Accidental Sex Goddess (17 page)

Reese’s tongue darted out to wet her lips. “If you slid your hand up my skirt right now, you’d find something. But it wouldn’t be panties.” She spread her thighs an inch. Two.

An adjustment? An invitation?

Ben took a step toward her and placed his fingertips just above her knees. “You’re wearing a skirt.”

“Yes.” Her throat moved as she swallowed. Her gaze shifted to his mouth.

“I thought you didn’t like to wear skirts without underwear.” He settled his thumbs on her inner thighs, just above her knees, and brushed lightly.

She shifted, sliding her hips forward on the counter, parting her legs infinitesimally. “I feel exposed,” she whispered.

Ben’s hands slid up an inch, thumbs still on inner thighs, fingertips creeping toward the hem of her skirt. “You aren’t,” he said, focusing on the V in her legs concealed by her skirt. “Not yet. They’d show this on primetime TV.”

She shifted again, leaning back a bit as she slid her hips forward. The hem of the skirt raised another inch, bringing it damn near the top of her thighs. When she opened her legs further, he stopped breathing.

“What about now?” she asked.

“Close,” he managed, his voice sounding thick to his own ears. “You’re almost to cable.” He let his hands slide another inch higher and her breathing hitched. “I think you should try for late night Cinemax.”

Reese settled her hands between her legs at the edge of the counter. Slowly, she shimmied left and right until the skirt up bunched high around her hips. Only then did she part her thighs. “Would this do the trick?”

He couldn’t help the way his fingers curled into her flesh, the way he his thumbs traveled further up the path of soft flesh. She was exposed just enough. And she wasn’t just beautiful, she was aroused. Looking at Reese, this intimate piece of her body, this wasn’t something he’d forget. “This should get you through your opening scene.”

She pressed into his touch, an invitation. “And what happens next?”

Ben’s cock ached and pressed against his zipper. “Now or on Cinemax?” He tore his gaze away from the swollen flesh between her legs and met her gaze.

“Cinemax,” she said, cheeks flushed. “What happens next there?”

“You’d be fucked silly.” His eyes landed on her swollen bottom lip as she pulled it through her teeth. “Hard, fast, thorough.”

“And what about now?” She put her hand on top of his and pressed it into her inner thigh. “Same thing?”

Ben would have smiled, but he couldn’t. “Not a chance.”

She pulled back and he held her fast.

“I wouldn’t dare rush this, Reese.” His eyes locked on hers as he found her wet, exposed sex with the pad of his thumb. “I’ve been thinking about it too long to rush it.” He brushed over her clit, watched her eyes flash to his and grow darker. She shifted again, moving closer to his hand.

He slid a finger inside her and watched as pleasure transformed her features. Her lids drifted closed. Her head tilted back slightly. Her chest rose and fell as her breathing grew shallow. He pumped his fingers inside her, and his cock pulsed as he imagined how this tight, wet heat would feel wrapped around his dick.

He withdrew his finger and she gasped, curving her hips for more. He slid two inside her and stepped between her legs. With his other hand, he grabbed her ass and pulled her close as he moved his fingers.

“Look at me.”

She opened her eyes and the heat there nearly undid him. How could this woman believe she was cold?

“You’re so beautiful when you’re turned on.”

Rocking her hips into his hand, she ran a thumb over his bottom lip. He took it into his mouth, biting lightly.

He wanted to kiss her, to taste her, but he didn’t dare miss a moment of the pleasure tracking across her features. “I love watching you,” he said into her ear. “I’m going to love every minute of making you come.”

She tensed in his arms. “I can’t.”

“You can.”

She shook her head against him. “It’s too much pressure.”

“Relax,” he whispered. He dragged his lips over her neck, tasting her, sucking at that tender skin. “We’re not worrying about that today.”

She straightened. “I’m sorry. It’s so pathetic. I just—”

He cut her off with his mouth. He kissed her until her shoulders dropped, kissed her until her lips opened under him, kissed her until she moaned into his mouth. Only then, when her body turned supple, did he move his hand again.

He circled her clit. “You like that.”

She peered up at him through her thick lashes. “Yes, but I can’t—”

“Don’t you dare come.”

