Back for Seconds (16 page)

He smiled as he stepped forward to drape the apron over her trembling body. He practically folded her in an embrace as he tied the strings in the back, his hand slipping down to caress the swell of her ass before he stepped back out of her way. “Good girl,” he murmured. “Now show me your secrets.”

At first she was nervous. Her hands shook, which caused her to fiddle and drop things much more clumsily than she did at home when she cooked on her own. He said nothing as he watched her measure her ingredients into a large mixing bowl. She knew all her recipes by heart by now, after making them for weeks solid. She could have baked them in her sleep, and often did.

But she was awake now as she became aware of every movement she made, bending over, twisting and turning, giving Xander quite a view from where he sat. Finally she pulled out a bottle of wine to pour them both a glass, simply so she wouldn’t be so self-conscious. He said nothing as he sipped from his glass, which only made her drink more.

“If these are ruined,” she said, referring to the cinnamon rolls she popped in the oven, “it’s your fault.”

He just chuckled from where he sat. “You’re the consummate professional, Ms. Morgan,” he said. “I bet nothing could ruffle your feathers.”

She didn’t know about that. He’d left her plenty ruffled. She said nothing else as she prepared a batch of cookies, immersing herself so fully in her task that she almost forgot that he was nearby. She was icing her first couple of dozen cookies when she felt his hands on her body. He had come up behind her, placed his hands on her hips, as he bent over her shoulder to watch her work. Her steady hand waivered a bit as she painted another picture-perfect Texas sunset on a postcard cookie. “So talented,” he murmured against her ear, making her jump. “Try not to mess it up,” he advised with a grin.

Her breath caught as he planted hot, open-mouthed kisses along the curve of her neck and her bare shoulder, while his hands roamed over her body, along the sides of her torso and down over her hips. “You shouldn’t distract me,” she eked out as she focused hard on her task.

“I shouldn’t,” he agreed. “But I can’t help myself. Lesson Two, remember?”

She shivered violently as she felt his tongue slide down her spine. She felt him kneel down behind her as his hands cupped both hips. She felt his breath against her as one hand gently spread her legs apart from behind. “What are you doing?” she squeaked.

“Having a taste,” he told her as his other hand bent her over at the base of her spine. The next thing she knew, his tongue had targeted her clitoris and she ended up icing her way right off the cookie and onto the counter.

“Xander!”

“Shhh,” he murmured from behind her. “You have work to do.”

With that, he gave her a playful slap on her ass, which made her jump. He chuckled deep in his throat before he dove his face right in between her legs again.

She didn’t know what to do with herself. Oral sex had never really been Russell’s thing, so they had left it out of their bedroom repertoire almost all of their marriage. Now Xander was bending her over right there in his kitchen, while she prepared food for the masses. It was unsanitary. It was unseemly.

It was also hot as hell.

For the first time, ever, she felt naughty and sexy and wanted.

She gasped for breath as his tongue snaked around her clit, flicking over it until her knees tried to buckle. She held onto the counter with both hands as he latched his mouth onto her and sucked hard. She cried out in spite of herself. Though she’d never been one to easily orgasm, she found herself coming hard almost instantly. But he wasn’t done. He licked and prodded her through the first orgasm before using his fingers to bring her to another, sliding them easily in and out of her while his tongue did magical things to her clit. He had to catch her before she wilted right to the floor.

He used his weight to brace her against the counter. She could feel how hard he was, straining against her as he pressed his fully clothed body against hers. “Aw, too bad,” he said as he saw what had become of her cookie. “Guess that one is mine.” He bent his mouth near her ear. “Tell me it’s mine, Joely.”

She nodded, barely able to speak. “It’s yours.”

He slipped his hand under her apron, cupping one large breast, trapping the nipple between two fingers. “I guess it’s all mine, isn’t it?” he mused. “We can’t really sell any of this, can we?”

She shook her head. “Guess not,” she managed to say.

