A Taste Of Sin (9 page)

She felt an odd tightness in her chest. It must be nice, she thought with just the barest twinge of envy, to have siblings you can always count on for friendship and support.

Any sentiment she was harboring vanished as she caught a snippet of their conversation, punctuated by raucous belly laughs.

"You should have seen what Carrie"" Tony was saying.

"Candy," Mike broke in, "Carrie was with me."

"Carrie, Candy, whatever"she could put her legs all the way over her head! You ever been with a chick who could put her legs over her head, Nick?"

Nick looked uneasily up at Kelly as she set the food on the table. "Can't say that I have, Tony."

Kelly had been doing yoga for four years now, so she was pretty close. But she knew better than to say anything. She went back to the bar, returning quickly with the pitcher of Bass they'd ordered.

"I still can't believe you went home, Nicky," Tony said around a mouthful of chicken wing. "That blonde was all over you, and she was hot.

"Her cans—"

"Were fake""

"Like that ever stopped you"" Mike rolled his eyes.

“—just like the rest of her." Nick finished tightly.

"Sounds like you guys had a wild night." Kelly did her best to keep her tone light even as jealously coiled like a viper in her gut.

Mike at least had the grace to look chagrined, but Tony was completely unabashed.

"Yeah, last Saturday we went out for a little fun," Tony said with a wink.

Saturday, huh? The one night since they'd started this thing that Nick didn't show up. She'd forced herself not to ask where he'd been, knowing it was none of her business.

But that hadn't stopped her from imagining exactly what he was up to. Apparently she hadn't been too far off the mark. She could easily picture it. A stacked blonde whose bra size outmatched her IQ, giggling as she crawled all over Nick.

She poured their beers, setting Nick's down with a force that sent suds sloshing into his lap.

"Sorry," she muttered, shoving a handful of napkins at him.

Keep your mouth shut
, she told herself. The urge to launch into a scathing tirade about bimbos and STDs nearly overwhelmed her.

As far as the Donovans were concerned, why should she care about what they'd done last Saturday, or who they'd done it with? Their reputations were well established, and their behavior should come as no surprise.

Kelly retreated to the stockroom under the pretense of finding more ketchup. Maybe a few moments alone would cool her temper.

She jumped as a hand closed around her right bicep and spun her around. She whipped around to face Nick, bracing her palms against his chest as though to fend off an attack.

"What are you doing back here?"

"Kelly, nothing happened last Saturday," Nick said, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I don't care if it did," she lied. She turned, pretending to search through boxes so she wouldn't have to look at him. "Honestly, we never made any promises except not to tell anyone that we're fucking."

The crude word tasted bad in her mouth. She picked up a bottle of ketchup and stuck it in her apron pocket. "And I can only hope you're not telling your brothers about any of my specialties."

It was foolish, naive, ridiculous to be hurt by the idea of Nick talking about her like Tony and Mike had talked about Carrie—Candy, whatever her name.

But it did hurt, dammit. Because like it or not, what she had with Nick was special. At least to her.

"I haven't told them anything, just like we agreed," he snapped.

"Good. Anyway, we never agreed not to see other people, not that this town has much else to offer." Kelly turned to face Nick, keeping her expression deliberately bland. His jaw was set in tense lines, his thumbs

hooked aggressively in his belt loops.

"Except..." A little voice in the back of her head told her to shut up, but she barreled on, "except your brothers, of course. Now there's a thought. Karen dated Mike in high school and was very impressed even then, if I recall. I've never been much for threesomes. But—“

Nick's mouth slammed down on hers. She felt her lips grind against her teeth. She opened her mouth to protest, and Nick seized the opportunity to thrust his tongue inside.

Her arms twined around his neck, even as she knew she should push him away. She whimpered into his mouth, one leg lifting to twine around his waist as she ground her sex against the mammoth bulge at his crotch.

Nick tore his mouth away so abruptly Kelly stumbled back against a box of napkins. His face was flushed with fury, his eyes burning with rage and arousal. He closed his hands around her shoulders and lifted her off the ground until she was at eye level. "I don't fucking share."