She curled her fingers into his shoulder blades and her wet heat squeezed his fingers. “What?”

“I want you slick and wet. I want you right at the edge. I want you to spend the rest of your day thinking about me.” His lips brushed her ear as he spoke.

Outside, he heard the rumble of a diesel engine pulling into the drive.

They were about to have company.

***

Halie tapped her pencil on her desk and looked at her notes, but they blurred in front of her eyes. She couldn’t see a thing but that woman—that tiny little thing in knock-off Jimmy’s and a bad dye job.

But Alex hadn’t given a shit about the girl’s bad taste in clothes and stylists. All he’d cared about was the woman’s mouth on his cock.

He’d wanted Halie to walk in on them. He’d wanted her to see.

She’d opened the door and met his eyes and they’d flared hot, his hand had tightened in the girl’s hair. Not because he thought Halie would join them. He knew better. He was setting the precedent, letting her know this was how it was going to be if they married.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose and snatched her phone off its receiver. “Quinn, could you get me Reese Regan’s file.”

“Her HR file or her client file?”

“Client.”

Something about Reese’s relationship with Ben was sitting wrong with her.

“Here you go,” Quinn said, handing her a manila folder.

“Do you remember what her romantic background is?”

“She just got out of a long-term relationship with a man named Lance. Six months ago? They lived together and it ended badly.”

Halie leaned back and crossed her arms. “Did she end it or did he?”

“He did.” Quinn looked down at her notes. “One night she came home from work and he was packing his things. He told her he couldn’t live with a sexual ice queen another day.” She grunted. “What an ass.”

“Is she going to find herself in the same situation with this best friend of hers? Is he going to hurt her?”

Quinn shifted and looked at her shoes. “Ben’s different, I think.”

She held up her hand. “Let’s find out a little more, shall we?” Halie hit the speaker button on her phone and dialed Tricia.

“Halie!” Tricia crooned by way of greeting. “Sydney is staying with a friend this weekend. Please tell me you’re calling because you want to go out.”

Halie smiled. A little girl time would do her good. “Sure, but that’s not why I’m calling.”

“What’s up?”

“Your sister—why haven’t she and Ben ever hooked up?”

Tricia was silent a long moment, then, “They have. A long time ago.”

“A puzzle piece revealed,” Halie said, looking at Quinn. “And why not since?”

“It was six years ago, when they first met. She’s moved past it. And, anyway, now she has the hots for Mark.”

Halie frowned, remembering Reese’s crush and the sexist jock radio personality. Hadn’t he agreed to take Reese out? Right, Reese had said he was her step six. If that was true, she couldn’t be all that interested in him. “You said she moved past it. What about Ben?”

“He just wanted to be friends. Though it seems to me he feels differently these days.” Trish sighed audibly. “I know it sounds crazy.”

“No, it sounds like something you’re not telling me.”

“Listen, they don’t talk about it. I don’t want to—”

“My lips are sealed.”

Trish was quiet for several long moments. “Ben and Reese hooked up when they first met. Just one hot night. He showed up at her apartment and they went at each other.”

“They had sex?”

“No, but they messed around. Reese liked him. A lot.”

“And then?”

“Ben found out his ex died while he was there fooling around with Reese. He wasn’t even a week out of a three-year relationship, and he hooks up with this new girl—Reese—and his phone is ringing like crazy. Calls and texts all coming from the ex’s number. He figured she was trying to get a hold of him and make more excuses for cheating. He ignored the calls and found out later it was Lisa’s mom trying to get a hold of him. Lisa was in the hospital, dying from injuries she’d sustained in a car accident.”

“Damn,” Halie muttered.

“He was grieving, you know? So Reese gave him space and time. She waited. They became great friends and she let him grieve. She waited for him to heal and take their relationship back to the place where it had started. We all thought it was only a matter of time.”

“But he never did. Did she tell him how she felt?”

“It was over a year after Lisa died, and I told her she needed to make the first move. She took my advice.”

Halie looked at Quinn, whose eyes had gone wide.

“What happened?” Quinn asked.

Tricia was quiet again, as if reliving the memory herself. “I think he was just scared, you know? He and Reese were so close by then.”

