Pranked (65 page)

I hated that I felt that way, but it was true. The longer I was out in the world, experiencing all it had to offer, the more it felt like going back home would be taking a step backwards. But could I really leave my family behind? Could I forsake all I’d ever known, all those who had nurtured me, for a world that would surely grow just as dull in time?

I wasn’t as ruthless as Hannah. A decision like that wouldn’t come easily to me. But I reminded myself there was no point in considering it now. That wasn’t what this trip was for. This was a journey, a chance to indulge in some exploration. My knees weakened when I thought of what kind of exploring I might be able to do with Reid.

Stop that,
I chastised myself as he came to the door. The fading sunlight made his short beard seem even darker, bringing out his eyes.
You’re letting his English values get to you.

But in truth, there was nothing more I wanted than to let Reid Brody get to me. In theory, anyway. In practice… that was a much taller order to fill.

Reid brushed against me as he unlocked the door, his hip skirting mine. Every fleeting contact between us was torture. Exquisite torture, but torture nonetheless. For a moment, I wished I really could be more like Hannah and just jump into bed with him. It would make things so much easier, I was sure. But I just wasn’t that kind of girl—not that I would shame her for it. I had… different values than she did. Or, as Hannah would call them… hang-ups.

“C’mon in,” Reid said, pushing the door open for me and flicking on the lights. “Welcome to
la Casa de Brody
.”

I nearly had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I’d never seen such a monument to modernity before. Everything was so… clean. So white, even with the light, teak wood floors applied as a contrast. The main living space was finely decorated, with succulent centerpieces—so chosen because they needed little care, I presumed—featured on almost every flat surface I could see. Artwork adorned the walls, mostly abstract pieces in startling shades to offset the monochromatic nature of the rest of the house. A massive chandelier hung from the second floor ceiling, spraying light in every direction and casting shadows beneath the floating staircase that led up to what I assumed must be the bedrooms. I climbed it slowly, ignoring for the moment the gourmet kitchen on the other side of the main floor—I was more interested in the wood-burning stove outside, and I had no idea what half the buttons and dials did indoors.

“This is… incredible,” I said, opening up the door once I’d reached the top. I heard Reid ascending behind me and turned to look at him. “This is the bedroom?”

“Mmhm,” he answered, setting our bags down on the landing. “Go on, turn on the lights.”

I did. And the vision that greeted me was even more breathtaking than I’d imagined.

The room was huge. Part of me had expected that, but what I hadn’t realized was the level of luxury it would display. The enormous bed was covered in red stain sheets that I immediately wanted to throw myself onto—I’d only known cotton bedding all my life, rough-spun and not nearly as soft as the sheets at Hannah’s apartment with something called a “thread count.” I could see there was a sizable bathroom attached, too, with a shower fit for a king. It had multiple heads, including one dead center of the ceiling, and a nearby tub could easily fit two. I blushed. What did the Brody boys come up here to do?

And was that the plan for me?

I felt Reid’s hot breath on my nape and spun to face him, swallowing thickly as he took a step forward into me. His eyes were dark and fierce as he trailed a rough finger across the curve of my jaw, tucked it under my chin, and coaxed me into raising my gaze. I bit my lip as a low, throaty chuckle left his smirking lips.

“You know,” he told me, his voice low so I had to lean in to hear him, “there’s only the one bedroom…”

As Reid wove his fingers through my hair, I felt every part of my body fill with an undeniable heat—one that could only be alleviated by taking my clothes off. And, judging by the look on Reid’s face, that was exactly the kind of reaction he was hoping for.

I sucked in a sharp breath. Two minutes we’d been alone, and already, I was about to come undone.

I
had
Sarah right where I wanted her, and I knew it. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. This was my time to shine. I could see desire dancing in her eyes, see her longing written all over her face. She was hungry for it. Desperate. And frankly, so was I.

I hadn’t expected to end up wanting her this badly. But every move she made, every smile, every innocent caress—they all served to drive me right up the wall. My pants had been tight in the crotch ever since we’d gone on our first date, and it was time to finally relieve my blue balls of their heavy burden.

Sarah whimpered when I drew her hair back from her face, my eyes fixed on those perfect, pouty lips of hers. They were open just enough to take my tongue. I could so easily slip it inside her mouth, taste the want I could feel radiating off her. Then I’d get her to open a little wider and slip in something else so
she
could taste
me.

It had been a long time since I’d taught a girl how to give a blowjob. Some guys might’ve seen something like that as a chore, but me? I saw it as an opportunity. A chance to properly train Sarah in how to please me. Or any man.

