Carter (A 3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys Novella) Read online

  He’d been right. Her bra was some kind of thin, silky material and it had a front clasp. With the flick of his wrist he had the catch open and was peeling fabric away from his prize, all the while kissing her with hunger built up by prolonged abstinence and fantasizing run amok.

  One perfectly shaped mound was enough to fill his big hand. He squeezed and she moaned. He upbraided her nipple with his palm, and she made a deep animal sound in the back of her throat and started rubbing herself against him like a woman on a mission. He bucked against her, increasing the friction of their bodies while his tongue started to mock what his body so desperately wanted to do to her.

  Wild desire raged out of control in his body and he took her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and gently pinched, then pulled it, rolling the sweet morsel between his fingers, before lightly pinching it again.

  She exploded, her body bowing, pressing her swollen lips even harder against his throbbing erection, squeezing his finger in rhythmic contractions of her inner muscles.

  Her mouth tore from his and the guttural cry that erupted from her throat sent him into oblivion.

  It lasted until stars danced on his closed eye-lids and his body had shuddered over and over again in the longest climax he’d ever experienced. When it stopped, he was practically laying on her desk with her on top of him.

  Her head landed against his shoulder like a dead weight, her body went boneless against him and he had to hold onto her so she wouldn’t fall. Which was no mean feat considering how totally wasted he felt.

  She mumbled something against his neck.

  “What?” he wheezed, still breathing heavy from the best climax he’d had in over four years.

  Hell, maybe forever and he hadn’t even been inside her.

  “I like your tongue.”

  He couldn’t help it. He laughed.

  She giggled and it was such a sweet sound, he hugged her.

  “I think this is going to work.”

  “Kissing me? I’d say it already has.”

  “That too.”

  Relief and more anticipation than he’d even been feeling before poured through him. It was all going to be okay.

  “What is going to be okay?” she asked just as he realized he’d said it out loud.

  “Us. Getting married

  CHAPTER TWO

  Daisy’s entire body went rigid as Carter’s words penetrated the sensual fog that had taken over her brain within seconds of his lips touching hers.

  Maybe she was still fogged.

  That would explain the hallucinations.

  Carter Sloane talking about marriage to her, Daisy Jackson, had to be a delusion.

  Even more so than the totally sexy owner of the company she worked for wanting to kiss her.

  She had to wonder, had the whole darn thing been a fantasy? Was she dreaming? She’d had enough of them about Carter Sloane since coming to work for Sloane Electronics ten years ago.

  None of her fantasies had had as much solid realism as the six-foot, three-inch, two-hundred pound body beneath her. His heart pounded against her chest. Had her dreams ever had so much detail before? She knew he’d climaxed. Her ears were ringing from his shout, but there was an awful lot of him left pressed against her feminine flesh.

  Even in her sexiest fantasies, she hadn’t envisioned quite that level of magnificent male presence.

  Okay, definitely no fantasy, but the other...

  She could not convince herself that he’d said the other. It would be too out of this world. Two extraordinary and remarkable things like that did not happen in her humdrum life.

  So, not only had she gone completely over the edge from a simply kiss, but she was definitely hallucinating.

  Not good, Daisy.

  She was twenty-eight years old and she could count the number of times she’d climaxed while making love on one hand. She wouldn’t even have to use all her fingers and here she had gone and had the most mind blowing orgasm of them all from a kiss! Okay, maybe more than a kiss, with his finger still inside her.

  Oh, gracious.

  His finger was still inside her. And it felt good. Wonderful. Magnificent even. She wanted to move against that finger and experience a small taste of the pleasure he’d just given her. While he was probably lying there wondering how to get her off of him. How embarrassing.

  She couldn’t stay draped over Carter like a sack of potatoes. She had to get up, but how did she politely ask a man to stop playing with parts of her body she hadn’t mentioned in public since tenth grade sex education class?

  “Um, Carter?”

  “Hmmm?” His chest rumbled with the sound against her bare breasts and a new worry assailed her.

  How was she going to cover up and get off him at the same time?

  “I... Could you... Do you think you could move your hand?” she finally spit out.

  “Sure.”

  She sighed with real relief. That had been a lot easier than she’d thought it was going to be.

  He moved the hand that still held her in-no-way-relaxed nipple between two fingers so that it cupped her breast instead. Then he sighed too, as if he liked the position.

  She knew she did, but she bet she was getting heavy. She wasn’t some tiny thing like his former fiancée. They were the same height, but there the comparison ended. She was dark where Phoebe was light and Daisy’s female attributes could best be described as generous.

  Carter didn’t seem to mind, not with his hand cupping one of her boobs like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, but maybe he was just being polite.

  He was breathing too hard to be comfortable.

  If she released her hold on him, he’d probably get the hint that he could let her go without hurting her feelings. Pulling her hands from around his neck she pressed on his chest, but instead of him releasing her, she ended up propped above him, her lower body just as close to his as it ever had been.

