SIXTEEN
“You’re going to have to talk to your brother eventually, you know.”
Of course, Alex was waiting on her when she trudged back into the office after making certain everyone was finished for the night and locking up. It was almost midnight. The late crowd hadn’t dwindled out until after eleven, and the restaurant had stayed busy.
“Did you get my computer fixed?” She ignored his comment about Natches.
“Everything’s running smooth.” He pushed back from the computer. “I even worked up the payments you had listed for today and have everything ready for you to sign. I input your invoices, listed your deliveries, and you should be good to go for the night.” He laid to the side the stack of papers awaiting her signature.
“Regular little secretary, aren’t you?” She eased into a chair, slid her heels from her feet, and stretched her arches.
She was exhausted. She needed another manager. It was obvious she was going to have to open the extra dining room if she wanted to increase profits from the popularity of the restaurant. And the newspaper was refusing to run the ad without Natches’s okay. That pissed her off.
“I try to please,” he drawled, leaning against the table on the other side of the desk.
A minute later, a steaming cup of fresh coffee was at her elbow. Janey stared at the coffee, then up at Alex.
Before she could turn her head, his palm cupped her neck, and the way he did that was too dominant and too sexy for words. Then his lips stole a long, melting, tongue-licking kiss that just about stole her mind.
When he lifted his mouth and moved back, a confident smile on his face, she frowned back at him.
“I’ve detected a pattern here.” She sighed. “You kiss me and give me coffee before you start harassing me.”
“Janey, I never harass you,” he said mockingly. “I merely state my opinions.”
“Well, tonight I don’t want to hear your opinions.” She lifted the cup and sipped, almost moaning at the rich, dark taste. But it still wasn’t as good as his kiss.
She turned back to the computer, going through her accounting program, checking the work he had done that day. Not that she didn’t trust him. She was anal; she admitted it.
He’d of course done everything perfectly.
“Tabitha mentioned you were talking about opening the banquet room for reservations in a few weeks,” he stated as he poured his own coffee. “You can’t handle it alone.”
No kidding. She almost snorted at that statement.
“I’m not begging Natches to approve a general manager,” she told him with an edge of anger. “The newspaper won’t even run my ad now.”
“Talk to him, Janey,” he stated again. “He thinks you’re going to leave. And that thought is your fault.”
“Staying here might not be an option.” She lifted her shoulders negligently. “Either way, the restaurant needs to stay open. To take advantage of the popularity right now and continue to grow into the future, it needs to maintain a daily reputation. Poor service or shutting it down for a period of time will only destroy any future earnings for it.”
“I have a feeling we both know Natches doesn’t give a damn about this restaurant,” Alex said. “I’m wondering why you do.”
“Income.”
“Bullshit.” His tone was sharp. “Don’t lie to me, Janey. I don’t like it.”
She wanted to know how he knew she was lying, but she refused to ask. She was almost afraid to know.
“I always loved the restaurant,” she finally said, hating to admit to anyone that anything was important to her. “Every time I came here I could see how to make it work. I knew what it needed.” She stared at the computer screen. “And it ate inside me because it was nothing but a means to an end for Dayle. I hated him for that alone.”
The restaurant became a symbol to Janey, and she knew it. Something that could endure with the proper care and staff. Something she could build her life around.
“Does Natches know how you feel?”
She turned and looked at him curiously. “Why do you care? Why are you suddenly so damned concerned about my relationship with my brother?”
“Because he’s going to end up hitting me out of frustration,” he growled. “He can’t figure shit out with you, so it makes him even more pissed that I’m sleeping with you, because he thinks he’s losing the sister he never had a chance to know, before he has a chance to get to know her. It’s a male thing.”
She stared back at him suspiciously. “A male thing?”
He rubbed at his jaw. “I would really hate to have to fight Natches, Janey. But you’re his baby sister. The baby sister he was never able to be a brother to. He doesn’t know things that brothers think they should know. Now he’s getting even more pissed that I’m sleeping with you, because he thinks I’m coming between the two of you.”
“And this is a male thing?”
“It’s a male thing.” He nodded. “We’re not just possessive over our lovers or wives, but we have this thing about our baby sisters, too. It’s our job to make sure they don’t get hurt. Physically or emotionally.”
“And you’re aware that’s totally asinine, correct?”
He grinned. “Oh yeah, we know that with our heads. But our hearts are another matter. That’s where it’s our baby sister’s responsibility to figure out the problem and fix it.”
Janey bit her lip. Hard. It was that or tell him exactly how ridiculous the whole baby sister/older brother thing sounded.
