To Have And To Hold: The Wedding Belles Book 1 (27 page)

Brooke thought back, remembered that Maya had given Brooke a crash course in the various Manhattan neighborhoods recently. They’d discussed Brooke’s current neighborhood of Yorkville. But had she mentioned her specific address?

Possibly. Probably.

Maybe it wasn’t so weird that he knew. It was just—

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his lips still warm against her fingers as his mouth drifted down toward her wrist, his tongue flicking against the delicate pulse there.

“Nothing,”
she said. “Not really. It’s just a little unnerving that you can be so . . .”

“Controlling,” he said.

“I don’t know that that’s the right word,” she said.

But it wasn’t the wrong word, either.

“I think you might find people appreciate you asking them directly if there’s something you want to know rather than just deciding it’s your right to know.”

He met her gaze steadily. “This isn’t really about your address, is it? It’s that I’m still against the Maya/Neil thing.”

“You have a right to your opinions and your hunches; I just think you should talk to your sister about it.”

He turned his head slightly toward the window, his face looking bleak and hollow. “I’ll consider it.”

“Do. And to bring this back to us, I don’t want to be one of your projects that needs fixing.”

His head snapped back to look at her. “Why the hell would you need fixing?”

She lifted her shoulders. “Because of the thing with Clay.”

Seth touched a knuckle softly to her cheek. “Thought you were over that.”

“I am,” she said automatically. “It’s just important to me that you don’t see me as that woman. The one that got ditched at the altar.”

“All right,” he said slowly. “Is it all right that I think of you as a woman though? Maybe
my
woman. For tonight.”

She leaned forward slightly and brushed his lips with hers. “Yeah.”

The
car slowed to a stop, and Dex came around to open the door for them. Brooke accepted the chauffeur’s hand, forcing herself to smile as though she wasn’t horribly embarrassed, hoping that the dark night sky would hide her blush.

Seth muttered something to Dex along the lines of don’t wait up, and a moment later the car pulled away, leaving them in the quiet of her neighborhood.

His hand rested on her back as he glanced up at the mid-rise where she lived on the fourth floor. “It’s lovely.”

She snorted. “It’s not.”

“It is,” he insisted. “It’s homey.”

“I suppose,” she said, trying to see the building through his eyes. Mostly she’d just been so darn glad to be out of California when she’d arrived that she hadn’t paid much attention to the building that would be home.

She liked it well enough. The doormen were nice. The building was clean. Sure, the elevator was a little slow, and her door squeaked, and maybe the neighborhood was just a touch more secluded than she’d like. But she was determined to like it, therefore she did like it.

Seth linked his fingers in hers. “Take me home, Baldwin.”

She laughed. “You know, for such a rich, savvy guy, you can be a total dork.”

“I like to think it reveals my vulnerable side.”

She glanced up at him suspiciously. “Do you have a vulnerable side?”

“I do. Her name is Brooke.”

Her
lips parted slightly as happiness washed over her. “You know I’m already going to sleep with you, right? You don’t have to woo me with romance.”

“No? In that case . . .” He lowered his mouth to her ear. “Take me upstairs so I can fuck you. Hard.”

Brooke’s thighs clenched in want, but she didn’t have to be told twice.

On autopilot she made it through the front door, said hello to Christian, the nighttime doorman, and managed to get Seth into the elevator before dragging him against her.

He shoved her against the wall of the elevator, gripping her chin with one hand as the other slid down her hip, kneading the soft flesh as he nipped at her mouth.

Seth let out a low growl when the elevator jerked to a stop a second later. “Seriously?”

Brooke giggled, the sound happy and girlish. “This isn’t a Tyler high-rise. There are only six floors, and I’m the fourth.”

“Just as well,” he said, against her neck. “Now I won’t have to get you naked in the elevator.”

His hand shot out, opening the elevator door before it could shut again, and he tugged her forward and out into the hallway with such sexy authority, that for a moment Brooke thought she might want to be stripped down and seduced in the elevator, spectators be damned.

“Which way?”

