A soft sigh escapes my throat.

  “But for now, I just want to suck on them, pinch them, tug on them. Make you feel it all the way down in your pussy.”

  “I do. I already feel it down there. I’m wet for you, Jesse. Wet and ready.”

  “I’m hard as a rock for you too, and I could take you now. But anticipation… I said I was going to taste every part of you, and I intend to.”

  He sucks on one nipple, twisting the other one between his fingers.

  Sparks shoot through me, dancing around my body like a pinball before they end up straight in my pussy, right on my clit.

  He spends a few more minutes on my breasts, but then he trails his lips downward, and he plants soft kisses on my belly, on the tops of my thighs.

  “Please…” I gasp out when he avoids my pussy.

  “We’ll get there, baby.”

  My legs are spread, and he kisses and licks my inner thighs, which I know are wet from my juices. He slides down my legs, kissing the tops of my calves, and when he gets to one foot, he gives it a massage with his nimble fingers as he kisses each toe.

  No one has ever paid attention to my feet like that before, and I like the feeling it evokes in me. Who knew that toes were an erogenous zone?

  He continues with my other foot, massaging the instep as he kisses each toe, this time sucking them into his mouth.

  When he’s done with my feet, he travels back up, kissing my legs again, my inner thighs, and then spreading them farther open. My eyes are closed, and I’m entering a dream state…just waiting for him to slide his tongue over me, make me feel the way he did that first night when he took my virginity.

  But seconds pass, and nothing happens. I open my eyes. Jesse is looking at me. Looking at me between my legs and pulling on his own shaft.

  “I know a better place for that,” I say.

  “Just easing the ache a little, baby.”

  Then he lowers his head, and I ready myself. I ready myself for the invasion of his tongue and lips.

  “God, you smell good.” I hear him inhale. A deep breath. “And I know you taste even better.”

  He attacks then, not only with his tongue but with his lips and his teeth. He pulls at my pussy lips, making me insane. I don’t know a woman alive who doesn’t enjoy being eaten, and I’m no exception. Especially when Jesse Pike, my only love, is doing the job.

  He moans and groans as he devours me, and I relish the sounds of his actions. The sucks, the slurps, and everything else. I lift my hips to give him better access, grind against his stubbly jawline.

  He moves from my pussy lips up to my clit then, gives it a quick suck, and just as I am about to jump⁠—

  He flips me over quickly so I’m lying on my stomach. “Jesse, please… I need to come.”

  “Oh, you will… But I told you I was going to kiss every inch of you first.”

  The warmth of his body covers me, and his hard cock dangles between my butt cheeks. I lift my hips, searching for what I crave.

  But then Jesse slides his lips over my shoulders, my arms, down to each hand where he kisses each finger, massaging my palms as he did my instep.

  The sensation is so relaxing, yet my clit is throbbing, my pussy empty.

  Being so relaxed and so horny at the same time… It’s upsetting my equilibrium.

  But Jesse clearly won’t be rushed. He kisses and massages my other hand, going back up my arm, and then…his strong hands massage my shoulders.

  “I love to touch you,” he says. “Your skin is so soft, Brianna.” He moves downward, massaging first my upper and then my lower back, and then his lips take over. He kisses my shoulder blades, down my spine, giving me shivers.

  When he gets to my ass, he squeezes my butt cheeks, and then he swipes his tongue between the crease. A quake surges through me, as if I’m having a seismic reaction to his sliding his tongue over that forbidden place. I’ll let him do whatever he wants to me. If he wants to fuck me there, I will let him. He already took one virginity. Why not the other?

  “You taste so sweet,” he grits out.

  “Jesse… I’m aching for you.”

  “I’ll give you what you need. What we both need.”

  But then he kisses the backs of my thighs, my calves, all the way down to my feet, giving them another massage, and then sliding back up my body, his tongue leading the way.

