want to go. I just want to take you back home and keep you all to myself. Naked, in my bed. With me, against me, beneath me.”

All the breath expelled from her lungs as she stood there staring at him. In the middle of the sidewalk right in front of her work. Why did all of the important moments in their relationship seem to happen on the street? In public? The one thing she could hardly stand in the past was public gestures of too much affection. She never wanted to air her dirty laundry, so to speak. She was too private of a person.

Eric seemed to strip away all her inhibitions and make her do the craziest things…

“If you really think you’re not good with the romantic gestures, then you didn’t just hear your impassioned speech.”

Now it was his turn for the crinkled brow and confused expression. “What do you mean?”

“What you just said was the most romantic thing any man has ever said to me.” She kissed him, her lips lingering, tongue sneaking out for a quick little lick.

“Really?” He sounded surprised.

“Really.” She kissed him again. She couldn’t help herself. He tasted so good, smelled good, too, and he was warm. Big and protective and the sweetest, most complicated man alive. Just having him close sent butterflies cascading inside her stomach and her skin tingled with awareness. “I don’t want to go out to dinner either, though I appreciate the gesture. I’d rather go home with you.”

“No, I should take you out and treat you right,” he protested, trying to withdraw from her but she held on tight.

“Taking me back to your place and making love to me all night long is treating me right, Eric,” she said, her voice soft as she stared into his eyes.

He studied her for a long, quiet moment. The cars rushing by faded to nothingness, as did the people walking by on the street. She heard and saw nothing but the man standing before her, looking as if he was about to hand her his heart and all that came with it.

Anticipation curled through her at the thought.

“You’re too good to be true,” he whispered. “I don’t deserve you.”

“As long as you keep doing what you’re doing, you more than deserve me.” She tugged on his arm, spotting his car in the near distance. “Come on, let’s go back to your apartment.”

“Want to go in separate cars?” He pointed at her car parked across the street.

“No.” She shook her head. “Let’s ride together. You can drive me to work tomorrow.”

They fell into step together, walking toward his car. “Once I get you alone it will be hard to let you go.”

“Maybe you should tie me to the bed and ensure that I can’t escape.” She teased, but the way his eyes darkened meant the suggestion held appeal.

“That can definitely be arranged.” He paused as he came around to the passenger side and unlocked the door, holding it open for her. “If you want it to happen, that is.”

She was wet at the mere image of her sprawled across his big bed, naked and her arms and legs tied to each post. Her legs wide, her sex open as he bent between her thighs and licked her there. A shudder moved through her as she settled into his car, and he noticed.

Eric leaned against the door, a naughty smile curving his delectable mouth. “You like that, don’t you?”

Stacy nodded and remained silent, her hands folded primly in her lap. He slammed the door shut and rounded the car, sliding into the driver’s seat with an unrestrained eagerness. Sticking the key into the ignition, he started the car, casting her a sidelong glance as he pulled away from the curb.

“Don’t you look all prim and proper sitting there quietly? You are such a contradiction. I think that’s what I love best about you.”

He pulled fully onto the street and headed in the direction of his apartment. All the while she absorbed his words, the tiny revelation he made and probably didn’t even realize.

Using the word love wasn’t a casual thing for him, she knew. Did this mean he really loved her? If only he would tell her. Maybe she should tell him first. But every time she’d done that in the past, it ended up backfiring in her face.

Big time.

She didn’t want to get hurt. She’d been hurt too much too many times. Eric had the potential for hurting her worse than any of the other men she’d been with put together. He held her fragile heart in the palm of his hand. It would take nothing for him to crush it into a thousand tiny little pieces until they scattered into the window, forgotten. Neglected.

Unloved.

Sitting straighter in her seat, she made a plan. She would let him tie her up. There was no denying it, the image aroused her beyond reason. But she was also going to use it as a sign of trust. With trust comes love.

And she was willing to trust him with her heart.

Forever.

Chapter Ten

Stacy sprawled across his bed, her wrists and ankles bound with soft velvet cuffs he’d bought just for this, just for her. Kinky bastard she knew him to be, she’d asked point-blank if he used them on someone else before.

It felt damn good to say she was the first. The look of relief and pleasure on her pretty face told him it was worth it.

From now on, Eric planned on putting her first in everything he did. Something he’d never really done before. He’d always been so damn selfish, even with Brandon, hell even with Austin oh, so long ago. All of his relationships, he’d thought of the other but ultimately he came first.

Not so with Stacy. He felt as if he’d do anything to please her.

Her naked body practically vibrated as he stared at her, her breasts jiggling as she struggled lightly against the arm cuffs. Her legs were spread wide, giving him an unobstructed view of her pretty pink pussy. She was wet, the delicate folds glistened with her juices and he had the overwhelming urge to lick her there. Feast from her until she came against his lips, on his tongue.