But mostly me. Because bet or not, I knew I wouldn’t be able to have her just one time. After all the effort it had taken to get us here, I was going to have to indulge in Sarah Miller again and again and again. For as long as I could keep up the charade, anyway. Once she found out about the bet my brothers and I had made, I knew there was no way of keeping her here. She’d go home to her Amish mommy and daddy, and I’d never see or hear from her again.

That fact still stuck in my craw. Sarah wasn’t a bad person. She didn’t deserve to be hurt like this. Maybe there was some way to keep the bet a secret. Then again, knowing Wyatt and his temper, he’d blow it for me once he found out I’d won. Shit. I was really going to lose her.

Stop thinking and start doing, you idiot,
I chided myself, wetting my lips as Sarah’s skin heated under my touch.
You’ve got this in the bag. Don’t let your conscience blow it for you now.

I turned my focus from ethical matters to the gentle heaving of Sarah’s breasts. The delicate skin of her décolletage flushed as I brought my other hand to her waist, squeezing it in my grasp. She was so tiny, built like a fragile little bird, and I felt like any false move might result in her snapping between my fingers. I was going to have to go easy on this one. At least, for the time being.

“One bed,” I rumbled in her ear, “and yet
endless
possibilities…” I took her lobe between my teeth and bit down, ever so softly. Sarah gasped in response. “I could teach you so many things on that bed, Sarah. It could be our classroom. All you have to do… is exactly what I say…”

Sucking on Sarah’s earlobe made her shudder and moan. When I flicked my tongue along it, she threw her head back and I took the opportunity to pin her against the doorframe and the wall. I knew my hard-on was pressing tight into the crease of her thigh, and I ran it along the curve of her hip, letting her feel my want for her. She looked up at me with those innocent, wide eyes, and I nearly lost it right then and there.

Something about Sarah was so damn sexy. Maybe it was because she had no idea how alluring she was. Maybe it was knowing that when I made her mine, she’d be mine alone. Maybe it was even a little bit of both. Whatever the case, I’d reached the point of no return. I couldn’t let her go now. I couldn’t give up this golden opportunity to finally unveil the woman under all those clothes. It would be like unwrapping a gift on Christmas day.

“You have no idea what you do to me, do you?” I murmured against her throat. I was kissing my way along the underside of her jaw, working my way toward her collar bone. “Can you feel it, now?” I took one of her hands in mine. Her fingers trembled as I led them to the bulge in my jeans. “You make me so goddamn hard, Sarah. You drive me so fucking wild…”

She didn’t resist me, and when her palm curved around my straining dick, she didn’t pull away. The pulse in her neck pounded, though, a rhythm that told me all I needed to know about what she was thinking right then. I kissed that throbbing spot, eliciting another shudder and groan from her throat.

“I could show you how to touch it. Teach you how to make it hard for you all the time. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Sarah?” I pressed myself into her hand, delighting in the way it made her nipples hard through her blouse. With my free hand, I reached up her stomach and skirted the edges of one, popping a button loose. Her creamy flesh swelled and I brought my lips to it, tasting the tops of her breasts. I’d been right, back in the bar. Once I’d managed to get Sarah out of that damn apron and dress combo, she had one gorgeous, sexy body. And oh, these curves… I wanted to steer through them, take them slow at first to get a feel for how plunging they were, then take them again, fast and hard. I wanted to push us both to the very edge, make her quiver and writhe, change the roadmap of her body so that each time I took her, it was a surprise. I never wanted to take the same path twice with her. When I dove into her body, I promised myself, it would always be new.

“I could teach you so many other things,” I breathed, dragging my teeth along her buttons. “How to take pleasure. How to give it. How to savor the taste of a man. How to let him lose himself in your flavors, too…”

She arched, and the barest bit of lace peeked up over her parted neckline—black as night. A conservative choice, as far as colors go, but to her, I was sure the luxurious material felt scandalous. That was exactly how I wanted her to feel—wild and free. I wanted her to throw caution to the wind and forget who she was for a while. I wanted her to become someone else, someone different, in my arms.

And yet, simultaneously, I wanted her to stay the same. I wanted Sarah to be exactly who she was. Because I was sure that underneath all those layers of clothes and traditions and rules, she was someone extraordinary. Someone who could teach me a thing or two, even. Not about sex—I was king there—but about life, maybe. About patience and trust. Shit I really shouldn’t have been thinking about, with the promise of sexual conquest so close I could taste it.

Sarah was within my grasp. All of her. Merging our lips, I prepared to seal the deal.