One last, brutal kiss, and he was gone.

It was just past midnight, and Nick stood outside of Sullivan’s. He lurked in the doorway of the shoe store next door, waiting for Maggie to leave for the night. Everyone else had gone except for Kelly.

He was too restless to wait at her house tonight. After mauling her in the storeroom, he'd left with his brothers. Too keyed to read the mystery novel he'd started, and too impatient with the nonsense offered on TV, he'd gone for a walk. But even as he'd wandered aimlessly for the past several hours, he couldn't shake the frustration, the anger—face it—the jealousy that had nearly overwhelmed him earlier that evening.

It was an emotion he hadn't felt in a very long time. Not even with Ann, his last girlfriend. But Kelly's snide joke about his brother made him want to grab her by the hair and pull her caveman style back to his lair.

He couldn't deny it anymore. Whatever he and Kelly had together had gone way beyond the bounds of a casual affair. He wanted to be with her all the time. Wanted to know that he was going to be with her every night. Parade with her down Main Street and say, "See this woman? This beautiful, smart, amazing woman? She's mine!"

Unwilling to examine his uncharacteristically territorial urges, he didn't question his gut-deep need to see her tonight, to put his mark on her in any way he could.

That was what had him lurking outside the pub, waiting for Maggie to leave so he could sneak inside and show Kelly that in some way, at least, she belonged to him.

Finally Maggie left through the front door. Nick waited until she got in her car and was all the way down the block before he slipped in. He took a moment to study Kelly. The muscles in her arms stood out in soft relief as she wiped down the bar. The cotton of her T-shirt puckered as her breasts strained the fabric.

A few coffee-colored curls had slipped from the clip holding her hair back from her face, teasing her high cheekbones and fine line of her jaw.

She turned away, bending to drop the rag below the sink. He felt his cock stiffen against his zipper. Even though he couldn't see her, he could imagine her skirt riding up the backs of her thighs. Her skin there was pale over firm muscles, leading up to a lush ass that begged to be squeezed and stroked.

"Take off your panties," he said, his voice sounding sharp in the silence of the bar.

Kelly gasped and whirled around, one hand to her chest, eyes wide with fear. "Jesus Christ! You scared the crap out of me." She took a couple of deep breaths, watching him warily as he approached the bar.

Nick didn't say anything. He took in the slight tremor of her hands, the nervous darting of her tongue over her bottom lip.

Her nervousness excited him. She didn't know what to expect from him. Hell, with all of the unfamiliar emotions roiling inside him, he didn't know what to expect either. Good. They were even.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" He shed his jacket as he walked, dropping it on the floor. His shirt followed.

She stood frozen, watching him as he lifted the partition and walked behind the bar.

"Take off your panties," he repeated.

Her chin tilted up, and her eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to intimidate me?"

Her hands went to her hips, but for all her bravado, he could see the telltale flush creeping up from the neckline of her shirt. He'd bet his stake in Donovan Brothers that under the T-shirt her nipples were hard and under the skirt she was already wet.

"I want to get something straight between us, Kelly." Now only an inch separated them, close enough for him to see the subtle flare of her nostrils, the nervous awareness in her wide blue eyes. "I don't sleep around. I only sleep with one woman at a time, and I expect her to do the same. I didn't like you talking about my brother—“

"It was just a joke," Kelly interrupted, her voice shrill.

"Even if you're joking. When you're with me, I don't even want the idea of another man to enter your head." He leaned down and kissed her, a hot, hard caress that bruised both their mouths.

"I don’t—it didn’t—"" Kelly stuttered.

"Then prove it, Kelly. Prove that I'm the only one you want to fuck, the only one you want to be with."

"How?" she whispered. Her hands grasped his wrists as he cupped her face. "By doing exactly what I want."

Kelly stared up at Nick, more than a little nervous. And more than a little turned on. This was a side of Nick she'd never seen before.

Angry. Demanding. Domineering. Overpowering.

And he wanted her to prove he was the only one she wanted. God knew he was. He consumed nearly every waking thought, invaded her dreams. He'd reduced her to a lovesick, sex-crazed idiot who did little more than count the minutes until she could see him again.