  His blue eyes were smoky with what she figured was satisfied lust. She liked that because she was responsible. It was a very novel experience.

  His mouth curved up at one corner in a smile she could only describe as smug and he winked at her. “We’re dynamite together.”

  He sounded really happy about that.

  She couldn’t imagine why, unless it was just the kiss and conquer male hormone showing itself. Their apparent sexual compatibility was unlikely to impact either of their futures.

  Darn it.

  She frowned in concentration, trying not to react to the feel of him touching her so intimately. “Carter, I really need you to move your hand.”

  “I did.”

  “Your other hand.”

  “This one?” And he moved it all right, backwards and forwards, bringing forth an involuntary reaction from her body, making her arch and go stiff and then shiver from the souls of her feet to the top of her head.

  Oh, goodness!

  She collapsed on top of him, her nose buried in his chest.

  “I want to get off.” She mumbled the blatant lie into the smattering of dark curls under her nose and mouth.

  “I’ll get you off, honey. Just give me a sec.” And he proceeded to show her just how easy it would be as his hand did insidious things to her unmentionable places.

  She loved it, but she wasn’t as lost to her body’s insistent needs as she’d been a few minutes before. For instance, it occurred to her that the door to her office was wide open and anyone could walk in and see them like this. It wouldn’t be so bad for Carter, he was on the bottom.

  But she was on top and security might think she’d gone crazy and attacked him a lustful frenzy.

  Sure.

  Right.

  Whatever. Right now embarrassment and fear at the possibility of getting caught definitely overruled desire.

  Only he didn’t seem to realize that at all. One more dangerous caress from that amazing finger and she was going to forget her manners and good sense all over again.

  She co
uldn’t think of what to do, so she hit his shoulder.

  His hand stopped moving and relief warred with disappointment inside her. “What was that for?”

  “You said if I hit your shoulder, you’d stop.”

  His body stilled completely. “You want me to stop.”

  No. She wanted him to keep going. All night long. She wanted to have one of those nights she’d read about in romance novels, but that wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t know why he’d kissed her, but she couldn’t believe he wanted her, not really. There had to be some sort of logical explanation for what had just happened.

  So, she lied. Again. It was getting to be a habit. He was a bad influence on her. “Yes. And I want to get off of you.”

  His hand seemed to convulse in a possessive move that made her feel connected to him in a really frightening way. As if all this had been real and not just some sort of freaky aberration in her otherwise unexciting life.

  “I want to kiss you again.”

  She lifted up again in panic. “No.”

  He frowned. “Why not? I made you like my tongue.”

  Heat scorched up her body and she knew her cheeks weren’t the only things blushing. “Yes, you did, but you also said I had a choice and I choose to stop now.”

  He closed his eyes and made a sound like he was in pain, but his hand moved. Actually they both did, falling away from her body to lie like sleeping tigers on her desk. In her mind, they were that dangerous. She eyed them, flicking her gaze from one to the other with distrust, but he remained still.

  “If you’re going, go. I don’t think I can keep my hands off you for much longer.” His voice was tight with strain and both hands curled into fists.

  She believed him.

  Scrambling off of him, she hoped he wouldn’t open his eyes until she was covered up.

  He didn’t move, nor did his eyes open and she spun away to refasten her bra and button up her shirt with her back to him.

  “One day soon, I’m going to see every pale peach inch of you.”

  She started at the sound of his voice and whirled back to face him. He was leaning against the desk again, his hair mussed, his expression downright feral.

  Who would have thought the elegant, sophisticated owner of Sloane Electronics could look so primitive?

  She didn’t know what to say, but an atavistic shudder shook her. Even as she reacted to that look on the most basic level, she was appalled with herself and horribly embarrassed by the way she had reacted to a simple kiss and some light petting.

  It just went to show that six years without sex had left her extremely vulnerable.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “What the hell for?”

  “I sort of went crazy and all you wanted to do was kiss me.”

  “Didn’t you notice me going a little crazy too?” He ran his fingers through dark brown hair. “If anyone should apologize it should be me, but I’m not sorry.”

  “Why aren’t you? All you wanted was a kiss and we practically made love on top of my desk.”

  His eyelids lowered and the expression on his face was nothing short of predatory. “We were a long way from making love, but I’d be happy to demonstrate the difference.”

  She backed up a step even though he hadn’t moved. “That’s not a good idea.”

  “Married people have sex, honey. Or didn’t you know?”

  He was teasing her, but she didn’t feel like laughing. “I know. I’ve been married after all.”

  And she’d failed spectacularly at it, particularly the sex part. Of course, it hadn’t helped that her husband had been a closet drug addict who had wanted a second income to support his habit more than he’d wanted a plain Jane wife.

  Carter jerked as if startled. “Your personnel record doesn’t show that.”

  She glared at him. “You’ve been reading my personnel file?”

  “I own the company.” He didn’t look in the least repentant for invading her privacy like that. “I’m allowed.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and sucked in a breath at the friction against her still aroused nipples. “That remains to be seen.”