“What happened?” Halie asked this time.

“He broke her heart.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Reese clung to Ben as he added light friction to her clit. “I want you to spend the rest of your day wondering if I could have gotten you off. I want your mind on my fingers and my mouth.”

Jesus. She was so close. On the counter. With
Ben.

“You’re gorgeous when you’re turned on,” Ben whispered, his hot breath against her ear.

Ben stood between her legs, his hand doing deliciously naughty things to her, pumping his fingers in and out of her.

Someone pounded on the front door.

Reese registered the sound and straightened.

“Boss? The door’s locked.”

“Be there in a sec!” Ben called. He cupped her sex softly and groaned against the side of her neck.

“We never got to talk.” She sounded breathless to her own ears. Ben was right, she wouldn’t think about anything else all day.

“You wanted to talk about us?”

She nodded. “I don’t know what we’re doing. We agreed a long time ago—”

“Boss!”

“On my way,” Ben called. He turned back to Reese, eyes hot as they ran over her. “Come over tonight.”

“To talk?”

“To get naked, Reese. That’s my plan. I’m getting you naked tonight, but there can be talking too—” His lips drew up in a grin. “—since you seem to like that.”

Her breath caught and she forced herself to relax. “I don’t know what we’re doing, but Ben—” She curled her fingers into his shirt and nuzzled her face into his neck, breathing in his scent. “—I don’t want to stop.”

Withdrawing his hand from between her legs, he groaned. “Me neither.”

He helped her off the counter, and her body slid against his as he settled her to the ground. He was hard. And impressive.

He squeezed her hand. “Unless you’re not opposed to an audience, I’m going to have to.”

Her cheeks burned. “That’s not what I mean.”

Steps sounded in the hall and Reese froze.

“There a reason you locked the door in the middle of the day?” a man called out in a grumble. One of Ben’s carpenters came around the corner. He spotted Reese and stopped in his tracks. “Oh.” Looking between Reese and Ben, a knowing grin split his face. “Sorry, Boss.”

Ben strategically positioned himself behind the counter, and Reese had to swallow her laughter as she realized he was hiding his erection.

“Frank, this is Reese Regan, my—”

Reese waited to hear his label for her. His what? His friend? That title hardly seemed sufficient, considering all the awkwardness in the air.

He never finished his sentence. Reese figured Frank had the general idea anyway. “Reese, this is Frank, one of my crew leaders.”

Reese’s cheeks warmed as Frank nodded. “Really nice to meet you, Reese.” He gestured toward the door. “I think I’ll just wait outside.” He winked at Reese before the echo of his steel-toed boots carried him out the front of the house.

When he was gone, she pressed her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry. He’s going to think—”

Ben took her hands in his and drew them to her sides. “What? That we were in here making out like a couple of horny teenagers?”

She bit her lip. “That’s kind of how I feel.”

“Good,” he growled. “I’d hate to be the only one.”

“This is crazy.”

“Is it?” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip.

She wanted him to suck it into his mouth, wanted his fingers in her body again.

“When you said you didn’t want to stop, what did you mean?”

Her heart pounded, and it was there, that horrible fear that he might reject her again, that horrible memory of him telling her he didn’t want more.

Unapologetically pursue the life you want
.

“Ben, I like this. I like the flirting and—” He stared at her, and she swallowed back her self-consciousness. “I like when you touch me.”

He traced the line of her jaw and down the side of her neck. “I like touching you,” he said, his voice thick.

“I don’t want to stop.” She licked her lips. Somehow, it was easy to ask for sex, but anything more terrified her. She dropped her gaze to the floor. “I don’t want to pretend we’re nothing more than friends.”

“Good.” Then his mouth was on hers and his hands were in her hair as he kissed her hard. It wasn’t a gentle kiss of seduction, it was a demanding kiss of branding, claiming, possessing.

When he pulled away, she her breath came short and shallow and her legs were putty.

Sighing, she leaned back and let the wall support her.

He stayed close and put a hand on either side of her head, his mouth was so close it almost brushed hers as he spoke. “Let me see you tonight?”

She closed her eyes at the pleasure that rushed through her at his words. “I promised Masey we’d go shopping, but I can come over after.”