Again, she did not refuse me. In fact, her legs parted, letting my body fit properly against hers. But she moved her hand away from my dick to my bicep, stroking softly, affording me a much gentler touch than I was used to. My brow furrowed. Was I losing her? How? I’d done everything right—hit all the spots I knew would make me irresistible to her. And yet, there it was again, that light touch that failed to reciprocate the same passion I’d put forth. By the time she drew away, it was hardly a surprise, though my mouth ached at the distance all the same.

“It’s… a good thing I brought a sleeping bag,” she murmured, her eyes hazy. She wanted me, all right. But somehow, it wasn’t enough. “Since there’s only the one bedroom…”

I closed my eyes as she ducked under my arm, fixing her blouse as she went. She was shaking still, but now I could tell it wasn’t apprehension that made her tremble, but effort—an attempt at self-restraint. She was crumbling right in front of me. I just had to push her a little harder.

But I was getting frustrated, too. How the hell was she so resistant to me? What was I gonna have to do to make her give in to the desires I knew coursed through her tight, sexy body? I’d never had this much trouble with a woman before. What was it going to take?

As I watched her go, hips swaying just ever so slightly, I took pride in the fact that at the very least, from the looks of her, I’d made her knees weak.

A
breath of cool
, clean air was exactly what I needed after that ordeal.

Oh, Reid was tempting.
Sorely
tempting. An ache filled me to the brim at his absence, one I couldn’t quite shake no matter how hard I flung myself at the task of arranging dinner for us both. I tried to take solace in the quietude of the woods, tried to imagine myself back at the village with my parents, anything that would wipe clean the memory of Reid’s big, strong, rough hands crushing my body.

He was so… capable. So intense. It should have frightened me—and maybe on some level, it did—but I was so wrapped up in how
good
it all felt that I’d hardly been able to draw myself away from him in time to…

To what? To avoid giving myself to him? That was the truth of the matter, wasn’t it—that I’d been ready and willing to sacrifice everything I’d ever believed in, just for a taste of the rapture I knew Reid could give me?

Just… not ready enough. Oh, it was so confusing. I couldn’t seem to sort out the words to properly describe what I was feeling. It was as if my heart, mind, body, and soul were all at war with each other. My heart and body clamored to be Reid’s, but my mind and soul begged for caution, flooded me with memories of my dedication to God, to the rules of our community, and to my father’s wishes. My stomach turned and I sat down at the picnic-style table near the wood-burning stove. How was I supposed to make sense of any of this when I was feeling everything at once?

It seemed like no matter where we were, how remote the environment, I was always going to be overwhelmed by Reid’s sheer presence and the temptation he posed for me. But should I just give in? Would he respect me if I did, or would I just end up one of the many women I knew he’d left in his wake?

These were such stupid thoughts. Reid wasn’t the kind of man to settle down, no matter how much I might want him to be. It didn’t matter that back home, this would have been considered a very intense courtship. Out here was what mattered, and out here, our intimacy meant nothing at all.

So if that was true… what was the harm in indulging in it?

That errant thought set my heart alight in the same way the tinder in the stove burned in front of me. I was so enraptured by those flames that I almost didn’t hear Reid when he came out through the sliding glass door and joined me.

“Thought you would’ve used the indoor stove,” he said, sitting down behind me. “You didn’t have to come all the way out here just to get away from me.”

“It wasn’t that,” I told him. And for the most part, it wasn’t. Nervously, I rubbed my hands down the sides of my jeans—it felt odd to be wearing pants, but Hannah assured me they were proper cabin attire. “I’m… not really familiar with anything but a stove like this. I have no idea what all those buttons and dials mean in there.”

Reid chuckled. It felt warm and soft against my neck, raising the hairs there. “You could’ve asked. You know I’m willing to teach you anything you wanna learn.”

I looked over my shoulder at him. It was a dangerous proposition; gazing into his dark eyes always threatened to bring me to my knees. But I held firm. “You only seem to offer that deal when you have something… sinful in mind.”

He grinned roguishly. “Didn’t realize I was supposed to be a saint.” When I looked away, he added, “All right, all right. I’m sorry. I’ve been pushing kinda hard, haven’t I?” He didn’t wait for me to answer before continuing. “I don’t mean to, darlin’. It’s just… God, you’re so damn beautiful. It’s hard to think of anything else, when you’re around.”

Beautiful.
Compliments like that weren’t just thrown around, where I came from. And the way the word fell from Reid’s lips, I got the impression it wasn’t something he took lightly, either. At least, not here with me. In fact, I got the impression that Reid did a lot of things differently where I was concerned. I chewed my lip and risked another glance back at him.