“So, I’m supposed to what?” she finally asked. “Ask him nicely to let me hire another manager? Beg him, maybe?”
“Or sit down and tell him that restaurant means more to you than some fly-by-night hole-in-the-wall you can walk away from. Because we both know you won’t walk away from it short of death. Be honest about that much, Janey.”
“I would walk away from it before I’d see you or my brother hurt because someone wants to hurt me,” she stated, staring around the office, thinking about the dining rooms outside. “It’s not worth that.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” He crossed his arms over the white shirt he wore and stared back at her implacably. “Admit it.”
“Why are you harassing me? Go away, Alex.” She turned back to the computer and shut it down. “I have paperwork to do.”
She was lifted from the chair and tossed over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she screeched, bracing her hands above his butt and staring down. “Let me down.”
His hand landed on her ass in a quick little slap that had her eyes widening.
“You’re done for the night,” he told her, striding to the door.
She heard him setting the alarm, then the lights flipped out and cold air was swirling beneath her skirt as he stepped outside.
“You’re crazy.” She throttled the yell that the accusation should have been. “Certifiable. Dammit, Alex, I have work to do.”
“Yes, you do,” he drawled, moving up the stairs. “You have a hell of a job ahead of you and it involves my hard dick. I’d rather take care of that in a bed if you don’t mind.”
Arousal should not have slammed inside her. She shouldn’t have just let him cart her around like a sack of potatoes because his dick was hard and he wanted a bed to fuck in.
But she did. Because she wanted him. She loved him. Because she wanted as many memories as she could build before she had to force herself to let him go.
“Here we go.” He set her on her feet at the door, then moved in front of her to unlock it and push it open.
It was silent as a tomb inside. He flipped the kitchen light on and moved inside, pulling her into the kitchen and closing the door before punching in the code for the security system.
Janey stayed in place as he pulled the handgun from the holster he wore behind his back and moved through the apartment.
He flipped lights on and off as he moved through each room, finally returning to the kitchen, his tall, broad body moving with a male grace and power that never failed to make her heart race.
“It’s clear?” she asked as he pushed the gun back into its holster.
“Clear.” His gaze flickered over her. “Those short skirts are killing me, you know. Knowing what you’re wearing under them. Smoky stockings and a black garter belt. It makes me hard, Janey.”
“Everything makes you hard.” She pulled the gray silk blouse from the band of her skirt and began unbuttoning it slowly.
“Everything about you makes me hard,” he agreed, his expression beginning to tighten as he loosened the reins on his arousal.
“Just me?” She leaned against the wall, watching him closely, knowing she was pushing, and in pushing would most likely end up with a broken heart.
She couldn’t just let things ride, could she? No, she had to have more. She had to push for an emotion she knew he didn’t feel.
“Just you,” he surprised her with his answer. “I haven’t wanted another woman since you came home, Janey.”
But was it enough?
She left her blouse unbuttoned as she moved her hand to the little clasp and zipper at the side of her skirt.
“Do you give me all of you?” she asked him softly, promising herself that she was not going to mention love.
His hands fisted at his side. “What do you want?”
“The one thing you want to give me the most,” she whispered.
“Do you know what that is, baby?” His voice roughened, lowered. “You don’t know what all of me can be.”
Janey licked her lips as she let the skirt slide over her hips and pool at her feet. His gaze flared, became thunderous, his cheekbones darkening as arousal tautened his features, making them sharper, more savage.
“Maybe I need to know all of you, Alex. You take all of me. You come inside me without protection, knowing what could come of it. You want more from me than you should ever have the chance to demand. Maybe I want to see what I’m getting in the bargain.”
As though something had flipped a switch in his expression, it became more intent, his eyes darkening. His fingers uncurled, but he didn’t come closer. He didn’t move to her. He stared at her, his gaze tracking over her body, heating her, making her want more than he had ever given her. She wanted the parts of him that he held back, the parts he hid from her. She wanted as much of him as he demanded of her, but she would take this, for now.
“Janey, I can get nasty,” he warned her then. “Some things need to be worked into.”
Her lips curled knowingly. “You and the Mackay cousins were close growing up, weren’t you, Alex?”
“You know we were.”
“Did you join in their games?” Games where they took women together. The Mackay cousins had been known for sharing their lovers until they fell in love. “I won’t be shared.”
“I’d kill the man who tried to touch you now.” He moved to her, one hand cupping her neck, holding her in place. Did he know how that turned her on? Made her crazy for him?
“But you did it,” she murmured. “All those things they did.”
“What do you want, Janey?” His other hand tightened at her hip. “Tell me. I’ll give you what you want.”
