Riding Red (9 page)

Chapter Six

Warm, amber sunlight did not spill through the curtains that morning. Instead, the sky remained grey and gloomy as if it was still considering pouring down another flurry of rain.

With the less than pleasant weather, as far as Jeff was concerned, that was all the more reason to remain right where he was, nestled against soft, creamy skin that was warm to the touch.

Teresa lay curled up against him with one leg draped across his body and her head resting atop his chest. His hands roamed aimlessly up and down the length of her back, and he closed his eyes for just a moment to inhale the rich, flowery scent of her hair. Jeff could not stem the silly smile that stretched across his face at the feeling of contentment which had settled over him.

He’d never imagined it would feel like this, to actually wake to a woman in his arms and not experience the urge to grab his clothes and tear out of there—that was, if he’d even managed to stay long enough to actually spend the night.

Of his brothers, he was the worst of them when it came to commitment—to establishing any permanent entanglements. He hadn’t always been that way. He recalled a time when he’d actually
wanted
the same things as Jacob and Jackson…even Jason, although his younger brother would never admit it.

His accident had changed everything for him, had shattered whatever future he’d thought he’d have with a woman, so he’d spent years telling himself he didn’t want any more than a casual fling, a warm body to ease his lusts.

That was until he’d met her…

Jeff glanced down at Teresa when she shifted against him and a knot tightened in his chest until he worried his heart would burst from the pressure. It was not a sexual response, although, he acknowledged with a wry grin, he experienced that too as his cock lengthened and hardened until it brushed against her thigh. He closed his eyes again, breathing deep, willing his body to release him from its stranglehold of desire, at the same time as he fought against the weight of guilt that still pressed against his chest.

Teresa made him want things he shouldn’t want, made him hope for a life he couldn’t have. He wanted to be the man to give her whatever she desired. He knew that he couldn’t, but that didn’t stop the longing.

With a weary, ragged sigh, Jeff tried to roll out from beneath Teresa. Jason had long ago left the bed, and he could hear his brother in the kitchen making breakfast. Jeff decided to shower while Teresa slept, but she seemed to have other plans.

Though she still remained asleep, as he moved to slip out of bed, she clung to him—her legs tightening around his, her arms winding around back.

Jeff groaned—a deep, guttural, desperate sound. He was trying to do the honourable thing. He was trying to walk away now—before he made promises to her he couldn’t keep—because Jeff knew he could deny Teresa nothing, not when every part of him longed to please her, to make her happy.

You can’t make her happy.

Jeff frowned at his inner voice, even though it was telling the truth. That same thought was what had driven him from one woman’s bed to another. No matter what a woman said, they all wanted one thing in the end, and he simply couldn’t give that to them. So he’d convinced himself he didn’t care, that he didn’t need one woman in his life to make him happy, but that was a lie, and Teresa had proven that a year ago.

He tried to move again, determined to leave the bed before he succumbed to the needs of his body, and lost more of his heart to the one woman he loved too much to hurt. As if she sensed his inner turmoil, that he was subconsciously withdrawing from her, she held him imprisoned within her body’s embrace.

Jeff was many things—Teresa even believed him to be a good guy, though that one was still up for debate—but what he knew for certain was he was neither a saint nor a monk, so when her hand curled around his straining cock, he conceded defeat.

“Wake up, Red,” he growled, rolling them over until she was spread wide beneath him, flat on her back.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, her lips parting as surprise flickered across her face. If he wasn’t so horny, he would have grinned. She’d been fondling him in her sleep, which made him wonder exactly what type of dream she’d been having.

He would ask her later, but right now, he was going to finish what
she’d
unknowingly started.

His cock nestled against her opening, the thick head probing her wet slit until it was coated with her juice. A groan rumbled out of him. She was already wet. Teresa curled her arms around his shoulders, her legs lifting to lock around his hips. The slight movement caused her rounded breasts to stroke against his chest, and sent his dick sinking deeper inside her.

