All Wrapped Up (A Pine Mountain Novel) (19 page)

She slanted her mouth upward, meeting his lips again in a kiss brimming over with want and greed. A groan broke loose from his throat as he let Ava kiss him, let her explore his shockingly soft lips with bold, hard sweeps of her tongue. Brennan gave her the lead she craved, and she took it without thought, parting
his mouth even farther in search of more.

Anchoring his heated palms over her hips, he swung her into the softly lit apartment, letting his back absorb the harsh chill from outside as he kicked the front door closed.

“You’re freezing,” he said, dipping his mouth to cover the bare stretch of skin between her ear and the open collar of her blouse. “Let me warm you up.”

Ava’s sigh of pleasure
pushed past her lips, her nipples tightening beneath her satin bra as Brennan guided her through the foyer without easing his hold on her waist. They fumbled their way past the living room, too tangled up in each other to be graceful but too turned on to care. Brennan’s hands skated from her waist to her shoulders, sliding around to cup her face. He parted her lips with his, nibbling, tasting,
sucking, until finally the kiss became so hot with suggestion, Ava’s knees nearly buckled.

Oh, no. No way. Brennan might be able to make her scream with little more than a touch, but Ava refused to go weak. Not now.

Not when she was supposed to be showing
him
how she felt.

Ava dug her feet into the floorboards, stopping their forward movement in the shadows of the hallway. Brennan’s brows
punched downward in concern, but she coasted a finger over the spot between them to cancel it out. Angling his frame against the sturdy expanse of the wall beside them, Ava notched her hips over Brennan’s with a thrust.

“What are you doing?” His eyes darkened, nearly black and glittering with lust as he wrapped his fingers around the tailored edge of her dress pants to return the movement. But
as unbelievably promising as his cock felt pressed against her belly, this moment wasn’t about taking pleasure.

It was about giving it.

She bit her bottom lip, refusing to break eye contact as she lowered her hands to the top button on his jeans. “I’m warming
you
up.” The button popped loose with one deft tug.

“Ava.”

The word was a warning and a prayer, and she thrilled at both. “Brennan.”

Ava freed another button from its mooring in the denim, and his reply became lost on a moan. Brennan’s head tilted back, pleasure etched over his face as he dropped his hands to give her full access to his body. Desire pulsed through Ava’s limbs, curling down her spine, tingling hard in the damp space between her thighs as she pulled at the remaining buttons.

Through dark, lowered lashes, Brennan
watched her movements one by one, until finally—
blessedly
—Ava slipped the last button free. Her fingers ached from wanting to touch him, starting at the line of silky black hair leading into his boxer briefs and diving lower, sweeter. He canted his hips off the wall as if seeking the same contact Ava was starving for, and she reached down with every intention of giving it to him until they both
lost their minds.

Brennan reversed their positions in less than a blink.

Ava’s breath rode out on the hard edge of a gasp. Although he’d captured her wrist with one hand to swing her back to the wall, both his motion and his grasp were far from forceful. Brennan stepped toward the cradle of her body, his eyes tracking lower as his lush, wicked mouth curved into a grin.

“Sorry, Spitfire.
Ladies first.”

Chapter Nineteen

Brennan wanted nothing more than to slow down. He wanted to spend an hour tasting the sweet, hidden spots on Ava’s neck that would make her cry out, to undress her stitch by stitch so he could discover every inch of her with his hands, then slowly rediscover the best places with his mouth. But from the minute she’d walked through his front door, determined and headstrong and
so goddamn beautiful, Brennan had fought a losing battle.

He wanted her more than anything. And she made him crazy enough to take her, fast and hard and standing in the hallway.

“Brennan—”

He cut off her protest with a punishing kiss, sliding his tongue over hers until she sighed against his mouth. Reaching to the tight stretch of space between them, Brennan lifted her shirt from the top
of her dress pants, unfastening the closure on the black wool with an economical twist.

Ava’s hands found his in the shadows twining their bodies, but rather than trying to slow him or turn the tables, she urged him faster. Her pants whispered to the floorboards at their feet, and Brennan followed their downward motion with his hands.

“Step out.” Christ, just the hint of her bare skin so close
to his was enough to make him want to come.

She reached for his waist, sinking her fingers around the open denim. “After you.”

“No.”

Ava stilled. “But I want to make you feel good too.”

Something Brennan had no name for broke loose in his chest. He stepped forward in a rush, covering Ava with his lips, his shoulders, his hips.

“Don’t you get it?” he grated, exhaling hard and hot over
her ear. “You make me feel
everything
. Right now, the only thing I want is to have you under my hands so I can make you scream. You want to make me lose my mind? Step out of those pants and let me touch you.”

Ava toed her way from first her shoes, then the garment, hands pressed over his chest for balance. Brennan was certain she could feel the slamming of his heartbeat beneath the thin cotton
of his T-shirt.

But then she was wearing nothing from the waist down but a pair of tiny blue panties, and Brennan couldn’t make himself care about anything other than the sight of her.

