Resisting Roots (Lotus House Book 1) (8 page)

Her body trembled under my ministrations. “Oh, God, please, Trent. Now.”

“Be my pleasure, gumdrop.” I shifted her weight, though she hardly weighed anything. She lifted her head off the ground and braced her hands onto the mat. It made her body shift higher, so I got onto my knees. My hammy protested slightly, but this was one workout the leg absolutely needed.

The second I got her braced to me, practically holding her aloft, she sucked my cock deeply. The best part, she came at me as if I were her last meal, as if she were starved for it, licking, swirling that tongue round and round. My balls got tight, lifted, and the tension of an impending orgasm hit my lower back and traveled up my spine.

“I’m gonna come. Don’t want you choking,” I said around a mouthful of the sweetest pussy. I stuck a finger in deep and stirred it around.

Her body tensed. “Me too. Sit back down, and then lie back with your knees up. I’ll brace on you.”

Not wanting to leave the honey between her thighs, I grumbled but figured she was the one who had been upside down and likely needed to be upright. So wrong. The second I lay down, she lifted her legs back into the pencil before she slowly lowered them until her feet landed on the mat beside my head. It was like watching an acrobatic show in slow motion. My eye was on the prize when she brought her top half down and lay over my supine form. That’s when I was gifted with her pussy hovering directly over my face.

With strong fingers, I gripped her hips. “Fuckin’ A!” And I pulled her down to my face.

“Oh my word…” she said, while grinding down on my face.

I loved every second of her sexual freedom. Then, as her body shook, she latched onto my raging cock, but this time took it much farther into the heat of her mouth. Way farther. Once it hit her throat, she pushed a little, but I could feel her jolt, gagging on it.

So that’s what I did. I took that sweet peach of hers, pushed her ass cheeks wide, and ate her like I was eating Thanksgiving dinner. Relentless suction, two fingers pressed deep into her tight heat where I pushed against that hidden jewel inside, and her body arched. She jerked her hips down and took control of her pleasure, getting herself off while I worked her over, and she worked me over in the process. The keening sounds of her orgasm were muffled, her mouth full of cock. When her body tightened, preparing for release, I almost died and went to heaven. She fastened her mouth around the head of my cock and clamped down in a Hoover-style lock-down. Finally, she moaned, and an incredible tightness spread through my loins and out my cockhead as I shot hot cum down her throat. She took it all, sucked every drop down like she was dying of thirst.

When we both were done, she spun around on top of me as if she were the star acrobat performing in Cirque de Soleil. She was definitely shining bright.

“Holy moly, that was…wow…” Genevieve breathed against my chest, resting her head over my pounding heart.

“More like fan-fuckin-tastic. You ever do that before?”

She shook her head. “No, but I always wanted to be more adventurous with my yoga practice. My buddy Dash teaches the tantric class, and I’ve attended when his regular assistant couldn’t help out. The stuff they do in there…” She shook her head. “Wow, doesn’t cover it.”

“Sign us up,” I said deadpan. More sexy yoga poses that got me a mouthful of Genevieve? I was all over that like white on rice.

Genevieve giggled against my chest. Her cheeks were a softer pink, her lipstick smudged.

“Come here, gumdrop. Let me taste those sweet lips. I want to taste myself on you.”

Her black eyes darkened even more, swirling with lust. I tagged her around the neck and led her to my lips. I took her bottom lip into my mouth first, licking up all her candy flavor alongside a hint of salt that hadn’t been there the other times. That was me. Salt and sweet. My two favorite tastes mixed together.

We kissed softly for a few minutes, touching intimately. It was the first time I’d ever spent time just touching and kissing a woman for no other reason than getting to know her. What she liked, the sounds she made when I caressed a particularly sensitive spot were all a mystery I wanted to solve. The way she sighed when I ran my tongue between her breasts…pure heaven. Before long, it was getting late, and feet pounded down the hallway. Genevieve glanced up at the door.

