ProvokeMe (24 page)

After Kelly and Carter made plans to have lunch, he touched
her hair and shot Spencer a considering glance.
He extended a hand to him, his
smile friendly even if his gaze remained cool.
“Nice meeting you.
Take care of
my girl.”

Ordinarily, he would’ve become annoyed at being assessed as
openly as Carter was doing.
The “my girl” part didn’t help.
Resisting the urge
to call Kelly
his
girl, which would be akin to tussling over her as if
she were a choice piece of meat, he shook Carter’s hand.
“You too.
I’ll do my
best.”

With a wave, Kelly slipped her arm through Spencer’s and
they walked to his car.
He unlocked the doors with the remote, eventually
realizing she was studying him.

“What?”

“You lied.” She gripped his belt, pulling him closer.
“You
never give me your best.
Only fragments.”

He brushed his fingertips over her cheekbone.
It would be
easy, too easy, to toss off a sexual innuendo.
But she wasn’t talking about sex
and they both knew it.
“Maybe I don’t have as much best as you think.”

“Or maybe,” her lips caught his for a brief kiss, “you don’t
see what I see in you.”

“Oh no.” He groaned softly.
“Are we already at the stage
where the woman starts complaining about all the guy’s
potential
?”

She laughed and the momentary awkwardness dissipated.
“Nah,
I’ve never been one to take on projects.”

“Good.
Because I’ve never liked being worked on.”

“Sure about that?” Her nails skimmed his stomach above his
buckle, scraping lightly.
The corner of her mouth lifted when his cock rose
between them.
“I’m pretty sure you’d enjoy the way I’d like to work on you
right now.”

“I enjoy a hell of a lot about you, so probably.” He shifted
his thigh between her legs and rubbed.
She responded in kind, grinding against
him in blatant invitation.
“I also enjoyed meeting your friends,” he added,
though it was getting harder to remember anything but the wet heat scorching
through his pants.

“I’m glad.
They liked you too.” She angled her head, giving
him a direct glimpse into her eyes.
“You fit right in with us.”

He laughed at that.
“I don’t fit right in with anyone.”

“Really?
I think you fit inside me just fine.”

His laughter subsided but the subtle warmth at her words
didn’t.
“Not exactly what I said, but I can’t argue.”

“So don’t.”

This time when she kissed him, there was nothing brief about
it.
Her tongue tangled with his before gently exploring his mouth as if they’d
never kissed before.
The newness of having her in his arms—out in public, where
anyone could see—exhilarated him.
For once, he could be watched instead of
doing the watching.
But it wasn’t only about putting on a show.
This felt real.
As if they were starting something that could be permanent, if only he’d let it
be.

He slanted his mouth hungrily over hers as if he could
somehow take her inside and bring her with him when everything got to be too
much.
In a few short days, he’d come to crave her.
Driven like a fiend for more
of her kisses, her touch, her smell, even her smart mouth.
Every part of her
made him want.

And every hour that ticked by, he was closer to leaving her.

“Come home with me.”

He wasn’t certain if he’d spoken aloud or if the thought
just resonated in his mind until she slipped back and smiled.
“Nuh uh.
Not
unless you promise to stay in bed with me all night.
And if you feel that familiar
urge to prowl,” her fingers closed around his cock, “wake me and I’ll chase
that urge right out of you.”

“I don’t make promises.”

No matter what, he didn’t lie.
He kept secrets, but he
didn’t mislead with his words.
Or at least he tried not to.
With Kelly, he
found himself straddling the line between his desire to make her happy and the
truth.

She shrugged.
“Then I don’t sleep in your bed.”

“There is another option, you know.”

“What’s that?”

He cupped her cheeks and brought her mouth right back to his,
where it belonged.
“We don’t sleep.”

Kelly let out a helpless laugh.
“We’re both going to crash
and burn if we keep up this pace.
No one can survive on sex alone.”

