All of You (3 page)

“Tell me later.” She rose up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him.

She’d never kissed Lucas before, not apart from the occasional cheek kiss. She’d never even held his hand. It was different than she’d imagined. Softer. Gentler. Perfect. Unwilling to think about why, she closed her eyes and licked his lips, craving a deeper taste.

He’d been too surprised at first to respond, but he warmed up quickly, meeting her kiss with his own, flirting with her, stroking and soothing her before tilting in a different direction and daring her to follow.

His lips took over, commanding, rewarding her when she did by rolling their hips together, leaving no question in her mind as to his interest now. The thick length of his cock teased with every swivel, causing an almost painful throbbing in her own moistening folds. Never enough to let her know exactly what he was offering, instead it hinted at the satisfaction he could give and she pressed closer, aching for relief.

Oxygen became a thing of the past and she couldn’t have cared less. She slipped her fingers into his hair, sampled the silkiness at his nape. He slid his hands fully over her ass, just resting there a second before caressing it in a way that made her whole body leap. Strong fingers slipped over the bottom curve, pulling her apart enough to make her wish he could slip them between her thighs right then, but he retreated and she groaned against his lips.

“Say you’re coming home with me,” she whispered when she finally pulled away.

He looked down at her, looking dazed and hungry, shocked and awed. That might have had something to do with the grip she had on his lapels, but she didn’t think so. For the first time ever, Lucas was seeing a woman when he looked at her, and he wanted her.

“Honey, I think I might just follow you anywhere you lead.”

She smiled, letting go of his coat and smoothing her hands over his chest. She didn’t say another word, just turned around and let him do exactly that.

This was such a bad idea.

Kyle watched his twin’s date stroll ahead. He had to remind himself that Jessica Saunders was Lucas’s girlfriend. Sort of. Just yesterday he’d been in his brother’s kitchen, assuring Lucas that he had purely innocent intentions and now, here he was, seriously thinking about taking this woman to bed.

Who was he kidding? Thinking had gone out the window when he agreed to pretend to be Lucas for this date. Her swaying hips entranced him as she walked a few paces in front of him. A car might hit him and he probably wouldn’t notice.

Lucas was going to drop this woman?

Kyle made a mental note to have his brother’s sanity checked. Again.

When he first arrived, he thought he’d have to ask for her by name. Lucas had been pretty sparing in his description: mid-back-length brown hair, fair skin, brown eyes, most likely wearing a gray dress, generally preferred the third table on the right side of the room. He’d said nothing about the full thickness of that hair, looking more like a mane with hints of red to it. Fair skin? Kyle had dated models who had to get theirs chemically peeled for such fresh-faced smoothness. Her eyes were not brown. Brown was the color of mud or leather. Hers were more of a hazel, with hints of color all over the iris, and they shone with intelligence. He hadn’t seen that in a while, especially when it wasn’t coupled with greed. She’d zinged him again and again all night long, making him actually work to keep up with her wit. As for her dress…

About the only thing Lucas got right was the color.

Until tonight, Kyle had never realized he had a fetish for the sexy teacher look. When she’d been sitting, of course he’d noticed the way the square cut of the dress molded its fine tweed to full breasts, how the crisp white shirt beneath it—covering her from collar to shoulders to wrists—probably protected her skin from the fabric’s scratchiness. When she stood up and he saw the dress hugging her down to her knees in a pencil-skirt, giving way to perhaps the most spectacular pair of legs he’d ever seen, all he could think was, “Hellooo, Miss Saunders, won’t you let me dust your erasers?” Just as creamy smooth as her throat and hands, her ankles looked like they’d fit in the circle of his forefinger and thumb with room to spare.

If she’d been wearing glasses and shiny lip-gloss, he’d have gone down on his knees and begged her to let him test his theory.

Hell, he wouldn’t mind getting on his knees anyway.

When she said she wasn’t going to sleep with him, he’d been both surprised and dismayed. He hadn’t come to dinner expecting to have sex with Lucas’s date. On the other hand, he hadn’t come on this date expecting to meet someone as incredible as Jessica, either.

So he followed her to her apartment, her sweetly curving behind waving at him, luring him toward her like some kind of spaceship in a tractor beam.

You should have told her you weren’t Lucas…

He’d meant to. At dinner, once he realized that he liked this woman too much not to want to see her again, he’d tried to figure a way to work it in. But the proper way never seemed to come to him. He couldn’t say, “Hi, I’ve been lying to you all night. I’m not really Lucas. I’m his twin brother. Will you date me?”

She’d have knocked him over the back of the booth.

He tried, on the street, knowing he couldn’t go to bed with her and not say who he was. She wanted Lucas…didn’t she? He got a little confused when she said they didn’t have that kind of relationship. Then she kissed him and he decided then and there he’d be dryer lint if she wanted him to.

