One Good Man (8 page)

Angel, the little white one, whimpered sadly.

"No," he told her, his voice firm. "This is not for dogs."

"They sure look pitiful, don't they?" Andie gestured to the bigger dog with brown markings. "What's her name?"

"That's Marilyn. For
the
Marilyn. She's got a little beauty spot near her mouth, like the original."

Andie saw the little brown spot. It did look like a beauty mark. "Oh, yeah." She pointed to Angel. "I know sometimes pit bulls have their ears docked, but hers look strange."

Matthew wiped his mouth and reached for his soda. "The idiot who owned her was too cheap to take her to a vet to have her ears docked. So he did it himself with a pair of scissors."

Andie was sick with horror. "Oh my God, that's awful. Poor little thing." Angel sensed Andie's sympathy and trotted over to her side of the sofa.

"Marilyn didn't have it any better. I got them both from a rescue organization. Pit bulls have a bad rep, but you can see they're both sweethearts."

"Yeah."
So are you
. He was a good guy with a kind heart.

And he didn't just talk about it, he took action. He'd taken two abused animals into his home. "They're lucky to have you."

Matt shrugged. "Like a little more wine?"

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She shook her head. "No, this is plenty, thanks."

He reached for a bottle of hot sauce from the coffee table and sprinkled some on his pizza. His eyebrows rose when he saw Andie smile.

"Do you put hot sauce on everything?"

He grinned back. "Pretty much, yeah."

She was learning about him. Pizza with everything. Likes hot sauce. Hates fish. Kind to animals.

Andie realized he didn't drink, although he served her wine with her pizza. He was satisfied with root beer. She remembered he didn't have any wine the day he'd chatted with her and Tania. There had to be a story there. But it was much too personal a question for Andie to ask.

That's right, Andie, way too personal. Just because you
know what he likes on his pizza doesn't make him any less a
stranger.
So don't go getting any ideas. Don't start getting
soft and silly. You got lucky a second time. It doesn't mean a
thing.

She set her slice down on the coffee table and picked up her wine glass. When it was halfway to her lips, Angel tried to steal Andie's pizza.

"No!" Andie grabbed for it, spilling the red wine down the front of Matthew's light blue shirt. "Oh, no," she groaned, dabbing the stain with her napkin.

Matthew quickly handed her his own napkin and got up off the couch. "Bad dog. Come on." He took the white dog by the collar and led her out of the room, pausing to look at Marilyn.

"You, too."

The other dog tilted her head.
What did I do
?

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"Marilyn, come." His voice was firm. Marilyn shook herself and trotted out of the room after him.

He returned moments later with a handful of napkins.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I should have kept them in lock-down. They don't usually act up with me. Guess they're like kids—they have to show off when there's company."

Andie dabbed at her wet front. The soggy napkins weren't helping much.

"It's all right. Don't worry about it," Matt told her.

"It'll stain." She pulled the shirt away from her front. "They say club soda will get rid of wine stain. Do you happen to have some?"

"No, sorry."

"I think there's some at my dad's." She started to rise from the sofa. "I'll go grab it—"

"No. You stay here, I'll go get it," he offered.

"Yeah? I think it's under the sink. The back door's unlocked." She gave him a half-smile. "You know, I'm starting to think you and your dogs are in cahoots to keep me half-naked."

"You found me out. I've been training them every spare moment."

She grinned, shaking her head. "Club soda, please."

Matthew slid open the glass door leading from the back deck of the house. Club soda. He headed to the sink, opened the cabinet underneath and yep, there it was. As he headed toward the door with bottle in hand, he caught a glimpse of the book lying on the counter right beneath the phone.

Hello. What is this?

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He read the title printed in lipstick-red lettering.
The
Dictionary of Desire.
Somehow he didn't think it belonged to Andie's father. He turned the pages with great interest, taking special note of the pages Andie, bless her dear little librarian's heart, had seen fit to mark with hot pink sticky notes.

