Opposites Attract (The Locklaine Boys Book 2) (10 page)

They were terrified of her.

“That’s what I thought.” I grinned evilly as they stared at me with wide, frightened eyes. “Now, if you’re both good for the rest of the night and give your mom a break, I’ll give you the crayons and coloring books I have in my bag.” I held the massive hobo bag on my arm open just enough to see the loot I bought for them. “We got a deal?”

“Deal!” they yelped before taking off to the room my parents had converted into a playroom for all their grandkids.

“You’re an angel,” Claudia breathed as I walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek and patted the blanket covered head of my baby nephew.

“Where’s Jace?” I asked as I sat down on the sofa across from her. The scowl on her face at the mention of my brother’s name said it all.

“He took off out back with your dad the moment we got here, the bastard.” I giggled as I pictured my big brother bolting for my dad’s garage. The only place in the whole house women weren’t allowed.

“And Sarah?” I asked about my seven-year-old niece.

“In the kitchen with your mom,” Claudia answered, her eyelids beginning to droop with exhaustion. “Mom’s teaching her to make Babka.”

“Ooh! My favorite.”

Claudia let out a big yawn while Carter stirred beneath the blanket, having finished his meal. Once she’d adjusted her clothes and pulled the blanket off, I reached down and took my nephew from her, holding him against my shoulder as I started to pat his back. I tilted my head to the side and sniffed his downy little head, loving the smells as he cooed and snuggled against me.

“Why don’t you rest your eyes for a bit?” I offered, only to look over and find she’d already passed out. With a smile, I rocked Carter and headed toward the kitchen to greet my mom.

As I walked through the house, humming softly to the warm baby in my arms, I couldn’t help but be a little envious of what my brother had found. He had love, he had a family of his own. He found the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with during his first year of college, and he never let her go.

I couldn’t help but feel a little morose as I wondered if I’d ever find the man who never wanted to let
me
go?

I FELL INTO BED
later that night, exhaustion tugging at my body even though my brain refused to quiet down and let me sleep. Dinner with my family had been pure chaos. As it had been ever since Brant and I broke up, my mom nagged me about getting back out there and finding a suitable husband so I could bless her with more grandbabies, while my father threatened to get his old shotgun from the attic if I brought over another asshole like my ex. Jace backed my dad, of course. Claudia was Team Mom so I was being ganged up on from both sides.

All the while my mind kept going back to the laundry room, to the way Richard had touched me. Had the intimacy of that moment been all in my head? Had I made it out to be something more than it was simply because I
knew about what had happened between the two of us even if he didn’t? The whole thing was enough to give me a migraine.

Adding to the drama of my evening, when I’d taken Shady to the park for his last walk of the night, he’d managed to slip loose from his collar and take off after a nearby poodle. The owner hadn’t appreciated her poor baby being humped into oblivion by the tiny bichon, and threatened to have me cited for not adhering to the leash laws. The poodle incident was already the fifth one of the month.

The little terror had given me no other choice. I’d called once we got home to set up an appointment to have him neutered. It wasn’t something I
wanted
to do, but the shit just wouldn’t stop humping stuff.

I looked down at his little doggy bed where he lay, sprawled out on his side, obviously exhausted after his latest sexcapades.

“Hope she was worth it,” I grumbled. He didn’t bother looking up at me, and I was suddenly very aware of just how pathetic I was. I was jealous of my own dog’s sex life, for Buddha’s sake! The only man I’d ever been in a real relationship with had cheated on me, and the guy currently living next door didn’t even remember the hot, sweaty night we’d spent together. I’d officially hit rock bottom.

I flopped over onto my back, silence surrounding me as I stared up at the ceiling, willing sleep to come. Devon was staying over at her most recent boy-toy’s place for the night so the loneliness of my empty apartment only added to the pity-party I was throwing myself over the sad state of my personal life.

“Sleep, Delilah. For the love of baby Jesuses everywhere, just go to sleep.”
Fan-flipping-tastic, and now I was talking to myself
. I squeezed my eyes closed and turned to my side, giving my pillow a frustrated punch before settling back in.

The minutes ticked by, and I’d just started to doze when I heard a faint noise coming from the other side of the wall. I sat up and listened closer. I’d almost convinced myself the sound hadn’t been real when I heard it again.