But this made her nervous. He was calling the shots, he was in control. And he was demanding something from her that she wasn't sure he was willing to give himself.

Could she take the risk and surrender?

His hot amber eyes bored into hers. His breathing was unsteady, a faint sheen of sweat already glowing on the olive skin of his chest. She could only nod in mute assent.

Suddenly he was everywhere, overwhelming her. His tongue thrust lustily into her mouth, his hands tangled in her hair, and he pushed her back until the hard edge of the bar dug into her back. One big hand reached unceremoniously under her skirt and shoved her panties down to her knees. His big, booted foot came up to step in the crotch and pushed them the rest of the way down.

She looked around uneasily. "Don't you want to go back to my place?" she panted.

"Anything I want," Nick said harshly as he shoved her shirt up, stripping her like a child. "And I want you right here, right now."

Lust curled in her belly despite her misgivings.

"And you want it too." He slid his hand up her skirt, grunting in satisfaction when his fingers found her already wet and eager.

She flushed with arousal and embarrassment. Since when had she become so goddamn easy? Helplessly she ground herself against his fingers, urging him to slip deep inside.

"Uh, uh, uh," he scolded. "There's something I want first."

She felt the pressure of his hands on her shoulders, urging her down to her knees. Following his mute command, she unfastened his jeans and pushed them along with his briefs down his hips. His cock twitched as she cupped him in her hand, and she felt an answering pull in her womb.

"Suck my cock." His deliberately crude demand sent another rush of moisture between her thighs.

Her lips tingled, her tongue anticipating his salty, musky taste as she leaned forward. Her lips fastened over the tip, her tongue lashing the head in a teasing caress. She felt a surge of triumph at his quick inhale and sucked more of him into her mouth.

She closed her eyes, focusing on the taste, the thickness of him in her mouth. His fingers tangled in her hair, and his groan of satisfaction vibrated through his entire body. Everything about him seduced her, enchanted her. His scent, the feel of his hair-roughened thighs under her fingers, the contrast of the smooth skin of his butt as she palmed the firm cheeks.

Her entire being focused on him, on the pleasure she gave as she sucked him as deeply in her throat as she could take him. Back and forth, take and release, she sucked him into her mouth and slid her lips back to tease the tip. One hand came up to cradle his sac, exploring the wrinkled skin, his heavy balls drawn tight and hard against his body.

She squeezed her thighs against an answering throb in her sex, let out a little cry around his cock. He groaned, murmuring nonsensical words and phrases about how good she was, how good she felt. She felt him swell even bigger, the head of his cock throbbing against her tongue as she laved it in a swirling caress. He was close, she thrilled, and she relaxed her throat to take him deeper. Her sex was full and achy, and she realized suddenly that she was nearly as close as he was.

She tasted the hot salty drops of pre-come, and she wrapped her fist around his shaft. But before she could pump him to release he abruptly pulled free of her mouth.

Before Kelly could say a word Nick hauled her to her feet and spun her around. She braced her hands on the back bar, startled by their reflection in the mirror. Her face was flushed and dazed looking, her mouth swollen red, slick, and wet. He was behind her, shoving her skirt up around her waist with one hand while he donned a condom with the other.

It was so raw, so carnal, she started to close her eyes against the harsh reality. But Nick would have none of it. His hand tangled in her hair, pulling her head up even as he tipped her forward with a firm hand at the small of her back.

"No you don't," he said harshly. He took his cock in one hand and teased her swollen slit. "I want you to watch me fuck you."

She saw her lips part in a low moan at his words, at the sensation of his thick head squeezing its way inside. She parted her legs to accommodate him as he slid home with one abandoned thrust. His hands gripped her hips as he pumped hard. Tonight there were no sweet words or soft caresses. Tonight he was taking her, using her.

And she loved it. She loved the way his abs ripped with every thrust, loved the way her breasts bounced and strained as she worked herself hard against him. Loved the harsh sounds that erupted from both their throats to mingle with the sound of flesh meeting flesh.