He cursed, low and deep in his throat, his eyes clenching shut as he drove home in one swift thrust. She cried out, her nails digging into his flesh, as her thighs locked tighter around his pumping hips.

One day… One day, he promised, he would take her softly, slowly, and savour the pleasure of making love to her at his leisure, but just as the times before, this was not that day. Whenever he was near her, inside her with her hot tight heat strangling his dick, he could barely breathe, let alone think. It seemed impossible to quiet the demands of his body long enough to even consider anything but a hard, pounding fuck when he was with his woman.

His woman.

He’d declared she was his the night before, and he noticed that she hadn’t denied his claim to her. The knowledge that she was his, that she belonged to him, did things to his insides, aroused feelings within him that he was becoming all too familiar with, even though they still scared the shit out of him.

As always, Teresa had an uncanny way of sensing his thoughts, his feelings. Even when they argued, she knew when to give him a helluva fight, and she knew when to concede. As if she instinctively knew he both welcomed and feared the feelings she awakened inside him, her hands around his neck curled in his hair, and she brought his face to hers, capturing his lips in a kiss that he felt all the way to his dick.

He nearly came from the hot press of her mouth to his, her tongue gliding against his. She claimed his mouth just as thoroughly as he claimed her body, until he was forced to wrench his lips from hers before he exploded with just that single kiss.

She tried to pull him back to her, but he shook his head.

“Fuck, Teresa. I’m about to come.”

“Then come.”

Her erotic words swelled his cock, and Jeff had to close his eyes so he wouldn’t spurt right there just from watching her eyes darken, her cheeks flush with pleasure. Even the slide of her tongue across her lips—leaving them glistening wet—fucking turned him on. Everything about Teresa fucking turned him on.

“Come with me, Jeff,” she begged as she lifted her hips, the sweet undulations sending him sinking deeper until he nudged the back of her tunnel.

He cursed again, quickening his hips as he drilled her, hot and hard, until he felt her shudder beneath him. The vibrations began in her sweet pussy, fluttering around him until she was gripping him as tight as a fist. She cried out his name in that soft, sensual voice of hers that always sent a ripple of pleasure surging straight down his dick. That moment was no different, and his cock pulsed harder, while pre-cum leaked from the tip.

She drowned him with her wet release—her hot, sticky juices drenching him, making his journey into her passage, a soaking, slippery slide. The sound of him fucking her juicy pussy echoed in the room, dulled only by the hard thump of the headboard ricocheting against the wall.

Desire and sex permeated the thick air, the heavy perfume raking through his chest as their harsh sighs and the creaks of the bed surrounded them. Every one of his senses was overwhelmed by her, by their erotic lovemaking, and Jeff was powerless against the desires of his body, his waning control finally snapping as he closed his eyes and gave one final thrust into her welcoming body.

He came on a harsh grunt, his toes curling with pleasure as he erupted deep inside her pussy, shooting stream after stream of his cum into her waiting passage. It wasn’t until he was nearly spent, his body already relaxing, that he realised what he’d done.

“Fuck.” He backed out of her immediately and hovered above her. His body still shook with the aftershocks of his climax. When his breathing finally eased to its normal rhythm, he was able to settle his weight on one forearm to rest off to her side.

“Teresa. Baby, I’m sorry.” He shoved a hand through his hair out of frustration. This was the second time he’d done this. It was the second time he’d lost all reason and had come inside her. Last night he’d managed to pull out before he’d finished, but this morning… Not since his first girlfriend in his senior year of high school had he slept with any woman without protection.

But she’d felt so good…

And it’s not like you can
—

No.
He gave a mental shake of his head, and before the last thought could form, he shoved it aside because it didn’t matter. She hadn’t invited him to come inside of her body, and no matter whether she was on the pill or not, if he could get her pregnant or not, he shouldn’t have taken liberties that did not belong to him.

With a gentle hand, she pushed him over onto his back and settled her palm atop his chest as she stretched out across him.