  Then his cockhead is between my ass cheeks. He wets it with my pussy juices and then slides it along the crease, nudging ever so lightly at my asshole.

  “You can do it if you want,” I say. “If you want to take me there, Jesse, I want you to.”

  He lowers himself so that his head is right at my ear. “You are a tempting little vixen,” he whispers, “but you’re not ready for that.”

  “I trust you.”

  “I know you do, and that means the world to me, Brianna. But there are things I need to do to you to prepare you for that. And right now…I just want to fuck you.”

  A second later, he’s inside me, ramming into me from behind.

  I’m still lying face down, my legs fully on the bed. And with each thrust, my clit rubs against the linens.

  I begin climbing the peak, ready to skyrocket over it with Jesse by my side.

  He thrusts, he thrusts, he thrusts… Going faster and then faster still. Easing that empty ache inside me, filling me as only he can.

  One more thrust, and the friction hits my clit with a force so powerful I’m not sure I’ve ever come quite so hard. I soar off the precipice, embracing the euphoria, the nirvana.

  “Jesse, come with me. Come with me please.”

  And with my words, he plunges into me once more, and with each contraction of his cock that I feel, I soar even higher.

  Time seems to suspend itself as we travel together through the ecstasy of our climaxes. In my mind’s eye, I see us holding hands, floating through the stars, our bodies in perfect synchrony.

  In perfect harmony.

  I’m not sure how much time has elapsed when he finally pulls out and rolls over onto his side.

  “My God, you’re amazing,” he says.

  I flip to my side as well and regard his handsome face. He’s glistening with sweat, his hair pasted to his forehead and cheeks. “You’re the amazing one. Thank you for that.”

  “My pleasure.”

  I yawn. “I’m so relaxed right now. Your kisses and those mini massages… It was all heaven, Jesse.”

  “Mmm,” is all he says, closing his eyes.

  I want to close mine as well. I want to sleep in bed next to him. It’s something I’ve never done.

  But I can’t. I have Maddie to think of, and so does he.

  “I guess I should go,” I finally say.

  He opens his eyes. “I know, baby. It won’t always be like this.”

  I rise from the bed, go to the bathroom for a moment, and then return and put my clothes on. When I get back, Jesse has put his jeans on and pulled a T-shirt over his head.

  “I’ll see you to your room.”

  “You’re so sweet. But it’s just down the hallway.”

  He brushes his lips over mine. “Nonnegotiable.” He opens his door. “Shall we?”

  I walk out in front of him, look toward my room, nearly drop my jaw to the floor, and then push Jesse back into his room before he can see anything.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Jesse

  “What the hell?” I ask.

  “Jesse,” Brianna says, “I just want to remind you what we talked about earlier. Tonight.”

  “Brianna, what’s going on?”

  “Remember, how you talked about you resenting my family…and how you’re over it.”

  “Baby, get out of my way.”

  “Jesse, please⁠—”

  “Move, or I will move you.”

  She bites on her lips and steps out of the way. I walk outside the door and⁠—

  I race toward Brianna’s room, because right outside the door…

  Anger curls at the back of my neck. It’s that crow pecking again. My youngest sister is in a clench, her mouth fused to David Simpson’s.

  I grab Simpson by the shoulders, pulling him off my sister and knocking him against the wall.

  Maddie tumbles to the floor.

  Then of course I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do I pummel Dave Simpson? Or do I help my sister off the floor?

  “For fuck’s sake,” I grit out.

  I let Dave go and hold my arm out to Maddie, helping her up.

  “Jesus, Jesse, what was that about?”

  “He said he didn’t come here for you,” I say through clenched teeth. “That’s what you said, right, Brianna? That’s what you told me.”

  Dave smooths out his shirt from where Jesse grabbed it. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, Pike, when you were just in your room with my cousin.”

  “This is all ridiculous,” Brianna says. “We’re all adults here. But for God’s sake, Dave, why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

  “I don’t owe any of you any explanation,” Dave says, keeping his voice steady. “But I was telling the truth. Neither Maddie nor I intended for anything to happen between us.”

