Hands had always been her weakness when it came to men. With Sean she should have known they were doomed from the start. His hands were pale, neatly clipped and soft from his regular weekly manicures. Somehow she doubted her walking fantasy bothered with the fuss of having his nails waxed.
10
Singed
Surrendering To Your Inner Slut
, Kendra’s latest self-help guide urged her leave her safety spot and introduce herself, but then what? Ask a perfect stranger to fuck her in the coat closet? Offer to pay for some no-tell motel? How did women manage to have active sex lives when there were so many details?
While the need to assert herself pushed against her natural shyness, Kendra tapped her foot with indecision. Making a blatant fool out of herself at her cousin’s rehearsal dinner didn’t top her to-do list, but letting the opportunity get away from her didn’t feel right either.
Time to play or pay, she thought. Then squaring her shoulders, jutting her chin out, Ken left the safety of the dark and stepped into the light. Determined to break the last of Sean’s treacherous chains on her.
As long as she looked like a confident, sexy, self-assured woman, maybe no one would notice the shaking of her hands or her quaking knees.
* * * * *
“I think they’ll take the title this year.”
River nodded while subtly searching the room for his mystery woman. And what a mystery she was. Most of the people invited tonight were familiar faces to him. The cops outnumbered the civilians at the party, but it was expected with the both grooms working in different departments in the police force.
The few non-government employees were easy to identify. Kasey’s writer friends absorbed everything and everyone in the room. No doubt the guests would prove to be fodder for future books.
Halli invited few friends, but those in attendance melted from one group to another easily. As artists, business owners and various other careers, Halli’s crew could fit in anywhere with anyone. Jolt, her coffee shop, catered to so many walks of life River was surprised she hadn’t invited cross-dressers. It would have livened up the joint for sure.
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He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and forgot all about every other person in the room. There she was, finally. With her red dress, black hair and light eyes his lady stood out like a flame in an ice house.
Making a quick, probably incoherent excuse to the other detective he was half talking to, River quickly closed the distance between them. The closer she drew the quicker his heart raced. Nervous sweat dampened his palms and his cock went rock-hard in the time it took him to draw his next breath.
When they stood face to face, River opened his mouth to introduce himself, trying not to moan at the erotic smell of her subtle perfume. “I think I love you,” he heard himself say instead and wanted to find the nearest hole to crawl into until the world ended.
Kendra stared at him, her entire body in the grip of some mysterious heat wave.
Had she heard him right? Had he actually uttered those words?
He gave her a little boy grin. “I guess I should introduce myself before we take this any further. River Brody. Brother of the grooms-to-be.” He stuck out his hand.
Transfixed in some kind of daze, Kendra shook his hand, sizzled by the electric charge that passed between them. “K-Kendra Jacobs.”
“Kendra. Great name. Will you dance with me? I have this uncontrollable urge to hold you next to me.”
“O-Okay.”She let him pull her into his arms as the band segued into a slow, bluesy number. The moment they touched shoulder to shoulder and knee to knee, and all the intimate parts in between, a rush of cream soaked her thong and the muscles in her cunt began a quivering shout, “Touch me! Fill me!” What on earth was happening to her?
“You smell so good,” River murmured, his lips against her hair. “Is this a goddess scent? Because you sure look like a goddess.”
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Singed
Kendra wanted to pinch herself. She’d listened to her friends talk about men they’d had this kind of fun with, men who paid them this kind of compliment. But no one had ever said anything more to her than “You look pretty nice tonight” or from her mother,
“I think that dress is a little too tight for you to wear in public.”
So she wasn’t as thin as a screwdriver with all bones and no ass. She liked the way she looked and always believed there was a man out there who’d like it, too.
Apparently tonight he’d drifted into her life. And to think she almost hadn’t come to this party.
“No goddess,” she finally managed. “Just an ordinary woman.”
“Sweetheart, there’s nothing the least bit ordinary about you. Trust me.”
