Once Written, Twice Shy (The Broken Men Chronicles) (2 page)

When the kitchen had been tidied
up, the pots left to soak in the sink, and our food ordered, I offered Alissa a
shower.

“You look like Casper’s cousin,
twice removed, you go ahead,” she said.

“I’ve got two bathrooms,” I said
and walked her toward my bedroom.  “You can use the one in my room since this
is where you’ll be staying.  I’ll take-”

“I can’t kick you out,” she said. 
“I could-”

“I didn’t want to assume anything
and I wanted you to be comfortable.  The spare room has no bed yet so I’ll take
the pull-out couch.  It’s fine,” I said.  “Go ahead and take a shower, it’s
through there.  I’ll take the one in the main bath.”

Fresh out of the shower and in a
rush to get cleaned up and return to Alissa, I now realized that I had
forgotten to bring along my clean clothes.

I wrapped the towel around my
waist and headed out to gather something to put on.

Just as I slipped into my room,
hoping to make a quick exit, I caught a sight that made my heart stop and start
up again at a staccato pace.  Bent over her bag, Alissa was donning a very
delicious pair of tight blue jeans and nothing but a black bra up top, her hair
dripping down her back.  My guess was that she was looking for a particular
shirt.

I took a step forward and hadn’t
expected the floorboards to creak, giving my presence away.

She stood up ramrod straight and whirled
around to face me, grabbing the first thing out of her bag to cover herself
with.  I looked at it and burst out laughing.  “I don’t think those will do,
honey.”

Her eyes looked down in horror
when she found herself clutching a small amount of black lace—underwear—very tiny,
very black and lacy underwear to be more precise.  She blushed.  Her mouth
opened as if to say something but nothing came out.  Instead, I saw her gaze
moving up my towel-clad body, her head tilting to the side, eyes widening, and her
breathing picked up.

“I think…I’m just going to-” she
said and made a quick dash for the hallway only to stop dead in her tracks. 
She turned and hurried back to her luggage to drop the underwear and grabbed
the shirt that sat on top of everything else.  She looked down at herself and
groaned.  “Dammit!”  She huffed and I couldn’t contain my boisterous laugh at
the mortified look on her face.  It earned me a snide expression.

“I’ll just grab the few things I
forgot earlier and get out of here.”  I began to rummage through my closet and
pulled the few items I needed and headed for the exit.  “I’ll see you when
you’re done.”  I paused at the bedroom door before leaving her.  “Has anyone
ever told you that you’re hot when you’re flustered?”

I didn’t wait for a response.  A
few steps down the hall, I could hear her grumbling to herself and smiled. 
Things were definitely far from boring with Alissa around.

***

The pizza arrived while Alissa
was still getting herself straightened out.  I figured that she was done but
that she was dealing with some residual embarrassment prior to coming
downstairs to join me.  In the short amount of time since her arrival, I had
come to think her meek demeanor as a rather endearing quality of hers.

I poured some wine for us after
getting the plates ready, knowing that she wouldn’t be that much longer.

I smiled as I replayed the
earlier series of events in my head.  Part of me wished that I had taken charge
and indulged in her a little more, after that heated appraisal she had given me
in the bedroom.  The other part of me—the part that won out—was the gentleman.

Like any normal hot-blooded male
out there, I’d be crazy if I said I didn’t want to get laid by the woman currently
holed up in my bedroom; but I didn’t want it to be forced.  We had chemistry,
there was no denying that, but there was something greater to lose, something
akin to friendship if I rushed things and I wasn’t willing to lose that.

The couch dipped beside me and
the wine in my goblet sloshed about.  “So, I guess you didn’t lie when you said
you knew how to make a towel look good, huh?” she said and smirked.  I eyed her
amused face, surprised at her overtness.

“I suppose I deserve that,” I said. 
“I’m sorry for barging in.  I-”

She placed a hand on my arm and
squeezed lightly.  “It’s okay.  You just took me by surprise.”

“Here,” I said and handed over
her glass of wine.  “About those underwear…”

“Not going there, stud.”  She
blushed but her eyes betrayed her with their subtle gleam.

I watched as she took a large
gulp of the Cabernet Sauvignon.  Trying to get my head back in the game had
proved useless with my next statement.  “For what it’s worth, those jeans look
fantastic but I have to confess that my imagination is running wild with pictures
of you wearing that black lace you were holding on to.”

She laughed.  “Boy, you’re a cheeky
one, aren’t you?”

I smiled, happy that our familiar
playful banter from our online conversations had begun to creep into our face-to-face
setting as time went on.  I was starting to see more of the Alissa I had grown
to know over the last ten months.  Witnessing a genuine physical reaction
instead of those stupid emoticon faces was a refreshing change.  I was able to
read her like one of her books and what I took in only made me want to be
around her more.

***

Alissa had only just proven her
stubbornness.  After a short bout of bickering, I gave in and allowed her to
handle the dishes while I sat on the couch and listened to her tinker around,
not at all pleased that my visitor was tidying up my premises without my aid. 
What was worse was that she had kicked me out of my own kitchen to tend to the
tasks.

“Damn!”  She hissed and followed
it with another curse.

I walked to the kitchen.  “Everything
okay?”

Alissa was standing there with a
finger held up to her mouth.  “It’s nothing,” she said before looking down at
it, “just a cut.”

I held out my hand.  “Let me
see.”

“I wasn’t lying about the
clumsiness,” she said as I examined the tiny gash.

“I see that,” I said and she
shoved my shoulder with a small smile.  “Let’s get you patched up and then
I
’ll
finish the dishes while you find something for us to watch on TV.”

***

As the movie rolled on, I noticed
Alissa fighting off the urge to fall asleep.  I pulled her legs on top of my
lap so she’d be able to stretch out and be more comfortable.