"Well, well, isn't this interesting."

He couldn't linger—Andie was sure to wonder what was taking him so long. Matt hesitated, picked up the book, and carried it and the club soda back to his place.

When he returned, he found Andie in the bathroom, rinsing his T-shirt in the sink.

"Here you go. Club soda." He handed her the bottle, noticing she had borrowed another one of his T-shirts. She looked cute as hell, her nipples poking against the soft cotton and the hem of the shirt skimming her thighs.

"Thanks." She looked down at herself, indicating the heather gray shirt she wore. "Hope you don't mind—I have an aversion to walking around naked."

He grinned, leaning against the doorframe. "Aw, you're no fun."

Andie quirked an eyebrow at him, but the attempt to put him in his place was spoiled by the bright red flush on her cheeks. Damn, she was adorable. He felt his cock stir. This was the most fun he'd had since breaking up with Chelsea.

No. Even before he and Chelsea split, things were grim. Sex had stopped being fun and had turned desperate. They were two people trying to hold on to something they knew was slipping away.

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Slow down, guy
, he told himself. Yeah, this was fun and Andie was cute. He liked her, liked how she cared about her family, how she seemed to be a kind, decent person. But this was a short-term thing. How short-term, he didn't know. But the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted. And that was dangerous.

"I'll see you in the living room, okay?" He needed a few minutes to get his thoughts together.

The first thing Andie noticed when she entered the living room was the wide smile on Matthew's face. The second thing was the all-too-familiar book on the coffee table.

"You...ah...what's that?" She felt her heart thump erratically as she played dumb.

Matt gestured easily with his hand. "I think you know what it is."

Her gaze flashed to his face.

"After all, I found it at your place. I wasn't snooping," he assured her quickly. "It was right there on the kitchen counter. I'd have been blind to miss it."

"Uh-huh." Andie was at war with herself. The scared Andie who liked to play it safe wanted to feel embarrassed. The other Andie, the one she became when she was with Matthew, wanted to look him in the eye and say
so what
?

"Dr. D's Dictionary of Desire," he read, then gave her a look. "Imagine my surprise to find it sitting right out in the open like a cookbook."

"Imagine," she murmured. She lifted her head and looked at him in challenge.

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"It looks so informative, I didn't think you'd mind if a borrowed it."

"Not at all. And it is. Very informative." Her voice was smooth.

"But I must say, I'm disappointed."

Her tongue flicked her upper lip in a combination of nerves and lust. The smoky quality of his voice and his heavy lidded eyes were making her aware of the throbbing between her legs. "Disappointed?" she echoed.

"I'm disappointed you didn't want to share it with me."

Andie drew in a quick breath. Her flush grew deeper and her vision grew hazy from desire. Her voice sounded thick with longing. "We could share it now."

[Back to Table of Contents]

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"Really?" Matthew's voice was blase, but his pulse quickened. Who'd have dreamed underneath that shy, reserved exterior Andie Benedetto was such a little tease? He loved it.

His heart soared as she laughed softly. He gestured for her to come sit beside him and she did, cuddling close. Wanting the tease to continue, he flipped open the first few pages in the book. "So...should we go from A to Z? There are a few things here under A that look pretty interesting."

Andie's eyes grew wide when she saw what he was pointing to. "Uh, well..." she squeaked, then cleared her throat. "Maybe we could save that for later...work our way up, so to speak." She glanced at him with a flash of alarm, and his heartbeat sped up. He'd never force her to do something she didn't want, but he wasn't opposed to using his powers of persuasion to encourage her to try a few new delights. "I see no reason why we can't skip around," she told him in her prim librarian's voice.

Her librarian persona really turned him on, especially when they were talking about naughty things. She nudged his hand away from the book, and flipped forward a number of pages.

She stopped at the letter F and pointed to something.

"I thought we'd start with this one." Her voice was hushed.

