Good Girls Don't Read online

  “Criminal justice, just to be predictable. Honestly, I would have gone straight to the police academy, but my mom’s a teacher. I didn’t want her to disown me.”

  “I didn’t know that! What does she teach?”

  “High school English. She has a lot of experience with teenagers, which was a damn good skill set for raising a son on her own.”

  Tessa prepped the table for another set of annihilation and studied him past her lashes. “Do you get along with her?”

  Luke smiled, but then his smile stretched to a laugh. “Yeah. As a matter of fact, I just saw her today.”

  “Oh? So, what’s funny?”

  “You know how moms can—” His laughter fell away to reveal shock at his own words. “I’m so sorry. I forgot…”

  “Don’t be silly. I like hearing about other people’s moms. It makes me happy.”

  Luke shook his head and walked around the table. Her pulse quickened with each step he took. By the time he stopped in front of her, she felt like a bird was trembling in her chest.

  He curved his hand to the nape of her neck. “Everything makes you happy, Tessa.”

  “That’s not true,” she whispered, but then he was kissing her, slow and deep, and Tessa was too happy to bother with talking.

  CHAPTER TEN

  SHE PARKED HER CAR in the garage and signaled Luke to park right behind her. She’d invited him over for a glass of wine, but they both knew why he was here.

  Or… Tessa frowned as she unlocked the back door. Was there a possibility he didn’t know he was here for sex? Because they’d certainly stumbled over a few misunderstandings the night before.

  But as she turned on the lights, Luke came in behind her and he unknotted his tie and slipped it off. Maybe he did know why he was here. Then she noticed how tired he looked and wondered if she should just tuck him into bed.

  No fricken way. She poured two glasses of wine and waved him toward the couch. Then she slipped off her shoes and settled right down on his lap, her knees straddling his hips.

  “Now,” she murmured, “where were we when you so rudely interrupted us last night?”

  A short half hour later, Tessa was flat on her back on the couch, her jeans unzipped, her arms curled around Luke’s neck, and his mouth on hers. The only thing that could make this better would be Luke’s hand easing down the front of her pants, and God bless him, he was taking care of that right this moment.

  Now that he’d finally made the decision to have her, there was no hesitation. His fingers slid into her panties and touched her, and Tessa moaned into his mouth. She was surrounded by him. His whole body pressed against her side, his tongue worked rhythmically against hers and now his fingers were taking up that same slow rhythm, rubbing her clit. Jesus, she was in heaven. Or purgatory. Her whole body felt close to boiling, after all.

  She felt his fingers get slicker as he worked her, lubricating her with her own wetness. Finally, he slid his hand lower, pushing one finger deep into her pussy.

  “Oh, God,” she gasped, tearing her mouth from his to draw a deep breath. “God, yes.” He fucked her slowly with his finger, while the heel of his hand pressed her clit with each thrust.

  Tessa tilted her hips up, urging him deeper, faster, but he was unmoved by her obvious begging. He went slow. So slow. Sliding and rubbing and pushing against her. She was dying.

  “Luke.”

  “Mmm.” His mouth slid to her neck to suck there. White shivers danced down her spine and coiled around her sex. His teeth scraped her skin and she gasped, rolling her hips. “Oh, yes. Faster.”

  “I don’t think so,” he murmured.

  “Please.”

  “No.”

  Startled, she opened her eyes and looked at the ceil ing. No? A man who said no? In bed? Before she could puzzle that out, Luke pushed another finger inside her. Tessa cried out at the delicious pressure, but true to his word, he didn’t quicken his pace. He stroked her slow and steady until she was so close she dug her fingernails into his arm. Oh, God, everything was so tight.

  “Please,” she whispered again. “Please, please, please.” But Luke was heartless. He ignored her begging. He ignored her clawing nails. And his ruthlessness finally paid off. The tension slipped higher and higher, and when it broke inside her, Tessa cried out on a wordless scream. Her hips jerked. Her thighs trembled. And Luke didn’t let up until her final, broken whimper.