When the credits began to roll, I
turned the TV off and lifted the sleeping woman into my arms.  She wrapped hers
around my neck instinctively.  Nuzzling against my jaw, Alissa mumbled
something indiscernible while I carried her to my bedroom.

I set her down on my bed and tried
to pull back but she woke and latched onto my shirt, capturing me with those
cerulean eyes of hers.

I froze.

“Please don’t go,” she said and
pulled me down where I braced myself so I didn’t topple over and crush her.

Butterflies fluttered about in my
stomach.  “Are you sure?”  She bit down on her lower lip.  I wanted to bite
down on it for her.  She had no clue how that innocent action of hers had been
driving me crazy since her arrival.

I felt her fingers around the
belt loops to my jeans, forcing me lower.

Her lips brushed against mine as
she said, “This is your house, it’s a big bed and you’re not sleeping on the
couch.”

I played with her hair and studied
her.  “It’s not so bad.”

“Pax?”  Her eyes played between
my eyes and mouth.

“Hmm?”  I leaned toward her.

“Kiss-” I never let her finish,
knowing that we both wanted the same thing.

She ran her hands from my belt
loops to around my hips and under my shirt.  The feather-like contact as her
fingers traced about my lower back, heated my flesh.  She nibbled on my lip;
her soft tongue met mine as we sought closeness.  She tasted sweet and I wondered
what the rest of her would taste like or if I’d be lucky enough to find out. 
Something told me that I was well on my way.

I let my hand wander from her
side down to her hip.  Her leg folded up at the knee, allowing me better access
to her butt.  She moaned into my mouth when I squeezed her jean-clad cheek.  I kissed
the length of her jaw, down to the side of her neck, up to her ear.

“You have no idea how much I want
you right now,” I said.  Her body trembled.

I nipped her lobe, eliciting a
whimper from her as her hands came free of my shirt and made their way to my
hair.  I felt the prickling of my scalp followed by a rush of arousal as she
pulled.

My pants tightened further.  If
she had any question as to how much she turned me on, the vixen that lay
beneath me had a feasible answer as I pressed my lower half into hers.

Alissa rolled us over and
straddled my waist with a wry grin.  “If you want something, Paxton, you’ve got
to take it.”  She grabbed onto the hem of my shirt.  “We need to get rid of
this.”

A finger ran up the middle of my
stomach, starting at the waist of my jeans, circling my navel.  The digit
changed to an open palm which rubbed my chest as she leaned forward to bring
her lips inches from mine.

It all felt like a scene from one
of her books although she had confessed that most of what she’d written about
she’d never experienced first-hand; only fantasies.  If given the opportunity,
I’d make sure she was well-acquainted with some of those fantasies of hers but
that’s just me.

I reveled in all things Alissa.  The
woman was a temptress, a master at seduction and she behaved as if she had no
clue to her prowess.  That hot and moist tongue of hers, mixed with her nips
and the series of open-mouthed kisses down my torso was wreaking havoc on my senses. 
An internal fight broke out between my urge to flip her over and exacting my
sensual revenge and that of staying put to see where she was going to end up
next.

Reduced to breathlessness, I
said, “Babes?”

Her fingers toyed with the button
at the top of my jeans.  Her mouth latched onto one of my nipples, flicking
that wicked tongue of hers over the hardened disk.  “Hmm?”  The vibrations sent
electrical currents throughout my body.

She leaned up to kiss my mouth.  I
felt her smile against my lips and saw the crinkling at her eyes when the
button snapped out of its eyelet.

In that moment, something snapped
in me also.

I flipped us over, grabbed her
hands and pinned them above her head.  She was secured with one hand while the
other roamed free to find the exposed flesh around her stomach from her shirt
riding up.

“Too many layers.”  I grunted my
disapproval.

She helped me with stripping her
shirt.  Discarded to the floor much like mine had been, I looked upon her as
her blonde hair draped over my pillow, garnishing her head as if it were a
halo.  She looked delicious and I was desperate to taste more of her.

“So soft,” I said against the
middle of her stomach while depositing soft kisses on my way up to those lace-covered
mounds of hers.

I slid my hand underneath the
band and took a breast in my hand, pinching its nipple and rolling it.  She
gasped and arched toward me.

Junior swelled to desperation in
my jeans and I knew I’d have to at least unzip myself to allow for a bit of
breathing room, and soon.

I pulled myself off of her and
kneeled between her legs.  Her face was flushed, her breathing was labored and
her eyes, oh those eyes; they were the brightest deep blue I had ever seen. 
She was lusting hard.

My hands reached for her fly and
button.  She tilted her hips up in permission and I pulled her denims off.

Damn!
  I never found the tiny black lacy underwear that I had seen her
clutch earlier.  The pair she wore was black and matched her bra but they were
boy-cut shorts that allowed her cheeks to peek through the bottom; definitely
not a complete disappointment.  I grunted my approval at the sight of the
garment, as well as her slender, toned legs, looking forward to the time they
would be wrapped around me.  Amusement could be seen all over her face as she
observed me taking her in.

“You look like a kid who’s visiting
an amusement park for the first time.”  Her voice had turned husky.  “Your
turn, take off those pants.”

“Aye!  Aye!”  I mock saluted, gaining
me a giggle.

I stood to the side of the bed and
dropped
trou
.

She knelt on the edge of the mattress.
 Her palms burned the skin on my chest the moment they made contact.  Our eyes
met and all playfulness, all mischievousness, all emotions were absent.  All
but one—vulnerability.

In that moment, I saw the troubles
of her past relationships she had confided in me about.  She knew of my
hang-ups as much as I knew about hers.  I’ll be honest.  She’d been the one to
make me see that there was more to life than just existing; that there was
someone out there that was better suited for me than Julie had ever been.