Emberleigh
WARM BREATH AGAINST MY EAR is what wakes me. I take a deep breath, smelling a wonderful masculine scent. I smile, then crack my eyes open. Rays of sunlight filter in through the open curtains.
I snuggle deeper against the warm chest at my back. The arm tightens around my waist, and I relish in the feel of being in a man’s arms. Nathan grumbles something in his sleep, and I have to muffle a giggle.
Last night, when we made it back to my place, the door was barely closed before he had me against the wall beside it devouring my mouth. He lifted me right there, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, just like we were when he carted me away from Blackie’s. As I felt him fumble with his jeans under my ass and heard the crinkle of a condom wrapper he growled, “Move your panties aside.” I did as he bid, and a second later I was full of his massive cock. He stopped and rested his face in the crook of my neck, then demanded to know where my bedroom was. Once I told him, he carried me to the room; each step he took bounced me a little on his shaft. It was there that he fucked me good and raw, over and over again throughout the night, until we fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning wrapped in each other’s arms. It was one of the best nights of my life.
My bladder screaming at me pulls me from my lustful thoughts. I release a sigh, not wanting to get up yet, but knowing I have to. Luckily, today’s Saturday, and with Avery and my parents being out of town, I have nowhere I need to be.
As gently as I can so I don’t wake him, I slide out from under his arm. I rush to the bathroom, relieve my bladder, wash my hands, then walk back out to the bedroom, anxious to be back under the covers with my hot guy. Once I’m standing beside the bed, I look down at Nathan. A shiver runs down my spine at how good he looks lying in my bed. With the sheet at his waist, his magnificent chest is on display. I licked and nipped at those hard muscles last night. He rolls over to his stomach in his sleep, and the sheet moves down an inch, revealing just a sliver of his ass.
The vibration of my phone against the wood nightstand has my eyes jerking to the side. Seeing my mom’s Skype emblem on the screen has me jumping to action. I bend and snag Nathan’s shirt from the floor and hurriedly throw it on. Snatching the phone from the nightstand, I look at Nathan to find him still sleeping. Quickly walking across the room, I swipe my finger over the screen to accept the video call, then hold the same finger up to my lips, hoping my mom understands to be quiet for a moment. I look back over my shoulder once more. Still out like a light.
Once I’m in the kitchen, I bring the phone up to see my mom’s raised brows.
“Hey, Mom,” I greet, out of breath.
“And just what was that?” There’s no attitude to her tone, only open curiosity.
I give myself a minute to form a reply as I slip a k cup into the Keurig machine, and add a coffee mug to catch the deliciousness. Mom’s having none of it.
“Do you have a man over, Ember?” My eyes snap to my phone at the excitement in her question.
“Mom—” I start, but get interrupted.
“Because if you did, that would be wonderful, honey!” The big smile that comes across the screen makes my insides cringe. Not because I don’t enjoy seeing it, but for the reason behind it. She’s been after me for the last couple of years about my nonexistent dating life.
“It’s not like that, Mom,” I tell her.
“So, you don’t have a man over?” she asks, not even attempting to hide the disappointment.
I sigh and drop my head. After a moment, I lift it again and tell her, “I do, but he’s just a…” What is Nathan? A lover? A man who enjoys watching me receive pleasure? “A friend,” I finish lamely.
A smile creeps over her face. “A friend who sleeps in your bed,” she clarifies.
I groan, then open my mouth to tell her again that she has it wrong, but don’t get the chance.
“It’s okay. I get it. It’s really none of my business anyway.” Those are her words, but I know she’ll be asking me about him again.
“Where’s Avery?” I ask to change the subject, but also because I want to talk to her. “I missed seeing her yesterday.”
They were supposed to Skype me yesterday, but Avery ended up making a friend and was down at the pool with her and her friend’s mom when Mom called.
“Just coming out of the bathroom.” Looking past her screen, Mom’s eyes follow Avery until she’s sitting beside her. My heart fills with warmth at seeing her.
“Em!” she says excitedly. “Guess what?”
“What?” I respond with a smile.
“I made a friend yesterday! Her name’s Lydia and she has this cute little dog with no hair. His name is Dobby, just like from Harry Potter! That’s so funny, isn’t it?” She laughs, and I can’t help but laugh with her.
“It sure is, sweetie.”