“What the—” Scooting closer to my headboard, I stood on my knees and pressed my ear to the wall in an attempt to hear better. For an apartment where the monthly rent was the same price as a black-market kidney, the walls really were embarrassingly thin.

A distinct male groan radiated through the sheetrock. I jerked away from the wall like it had burned me. “Jeez, you’ve got to be kidding me.” My cheeks heated with anger as I realized exactly what I was hearing coming from Richard’s apartment. I was in a bad enough mood as it was, there was no way I’d spend the rest of my night listening to Richard Locklaine getting it on in the apartment next to mine.

I curled my fingers into a tight fist, ready to pound on the wall and break up whatever was happening on the other side when another deeper, louder moan came through. It was then that I realized I hadn’t heard a peep from the woman the whole time I’d been listening in.

With any other man, I would have just assumed the poor girl wasn’t getting what she needed, but I’d had sex with Richard. I knew
exactly
what he was capable of. And even the most frigid woman in the world wouldn’t be able to remain quiet with that man working her over.

The moans gave way to grunts as I pressed closer to the wall and listened in on what I could only suspect was a self-love sesh. Pushing any guilt at my voyeuristic behavior to the back of my mind, I closed my eyes and visualized what he could have possibly looked like in that moment. All strong, defined muscles tensing and shaking as he grew closer to his release. That golden tanned skin glistening as he pumped his hand harder.

My breathing grew faster as the noises he made grew louder and quicker. My body burned as my arousal grew stronger with every sound he made. Heat pooled in my belly as I squeezed my legs together to quell the sudden ache between my thighs. I let out a stuttered breath as the tempo of the sounds coming through the wall seemed to increase, followed by a string of muffled curses. I could almost see it happening behind my eyelids at the same time I heard his long, gruff shout of release. But it wasn’t until I heard his voice moaning what sounded an awful lot like “
Delilah
” that the moan I’d kept trapped escaped past my lips.

CHRIST, MY COCK FELT
like it was going to explode the instant I woke up. The dream started with the woman in the red dress and quickly morphed into the one where I was having a three-way both her and my nerdy next-door neighbor. But then the room around us and the bed we were in disappeared, along with my one-night stand, leaving me and Delilah alone together in the laundry room. We were both stark naked and making out like two teenagers who had the house to themselves for the night. In the dream, I pulled away just long enough to spin Delilah around and press her chest against one of the washing machines, baring her gorgeous ass to me. Just as I was about to enter her, I woke up panting, my dick throbbing so bad I had no choice but to slide my hand beneath the sheets in the hopes of relieving the pain.

I groaned as soon as my fingers closed around my rock hard erection. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so close to coming with just one touch. It was that goddamned dream. Just the image of a naked Delilah spread out for the taking was enough to nearly send me over the edge.

As I dragged my palm up the rigid length my body shuddered, another moan shook loose from deep within my chest. I screwed my eyes closed as tightly as possible, searching for the image of Delilah from my dream as I pumped faster. I pictured those chocolate brown eyes of hers dark with lust behind her glasses as she looked at me over her shoulder. I swirled my thumb through the drops of precum that leaked out of the head of my cock, using the slickness as I fucked my fist with Delilah’s face firmly at the forefront of my mind.

In the fantasy, she bit down on that plump bottom lip of hers before moaning out my name and throwing her head back in ecstasy. My hand worked faster and faster as I got closer.

“
Don’t stop, Rich
,” the Delilah in my mind panted as I pounded into her at the same pace I jerked off. “
So good, baby. I’m so close. God, I can feel you everywhere.
”

I grunted as I tugged on my dick to the point of blissful pain. Once, twice, a third time and I went off, shooting across my stomach and chest as I groaned and cursed with one of the best orgasms I’d ever experienced. Just as the last tremors rocked me, I growled her name as I spent every last drop. My arm fell to the bed, every muscle in my body limp as I sucked some much needed oxygen into my lungs. My head was in such a blissed out daze, I thought I heard a soft female moan coming from the other side of the wall at the head of my bed.

Grabbing a dirty t-shirt from the floor, I wiped myself clean and collapsed back onto my mattress. As sleep pulled me under once more, I couldn’t help but wonder what sounds my quirky little neighbor would make if I ever got the chance to get her underneath me.

It wasn’t until the following morning that I realized I hadn’t even given another thought to the woman in the red dress.

It seemed like Delilah Northcutt was taking up all my headspace.