“The wildest thing you ever imagined doing with me.” She wanted to be wild with him. “That’s what I want, Alex. The most wicked, sexual thing you ever thought of if you could get me in your bed. What would you do to me? How would you make me scream for you?”
“Don’t.” His hand tightened at her neck.
“What was it?” She turned her head, kissed his wrist, then nipped it, all the while watching him, trying to tempt him. “What could be wilder, Alex, than tying my hands behind my back and making me suck your dick?”
He jerked her hips closer. His head lowered. His lips, they were fuller, more kissable, sexier. She wanted him to kiss her like he was now. She sensed, knew, it would be hard, rough. All of him.
“Burying my dick in your ass would be wilder.” His hand slid into her hair, tangled in it. “Listening to you scream, beg, because you don’t know if it’s the most incredible pleasure in the world or the most painful.” His lips touched hers. “Feeling you fuck yourself with your fingers while I slam my cock inside her ass, knowing you’re so gone with the pleasure, my touch, your needs, that nothing matters but feeling my cum bathe you there. Milking it out of my balls and making it yours.”
Oh God, she was supposed to breathe now? She stared up at him, panting, but still not drawing in enough air.
“You’re huge,” she whispered breathlessly. “It won’t fit.”
“Is that a dare, sweetheart?” Male challenge, male dominance, pure male hunger washed over his features. “Darlin’, you don’t make dares like that with the big boys. Because trust me, they take you up on it.”
Her lips parted to protest. It hadn’t been a dare. It was a statement. But as they parted, his lips slanted over hers, took them in a deep, tongue-thrusting kiss that had her going to her tiptoes, desperate to get closer.
Janey slid her hands up his arms, to his powerful biceps. She loved the heavy muscles there. The way they flexed and rippled with the control he exerted over himself. The way he fought to make certain he didn’t hurt her.
She wanted his control in ashes. The way hers stayed around him. She couldn’t deny him. She knew, each time he pumped his seed inside her, that he wanted her to carry his child. It wasn’t love. It couldn’t substitute for love, so why did it affect her as it did? She couldn’t deny him. She ached for the feel of it. Ached to feel him inside her, spilling the liquid heat of his lust, giving her a part of himself he had never given another woman.
He was building silken threads around her soul, and she couldn’t stop it. She knew only one way to combat it. To build them around him as well. And each time Alex lost himself inside her, she swore she felt the threads twining around him.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.” He swung her up in his arms. As though she weighed nothing. As though she were delicate, as though he liked holding her.
“I’m asking for you.” She licked his neck, caught a bit of flesh between her teeth, and sucked it into her mouth playfully.
She loved marking him, but she needed to mark him elsewhere, where it couldn’t be seen. Where only they knew it was there. A brand he would feel, but one others could only guess at.
He entered the bedroom, closing the door behind them, because Fat Cat was in the apartment. Evidently Alex had let him in earlier and fed him.
A second later he laid her on the bed, drawing back from her as she stretched beneath his gaze, feeling her breasts swell, her nipples hardening further as he stared down at her.
“We’re going to leave the garter belt and stockings on,” he told her.
She bent her leg, trailed her fingers over her bare stomach to the low band of her panties, and watched as he all but tore his shirt off. Her hand slid beneath her panties as he jerked at his belt, her fingers dipping into the hot, liquid cleft and pulling back.
Slick, shining with her juices, she lifted her fingertips to her lips and licked over them.
“You little tease,” he growled, but she knew Alex liked this. He loved it.
Janey smiled and ran her fingers down her neck before lifting and sliding the blouse over her shoulders as he jerked his jeans off.
His cock was iron hard. The thick crest was dark, flushed with blood, a bead of pre-cum pearling at the tip, making her mouth water.
He turned to her nightstand, and she watched in surprise as he withdrew a small tube of lubricating gel.
“Prepared, were you?” she asked, surprised at the husky, sexual tease in her voice.
“It has other uses,” he assured her. “Tonight, though, we’re going to use a lot of it.”
She expected him to turn her over and just take her. She didn’t expect him to rise over her, for his lips to slant across her and his kiss to become wild, primal. It was more than foreplay; it was a psychological branding, this kiss.
Her arms wrapped around his neck as she felt the straps of her bra lower over her arms. His hands, they were so strong, so broad, long-fingered, and calloused. Male hands. A man’s hands. Hands that knew where and how to stroke.
The front clasp of the garment loosened and he drew it away from her. Where he tossed it, she didn’t know and she didn’t care.
“Alex.” She whispered his name as his lips slid from hers to her neck. Teeth raked, tongue licked. “What you do to me . . .” She arched closer.