“I’ll be right back,” Mom says, then the screen jostles as she hands the phone to Avery.
“How was the scuba diving?” I ask, once she’s settled.
Her face gets closer to the screen. “It was soooo much fun, Em! There were all kinds of pretty coral. And the fish were pretty neat too. One of them swam by my foot and it tickled.”
My smile grows. “I’m so glad you’re having a good time.”
“I miss you and can’t wait to see you again. Are we still going to see that scary movie when we get back?”
I swallow past the thick lump that forms in my throat when she says she misses me. I miss her so damn much it hurts. It’s only been a few days since they’ve been gone, but it feels so much longer than that. I’m used to seeing her almost every day.
“We sure are,” I reassure her. “Then snow cones afterward.”
“Yah!” She bounces on the bed, making the screen bounce with her.
Mom appears back on the screen. “All right, that’s enough of that.” She takes the phone from Avery, who giggles. “Go get dressed. Your dad is almost ready to go down for breakfast.”
“Okay, Mom.” Just like every time Avery calls my mom Mom, a pang hits my chest. She leans over and kisses Mom’s cheek before turning to look back at the phone. “Bye, Em! Love you!” And with a wave, she’s off.
I smile as she skips away.
“That girl is a ball of energy.” Mom states the obvious.
“That she is.”
“Listen, sweetie, I hate to run, but your dad’s coming out of the bathroom now, and you know how he gets if he doesn’t get his morning coffee.”
My lips quirk up. My dad is a total drama queen when it comes to his morning coffee.
“Go.” I laugh. “Get the monster caffeine before he turns into the Hulk and destroys everything around him.”
“Love you. We’ll call later.”
“Love you, too.”
I smile as I end the video call and set my phone down, then grab the small glass jar I keep sugar in. I almost drop it when hands grip my waist. I squeak out a yelp, then hear a chuckle in my ear.
“You scared the shit out of me,” I wheeze and clutch my chest.
Warm lips settle right below my ear and a moan slips out before I can stop it. I grip the edge of the counter for support. It’s amazing how fast this man can turn my legs to jelly.
“That your mom?” he murmurs the question against my skin.
“Yes,” I breathe, turning my head to the side to give him easier assess.
“And I assume your little sister?”
I close my eyes and pause for a moment before repeating, “Yes.”
The only people who know the truth about Avery are my parents, my doctor, Jessika, and a select few close friends of the family. To protect Avery’s emotional state, that’s the way I want to keep it for the time being.
His hands move down my thighs and lift my shirt. I’m commando underneath, and he must like it because he groans.
“Damn, you look good in my shirt, but fuck if it doesn’t get even better knowing it’s the only thing you’re wearing.”
I turn in his arms and run my hands up his very defined, very sexy chest until they’re around his neck. “You hungry?” I ask throatily. I peel my eyes away from the mouthwatering sight in front of me and look up at him.
“I’m fucking starving,” he growls, gently shoving his hardness against my lower stomach.
I grin. “I meant for food. Want some breakfast?”
Grabbing two handfuls of ass, he lifts me, turns, then deposits me on the island counter. It’s cold against my bare skin. He wedges his way in between my legs and slips his hands underneath my shirt.
“I’d rather eat you.” The husky way he says it and the look in his eyes makes things very wet between my legs, and I know I’ll be scrubbing my counters later.
Tweaking my nipples, he orders, “Lie back.”
What’s a girl to do when an incredibly sexy man tells her to do something that she knows will lead to an extraordinary amount of pleasure?
She fucking does what he says.
***
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER, Nathan and I are on the couch. He’s on his back, and I’m on my side wedged between him and the back of the couch. Our breathing is still labored from just finishing round… I can’t remember. With my head on his chest, I trace the lines of his abs.
Thinking about the night I danced with Dean on the dance floor and then last night with Wyatt, and remembering how intense Nathan looked as he watched, I ask him a question I’ve been curious about.
“You like to watch people, don’t you?” Heat creeps up my cheeks.
The hand he was using to rub up and down my side stops for a moment, then resumes.
“Yes,” he answers.
“Do you… like to watch people have sex?” I already know the answer, but I ask it anyway.
“Yes.”
I don’t know why, but that answer doesn’t creep me out like I thought it would. In fact, it does the opposite, causing my stomach to quiver pleasantly.