“That’s okay. I’d rather keep all the best stuff to myself anyway.” She turned her face towards him and he bent for a kiss, one that she’d been waiting for all day. He turned her around to take her fully into his arms. She wrapped herself around him, kissing him back hard. She had never wanted a man more. “Make love to me, Xander,” she pleaded against his lips.

He shook his head. “I’m not going to make love to you, Joely,” he announced, and she fought the urge not to pout. He grabbed her protruding lower lip gently between his forefinger and his thumb, before kissing it slightly. “I’m going to fuck you. Hard. And well.”

She gasped as he lifted her up and sat her on the counter, spreading her legs wide with his hands. She tore away the apron before reaching for the buttons on his shirt, which had already come undone. She pushed the fabric from his strong shoulders until it fell away on the floor. He watched her face as she spread her hands across his chest, feeling his smooth skin ripple underneath her fingers. He was so beautiful… and he was hers.

At least, he was going to be.

She reached for the fastener of his slacks, gasping when she felt his enormous erection straining for her inquisitive fingers. He broke away to watch her as she unzipped the pants and slid her hand inside to cup his hard cock through his underwear. “Is that what you want?” he asked her. She nodded. “Say it.”

“I want it,” she murmured obediently. He just shook his head with a slight smile.

“Say the words. Tell me you want my cock, Joely.”

She shuddered. The words bubbled up in her throat.

“Tell me,” he repeated again, his eyes locked with hers.

“I want your cock, Xander,” she finally managed. Her voice was barely a whisper.

He groaned a little before he kissed her again. With a strength that took her breath away, he hoisted her up and locked her legs around his waist. He barely broke the kiss as he carried her, almost effortlessly, from the kitchen. He deposited her on the large, comfortable sofa just steps away in his living room. He yanked off all clothes that remained before he joined her. He felt glorious as their bare skin met at last. She wrapped her whole body around him as she captured his lips for another kiss. This time when she said it, it was louder and much more conviction. “I want your cock, Xander.”

He broke apart to smile at her. “Prove it.”

He leaned back onto his back, his hand snaking around to the back of her head to guide her down his body. She needed no such coaxing. Though she was no master by far, she knew that she wanted to taste him, to bring him the pleasure that he had given her. She let his moans and words guide her as she kissed her way down over his smooth stomach toward the arch of his pulsating cock. Her tongue gently covered the velvety smooth head, which made him grasp a handful of her hair as he gasped out loud.

She felt empowered as she opened her mouth and slid him inside. He watched himself disappear between those full lips as she took him as far as she possibly could. “That’s it,” he crooned softly. “Take it all, baby.”

She did her ample best, but it was all relatively new to her. Russell had never been fond of it, preferring vaginal sex to any other variant… at least once she became his wife and the mother of his children. She tried to make up for her inexperience with enthusiasm. Fortunately Xander was quite vocal in what he wanted, guiding her and teaching her how to please him. She licked, she sucked, she teased… and finally she was pumping him in and out of her mouth, his hand tangled in her hair as he guided her, his moans and uttered cries of satisfaction encouraging her to go even further than she ever would have on her own. He was putty beneath her, just like she had been since that very first time he cornered her in her mother’s kitchen. It was payback time. She brought him to the brink more than once before she’d slow everything back down again, letting the cool air hit his skin while her tongue wrapped around him all the way from the shaft to the salty-sweet head. “I’m going to come,” he finally managed, in a raspy voice that told her he was on the verge of losing control. She fought to keep up with him as he exploded in her mouth, a brand new experience for Joely.

When she finally crawled up his body to lie beside him, he was gasping for breath. “God, that was fantastic,” he muttered as he pulled her close, kissing the top of her head as he wrapped his arms around her. “I wasn’t going to but I couldn’t stop myself. You are a woman of many talents,” he grinned as he stroked her hair.

“So was that Lesson Three?” she asked with an innocent arch of her eyebrow.

He pulled her closer. “Absolutely. Take what you want with no regard to propriety. You don’t need society’s permission to be a dirty girl. It’s nobody’s goddamned business.” His hand fell to her breast, which he squeezed for emphasis. “My favorite lesson so far.”