“What I want to do to you is probably illegal in every state of the union.” He bit her shoulder, then licked the little wound. “I want every part of you, Janey.”
She breathed through the sob that wanted to work from her chest. Every part of her? Did he want the heart that already belonged to him? The soul that opened up for him?
“Damn, I love your nipples.” His tongue stroked over them. “So hard and sweet.” He sucked one into his mouth, licked it with his rough velvet tongue and had her toes curling as he suckled her with heated hunger.
He touched her, stroked her, drew on her, as though starved for the taste of her in his mouth. He drew the tip between his teeth, stroked it with his tongue, and she swore she nearly came from the excitement of it. Then he was sucking the hard tip again, sending flares of sensation racing to her pussy as his fingers stroked her thighs, parted them, and trailed to the swollen band of her panties before pulling back again.
“That’s so good,” she cried out. “I love my nipples in your mouth, Alex. I feel it all the way to my clit.”
He jerked against her, groaned low and deep before he pulled her hands from his shoulders and drew back.
“Play with them,” he ordered her roughly. “Let me watch you play with your nipples while I eat your pussy, Janey. I need the taste of you in my mouth. All that sweet syrup, sliding over my tongue.”
A hard spasm gripped her muscles, jerking her up to him as pleasure shot through her system. Her fingers moved to her nipples, grabbing them, rolling them as he tugged her panties over her thighs and down her legs.
As he’d threatened, he left her garter belt and stockings on. His fingers played with the elastic garters. His lips kissed above the frilly, lacy bands.
“All I can think about, knowing what you’re wearing under those skirts, is how sexy you look just like this.” He pushed her legs apart, lifted her knees until her thighs were spread wide, her pussy open to him.“All I can think about is getting my lips in this sweet, hot flesh.”
His tongue licked through the cleft, a quick, hard stroke that had her gasping and lifting to get closer to him.
She felt his fingers, easing below, spreading her juices from her cleft to the tiny opening of her rear.
He didn’t push inside her, just teased her. Pressed and made her want more. She had never imagined wanting this, until now. Until Alex—as fantasies drifted through her mind during the day, wondering just how much of his sexuality her lover was holding back.
“The taste of your pussy makes me insane.” The rough vibration of his voice against her clit had her jerking, gasping.
She rolled her nipples, her back arched, her head lolled against the pillow. The pleasure. Sweet, sweet heaven, so much pleasure.
“I’m going to fuck your ass until you’re screaming for me, Janey,” he warned her.
“Alex.” She was ready to scream already, as two fingers pressed inside her vagina, working in, screwing against the sensitive muscles and stroking them erotically.
She could come now. Just a little bit more. Just the right stroke.
“Oh, that’s not a scream, baby.” The primal sound of his voice was a caress by itself. “But you’re going to scream.”
His fingers pulled back, coaxing her juices from her, letting them ease along her flesh to her rear. Lifting one leg, he pressed her foot to his shoulder, and the fingers of his other hand were pressing against the other entrance.
He was playing with her. Playing her body. His lips were on her clit, licking around it, providing just enough pressure to make her completely insane, as two fingers thrust inside her sex again. They worked inside her, twisted, stroked a spot inside her so ultrasensitive that she lost her breath.
As she gasped, she felt a slick, cool finger slide inside her rear. Just that easy. It pushed against the tiny opening as heat burned through her nerve endings.
“Oh God! Alex. Alex.” She was chanting his name as the finger pulled free of her.
“Sweet and hot. Your ass is so tight, Janey. When I take it, it’s going to feel as though every part of you is filled with me.”
When his fingers returned, they were slicker, cooler. The heavy lubrication was eased just inside her. Then his lips pursed over her clit, and two fingers from the other hand pushed inside her pussy again. Deep.
She inhaled roughly and the finger at her rear slid inside again. He repeated it. Moving back, lubricating his fingers, sliding one inside her as he pushed two deep into her vagina and he tormented her clit with his lips, his tongue.
Janey could feel perspiration building on her skin now. The flames burning inside her were racing, licking over her body as he continued to push her higher, stroking her deeper.
The next time he penetrated her rear, there were two fingers. The burn grew, the pleasure became mindless. When he eased three fingers inside her ass, she was bucking against him, her head thrashing, her fingers digging into the blankets rather than playing with her nipples.
His tongue was a demon of pleasure as it licked around and over her clit. The fingers in her pussy were torturous, ecstatic. She was lost in so many sensations—pleasure, pain—feeling them burn inside her until she was begging for more.
“There, baby.” There was something in his voice as he eased from her then. “Come here. Turn over for me, love.”