  One look at my sister, though, and I’m pretty sure she got exactly what she wanted.

  When the hell did she grow up?

  I hold back a scoff. She grew up the same time Brianna did, and Brianna is all woman.

  Brianna caresses my arm. “Everything’s fine.”

  I draw in a deep breath. I let go of my envy and resentment of the Steels earlier. But when one shows up unexpectedly and I find him with his hands all over my baby sister…

  My own hands are still clenched into fists, and everything inside me tells me to propel myself toward David Simpson and knock him to the ground, punch his smug little face in until it’s unrecognizable.

  But Brianna’s right. Even Dave is right, though it drives me crazy. We are all adults here.

  “Sorry,” I say begrudgingly.

  “No worries,” Dave says, returning to his jovial self. “I’d probably have done the same thing if I saw you and Brianna in a clinch.”

  “She’s not your sister,” I say.

  “Jesse,” Brianna says, “it’s the same thing in our family. We’re a very close-knit group. All our cousins are like siblings to us.”

  “She’s right,” Dave says. “So I get what you’re feeling. But it was just a kiss, man.”

  Maddie’s face falls at his comment. She was hoping for more. Maybe she and I need to have a talk. I could get Brianna to talk to her, but Brianna’s her same age, and I certainly didn’t plan to fall in love so quickly and completely.

  Brianna takes Maddie’s arm. “Come on. We’ve got a big day tomorrow. You and I should go to bed.”

  Maddie doesn’t smile, but she does give Dave a longing look before she goes with Brianna into the room, closing the door behind her.

  “Just so you know,” Dave says. “I don’t use women.”

  That earns him my biggest scoff of the night. “You’re one of the three Rake-a-teers,” I say. “So I call bullshit.”

  “Was,” he says. “And I don’t know if you realize this, but the other two are engaged to your other two sisters.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “Look.” Dave holds his hands out in front of him. “I didn’t come here looking to hook up with your sister. Maybe it will happen and maybe it won’t, but it’s not the reason. I was telling the truth when I said I needed a vacation. You don’t know the half of what our family’s been through.”

  I don’t reply. How can I? He’s right. I don’t know a lot of it. Brianna offered to tell me, but I could tell it made her uncomfortable.

  “So…” Dave continues, “if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get some shut-eye.” He begins to walk past me.

  I grab his arm. “I got it. I get that you need a vacation. I get that you’ve had a hard time—that your family’s had a hard time. I don’t know the details, but I know it was bad. Harsh even. Probably heinous. But here’s where we differ, Simpson.” I stare him dead in the eye. “When my family falls on a hard time, we don’t get a vacation. We can’t afford it.”

  His gaze softens.

  Which is not what I want.

  I do not want, nor have I ever wanted, the Steels’ pity.

  Yeah, I’ve really let that resentment and envy go.

  But as Brianna said, it will take time.

  “What do you want me to say to that?” Dave finally asks. “Do you want me to apologize for having money? For being born into money? I won’t. I had no control over that. I admit it’s made my life a lot easier. And yeah, your life has probably been harder because you don’t have money. Or at least not the kind of money we have. I sure as hell wouldn’t expect you to apologize for that.”

  “No. I don’t want you to apologize for it. But there are some things you’ll never understand. Brianna, Donny, Brock… They’ll never understand either, even though they’re involved with my family.”

  “I get it, man. But I can guarantee you Brianna and I have seen and heard shit you don’t even want to think about. Shit you probably can’t even conceive.”

  I nod. “I understand. But David, two of my sisters are marrying into your family. Hell, I may marry into it myself someday. So if there’s something we should know⁠—”

  He lifts his hand to cut me off. “All you need to know is that we’re good and honorable people…despite what our ancestors may have done. We are not them.”

  “I got it. Good night.”

