C
an you come over?
Ava was about to head down the steps into the subway station when she got Luc’s text. She’d had a rather epic shopping day with Beth, and was fully intending to head home, unpack her merchandise, and try desperately to forget the major damage she’d just done to her credit card.
When, exactly, had bra and panty sets gotten so expensive?
And why had she let Beth talk her into a half dozen sets of ridiculously unpractical lacy, strappy numbers?
Luc texted again:
Please.
Ah,
that’s
why. Because after months of indifferent celibacy, she was finally getting some.
Getting the best she ever had, actually.
Still, instinct told her that Luc’s message was no ordinary booty call. For starters, it was Father’s Day, and he’d told her that he and his brothers were taking their dad out for a day at the pub to watch the US Open.
And second, there was something wrong with the tone of this message. It lacked the flirty coyness of their usual exchanges.
Ava started to respond, telling him she’d be there after she swung by her place to drop off her shopping bags.
But instead she found herself crossing the street to get on a northbound train to Luc’s place as she replied,
be right there.
Fifteen minutes later, she was at his front door. For a half second she was paranoid about the fact that Nonna might open the door while Ava held two huge, magenta Victoria’s Secret bags. Then she remembered that this was the eighty-something-year-old woman who’d told Ava in excruciating detail how to use bronzer to “fake” cleavage.
If anything, Nonna would likely try to borrow the new purchases.
It wasn’t Luc’s feisty grandmother who opened the door.
But neither was it the relaxed, quick-to-smile Luc who just yesterday she’d watched charm the pants off an irritable cabdriver, even as Luc wrote him a hefty ticket for blowing through a red light
and
blocking the intersection.
This was a Luc she hadn’t seen before, even when he’d been good and pissed about being trapped into being the NYPD’s golden boy.
Tension radiated off him in taut waves, and his usually friendly eyes were guarded and pained.
This Luc was hurting.
Wordlessly she stepped inside.
“Is Anthony or Nonna here?”
He shook his head, closing the door before turning to face her. She itched to touch him, but instinct held her back. Instead she set her purse and shopping bags by the door and moved into the kitchen, giving him plenty of space. Plenty of room to talk about it, if he wanted.
It was pretty clear from the way he stalked toward her that he didn’t want to talk, and the way his hands possessively found her hips as he pinned her against the kitchen counter made it plenty clear that he had called her here for a very different reason.
His kiss was hard and angry, his lips slanting over hers with a fierceness that went beyond sexual hunger.
Luc was mad.
At her?
Her hands found his shoulders, and she started to push him back…to figure out what the hell was going on, but his hands moved up her back, tangling in her hair.
He tipped her hair back, his tormented eyes locking on hers. “I need you.”
Ava felt something unfamiliar unfold in her chest. Luc Moretti needed her.
Nobody had ever needed her.
She’d never let herself be needed.
But tonight…tonight she wanted to be here for this complex man with hidden secrets.
Ava responded the only way she knew how. She lifted to her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and returned his hot, angry kiss.
He groaned, lifting her roughly to the counter, his hands finding her ass and scooting her forward until he was nestled between her thighs.
Wrapping her legs around his waist was the most natural thing in the world, and his hips tilted forward, and even with his jeans and her shorts separating them, the contact was electric.
Luc’s hands ran up her sides, moving over her breasts, lifting their small weight in his hands as his tongue flicked at her upper lip.
There was no slow, patient seduction this time. He yanked the sleeveless blue sweater up and over her head, leaving her only in her pale pink demi-cup bra.
“Pretty,” he said, running this thumbs along the upper slopes of her breasts.
“I bought some prettier things today,” she said, catching his lower lip between her teeth.
His hands stilled. “Show me.”
She laughed a little. “You want me to take off one bra to put on another.”
His lips followed the path of his fingers, his tongue tracking the edge of her bra. “Did you buy them for me?”
