To Have And To Hold: The Wedding Belles Book 1 (21 page)

Well, hell, he didn’t know what he was prepared for.

The sight of her standing so close to his home nearly took his breath away. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and just slightly messy, courtesy of the winter windstorm that was ripping through the city.

A blue wool coat was draped over her arm, and she wore a cable-knit white sweaterdress that fell just below her knees, stopping just short of her calf-high boots.

She was dressed stylishly but practically given the winter weather. Hardly the picture of a woman hell-bent on seduction, but Seth felt seduced all the same.

He inhaled, hoping that whatever she wanted would be quick, as he was rapidly changing his mind on the necessity of that cold shower.

“Ms. Baldwin,” he said coolly, mentally applauding
himself for the detached tone his voice had taken on. “This is certainly a surprise. What can I—”

“Shut up,” she said before he could finish his sentence. “Just shut up.”

She stepped toward him, going up on her toes and pressing her mouth to his, and Seth’s mind went blank with shock. With pleasure.

His hands lifted to her shoulders with the intention of pulling her back—of making her explain what had changed since the previous Friday night. But the way she clung to him, her lips moving against his with just a trace of desperation, gave him pause.

“Brooke, what’s going on?”

“I want you,” she said, pulling back just slightly. Her eyes made it only as far as his nose, as though she couldn’t force herself to meet his eyes. “I know we don’t want the same things, and you don’t want complicated. I don’t want complicated, either, and I was thinking . . . I was thinking maybe we get this out of our system.”

Seth’s fingers tightened on her shoulders as he jerked her toward him. “Just tonight?”

She bit her lip. Nodded.

“Thank God,” he said roughly just seconds before he crushed his mouth against hers.

The kiss wasn’t gentle. It had none of his usual finesse.

But he’d make up for it later. Now he needed her taste. Needed her moans and her softness. Needed to feel that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Seth backed them up so that she was all the way
in his apartment, fumbling behind her for the door as she dropped her coat and purse to the floor.

He slid his hands to her waist, dipping his knees slightly so he could move his mouth along the underside of her jaw before fusing their lips once more. As hungry as her kiss was, there was a shyness there, too—the faintest taste of hesitancy as though her brain hadn’t quite caught up to her body.

Seth gentled the kiss, giving her time. He brushed his lips back and forth against hers in a soft coaxing motion, using his tongue only to flick teasingly at the corner of her mouth before taking it away again.

Again and again he kissed her gently, teased her, making them both wait as his hands roamed her sides, her back, until she gave a quiet desperate moan and said his name.

“Seth.”

Yes
.

His hands moved upward until they cupped her face, and he expertly nudged her lips apart, sliding his tongue forward so that it tangled hotly with hers.

He heard another moan, and he wasn’t entirely sure which of them made the noise. Sweet.
She tasted so damn sweet.

“Off,” she said, shoving at his suit jacket. “Get this off.”

He pulled back slightly, breathing hard as he searched her face. “What changed your mind?”

“Hmm?” Her blue eyes were cloudy with desire as she ran her palms over his chest.

He caught her palms, held them flat against his
chest, and waited for her to meet his eyes. She did, shyly, and Seth felt something tighten inside him.

“The other day, when I tried—you didn’t want me.”

“Please don’t think that,” she said, licking her lips. “I did want you. You know that I did.”

He did know that. He’d
seen
it. And yet . . . she’d walked away.

Brooke pulled her hands away as she stepped back. “Oh. God. You’ve changed
your
mind.”

“Wait. What?”

She knelt to pick up her coat, her cheeks turning pink. “All of the reasons I said no before . . . the complications, the fact that I work for you . . . I should have left it at that, I should have left it alone. I just thought . . . God, I am so stupid.”

He knelt down in front of her, capturing her wrist in his hand and pressing a thumb to her damp palm, stroking softly as he searched her face. “Don’t run, Brooke.”

She swallowed. “You haven’t changed your mind?”

“About wanting you?” he said with a smile, pulling her to her feet. “Not even close.”

“And you’re okay that I don’t want . . . more?”

His smile grew. “You
do
realize that a woman offering no-strings-attached sex is every bachelor’s dream?”

“Yes, but is it
your
dream?” she asked directly. “And if we do this”—she gestured between them—“it won’t impact my relationship with your sister? You won’t think less of me for potentially having a conflict of interest?”

Seth
reached forward, wrapping his palms around her hips and pulling her forward before resting his forehead against hers, needing to make her understand. “The only interest I care about right now is the interest I have in getting you out of that dress.”

B
ROOKE
HAD SPENT THE
entire cab ride over to Seth’s place trying to tell herself not to chicken out. Reminding herself that she was a modern twenty-something woman who was allowed to have a one-night stand with a man who she was attracted to.

As it turned out, chickening out wasn’t the problem.

The second she’d gathered her courage and set her mouth against his, Brooke had realized the problem wouldn’t be running away. It would be
stopping
at one night.

Now his large hands still rested on her hips, his thumbs pressing enticingly against her hip bones, and still he waited.

Of course he was waiting for her green light. Even though he was cocky and a bit stingy with his emotions, Seth Tyler had a thick layer of
gentleman
beneath all that swagger.

Tonight, though, Brooke didn’t want gentle.

She wanted rough.

Her
hands were resting on the hard planes of his chest, and she crept one hand up until her finger hooked under his tie as she tugged his face all the way down to hers, bringing his lips within millimeters of her own.

“Take me,” she whispered.

This time when Seth’s mouth crashed against hers, she knew there was no going back, and she relished it. Relished the need in his kiss, knowing that she echoed it with her own.