“Let’s try.” Staving off tomorrow seemed like an excellent
plan to him.
“I want you alone in my bed tonight.
No one watching, no one but
us.” He stroked his tongue over her top lip.
“I want you in every damn way
you’ll give yourself to me.”

“I’m going to need that week apart to recover.” With a sigh,
she drew away and turned toward his car.
When he didn’t follow, she glanced
back and grinned.
“If you don’t make it snappy, I’ll get the party started
without you.”

He made himself smile.
What good did it do to dwell?
He’d
stated his feelings on the subject of long-distance relationships at dinner.
This was too new, too perilous to risk altering his plans.
For all he knew
maybe the week apart would blow out the flames between them completely.

Sure it would.
Too bad there weren’t any bridges to
perdition he could purchase for a song while he was buying that load of crap.

He got in the car and flicked the A/C on high before pulling
out of the lot.
It was still stiflingly hot though he’d been so wrapped up in
his thoughts he’d scarcely noticed.

Halfway home he glanced over at her, wondering why she’d gone
so quiet.
His heart knocked against his ribs as he saw her slumped against her
door, her cheek smushed to the glass.
She was out cold.

Spencer let out a long breath.
Guess there would be no
staving off tomorrow after all.

Chapter Fourteen

Kelly woke with a start, the unfamiliar surroundings jolting
her awake.
These weren’t her sheets.
This wasn’t her soft, well-worn pillow
under her cheek.

She lifted her head, realizing she wasn’t sleeping on a
pillow at all, but a chest.
Spencer’s
chest.

When she let out a surprised grunt, his big hand cradled the
back of her head and pulled her back down.
“Shh.
Sleep.” His slurred voice
lulled her into closing her eyes.
Her fingers curled into his bare stomach.
“It’s not morning yet.”

She smiled and settled in.
No, not morning yet.

The next time she woke she couldn’t make the same assertion.
Sunshine streamed through the slats of his partially open blinds, warming the
bed where she sprawled like a lazy kitten.
She yawned and stretched, reaching
for Spencer though she already knew she was alone.
She already missed his long,
solid body, his muscles under her hands, his smell.
He was better than any
pillow.

After dozing a couple minutes more, reality filtered into
her brain.
She bolted straight up in bed.

Bright sunlight?
What the fuck time was it?
It wasn’t her
day off.

She glanced at his alarm clock and did a double take at what
she saw.
Eleven fifteen?

“Oh my God.” She jumped out of bed.
Yet again, she had only
club clothes to wear.
Hardly suitable for work.
She also didn’t have a vehicle.
For a full minute she stood in the center of Spencer’s bedroom and held her
head.

Why hadn’t he awakened her?
Why?

A folded piece of paper on the nightstand caught her eye.
She snatched the note and read Spencer’s message with building anger.

Relax.
You needed your sleep.
I’ll say you called sick
but will be in later.
Call me when you’re ready and I’ll take a break and come
get you.

Already he thought he could tell her what to do in bed and
out, even when they were off the clock.
Hell no.
True, she’d been the one who’d
overslept but he’d never set the alarm.
He hadn’t even
tried
to wake
her.
It was nice he was concerned but still, it wasn’t his place.
This was her
job.
Nothing ranked before that, even sleep.

Even him.

She’d never been late.
Not even earlier that week when she’d
had to steal his car to get there on time.

Dammit, he probably didn’t even have a bike.
She could check
out the garage—

Her phone rang in her purse, which she found on the chair
next to his dresser.
Fuming, she pulled it out of her bag and yanked it to her
ear.
“Do you have any clue how
pissed
I am right now?”

His smooth chuckle infuriated her more.
“Sleep well?”

“Spencer, you better get your ass over here and get me.
Now.”

“So much for gratitude I let you sleep in.
And here I was
trying to be a nice boss.”

“You’re lucky I’m not
your
boss, because I’d be
reaming you good right now.”