She sucked in a breath. It was a crucial moment—buying lingerie was hardly the equivalent of his and hers towels, but telling him that she’d bought it with him in mind would give away the fact that she’d made plans when they’d promised each other they’d had none.
His teeth rasped gently against her skin. “Sims. You bought them for me.”
She let out a little laugh at his familiar cocky arrogance. “Yeah. I bought them for you.”
His fingers ran lightly over her ribs as he pulled back. “Show me.”
She bit her lip. “But your grandma…”
“At my parents’.”
“Anthony…?”
“Not here.” His hands grasped her hips, this time pulling her forward so he could set her back on the ground. “Model for me, baby.”
And that’s when she heard it. The meaning hidden beneath his teasing plea.
Distract me.
Whatever he was dealing with, he didn’t want to deal with right now.
She understood all too well what that was like.
“Okay,” she said, putting a hand on his chest to move him backward. “But you’re waiting in the bedroom.”
“I want to watch.”
She laughed. “Trust me. Watching a woman put on a bra will not be nearly as sexy as watching her take one off.”
“Point taken,” he said, pulling her close for a kiss before backing toward his bedroom. “But be fast. There are things I want to do to you.”
She knew firsthand just how her body responded to the things he did to her, and she was all but buzzing with anticipation.
Heading to her shopping bag as he backed into the bedroom, Ava quickly rummaged through the pink tissue paper until she found what she was looking for.
Of all her new purchases it was the most daring, the most blatantly sexy. She slipped into the bathroom to avoid any awkward “why is there a half-naked woman in my foyer” should Nonna or Anthony show up unexpectedly.
She ditched the pale pink T-shirt bra, and her mismatched panties quickly followed.
Next up: black lace. Not original, but as Beth had pointed out…why mess with the classics?
The bra was low cut and nearly sheer, but gave her just enough lift to be interesting. The panties were equally tiny, little more than a black triangle and a few straps held together with a naughty pink bow on the back.
But it was the garter belt that made things really interesting. Ava pulled on the new knee-high black stockings and attached the black garter, with the pink bow that matched the thong.
For once, Ava was glad that she’d opted to go with sexy heels for her shopping expedition, and she slipped the black patent leather stilettos back on.
Luc wanted a distraction?
He was about to get one.
She grabbed her discarded clothes, putting them in a tidy pile on top of the toilet seat, and hoped like hell he was right about his grandmother and Anthony being long-gone for a while.
He hadn’t shut the door all the way and he was lying on his back, hand locked behind his head when she pushed it open.
Luc turned his head when she entered, and so blank was his expression, that for a horrible moment she thought he’d gotten so lost in thought that he’d forgotten all about her.
And then he saw her. Really saw her.
The dazed, slack-jawed expression told her that her extravagant lingerie purchase was worth every penny.
He slowly sat up, swinging his legs around the side of the bed. Luc opened his mouth as though to say something, but instead swallowed, as though his mouth was too dry to speak.
Gaining confidence Ava turned in a slow circle, feeling just the tiniest bit slutty, and getting all the more turned on by it.
“God
damn
, Sims.”
He started to stand, but she held up a hand, pinning him with a fierce look. Stay.
Eyes locked on his, she flicked the door all the way closed, slowly walking the short distance to the bed as her hands ran up her thighs, her stomach, teasing her breasts, sliding up to pull her hair back and up before releasing it and letting it tumble around her shoulders once more.
She stopped in front of him, and his hands reached out, but once more, she held up a hand, really getting into her bossy femme fatale routine.
Slowly, Ava traced her index finger over the thin strap of the bra, down along its edge, which was just mere centimeters from her nipple.
“I chose well?” she asked, her voice flirty as both hands now trailed across her nearly exposed breasts.
“You’ve damn near blown my mind,” he said. Again he lifted her hands, and this time she stopped him with merely a look.
“You touch when I say you can touch.”
He met her eyes. Swallowed. And though she knew it pained him, he lowered his hands back to the bed, gripping the edge so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Ava let one finger slip beneath the edge of the bra, brushing against her nipple as it immediately hardened and Luc groaned. “Sims.”
