"Too good," he rasped.
She nodded. "So good you're already making me want more, Slider."
"Yeah," he said, hammering her harder. "Tell me."
A strangled cry spilled out of her, because he was moving faster now, harder, chasing the end. "I want to ride you. And I want you to pin me up against a wall. And I want-"
"Christ, the mouth you have on you," he said, claiming it in a rough, demanding kiss. Finally, he pulled away. "Know what I want?"
"What?"
"I want you to come again. I want to feel it while I'm buried in you. I want you to give me that, Cora." He fell atop her, his arms clutching her tight, and fucked her in a series of fast, grinding strokes that hit her clit every time.
She hadn't thought she would get there again, but suddenly she was close, closer. "Don't stop," she gasped, curling her arms around his neck and holding on. She closed her eyes and arched her spine and used her feet on the backs of his thighs for leverage, and then she was coming and shaking and shouting, and so was Slider.
"Cora," he groaned, his hips slowing but still moving, his cock jerking inside her, his breath rasping in her ear. Still, he fucked her in long, lazy strokes as he lifted his head to look at her. Satisfaction made his eyes softer than she'd ever seen them before, but there was still interest there, too. "Jesus, Cora, I'm still hard."
A moment of uncertainty rolled through her. To cut this off with the incredible sex they'd already shared, or to push for more? More won out, because who knew if this was a line they'd ever cross again after today? "That's because we're not done."
"We're not?" Slider asked, his head, heart, and cock at war.
He knew what he wanted, because nothing had made him feel this good in a long, long time. But he posed it as a question anyway because he didn't want to be taking advantage any more than he was. Things were way muddied now. What was right here? And if this was wrong, why did it feel so right? But while he was still inside her, only one part of him could emerge as the winner, even if it was probably the wrong damn part.
"You wanna ride me, Cora? That what you want?" He imagined it, imagined what she'd look like taking him inside her body, holding him down, using him in a way that made them both feel so good. And, God, he wanted what he imagined, though he fucking shouldn't. Not if he was smart.
"Yes," she said, biting her lip.
Aw, that fucking lip bite. He felt it in his cock. And he surrendered to what he wanted-just one more memory with her, like this. Because after today, memories were all he was going to let himself have.
For both of their sakes.
Withdrawing, Slider turned on his back and hauled her on top of him, and then he kissed her until neither of them could breathe but didn't care. "Get another condom, and then I want you to show me just what you've been thinking about."
A series of fast movements had her quickly straddling him, centering herself over him, and sinking down tight. She braced herself against his chest and lifted and lowered herself, her gaze going to where they were connected.
He couldn't help but look too, because fuck, they looked so good together, with his cock disappearing inside her little body. "I find everything about you so damn beautiful," he said, letting words fly that maybe he should've held back. Cora's gaze snapped to his, the soft surprise on her face endearing and honest and vulnerable. Her guileless pleasure made him glad for giving voice to how he felt. His whole life had been about holding back for too long, and he just didn't want to do it anymore. Not in that moment. Not while they were so bared to each other. Not while they were so deep into each other.
And not when he hadn't been with a woman who looked at him that way in so damn long. Maybe even his whole life.
"Slider," she moaned, "you're so good."
The words hit him in ways that were both healing and uncomfortable as fuck, so he turned them, twisted them, made them about the sex. "Use me to feel good, Cora. That's what I want." He clutched at her hips, lifting her, moving her faster, grinding her down again. She leaned back and braced against his thighs, her hips shifting forward, her breasts and the soft waves of her hair swaying, her mouth dropping open. She rocked her hips forward and back, and Slider helped her move even as her strokes had him groaning and straining to go deeper.
He palmed her lower belly and rubbed her clit with his thumb.
Cora nearly screamed at the contact, and it only made Slider want to torment her more. She clutched at his wrist, not pulling him away, but holding his hand there, and then she rode him until she was coming again. Shaking and cursing. Her wetness spilling out over his groin, his balls.
"Now it's my fucking turn," he said, banding her upper body down against his. Drawing his knees up, he braced his heels against the mattress, and then he let his hips fly in a fast rhythm that had him drilling up into her. Their skin smacked and their breaths sawed and their fingers dug into one another. And it was the best that Slider had felt in years. Jesus, maybe even in more years than he wanted to admit, more than he'd ever let himself think about before.
"God, I want to feel you come again," she breathed against his ear. "Want to know I made you come."
It was her words that did it. One, two, three strokes more and his orgasm nailed him in the back of the spine and had him hammering her with a series of punctuated thrusts as her pussy squeezed him dry.
He couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think about why this should never happen again when his instincts screamed to know when it would be happening next.
Finally, their bodies calmed and stilled, and Slider was forced to withdraw from her whether he wanted to or not. And then they lay together for a long time, Cora again positioned in the nook along the side of his body, both of them occasionally drifting off to sleep, and neither of them talking because they both knew what they had to say.
It didn't surprise him that, when one of them finally spoke, it was Cora. She was brave and honest like that, and she'd never struck him as someone to play games. "So, earlier," she whispered. "I said, ‘Just this once.'"
"Yeah," Slider said, regret slinking around in his gut.
"I'm open to not being held to that," she said, that same regret slinking around in her voice, "but I also understand if you feel like we need to."
Slider sighed and tipped her jaw so that they were looking eye to eye. "I don't regret this Cora, not one fucking bit. But I'm your boss. I don't want you to feel taken advantage of. I wasn't lying when I told you I'm kind of a wreck, and I also don't want to confuse the boys." The boys, who had already seen them in bed together. So Slider was already screwing that one up.
"Yeah," she said. "I know. And I'm still trying to figure my life out, so . . ."
So. Fuck.
"So then, this can't happen again," he said, knowing the words coming out of his mouth were the right call, but hating them all the same.
Chapter 11
"Slider, would you be willing to help me buy a car?" Cora asked after the boys left for school on Wednesday morning. She'd recovered from her illness, started to set up her routine as the Evanses' nanny, and accomplished all the legwork she could online and by phone about getting a car, volunteering at the animal shelter, and applying for spring enrollment at the community college. Now all she needed was the wheels.
He turned from the bowl of cereal he was pouring for himself, which in and of itself was an interesting development. Because making pancakes was some sort of big family tradition, he often ate a few with the boys on Sunday mornings. But when was the last time she'd seen him eat breakfast during the week? "Uh, what did you have in mind?"
"I know it's a lot to ask, but I've never bought my own car before, and you know a lot about them. So I was hoping you might have time to come along, ask all the right questions, and help me negotiate a good deal."
Leaning against the counter, he crossed his arms. "Actually, I've been thinking about this. And I have an alternate idea." As he spoke, she tried not to notice how crossing his arms made the muscles of his biceps pop out, or just how sexy his old worn jeans were hanging on his lean hips. But after she'd clutched at those muscles and felt those hips between her legs, it was incredibly difficult not to notice such things.