Tricks (Take It Off #6)(49)
Author: Cambria Hebert

But it wasn’t enough.

Roughly, I pulled her head back to give me better access, and I swept my tongue inside her mouth, releasing her face and letting my hands roam over her body. I didn’t bother with the buttons on the front of her blazer, instead ripping it open. The sound of skittering buttons floated across the floor.

Charlotte’s chest heaved and her swollen breasts pushed against my chest as I ripped away the jacket and tossed it aside.

Sliding my hands around the curve of her waist, I reached down, gripping her ass, and squeezed, tilting her pelvis so it came into contact with the hard rod in my pants.

She groaned and I thrust up against her, pushing her back against the counter and dry humping her right there through our clothes.

My lips slid down her neck, sinking lower, until I was able to close my mouth around her rigid nipple piercing through her clothes. She cried out when I clamped down around it, the dampness of my mouth soaking through her clothes and leaving a ring of desire on her chest.

Her fingers threaded through my hair, squeezing my scalp and urging me on, urging me for more.

I abandoned her breast and crouched down, gently running my hands up her calves, behind her knees, to roughly yank the tight knit skirt up around her hips. Excitement pounded through my veins and my hands shook with a fine tremor. It wasn’t secret that I liked sex, but this…

This went beyond excitement.

Her butt hit the counter when I lifted her up and guided her down, pushing her thighs apart with my hips and stepping in between.

She was too far back for the kind of contact I wanted so I grabbed her knees and pulled, yanking her crotch right into my throbbing and anxious dick. She cried out and her head fell back, spilling long waves of hair over my hands where I kneaded her waist.

I snatched her hand and boldly placed it between us, rubbing it along my hard length. “Can you feel how much I want you? One night wasn’t enough, Charlie. I want more.”

Her little hand wrapped around the head of my cock and squeezed. My eyes rolled back in my head. “More,” I whispered.

She squeezed again, and my penis jumped, straining against the jeans keeping it contained.

“Tell me you want me,” I demanded, pulling back and looking into her heat-glazed eyes.

“I want you.” She obeyed.

Our lips collided again, burning against each other, creating little sparks that shot off into the air around us, creating an electric charge in the room. I went for the buttons on her shirt. I wanted to be naked and inside her. Now.

“Wait,” she said, but I was too far gone to hear her.

She yanked her lips away, leaning back against the cabinet. The sounds of her breathing were fast and hard. “Tucker, wait,” she said again, more forceful this time, placing a hand against my shoulder and stopping me from scooping her close again.

“I can’t do this,” she gasped.

“Yes, you can.” I reached for her again.

“No.” Charlotte pressed her lips together and looked at me with pleading eyes. “I can’t do it to him. To Max.”

“We already did,” I argued, thinking back to the sex-filled night we shared.

“I can live with a momentary lapse in judgment, but this… We’re talking about—” Her voice stalled.

“Forever,” I finished. “We’re talking about forever because you and I both know the pull between us is never going to go away.”

“I know,” she said, hollow. “But, I just… I can’t.”

Anger burned through me, at myself, my brother, and at her. “Tell me what you felt for him is stronger than what you feel for me.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Tell me, Charlotte. Tell me that the passion burned so hot between you two that it scorched your skin. Tell me that he took you up against the bathroom wall and then again on the floor. Tell me that you screamed his name the way you screamed for me. Tell me you didn’t schedule sex with him one day a week, like it was one more thing to cross off your to-do list.”

She gasped and her eyes sprang open. “Saturday,” she whispered. I wasn’t sure if she was shocked or not that I figured it out.

“Can you tell me any of that?” I demanded, taking her chin in my grip and forcing her to look into my face.

“No.”

“Then… why?” Why won’t you take a chance on me?

“He was my best friend. I can’t betray him. Not even his memory.”

I heard the finality in her tone, the decision. I shoved away from the counter, my fist balled tight, and all I wanted to do was hit something. She was choosing my dead brother over me.

It hurt like hell.

Expelling a deep breath into the room, I walked away, into the bedroom, where I reached in the closet and pulled out my leather jacket. A quick glance around told me I owned nothing else here; there was nothing for me to even pack.

Everything in this house belonged to Max. Including the woman with my heart.

She was still sitting on the counter when I stepped back into the room. I remained on the opposite side of the island, keeping it between us as some sort of defense.

“I’m not going to push you. You’ve been through enough.”

“Tucker,” she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

“There isn’t anything left for me here, so I’m going home.” I wasn’t about to drag this out any more than I had too. That wasn’t my style.

I took one last look at her, then turned and walked away.

She let me go.

30

Charlotte

I let him go.

I saw the veiled hurt in his eyes, and still I let him leave.

As soon as the front door shut, I burst into tears. Big, fat, ugly sobs ripped from somewhere deep inside my chest. I felt hollow, utterly empty.

The last two weeks had been a blessing and a curse. A blessing because Tucker had stayed. He let me take care of him, and having him here was like coming home to a surprise party. I just never knew what was going to happen.

One night I found him making pizza in the kitchen. Flour was everywhere, the cupboards were splattered with sauce, and cheese was all over the floor. The oven was smoking, and I’m not sure how it happened, but the pizza was still raw.

We ordered in that night.

Dominoes tasted better than Tucker’s pizza.

A few days after that, when I came home he was in the shower… singing. His voice touched a part of my soul I never knew existed. Every word, every melody that came out of his mouth moved me in some small way.