She giggled and he kissed her loudly on the nose. “Now, you really should get cracking on those cookies. I’m heading to bed.”

Her mouth dropped open as she watched him rise from the couch and head toward the bedroom. “You’re serious?”

“I never kid about work,” he reminded with that damnable smirk. “But be sure to put some clothes on, for God’s sake. You run a respectable business after all.”

“But I thought…,” she started, trailing off helplessly. She was even more turned on than before, if that was possible.

“What? You wore me out, woman. I need a nap.” He leaned on the door jam. “Besides. When we make love, I want it to be special.”

“I thought you didn’t make love,” she pointed out. “You said you were going to fuck me, hard and well,” she added. She loved how his cock jumped with her words.

“Oh, I will,” he promised. “And that’s going to be special, too. Just you wait and see.”

With that he turned and left the room. She sat on the sofa for a good five minutes trying to cool herself off before she finally went back into the kitchen, got dressed, cleaned up and started again.

It was four in the morning before Joely finally stumbled towards Xander’s bedroom. He was sprawled, naked, under the sheets. She quickly shed her clothes to join him. He stirred as she slipped into bed. “All done?” he murmured in a husky, sleepy, sexy voice.

“All done,” she said.

“Good girl,” he said before he pulled her into his arms and snuggled her close. Though his body strained for her, he easily fell back asleep. She lay in the circle of his arms, wide awake and aroused, but unable to do much about it except fantasize about that amazing body so close to her own.

She finally drifted off to sleep about an hour before his alarm sounded and roused the both of them. Exhausted, she resisted his gentle shaking to wake her. He resorted to other measures, like kissing his way down her supple body until he buried his face in between her legs. He took his time teasing her, licking and sucking her until she was begging him to fuck her. He thread two fingers together and shoved them up inside of her the minute she started to come, which kept her spasming with wave after wave of pleasure.

She wanted to return the favor but he shook his head. They had a busy day ahead of them. They shared a shower, where his wandering hands worked magic on her again until she was screaming under the spray of hot water as he finger-fucked her to yet another multiple orgasm. That he was hard against her, pressed up against the gentle swell of her ass as he pressed her against the glass wall of the shower, only made her hotter for him. “Why won’t you fuck me?” she finally asked with that pout he’d grown to love.

“Because you’re not ready,” he said against her neck.

“I’m ready,” she promised as she ground herself up against him.

He chuckled. “You’ve got a few steps to go yet,” he slipped his hand between her thighs and located her magical ‘on’ button. “But I’ll get you there, baby. Believe me.”

He made her come, again, until she was practically clawing at the glass. She slumped against him as the last tremor passed. “What are you doing to me, Xander?”

He turned her around to face him, tipping her chin so she’d look into his face. “I’m reminding you what it means to be a beautiful, sensual, desirable woman. I want you to own that every single time you walk into a room. It’s okay to be a sexual creature, Joely. That’s what you were born to be.”

She shook her head and he griped her chin even tighter. “And that is why you’re not ready. You don’t believe it yet.” He bent for a slow, sexy kiss. “But you will. And sooner than you think. So stop pouting.” He punctuated his command with a swift swat on her bottom.

It only made her want him even more.

They both dressed, he in new clothes and she in the clothes from the night before, and he drove her back into town. Rather than taking her to the restaurant, he dropped her off at her mother’s house. “You need your rest,” he told her as he reached across her lap to open the door. “Your kids will be home tonight and you don’t need to be asleep standing up.”

She hated having to leave him but she knew he was right. She was exhausted. “Okay,” she relented in a quiet, almost defeated voice.

“Hey,” he said, forcing her to look at him. “How about a trip to Dallas in two weeks, to meet my friend with that morning show?”

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. “You’re asking me to go away with you for the weekend?”

He nodded as his gaze drifted towards her lips. “If you think you’ll be ready by then.”

A smile broke apart her face. “Oh, I’ll be ready.”

“Good girl,” he said softly. “Now go get some sleep and dream about me.”

