Handcuffed in Housewares (Tulle and Tulips #3)(8)
Author: Nikki Duncan

Closer.

On a withdrawal he paused. Her eyes drifted shut when he spoke. “Keep them open. I want to see your eyes.”

She obeyed. He stared past the conservative surface and smiled at the sexy temptress hiding in the shaded green pools. He didn’t thrust like he had been. He instead eased slowly in, reveling in the miniscule and countless pulses of her convulsing muscles as she neared her orgasm.

Her eyes flared wider. Her throat bounced with a swallow. All the way in, he tilted his h*ps forward, nudging her g-spot and then keeping the pressure steady for a moment. With tiny pumps of his hips, barely moving away from her, he carried her closer. She rose higher and higher off the desk, trying to get closer, trying to keep him in place when he released the pressure.

She sucked her lower lip beneath her teeth and Burton was sure he’d lose it. Words couldn’t have helped them communicate more clearly as they touched and stroked and petted each other. Each time he rolled his h*ps forward her fingertips dug into his skin. When he eased off so did she.

Pressure.

Her mounting pleasure seeped into the pulses of energy that escaped from her fingertips.

Release.

She fed a hunger he hadn’t recognized in himself.

Pressure.

She brightened the darkness that had grown in his heart.

Release.

She reawakened the dreams that had once lived in his soul.

Pressure.

When he would have eased off again, she dug her heels into his ass and held him still. Then it became her turn to apply the pressure as she worked her inner muscles along his length. Warm, tight and gripping she beckoned.

The base of his spine tingled. Every muscle in his core and beyond contracted and coiled. With a final flex of her inner muscles, he popped the lock on his control. Their moans of release mingled as they sailed over the edge and into the stars together.

Getting handcuffed to a toilet hadn’t turned out how he’d planned. Looking down at the curvaceous woman still clutching him deep inside, Burton realized it had turned out better. Much better.

Chapter Seven

Leigh sat at the large round table topped with a Lazy Susan. Surrounding her were the other planners from Tulle and Tulips—Lori, Misty, Tabatha, Shayna, Kayla, Gisella, Darci, Tess, Issabelle, Aleshia and Brittany. It wasn’t often all their schedules lined up for a night out, but when they did the conversation took a predictable path down Debauchery Lane.

“So tell us more about your sexy bowling partner,” Kayla said as she scooped a slice of cake on her plate.

“He’s a nice guy. We had a good time.”

“How much of a good time?” Tabatha winked.

“You were there.” Leigh traced the rim of her wine glass. She ignored the desserts on the Lazy Susan turning before her and hoped Tabatha would drop the subject.

“But you left with him.”

So much for hope.

“We talked business. I went home.” She shrugged as she lifted her glass for a drink.

“If you’re doing business with him, surely you’ve talked to him since.”

Tess may look like the clichéd blonde that jokes were modeled after, but she could always be counted on to insert logic into a situation. It came in handy when she worked with her clients to figure out what food to serve and how much. It was annoying when you wanted a subject dropped.

Her logic wasn’t something Leigh wanted to face, because when it came to thinking about Burton she didn’t feel particularly logical. She was trying not to feel anything, because while he had humored her unwillingness to be an exhibitionist, there would come a time when his preference for sex games would invade. She wanted to be brave enough to go there with him, but her mind’s programming said she’d be better off staying away.

“I gave him the contact information for the job. He’s dealing directly with the client.”

“So you really haven’t talked with him?” Aleshia, the youngest of the group at barely twenty-two, asked with a sweet naiveté.

“I really haven’t.”

“Why not?” Tabatha’s question, unsurprisingly, carried a clear as crystal you’re-out-of-your-damn-mind inflection. “It’s not every day a man like that comes your way.”

A man like that. “A man like what, Tabatha?”

“A sexually adventurous one.”

Leigh shook her head. Burton had talked a good game when they’d gone bowling, but he hadn’t called. It was logical to think he’d allowed their differences—his thirst for sexual adventure and her need for quiet connections—to change his mind. “A man like that has nothing to offer me.”

“Except screaming orgasms.”

Darci, never able to fully hide her nervous energy, fiddled with the diamond, tie-shaped necklace she almost always wore. “I didn’t meet him, but it sounds to me like he’s a man who could bring a little sparkle into your life.”

“My life has enough sparkle.” She traced the rim of her glass again. “There’s no such thing as enough sparkle,” Darci declared.

“Or orgasms,” laughed Gisella.

Leigh had known when Tabatha asked her to join them for happy hour the conversation would eventually turn to Burton, just as she’d known her friends would try to talk her into indulging in sex games. What they didn’t seem to understand was that they were encouraging her to do something she wasn’t built for.

“Perhaps that’s true for you guys. It’s not for me.” At least not the way her friends meant.