So here he was, at the stoop of a brownstone apartment building, about to do something very wrong if he went inside. “You’re sure you want me to come up with you?”

She nodded again.

Here’s your chance. Tell her now.

Jessica’s eyes were smoky in the moonlight. Her hand found his lapel again, tiptoeing over to his shirt collar and touching the skin just beneath it. He shuddered, catching them both by surprise.

Tell her.

Go away, he thought back.

Tell her!

Jessica touched him again, the tingle just as strong when she placed two fingertips on him, sliding her hand around to his nape. He closed his eyes, inhaling the soft honey scent of her and the flowers on the vines climbing up the front of the building, willing his hormones to stop trying to make decisions for him. Her soft lips grazed his cheek, a sliding kind of kiss that was almost innocent and so much more seductive than the overt come-ons he’d had in his time. She wasn’t fragile. She didn’t fake her response or her sensuality. Her gracefulness wasn’t a pose.

When was the last time he’d had a little grace in his life?

“Come up with me.” If this was what the spider sounded like, he suddenly understood why a fly might listen.

“I have to tell you something,” he managed, just as her kiss finally found his mouth. She teased his upper lip with the tip of her tongue. Both arms slid around his neck again and firm, full breasts pressed against his chest.

“No, you don’t,” she whispered. “You have to come upstairs. Just for tonight.”

Another lick had him turning his face up to hers, had him kissing her back, tasting her smile and walking up a step to get closer. But she backed up at the same time, step after step. Before he realized it, they were inside the building, moving down the hall to an old elevator at the back. His gut clenched with the first response that had nothing to do with Jessica. He started to brace himself, as he always did, but then she kissed him again, drawing all his attention back to her, her body, her taste. He never got another moment to worry about the elevator.

Just as the doors opened for them, her hand found his zipper and slid it down faster than he could blink. Or his reflexes were slowed by the desire to let her have her way. Next thing he knew, her fingers were stroking the edge of his cock through the smooth cotton of his shorts, a moan of satisfaction purring from her throat as she gripped him.

“My mouth just watered,” she murmured with a throaty chuckle, the ball of her thumb tracing the rounded edge of his cockhead. She tightened her hold through the fabric, pumping once, twice, making his hips jerk toward her. “I don’t know who’s going to enjoy it more when I get my lips around this.”

“Honey, you keep saying things like that and you’re gonna find out.”

Jessica lifted her face to his, licking at his mouth with tiny flicks of her tongue, a teasing smile telling him exactly what she was imagining. Giving in, he sank both hands into her hair and his tongue into her mouth. She matched the pace of her stroke with that of his, pushing her body against his but never letting go of her prize, and if he had his way, she never would.

Then the doors parted behind him, nearly tumbling them into the hall to the sound of their surprised laughter.

A man walking down a hall with his pants open and a raging hard-on should be worried about looking ridiculous. But Kyle could only think of her, dressed all prim and proper, her kiss-swollen lips and lust-glittering gaze the best kind of contradiction. She only turned away once, to look in her purse for her keys and unlock her front door. Then it swung open and he could see her hallway before them. A long, beige mile to a door at the opposite end where paradise waited…if he just held on to the lie.

Inside his head, scales began tipping back and forth.

Beautiful woman…

A lie.

Bedroom eyes, silky hands taking hold of his lapels again and pulling him inside…

A Lie.

Warm breath, delicious scent, and a husky laugh that made his balls ache…

You’re lying!

Kyle made himself jerk away from her too-tempting lips. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t sleep with a woman who thought he was his brother. He’d done some shitty things in his time, but he hadn’t sunk that low yet. Women always knew the score when he was with them: no commitments, no lies, his own personal code of dishonor that had served him well for fifteen years. He’d never had to lie to woman to get her into bed and he wasn’t going to start now.

He looked down at Jessica’s flushed face, her hands pulling him closer with hungry urgency and knew telling her the truth meant kissing her goodbye.

He curled his hands around her wrists and shook his head at her. “Jess, I can’t.”

The sleepiness faded from her eyes. “Because you were going to break up with me, right?”

“What?” Damn it, her question completely threw off his feeble nobility.

“You think I don’t know why you’ve been avoiding me for the last month? I’m not stupid. I know we’re not suited for each other in the long run. I’m not asking for the long run.”

“I wouldn’t ca—”

“The truth is, the only reason I wanted you to meet me tonight was because I was going to break up with you.”

“You were?” Was that a green light flickering out in left field? His faded moral code was getting fuzzy. “Why didn’t you?”

She let her hands drop from his sides and wrapped her arms around herself instead. Shrugging, she turned away from him. He closed the front door and stepped closer to her. Closer to the door at the end of the hall, too, though he tried to ignore that part.