  His smile was so sexy, it was lethal, but then it faded and he was frowning again. “When were you married?”

  “I got married when I was twenty.”

  “It doesn’t say anything about it in your file.”

  “I never included him on my insurance or anything, so there’s no reason why it should.”

  “When did you divorce?”

  “We didn’t.”

  She watched, fascinated, as all the color drained from Carter’s face. “You’re married?”

  “My husband died on our second anniversary.” He’d overdosed on heroine while at a party with his drug using friends.

  He’d forgotten it was their anniversary, or more likely simply hadn’t cared. Anyway, he hadn’t been with her and after two years married to a man whose moods were drug induced, she hadn’t minded at all.

  His death had been sad, but she hadn’t grieved like a woman in love should.

  “I’m sorry.” Carter looked like he really meant it.

  She shrugged. “I am too. He was too young to die like he did.”

  Carter didn’t look much better than he had a minute before. “Are you still grieving him?”

  “No.”

  Her marriage had been a mistake, but she would have tried to make it work, tried to get Jack help.

  She hadn’t gotten the chance. End of story.

  Carter’s smile was back in full force and she about staggered under the impact.

  “So, you’re totally free to marry me.”

  The room grew black around the edges and she stumbled backward until she fell into a chair beside the door to her office. “What?”

  “I’m being pretty abrupt about this, aren’t I?” Carter tugged at his tie until it was loose enough to pull off over his head. Then he unbuttoned the top two buttons on his dress shirt and she wanted to ask him to undo more.

  She stomped on the urge and simply nodded in answer to his question. She’d say abrupt about covered it.

  He sighed and ran his long fingers through his hair again. “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s okay.” Her voice was faint, but at least it worked.

  Which was a miracle when she considered all she’d been through in the last half-hour.

  Carter adjusted himself just like some jock teenager and then grimaced. “Look, honey, we need to talk, but I’ve got to take a shower. I’m a mess.”

  He indicated the front of his suit pants that couldn’t hide the wet spot, despite their dark color.

  She blushed and hastily looked away.

  He laughed. “You’re a case, you know that?”

  She shrugged, suddenly realizing she wasn’t all that comfortable between her legs herself.

  She looked back at him, keeping her gaze strictly on his face this time. “I guess I could use a shower too.”

  “Want to share?” he asked with a lot more seriousness than she could handle.

  “No.” Was that Minnie Mouse voice hers? She never squeaked. She wasn’t the type.

  Pragmatic. Practical. Plain. The three p’s that described her perfectly. Another p.

  “Are you sure about that?” The sensual promise in his voice made her insides melt, but she kept a stiff upper lip and shook her head.

  “Okay. Get your stuff and I’ll drive you home.”

  “I have my car.”

  “I don’t. Mine is in the shop.”

  “You need a ride home?” she asked.

  Is that why he’d come to her office? No. He’d said he wanted to kiss her. She was pretty sure most men didn’t feel the need to pay for a ride home with a kiss, even ones as sexy as Carter Sloane.

  “I need a ride to your house, where we will both take showers and then we will talk.”

  “You want to use my shower?”

  “Yes, now don’t start asking the same questions
over again. I don’t think I can take it. Just lead me to your car, all right?”

  “What if I don’t want you to come home with me?”

  He moved over to her and dropped on his haunches in front of her, then tilted her chin up with his fingertip. The touch was gentle and his expression was more tender than she’d ever seen it. Not that she’d seen it all that often.

  They didn’t exactly move in the same circles.

  “Then I’d have to convince you otherwise.”

  “This is really weird, Carter.”

  “Not from where I’m standing.”

  “You’re nuts.” Her hand flew to her mouth. He might have kissed her stupid and right into a mind-blowing orgasm, but he was still the man that owned the company she worked for.

  “Not so much anymore.”

  “What does that mean?” Talking to him was like talking to a Chinese puzzle. Nothing made sense to her.

  “Nothing important.” He laid his hand on her knee. “Will you take me home with you so we can talk?”

  “About marriage?” She had to ask. It was too incredible a concept for her to accept with equanimity.

  “About a proposition I have for you that includes marriage.”

  Which cleared up a whole lot less than it muddled in her brain.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Carter and Daisy both stopped beside the driver’s side door of her yellow Xterra. He put his hand out for the keys.

  She stared at it like it was a snake threatening to bite her. “What?”

  “The keys.” He was feeling pretty uncomfortable at the moment and he wanted to get to her house and the shower.

  He was also hoping that after they discussed his proposition and she agreed to it that he could convince her to let him kiss her again...and a whole lot more.

  The sooner they got to her house, the sooner he’d have his lips on hers again.

  She shook her head. “Nobody drives my Xterra, but me.”

  “You’ll have to make an exception to the rule because I don’t let anyone else drive me. Period.”

  “No.” She pressed the unlock button.

  He heard a snick as the lock buttons popped up.