“Me either, honey. For now, ride me,” he urged, voice hoarse with desire.
She nodded and her eyes darkened as she straddled him and slid down the length of his cock.
Every nerve ending in his body sang out as her velvety heat surrounded him in a tight embrace. He looked up at her, at the gentle sway of her breasts as she moved up and down. She was a sight, half-closed eyes, full lips swollen from his kisses. Unbelievably beautiful.
Belle moved so she’d be able to run her hands over the hard belly. Christ on a cracker, the man had the hardest stomach and it was furry in all the right places. No waxing but he was nicely manscaped around his cock. The right mix of masculinity and thinking about who’d be down there. Well, hmpf, no one but her from now on.
“Belle? Are you okay? You look funny. Am I hurting you?”
She looked down at him and laughed. “I’m fine. Just thinking about your body and how good you look naked. And how much I love you and can’t believe the Rafe Bettencourt is my boyfriend.” She laughed and he joined in.
“Well, I’m glad I please you. You’re a damned gorgeous sight yourself. And not your boyfriend, your man. Your husband if you’d just pick a damned date.”
“These things take time! They have to be planned. I have a lot of work to do. Don’t distract me, we’re fucking. I’ll think about the wedding later and if you suggest Vegas again, I’ll punch you.”
He put his hands up in defense. “No ma’am. I’m all yours.”
Needing him deeper, she brought her hands to her calves, arching her back and changing her angle. She knew it was good for him too by the way he groaned and reached up to caress her thighs, moved to take the weight of her breasts, such as they were, into his hands. His thumbs flicked back and forth over her nipples, making her pussy clench each time he did it.
He felt so good, deep inside her, stretching her and filling her all at once. His hands on her did all the right things. Or maybe it was just the fact that the moment was wish fulfillment of nuclear proportion. Whatever it was, it was hot and spectacular and nothing else she’d ever received for Christmas could match Rafe and his proposal.
He kept one hand on her breast while the other trailed down her stomach to the point where they were joined. Drawing the slickness from her pussy up, he slid a finger ’round and ’round her clit.
She’d thought she’d be incapable of coming again so quickly but apparently not.
“Come again for me, Belle. Don’t send me out into the cold without the pleasure of watching you have another orgasm. You’re so sexy when you fly apart.”
He said it right as he touched her clit with the tip of his finger, just a feather of a touch but enough. He arched up into her pussy deep and hard.
A ragged cry tore from her lips as she came, muscles pulsing and grasping at him. It pulled him down with her, the muscles in his neck corded, hips thrusting as he met her downstrokes onto him.
She forgot everything but the way she felt with him there for long minutes.
“Holy crap,” he gasped as she collapsed down beside him.
“Yeah,” she croaked, her voice hoarse, mouth dry.
He got up and dealt with the condom, returning to her quickly. “I have to get moving, honey. I’m sorry. I wish I could stay here with you for the next few hours but we’re trying out some new equipment today.”
“I understand. I’m spending the day with my mom and sister. You need someone to scrub your back?” She winked and he laughed, pulling her to the bathroom with him.
About Lauren Dane
The story goes like this: While on pregnancy bed rest, Lauren Dane had plenty of down time so her husband took her comments about “giving that writing thing a serious go” to heart and brought home a secondhand laptop. She wrote her first book on it before it gave up the ghost. Even better, she sold that book and never looked back.
Today Lauren is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over sixty novels and novellas across several genres.
For more information:
@laurendane
AuthorLaurenDane
www.laurendane.com
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Out Now: SWEET CHARITY
Bettencourt Brothers, Book 2
Eight years ago, Charity Harris finally got a taste of handsome bad boy and lifelong friend, Gabriel Bettencourt. And it had been the absolute worst one night stand of her life. He’d kept his romantic distance ever since and Charity had nearly convinced herself it didn’t matter and that it was for the best.
Gabriel has ached to take back that disastrous night eight years before when he panicked and acted like a fool. The only thing keeping him from doing it had been his attempts to figure out what he wanted in the bedroom.
One night she manages to get past his defenses and now that he’s got her in his bed, not just willing to indulge his darker urges, eager to experience more.
But Charity needs candlelight, not candle wax and he didn't have the kind of soul she needed in a husband. Even as he lets himself fall for her all over again, he keeps his distance and tries to manage her expectations.
Except Charity can't be managed and when Gabriel runs off to think things over on New Year's Eve, she follows because she might be sweet, but she’s not going to let him go.
Chapter One from SWEET CHARITY
The day wasn’t too bad. Despite the fact that the air had a bite, the sky was clear and blue. She’d had a nice lunch, stopped by to see her mom on the way back to her shop and Christmas was coming. Not only was it a good time of year for her business but white and colored lights decorated the light posts and shop windows. Charity smiled with some amount of satisfaction because she’d nearly finished with all her shopping. Even better, she’d just found a gorgeous menorah to sit in the front window of her shop because Hanukkah was so close to Christmas this year she’d be able to celebrate both holidays at the same time. Nothing like feeling you’d checked off more items on the never-ending personal to-do list.