Brooke’s hands tore at the knot in his tie as his slid beneath the hem of her dress and back up so that he cupped her backside. Leggings were a crucial, if not necessarily sexy, part of living through an East Coast winter, but Seth didn’t seem to mind as he palmed her ass through the thin material with warm hands.

“I knew you would feel this good,” he said against her mouth, his teeth nipping lightly against her upper lip as he squeezed her flesh.

“Skin on skin would feel better,” she said, her head falling to the side so he could nuzzle her neck.

“Yeah?” he whispered against her throat. “You want my hands on you?”

He sucked at her skin, and Brooke whimpered.

Seth continued to knead her flesh through her leggings as she slid her hands down, tugging his shirt out of the waistband of his pants, sliding up under his undershirt until her palms met his bare skin.

He groaned softly, and Brooke smiled in victory. “You see? Better.”

Seth’s mouth slid back up to meet hers at the same time his hands slid even lower, scooping under
her butt and hoisting her up. Brooke instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms winding around his neck.

“All right, Baldwin. You win,” he said gruffly, kissing her before easily pivoting, supporting her weight as he carried her into the bedroom. “Skin on skin it is.”

She expected him to deposit her on the bed, but he stopped just beside it, letting her body slide down his before he reached down and turned on the lamp on the nightstand.

“Um . . .” She gave the lamp a skeptical look. She was twenty-eight, not eighteen. Things were
mostly
firm, but not bright-light toned by any stretch of the imagination.

Seth’s hands cupped her cheeks as his lips drifted across her temple. “I want to see you.”

Brooke’s eyes drifted closed as he kissed her slow and sweet, and she felt herself nod in agreement. Because she wanted to see him, too.

He nudged her back to the bed, and without speaking, they both went through the awkward, unsexy process of removing their shoes. Brooke peeled her leggings down her legs and tossed them aside as Seth shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it on a nearby chair.

Their eyes locked and Brooke swallowed nervously, but before nerves could take over, he stepped toward her, hooking his hands behind her knees and lifting her feet to the bed. His blue eyes stayed locked on hers as his palms slid up along her thighs, bunching her dress up around her hips.

His
eyes drifted downward to the small triangle of her panties now exposed to his hot gaze.

He dragged the knuckle of his forefinger over her, feeling her wetness even through the fabric of her underwear, and her head fell backward, hitting a feather-soft pillow.

“You’ve been thinking about me. About this,” he said, repeating the motion with his finger. “For how long?”

She didn’t respond, and he withdrew his hand. She raised her head and glared in protest and he lifted his eyes. “How long, beautiful? How long have you been thinking about me touching you there?”

Brooke reached for his wrist, wanting to put his hand back between her legs, shocking herself with her boldness, but he resisted, dragging his fingers along her inner knee instead. “Something you want?”

“Damn you,” she muttered, her head falling back on the pillow. “The whole time, okay? Since the day I first saw you. The first moment.”

His eyes heated, but instead of replacing his hand, he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her panties, dropping to his knees as he dragged them down her legs.

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said roughly before grabbing her hips and dragging her toward the edge of the bed.

Seth shoved her dress upward, and then his face dropped between her legs before Brooke had the chance to register what he intended, and the soft slick of his tongue felt too good for her to do anything but lie there and enjoy it.

“Oh
my God.” Her fingers scratched helplessly against the comforter as he opened his mouth on her, licking her in long, hot strokes. “Seth.”

He groaned in response, licking faster as he slid a hand down, one finger easing inside her. Her hips bucked at the invasion, and he looked up, his eyes holding hers as he slid the finger all the way in, stroking her once, twice, before adding a second finger.

His tongue never stopped its idle stroking as he pumped her with two fingers, and the orgasm built until all rational thought fled and instinct took over, her fingers tangling in Seth’s hair as she held his face to her and went over the edge of bliss with an incoherent cry.

Seth stayed with her through every last shudder, pulling away only when every muscle in her body seemed to give up on her as she lay there bonelessly.

He wiped a hand across his mouth as he gave her a slow, sexy smile, and Brooke let out a husky laugh. “Looking pretty smug there, Tyler.”

He peeled off his undershirt, and as he lowered himself over her, all traces of drowsiness fled.

“How do you work such long hours and still find the time to make your body look like this?” she said, pressing a kiss to his pec as she rolled him to his back and climbed on top of him.

“I get up at four a.m.,” he said, easily adjusting his hips so that she straddled them.

She shook her head. “You and Alexis. Monsters.”

“You sleep late?” he said, rubbing thumbs along the front of her thighs as he held her gaze.

“If I can,” she said, feeling weird that it wasn’t
weird that they were talking about this while they were half-naked.

“What about tomorrow?” he asked, the stroke of his thumbs against her legs changing direction so he now stroked toward her center instead of her knees.

“What about tomorrow?” she asked a little hoarsely. Talking was a lot harder when his fingers were so close to
there
.

The corner of his mouth quirked. “Can you sleep late tomorrow?”

“Um.” Brooke struggled to concentrate. “I think so? I don’t have my first meeting until ten, and it’s in Midtown.”

“Perfect,” he said. “Because I plan to keep you up past your bedtime. Now, that dress. Off.”

Brooke obeyed, but did so slowly, making him wait as her fingers drifted down over her sides, flirting with the hem of her dress before she very slowly eased it upward, over her head, and tossed it aside.

“That’s better,” he breathed, putting a palm to her back to steady her as he sat up suddenly.

His lips drifted over the curve of her breasts as his fingers unclasped the back of her bra before sliding it down over her shoulders and sending it in the general direction of the rest of her clothes.