Deceived (19 page)

She knew about Lisa. She had talked to Sandra. “Damn it. I’m not hitting on you, I swear.” He’d love to, but he wasn’t. He stopped inside the doorway and watched Taylor retrieve her phone from near the stack of baby clothes.

She put it in her purse, walked straight to him, then past him, and shut the door so that they were alone in a mostly empty room. “That’s a shame,” she said as she stepped into his personal space. “Because I really, really wish that you would.”

Brandon stepped back a few inches. Not so far that he couldn’t reach out and grab her, but far enough to get a true read. “Are you serious?”

She stepped closer.
Damn.
“Do you have time now?”

“I only have casual sex, Taylor, and until now, like this very minute,” he said, deadly honest, because that sudden come-on look in her hazel eyes made him think he’d been about as wrong about her as he could have been. “You didn’t strike me as the sort to look at sex as casual recreation.”

“We’ve both made assumptions about each other that are best forgotten.” She closed the distance between them and her cheeks had a slight pinkness, a blush that made him think that her internal fires were already stoked. Her eyes had a half-closed, sultry look. Her lips were only a couple of inches from his. Her sweet fragrance sifted into his consciousness, altering his reality to one where
sex now
made perfect sense. Brandon closed his arms around her, lifted her hair, and found the spot on her neck where his lips had been the night before. She raised up on her tiptoes and turned her face to him. The touch of her tongue on his was even more silk-like than he had remembered. The small part of his brain that knew his instincts couldn’t have been so wrong about Taylor, screamed at him to
stop. Now.
This woman was not into casual sex. There was nothing casual about her.

Stop.

But while his instinct hollered
stop,
desire tamped down rational thought. At the last possible second when
stop
could win, he broke away from the kiss.

“Now?” he asked. “Are you serious?”

***

Taylor hadn’t expected Brandon to be such a gentlemen. She was basically begging, and he was giving her time to think. She wasn’t going to think.

Just do it.

Something needed to go right on this day where nothing had been right. “I want to focus on what feels good. And this,” she whispered as she leaned forward and planted her lips on his, “feels good.”

He bent to her, pushed her against the wall, and gave her the deepest kiss that she’d ever had in her life. Her insides clenched with want. She heard herself moan. He broke the kiss, opened the door of the baby’s room, lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bedroom, where he set her on his soft bed, then knelt on the floor in front of her, between her knees.

Green eyes held hers while he unbuttoned her blouse, pulled it off, then removed her shoes. He unbuttoned her jeans, then inched them down, not needing her assistance. He left her lace bra and her thong panties on. Nothing about him was touching her, except his eyes, which studied every inch of her.

“You’re gorgeous.”

Oh God. This was a mistake.
Just do it
was an easy thought, but in reality, she wasn’t sure of what to do.

“Stand,” he said.

When she did, he said, “Take off the rest.”

She hesitated.

He reached behind her, unhooked her brassiere, and lifted the straps off her shoulders. His eyes fell to her chest as the bra dropped to the floor. Her breasts were large. Unfashionably large, she often thought, but they matched her butt. From the way Brandon’s gaze locked on her chest, she guessed that he didn’t mind their size. She hooked her thumbs in her panties and slipped them down. The lights were on in the bedroom and his face was eye level with her hips. He looked up at her, his eyes smoldering. A sultry half-smile played at his lips.

“You’re absolutely amazing.”

He stood and softly pushed her onto the bed, then followed her there. His kiss was long and deep, while his fingers toyed with her breasts. He broke the kiss before she was ready, then closed his mouth on her left breast, his tongue rough on her nipple as his teeth nipped at her. He kneaded one breast with his hand while he sucked at the other. Electric shocks slashed through her body, with all energy pointing between her legs. He moved his mouth from her left breast to her right, taking his time. Her insides clenched.

“Please,” she whispered, letting her legs spread.