“God. Look at you.” Instinctively, Brennan dropped to his knees, wrapping his palms over Ava’s hips to keep the ice blue lace directly in his line of sight. She froze in place, her body bowstring tight beneath
his hands, and all at once Brennan realized how vulnerable she was in this moment.

And yet, she made no move to hide.

“Ava.” He lifted his gaze, pinning her wide-eyed stare with one of his own. Her coal black hair spilled over her shoulders, a sultry contrast to the white of her blouse in the shadows. Her nipples stood in sweet relief behind the sheer fabric, cresting higher with each rapid
breath. But it was her skin that tempted him the most, the scent of brown sugar and desire making his cock unbearably hard as he skimmed a touch over the indent where her thighs met her core.

“Look,” Brennan repeated, silently commanding her eyes downward as he angled his shoulders between the cradle of her hips. Her eyes lowered without closing, and he felt the intensity of her watching his
every move. He shifted toward the incandescent light filtering in from down the hallway, placing a kiss below her navel. “Look at what you do to me.”

Without warning, he hooked his thumbs beneath the lace riding low on Ava’s hips, tugging it over her thighs to reveal her sex. Holy hell, she was stunning, all wet and wanting and perfect, and it was all Brennan had not to rip the lace off her
rather than guide it the rest of the way down.

Even completely bare and laid out in front of him like a lush and wicked banquet, Ava didn’t hide.

And as much as he knew he should, Brennan didn’t wait.

Pressing both palms to the space where her legs joined her body, he met her heat with his mouth, pleasuring her with bold strokes and brash kisses. Each motion drove him harder, daring him
faster and farther, and he refused to relent. His cock ached with a bolt of pleasure-pain, demanding attention, but he tamped it down. There was nothing in this moment but Ava, her taste, her openness, her pleasure.

He was giving it to her. Only her. Right now.

She dropped a hand to his shoulder, fingers sliding up to cup his face, and the gesture unlocked him from his frenzied haze.

“What
are you doing?” Brennan’s pulse slammed through his chest as Ava tipped his jaw upward while lowering her other hand.

“You said to watch.” Her voice was honey and velvet and a thousand other things, but all of them escaped him when she dipped her fingers to the center of her body.

“But I want you to watch too.”

The sound in his throat was more growl than groan, but Brennan didn’t care. He
swept back against Ava’s core, following her lead for only a second before taking it along with her. Her gasps became moans, her grip on his shoulder tightening as she rocked against his mouth, his lips, his tongue. She led him to every sweet spot, drawing him in with her fingers and her breathy sighs, until finally she started to tremble.

“Oh . . . oh
God
. I . . .”

Brennan punctuated the
incomplete thought with one last thrust of his tongue. Ava’s free hand dug into his shoulder, clutching his T-shirt as she came undone around him. Her trembles grew into a full-bodied quake, her voice, her climax, all of it vibrating through him in lust-fueled waves. Slowly, he softened his touches breath by breath, pulling back just enough to catch her boneless body mid-slide down the wall.

“I’ve got you. Come on.” Brennan swung his bedroom door wide with one arm, wrapping the other around Ava’s rib cage. Christ, his bed had never looked so good.

But even as he led her right up to the edge of it in his moonlit room, Ava didn’t sit or lie down as he expected.

Instead, she turned his back to the bed, pushing him to sit before she took a step back.

“Ava—”

“Shh.” She leaned toward
him just enough to brush her fingers over his mouth, refreshing her taste on his lips. “I might have come first, but you’re not done watching.”

Ava retreated just out of reach, dropping her gaze to the deep V of her shirt. The silky edge fluttered low over her thighs, offering a tantalizing suggestion of her nakedness beneath. She worked the buttons slowly, each one making him harder and more
desperate to be inside her. As if he’d broadcast the thought out loud, Ava paused to shake her head at him in the shadows, and
hell . . .
how was he supposed to keep his hands to himself when she bit her bottom lip like that?

“You are gorgeous,” Brennan whispered, nearly choking with relief as she finally stepped back to the open angle of his hips. He reached out at the same moment she closed
in, pressing him back over the mattress in a tangle of long legs and hot, fast intention. His T-shirt never stood a chance, and the rest of his clothes followed on a quick trip to the floor. Ava shifted to her side in the pool of dark bedsheets, propping herself up on one elbow with a sexy grin.

“That’s a two-way street.” Her eyes coasted slowly downward, and she followed her gaze with a light
trail of her fingers. The contact shot through him in a greedy push of want, his cock jerking against her palm as she stroked him with perfect pressure. “Let me show you.”

“Ah. Ava,” Brennan swore, and damn it, he couldn’t wait. Grabbing her hips, he rolled her beneath him, kissing her deeply before pulling back to grab a condom from his bedside table drawer. Ava parted her knees in a wordless
proposition, and Brennan answered by filling her with one smooth thrust. A hundred sensations sizzled under his skin, tightening at the base of his spine to send his hips into instant, ungentle rhythm. Every thrust tempted him deeper, each retreat calling him back to her sweet, slick center with more speed, and Ava’s velvety sighs urged him recklessly into both.

Christ, she was stunning, wild
hair spilling over her shoulders, lithe body matching his movements, pulse for pulse. Ava dared him harder and faster, until finally, she locked her hands around his waist, pulling him in to cover her fully.

