CHAPTER 7
Don’t panic. You can do this for a day or two. It isn’t a big deal.
Randi released a heavy breath as she watched Evan shuck his coat and scarf, getting an eyeful of what a perfect ass in a pair of jeans actually looked like. Holy shit! Evan Sinclair’s butt was a work of art, and his broad shoulders in the cream-colored fisherman’s sweater he was wearing seemed enormous.
He’s not that incredibly built. He’s not. He really isn’t.
Evan turned around suddenly, lifting a brow at her as he saw exactly what area her eyes were glued to. Jerking away her gaze that was now trained on his crotch, she actually blushed.
“I can’t do this,” she protested weakly . . . again.
She’d argued with Evan about staying with him at his place, but he’d serenely pointed out that Hope’s cat, Daisy, hated dogs. She’d forgotten about Daisy and just about everything else since Evan had picked her up. It was like her IQ score had taken a sudden hit, and she couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say when she was in Evan’s presence.
“Of course you can,” Evan argued. “There’s plenty of room.”
I can’t be trusted to be alone with you, and it has nothing to do with space.
“It isn’t the size of the house,” she admitted, unzipping her jacket and shrugging out of it.
“Is it because you know I want to fuck you?” Evan asked evenly.
Randi’s eyes grew wide the moment Evan made his blunt admission.
Moving forward, Evan took the jacket from her hand and hung it up in the entry closet beside his, talking as he performed the task. “Miranda, I think we’re both uncomfortable with each other because all we want to do is fuck each other senseless.”
Randi couldn’t seem to form any words, still shocked at his straightforward confession. The Evan she was familiar with wasn’t a guy who said something like that. Generally, he didn’t say much at all.
He continued, “Maybe we should both put it out there and deal with it.” He turned and pierced her with a dark look. “I want you. I always have.”
He motioned toward the living room and Randi automatically moved into the next room, even though it was pretty dark. “You can’t stand me.” She could barely keep herself from stammering as she flopped into one of the leather chairs in front of a fireplace, stunned.
Evan flicked a switch, starting the gas fireplace so the room was dimly illuminated before seating himself across from her in a matching chair. “I never disliked you. I don’t even really know you.”
“You ignored me,” Randi protested, remembering how humiliated she’d felt when she’d gotten the cold shoulder from Evan.
He shrugged. “My dick was hard. It wasn’t easy to ignore my attraction to you, and it showed.”
“But I was nice to you, I wanted to be your friend because your brother was marrying one of my best friends.” She still remembered how crushed she’d been when Evan had ignored her efforts to be nice to him at Emily’s wedding.
“I was an asshole. I generally am,” he told her nonchalantly.
Randi opened her mouth to speak, but how could she argue with him? He was declaring himself an unpleasant person already. Closing her mouth, she fixed her eyes on his expression, trying to figure him out. Was Evan really a jerk, or was he just painfully blunt? Either way, he was usually not a pleasant person to be around. Yet she found him intriguing. He was a mystery to solve, a puzzle to put together. If he was in the mood to talk, maybe she could dig for a little information to figure him out.
Lily had been exploring the enormous mansion since she’d pranced in the front door. Now, she was head-butting Randi’s arm.
“She needs to go outside,” Randi told Evan as she rose to her feet. The last thing she needed was Lily leaving her mark on one of the plush, expensive area rugs in Evan’s living room.
“Is that how you know?” Evan asked curiously as he strode across the room and opened one of the French doors that led to a patio.
“Yes. She’s pretty adamant when she really has to go.” Randi eyed the patio doubtfully. “Is there a place for her to go?”
“Any place outside of the door is preferable,” he said, deadpan.
Randi walked onto the covered patio and opened a small gate leading to the beach. Lily sprinted out into the snow. “She can’t poop on the patio.”
“It can be cleaned up. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’m going to use it right now, and it’s probably warmer than it is beyond that gate.”
Laughter burst from Randi’s mouth because she was unable to contain it. Evan had said some of the oddest, most surprising things today. And she was fairly certain he probably meant them. “She’s used to going all the way outside.”
Randi left the gate propped open and slipped back through the door. “It’s cold.” She was shivering as she closed the door, knowing Lily would come back when she was finished.
Evan blocked her escape route with his body. His touch was gentle as he slipped his fingers into her hair and tipped her head up to look at him. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Miranda. At Emily’s wedding, I really didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.”
