Shameless (9 page)

“Condom,” she whispered.

“Not yet.”

She shuddered at the thought of what he planned to do to her in plain sight. It was one thing to have him plunder and explore from behind the safety of a blindfold…quite another to watch a man she’d known for the past three years touch her in a way few others had.

He put his hands together, palm to palm, and then slid them between her thighs. The shivering began in Nina’s toes and worked its way up until her very hair trembled in anticipation. Gauge nudged his hands upward, teasing her skin with the back of his knuckles as he moved.

Nina swallowed thickly, not knowing what was expected of her, if, indeed, anything was.

The other night she’d had no other choice but to stand and wait for him to initiate action. But now she was free to roam with her hands and her eyes. Only the view was somehow too intimate, too carnal, and she found herself closing her eyes.

“No, Nina,” he whispered. “I want you to watch me make love to you.”

The words finished at the same time his hands met her tingling flesh and his thumbs moved to part her swollen womanhood and find her tight bud.

Nina threw her head back and moaned. So hot. Then forced herself to do as he asked and watched him through hooded eyes, her breath coming in rapid gasps. Gauge leaned forward, running his tongue along her throbbing clit, and then leaned back and blew.

And she exploded into a million crystalline pieces right there in the middle of the store.

Oh, he’d known about the birds and the bees for a long time. It was hard not to when he shared a room with his father who brought home a different woman every other night and had his way with her in the bed a few feet away from Gauge’s own. But while he might have caught a glimpse of bare flesh in the shadows, this open display of being invited to watch in the plain light of day had been a first.

And he’d taken full advantage of it.

Especially when she’d opened the shower curtain and invited him to join her, taking some sort of odd pleasure in being the one to bust his cherry, as she’d put it.

The experience hadn’t lasted long. But it had been enough for him to know that he wanted more. Much more.

And he’d gotten it. First from a few of his father’s women…then from his own.

Then there was Nina….

He ran his tongue the length of Nina’s tight bud and then blew on the closed blossom, sitting back to watch as she bloomed.

He’d somehow never expected her to be so responsive…so uninhibited. He touched her and she trembled with anticipation. It was enough to send a man sailing over the edge without being touched himself.

Oh, but he definitely intended to be touched.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard the store phone ring, but he was too far gone to give it more than a passing notice. It was past closing time. Probably a wrong number.

Nina had grasped on to his shoulders during orgasm and now smiled down at him, her face a portrait of bliss. He groaned and reached for the condom she had asked for moments before even as she popped the front of his jeans.

The urgency that filled him wouldn’t allow for any prolonged foreplay. He brushed her hands away when she reached to touch him, and sheathed himself, grabbing only a breath before positioning her legs on the outside of his and then tugging her down so that her silk heat lay against his erection. He grasped her hips, watching her face, licking her firm, high breasts. She tasted as good as she looked.

Before he was ready, she slid down over his length to the hilt, taking in every inch of him, her body shivering in response.

Dear Lord, she was going to be the end of him.

“Yes.” The single word came out as a hushed whisper from her pink lips.

She slid slowly up and then came back down again, her velvet muscles squeezing each time her sweet ass touched his thighs. He loosened the arms she had tightened around his neck and coaxed her to lean back so he could view where their bodies met. His erection glistened from her hot juices as she lifted herself again, then it disappeared into her bared flesh.

Gauge gritted his teeth to fight off ejaculation. He hadn’t felt this way since that first time in the shower when he was thirteen. His balls ached with the urgent need to spill his seed. His heart beat so hard in his chest all he could hear was the sound of it and his own ragged breathing.

He trapped one of her breasts in his hand and covered the tip in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the distended tip, then sucking deeply. She moaned, her slow, sexy movements as she rode him stuttering slightly with the dual assault.

He looked into her passion-clouded blue eyes and something stabbed him deep in his gut, a feeling that quickly passed as she slid down him again.

Clenching his teeth together, he grasped her hips and lifted her from him because if he didn’t he was afraid it would be over before it had begun.

She reluctantly rose to her feet, and he followed, stepping out of his boots, jeans and T-shirt as he led her toward the couch. She began to lie down faceup and he caught her, instead turning her so that she knelt on the seat facing away from him. She instantly grasped the back to balance herself and arched her spine, bringing her sweet ass up to greet him.

Christ, but she was sexy. Her womanhood was engorged and full, her inner lips pink and inviting. He grabbed his erection and guided the head to rest against her tight portal. She moaned, bearing back against him. He stayed her with a hand against her lower back, holding her there as he entered her a couple of inches and then withdrew. And then entered her again, and again, each time going a little deeper, but stopping himself from going in to the hilt.

Her shallow breaths filled his ears as she restlessly flicked her blond hair over one shoulder, trying to see him before moaning and dropping her head to the back of the leather couch. Her pink-tipped fingers tightly grasped the cushions.

Finally he slid into her fully in one, smooth move.

Her long, low moan swirled around him, nearly bringing him to climax.

He tightened his muscles and briefly closed his eyes, ordering his body to obey him.

Once he’d recovered a modicum of control, he began stroking her with his rigid member, in and out, slowly increasing the frequency of his thrusts until flesh slapped against flesh.

When he was about to race right over the cliff’s edge, he completely withdrew, denying not only her, but himself as he fought to catch his breath.

“Please…please,” she whimpered, her hands blindly reaching for him to coax him to reenter her.

He became aware of the picture they made, the two of them in a public area of the store past closing time, cloaked by night, but not completely. If someone looked just the right way from the front windows, they’d be able to see a carnal view of them both naked, him taking Nina from behind.

And he wanted everyone to see….

He walked to the back door of the shop, taking his keys from his pocket as he went. But he didn’t need them. It was unlocked.

