Baiting the Maid of Honor (10 page)

you please. She looked so excited that somebody actually showed up, I just couldn’t turn around and

walk out. By the end of the hour, she’d signed me up for an eight-class package.” Julie peeked up at

him through her fingers. “Now…I think I kind of like it,” she whispered.

For long moments, he only stared at her in disbelief. Then his big body began to shake with

laughter. It sounded surprised at first, but it quickly turned pained.

“Just what are you laughing at, Reed Lawson?” She sat up and poked him in the chest. “I’m darned

impressive on that thing. Last week I learned the Bendy Diva Dive. Do you know how difficult that

is? You have to—”

“Stop. Stop right there.” He pressed a finger to her lips, then sighed over her still-disgruntled

expression. “Baby, if I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand you.”

Reed took her mouth in a slow, thorough kiss. Tongues met and savored. Lust, simmering and

desperate, once again chased the anger from her body. He pulled back to speak against her parted

lips. “The only thing you need to understand right now is the way my mouth makes you feel
here
.”

Julie gasped as he penetrated her with two thick fingers, slid them in and out, pushing deeper each

time. “You spent the whole night making everyone else happy. Now I’m going to use my tongue to

reward you for it. Be selfish for a little while, pixie. God knows I’m selfish to get a taste.”

He gave her a gentle push and she fell back, moaning when his fingers began to stroke her faster.

Julie closed her eyes and let sensation take over. When his middle finger crooked and rotated, finding

that delicious spot inside her, her back arched on a cry. She felt the heat of his mouth between her

thighs. He flicked her aching clitoris with his tongue, in perfect rhythm with his pumping fingers. Julie

could feel her sex begin to clench, the heat within her rising to a boiling point. Reed’s fingers moved

faster, in and out, urging her closer. Dangling over the edge, she felt him suck her clitoris into his

mouth, rolling it on his tongue and growling. His fingers pushed deep and held. Julie screamed as the

orgasm rushed through her, legs and stomach shaking, but even then Reed refused to stop. Seemed as

though he
couldn’t
stop.

“Again.” He dragged his tongue up her center, causing her already-sensitive flesh to contract and

spasm. “Want more. Again.”

Julie’s limbs felt liquefied and the thought of lying back and letting Reed’s mouth work another

blistering climax out of her sounded like absolute perfection. But her firmly ingrained need to please

simply wouldn’t allow it. Before she’d consciously made the decision, she’d sat up and tugged his

head from where he’d tucked it between her thighs. When his gaze met hers, he looked just as

delirious with pleasure as she felt, but it couldn’t be possible. She’d done nothing for him, yet his

erection, thick and heavy against her thigh, told her how badly he needed her to reciprocate.

She gave in to the temptation to lean forward and kiss his wet, muscular chest as her hand moved of

its own accord to wrap him in her fist. The second she touched him, he let out a loud groan, hips

driving forward to be stroked in her palm. “Squeeze it tight, baby. Show me how it’ll feel when I fuck

you between your legs.”

Julie whimpered, a new, intense throb forming low in her belly. The kind that could only be

assuaged by one thing. “Why don’t you just find out right now?”

Reed growled. “That’s how it’s going to be.” He yanked her to the very end of the rock bed by her

knees, then his hands slipped up her belly to palm her breasts. When he rolled her nipples between

his thumb and forefinger, her thighs pressed together tightly in response. It felt like a snapping live

wire ran directly from her breasts to her core. “You weren’t wearing a bra underneath your dress that

first night. Every time you moved, they bounced a little. Just enough to be a hot fucking tease. God,

baby, it made my cock hard.”

Her breath rushed in and out past her lips. To know she’d turned him on, fully clothed in a room

full of people, made her feel outrageously sexy. Something she wasn’t familiar with. People tended to

view her as the one who ran the show. The tireless, unflappable one who dressed stylishly, yet

sensibly. Oh boy, she liked this sense of desirability much,
much
better. It made her feel daring.

Powerful. Combined with the near-darkness and unconventional setting, it also made her just a little

crazy for more.

“How about I make it up to you?” Before she could stop herself she slid his erection onto her damp

chest. Then she pressed her breasts tight around him, trapping him in between the supple flesh.

Reed’s breath grew choppy, scraping over her heightened senses. One hand gripped her head and

tilted it back roughly so their gazes could meet. “I ought to put you over my knee.” His eyes were

nearly hidden by the darkness, but she somehow sensed they were burning into hers. “You want me to

despoil you? I hope you’re ready, because I don’t fuck politely.”

“I’m counting on it,” she answered breathily.

He slid himself upward between her breasts, in one long, slow push. Julie moaned quietly at the

illicitness of it, but Reed drowned out the sound with his own wild groan. Their position, the new

experience, the delicious feeling of his smooth flesh slipping through her breasts, intoxicated her. Her

usual self didn’t seem present any longer. Had been replaced by someone else entirely. Someone

whose every thought was driven by feeling. Taking and giving.

As his movements became faster, impatient, Julie reveled in the harsh sounds emanating from his

throat, the way he swelled larger with each measured drive. She pushed her breasts tighter around

him and whispered his name.

His movements stuttered and he looked down at her hard. “Open your mouth. You want my name on

your tongue, you’ll get the rest of me, too.”

