Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) (9 page)

She
hooked her thumbs into her pants and bent forward to drag them down her legs. No
hair. He hissed like a basketball losing air.

“I’d
undress you but I think it might be detrimental to your health right now. Count
to a hundred, then get undressed and come get me. Try not to have a heart
attack before that.”

When
she turned and walked into the bathroom he almost did. He rolled back onto the
bed and closed his eyes.
Get it the fuck together, McGrath
. This isn’t a
capital raising, it’s not a listing or fighting off a pre-emptive take over,
it’s not work. This is a gorgeous woman who’s into you, maybe as much as you’re
into her, at least tonight anyway, and she deserves some fucking coherence, not
a bumbling overexcited boy.

The
shower water was running and he could see Zarley through the glass screen. There
were those dimples at the base of her spine, made for his fingers to sit in,
his tongue to explore. Wet, her hair hung almost to her waist. On autopilot, he
shed his clothes, watching as she tipped her face to the spray. Never. This was
simply never a thing he’d expected to happen.

He palmed
his dick, squeezed, wiped the wetness away with his thumb. He was a Mentos Mint
dropped in a Coke bottle, about to fizz over and explode.

Ninety-nine.
One hundred.

Coming,
prematurely, ready or not.

TEN

Zarley almost tripped over her own sock. She was a girl who danced
in her underwear for money, but getting naked in front of Reid for fun was the
singularly most ungraceful thing she’d ever done.

And she
was the one in control here.

It was
the way he looked at her, as if the bottom would fall out of his world if he
couldn’t have her. As if he expected her to reject him and her rejection would
slice him into tiny fragments of worthlessness. He had no need to worry on that
account. She hadn’t been so turned on since Dalton and their trysts in the barn
and that was all teenage hormones, trial and error, and breaking the rules. This
was proper adult raging lust, she knew exactly what she was doing, and it
threatened to turn her inside out.

There
was no door to Reid’s shower, only a glass wall to contain the water that fell
straight from the lowered ceiling. He stepped in behind her but didn’t touch
her. She knew he was scared to. She took a step back and he groaned, his arms
banding her body, his hands coming up to cup her breasts, his head down, lips
to her neck, where he sucked the water from her skin.

He was
big and warm and overwhelmed, and he made her feel overcome too.

What
she’d seen of his chest when she’d unbuttoned his shirt, what she’d felt through
his clothes told her he was well built, muscle grafted onto a lean form,
economical without being showy, simple masculinity that wasn’t about vain
athleticism or physical labor but won from deliberate effort, with less thought
to its appeal than its functionality.

That
was so hot.

She
grasped his arms and arched against him. Everything about him from his nervous
energy to his astonishing honesty had her aching. And she wanted to make it
good for him, like Dalton had made it good for her, but with none of the blind
fumbling silences, the need for secrecy and the lasting pain.

She
pushed back into Reid until he stepped into the tiled wall. Hand or mouth, what
would he want, what could he take? She soaped her hands and turned to face him,
ran the soap down her own body and then dropped it and ran her soapy hands down
his. Oh, he felt fine, all contained careless strength and effortless beauty. And
yes there was ink, words written across his pec. She’d trace it, learn it
later, but what caught her eye was the word alone.

He
wasn’t alone now.

“Tell
me what you’re feeling.”

“I’m
too big for my skin. I’m too loud and too coarse and clumsy as fuck and scared
I’m going to do something dumb and you’ll take off. You should take off before
I do. I kind of want you to.”

“You
want me to go?”

“No.
Fuck. I might actually die if you leave me.”

“You
won’t die. I won’t let you.”

“You realize
you’re the boss here. I don’t have a clue how to make this good for you.”

“Reid,
shhh. You’re in control. You can say stop anytime and we’ll stop.”

“Nice
theory.” He snatched her hand, brought it down on his cock, his upper body
curling forward, face tight with tension, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed.

He set
the pace, moving their hands together, his breath rasping. He closed his eyes,
his other hand gripping her arm as if he still thought she’d abandon him. She
wasn’t going to ditch him. She was going to wreck him.

“Tell
me how you want this?”

“Just,
please, touch me, anything. Anything you want.”