He tucked both her hands against his chest and in a smooth move slid his hands down to cup her ass. When he squeezed it gently she automatically pressed against him, stunned to feel the thick, hard length of his erection burning into her through the layers of their clothes. Holy Hannah!
“You smell good, too.” Ohmigod! Was that her? She never said things like that.
“Are you obligated to stay long at this shindig?” One hand moved up to thread into her hair and hold her head against this shoulder.
“K-Kasey’s my cousin,” she told him. Lordy, would she never stop stammering? It must have something to do with the waves of lust sweeping through her, firing her nerves and ratcheting up her pulse beat to the level of jungle war drums.
“Kasey’s very busy with my brother,” he pointed out. “I don’t think she’ll miss you.
I think we should cut out of here and go someplace much more private.”
Kendra caught her breath. “Where did you have in mind?”
“How about if we pretend we met on vacation and I invite you up to my room?”
“Your room?” She raised her eyes to look at him, saw the heat reflected in his hazel eyes. Holy Hannah! So much for staying in her corner.
Get on with it or get over it.
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Desiree Holt & Allie Standifer
But what if he turned out to be arrogant and abusive like Sean?
What if he turns out to be the man of my dreams?
“I assure you I’m not an escaped serial killer.” He seemed to sense her reluctance. “I assure you my credentials are of the very best kind. I’m a cop, like my brothers, with a spotless record.” He nodded at the men in question, dancing with their fiancées, and chuckled. “I promise they’ll vouch for me.”
Do it,
her inner self said.
Take the chance.
“I don’t usually—”
“Take off with strange men right after you meet them? I get that.” His hand was moving on her ass again. “But can you please make an exception this time or I might have to kill myself.”
“So, do you really have a room here?”
“I can get one in less than five minutes, but only if it will have you in it.”
Kendra took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay. All right. Sure.”
He brushed his lips over her forehead. “Good. Give me five and then meet me by the elevators.”
As she slipped out to the ladies’ room, all she could think was,
I have lost my
everlovin’ mind.
14
Singed
They stood looking at each other in the hotel room. River had removed his jacket and tie, and kicked off his shoes. When Kendra didn’t move, he flicked on the radio and found some slow music.
“Let’s keep dancing,” he said, opening his arms to her. “We’ll pretend we’re at a party all by ourselves.” As he folded her against him, he added, “And that’s what this is.”
The music relaxed her and she leaned into him, loving the feel of his hard body and his warm hands stroking her back, her shoulders, her ass. Her nipples tingled and the throbbing in her pussy became more and more insistent as they moved to the music. A warm hand reached down and gathered the fabric of her dress, bunching it and pulling it up until she felt cool air on bare skin. Fingers slipped into the crevice of her buttocks and his other hand tightened against her.
“No pantyhose,” he breathed. “Nothing but bare Kendra under this dress. I love it.”
He stroked her ass and teased at the cleft over and over, while her cunt quivered and her nipples hardened. When he pulled away from her she felt as if she’d lost something but he just smiled at her, his hazel eyes darkening to a smoky gray.
“I think we may be wearing too many clothes, sugar.” He unbuttoned his shirt, tugged it out of his slacks and tossed it to the side. Then he pulled her back against him.
“I want to feel your skin on mine.”
His voice had the same soft feeling as warm hot chocolate syrup dripping over ice cream. Seductive. Tempting. He reached behind her and tugged at the zipper of her dress, sliding it down in a slow, even movement. When the fabric fell apart he simply brushed it off her shoulders until her arms were free before whispering it down her 15
Desiree Holt & Allie Standifer
body and nudging her to step out of it. One easy flick of his fingers and the bra was history.
She stood before him in a thong and her shoes, and a painful awareness of being completely exposed. When she raised her hands to cover her breasts he pushed them away. His eyes ate her up, devouring every inch of her. Did he like what he saw? Was he aroused? Disappointed? For a brief moment Sean’s critical words flashed back at her, but one look at this man’s face and she had her answer. River Brody looked as if he could eat her up with a spoon.