He lifted her so that she straddled him as he sat on the edge of the bed. Her legs stretched behind his hips, then hooked around them. She could feel his erection through the rough denim of his jeans. His mouth was still at her breasts, teasing and suckling and gently biting, as his hands cupped and kneaded her buttocks. “God,” he said. “I love your butt.”

“Too big,” she mumbled.

“No. Perfect.” He moved his hands between them, and she felt his fingers on the soft skin of her inner thighs. “Yes,” she whispered, as fingertips moved to the soft flesh between her legs. As one finger was dedicated to soft pushes, another found her entrance and dipped in. His fingertip swirled inside of her, but it was enough for her to feel that desire had made her wet.

“Oh God,” she whispered, as her world focused on the feeling of his fingers, his hands and the rough denim of his jeans. An urgent need for an an orgasm slammed through her. “Oh. My. God,” she almost screamed. He studied her as the orgasm tore through her. “Ohhhhhh. Brandon. Oh. Oh.”

He didn’t stop using his fingers to toy between her legs until she was limp and panting and somehow, she was lying on her back, and he was standing. He unzipped his jeans. When his erect penis sprang free, she stared. A hint of unease gripped her. Everyone said that the first time hurt, and he was so big it certainly looked like it would hurt, especially since his body was nothing but lean, hard muscle. He didn’t give her time to dwell on it. He reached towards his nightstand, opened a drawer, and ripped open a condom packet. He slipped it on. With his palms on her knees, he spread her legs, lay between them, then bent to kiss her where his fingers had been.

“Amazing,” she said as his tongue made the pressure build again. “Oh God.” She felt more alive than she’d ever felt in her life and with each stroke, each nibble, each lick, it became better. With his lips and his tongue pressed against her, he toyed with her opening with a fingertip. “Ooohhh,” she couldn’t keep quiet as he gazed at her from his vantage point between her legs. He swirled his finger at her entrance in a slow, circular motion, his only contact with her body, then he moved it slightly in, then out, increasing the movement as her moans grew. His eyes bounced back up to hers. “You’re so, so tight.”

She thought about telling him why, but she could only moan as her hips shifted up and down. It was the slightest movement, but one that she couldn’t control. He accepted her invitation and pressed his mouth again to her sex. As his fingertip toyed with her entrance, he licked and nibbled between her legs until she was almost to the point of orgasm, again.

“Oh God,” she said, clenching fistfuls of his hair as her hips thrust forward, pushing her flesh into his mouth. “Oh,” she whispered. “Yes. Yes. Yesssss. Please don’t. Please don’t stop.”

As quickly as Brandon brought Taylor to the edge, he broke her free fall by stopping all contact. He hovered over her, his elbows on either side of her chest, with the rest of his body weight on his toes. Core strength wasn’t a problem for this man, who centered himself over her so that the head of his penis was poised at her entrance. She could feel his flesh parting her, pushing and probing, but not sliding in, as he looked into her eyes and lowered his mouth to her breast. “Please,” she said, not ashamed to beg, because if his mouth and his fingers could feel so good, having him inside of her would ultimately be nirvana. Right? The wet heat of his tongue on her nipple sent more shock waves through her. “Please.”

He broke contact again, then looked at her, eyes intent, and asked, “Please what?”

She lifted her hips and hooked one leg behind his back. “
Just do it.
”

He gave her a half-smile as he pushed in. She expected a second or two of discomfort. More than anything she had ever wanted in her life, at that moment, she wanted the full length of him inside of her. Forget what she wanted, and forget discomfort. Reality hurt. Before he started to push into her, she’d been wet. Now, suddenly, she felt dry. Desire had disappeared and was replaced with an uncontrollable clenching urge. She started to close her legs and would have succeeded, but he was there. Her thighs gripped his hips, while her hands found his shoulders and pushed. He gave her a puzzled look. He shifted his hips, still moving in. It was too much. She pushed harder against his shoulders as her pelvic muscles clamped shut.

