To Have and to Hold (The Wedding Belles #1)

“You sleep late?” he said, rubbing thumbs along the front of her thighs as he held her gaze.

“If I can,” she said, feeling weird that it wasn’t weird that they were talking about this while they were half-naked.

“What about tomorrow?” he asked, the stroke of his thumbs against her legs changing direction so he now stroked toward her center instead of her knees.

“What about tomorrow?” she asked a little hoarsely. Talking was a lot harder when his fingers were so close to there.

The corner of his mouth quirked. “Can you sleep late tomorrow?”

“Um.” Brooke struggled to concentrate. “I think so? I don’t have my first meeting until ten, and it’s in Midtown.”

“Perfect,” he said. “Because I plan to keep you up past your bedtime. Now, that dress. Off.”

Brooke obeyed, but did so slowly, making him wait as her fingers drifted down over her sides, flirting with the hem of her dress before she very slowly eased it upward, over her head, and tossed it aside.

“That’s better,” he breathed, putting a palm to her back to steady her as he sat up suddenly.

His lips drifted over the curve of her breasts as his fingers unclasped the back of her bra before sliding it down over her shoulders and sending it in the general direction of the rest of her clothes.

“No fair,” she said, feeling suddenly shy. “I’m all the way undressed, and you still have pants on, and . . .”

Seth closed a mouth around her nipple, and she forgot all about what she was going to say, instead wrapping her arms around his neck and grinding her hips down on his, releasing a guttural groan that should have embarrassed her but only made her even hotter for him.

He moved to the other breast as Brooke reached for his pants, grateful now for the light as she quickly managed to free him from the confines of his pants and briefs. She let out a satisfied whimper as she wrapped her palm around him, a sound that was quickly drowned out by his harsh groan.

“You like that?” she asked, pumping her palm against the silken firmness of his erection.

Seth’s eyes were squeezed shut, his jaw tense as he nodded. Brooke slid forward slightly, rubbing the tip of him against her opening, and his eyes flew open and locked on hers.

“I’m on the pill,” she whispered.

His fingers wrapped around her hips, lifting her up slightly and holding her still for a heartbeat before shifting them and pulling her down, easing her around him.

“Oh my God,” she whispered at the delicious friction.

Her eyes started to close, but he dug his fingers into her hips. “Look at me.”

She did, their eyes colliding as he sank all the way inside her. “This,” he said. “This is what this is supposed to feel like, Brooke.”

He was right. Brooke had always liked sex—loved sex—but while it always felt good, it had never felt like this before. This was like it was in the movies with both people wrapped up in each other, slow-motion, as some throbbing music wrapped around them.

Only there was no music. There was only the sound of their breathing, the slick slide of his body against hers, the way he whispered her name and the way she whispered his back.

He set both hands against her back, his mouth nudging her to lean back as he nipped at her breasts, alternating between teasing bites and slow, tender sucks.

Brooke’s head fell back, eyes closing as her hips moved faster and faster, lost in the feel of him on her—in her.

“Oh God . . . oh God . . . yes, right there . . .”

She came with a low moan, her hips pressing even more firmly against his as she pitched forward again. Her teeth closed around the firm flesh of his shoulder, and Seth bucked under her, his fingers digging into her back as he exploded with a harsh roar that was a good more animalistic than she would have expected from a buttoned-up businessman.

She relished every moment of it.

Brooke didn’t know how long they stayed there, his arms wrapped around her as she lay draped over his shoulder, panting against his neck as the heat of their bodies cooled to the self-satisfied postcoital bliss.

Later, she wouldn’t remember how he maneuvered them down to the mattress, but she would remember the moment that he lay down beside her, pulling the covers over them, as his hand spread possessively over her belly, nudging her back against his chest.

She would remember that as good as the sex was—and it had been mind-blowingly good—the unexpected cuddling somehow seemed better.

Alexis said it was possible not to let things get complicated.

Belatedly Brooke realized that maybe she should have asked her boss how.





Chapter Twenty





IF THE NIGHT BEFORE Seth had been feeling regret about living in a hotel, he quickly reversed his opinion the next morning. There was something wonderfully convenient about being able to offer a woman a gourmet breakfast in bed without so much as turning on a stove.