With a languor he didn’t feel whatsoever he stripped, removing each article of his clothing one by one. Slowly dropping his shirt, his jeans, his underwear, even his socks on the floor in a small pile. All the while she watched with her greedy eyes as they roamed over him, her body tense, her rosy nipples so hard they looked painful.

She was satiny smooth, soft skin and slender curves. Her flesh glowed in the gentle light from the one lamp that burned on his bedside table, and he went to the sliding glass door that led onto a small balcony and slowly pushed the curtains open.

“What are you doing?” Alarm tinged her voice and she struggled yet again against the restraints. Her movements were futile. He had her locked up tight.

All his for the night.

“Don’t worry. We’re high up enough that no one can see us.” He was on the third floor of the apartment building. “And besides, even if someone sees us, sees you, doesn’t that appeal to your secret voyeuristic tendencies?”

She stilled, watching him with a trace of fear in her wide eyes. Fear and a healthy dose of arousal.

His girl was such a secret little freak. He found it both amusing and a complete turn on. He’d already thought this about a million times, but he couldn’t help thinking it again.

How’d he get so damn lucky?

“You enjoy pushing me beyond my boundaries, don’t you?” She didn’t sound pissed, which he thought was a good sign.

Shrugging, he walked toward the bed and stood near the end of it. He reached out and drew his index finger down the center of her right foot. It flexed and stretched beneath his touch. “What’s the point of establishing boundaries if you don’t push past them and create new boundaries?”

“I’ve never thought of it that way,” she confessed. A little gasp escaped her when he knelt in front of the foot of the bed and wrapped both his hands around her foot, squeezing gently. “God, that feels good.”

“I didn’t realize you had a foot fetish.” He caressed the bottom of her foot, her heel. Leaned down and dropped a kiss to each red-painted toenail, he even licked them with little flicks of his tongue. “I didn’t realize I had a foot fetish either.”

She giggled, her toes wiggling as if asking for more. “I didn’t know either. I always thought it sounded stupid. To be turned on by feet.”

“Your feet are very sexy. Especially when you’re wearing high heels. Your legs are sexy too.”

“Such a flatterer,” she said, her voice going wispy when he drew her big toe between his lips and sucked.

“Mmm, I speak the truth.” His hands wandered up her leg, stroking her calf, tickling the back of her knee. She giggled and jerked in reflex, unable to escape his attention and he continued to torment her. Gaining a bit of perverse pleasure in knowing she couldn’t get away from his roaming hands, his tickling fingers.

Her giggles evaporated into whispery sighs when he settled himself between her legs, stroking the inside of her thighs with both hands. Her skin was impossibly soft there, and sensitive. He felt her tremble beneath his questing fingertips, smelt the pungent aroma of her arousal and he breathed deep, inhaling her very essence.

A scent he knew he would never grow tired of.

His cock jerked in reaction when he finally allowed himself to look at the prize spread out before him. Her glistening folds beckoned, creamy droplets made a wet path down the very inside of her thighs. His lids lifted, and he found her staring at him, her teeth buried into her fleshy bottom lip, her eyes wide and beseeching.

“Please,” she whispered, her legs jerking, her eyes sliding closed when he pressed his face against her.

Holding himself there took every bit of restraint he had but he did it. He didn’t so much as touch her, just continued to breathe on her, her scant pubic hair ruffling with his every exhalation. “Open your eyes, Stace.”

She looked at him, her expression pained and she arched her hips in the most subtle of gestures. Yet she didn’t say a word.

He wondered idly if she could even speak. Her juices were flowing now, the heat of her pussy like fire. Drawing him in, drawing him closer but still he didn’t touch her.

“Watch me,” he commanded. “Watch me devour you.”

“Please, Eric,” she rasped, a sigh of relief and pleasure escaping her when he nuzzled his nose against her.

She was so wet. Hot. He kissed her swollen clit, wrapped his lips around the bit of flesh and sucked and her hips bucked against him. How she loved it when he played with her clit. She was so responsive, so fucking beautiful like this. Tied up and sprawled open just for him.

He wondered if anyone could see them through the open window.

Leaning up on his forearms, he traced his index finger down her slit, nestling deeper. He traced her folds, mapping each little bit of flesh before he teased her entry, slipped the very tip of his finger inside her. Her inner muscles grappled for him, drawing him in and he slid his finger further. Slow and easy until he was all the way inside.

Stacy moaned, louder as he started to finger fuck her with earnest. Slipped two fingers inside her, then three, stretching her to the fullest as he watched in fascination, his fingers coated with her juices. Her swollen pussy lips darkened to a deep rose, her clit throbbed and he leaned in, sucking it, swirling his tongue around it. Her cream rained down on his lips, he heard the juicy sounds of her pussy as he pumped in and out of her and fuck, he wanted to be inside her so bad. Feel those tight, hot inner tissues clamp around him. Sucking him inside her body so deep he never wanted to leave.