“Goodness. We did all that with the door not even closed all the way.” Her face turned a crimson color that looked unbelievable on her white skin.

“Relax. The door wasn’t even cracked, but I agree, that was a close call.” I chuckled.

She smacked my chest, hopped up, and tried to adjust her pants. Then she went over to her bag in the corner, pulled out a pair of yoga pants, and dropped the ones she was wearing. I got the most beautiful view of her half-clothed. Her legs were long for her size and toned. The thatch of blond hair between her thighs was a neat landing strip that I very much wanted to run my tongue against. Too quickly, she jumped into the new pants. I groaned, shifted my shorts over my semi, and crawled to a stand.

For some reason, between changing her pants and chucking the other ones in her bag, she got shy. Her shoulders curved, she swiped at her hair repeatedly and looked anywhere but at me. Figuring I needed to do some damage control, I limped over to where she was getting her things together. I placed a hand to the back of her neck.

“Genevieve, babe, words can’t describe that experience. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.”

She met my gaze, her features seeming fearful, laden with an anxiety that hadn’t been there before. One I frankly didn’t understand. Was she regretting what we’d done?

“You okay?” I asked, bringing both hands to cup her cheeks.

She nodded.

I shook my head. “Words, gumdrop.”

Genevieve glanced to the door. “It was wild. I’ve never done anything like that. Never knew I could. You bring out a side in me…a wild side that makes me lose all control. We shouldn’t have done that here.”

Leaning close, I brought my forehead to hers. “I get that, and you’re right. We were in the moment. It was wild, but nothing we did was wrong. Just the wrong place. Next time, we’ll be more private.”

“Next time?” Her voice carried a slight tremble.

“Oh, yeah. There will be a next time, gumdrop. You think I can get a taste of that sweetness between your thighs and not want seconds?”

Her cheeks got hot as I held them, and I knew if I backed up, they’d be that rosy pink I loved.

“Trent, the things you say…” She sighed and leaned into my hand.

Oh, I liked that. Cuddly, like a kitten. Made me wonder what other ways I could make her purr.

I kissed her lips softly once, twice, three times, before I pulled back and let her go. Had to, otherwise I’d be pushing her up against that patchwork fabric and taking her in a whole new way. “Friday, you and me. Dinner. Then my place. Plan to stay over.”

Her eyes got wide, and she shook her head. “I can’t.”

I frowned. “Why the hell not? You’re a grown woman.”

“Yeah, with two children under my care,” she snapped.

“Wait a minute. You are solely responsible for your brother and baby sister?” I hadn’t realized how much was truly on her plate.

Her shoulders slumped. “Yes. And they count on me to come home every night.”

“Don’t you have grandparents or aunts and uncles that could help out?”

I sighed and gritted my teeth. Based on the sour expression she wore, I was about to get my balls handed to me, and not in a good way.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve.” She pointed her finger into my chest.

Ouch. Now I knew how her brother felt yesterday.

“All you see is a woman you want to bed. Well, I’m not a baggage-free floozy like the groupies you take to your bed. I have responsibilities, people who count on me to be there when they lay their heads on their pillows. If you can’t handle that”—she pointed—“there’s the door. Feel free to use it.”

“Gumdrop, I’m sorry. I didn’t know the whole story.”

“Well, maybe you should ask before assuming you can just whisk me off to your bed.”

She had a point, but so did I. We’d spent the past hour doing things to one another that I knew I’d never be able to repeat with another soul, and that thought made me sad as hell. My heart constricted uncomfortably. Any man would assume that the woman he’d done it with would be yippy skippy to repeat it, only horizontally with a lot fewer clothes and preferably on a bed, not a hard floor in a public yoga studio. It
had been
insanely hot, and I wasn’t kidding when I’d said I wouldn’t forget it. That scene was burned into the deepest recesses of my mind where I could bust it out on a whim.