“You’re sorry for what?”

“We didn’t use protection,” he said flatly, watching her carefully, already preparing himself for her outrage.

“It’s all right. I’m on the pill.” But it wasn’t all right. He gathered as much by the tell-tale flicker in her eyes and the way she averted her gaze, even if it was briefly.

“It’s not all right,” he said out loud this time. He then placed a gentle kiss against her forehead and rolled them both to their feet. “But next time I won’t lose my head and forget.”

She seemed to want to protest, but he was already guiding her towards the bathroom.

“Let’s shower and then go see what my brother has managed to throw together for breakfast this morning.”

Teresa must have sensed he would not budge on this point, so she simply nodded and followed after him.

She should have known the moment Jeff suggested they shower together that it would be the last thing they actually did. The guest room bathroom was spacious enough, and the tub managed to fit the two of them, but barely, and even if it had, and they’d both had space to bathe comfortably, she had a feeling Jeff would still have managed to get his wandering hands on her, as he was trying to do now.

“Come here,” he growled when she evaded him, but Teresa didn’t get far. He pulled her wet body flush against his, trapping her within the circle of his arms. They gasped in unison as sudsy water trickled between them and down their bodies.

“We’re supposed to be showering,” she protested half-heartedly, her breath hitching in her chest when Jeff’s palm closed around one of her breasts.

A teasing glint lit up Jeff’s eyes as he grinned down at her. “We
are
showering.”

Barely
, Teresa decided when his hand slipped between her thighs to stroke her sensitive nub.
Hardly
, she corrected when a moan filtered past her lips.

Desire made her lids heavy as she stared up into his handsome face that glimmered with mischief. She cupped his cheeks between her hands and brought his lips to hers in a soft, languorous kiss that stoked the already burgeoning embers of desire flaring in her belly.

He groaned into her mouth, pulling her closer, and she let him hold her to him until she abruptly wriggled from his grasp. He objected immediately, but she shook her head teasingly.

“Come here,” he commanded, advancing towards her. Before he could tug her back into her arms, Teresa stopped him with her palm against his chest, and in the next instant she slowly slipped to her knees before him.

Water pelted her back, sluicing through the wet locks of her hair. Teresa snared his gaze, which darkened to twin pools of sapphire as his eyes glimmered with lust. The look that passed between them… Teresa swore it seared her heart.

It was playful, it was intense, it hinted at a deeper meaning—one that both shocked and terrified her. She’d seen the same look in his eyes the night before, the first time he’d made love to her. Actually, every time he made love to her, Jeff’s gaze would take on such a blazing intensity that she could feel it scorching through her veins.

She curled her hand around his hardening flesh, her eyes never leaving him as she recalled the last time they’d made love—the pure bliss that had crossed his face when he’d found pleasure inside her body. He’d been unable to control himself, and Teresa had secretly revelled in her feminine power over him. She knew all about Jeff Downing’s reputation with the ladies, and she had no doubt there were few women who could say he’d ever lost control in their arms.

That she’d brought him to the brink of pleasure, to the point he’d been unable to tear himself from her body at the moment of his release… It thrilled her even as she experienced a twinge of guilt. He’d apologised for not pulling out of her and would probably beat himself up about it for days to come.

She should have told him the truth. If she’d possessed a shred of decency, she would have, so he wouldn’t be burdened by his own guilt. If she wasn’t such a coward, so afraid of what he might say, what he might do, she would have just told him.

But she just couldn’t.

His hand gripping the back of her head drew her attention to his face.

“Where are you, Red?”

She didn’t pretend as if she didn’t understand his question as his eyes sharpened on her and concern creased his brow.

Fear and guilt had no place in this shower with them, not when as soon as it was safe to return to Westside, she would go home, and their time together would be at an end.

Only pleasure and the fulfilment of desires, of fantasies, belonged in this space with them, Teresa decided as she curled her lips into a smile, her only thoughts of Jeff and pleasing him.