“You were so different tonight. So vivid. We’ve never clicked before. Suddenly you were smiling and laughing and interested in me. Suddenly…”

“Suddenly what?” he asked, still following her, pulling her around to face him. Why her answer meant so much, he couldn’t say. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been turned down before. Or been left wanting. Usually, sex was a take-it-or-leave-it experience. He’d had plenty enough not to go home licking his wounds if he didn’t get any. But tonight—no, she—was different.

She smiled weakly, her eyes meeting his. She wasn’t the confident lawyer now. Nor the pleasantly prickly date, evading questions with surgical precision. She was a woman, soft and unsure, her voice faltering while she stared at him as if she could see every vulnerable place inside him too.

She leaned into the hand he didn’t realize he’d brought up to cradle her cheek, her lashes casting a dark shadow on her cheeks. “Suddenly sexy.”

His conscience silenced its yelling. “You didn’t think I was sexy before tonight?”

She frowned, looking more uncomfortable than ever. “Well, you’ve always been good-looking…but, no, I’m sorry. You were just Lucas.”

Just Lucas? “And now?”

She sighed, her breath brushing his face. “Why are you asking me this?”

“Please, Jess. It’s important.”

Her lashes lifted and Kyle could have kicked himself. Lucas would never say please, not without severe blood loss.

Slowly, she curled her lips between her teeth, struggling with options he could only guess at. Would she throw him out now? Had she finally figured out all his mistakes? Or was she simply trying to find the words to explain?

“It’s like you’re someone else entirely and…”

Deep in his chest, hope licked a flame to life. If only he had a clue what he was hoping for her to do.

“Whoever you are tonight is someone I want to be with. Someone I think really wants to be with me.”

He smiled, relief washing through him. His fingers stroked her cheek, amazed by the silkiness of it, excited by the tingle traveling up his arm. She put her hands back to his sides, rising on her toes to meet his descending mouth, holding on to the folds of his shirt to maintain her balance. He hadn’t exactly made the decision to kiss her, but he knew he had no other option. It was kiss her or stop breathing.

Her hands started working on his shirt buttons and his found the zipper at her back. She moaned into his mouth when the dress loosened, then moaned deeper when her palms found the heat of his chest. He might have done a little moaning too, when the stiff dress parted enough for him to slip his hands inside and cup the smooth globes of her ass, blocked not at all by the satiny thong his fingertips passed over. If he weren’t hamstrung by the restraining sides of the dress, he’d have peeled that away, too, so that he could trace the crevice all the way to the soft, slick folds between her thighs. But first things first…the dress. And he’d have this whole hallway to peel her out of it, stitch by stitch, lick by lick.

She guided him backward, her hand leaving him long enough to turn a doorknob behind him. He pulled away from her, giving a fleeting glance to the door at the end of the hall.

“That’s my office,” she explained, pulling him back to her kiss. “This is my bedroom.”

So much for the best-laid plans… For once, he couldn’t give a shit about his plans. She had his shirt halfway down his arms and her dress was falling down one shoulder and gaping in the back. Deciding to sacrifice getting her naked first for getting her naked at all, he let go and the shirt all but threw itself across the room. They fumbled a little in the dark, tugging at clothes, dropping things and bumping into furniture. Something broke, which made her laugh, which made him hotter. The shoes were tricky, but within a minute or two, they were finally both naked, falling onto a soft dark comforter, twining together, her body pliant beneath him.

Smooth legs, toned and endless, surrounded him, one curving up the side of his body until her knee was just behind his shoulder. A whole body caress, setting his senses on fire. He wanted to press into her, to mold her against him from head to toe, and he tried, but for every touch he gave her, she glided away.

Silken breasts grazed his arm when she twisted to lead him higher on the bed. He retaliated by dragging his chin down the length of her neck. She gasped, looping her arms behind his shoulders, her back arching into the caress. His hand coursed down her flank until he could grasp her hip, letting his fingertips move slowly over the firm muscle of her ass. Her gasp against his shoulder brought out the devil in him. He searched out the innermost curve at the top of her leg, where her skin felt untouched and, yes…wet. She shuddered and he pulled her thigh wider, opening her against his belly, hissing at the hot kiss as their flesh met.

So this is what it’s like to play with fire…

Pressing her to the bed, he stopped thinking of what would please her the most. He stopped thinking entirely. His mind simply took a back seat to sensation. He willingly drowned in the scent of her, the powder-smooth hollow of her throat, the vibration of her soft mewls against his lips. Her taste—warm honey, tart strawberry—mocked every flavor he’d ever known. He ran his tongue over her nipple once, twice, before drawing the tight flesh into his mouth. She jerked at the first nip of his teeth, but soon her hands were in his hair, holding him to her. Pulling. She needn’t have bothered, he wasn’t going anywhere. Not when she tasted so sweet and firm against his tongue. The only thing better was when he switched from one breast to the other, pulling a moan from her, mixed with a sob of relief.