“Genevieve, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed. How about I take you out tomorrow like we planned? We’ll talk. You tell me all about you, and I’ll tell you all about me. We’ll start over,” I said, not believing the words were coming directly from my mouth. It was like a case of the body snatchers. I was saying all the right words, and I meant them, but the Trent Fox I’d always been wouldn’t have cared. Not a bit. This version of me was downright humbling himself to the hot yoga teacher.

It had to be the phenomenal sex.

I
’d agreed
to start over with Trent, which was surprising. Sure he was good-looking, great body, funny, called me cute nicknames like gumdrop and babe all the time, but it was more than that. He made me feel things deeper inside, far more than I’d felt even with my ex-boyfriend, Brian, and I’d thought I was going to marry him.

It had to be the phenomenal sex.

What we’d experienced in the studio a couple days ago was right out of the yoga Kama Sutra. I looked it up. I couldn’t believe I held the pose for so long. Then again, him hoisting my legs and bracing me the way he did helped. Still, I’d tapped into my super womanly sex goddess power that must have been hiding under some seriously repressed sexual tension. Just remembering his mouth on me made tingles shoot through my limbs.

I sighed and hugged my corduroy blazer tighter around my form. The air was brisk this far into October. The Bay Area wasn’t known for being cold. None of California was, but it was a lot colder in the Bay Area than in the Valley. The Valley residents were still rocking shorts and tanks, but in Berkeley, we felt the chill from the Pacific Ocean.

Checking out my shoes, I tipped my foot to the side. I loved tall boots and skinny jeans. Made me feel taller, and at five-foot-five, any bit of height I could score was a good thing. Especially when I was going on a date with a man who was over six feet. What Trent saw in me I didn’t know. I knew I was considered pretty. Had been mistaken for Gwen Stefani a few times, and she was beautiful, even at twice my age. I’d left my hair down, remembering how Trent had pulled it out of my usual bun this week when he kissed me. It blew behind me when I stood with my face to the wind.

I waited for Trent to arrive in front of the studio. He’d missed today’s appointment because he’d had some type of marketing meeting with his agent.

“Hey, Viv!” Dara ran up to me, apron still around her waist from her time at the bakery.

She wrapped her long arms around me and brought me into a squeeze. Her body was warm, and she smelled like powdered sugar. One of the benefits of working in a bakery, she always smelled like the pastries and bread they cooked.

“So what are you doing standing out here on the street looking all sex-a-fied?”

I grinned, shuffled my feet, and looked out at the bustling street. It was early evening, and the area residents were hitting their favorite haunts such as the bakery, café, smoke shop, and running to catch their yoga class. “Waiting for my date to pick me up.”

Dara’s eyes got big. “Oh, yeah, and is that someone tall, as in…really tall?” She held her arm up way above her head.

I smiled and nodded.

“And does he have the thickest-looking brown hair?” One of her eyebrows rose into her forehead.

“Maybe.” I bit down on my bottom lip, and a flush of heat rushed to my cheeks.

“And would he possibly be the sexiest baseball player alive with a rugged jaw, sensual hazel eyes, and a body that’s worth drooling over?”

“Uh-huh,” I chuckled.

Dara reached out and shoved my arm. “You suck! I so was gonna hit on him. He is scrumdidilyumptious. Great score on that one.” Her eyes twinkled.

What else could a girl say? She was not wrong. “I know.” I hugged myself as a sleek silver Maserati rolled up in front of me and parked in the loading zone. Total bad boy.

Trent slowly exited the car. His limbs were long and encased in a pair of dark-wash jeans. He wore a black henley that sheathed his muscles like a second skin. Dang, Trent Fox was something right out of a hot sports guy catalog. He limped over to me, but the limp was slightly less pronounced. Either he was having a good day, or the yoga was helping. I hoped it was the latter.

“Gumdrop…” He leaned right in front of me, got on my level, wrapped a hand around my neck, tipped my chin up, and took my lips in a soft all too-short kiss. “Missed you today, babe.”

“Hot damn!” Dara said under her breath but loud enough for both of us to hear.