“Ream me.
Free pass.”

She hated that just his voice made her wet.
Absolutely hated
it.
“You’d just use it against me later.”

“You already owe me.
I expected something last night and you
went to sleep without giving it to me.”

“Excuse me?
You
expected
something?
What am I now,
your sex slave?”

“I could have just taken what I wanted, you know.
While you
were lying in my bed, all warm and loose and beautiful.”

“Stop calling me beautiful.”

“Okay, you’re ugly, but you still make me horny as hell.”

She knocked her head against the wall.
This new playful side
to Spencer was fun, but it was also unnerving.
She didn’t know what to make of
him when he was like this.

“I would’ve clawed your eyes out when I woke.”

“You would’ve clawed my back, not my eyes.
Trust me, you
wouldn’t have minded.”

Because she had no argument to that, she waited.

“Are you still naked?”

“Spencer,” she said, the last of her anger draining so
quickly she had to sit.
She let out a baffled laugh.
“I’m seriously late.”

“I’m seriously hard for you.
What are you going to do about
that?”

Her palm tingled as she remembered stroking his thick
length.
She sucked in a breath.
“Never mind.
I’ll call a cab.”

“And you accuse me of being stifled.
What’s the matter?
Never had phone sex?”

“Phone sex?” Had he lost his damn mind?
“You’re at the
store.
I’m almost six hours late.
And we’ve already had more sex this week than
I’ve had in five years!”

“Really?
Even with that list?
I’m shocked.
Well, the week’s
not over yet.”

“Can we discuss this later?
I need to get to work.”

Her voice must’ve pitched higher than she realized because
he sighed softly.
“Actually, I’m closer than you think.
When you didn’t call, I
got—” Before he could say the next logical word in that sentence, he paused.
Of
course.
“Come unlock the door for me.”

She nearly snapped back a retort about using his keys, but
she didn’t.
Instead she ran downstairs to open the door, conveniently
forgetting she was still naked until Spencer’s gaze raked down her nude body.

“Now this is something I wouldn’t mind coming home to more
often,” he said, still talking into the phone as he entered the foyer and
kicked the door closed.
He set the paper bag he carried on the hall table and
advanced on her, his expression betraying his intent.

“Oh no, you don’t,” she said, reading the gleam in his eyes.
She backed up, fighting the arousal welling inside her.
One glimpse of his hard
jaw and sexy stare and she was a gooey mess.
“You might be able to take breaks
whenever you want, but if I’m off the clock, I’m not getting paid.”

“I’ll reward you in other ways.”

She didn’t doubt it.
“What’s gotten into you?”

“You.” He caught her around the waist and pushed her against
the wall, his mouth closing around her earlobe.
“I thought about getting inside
you all day long.
Do you know what it did to me to imagine you lying naked in
my bed?
Every time my phone rang, I hoped it was you.
I pretended you’d call me
back here and tell me you were thinking of me too, that you couldn’t wait to
have me inside you…”

“Oh.
Well.
That’s nice.” She bit her lip on a sigh.
“I’m not
used to men being driven to distraction over me.”

“New territory for me too.
I keep thinking if I fill myself up
with you, it’ll pass.” He wrapped his hand around her breast, stroking her in
that rough way that never failed to crank her motor.

“How’s that working out for you?”

“As well as it looks.
I hope to God you’re wet,” he
muttered, his other hand delving between her damp thighs.

“God was listening.” Her laughter ended on a raw moan when
his index finger found her clit, insistently circling the distended flesh.

He grinned.
“And here I thought I was on his permanent shit
list.”

“Apparently not.” She hooked a leg around his hip and opened
herself up to him.
“Since I’m already late…” she murmured, shocked to hear
herself being so brazen about something that had been so critical to her even
two weeks ago.

Right now, right here, a spotless record meant nothing.
Less
than.