“I saw the way he looked at you.” Shayna stuck her fork into a giant slice of four-layer chocolate cake. She closed her mouth around the cake and moaned in delight. Leigh wasn’t sure if the moan was over the cake or the idea of how Shayna thought Burton had looked at her. “Are you telling us nothing happened between you two? That you don’t want anything to happen?”

“Yes, I’m telling you I don’t want anything to happen.” It wasn’t the full truth. She didn’t regret what had happened, but neither did she want anything else to happen. Or, she didn’t want to want it when he clearly didn’t. She’d rub her temples in confusion if there were a chance Tabatha wouldn’t pounce on it as a weakness. Instead, she continued running her finger over the rim of her glass until the lowest of hums began.

“Wanting something even when your mind tells you not to want it…” Lori smiled. “Sounds a little like me not too long ago.”

“Which didn’t make any more sense then than it does now.” Misty stated around a mouthful of tiramisu. “When are you going to put Trevor out of his misery?”

“Yeah, Lori.” Eager to get her friends off her sex life, Leigh jumped on the new train. “How many times are you going to make that poor man propose?”

“You know he’s never asked the same way twice?” Lori propped her chin on her palm and smiled a dreamy smile that didn’t quite hide the doubt lingering in her eyes.

“You’re afraid the romance will end if you say yes. Or that he won’t really love you.” Kayla, who had a surprising knack of seeing things in the viewfinder of her cameras everyone else missed, spoke quietly. If the camera really was a window into the soul, Kayla was its master.

“Does that make me a bad person or a coward?” Lori’s voice didn’t come across as defensive, but rather as a woman concerned with the answer.

“No.” Isabella fluffed a ruffled sleeve of her peasant blouse. “But I don’t think you have to worry about either possibility when it comes to Trevor.”

“I’ve worked with a lot of men, but Trevor…” Brittany sighed. “He could teach classes in romance. As for loving you, he’s sunk.”

“Could you imagine what the dating scene would be like if men actually took those classes?” Shayna sighed around another bite of her cake.

“I imagine it would look a bit like bowling with Burton.”

Leave it to Tabatha to find a way to circle the conversation back around to Burton. The woman was a predator and gossip was her prey.

“You guys should have seen the way he gave Leigh pointers. She had to have felt every inch of him.”

And every inch of him had felt…delicious. In the bowling alley. In his office. In his bedroom. Delicious enough that a night hadn’t passed without him slipping into her mind or dreams.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him or the way he made her feel or how apparent it was that she hadn’t bothered him the same way, because wouldn’t he have called if she had? Wouldn’t he have called if she’d been fun enough for him to want more?

“He’ll call. Even the most resistant ones call.” Misty smiled the smile she always smiled when she thought of her fiancé, Jace. He’d wanted Misty even while he hadn’t wanted to want her, or anyone. And he hadn’t been able to stay away.

“Burton prefers a different kind of woman.” A toilet tramp willing to play games.

“Then be his kind of woman.” Tabatha shrugged. “It’s not as hard as you think.”

“Maybe that’s the real problem,” Brittany suggested with a wicked wink. “Poor guy is embarrassed.”

“If he’s half of what you guys say…” Aleshia erupted into a fit of giggles so high-pitched and teenagerish it made sober women cringe. “No way that’s true.”

“True or not, he hasn’t called.” The admission was one that hurt even while she understood it.

“So call him.”

“Not happening.” Leigh narrowed her gaze on Tabatha, not that she thought for a second Tabatha would let the matter drop. They’d circled back around to a sexy man. The subject wouldn’t be changed.

“What’s so scary, Leigh?” Lori swirled the wine in her glass, but didn’t drink any. She seemed perfectly happy to interrogate Leigh like they’d tried to interrogate her about Trevor’s proposals. “Are you afraid you might enjoy whatever adventure he pulls you into?”

That and not being able to stop. The idea of indulging that side of herself, the side she hadn’t let out to play since… It was too dangerous. Losing control was too dangerous. She couldn’t admit as much to her friends, though, without telling them about the past, and that was something she never talked to anyone about.

“Listen.” Tess spoke up, again offering her brand of reason. “Maybe you’re afraid, and we’re not saying you should go off and start having crazy sex in public.”

“Though that does sound fun.”

Leigh ignored Tabatha. She tried to tune everyone out, but they wouldn’t be silenced. They would push and push until they felt their voices had each been heard.

“There’s nothing wrong with allowing yourself to indulge in some pleasure once in a while,” Tess continued. “Have some fun.”

“If you don’t want to have it with Burton then give me his number so I can call him.”

“Tabatha!” Shayna smacked her friend and shook her head. “Stop trying to poach.”

“If nothing’s happened and she doesn’t want him it isn’t poaching.”