Emboldened by his reaction, she repeated the motion on the other breast, until both nipples were hardened points beneath the thin lace.
Ava had never been shy in the bedroom, but this unabashed sex kitten routine was new to her, and she loved it.
Loved that it was only Luc who’d been able to bring out this side of her.
She toyed with her nipples for several moments, her breath quickly turning to little pants before she moved her hands downward, across her stomach, over her thighs to the thin strap of the garter as she inched closer, continuing to tantalize him with the look-don’t-touch torture.
“Touch yourself,” he said hoarsely.
“Here?” she asked, her finger skimming along the top of the knee-high stocking.
“Higher.”
His eyes were glued to the motion of her hands.
“Here?” Her hand slid up, gently stroking the soft skin beneath her belly button.
“Or here?” Her hand slid down, covering the tiny V of the front of her thong.
“Sims.” It was a tortured moan, and Ava gave him a naughty smile as she touched herself through the panties.
“Uh oh,” she said, pulling her hand away and lifting it to his lips. “All wet.”
He licked her fingers, moving his hands.
“Not yet.”
“You’re killing me.”
“Am I?”
This time when she touched herself, her fingers slipped under the lace, and Luc’s breath hitched as she touched herself in tiny, torturous circles.
She could come just like this. Standing before him in sexy lingerie while his eyes devoured her.
But this wasn’t about her.
Slowly, she removed her fingers, moved closer to him, and lifted one foot to the bed, placing the heel of her shoe carefully near his thigh.
“Your turn to touch.”
Luc swore softly, and he wasted no time getting his hand on her, although it wasn’t with the rough urgency that she expected.
Instead, his hand slid along her exposed inner thigh, his eyes watching hers as the edge of his fingers reached her center.
His other hand joined the first, pulling the black lace aside so she was completely exposed to him.
Luc ran one finger over her, tracing her from clit down to her damp opening and then back again.
This time, it was Ava’s turn to moan. Ava’s turn to be tortured.
He smiled evilly as he repeated the light, teasing motion. Ava knew he wanted her to beg, but this was her game, and she refused to give in.
His finger moved again, this time lingering on her clit, circling once before moving downward.
Ava bit her lip. Do not beg. Do. Not. Beg.
He slid a long finger inside her, and her breath hitched as she leaned forward, her hair covering both of them. A second finger joined the first, sliding in and out of her with perfect friction.
“Like this, Sims?”
She nodded, and he thrust his fingers again, a little harder this time. Her nails dug into his shoulders.
He dipped his head, his lips finding the smooth skin on the inside of her thigh.
He nipped her gently as his fingers continued their slow in-and-out torture.
He turned his head slightly, moving his mouth ever closer to her center, and her fingers slid from shoulders to his hair as he traced his tongue along her thigh.
His hand disappeared then, and Ava nearly wailed at the loss, glaring down at his smirking face.
“You played with fire, Sims. You don’t tease a man like that and not pay the price.”
“What price—”
He licked her. One silky lap of his tongue over her slit.
Ava’s knees buckled, but the hand that wasn’t holding her panties to the side grabbed her ass, holding her to him as he licked her again, longer this time, letting his tongue explore.
Luc ate her with gentle laps, seeming to know when to tease and when to suck, and she could do little more than fist his hair and hold on as he took her to the edge in record time.
“Wait,” she said on a gasp, trying to tug him away. “I—”
His palm moved her closer, pinning her to his mouth as he caught her clit in his mouth, circling with his tongue once, twice—
She was gone.
She came in harsh, breathy pants against his mouth, hips bucking wantonly against him.
When the aftershocks subsided, he gently slid her panties back into place, leaning back slightly to look up at her face. She was expecting male triumph, but saw only a fierce want that matched her own. Whatever they had, it wasn’t typical sexual attraction.
It was something deeper.
Darker.