Sunlight slanted in from the window beside them,
highlighting his hair as he yanked down his zipper.
She could picture him
taking a turn as a fallen angel, as comfortable in the flames of hell as
surrounded by the harps and gossamer clouds of heaven.
He could tempt her to
sin—or she could save him from the brink.

The choice was hers to make.
And survive.

He gripped his erection, jerking on it just enough to make
her eyes cross with longing.
A little knowing smile lifted his lips.
Dammit,
the man knew just what to do to make her pant.
Slowly he dragged the head of
his cock up and down her slit until she was writhing for him.

She loved not using a condom, a feeling she’d never before
experienced.
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea, but they were protected and she
trusted him when he said he was clean.
And she needed him inside her, naked.
Completely bare.

He didn’t tease her long.
With one sure plunge, he buried
himself deep, his hips flexing to drive him home.
She grabbed his shoulders,
holding on as he began to batter her body with methodical thrusts.
The room
filled with the sounds of slapping skin and gasps turning to groans.

Kelly’s eyes slid closed.
Or rolled up in her head.
She
wasn’t entirely sure.
She wasn’t one to go on and on about a man’s cock, but
his had to be made of gold.
How else could he hit every spot inside her just
right, his cock unerringly wringing more joy from her body than she’d ever
imagined?

She’d had good lovers before.
At least she’d thought she
had.
But since Spencer had come into her life, they’d become as real to her as
shadow puppets, fleeting reminders of all she’d been missing.

This
was sex.
Loving the man who so effortlessly
played her body just made it even better.

His broad palm closed around her breast, his thumb and forefinger
pulling on her swollen nipple.
She arched, straining for an orgasm she knew
she’d never reach this way.
Not unless she helped herself.

Her eyes flew open again as she reached down between them.
He hiked her thigh higher on his waist and watched her, his features tight with
lust.
She rubbed her clit slowly, going faster when he increased the tempo of
his thrusts.
For once it wasn’t a contest or race, simply the mutual
exploitation of pleasure.

She could see herself in his eyes and, trapped there, her
fingers picked up speed, her pussy tightening around his cock every time he
entered her.
In and out, on and on.
His expression glazed when she finally
clenched, her orgasm showering him as he drove into her.
She couldn’t stop
shaking but he held her even as he shattered her into glittery pieces all over
again.

Her back bowed as he found his own climax and she reveled in
the exquisite sensation of his hot cum spurting inside her tight channel.
His
release blasted new embers of heat through her belly but she was too spent to
chase them.
All she could do was whimper and enjoy.

A couple of minutes later, he eased her leg down and kissed
her gently, his soft, cool lips a salve after the storm they’d just endured
together.
“Want to go get cleaned up?”

“No.” She sounded completely blitzed.
Not too far off the
mark, actually.
“I want to go to work just like this.
With your scent all over
me.
Maybe then Leigh will keep her grubby paws on her cookies and off you.”

Luckily he chuckled, taking the comment as the joke she’d
meant it as.
Well, it was mostly a joke.
“She’s a kid, Kelly.
Hardly a threat.”

“Duh.
I’d kick her butt in a heartbeat.
A chick who spends
her life in an apron isn’t scrappy enough to take me on.”

“Undoubtedly,” Spencer agreed, chucking her chin in a
yeah,
right
sort of way that might’ve gotten her back up if she hadn’t felt
capable of vaulting skyscrapers without benefit of her push-up bra.

“So what’s the deal with her?”

“What deal?”

Kelly lifted her damp hair off her neck, hoping she looked
more casual than she felt.
She’d never quite managed to forget the position
she’d found Leigh and Spencer in that day in his office.
That she’d clearly
been crying made Kelly wonder if he’d been trying to comfort her, but that was
almost as out there as imagining Leigh crying in the first place.
Leigh never
showed any emotion, period.
If she hadn’t seen the remnants of tears with her
own eyes, Kelly never would’ve believed it.