He kissed her long and slow before he finally released her.

She took a nap, sleeping almost all the way until noon. It gave her a little time to get some more orders made before she dressed to go get the kids.

Since she was going to drop off the cookies at the restaurant anyway, she decided that she and the kids would just have dinner there. She dressed up again, in another of Xander’s selections. She thought about their upcoming trip together, a whole weekend away. It gave her a funny little charge that she still carried when she knocked on the door of her old home in Fairway Oaks.

When Russell answered, he looked a little worse for wear. So did the house, which was messier than she’d ever seen it. It was an interesting contrast to how put together she now looked, as if their roles had reversed. From the look in his eyes, she knew he was thinking the same thing. “What happened here? Some hurricane blow through I didn’t hear about?”

“Kari had some friends over,” he informed her. “They just left. Maid’s coming tomorrow,” he added, as if he had to justify anything.

“What’s the matter? Jena doesn’t do windows?” she found herself saying.

His blue eyes flashed as he glared at her. “You look nice,” he finally said. “Coming from church?”

It was a dig and she knew it. “I don’t go to church anymore,” she told him, which caught them both by surprise. It was true. She had abandoned her home church because she couldn’t bear to face them all now that her holy sacrament of marriage had been destroyed. But she hadn’t bothered to find another church home, and really didn’t see the need to.

All the faith in the world hadn’t spared her from her whole life being blown apart. She was as mad at God as she was at Russell.

And she knew that Russell couldn’t stone her for her choices, considering the list of sins he had committed himself. He wasn’t any better than her. He certainly couldn’t pretend to be any more pious. In fact, her time with Xander had showed her how much
Russell
had been dropping the ball in their marriage. He wanted to blame their boring old life all on her, when he had given up long before she had. He stopped finding her attractive after the kids came, and stopped trying to attract her because of it. Was she supposed to be
grateful
that he had waited so long to kick her to the curb for someone new?

If she had any residual guilt entertaining this new attraction with Xander, it quickly eroded under his contemptuous gaze. Like he had any room to judge.

Maybe that had been what Xander had been trying to show her. Why did society get to determine her worth? What made anyone any more qualified than she was herself?

She held her ground as they stood there, glaring at each other, as her kids packed to leave. She barely said a word as she followed the kids out to the car.

Surprisingly, Russell followed. “Kari tells me she’s been working at the restaurant.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “So?”

“Don’t you think that she’s a little too young for that?”

“It’s all legal,” she assured him. “And she loves it. It’s doing her a world of good to have responsibility and accountability.”

“I see,” he nodded. “Then I should probably let you know that I bought her some makeup today.”

Joely glared at him. “What?”

“I know we said we’d wait until she was sixteen but I figure if she’s old enough to work, she’s old enough to wear the makeup she wants to wear.”

She led them away from the car, where she knew Kari was craning her ear to hear the conversation. “What you mean is that she asked you for makeup and you couldn’t say no,” she corrected.

He shrugged. “You justify your choices your way. I justify my choices my way.”

He was spoiling for a fight. A month ago, hell, even
six
months ago, she might have taken this as a sign that he cared. Now it was the one thing keeping her from heading back to the restaurant, and to Xander.

“Fine,” Joely said at last.

“That’s it?”

“Yes,” she said before she walked back to the car and let herself in. She rolled down the window to tell him one last thing. “By the way, I’m going out of town the next weekend you take the kids.”

His eyebrow arched. “Oh? For business or pleasure?”

Her gaze never faltered. “Both.”

She rolled up the window and backed the car out of the driveway. She never even looked back as she drove away.

Now that the kids were back in the picture, Xander and Joely had to handle things a little more discretely. By all outward appearances, nothing had changed between them. When she took the kids to the restaurant that night for dinner, Xander was as accommodating and charming as he had always been. He paid special attention to the kids and every single one of them, even Nash, responded well to him. That night, when they went their separate ways, Xander sent her a sexy text that she had to quickly erase before anyone else saw it. He had gone into detail about how she tasted when he had pleasured her, but of course his choice of words included enough profanity to make her blush. Just hearing him describe her pussy was enough to send her off just like a roman candle.