He stepped inside the storeroom and shook off the cold. He didn’t like being the bearer of bad news. But this was the type of thing that couldn’t hold until morning.

He was only glad he wouldn’t have to go looking for Nina around town. He’d check in with Gauge and then head upstairs. Or perhaps Gauge could do it. He didn’t want to have to go up to her apartment again unless he absolutely had to.

He navigated his way through the bookstore, familiar with every nook and cranny and title that graced the floor-to-ceiling shelves. As he should be. He’d created them.

He shrugged out of his coat and laid it on the counter even as he headed in the direction of the music center. He tilted his head, listening for sounds. He made out the low whine of an electric guitar on a blues track. Clapton? He couldn’t be sure.

He stepped into the area and looked around, not immediately seeing anyone or anything. Where was Gauge?

He leaned over the counter. The register was closed and locked. He rounded it, nearing the door to the café. The lights were off in there, and he couldn’t make out the smell of any cooking. Not that he expected to. Nina had left before he had.

That was strange. He’d come in through the storage room and no one had been in there….

A sound caught his attention behind him, causing the fine hair on the back of his neck to stand on end. He cocked his head, listening.

There. There it was again. The sound of a woman moaning, in the throes of passion.

He grimaced and smoothed his hand over the back of his neck. Had Gauge brought a woman in here? While he hadn’t known his friend ever to do anything like that before, he wouldn’t put it past him. How many times had Gauge commented that he’d like to date one customer or another?

Then again, it was too late for any customers.

His heart pitched to his feet as he heard another moan and the groan of couch springs.

Kevin slowly headed in the direction of the public gathering area, his gaze missing the carefully hand-painted graffiti-style butterflies on the screen that afforded privacy but could easily be removed when an author was signing. Dread lined his stomach with each step. He couldn’t be sure why.

Until he rounded the screen and saw that Gauge was, indeed, indulging in in-store sex.

Only his partner wasn’t one of his customers, but Nina….

Any pleasure she’d been feeling vanished and she moved quickly away from the man even now searching for climax, folding in on herself as she took in Kevin’s shocked expression.

But it was more than shock that made her heart pitch to her feet. It was the pain visible there in his dark eyes.

“You son of a bitch.”

The moment she moved away Gauge had turned to see their best friend standing behind him. He reached for his jeans and jerked them on, barely doing up half the buttons before Kevin stepped forward and landed a punch right on his jaw.

Nina scrambled for her robe, quickly putting it on.

“Kevin, no!” She tried to put herself between them. Act as a mediator between the two men who were her best friends, her business partners…her lovers.

“Hey, man, calm down,” Gauge said, finding his footing even as he rubbed his jaw, as if checking its integrity.

Kevin’s shock and pain had turned to pure anger. Igniting an unfamiliar sadness in Nina’s chest.

“Please, Kevin….”

He blinked at her, myriad emotions passing over his face. “Move out of the way, Nina.”

“I—I can’t,” she said, trembling for reasons that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with fear.

“Hey, Kev, it’s not my fault, man,” Gauge said.

Nina glanced over her shoulder, trying to tell him to be quiet.

“She came down here in that slinky thing and then opened it to reveal she was nude….” He finished doing up his jeans, put on his boots and then reached for his T-shirt. “I’m only human, man. No red-blooded man would have been able to look that in the eye and turn it down.”

Nina didn’t know what Gauge had been hoping to achieve, but she guessed it was the exact opposite of what was happening.

She watched Kevin clench and unclench his fists.

“Get out of the way, Nina,” he said again.

“Kevin, don’t,” she whispered, tears burning her eyes. She laid her hands against his chest. She felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest.

How could this have happened? How could she have mistaken Gauge for Kevin?

She didn’t have time to further contemplate the question as Kevin physically moved her aside and fell on Gauge like a ton of angry bricks.

Nina stared helplessly as the two men fought in front of her. At first Gauge straightened his shoulders and took Kevin’s hits, almost as if he felt he deserved them. Then Kevin landed a punch straight on his nose. He lifted a hand to find blood trailing down, and his stance changed to allow him to confront the man by assaulting him, head-on.

Nina gasped as the two men fell to the floor, rolling over and over again as one and then the other tried to gain the upper hand.

What should she do? Should she call the sheriff? Call for help? Surely if they continued like this someone would get seriously hurt.

“Stop!” she shouted, grabbing the back of Kevin’s shirt as he sat on top of Gauge. “Oh, God, please stop!”

Her words finally appeared to register as Kevin looked at her, emerging from his blind rage and focusing on her tear-streaked face.

“Stop it. Now. Both of you,” she said, feeling dangerously close to sobbing.

Kevin was distracted enough to allow Gauge to scoot out from under him. He used a chair to rise to a standing position even as Kevin stood as well. They were both out of breath and bore the signs of their scuffle.

Nina wished she could curl up and disappear as she faced them both, Kevin looking as if she’d buried a ten-inch knife in his back, Gauge with his chin tucked slightly down as he ran his hand across his nose, wiping off the blood there, looking like the kid who had got caught stealing.

Kevin turned and began walking away without a word.

Nina started after him, panic surging through her bloodstream. “Kevin, wait—”

He swung back toward her, looking amazingly close to lifting his hand to her.

Nina froze, her stomach pitching to her feet as she became aware of the dark depths of his pain and anger.

“I almost forgot why I came here,” he said, his gaze boring into her. “Your grandmother had a heart attack. When your mother couldn’t get hold of you, she tried calling the store and then contacted me.” He named a hospital and then went silent.

Nina wished he had slapped her instead of uttering the words he had. At least the sting of the physical attack would have passed.