  “Oh, God,” she panted. “Luke… That was…”

  As her heartbeat slowed, she realized he was breathing nearly as hard as she was. Poor guy. He was probably in a world of hurt. But her limbs were just so heavy. Tessa stretched hard, sighing when his fingers slipped free of her.

  She never wanted to move again, but this man deserved her very best effort. He’d clearly given his.

  His hand slid up to grip her hip as if he were afraid he’d float right off the earth if he didn’t hold on. She loved that she was his anchor, if only for this one brief moment.

  Fighting the urge to close her eyes and melt into the couch, Tessa ran her fingers down his side. “You still awake?”

  “Oh, you’re funny,” he said gruffly.

  “Not sleepy, Detective? Can I call you detective?”

  “No.”

  She scooted on her side to face him, then wound one leg around his thighs to settle herself nicely against him. “Maybe sometimes?” she purred. “Detective?”

  His eyes glittered behind his lashes. “Maybe, sometimes,” he said. “If you’re good.”

  His wicked smile surprised her. So did the strength of his hands as he lifted her up.

  “Have I been good?” she asked in a breathless voice.

  Luke helped her to her feet and stood himself, nearly flush against her. “Not yet,” he said. He pulled her T-shirt over her head. “But soon. Very soon.”

  THE BARE SKIN of her back felt like silk beneath his fingertips. Silk or satin or some other unbearably beautiful thing. Something smooth and warm and delicate. Another time, when he wasn’t shaking with need, he’d put his lips to every inch of her skin. But tonight he felt too close to breaking, so he only unclasped her bra before he got too clumsy with lust.

  He felt like he was in high school again, making out with this impossibly cute girl on her living room sofa, overwhelmed with the thought that he was about to see her naked.

  Luke slid off her bra and smoothed a hand over her ribs until he cupped her breast. She sighed just as he knew she would, then made a low purring noise when he rubbed her nipple between his fingers. He would’ve spent a few minutes on that alone, but Tessa pushed her own jeans down, and how was he supposed to resist that?

  Meaning to help ease her jeans off, he lowered himself to the couch, but the sight of her body caught him up like a trap. Her breasts were small and gorgeous. The nipples deep pink and hard with arousal. And as she pushed her jeans farther down, her panties slid off, too, and Luke just sat there like an idiot, his hands on her bare hips as he tried to divide his attention between her breasts and the golden brown hair between her legs. He touched her, and found her still slick from her orgasm, and couldn’t resist sliding his fingers into that heat.

  “God,” she groaned as he put his mouth to her waist and bit gently up to her ribs. “Luke. I need…”

  Yeah, he knew what she needed, so he shoved her jeans the rest of the way down and pulled them from her legs. And now his own need had set upon him with all the finesse of a bare-knuckled fist. It was all he could think. Inside her. Now. Now.

  Luke leaned back on the couch to tear at the button of his pants. Just as he got the button free, she straddled him, settling her ass against his knees. Her legs were spread now, her sex plump and wet, and Luke felt brutal as an animal as she reached for his zipper. Everything in his mind and body had focused on her. Her thighs and sex and her hands reaching in to—

  “Christ,” he rasped as her fingers wrapped around his shaft. She stroked him as if he needed more stimulation, and Luke saw stars.
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  “Very nice, Detective,” she crooned, her sweet grin completely at odds with the dirty picture she presented. “Is this all for me?”

  Oh, God. It hurt to laugh, but he found himself chuckling and groaning at the same time. Then her fingers traced around the head of his cock, and he was shaking again. He was glad she felt playful, but damned if he could take it a moment longer. Luke slid his hand into his back pocket to wrestle his wallet out. As he pulled a condom from it, Tessa put her knees more firmly to the couch and scooted closer to him. She took the condom from his hand and rolled it on. Her smile was gone now, too, and her breath came faster.

  As he watched, she fisted his shaft and positioned herself above him. For a moment, they both stopped, waiting, and then Luke put his hands to her hips and slid her down.