  Dave simply nods and walks down the hallway toward the elevators.

  Chapter Thirty

  Brianna

  I pounce on Maddie as soon as we get into the bedroom. “Okay, spill it.”

  Her cheeks are rosy, and her lips trembling. “I certainly wasn’t expecting it. After all, he specifically said he had not come here for me.”

  “You asked me once if I had designs on your brother. I’m not proud of the fact that I lied to you, Maddie. But you know now that I’ve been in love with him for a long time, and miracle of all miracles, he seems to feel the same way. But I’m sorry I lied to you, and I’m asking you to be truthful with me now. Do you have designs on Dave?”

  She draws in a breath and falls down on her bed. “I talk to Callie about it sometimes. How attractive I find him.”

  “He is a pretty boy, for sure,” I say.

  “That’s what everyone says, but to me, he’s so much more than a pretty boy. His smile takes my breath away, and those eyes…”

  “I understand. I’ve always coveted my mom’s blue eyes. They’re so gorgeous.”

  “For God’s sake, Brianna, you don’t need to covet anything. Next to Rory, I’d put you as the most beautiful one in Snow Creek.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t hold a candle to your sister. But thank you for the compliment. You and Callie are both beautiful too, each in your own way. I mean, come on. Your mother was a beauty queen.”

  Maddie rolls her eyes. “A beauty queen in local pageants, Bree. Your grandmother was a supermodel.”

  I’m not sure what to say to that. She’s right, of course. I’m the granddaughter of supermodel Brooke Bailey, who was huge fifty years ago. But I never knew her because she and my mother didn’t have the best relationship. She died long ago.

  “I could tell you not to go falling in love with Dave,” I say, “but who am I to say that? We Steels seem to have a habit of falling hard and falling fast.”

  “Don’t worry,” she says. “I’m not laboring under any delusion that the last of the Rake-a-teers is going to fall for me. But it would be nice to have someone to enjoy this trip with.”

  “That’s what I’m for.”

  “I know, but it’s different now.” She looks down. “You’re with Jesse. Everyone is paired off except for me.”

  “Cage and Jake aren’t.”

  “Well, first of all, Cage is my cousin, so gross. And Jake has never done anything for me. Besides, they’re both with the band.”

  “Jesse’s with the band. So is Rory.”

  She sighs. “I know. But even though you can’t spend as much time as you want with Jesse, and Brock can’t spend as much time as he wants with Rory, you’re still paired off. And as usual, I’m the odd one out.”

  “So that’s what you want, then? You want Dave to be your date for the trip?”

  “I certainly wouldn’t be averse to it.”

  “Oh, Maddie,” I say. “I don’t want to destroy your dreams, but David just said earlier that he didn’t come here for… You know.”

  “Yeah, I heard him. I was a little crestfallen when he said it, but you don’t know what he said after you and Jesse left.”

  “I guess I don’t. You want to enlighten me?”

  “He just said he thought I was beautiful and he’d like to spend some time with me on the trip. He said what he did because he didn’t want to piss Jesse off. But he also said he wasn’t looking for anything serious. And he reiterated the fact that he didn’t come here for me specifically. He came here because he needed a break but was glad I was here, and he asked if I’d like to spend time with him.”

  “To which you responded…”

  “To which I responded…yes, of course, that I’d love to spend some time with him. Especially now that you and Jesse are together. It will give you some time to be alone with him and not feel like you have to be entertaining me.”

  “You already gave me that opportunity tonight when you let Jesse and me have dinner together.”

  “I know. I want to be fair to you and my brother. I don’t want to be the lost lamb everyone has to be worrying about.”

  “That’s not how we think of you, Mads.”

  She raises her eyebrows. “Isn’t it, though? I suppose it’s partially my fault. The way I told you all about how I felt so left out among you and the rest of the awesome foursome.”

  “I know, Mads. I’m so sorry about that. I honestly never knew.”

 

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