As she turned the corner to head back to her shop she caught sight of Gabriel Bettencourt leaning against his truck, all long and sexy. And her day just got even better. Mmm! Dark sunglasses shaded his eyes, and the beard and just-a-bit-too-long hair gave him an edge that thrilled everything right down to her toes. Charity’s pulse sped as she took him in and pretended that just friends was just fine with her. Stupid pretending. All she really wanted to do was jump on him, knock him down and find out if that night eight years ago was a fluke.
She took her time approaching him, content to look her fill until he noticed her. Her fingers tightened on the lapels of the wool coat she wore, fighting against the always present desire to reach out and run her fingers through that black, shoulder-length hair.
He was dark and hot and she wanted to eat him with a spoon. Only, well it wasn’t ever going to happen again and she needed to accept it. Someday anyway.
“Hey, Gabe, whatcha up to?” she said, sounding confident and nonchalant as she walked past.
“Charity.” He reached up and removed the sunglasses, looking her up and down. At the blatantly sensual perusal her hormones threw a party. Man was she pathetic. A smile tipped the corner of his mouth. “Just waiting for my mom. She’s picking up bread for the nine hundred relatives showing up for dinner tonight. What are you up to?”
She moved close to him out of a sheer perverse need to see if he’d react. They’d been playing this game fo
r years now and at this point, Charity wasn’t sure if it was real or all in her head.
“Coming back from lunch. Going to work now. Just took this way because I stopped in to say hello to my mom at the bank. And look at my reward for being a good daughter. I get to see tall, dark and delicious standing here in the winter sunshine.” She winked, meaning it. “Oh, Gabriel, you should give all this up and run away with me.”
He turned his head and they stood so very close. She drew in a deep breath, hoping for just a small touch but just barely missed. His eyes were brown, the color of dark chocolate and she knew that they went nearly black just after a kiss. Right then, they were pretty dark and she wondered if he’d kiss her. She doubted it. He never did.
“You wouldn’t know what to do with me if you had me.”
He said it like a joke but it really just made her mad. She took a step back. “I’ve had you, Gabriel, remember?” Moving back to the sidewalk, she gave him a glance over her shoulder. Pig. “I need to get back to work. Have fun with your bread.”
She slammed back into the store and her assistant Faith—and yes, Faith and Charity, they got the joke so please don’t ask where Hope is or someone will kick you—looked up, raising a brow.
“I don’t know why I bother,” Charity muttered, hanging her coat up.
“With what?” Faith asked, looking through some new stock that’d come in the day before. “Oh, nice.” She held up a sweater and Charity nodded absently.
“Men.”
“Shut up. God. There you stand all tall, dark and gorgeous and you talk that way. Pffft. Men love you.”
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. The truth was, the specter of that one, disastrous night with Gabriel eight years before haunted her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had good sex since. Or she shouldn’t say “since” because once they’d gotten naked it hadn’t been good sex at all. Gabriel was all steamy and sexy and sort of dark and broody. She’d heard rumors of how hot and commanding he was in bed but with her? So very not.
Was it her? Had he been all into it and then saw her naked and wanted to run? He only went through the motions—stilted and totally unsatisfying motions—because he was already naked?
Gah. She should just stop thinking about it. There wasn’t a damned thing to garner from this obsessive nitpicking of one experience she’d had eight years ago. There’d been four men between then and now and they’d all been very good in bed and had seemed to be into what she did. She knew she wasn’t a dud in bed, but in her heart of hearts, she hated the idea that Gabe was horribly turned off by her when she was so hot for him. He ran hot and cold! Some days he would give her one of those sexy looks like he wanted to do her brains out and others he put all that into other women.
She’d have given up on him if she thought it was a game but Gabriel wasn’t like that. Aside from all the sexual tension, they had a good friendship. She’d known him all her life and she liked him. More than that, she wanted him and had for more than just those eight years. Charity had wanted Gabriel Bettencourt for as long as she could remember. Having one small taste of him only made not having him hurt more.
Before she could discuss any of it with Faith, the store filled up with customers, it was coming up on Christmas after all and while many students from the university had gone home on break, there was a sizable local population out looking for holiday gifts and hot red sweaters to wear to impress recalcitrant men.
Hm. Charity’s gaze snagged on the sweater Faith had pointed out earlier. Blood red and soft looking. Pair it with a skirt or some skinny black jeans and it could be an eye catcher.
Gabe watched her walk away and tried, by sheer will, to make his hard-on disappear before his mother returned. Ah, that did the trick. It was good to know thinking of his mom made his ardor cool.
Charity had had him alright and it had been one of the single most embarrassing few minutes of his life. Shit, he hadn’t meant to make her mad or hurt her feelings with his retort. He’d been teasing, but poked into painful territory they never spoke of.