“I’ve always been a people watcher, ever since I can remember,” Nathan says, surprising me. “I didn’t have a normal childhood. My mother was a stripper who worked in the strip club my dad owned. They stayed together for seven years before she up and left. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but she would always accuse him of cheating. As an adult, I asked Dad if he did, and he said no, that although he was surrounded by naked women all the time and he could have had any number of them, he was never even tempted to cheat. He loved her.”
I run the tip of my finger up the center of his chest, then over his left collarbone. “That must have been hard on you, losing your mom at such a young age.”
“It wasn’t really. She wasn’t much of a mother. I had better motherly influences from some of the other women at the club.” He releases a long breath. “Anyway. Growing up in a strip club, you can imagine the shit I saw. My dad was very protective of his girls and the other staff members, but he also let them do what they felt comfortable with. If that meant taking a customer to one of the back rooms to fuck for extra money, then so be it. I pretty much had free run of the place, except out on the main floor when the doors were open. I don’t remember the first time I saw people have sex because I was so young I can’t remember back that far.”
“I’m sorry.” I lean over to kiss his chest.
“Don’t be. I was never touched inappropriately, and it’s not like my dad encouraged me to watch. I just did it on my own because I was curious. It was fascinating seeing how different a woman’s body was from a man’s. Men’s hard bodies to a woman’s soft curvy one. Or how they responded when they touched each other. Not in a weird way, just in a way that it was different. It may not have been an ideal childhood, but I know my dad loved me and did the best he could at the time. I didn’t lose my virginity to one of the women there. I lost it like most other boys, to a random girl at school when I was fourteen. I just had a lot better understanding of sex than most boys. When I hit puberty, the curiosity became something more. It made my body feel good in ways it hadn’t before. I like to watch as a man pleasures a woman or vice versa. Or when they pleasure their own body. Their faces and body language. You can read a lot from a person’s face or how their body reacts to touch.”
When he’s finished, I stay quiet, absorbing what he just revealed. A lot of people would consider his childhood a form of neglect or abuse. Putting a child in a position where they are exposed to people having sex or naked women walking around all the time could be traumatizing and affect a child in terrible ways. I don’t know him well enough to give an assessment. However, I can say I believe he thinks he wasn’t; even as an adult he feels that way.
“I don’t know what to say,” I tell him quietly, speaking the truth. How does a person respond to what he just said?
He rolls to his side, bringing my leg over his hip. His half-hard cock bumps my lower stomach.
“There’s nothing to say.” His eyes flip back and forth between mine for a moment, then his mouth curves up on one side. “Except for you to say you enjoyed me watching you.”
“I already told you I did,” I snicker.
“You did.” He nods once. “But you enjoyed me watching you with another man. You liked knowing that me seeing his hands on you had my dick harder than stone. You were turned on just as much as I was.”
I don’t say anything for several seconds, giving serious thought to what he said. Did I really like Nathan watching as another man touched me? It doesn’t take much for me to form an answer in my head. Yes, I did. As much as I wanted Nathan’s hands on me in those moments, having his eyes so intent on me and the other guy was almost as good.
“Is that something you want?” I ask, my voice deeper than normal. “To see me with another man?”
As soon as the question leaves my lips, I know the answer. His eyes flare and the pulse at his temple throbs.
“Fuck yeah, I do.”
It comes out a growl and the sound sends a zap of pleasure between my legs. Butterflies form in my stomach, from both desire and nervousness. I would have never thought that something like that would be such a turn-on for me, but apparently it is.
Nathan’s hand runs up my back and he threads his fingers through my hair. Using the strands, he tips my head back and brings his face closer. “You like that idea, don’t you, baby?” he murmurs, dropping his face to my exposed neck. There’s a sting of pain from his teeth before his lips and tongue soothe it away. “You want to play with another man while I watch?”
I moan and tilt my hips up, needing some kind of friction to relieve the ache that’s building between my legs. My pussy finds the root of his cock, and with a hitch of breath, I rub myself unashamedly against him. His groan against my neck mixes with my own whimpers.
“Jesus Christ, woman,” he mutters. Grabbing my ass, he helps my movements by shoving his hips forward. “You drive me fucking crazy.”
I’m glad I do that to him, because he sure makes me go insane with lust too. I just wonder how far on the crazy bus I’m willing to go and if I’ll make it out unscathed at the end of the journey.