His
desperation was heady. Like knowing you had a medal chance, like you were the
one to beat. She pulled his head down to kiss him then broke his hold and went
to her knees, her hands flattened on his thighs.

He grunted,
his stomach contracting. “Flygirl, you know what you’re doing?”

She ran
her tongue up his length. “Making you come in my mouth.”

Both of
his hands slapped the wall behind him and his quads jumped under her palms. “You
sure?”

“Fill
my throat till I choke, Reid.”

His pelvis
tilted and his knees softened. He swore under his breath and kept up a tirade
of foul curses as she took him in her hand and licked across the head of his
penis. When she closed her mouth over him, he shouted and smacked his head hard
on the tiled wall.

She sat
back on her heels. He looked at her with a dazed expression, wonder, pleasure
and the pain of conking his head flashing across his features. Then his eyes
found her hand, pressed against her mound, and they narrowed, his mouth
dropping open, his expression blanking.

“You
okay, Reid?”

“Total
system failure.”

She
smiled up at him. “Hold onto me.” She took him slowly, sucking her cheeks in,
gripping the base of his cock to keep him steady, to have all of him, cocooned.
His hands found her hair and gripped too tight, a string of inarticulate sounds
of pleasure flooding the room.

She
could taste him through the shower water falling over them, but nothing was
better than watching his face as he came apart, head thrown back, jaw clenched,
throat bared, eyes squeezed shut, gone inside his head as he came in her mouth,
forcing her to swallow and swallow and then pull away coughing.

He was
on the tiles beside her, dragging her into his lap, slamming his lips to hers,
hugging her so close the shower water got trapped in the valleys of their
bodies and slapped in waves to the floor.

He consumed
her lips and jaw and neck and throat. His hands were everywhere, squeezing her
ass, holding her head, plumping her breast. She hadn’t wrecked him so much as
unleashed him and she loved it. Her very own Frankensex monster.

When he
hauled her to her feet, he kept up the steady luxurious assault on her body
with his hands and his mouth and he added words.

“You’re
so fucking beautiful. I nearly drowned you and I’m still hard. Show me what you
like.”

She
liked everything about the trembling, deliberateness of him, the dirty
worshipping he lavished on her. Thumbs circling her nipples, rolling her breast
in his hand, stroking down her body to cup between her legs.

“Your
fingers inside me now.”

He was
good at taking instruction. He stroked three fingers through her and pushed
into her vagina with one, making a low soft moan, and they both took shuddery
breaths.

He took
her chin in his other hand and brought her head up. “I need to see you.”

The
sound of his voice, whiskey deep and bourbon low, made her want to climb him. “I
need you in me.”

Abruptly
he took his hand away and moved, shut the water off and pulled a towel around
her shoulders, made a rough attempt at drying himself. “It has to be about you
now. I should’ve thought. I don’t have condoms.”

Only
Reid could say that and get away with it.

But he
looked like someone just ran over his beloved dog.

She had
condoms and she should insist he use them. But she was clean and so was he, and
she had not getting pregnant covered with the best birth control money could
buy, and an intimate knowledge of her cycle. Lightning wasn’t striking the same
place twice, and if it did, she had options she hadn’t considered at eighteen.

“I’m
tested regularly and I’m clean, Lou insists.” She held her arm up and pointed
to the faint shadow of the implant. “I’m on birth control. We don’t need
anything.”

“Truth,
because I . . .” He tried to be noble and failed.

“I have
condoms and I could insist you use them, but we’re good to go. We’re perfect.” They
were also sleepless, full of breakfast sugar and high on each other. Reid was
no less edgy than he had been, and Zarley was finding it hard to stay centered
on him, she wanted to climb his body and shake him to his core.

“When
you thought about this, how did you want it to be?

He
dumped his towel, grabbed the end of hers and used it to pull her body into the
gorgeous clean warmth of him. “I didn’t want a pity fuck.”

She
gripped his face in both hands and gave him a fierce look. “You know this is
not like that.” His eye contact flickered, and he moved his head, dislodging
her hands.
Oh, goddamn, he didn’t know.
“You do it to me, Reid. All of
you, smart and stupid, brave and alone. You get to me. Your body, the way you
think. You’re arrogant, opinionated, stubborn and persistent, and I like all of
those things on you. And that I get to have you first.” She wound her arms
around his neck. “You have no idea how much I like that. How much I like you
don’t make me feel ashamed.”