His hands cupped her breasts, thumbs brushing back and forth over the now-sensitive nipples. When he bent his head to capture one stiff nipple in his mouth, she boldly stretched out her hands and undid the button and zipper of his slacks. Without even lifting his mouth from her body he gave a little twist with his hips, let his slacks fall to the floor and kicked them away.
Kendra reached through the fly of his boxers to grasp his cock, hot and hard beneath her touch. She closed her fingers over it, feeling the soft skin over the steel core.
Holy Hannah, he was huge. Really huge! Beneath her slim fingers she felt the pulsing of the blood in the vein that wound along the underside of the shaft.
“Like that, sugar?” he asked, his lips against her skin.
“Uh-huh.” She could hardly form a word, mesmerized as she was buy the sheer size of him.
He lifted his head and placed his mouth over hers, thrusting his tongue inside and tasting every inch of her. She met his tongue with her own, lost in the possessiveness of the kiss, her lips fused to his as she continued to stroke his shaft and his magical hands fondled and kneaded her breasts.
The kiss went on and on, taking and giving at the same time. She’d never had a man kiss her this way, as if the pleasure should be as much hers as it was his. He flicked his tongue over hers, slid it across the inner surfaces of her cheeks, tasted the inside of 16
Singed
her lips. His lips were like coarse velvet, smooth and rough at the same time, a seductive sensation that she never wanted to end.
Kendra pressed her hands against the wall of his chest, feeling the hard muscle beneath the soft pelt of golden brown hair curled in rich abundance. Her fingertips searched until they found his flat nipples and she scraped her fingernails over them, humming a small sound of satisfaction at the tiny groan he emitted that vibrated against her. She did it again, testing his response, and each time she did he made the same sound and tightened his fingers on her breasts. He caught her nipples between his second and third fingers and pinched them until hot streaks of pleasure raced through her. Over and over they teased each other until they were both shaking with desire.
By the time River lifted his head Kendra was wrapped in such a fog she could barely remember where she was. He stepped away from her only long enough to strip the covers back from the bed and his boxers from his body. She widened her eyes as she took in the full sight of him—lean, muscle-packed body, narrow hips and the tawny nest of curls framing an erection that could only be called glorious. She salivated just looking at it.
River’s grin was slow and sexy. “Like what you see, sugar? Because I sure do. I could spend hours just looking at this delicious body.”
Hooking his thumbs into the elastic of her thong, he pulled it slowly down past her hips to her ankles, lowering his body as he did until he was kneeling in front of her.
With infinite care he lifted each foot, one at a time, to slide off the thong and remove her shoes. But instead of rising to his feet, he stayed where he was and buried his face in the curls covering her pussy. His tongue flicked out, probing, finding the clit hidden beneath its little hood and stroking it over and over.
Kendra shook as her nerves fired and her muscles melted, clinging to River’s broad shoulder for support because she sure couldn’t stand upright herself. He closed his lips over that hot, swollen nub and she was sure she’d melt into a puddle on the floor. At the moment the intensity of sensation was almost more than she could stand, he rose, 17
Desiree Holt & Allie Standifer
lifted her and placed her on the bed as gently as if she were a porcelain doll. Pausing only to fish a condom from his wallet and toss it onto the nightstand, he knelt between her legs and stared at her body. She would have sold her soul to see that look in his eyes for the rest of her life, a look that said she fulfilled every dream, every fantasy he’d ever had.
River leaned down, his thick hair brushing the inside of her thighs, and closed his mouth over her clit again. Fire streaked through her and she fisted her hands in the sheet just to anchor herself.
River had to work hard to control himself. From the moment he’d stripped the dress from her body and bared her to his eyes, all he could think about was those lush curves, the sweet, rounded ass, the plump breasts and that tempting pussy teasing at him from beneath its shroud of curls. He didn’t think he’d ever get enough of sinking his fingers into the delicious cheeks of her ass, reveling in the feel of those nicely rounded globes. The feel of her cool fingers on his cock hadn’t helped his control. And when he’d dropped to his knees and taken the first taste of her pussy he almost came right there on the rug.