Julie suddenly couldn’t think past taking Reed into her mouth. Closing her lips around him, feeling

his weight. She dragged her nails down his belly and grasped him at the base of his erection, then led

him to her mouth. No teasing, or licking, she took him as deep as she could and swirled her tongue

over his hardness on the way back up. Fingers sank into her hair and she heard him shouting harshly in

the distance, but she’d lost herself in the need to please. Her hand worked him in time with her mouth

and when she felt him coat her tongue, shaking against her in his climax, she continued milking him

until he gently tugged her head away and fell back a step in the water.

“Jesus.
Jesus
, baby.” Reed’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to catch his breath. Julie didn’t

stop to question herself. She went to him, arms cinching around his waist to bring them closer. He

seemed unsure of how to proceed, his muscles tensing beneath her, making her throat close. She was

the sole participant in the hug, his arms never coming up to encircle her like she craved. Her brain

commanded her to pull back but she didn’t want the embarrassment on her face to show. Not over

what they’d done, but over her spontaneous embracing of a man who had all the sweetness of a cobra.

And then he laughed uncomfortably. “I guess we know that mouth is good at more than just talking.”

Julie released him and was out of the hot spring in seconds, pulling on her clothes as the words

continued to hang in the air.
That’s
all he could think to say to her? Anger had a stranglehold on her

throat so tight she couldn’t speak past it. What had she been thinking? This man couldn’t even muster

a decent hug for the woman he’d just been intimate with. She didn’t want to spend one more second in

his presence. Julie was also honest enough to admit that maybe, just a little, she was shaken up by the

way she’d lost herself in him so completely.

His dripping hand closed around her arm as she buckled her sandals. “You hold on one damn

minute. I was making a joke and you know it.” His voice boomed in the still, quiet forest. “What is

this really about? You want me to hold you and tell you you’re pretty? That’s not me, Julie, and I think

you already knew that.”

“The only thing I know is this won’t be happening again.”

“Now, that’d be a damn shame, pixie.” He tipped her chin up with his fingers. “You just fucking

burned me alive.”

The air left Julie’s lungs. She struggled to come up with a reply as her brain projected explicit

images of them together. God, why did she still want him?

He must have sensed her resolve slipping, because his fingers left her chin to slip into her hair,

gripping the strands firmly. “You already want more, don’t you? You know that what I give you is

better than the warm, fuzzy bullshit you’re used to.”

His bluntness slapped her across the face, as did her resurgence of need to get away from him.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to savor this one memory. We’re not making any more.” She double-

checked that her hotel key was still tucked securely into her dress pocket before snatching the

flashlight off the ground and striding toward the path.

“You’re not walking back alone.”

“Watch me.”

Julie heard him growl behind her as he pulled on his own clothes. She increased her pace,

practically running by the time she reached the hotel. As she yanked the door open, she turned and

saw him coming down the path, shirt untucked, hair a mess. Barefoot. Why that made her want to

smile, especially after his cold treatment of her, she had no idea. Ignoring the object of her irritation,

she let the door slam behind her and speed-walked to her room. How her body could feel so satisfied

when her mind felt like it had been pulled through a knothole backwards, she couldn’t fathom.

One thing she knew for certain? It was Reed Lawson’s fault and she needed to remember this hinky

feeling the next time his big shadow darkened her path. The man was flat-out dangerous for her sanity.

No more. This ill-advised association was over.

Chapter Nine

His and Julie’s association was
far
from over.

Reed crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the brick building. He’d given up on

sleep sometime around four in the morning and had decided to make himself useful. He still couldn’t

believe
how
he’d gone about making himself useful, but it was too late to change it now.

Irritation rumbling in his throat, Reed dragged a hand down his face. He had a serious problem and

the crisp mountain air was doing precious little to fix it. How exactly had he managed to fuck up a

chance to spend the week in Julie’s bed? On the surface, the answer was deceptively simple. He’d

opened his mouth and let the worst possible post-orgasm sentiment known to man escape. Truthfully,

though? He still wasn’t 100 percent sure he hadn’t done it on purpose. She’d thrown him for a

goddamn loop, going from skittish good girl to a heck-I’ll-try-
anything
-once sex goddess in mere

minutes.

The girl he’d assumed to be an uptight Georgia debutante took regular pole dancing classes.

Enjoyed
them. If he ever got the image of those legs wrapped around a pole out of his head, he might

have the chance to register surprise.

Lord, the things they’d done. Things
she’d
initiated. He’d never, ever, expected it from her. And

damn it if that wasn’t what made it so fucking hot. Everyone’s favorite, lovable Goody Two-Shoes

turned into a very bad girl under the right kind of touch.
His
touch, specifically. The thought made the

ever-present fire in his belly burn brighter, even as he reminded himself how dangerous that type of

thinking could be. He didn’t have a claim on her. He didn’t want or need any emotional

entanglements, especially with some upper-class daddy’s girl with a wardrobe that likely cost more

than his car. Yet the thought of unleashing all her pent-up sensuality, coaxing it to life, then walking

away at the end of the week made him…oddly anxious. Okay, sickeningly so.

When his intention had been simply to get under her skirt, stamp an expiration date on the

outrageous attraction he felt for her, everything had been so incredibly simple. Show the spoiled,

uptight brat what real passion felt like and walk away without a single regret. Someone hadn’t passed

the memo on to Julie, however. Or maybe
she
’
d
gotten it, and
he’d
decided to ignore it instead. Now

that he knew what lay underneath the top coat of perfect polish, he saw way too much when he looked

at her. As if one glimpse at the Julie beneath now made it impossible for him to see the other one.

Yet after what they’d done together, to each other’s bodies, she’d turned right back into the