  Her pussy squeezed him in pure heat. When it felt too tight, even for him, he raised her up a tiny bit before easing her down again. “Fuck,” he whispered, watching his cock penetrate her.

  Finally, she was settled against him. He kissed her and she rocked into him, burning out hundreds of synapses in his brain. When her body softened a bit, he began to fuck her.

  If he’d still been under any illusion of virginity, this would’ve destroyed it. Though she let him set the pace, Tessa rode him like she knew exactly what she wanted, rolling her hips and arching her back. She reached up and pulled her hair free of the ponytail, and when she shook it out, Luke had to close his eyes for a moment. He was trying to hold tight to control, and her hair falling down her shoulders as her breasts bounced with her movement… That wasn’t something he could handle at the moment.

  He concentrated on his thrusts, rising up to meet her hips, feeling the way he fit inside her. He slid his hands up her hips to her waist and ribs and breasts. She sobbed when he pinched her nipples, so Luke pulled her hips tight against him and sat up to put his mouth to her.

  “Yes,” she urged as his teeth scraped her nipple. He shifted them both closer to the edge of the couch, then began to slowly rock into her as he sucked hard at her breast.

  “Oh… That’s…” Her words disappeared into a soft groan as she rolled into his thrusts. Both her hands clutched his hair, her nails biting into his scalp. For a moment, Luke was so lost in her lovely whimpers of pleasure that he forgot his own desperate situation. His control slipped, and he cursed as pressure gathered at the base of his cock.

  He lifted his mouth from her, gritting his teeth as Tessa worked herself against him, and now her breathy sounds were pure torture. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Even as his jaw got tighter and tighter, her face went soft, her eyes closed as she lost herself. He never wanted this to end. Never. But his body strained toward orgasm.

  “Fuck,” he breathed. She was close. Her sighs were inching higher. Her teeth pressed into her lower lip. Luke curved his arms around her and pushed off the couch, turning until it was her ass perched on the cushions and he knelt between her legs.

  Biting back a scream, Tessa opened her eyes and stared at him in shock.

  “Sorry,” he murmured. Instead of burying himself in her over and over, Luke spread his fingers over her belly and feathered his thumb across her clit.

  “Oh!” she gasped.

  He held himself still, deep inside her, as he rubbed her clit until he felt her thighs tremble against him.

  “Oh, God,” she cried out. “Fuck me, please.”

  Jaw jumping with tension, he waited, holding off until her spine arched, and she begged one last time.

  Finally…finally, he gave her what they both wanted with brutal, deep strokes. Tessa came screaming, her hips jerking into his thrusts, and just as she began to quiet, Luke came, his vision going dark as pleasure crushed him in a pulsing grip.

  He collapsed, still gripping her hips. He rested his forehead against the back of the couch and breathed in the scent of her shoulder. She smelled good, like soap and sleep-warmed skin. She rested a hand on the nape of his neck and petted him in slow strokes. Christ, he felt like purring.

  It’d been a while since he’d had sex, and it had been a helluva long time since he’d felt anything close to that good.

  Tessa weaved her fingers into his hair and pulled him gently up to kiss his mouth.

  “Do you want me to go?” he asked quietly.

  Her fingers tightened, and she pulled him back a little farther so that their eyes met. “Don’t be silly,” she whispered, and his relief told him just how much he didn’t want to leave.

  When this was over, it would hurt, and Luke didn’t even fucking care.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  TESSA WAS DRIFTING in a lovely, warm, supremely satisfied place when she heard the heavy thud of a car door closing. She opened her eyes, immediately awake, and saw that the other side of the bed was empty.

  Damn. She’d been hoping that Luke would wake her up this morning before sneaking out. She’d hoped he’d wake her with some more of that crazy good sex. But he’d needed to get to work, probably. Her hours started later than most people’s.

  But God, that would’ve been nice. Plus she wanted to ride him while he was totally naked. Oh, well. Maybe tonight.