He leaned down to nuzzle her cheek. "Yeah?"

"Mmmhmm. I was reading it before," Andie murmured.

"And when I pictured myself doing that, I started getting 77

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really excited." She rubbed her cheek to his the way a kitten might. "I tried pressing my thighs together, but it didn't help much."

"You poor baby." Matthew's cock came to life as he pictured Andie on her knees. For him.

"I know. It was awful. I wanted to finish reading, but I wanted to stop, too, to take care of myself." She flicked him a look from under her lashes. "If you know what I mean."

Did he ever. The little devil was really enjoying herself.

"And did you? Take care of yourself?"

"Well, I was about to. But then you called." She gave him a mock pout. "And looking at it now is making me wet all over again."

"Are you wet now?" he murmured.

Her eyelids drooped. "Dripping."

"Let me check." He guided her onto the coffee table, shoving the book aside so he sat directly across from her open legs. Thank God for the T-shirt. Andie leaned back on her elbows and moved her legs even farther apart to give him more room. He snaked his arm between her thighs and brushed a finger against her swollen clit. She gave a jolt when he touched her.

"Ah," he whispered. He slipped his first two fingers through her creamy folds. Withdrawing his hand, he showed her the shiny residue. "You weren't lying."

Andie opened her heavy lids and watched him rub his thumb over his slick fingers. "No," she murmured, her voice thick.

"Poor baby, you ache?"

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"Mmm."

"Let me make it better."

And he did. His fingers once again rubbed against her, gathering moisture. He slipped one finger into her aching pussy, and her muscles squeezed him involuntarily. She clenched her hands on the edge of the table and rocked upward, hissing. His hand was trapped by her thighs and space to move was restricted, but that only added to the pleasure. She undulated against his fingers as he gently rubbed her clit.

Andie squeezed her eyes shut, her thighs tensing. She heard the succulent wet sounds Matthew's fingers made while he stroked and played with her, but it wasn't quite enough.

Her breath rasped as she strained for the release just beyond her reach.

"Oh, I'm close—" she gasped. It was a plea. She needed more.

"What do you need, baby? What do you need?"

Andie thrust her hand between her legs to grab his and press it
just right
against her clit as she came, shuddering and gasping.

She was still boneless and dazed when Matthew lifted her onto his lap. "Come here."

Andie slumped against him, slowly recovering.

"Is it better now?" He murmured as her head rested against his shoulder.

"Mmmhmm." She leaned against him comfortably for another moment, then lifted her head to look at him. "But now it's your turn."

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His gave her a lazy smile but sparks ignited in his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"That's right." Andie got off his lap, pushed the coffee table out of the way, and gestured for him to stand. As she unzipped his jeans, she took the opportunity to kiss and suck his nipples, lightly grazing them with her teeth. She sank to her knees, pulling down his pants at the same time. She pushed him and smirked as he fell back onto the sofa.

Matt grinned and shook his head. "You're enjoying this, aren't you? Being the boss lady?"

"You got it," she replied, pulling his jeans off completely and tossing them aside. She
was
enjoying it. She was going to pleasure this man, and it gave her an incredible feeling of power. She felt a bit buzzed, and now understood what was meant by
power going to one's head
.

Even though Andie was on her knees before him, she was the one in control. Being dressed, if only in a T-shirt, while he was completely nude somehow accentuated that awareness and made it all the sweeter.

He brushed her hair away from her face as she smiled up at him. "Could I have a pillow?" she asked. "I don't want sore knees to distract me from the task at hand."

"Sure thing." He reached behind him and handed her one.

"Is one enough?"

"Yeah, I think so," she answered. Andie was suddenly nervous. Even though she had done this before, she was unsure of her proficiency at it. When she was living with Douglas, it was something she performed as a kind of courtesy. It wasn't something she particularly enjoyed, but a 80

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quid pro quo. She'd wanted to get the job done, as quickly and with as little fuss as possible.