Love. He called her love. He didn’t love her, but he called her love.
Excitement, pleasure, and need a vicious heat searing her, Janey let him guide her. She rolled to her stomach, coming to her knees for him, feeling his hands easing over the cheeks of her rear.
“Almost ready, sweet love,” he crooned, his fingers pressing against her opening again, lubricating her more. “Ah, Janey, you’re going to kill me. I want you so fucking bad. Right here.”
She stilled. She could feel her juices easing from her vagina, and the thick, swollen cock head Alex thrust against her back opened her.
“Slow and easy, darlin’,” he whispered, pressing the cheeks of her ass apart. “We go slow and easy. Breathe in for me. Deep, Janey.”
She breathed in and nearly shattered. She felt him pushing inside her, stretching her, hot and throbbing as unbreached tissue began to burn, nerve endings rioting with sensation.
Janey could feel the scream building in her lungs.
“Inhale, baby.” His hand smoothed down her back as he stilled behind her. “Slow and deep. Now. Janey.”
She inhaled, then a wail tore from her as she felt the heavy, tight muscles stretching open for him.
He stopped. She could feel him behind her, breathing hard. Deep. She could feel his muscles straining, the edge of his control disintegrating.
“Ah God, you’re so fucking tight,” he breathed out roughly. “Milking my dick like the hottest fist in the world.”
“Alex. Alex, what do I do?” She cried out at the wild, unrelieved hunger clawing at her now. “I can’t stand it. Please.”
His hand landed on the side of her ass. A brief, light little slap that felt too good. Too hot.
“Breathe in. Deep. Every time you breathe in, I can go deeper.” He panted. “Breathe. God, Janey, I have to fuck you. Breathe, damn you.”
She breathed in, inhaling when she wanted to exhale on a scream as the head of his cock popped past the tight ring of muscles that would have held him back.
Then she screamed. Or she tried to scream. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. He was working inside her in slow, easy thrusts that pushed him deeper, deeper inside her, until she felt the slap of his balls against her pussy.
“Son of a bitch,” he cursed behind her.
She felt moisture drip to her back, knew he was sweating. She was moist with perspiration. Dying for more.
“Touch your pussy,” he ordered roughly, his hands clamping on her hips. “Fuck yourself with your fingers now, Janey. Let me feel you riding your fingers, because I’ll be damned if I’m going to last long.”
She was crying, begging. She pushed a hand between her legs and buried two fingers inside her sex, immediately clenching, tightening on them as he jerked behind her and pushed in deeper.
“Fuck. Fuck.” His voice was harsh. “Ah hell. Janey.”
She felt his control snap. She felt it in the hard grip on her hips, in the jerking motion of his hips. Then he was fucking her. Taking her ass with deep, powerful strokes as her fingers filled her pussy.
She could feel him. Every throbbing, heavy vein, every powerful inch of flesh stroking inside her. She felt it in the burning stretch, the driving thrusts. His control was gone, and her sense of reality exploded as her clit rubbed against her palm and her fingers stroked her pussy to orgasm.
She was screaming for him, feeling the orgasm that tore through her, quaking through her nerve endings, harder, deeper. Her release was so powerful, so vibrant, that she felt every hot spurt of his seed filling her rear. Each drop of his cum pumping inside her as she wailed out her pleasure.
She was crying, limp and trembling, shuddering with the after-math of a release so intense, so deep, she couldn’t seem to gather her shattered senses in order.
Alex still covered her, still filled her. His heavy, warm body was like a blanket over her, like a shield between her and the world, holding the pleasure inside her, keeping the warmth around her.
And she couldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t stop tightening around him. Exhaustion seeped inside her, and yet she could feel adrenaline racing through her.
“Ah, baby. My Janey.” His voice was a low, sated rumble at her ear as he kissed her neck, the cheek turned to him. “My sweet love. So sweet. So fucking good.”
She gasped as he pulled back, easing from her.
“Come here, love.” He pulled her against him, his hands stroking down her back, over her arms as he held her against his chest. “There, darlin’. Just lay here.”
Alex couldn’t hold her tight enough, couldn’t get her close enough to his chest. His heart was beating in slow, heavy thumps, the release that had powered into her body having shaken him. The strength of it, feeling as though it jerked more than just his seed from him, had nearly destroyed him.
He needed to get up. He needed to clean her, clean himself, but he couldn’t let her go. He wrapped himself around her. He had to shelter her as close inside himself as he could get her.
And yet he could feel the need for more. It wasn’t sexual. It wasn’t physical. It didn’t make sense. But he knew he needed more.