Randi looked up at him and shivered as she fell into his dark, liquid blue eyes. He was looking at her like a predator that hadn’t had food in weeks, his gaze devouring every inch of her face. His intensity at the moment made her edgy, and his unexpected apology threw her off balance. This wasn’t the Evan she was used to, the Evan who either ignored her or threw out condescending comments.
His body pressed closer, his free hand resting against the door beside her face.
“I forgive you,” she said in a rushed voice. “Just don’t kiss me again.”
If he lays those lips on me, I know I’m toast.
His unique, masculine scent surrounded her, sinking into every pore of her skin, intoxicating her. If he tasted her, she’d never be able to resist him.
“Why?” he asked huskily. “Don’t tell me you don’t want this, Miranda.”
His tone was entreating, almost pleading with her to acknowledge the smoldering heat between them. Her heart skittered as he pressed his lips to her temple, leaving a hot trail of breath along the side of her face.
“I can’t,” she said painfully, knowing she wanted him to kiss her worse than she’d ever wanted anything else in her life. “And nobody calls me Miranda.”
“You can,” he cajoled. “And I prefer Miranda. It’s a beautiful name.”
“I hate it.” Randi’s chest was heaving as Evan’s lips trailed lightly to her ear, his heated breath on her sensitive skin making it difficult for her to draw a breath. “Only my real mother used that name.”
“Maybe you could learn to like it again if there was a man saying it while he was making you come harder than you ever have before,” Evan suggested hoarsely in her ear.
Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Randi was afraid she’d probably learn to love her full name again under those circumstances. All thoughts of her birth mother gone, the only thing she could think of was the mental picture he’d just painted.
Him . . . in the heat of passion, groaning her name like she was a goddess, pounding into her as she experienced the most divine climax of her life. If his fierce expression was any indication of how he pleasured a woman, he’d strip away every defense she’d built up over the years and leave her begging for more. She felt helpless to resist this seductive side of Evan she’d never seen before.
Reaching behind her, he opened the door to let Lily come back in, and then he closed it quickly and flipped the lock, surging forward as he made the motions.
His engorged cock pressed against her pelvis, and she bit her lip to stifle a moan as she felt the size and strength of his erection against her body.
“Kiss me,” Evan demanded as he moved his hands down her back and cupped her jean-clad ass with both of his large, strong hands. His fingers gripped the flesh and pulled her molten core into his hard form. “You asked me not to kiss you, so you have to kiss me.”
Randi’s willpower broke as she looked up and saw the longing in Evan’s eyes. It was an echo of exactly what she was feeling, and she could no more resist him than she could stop breathing. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she speared her hands into his coarse hair and yanked his mouth down to hers. She needed his touch more than she wanted to resist him, and as his lips collided with hers, Randi completely forgot why she was even trying to fight the urge to devour him.
He sprang into action the moment she kissed him, taking control as he demanded her complete surrender. Tasting. Teasing. Commanding. Evan’s tongue swept into her mouth, wiping away every doubt she had as he conquered her mouth with his own, leaving her breathless and mindless as he finally surfaced, his teeth catching her bottom lip and nipping at the flesh as though he wanted to mark it.
His lips were suddenly everywhere, and Randi’s hand left his hair and wrapped around his neck as she felt herself being lifted off her feet. She landed on something soft—she assumed it was the couch—but she wasn’t about to turn her head away from his mouth to look. She was too obsessed with the feel of his body against hers to give a crap what she’d landed on.
For some unknown reason, she felt safe letting Evan take control of her body while it burned for his possession. She knew he was feeling the same insane desires that she was experiencing right now.
Randi nearly whimpered as her body lost contact with his. Opening her eyes, her breath hitched as she saw Evan in the firelight, whipping his sweater over his head and pulling it from his body like he wanted it gone right that second. Randi blinked, stunned by the sight of his muscular chest and defined abs, covered by an abundance of bare skin that she was suddenly itching to touch.
“You’re beautiful,” she breathed softly, still dazed by his passion.
His eyes were like blue flames, his solemn, unwavering stare fixed on her as he tossed his sweater on the floor. Evan didn’t speak as he kneeled beside the couch and sat her up, pulling her sweater over her head. She helped him, tossing the garment to the side, and reached for the front clip of her bra.