Brooke’s apartment was the first door on the right, and though she expected him to pull her close the second they stepped inside, he surprised her by
stopping to look around first, keeping a tight grip on her hand.

Not that there was much to see. Her condo in LA had been nearly three times the size of her apartment here, and the furniture she’d had shipped from California looked horribly out of place, the light wood and white linens of her West Coast lifestyle clashing with the old walls and dark flooring of her New York place.

“It’s nice,” he said.

Brooke shrugged, seeing it through his eyes and realizing how horribly temporary it looked. She wanted to settle in. She’d tried. But everything looked sort of mismatched, and not in the quirky, eclectic way. It was more the disorganized mess of someone with an identity crisis.

“You okay?” he asked.

She glanced up, surprised to find him looking at her instead of the apartment. The question was so simple, so no-bullshit that she felt herself nearly crumbling in the face of his basic, direct question.

She didn’t even know that she wanted to crumble.

But being here in a home that wasn’t yet fully home, with a man who liked her, she felt a strange sense of pain and happiness at the same time, and she felt . . .

Confused.

Something that felt suspiciously like tears pricked at the corner of her eyes and she frowned.
Oh no.
Not now. She hadn’t cried once. Not in the days after Clay went to jail, not when every single client had left.

It made no sense that
this
would be the moment where she felt the most fragile.

She
blinked rapidly and did the only thing she could think of to ward off whatever unfounded breakdown was on the horizon.

She threw herself at Seth.

He grunted in surprise but caught her easily, his arms going around her as she grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his mouth down to hers.

She raked her teeth against his lip just a bit harder than was nice, and he pulled back slightly, his eyes puzzled. Searching.

Brooke shook her head. “Please.”

For a second, she thought he wouldn’t understand what she was saying. Wouldn’t understand that she was begging him to help her forget.

But then he pulled her to him, kissing her roughly as his palms molded possessively over her back, and she smiled.

He got it. He definitely got it.

Seth’s hands weren’t gentle as he tore at her clothes, and hers were greedy right back, shoving his coat to the floor and tugging at his shirt so hard a button flew off.

He growled against her neck. “You’ll pay for that.”

“Yeah?” she said a little breathless. “Charge it to the Belles.”

“Not the type of payment I had in mind.”

And then his hands were undoing the buttons of her pants, his hand sliding inward until he rubbed against the front of her panties.

Seth drew in a hiss of air. “You’re so wet.”

“Seems to be a constant state with you,” she said, her voice breathless.

His
hand slipped down further, one finger easing under the elastic and stroking against her damp flesh.

Seth’s groan mingled with her own as he caressed her sensitive skin with light, teasing strokes.

She arched against his hand, trying to get more contact, and instead of torturing her further, a finger slid into her with one slick satisfying thrust.

“Oh God,” she said, her head falling against his shoulder. “Oh God, that feels good.”

He slipped another finger inside of her and began pumping them into her steadily, and without even thinking about it, she began to ride his hand, shamelessly, wantonly. Seth kissed the sensitive skin of her neck as he rubbed his thumb roughly against her clit, and she pivoted her hips onto his hand in desperate, aching need.

She wanted the dirty, unabashed moment to last forever, but he found her rhythm almost immediately, and suddenly her orgasm was tearing out of her in a harsh cry that seemed to echo off the walls.

Brooke’s body immediately went into recovery mode, her knees buckling.

Seth slid his free arm around her, his mouth moving to her ear. “I’ve got you.”

Brooke slumped against him, letting him absorb her, giving in, just for a moment, to the boneless pleasure of losing one’s mind.

Seth adjusted his hand slightly, pulling out of her panties, but resting there against the vee of her thighs. She had the fleeting thought that she should be embarrassed, but instead she felt satiated.

Wanted.

Beautiful.

When
her breathing returned to normal, she kissed his shoulder in an absentminded thank-you before pushing back and looking up at him.