  Just as she was relaxing into the pillow, smiling at the thought of another hour of sleep, Tessa heard the lock on her front door slide open. In that awful moment, she registered two very important things. One, the sound of the car door had come from the front of the house, and Luke had parked in the alley. Two, her shower was running and she wasn’t in it. And then, of course, came the third awful truth: letting her brothers have keys to her house had been a stupid, stupid idea.

  Tessa jumped from bed with a curse just as Eric’s voice floated in from the kitchen. “Tessa? You up yet?” The clink of bottles told her he was rifling through her fridge, which gave her a few minutes to do…something. First things first. She needed to cover her naked body, and quick.

  Tessa bounded from bed and grabbed the robe she always threw over the chair in the corner. She tied the belt in a frantic knot, then dropped to her knees to scoot Luke’s clothes under her bed. One shoe was missing, though, and she wasted a good ten seconds looking for the other.

  The fridge door closed.

  “Balls,” she cursed, just as she spotted his other shoe and threw it into her open closet.

  Feet slapping the wood floor, she raced for the door of her bedroom, shutting it behind her as Eric started down the hall. Unfortunately, the sound of the shower still echoed through the wood.

  “Hey,” Eric said. “Rough night?”

  Tessa put a hand to her tangled hair and swallowed hard. “Yeah. I was just getting in the shower. What’s up?”

  “I feel like we’ve been passing each other by lately. I thought I’d come over for breakfast.”

  “You mean you forgot to go to the grocery store again?”

  “No,” he said, but she noticed he had a piece of leftover fried chicken in his hand. Breakfast, indeed.

  “Well, maybe we can catch up over lunch today.” Not that she had any intention of meeting him for lunch. “I’m kind of running late this morning.” She gestured toward her door. That turned out to be a mistake.

  Eric narrowed his eyes at the door, as if he’d just realized it was closed. And why would a woman who lived alone need to close her bedroom door?

  Then the shower turned off. The fall of water hadn’t seemed very loud, but the absence of it created a vacuum of sound that rang in her ears.

  Tessa’s skin went numb, even as her muscles turned to painful knots. Eric was only a foot away from her. She had a front row seat to the emotions that chased across his face. Confusion, alarm, worry and then hard, cold fury. His pale gaze swept down her robe, which she belatedly realized was her summer robe: pale silver and silky and sensual.

  “Who is he?” he growled.

  “Eric,” she said, putting her hands to his chest when he reached toward the door. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

  “I’ll kill him.” His voice was so low
it scared her.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said.

  He reached past her. Tessa grabbed his wrist, but his hand was already turning the knob. As the door swung inward, Luke’s voice flowed into the hall with perfect clarity.

  “Tessa, I used your towel. I hope that’s okay.”

  She watched helplessly as Eric’s eyes went wide. He bared his teeth as if he were a guard dog. Tessa did the only thing she could think of. She pushed him back into the hallway. Hard. “It’s none of your business.”

  “What?” Luke called, but then she felt his presence at her back, and her brother’s eyes narrowed to slits.

  “Shit,” Luke breathed so softly she barely heard it. “Yeah,” she whispered back. Warm humidity snuck past her limbs as steam left the bathroom. She didn’t have to look back to know he was wearing a towel and nothing else. She could see it in the furious hatred on Eric’s face.

  “Eric,” she said calmly. “Go. We’ll talk about this later.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” he barked. “I’m not going anywhere!”

  “Yes, you are. This is my house and my room, and you have to go now.”

  Eric ignored her, pointing at Luke as if he could kill him with the tip of his finger. “How the hell could you do this to her?”

  “I didn’t…” Luke started, but his words faded into a silence that pulled at them like weights.

  “Go,” she said to her brother as she backed into her bedroom. When he didn’t move, she shut the door in his face. And then she locked it.

  Eyes wide with horror, Tessa slowly turned to face Luke. He looked much grimmer than she’d hoped to see him this morning. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  Eric’s footsteps moved away from the door and Luke just stared at her until they faded. “Why don’t I go talk to him,” he finally suggested.

  Tessa shook her head frantically. “No way. I’ll talk to him. I just…”

  “You might want to mention that you weren’t…”