Broken Open. Lauren Dane
long her lashes really were.
He’d seriously never seen anything like her hair. It was magnificent, an inky dark mass of gorgeous curls. It looked even better spread out around her head as she lay in bed.
Her eyes slowly opened at she stared up at him. There was no sense of urgency. This was playing out how it should, which made him a little nervous, but it wasn’t outweighed by the need racing through him to have her.
He hissed as she slid her hand up inside his shirt, over the skin of his back, her fingertips digging into the muscle, urging.
She tipped her neck as he kissed down it and then down her body until he backed off the bed enough to stand. “I need that dress off. I want to see all of you.”
Quickly, she was up and on her knees, her dress whipped off and tossed to a nearby chair, remaining in nothing more than a whisper-thin pair of panties in that same sheer material as the bra.
He was so fortunate.
Ezra tipped his chin at her. “All.”
She shimmied from her underpants and continued to kneel there, facing him, utterly and gloriously naked.
He took a long look at her. “Beauty, you slay me.”
He yanked his shirt off and she sighed happily.
“You should take your shirt off onstage. Or maybe not.” She frowned briefly. “But in front of me you should whenever you like. Or whenever I like. Whichever.”
His hands moved to the buttons on his jeans and her gaze never left them. All in all, when he finally—carefully—got out of them and his boxers it was really clear how much he enjoyed her gaze on him.
And that nearly painful erection nearly lost all its vigor when a thought occurred to him. “Please tell me you have condoms.”
She froze. “Shit. Hang on.” She scrambled from the bed and headed into her bathroom but shortly returned with some little packets he recognized as his brand. “I do. Should I give you one for your wallet?” She winked.
Laughing, he grabbed her as she walked by and sent them both to the mattress.
“I wasn’t going out looking to get laid.”
She reached between them, wrapping her fist around him and giving his cock a few slow thrusts and sending his thoughts into disarray. “Yeah? Seems to me, Ezra, that you and I have been headed right here since the first time I met you.”
Damn, when she was so bold and demanding it sent a wave of desire through him, hot and fast like a wildfire. He wanted inside her and right that very moment.
Instead, he forced himself to slow down and enjoy.
“Yes. That much is true.” But he hadn’t known for sure that she’d be there and maybe he’d been a little nervous and all his attention had been on the show. He’d forgotten until that moment. He wasn’t good at the hey, I might get laid later better take a rubber game anymore. “But I wasn’t going to take anything as a given anyway.”
He took her mouth again, starting off sweet, playful even. But within a minute or two things had deepened and he was so hard that even if he had got in her right then he’d have come too soon.
That wasn’t on his to-do list.
He eased down her body, licking the place where thigh met torso. She made a deep sound, a sort of gasp and moan all at once.
He loved that she’d left the lights on so he could look his fill. He spread her open and did just that. She didn’t try to close her legs against him or shy away. Instead she watched him look at her, pleased.
He took a lick and the sound she made in response was a lot like what he did when he tasted something delicious. He understood it because he wanted to make that same sound at the salty sweet of her on his tongue.
He built her climax slowly, tasting her, getting his fill of her. When she rolled her hips, urging him and he wasn’t ready just yet, he pressed her hips to the mattress and her body responded just as loudly as her moan.
Oh hell yes. She liked it as much as he did.
He wasn’t going to rush along when it came to the first orgasm he ever gave her, after all. Ezra wanted her to have his touch burned into her brain, wanted to make her come so hard he pushed every other memory of every other man away.
Deep down he could be petty and admit it was daunting to think about competing with the memory of a dead man. Ezra wanted Tuesday thinking about him.
Her body seduced him as he touched and kissed, nibbled and licked. All he felt, tasted and heard was her. Even the breath he gulped in was laced with her scent.
Something about her drove him to please, to preen and show off, and when he finally knew she was ready, he kept his pace relentless, pushing her hard and fast as he slid two fingers deep.
With a hoarse cry, she arched, and the hands that’d been on his shoulders shifted, her nails digging in, urging him on. He kept going, gentling little by little until he finally pressed a kiss to her belly and moved back up her body.
“Now that the edge has been taken off, I have a few more things to show you.”
Her smile was lazy and pleased. “Can’t wait.”
He bent, licking across a nipple when a ruckus loud enough to hear easily from Tuesday’s room sounded downstairs.
Alarmed, Ezra moved to stand quickly and quietly. “You stay here. Call 911 if necessary.”
“No!” Before he’d even realized it, she was next to him in a robe.
Downstairs someone yelled Tuesday’s name. At least he could thank his lucky stars he didn’t have to argue with Tuesday about staying out of the way of a freaking prowler.
“Shit, that’s Nat.”
Before he could tell her to hold up, Tuesday rushed out. With a curse, he found his pants and got them on. He snatched up a shirt on his way out and got it on right as he entered the kitchen.
Natalie looked to Tuesday with a smirk but it was a fast thing, soon replaced by worry. Tuesday had ignored it, so Ezra would let her deal with Natalie on this topic. It wasn’t that he expected it not to get out if he and Tuesday finally hooked up. His family was nosy and interfering. But he didn’t even know what it was between him and Tuesday yet, so it wasn’t something he could explain.
Natalie’s expression made his gut tighten and luckily before he could demand to know what was wrong she started to fill him in. “I tried calling your phone and Paddy tried Ezra. I’m sorry to bug you.”
Paddy came in from the living room. “Is he here?” He stopped short when he saw Ezra. “Thank God.”
Seeing his brother so worried beat at him. Ezra stepped in and took control. He touched Paddy’s shoulder. “Patrick, you’re freaking me out. Tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s Maddie.”
Maddie was Vaughan’s oldest daughter, one of their two nieces.
Ezra’s heart pounded. “What about her?”
“Appendix. Vaughan stopped by Kelly’s place on his way home from the arena, but they had just decided to take her to the emergency room because of her fever. He called Mom from there. Apparently if they’d waited even half an hour more it would have been really bad and burst. They’re operating on her right now.”
“Jesus.” Ezra simply went into protective big brother mode as he took over from Paddy. “Let me get with Mom to see what the status is.”
Ezra got on the phone with his parents and within minutes he’d managed to settle everyone down. His parents had recently arrived at the hospital where they met Vaughan and Kelly, Vaughan’s ex-wife and the mother of his children.
Ezra