“Brennan.”
The word broke from her mouth, her muscles growing so taut he could feel his own release threatening in the lowest, darkest part of him. Her hips moved even wider on a cry, and
he hooked a hand beneath her knee, scooping upward to fill her completely.

Ava’s eyes flew wide, her release riding out on a pleasure-soaked moan. The sound snapped Brennan’s waning control in half, pushing him over the brink. His orgasm flashed all the way through him, sudden and powerful, and he gave in to it with a curse and a shout. Raw sensation dominated his body, locking him against Ava’s
hips as he came in wave after wave of pure, intense pleasure.

For long seconds, Brennan forgot how to breathe, but then slowly, surely, he filtered back down to reality.

He was gripping the back of Ava’s thigh with one hand, pinning her in place on the bed.

Hard.

“Jesus,” Brennan hissed, jerking away from the frame of her body as if she’d burned him. A punishment he’d have full-well earned,
for how he’d just lost control. “I’m sorry, Ava. I—”

“Stop.” She stilled, but her expression held no hesitation or fear. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I got carried away.” He gestured to her leg, but she propped herself up over the covers and cut off his argument with a laugh.

“I should hope so, seeing as how I seduced you the second I walked in the door.”

Still, he couldn’t give
in to impulse like that. What if he’d lost control and hurt her?

Brennan opened his mouth to renew his protest, but Ava shifted to claim the space he’d put between them.

“This is mutual, Brennan.” She paused, pressing forward to brush a kiss over his lips. “It might be a little impulsive, and maybe a little more crazy, but that’s okay with me. As long as that part’s mutual too.”

“I didn’t
hurt you?”

“No,” she said, without pause. “Because if you had, I’d have told you. I want this, just the way it is.”

A vulnerable flicker mixed in with the honesty on Ava’s face, and he realized again that she’d had the chance to hide her feelings, or worse yet, to run.

And once more, she hadn’t taken it.

“Just the way it is, huh?” Relief eased through Brennan’s veins, doubling up at her
throaty giggle as his return kiss became a gentle nip of her bottom lip. He couldn’t deny the attraction between them, and more importantly, Ava was genuine,
and
genuinely okay. “I guess I can live with that.”

“Good,” she said, her sassy smile flashing in the moonlit shadows of his bedroom. “Now do you think you can live with taking a break for dinner? I’m all for seduction over sustenance,
but at some point, a girl’s gotta eat.”

 

 

A quick visual inventory of his fridge told Brennan he was going to have to dig for a whole bunch of culinary prowess if he wanted to feed Ava something other than chili from a can. But working with Adrian for the past eight months had taught him a thing or two about food, not the least of which was that chili from a can should probably be
outlawed.

“Pickings are kind of slim,” Brennan apologized, sending a sheepish look over his shoulder. “I kind of asked you over on the spur of the moment.”

But rather than get awkward, Ava simply grinned at the mention of his spontaneous invitation. “I’m glad you did. Sorry I’m not much help in the kitchen, though. The only thing I know how to make really well is a mess.”

“You want to learn?”
The question launched from Brennan’s mouth before he could stop it, but the spark of interest in her emerald green eyes made him glad as hell he’d asked.

“You’d teach me how to cook?”

“I’d teach you how to scramble eggs,” he clarified, sliding the cardboard half carton from the refrigerator. “It’s not that hard.”

Ava gave a mock shudder, but padded over to the cooktop nonetheless. God, she
looked cute with his borrowed T-shirt covering her to midthigh and her hair piled on top of her head in a semimessy knot. “You’re giving me a whole lot of credit there.”

“Or you’re not giving yourself enough.”

“Mmm. You should probably reserve judgment until
after
you’ve seen my appalling cooking skills.”

“You don’t believe in yourself much, do you?”

As soon as the words had crossed his
lips, Brennan silently cursed his utter lack of brain-to-mouth filter. Ava hadn’t had a set of parents who’d believed in her or encouraged her efforts the way his had. And now, with her douche truck of a boss following suit and knocking her career, there was little wonder Ava was light in the self-credit department.

Her expression shifted, so slightly he’d have missed it if he hadn’t been trying
to read her. “You’re talking to a woman who thinks graham crackers mixed with milk is a culinary delight, remember?”

“How could I forget?” Brennan paused, putting the eggs on the counter so he could slide both arms around her waist. “I still wish you’d give yourself some credit.”

“What about you?”

Her return question was more wide-eyed interest than reporterly intrusion, but Brennan still
sidestepped it out of instinct.

“What about me?” He pulled back, crouching down low to slide his lone skillet from the cabinet next to the cooktop. Of course Ava was waiting for him with an expression reading
really?
when he stood to place the pan on the burner.

“You saved a little boy from a burning building, Brennan. Don’t you think that deserves some credit too?”

Brennan blew out a breath.
Instinct had the answer on his tongue even though his defenses whispered in no uncertain terms that he should clap his pie hole shut. But come on. He wasn’t airing things out to Mike freaking Trotter. This was Ava, for God’s sake.