The First Time Again: The Braddock Brotherhood, Book 3 (19 page)

She tracked his movements as he made his way back to the bed.

“You want the bathroom, it’s free,” he informed her as he lay back down.

“Nope. I’m good,” she replied.

He slanted a look down at her. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.” She shifted closer. He curled an arm around her, trying to figure out what to say. Already he could feel himself stirring. He wanted her again.

He stroked her back with the tips of his fingers. “I think you started your period or something.”
Or something?

“Nope.” She slid the palm of her hand back and forth across his chest. She shifted so she could kiss his shoulder, the crook of his neck. He came to full attention when she pressed the length of her body against his. Her knee slid intimately between his thighs and he groaned.

“Then there’s something else wrong,” he said. She kissed him full on the mouth. He didn’t want her to stop, but his brain told him he needed to know what was going on before they went any further.

“What could be wrong?” she whispered.

Trey held her a little away from him. “I don’t know. But there was blood. You’re bleeding.”

She stared at him. He could see her debating with herself about what to say to that. “It’s not a problem,” she assured him, dipping her head to kiss him again. Her arms slid around his shoulders. Those soft breasts with their erect nipples pressed against his chest. Her knee brushed against him and her hand slid down his side.

Let it go
, his body insisted.

Find out what’s going on,
his brain argued.

She said it’s not a problem,
his body fired back.

I thought you were going to stop thinking with your cock.

“Okay, wait.” Trey somehow managed to get a few inches of distance between them. “There was blood on the condom and on me. It’s not your period. What is it that’s ‘not a problem’?”

Again he watched her debate. Saw the uncertainty in her eyes. “I’ve heard sometimes there’s a bit of bleeding the first time.”

“The first time? The first time what?”

He thought he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes. He realized he didn’t want yet another woman to give him that particular look. He scrambled to save himself. “The first time…you have sex?”

Her gaze stayed steady on his, like she might break in half if it didn’t. She nodded.

There was no danger of him looking anywhere else. Shock wouldn’t let him. “But—but you were married. You’re—you’re—”

“I’m what?” she asked dryly.

“Old!” he exploded.

Surprising him, Baylee started to laugh. Her laughter bounced around the room, off the walls, reverberated through the house.

Trey tried to recall a time when he’d been so completely out of his element and couldn’t. He had no idea what he should do, no idea what she thought was so funny or why.

Finally, her laughter dissipated. She lay on her side, facing him with her hands tucked up under her chin, tiny bits of moisture visible in the corners of her eyes.

“Thank you. You can’t imagine what a relief it is to not be a virgin anymore.”

“A relief?” he echoed.

She nodded vigorously. “And don’t worry. You don’t ever have to sleep with me again if you don’t want to.”

His erection reminded him it was still there. “Oh, I want to—”

“You do?” She slid in close to him again, her eyes shining. She smiled at him with such delight it took his breath away. When she kissed him he forgot the questions he wanted to ask. He forgot to think about anything at all. Except how much he wanted her.

This time there was no trip to the bathroom. No way was he leaving this bed. Tissues from the box on the nightstand did the trick. He spooned up behind Baylee and wrapped an arm around her. She nestled back against him like she belonged there. A perfect fit.

He played with her hair. Mesmerized, he let the thick, soft strands drift through his fingers, much the way his mind drifted off point. He didn’t want to start a conversation. Didn’t want to ask questions but surely he’d have to.

But maybe not right now. Not while Baylee was all warm and soft, his thighs tucked up under hers, her bottom nuzzling against his groin. He wondered if she’d be up for a third time. Because he’d abstained from sex for such a long time, it was almost new again for him. Although not quite as new as it apparently was for her.

He stroked her with his hand, along the flat of her tummy and down along her side to her hip. He tugged the sheet away from where it was tucked around her and yanked it off to the bottom of the bed.

“Hey,” she objected, although she made no move to retrieve it.

He turned on the bedside light and regarded her from behind before he started stroking her again. Down her side to the indentation of her waist, along her hip to her thigh. And further, down her leg to her knee and along her shin.

“What are you doing?” she asked sleepily.

“You’ve got a great body.”

“Hmm.” She managed to make the noncommittal utterance sound disbelieving all the same.

He nudged her over so she was lying on her stomach and traced the flat of his palm up the back of her leg, pausing to tickle the back of her knee. She flinched and her buttocks flexed.

“What are you doing?” she whispered, more alert now, her voice muffled by the pillow.

“Nothing.” He smiled. She had a great ass. He slid his hand up the back of her thigh, letting his fingers trail between her legs.

He heard her quick intake of breath and he smiled again. He massaged the backs of her thighs, his fingers sliding closer and higher against her. He kneaded the soft, round mounds of her buttocks, all the while letting his fingertips brush lightly against her. He felt her muscles clench in reaction to his touch.

“Open your legs a little.”

She made another sound in her throat, but she complied. His fingers brushed against her moist flesh while his thumb teased against the cleft of her bottom. Another one of those sounds from her, her legs separated more, welcoming his touch.

It was the sexiest damn thing he’d ever witnessed.

“Turn over,” he whispered.

She rolled without losing contact with his fingers. Her eyes glittered up at him. Her whole body seemed consumed with a rosy glow. He wanted to watch her. He wanted to see what his touch did to her.

“Spread your legs,” he encouraged.