Still, Charity Harris looked damned good from behind, all long legs and high, tight ass. She’d looked even better naked, bearing the finest tits he’d ever laid eyes on outside a magazine. Acres of olive-toned skin and a mouth that made him stutter just thinking about it even eight years later.
She kissed like a goddess. Her lips were lush and soft, her tongue had been warm and wet and he knew from the way she’d licked at the inside of his mouth that she’d know what to do with it elsewhere, too.
He could still remember how her hair had felt against his chest as he’d rolled her over. And that’s when it all went south.
He’d wanted her so damned badly and she’d been beneath him, naked and way more than willing and he’d given her a night about as hot as a fucking dental appointment. It had been so disastrous she’d hidden from him for the rest of that summer and went to UCLA without more than a waved goodbye.
Oh sure they’d patched it up over the time she would visit on weekends and during summers. They’d rebuilt a friendship over the years. He’d taken over operations at his family’s dairy farm and she’d come back to Davis and opened up her successful second-hand and vintage clothing store near UC Davis. They were grownups now and both had full lives and all that jazz.
But always between them, the sexual tension simmered and he still wanted her so badly his teeth hurt. He’d always wanted her, wanted her right then as she’d stood just a breath away from him. But she wasn’t for him and he knew it.
Charity Harris was a nice, sexy woman but he liked sex rough and hard. It was holding back that night eight years ago that had created the problem. Charity was sweet. The kind of woman who liked candlelight not candlewax. He cared too much about her to do things she’d hate or, worse, things that would scare her and make her think less of him. The thought of not having her in his life at all, of having her be repulsed by him kept his hands away from that luscious body. He valued their friendship enough that he couldn’t stand to ruin it by pursuing her and both of them being unhappy.
No. He’d laugh with her and flirt a bit and find his entertainment elsewhere. She’d find herself a nice guy like his brother Rafe or one of his sister-in-law’s male siblings who oozed all that gallantry the women seemed to go wild for. Eventually his feelings for her would mellow out, he’d find the woman who could submit to him and still be an equal and this crush would be a fond memory.
Also by Lauren Dane
BETTENCOURT BROTHERS
Contemporary Holiday Romance
Book 1: TO DO LIST
Book 2: SWEET CHARITY
Bundle: BETTENCOURT BROTHERS
BOUND BY MAGICK
Book 1: HEART OF DARKNESS
Book 2: CHAOS BURNING
Book 3: GOING UNDER
Book 4: WILD DARKNESS
Bound By Magick is a paranormal romance series set in a contemporary world where the Others have been outed to humanity after a terrible, world changing event that happens in book two, CHAOS BURNING. Books three and four focus on dealing with the blowback from that mass outing — including an increase in tension between humans and Others.
The series is set in the same world as my Cascadia Wolves and de La Vega cats and there are characters from those books who do appear in BBM. They are, however, stand alone so it is not necessary for you to have read Cascadia or de La Vega to understand what's happening in Bound By Magick.
BROWN FAMILY
Book 1: LAID BARE
Book 2: COMING UNDONE
Book 3: INSIDE OUT
Book 4: NEVER ENOUGH
Book 5: LAID OPEN
Book 6: DRAWN TOGETHER
This is a contemporary erotic romance series set in Seattle. I like to think on the series as a twist on the family saga in that the stories of the characters in the Brown family and their extended group of friends are an important part in each book of the series. The last book in this generation is DRAWN TOGETHER. The series spins off into Delic
ious, a contemporary erotic romance series set in Bainbridge Island, featuring Gillian's friends. In the future though, I may be back to chronicle the next generation of Brown, Keenan and Copeland kids who are all growing up!
CASCADIA WOLVES
Book 1: ENFORCER
Book 2: TRI MATES
Book 3: RELUCTANT
Book 4: WOLF UNBOUND
Book 5: STANDOFF
Book 6: FATED
Book 7: UNCONDITIONAL
The Cascadia Wolves series follows the Warden siblings as each finds a mate. The series, mainly set in Seattle, has two standalone stories and four interconnected books with individual HEAs and a multiple book story arc. RELUCTANT is a prequel novella and FATED is a novella that occurs about a year and a half after STANDOFF ends.
The Pellini/Werewolf Mafia story arc: ENFORCER, TRI MATES, WOLF UNBOUND and STANDOFF — all four books follow the story of a biological weapon another group of wolves, an organized crime family is developing and that threatens their peaceful dealings with humans and each other.
TRINITY is Jack Meyers' book and the spin off into a new series set in Boston, de La Vega Cats. The wolves will still be part of the overall world the series is set in, but it'll focus strongly on the de La Vega Jaguar Jamboree. Those books are Trinity, Revelation and Beneath the Skin.
UNCONDITIONAL is the start of a new mini-story arc that takes place in the same world as my Bound By Magick books. Unconditional starts in the middle of CHAOS BURNING and the book following UNCONDITIONAL will feature the world after the devastation of the Magister. It will feature characters from the National Pack and the de La Vega Jaguar Jamboree.