“Stop,” Taylor said. “Please stop.”

Brandon knew what stop meant. Thank God. He was barely inside of her, but any more forward progress and she would have screamed with pain. He asked, “Are you all right?”

She shook her head. “Hurts,” she whispered. “Bad. Stop. Now. I need you to stop.” He started to pull out, his eyes concerned. Even that hurt. Jesus. “Slow,” she said, gritting her teeth. “Please. This hurts. Go slow.”

“I’m so sorry. I thought that you were ready. Hell. You said that you were ready. Has it been a while?”

“Forever,” Taylor mumbled, relieved when he was finally out of her. She wanted to run and hide, but he was doing that hovering thing again, the one where he was balanced only on his toes, his legs were between hers, and his elbows were on either side of her shoulders. He wasn’t touching her, but she was effectively pinned.

He looked down at her, his green eyes wide. “Forever? Like a year, or two, or please don’t say you mean that literally.”

She winced. “Literally.”

He rolled away from her with a groan, but not before she got yet another glimpse of his penis. It was straining against the thin condom. It was so long that the tip of it hit above, far above, his belly button, for goodness sake, and it too thick to fit where it was supposed to go.

Holy Mother of Jesus. No wonder why it hurt. He was huge. How was that ever supposed to feel good?

She drew a deep breath, pulled her knees to her chest and sat up, covering as much of her nakedness as she could, at an absolute loss for what to do.

“Forever, as in you were, or,” he frowned, “are, a virgin?”

She nodded.

His eyes widened. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No,” she whispered, so humiliated that she wanted to die.

“You should have told me. Somewhere between oh and now and please,” he said, throwing back the few words she had managed to say in the past fifteen minutes, “and don’t forget
just do it.
” He gave her a narrow-eyed glare. “You could have thrown in the fact that you’re a virgin.”

“Then you wouldn’t have believed that I was ready for casual sex.”

“Well, obviously, you weren’t.” He drew a deep breath. “A little honesty would have helped here. I’m damn glad I was able to stop.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed. “You might not be so lucky with your next victim.”

She winced.

His glare softened. “Aw hell. Put your clothes on before I say something else that I regret.”

He walked away from the bed, across the room, and into his adjoining bathroom. He slammed the door, leaving Taylor feeling humiliated, vulnerable, and immature. The sound of water from the shower prompted Taylor to get moving. She grabbed her clothes and dressed as fast as she could, thanking God that the shower kept running. She opened the door to his bedroom, then shut it softly behind her. As she went down the stairs, she made sure she wasn’t forgetting her cell phone. She opened the front door as Pete was stepping out of his car. She mumbled “Hello,” and “Have a nice evening,” without pausing.

Taylor got in her car. She thought about calling Andi. Darnit. Andi was on a date. She still hadn’t heard from Collette, but that didn’t stop her from driving straight to Collette’s house. God, she hoped that Collette was there. She needed to check on Collette anyway, and Taylor really, really, really felt like being with a girlfriend. Not that she was going to tell a soul about what had happened.

God. How awful. How absolutely embarrassing. She was an idiot. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Her phone rang fifteen minutes later, when she was pulling onto Collette’s street.

It was Brandon.

A hot flush crept across her cheeks. She thought about ignoring his call, but then figured she needed to take the medicine. Grow up and deal with it, she told herself.

“I can’t believe that you left.”

She didn’t blame him for sounding annoyed. “It seemed like the right thing to do after you ordered me to get dressed, then slammed the door.”

“You asked me to stop, Taylor. When a woman says that, it only means one thing. It was damned hard to do, but I stopped.”

“I only wanted it not to hurt.”

“Well then,” he paused, “we certainly had a lapse in communication. Are you ok?” His voice had softened from the irritated bear tone that he had used earlier. His concern was unexpected and touching, in a way that reminded Taylor that Brandon was nothing like she expected him to be.