She did so. He hiked one of her knees up and let it fall against him, and without him telling her she did the same with the other one so she was completely open. He gazed down at everything that made her a woman, stroked against the slick, engorged bud between her legs. With the fingers of his other hand he stroked her nipples.

She arched her back, and a long “Ahhh,” slid from her lips. She writhed against him, urging him on as he kept touching her. He waited, waited, like he had all the time in the world, gauging her reactions to everything he did, fascinated by her innocent passion.

When she was close, really close, he lowered his mouth to her, touched her with his tongue, just there, coaxing the ultimate response from her. In seconds she gave it to him, her exultant cries of ecstasy better than any cheers from fans at a packed stadium.

By the time he’d kissed his way back up her body, she’d quieted some, but she wrapped herself around him, leaving no doubt as to what she wanted. His cock rooted against the wetness between her legs. He wondered if his knee could survive him being on top. Maybe he could shift most of his weight to his other leg.

While he briefly debated the wisdom of attempting this, he discovered Baylee had maneuvered her body against his so that he slid inside her. Even as her tight heat closed around him, he knew he couldn’t do it. “Baby, no,” he told her softly, bracing himself away from her.

She looked up at him, a rapturous expression on her face. Her knees hitched higher and she clasped him closer still. “Oh, but it feels so good, doesn’t it?”

Good? Good didn’t begin to describe how it felt to be this deeply, completely inside her with nothing between them. He doubted he could hold this position for long, even though at the moment most of his weight was on top of her. Tentatively he bent his knee. She responded by hiking even higher against him. He groaned. If she kept that up, he wouldn’t have to worry about what position they were in because he’d come in about two seconds.

Carefully, he eased out of her, forcing her to let him go. Her lower lip puffed out, and she frowned like a little kid who hadn’t gotten her way. Trey laughed at her and kissed her nose, and then teased her lower lip with his tongue before rolling onto his back and reaching for a condom. She propped herself on one elbow and watched him put it on.

“My way was more fun,” she informed him. “I’m not crazy about these condoms.”

He laughed again. “Me either. It’s the curse of the responsible adult. Come here.”

She straddled him like she’d been riding him forever. He watched her lower herself, her eyes widening as he filled her. He cupped her breasts, noting how perfectly they fit his hands, nothing to spill over, while he teased her nipples with his thumbs.

Her breathing changed. He loved watching her every reaction. He sat up halfway and suckled first one and then the other nipple. Her fingers threaded through his hair as they rocked together. When he lay back down, he brought her with him, kissing her, ravaging her mouth as he surged inside her. He guided her movements against him, maximizing, he hoped, her pleasure as well as his.

It worked, he thought, for she collapsed against him when it was over, both of them panting from exertion. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, feeling weirdly, oddly connected to her. He’d never have guessed, not in a million years, that Baylee could get to him this way. She made him feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Eventually, he eased her to the side and dealt with the condom. He was already heartily sick of those. His thoughts drifted back to when he was married to Hayley. She’d put herself in charge of birth control early on, because, as she told him, she’d be the one bearing the physical consequences if it failed. They hadn’t used condoms since those first couple of months in college, and he sure as hell hadn’t missed them.

He’d behaved in ridiculously stupid ways with other women since, and he’d known enough to use condoms. He didn’t want any surprises and, he was quite sure, neither did they.

He’d sworn off hurting and using women. All of a sudden he wondered if he hadn’t done exactly what he’d been trying not to do.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Have I hurt you?”

Baylee’s eyes blinked open. “Of course you haven’t hurt me. Those were moans of ecstasy, not pain. I thought you’d be experienced enough to tell the difference.” She grinned at him, but it didn’t lighten his mood.

“That’s not what I meant.”

They were facing each other, pillows beneath their heads. Already she wanted to reach out and touch him again. He’d given her what she knew she’d been missing, what she’d craved for such a long, long time. She was afraid she might be able to understand addiction, like what someone hooked on crack goes through. She wanted more and more of Trey. Of being with him like this. Of being physically connected to him. After being deprived for so long, how would she ever get enough?

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Wow. This was turning serious all of a sudden. She didn’t know what else to do except reassure him. “You haven’t.”

“I’ve got a lousy track record.”

What could she say? She knew firsthand about his track record. “I know.”

When he didn’t say anything else, she decided she should. “I don’t—I’m not expecting—uh, that is, I don’t expect anything from you—”

“Why not?”

He sounded mildly insulted and curious at the same time.

Baylee tried to backtrack, to get her addled thoughts together. “I mean like a
relationship
or something. Just because we, because you—”

“What?”

Wow. How had she lost the thread of this conversation so fast? What were they talking about anyway? Why hadn’t she simply kept her mouth shut? Why did she always feel like she had to smooth everything over, make it all better, keep everyone happy?

It wasn’t her job in life to keep other people happy. When did
she
get to be happy? When did she get to take what she wanted and screw what everyone else expected from her?

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You’re saying this was nothing?”

“No, that’s not what I—”

“Because I’ve got news for you, Baylee. This was something.”

“I know it was.” For some reason, she felt perilously close to tears. She shifted closer to Trey. Her head ended up below his chin. He moved a little and wrapped an arm around her so she could be right where she wanted to be.

His fingers played idly up and down against her skin. Somehow he managed to snag a corner of the sheet and tug it over them. “Feel like talking?”

Baylee angled a look up at him. “Shouldn’t you have rolled over and fallen asleep by now? I thought that’s what guys are known for after they have sex.”