“I understand. I do. But you have to know, this isn’t… normal for me. And not only that, it’s not something that would ever be permitted, let alone thought of, back in my village. You’re asking me to forsake all I’ve ever learned, all I’ve ever held as true, just so I can…” My face flushed. “…lay with you.”

Reid laughed. “You make it sound so Biblical.” When I pursed my lips, his eyes softened and he sighed, rakings his fingers through his short hair. “Look, you don’t have to abandon your beliefs just to be with me. I don’t want you to give up your faith. That wouldn’t be fair. But I want you to consider the fact that your time here is supposed to be a test of that faith—a get out of jail free card.” I stared at him, bewildered, and he shook his head with a wry smile. “Right. Sorry. What I mean is that this is your one chance to figure things out for yourself. To expose yourself to all my world has to offer—to sin, even—and then come back and be absolved. You will never,
ever
get an opportunity like this again. Am I right?”

“It’s… more complicated than that,” I said. “But essentially, yes. I could never return here without giving up my life and turning my back on the church.”

Reid nodded and leaned forward, his arm on the table. “So then why not make it count, huh? Why not let yourself be
here,
instead of
there
? That’s the whole damn point! How are you ever gonna know what you missed out on, what you could’ve had, if you don’t give in a little and let yourself have a taste? Hell, what’s the point of you even being on Rumspringa if all you’re gonna do is act like you’re still at home?”

Coming from anyone else, those words would have lit a fire in my belly that I would have used to burn whoever had said them. To imply that if I wasn’t going to do everything they said, I shouldn’t be here—I would have considered it foul and rude.

But the
way
Reid said it… I knew what he was getting at. And I knew that he was right. So far, I’d spent my time in the English world acting as though it didn’t affect me, as though I was right back home, following the same rules that had been drilled into my head ever since I was a child. I’d failed to appreciate my freedom here, and the purpose of my Rumspringa. I’d been so afraid of turning out like Hannah that I hadn’t opened myself up to the experience whatsoever. Deep down, I was afraid I might like it.

And then what?

I turned to face Reid then, letting out a long breath of defeat. No, not defeat—acceptance. This was the push I had needed, the permission I’d been looking for all along. Slowly, I nodded… but with one caveat.

“I’d be willing to explore some of those things with you,” I said, then cut Reid off before he could get too excited, “but maybe not… everything. Not yet.” I couldn’t believe I was even saying this. It felt so dirty and wrong, but at the same time, it wasn’t untrue. “I’m not sure what I’m asking for, exactly. But…”

Reid stopped me by placing his hand on the curve of my cheek. “Let’s figure it out,” he said. “Together.”

I could do nothing else but acquiesce.

I let Reid pull me against him, his hands threading up through the back of my hair. He was always doing that, touching my locks, and I loved it. We weren’t even allowed to show our hair most of the time back at the village—it was always tucked up beneath a bonnet. Out here, I could let it down, let Reid comb through it, let him take a handful and grip tight. It made my scalp tingle and burn just a little, but it was anything but unpleasant. In fact, some part of me wished he’d pull a little tighter.

And then he was kissing me. His lips were scorching, bruising. His tongue was hot and insistent. I let him into my mouth, tentatively rising up to meet him, to taste him the way he tasted me. I couldn’t quite tell if I was doing it right, but Reid never pulled away. As the heat that had flooded my body so many times before began to crest in me, I gave in and let it. For once, I let myself operate on desire and instinct. I pressed close to Reid until I was in his lap, until I could feel the hard burden of his manhood jutting into my thigh, and arched as he dug his fingers into my hips.

“Show me what I’ve been missing out on, Reid,” I murmured against his mouth. “Please… show me something new.”

Reid grinned. “And the food?”

I shook my head at him. “I hadn’t gotten that far yet. All I did was start the fire.”

Slipping his hands beneath my rear, Reid lifted me, standing up so that he carried me against him. As my hair fell on either side of his face like a curtain, he asked me, “Where to, darlin’? The bedroom?”

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to give in to everything I’d been denying. But I couldn’t. The bedroom seemed too intimate yet, and I knew if we went in there, I’d lose any and all inhibitions I had left. Part of me relished that thought, but another told me I needed to ease into this, and erring on the side of caution was where I was most comfortable.

I bit my lip and shook my head. “Not yet. Maybe… maybe the couch?” I’d seen one in the living room on my way upstairs before. It had looked… spacious.

Reid kissed me again. My toes curled. And then he took me inside the cabin, carrying me every step of the way as if I weighed nothing at all.