He
fixed on her eyes. “Ashamed of what?”

Being
the town slut who ruined her chance to represent her country at the Olympics,
who missed her chance at a medal. Who went off the rails and stuffed up her
life. Who dances in a two-bit dive because it’s the only thing she’s qualified
to do and she hasn’t gotten over the old dream yet. “Of being the experienced
one.”

“Someone
has to be the adult here and it’s not me.” He gave a rough laugh. “We are
perfect.” He let the towel drop to wrap his arms around her. “Someone made you
feel ashamed for liking sex, and I’m ashamed I took so long to get around to
it.

“No
shame between us, no pity, no lies, no mistakes, no stupid promises.” She stood
on his feet and bit his pec, where the words were written. “Just lots and lots
of crazy hot mind-blowing sex till we’re tired of each other.”

“That’s
a plan I can get with.”

“Take
me to bed and wreck me, Reid.”

Arm
behind her knees, he lifted her, strode into the bedroom, stopped at the foot
of the bed and tossed her onto it. She landed with a squeal of delight, sitting
on her tail, legs out in front, and lay back as he crawled over her. He’d lost
the anxious hesitancy, the get me out of here before I break something look in
his eyes, and she’d relieved him of that as much as she’d excited him.

This
thing they had could get addictive.

He
braced over her on his hands and knees, wet hair falling over his forehead. “I
never let myself think about how I wanted this. Too dangerous. I watched porn
and got myself off but it never meant anything, a distraction, a relief. Your
skin, the way you smell, the way you move, how you react to me, make me feel,
it’s nothing I imagined and everything I was afraid to want.”

She
reached for him. “Take what you want, however you want it. I’m yours.”

He lowered
himself to one side, braced on one elbow and traced a finger gently over her
top lip, then bent to kiss her opening his mouth, demanding, his tongue
probing. Then his lips were on her chin, her neck, her sternum. He made her
stomach quiver when he licked into her belly button, then down, down, sucking,
teasing kisses across the crest of one hip that made her twitch and twist, till
he sat back on his haunches between her legs with a look of pure lechery on his
face.

She
parted her legs, just a little, and his breath went raspy as he put his hands
to her knees and opened her legs out. She was wet and they both heard the slick
sound of it.

He
studied her like there’d be a test later, like he was trying to see how the
parts fitted together, and she should’ve felt weird about that, exposed, except
for the awe she saw when his eyes came back to hers.

“Beautiful.”
He ran a finger from end to end and settled it over the nub of her clit and her
hips left the bed.

He smiled,
delighted. “You like that.”

“Do it
again.”

“Too
much I want to do. Touch you, lick you, suck you, but I’m not going to hold out
much longer.” He pressed his cock against his stomach. He was long and thick
and very, very ready. “I want to be inside you so much it hurts.”

She was
beyond ready too. He could do anything he wanted. He touched her clit again,
dragged his finger through her wetness and probed inside, making her hips jerk.

“Fuck.”
He scrambled back off the bed and she half sat in surprise, laughing when he
pulled her ankles so she slid, dragging the bed covering with her to the edge
of the bed. She dug that he wasn’t scared to be physical with her, that he
understood she was strong. She laughed again when he lifted her foot and put it
over his shoulder.

This is
the point other partners wimped out, pretended polite interest or wanted her to
do something awkwardly gymnastic and uncomfortable while they ate her out. Reid
went to his knees, smoothed his hands up her thighs and put his lips to her hip
flexor then tongued her length like it was the reason he was born.

She
dropped back to the bed, her strangled moan acting like applause, urging him
on. She got a hand to his hair and he stopped. “No, no don’t stop, that’s good,
that’s soo damn good.” He found her clit, closed his lips around it and she yipped
and wrenched out of his grasp.

Not an
orgasm but it was there, making her tremble, waiting to be coaxed out, but he
was all out of patience to explore. He crawled over her, shoved her back up the
bed and settled between her thighs, the head of his cock eased down her
slipperiness and breached her. They both groaned.