He gave her a quiet, private smile that made her tummy flip before dipping his head and capturing her lips in a sweet, pulling kiss that was just the right amount of tender and hot. Brooke’s hand wandered downward, her palm cupping him through the expensive fabric of his suit pants. She smiled against his mouth when she found him rock hard.

Seth groaned. “Find something you like?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she said, pulling his bottom lip between her teeth and nipping lightly. “I think I’m going to need a closer look.”

His breath caught as she slowly lowered to her knees in front of him, holding his gaze as she very slowly unfastened his pants.

Brooke licked her lips as she pulled down the zipper, and Seth muttered a harsh oath before one hand tentatively came up to the side of her head as though he might need to hold on for balance.

And she was firmly committed to making sure that he did.

Brooke greedily shoved his pants and briefs over his lean hips, making a little breathy sigh of pleasure when his cock sprang free.

“Update,” she said, glancing up his body and finding him watching her once more. “I definitely like what I see.”

“Show me how much you like it,” he said on a
husky rasp, his hips hilting forward so he brushed against her parted lips.

Happy to.

She extended her tongue, swirling it around his head before parting her lips and taking him all the way inside her mouth.

“Ah. That’s it,” he said, the fingers on her hair becoming a bit rougher. “That’s it, baby. Oh God.”

Brooke loved him with her mouth, alternating between slow, savoring sucks and teasing flicks of her tongue. She laved the underside of his steel-hard cock with her tongue and coddled his balls with one hand, which caused him to emit a low growl. He had her head with both hands now, and sensing that he wanted to take control, Brooke stilled so that he was using her mouth, his hips doing all the work as he plunged in and out.

“Damn it, Brooke. I can’t—I’m going to—”

She nodded, wanting it. Wanting the taste of him.

But even as he swore, he was tugging her to her feet, capturing her chin with his thumb and forefinger and stamping a hard kiss across her lips.

“I need to be inside you. Now.”

Brooke didn’t have to be told twice. She took his hand and led him to the couch, holding his gaze as she walked backward.

“Here?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows.

In response, Brooke quickly kicked off her shoes, stripped off her pants and underwear, and then very slowly knelt on the couch so that she was facing the window, her forearms resting on the padded couch arm as she looked back at him over her shoulder.

Seth
needed no further invitation. His eyes traveled the line of her bare ass and hips before his hand reached out and followed the same motion, palming her butt as he knelt behind her.

“You need to be taken on the couch, baby?” he murmured, running a palm down her spine before resting it in the small of her back and pushing down slightly so that her ass tilted up to him.

Her only response was to circle her hips so that her butt pressed against him suggestively, and he groaned, sliding a hand between her legs and stroking her clit as he lined up against her opening.

“You better be holding on,” he said roughly.

And then he plunged forward in one hot, firm stroke.

Yes. Yes, this is what she wanted. Needed.

Seth’s hands found either side of her hips, holding her still as he withdrew slowly, only to push forward hard and fast, just the way she wanted it.

“Harder,” she said, her head dipping forward, her hair falling in her face. “Take me harder.”

Over and over he slammed into her. He wasn’t gentle, and she didn’t want him to be. She rolled her hips, arching back to meet his every thrust.

And though it was good—damn good—she couldn’t resist taking more. Her hand slid down between her legs, stroking herself in tiny circles.

“I’m going to come,” he ground out, his pace quickening. “I wish you could see yourself like this. Watching you in the reflection of the window . . . I thought nothing could beat your mouth, but this is better.”

Brooke
snuck a glance over her shoulder, and the savage look on his face was all she needed to explode, this orgasm even more intense than the last one.

“Fuck,” he said as she began to clench around him. “
Fuck
.”

She felt him jerk, felt his fingers dig in hard to the soft flesh of her hips as he came inside her in a heart-stoppingly perfect moment of intimacy.

Brooke collapsed face-first onto the couch, and Seth fell with her, carefully maneuvering them so that her back was to his front.

It should have been awkward. Her with her shirt and no pants, him with his pants around his ankles and his shirt half-unbuttoned.

But neither seemed to care as he slid an arm beneath her head before the other came around her and pulled her even closer.