“Wait,” Evan insisted, fingering the silky material and tracing her hard, sensitive nipples through the bra. “This is sexy. I want to remember you like this. I want to remember everything.”
His deep voice was so reverent that the vibrations tremored down her spine and left goose bumps over her skin. “I need this, Evan. Please. This doesn’t have to mean that I like you, or that I expect anything. You don’t have to like me, either, in the future. But I want this now.”
She was usually overly cautious, and not likely to be so needy under usual circumstances. But she was tired of fighting her unrelenting attraction to this man, so tired of grieving her loss, and so damn weary of feeling so empty inside.
“You don’t have to like me,” Evan growled. “Just let me make you come.” He tore the bra from her upper body with a strong tug. The lacy garment was delicate, and it gave to his superior strength.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Even as Randi mourned the loss of her favorite bra, she moaned as he freed her breasts from their confinement.
In one smooth move, Evan slid onto the couch and between her thighs. She yanked him down, gasping as their heated skin collided. It was both torture and bliss. Her nipples grew impossibly harder as they abraded against his muscular chest.
Wrapping her arms around him, she moved her hands over his shoulders and down his back, touching every inch of bare skin she could find. He felt hot, hard, his skin was like velvet beneath her fingers.
He grasped her hair and pulled her head back, his lips and tongue trailing boldly over the vulnerable flesh on her neck. “I. Need. This. Too.” His voice was raspy and desperate.
His words echoed in her mind, and her body ignited as he boldly admitted that he wanted the same thing she did right now, needed it with the same urgency.
She longed to just let him take the lead, satiate her need, but she had to tell him one thing before she completely lost control.
“I don’t do oral sex,” she warned him. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t. She actually couldn’t. She’d tried to overcome her fears with a college boyfriend, and it hadn’t been a pleasant experience.
“Fine,” he answered sharply, sounding like he couldn’t care less what she was willing to give him as he rose to pull off her boots and unbutton her jeans.
Desperate and panting, she helped him. After kicking her feet out of her jeans, she reached for him again, but he stood and tore off his own denims. Randi sighed as he lowered his boxer shorts in one smooth motion and stepped out of them.
Backlit by the fire, Evan was gloriously naked and exquisitely made. His cock was long, thick, and so rock-hard that she wanted desperately to have him inside her. She reached out her hand to touch him instinctively, but he grasped her outstretched fingers. “No.” His tone was insistent.
He moved back between her thighs, draping one of her legs over the couch and placing the other over his shoulder.
“These match,” he observed, rubbing his thumb over the red silk of her panties.
“My favorite set,” she panted helplessly, trembling as his finger traced her wet pussy though the material. Her body was ready to incinerate, and he hadn’t even started to fuck her. She moaned as he slid one finger under the elastic and lightly touched her clit. “Oh, God. Evan. Please.” She desperately needed him inside her. Now. “What are you doing?” Why was he waiting?
“You said you didn’t do oral sex. I was assuming that you were talking about performing it and not receiving it. I hope so, anyway.” He yanked at the panties, and they gave way just like the bra. “Because I really need to taste you, Miranda.” He tossed the panties on the floor as his head dove between her thighs.
She squealed as he claimed her pussy with one long flick of his tongue, the sensation so incredible that her breath seized as he started to consume her, feasting on her vulnerable flesh like she was his only sustenance. Randi raked her hands through his hair, fisting it hard as her body rocked in crazed response to his lips, teeth, and tongue, all of them working together to drive her crazy.
Her hips lifted, and she ground her pussy against his mouth, desperate. “Evan. Please.” It was like her body was roaring to life, and it was hungry for more.
Finally, he centered on her clit, his teeth biting gently at the bundle of nerves, his tongue flicking quickly against the quivering flesh.
“Yes,” Randi moaned, lost to everything except Evan’s touch.
The possessive, dominant way he consumed her left her mindless. It was as though he had only one goal in that moment: to make her come. His laser focus on his task and the obvious enjoyment he received from the carnal act was overwhelming. Evan was like a force of nature that was absolutely relentless.
She climaxed screaming his name, her hips bucking against his hungry mouth as her body trembled with relief.
Her heartbeat was thundering in her ears as he climbed up her body, her breathing still ragged. “Fuck me, Evan,” she pleaded. While her body was sated of the need to come, she still felt empty. She needed to touch him, watch him experience his own pleasure.
“I plan on it,” he answered gutturally.