Trent did a super cool chin lift move in greeting. “Dara, how you doing, beautiful?”

I cringed at hearing him call her beautiful. As the first prick of jealousy hit my nerves, I chastised myself. Man, Luna and Amber were right. I’d been out of the game too long.

“Not as good as you two, I see. Your auras are shining so bright they’re blinding me. Wow. You’re gonna have some fun with that.” Her lips twitched.

“With what?” Trent asked.

Not a lot of people knew that Lotus House’s resident meditation specialist also read auras. And her readings were never wrong.

“The fun you’re going to have tonight. With one another.” She pointed to the two of us and shook her head. “Your auras are flaming red.” She waved at her face as if she had caught a hot flash of her own.

Trent shifted his hands to my hips, and he brought me close. “She a kook?”

I giggled. “Yes, also dead accurate with her readings.” Though it didn’t take a mind reader to know Trent and I had passion sizzling between us. It was like an electrical current the moment his hand hit my neck and his lips briefly touched mine.

Trent lifted his head and turned toward Dara. “It was good seeing you, beautiful. Catch you next week for a couple pastries, yeah?”

“Sure thing, handsome,” she replied. “Bye, Viv. Have fun.” She waved her fingers and waggled her eyebrows.

Me? I was downright annoyed. He called her
beautiful
and she called him
handsome
. I hadn’t even come up with something clever to call him, and here she was giving him a proper nickname. And it was a good one, too. I pouted.

Trent leaned close again and rubbed his forehead against mine. “What does a red aura mean, anyway?”

I grinned and lifted my face up so I could better assess his eyes. They were more of a deep green than hazel in this light. “Means passion, love, hunger, immediacy, charged energy, stuff like that.” My voice had taken on a lower, more sultry timbre.

He hummed low at the back of his throat. “Then she has a gift, gumdrop. Looking at you wearing that outfit, that bright red lipstick coating your kissable lips, I was thinking a lot of those things.”

I couldn’t help but smile wide, rub his nose with mine, and tell him exactly where I was. “Me too.”

He ran his hand down my arm and tugged. “Time to get dinner, or before long, I’ll be eating you instead.” As he opened my door, he blatantly adjusted his crotch.

I held back the laughter bubbling under the surface. Everything about this man made me feel light, girly, and most important…wanted. It had been so long since I’d allowed myself the affections of the opposite sex, and now that I had, the floodgates had opened and my entire body was awash with sensation. A physical heat throbbed between my legs, up my belly, over my chest, neck, and through each arm to my fingertips. I was wired, charged for anything. One single touch, even brief, could set me off. I’d never felt more alive than I did right then.

G
enevieve was
quiet in the car on the way to the restaurant. I was taking her to the one at the top of my building. It had a sky lounge that I used regularly. I knew the people there and had a standard Friday night reservation. The food was good, the atmosphere business casual, and the view superb. I pegged Genevieve for a woman who hadn’t spent a lot of time being wined and dined.

We pulled up to the valet for the twenty-four-story building that sat in the center of Oakland, just east of the business district. My apartment was located on the twentieth floor and had a great view of Lake Merritt, but I didn’t intend to tell her that. She’d think I was planning to get her into bed. Which, incidentally, wasn’t exactly untrue. I hadn’t had a woman in two weeks. Sure, I’d had a single taste of the sweet Genevieve, and every last bit of her that I tasted was succulent. I wanted more. So much more.

“Wait here,” I said.

Using the curves of the vehicle as leverage, I moved around the car as quickly as my injured leg would allow and opened her door. The smile on her face when she looked up and put a booted foot to the asphalt was worth the hustle. Christ, she had the most exquisite face I’d ever seen. Her skin shone like sculpted ivory. The red of her lips against her flawless skin made something in my heart tighten as well as something my jeans.

“You ever been here before?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t usually spend a lot of time in Oakland. Oddly enough, almost all of my time is spent in Berkeley. I work there, my friends live there, and my siblings go to school there.” She shrugged. “Really hasn’t been much reason to branch out.”