It was going to be a long couple of weeks.

He continued to tease her all that week, which made it a lot harder to concentrate on her work. Every time she was in the kitchen she was reminded of their night together, when she cooked, naked, in front of him, that ended with him bending her over and blowing her mind.

By Thursday, he finally called her late that evening, after everyone else had gone to bed. “You’re driving me crazy,” she practically whimpered.

“Now you know how I’ve felt since I first laid eyes on you,” he murmured.

She no longer asked him why he said such things. Their time alone together had shown her, beyond all doubt, that he wanted her. It still didn’t make any sense, but at least now she believed it. Quite simply, he wouldn’t let her forget it. Now that they had a set date for their next dalliance, he had made it a point daily of reminding her how much longer they had to wait. Every day he’d send her a text, counting down the days.

That night he didn’t let her off the phone until he had coaxed her into masturbating where he could hear. He told her what to do, using that commanding way of his, until she was powerless to resist. She had to hold down her moans, which was frustrating for the both for the both of them. He had no such restriction. His voice was loud in her ear as she told him what she was going to do with him the next time she got her hands on him.

It made her feel so sexy that she played hooky Friday afternoon to buy some lingerie and cosmetics. She stopped at the food court to buy herself a slice of pizza. “Joely?” she heard a female ask from behind her in line.

Joely turned and immediately her face fell when she realized it was Jena Martin who had addressed her. “Hello, Jena,” she greeted stiffly.

“Wow, I hardly recognized you! You look fantastic.” Her eyes swept over Joely, taking in all the changes.

“Thank you,” Joely managed. “So do you.”

Jena just smiled, as if they were two acquaintances that had just happened to bump into each other, and she wasn’t the dirty, lying tramp who had seduced her husband. Even though Joely could now see it was the fault of the marriage, and not any outside influence, that had caused it to flounder, knowing Jena was the kind of girl who could willingly go after another woman’s husband did not endear her to Joely. Jena, however, seemed positively clueless.

The line moved and Joely placed her order for food she no longer wanted to eat. She moved along the line, picking up her plate and her drink, paying the cashier before she headed off to one of the tables. Jena, unfortunately, followed.

“Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I got a chance to try one of your cookies. They are the bomb. You should totally open up a store or something.”

Joely’s eyes met hers. “How did you try one?”

“My grandma got me one for my birthday. It was adorable. It was a big sun with a message in the middle. Very tasty. You could give some of the bakeries around here a run for their money if you really wanted to.”

It was not a cheerleading session that Joely cared to prolong. “Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.”

“Totally!” Jena responded with much more enthusiasm than Joely could muster. “I’ve gotta run. I just wanted to say hi and thanks so much for the cookies. My sister is planning a baby shower for her best friend. Maybe we could get together and maybe order something special for her?”

Joely’s throat constricted. Finally she nodded. “Sure. Call the restaurant. They handle all my appointments.”

“Absolutely, thank you so much!” With that, Jena bounded off towards the mall exit with a friendly wave goodbye.

Joely stared at the delicious hot slice of pizza in front of her with a scowl before she finally chucked it all in the garbage and headed out to pick up the kids.

Every time she saw Kari wearing her new makeup, Joely flared up all over again over Russell’s petty games. Instead of parenting like an adult, it was all about bribes and rewards rather than connection and relationship. Instead of worrying about their daughter’s wellbeing, he was doing whatever he could to make her happy, just so she wouldn’t hate him.

The makeup made Kari look much older than she was, especially given her height and her measurements. Joely just knew that they were asking for trouble, especially now that there was an older boy in the picture. Joely wanted to get her alone so they could talk about it, but she had worked all week. With Joely’s insane schedule to keep up production, there hadn’t been a spare moment to fit anything in. Now that she had committed to providing cookies for Hannah’s school bake sale, it seemed like all her waking hours were spent baking.