Randi tried to reach for his engorged cock again, but he pushed her hand away as he grabbed a condom from the floor. He must have removed it from his pocket before he’d torn off his jeans. Now, he rolled it on like a madman.
“If you touch me, I won’t last,” Evan growled as he lowered his body over hers.
“I don’t care,” Randi murmured as she wrapped her arms around his neck and stroked the warm, sleek skin on his shoulders. She wrapped her legs around his lower back.
“Well I sure as hell do,” Evan grumbled as he claimed her with one smooth thrust of his hips. “Jesus, you’re tight,” Evan groaned as he buried himself to the root of his cock.
“Oh, God.” It had been so long, and Evan was built big. His entry was both pain and ecstasy. Randi could feel his body tense as he waited for her to adjust to his size, staying still as he remained deeply buried inside her. “Don’t wait. Fuck me, Evan.” Her muscles relaxed and let him in. The pain had only lasted a second, and then there was only the fullness of him and the exquisite pleasure of having him deep inside her.
“Can’t. Wait.” Evan started to move with a tortured groan.
Randi felt her whole body start to vibrate, and her belly tightened as Evan started to retreat and pounded back into her as though his life depended on it.
Reality receded and there was only Evan and her as their bodies strained together, Randi feeling like she wanted to crawl inside of him and never come out. His scent surrounded her, intoxicating her. His cock was pummeling her, and his damp flesh was abrading against hers, but it wasn’t enough.
“Harder,” she pleaded, needing more.
Her nails scored his back as she tried to get him closer.
“Fuck! That feels good,” he growled, thrusting himself deeper, harder.
Carnal desire swept them both into its clutches as their bodies slapped together in a hard, fast, and hot rhythm that had Randi writhing beneath Evan in one big whirlpool of longing.
“Come for me, Miranda. Come with me,” Evan commanded right before his mouth closed over hers.
The coil in her stomach unfurled just as Evan’s body began to tense, the feel of his hot mouth invading hers, putting her over the edge. She grasped his tight ass, wanting to hold him inside her as he groaned into her mouth.
She climaxed in a stormy sea of desire that nearly swept her away; the only thing anchoring her in place was her mesmerized gaze on Evan as he pulled his mouth from hers with a guttural, feral groan. He threw his head back, the cords of the muscles in his neck flexing and tiny beads of perspiration were trickling down his face as he found his own release.
In that single moment, as one, they splintered apart, and Randi knew she’d never forget exactly how Evan had looked when they did. Consumed by passion, he was a sensual, glorious sight that was worth remembering.
He only rested his weight on top of her for a moment before he lifted himself from her to get rid of the used condom.
She missed the feel of him the moment he left her. The scorching heat of his body against hers was sublime, and filled some of the dark, empty places that had resurfaced after her loss.
He returned even before she’d completely caught her breath, lifting her from the sofa and flopping into a recliner with her on his lap. She snuggled against him, getting drunk on the scent of Evan and sex. They were both damp with exertion, even though the storm was probably still raging outside the walls of his massive home. He stroked her hair like she was special to him, and she brushed a stray lock of hair from his forehead.
Her mind tried to berate her for what had just happened, but she pushed the negative thoughts from her brain. She refused to regret what she’d just done. Evan had filled some of the lonely places inside her, and made her body sing with sensation. She’d never had sex remotely as good as she’d just experienced, and she wasn’t going to hate herself for enjoying it so much with a man she didn’t even really like. Life was too short for those kinds of regrets. She was going to relish exactly what she had right now, right this moment, and to hell with the future.
“I have a problem,” Evan said remorsefully.
Randi giggled at his serious tone. She was starting to get used to his somber demeanor. She was starting to think that his personality wasn’t all arrogance, and that he sometimes said things seriously because he never had the opportunity to laugh. “I thought we just took care of your problem.”
He shook his head. “Not that. Another problem.”
“What?” she asked curiously, pulling back to look at his face.
His gaze met hers, and she noticed a slight, endearingly naughty twinkle in his eyes. “I think I’m starting to like you.”
His tone was morose, but Randi knew he was trying to tease her. His attempt was adorable and sweet, since she knew instinctively that what he was trying to do wasn’t easy for a man like Evan.
Randi burst out laughing and hugged him to her chest. She sobered and tried to mimic his serious tone, but knew that she failed miserably. “I think I like you, too.”