“No baseball games?”

She grinned. “I haven’t been to a professional game in years. The last one was when my dad took Rowan and me. I was his age then, sixteen. He was eight. We rooted for the Ports though.” Her grin turned into a shy smirk.

“Is that right?” I led her up the steps to where the doorman held the door.

“It is.”

“Well, we’ll have to see about getting you in the stands for one of my games then, won’t we?”

My entire body tightened when she stopped dead in her tracks.

She lifted her head and seemed to search every inch of my face when she looked at me. “Trent, don’t say things you don’t mean, okay?”

Her words were spoken in a whisper, but the emotional punch they held hit me right in the gut.

“Gumdrop, I…”

She waved her hand and walked toward the elevator, me hot on her heels. “No worries. It’s just I don’t want to get attached.”

Again, stupidly, I scowled and responded with no fucking filter. “What if I want you to get attached?”

Genevieve spun around quickly. “Seriously, we both know what this is. Let’s not make it anything more.”

We stepped into the elevator.

“With your infinite yogi wisdom, what would you say this is?” I moved toward her.

She stepped back until I’d caged her in. Unable to control myself, I pressed my body into hers.

She gasped when my body came in contact with the length of hers. “Fun. Casual. Maybe more.” She spoke in that sultry, low timbre that filled my mind with thoughts of fucking the hell out of her.

Trying to rein in the lust, I ran my nose along hers and then down to her neck. Inhaling her sugar-and-spice scent right at the back of her neck, I laid a kiss there. She sighed and melted against me.

Growling against her warm skin, I kissed along her neck. “Casual? Maybe.”
Kiss
. “Fun? Definitely.”
Kiss
. “More? Absolutely.” I brought my lips to hers and claimed her mouth.

She opened to my searching tongue, instant participation. Wild, searching, passionate.

We kissed without any regard to who might have come and gone from the elevator. Eventually, the doors dinged, and someone cleared his throat. I wanted to throat punch the man that held the door open as I pulled back from her sugarcoated lips.

“I believe this is your floor.”

I recognized the restaurant’s host, and he had the decency to cast his gaze down.

“Restroom?” Genevieve asked immediately, wiping below her kiss-swollen lips.

A sexy smudge remained from our kiss, and by the end of the night, I planned to have the candy apple red color all over my body instead of hers. God willing.

The host showed her the way and got our table together. When she walked back out moments later, her lips were perfectly red and glossy. Genevieve was every man’s fucking dream girl. Her hair was back in place and hanging in soft curls over her shoulders.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said instantly.

She clucked her tongue once before responding. “You mean like Dara?” She pursed her pretty lips.

I closed my eyes with a chuckle. “I didn’t take you for the jealous type, gumdrop.”

“I’m not. But when the man you’re going on a date with calls you beautiful after calling your friend he just saw on the street the same, it kind of waters down the impact.”

“Duly noted.” I led the way to my normal table by placing a hand to her lower back.

Man, this woman didn’t miss a beat, and beyond that, she was a challenge. One I absolutely got off on.

Once we were seated and I ordered a beer ordered for me and a cosmo for her, I started in on the questions. Until now, the way I operated, I’d meet a chick, feed her a couple drinks, and bang the shit out of her until neither of us could walk. With Genevieve, I was actually interested in learning more.

“Please explain what’s up with the siblings. Why is it that they are your responsibility alone?”

Genevieve took a sip of her drink. Seeing her wrap those ruby-red lips around a sugared rim, my dick throbbed painfully in my jeans.

“My grandparents are dead. Both Mom and Dad were only children. I don’t have aunts or uncles in the conventional sense. I have my next door neighbor, Amber, who’s also my best friend, and her grandmother who help out when they can, but Amber is a full-time student. And when I say full-time, I don’t mean twelve credits. I mean eighteen. She’s going to be a doctor.”