The Schemer (Harbor City 3)

Just for fun? For her that was it, but for him it was starting to feel like more than that, which meant he had to end it before the stakes got any higher—but not tonight. For once, he didn’t want to have to be the emotionally cold schemer. He wanted to melt in Everly’s heat. Not giving himself time to plan or plot, he crashed his mouth down on hers, claiming her for tonight because soon everything would have to change.

…

Everly didn’t tell that story. Ever. Her friends had either been with her at the time—like Nunni and Kiki—or they didn’t know it. She slipped one of his buttons free. And she’d told it to the one man from whom she was desperately trying to keep her emotional distance. She unbuttoned his shirt a little more. That wasn’t going to work, though, at least not tonight. By the time she got to the third button, she’d made up her mind to pretend—not to him but to herself—that tonight was just sex, that he was just a man, and that none of this mattered, because the truth was that it really had begun to matter more than just a little.

There wasn’t any talk between them. Not yet. The air around them was too heavy, the need too great. When she slid her tongue into his mouth, it wasn’t to challenge or tease, it was to get lost in him. She parted his shirt and slid her fingers underneath, gliding them over the hard planes of his chest as she trailed her mouth from his lips to his jaw prickly with a five o’clock shadow, then down his neck. He was hard, solid, totally there with her as if he’d never go anywhere, and it ripped something open in her, a place she normally kept closed up tight. And for once, she was just going to go with it, consequences be damned.

Grabbing ahold of his shirt, she lifted her head and looked him in those blue eyes of his that were six shades darker than normal and hooded with lust. Then, she yanked his shirt apart, snapping off the few buttons that had been holding the shirt closed and sending them flying across the room. The pings of them hitting this or that barely registered over the desire roaring in her ears.

“Is that how this is gonna go, sugar?” Tyler asked, one side of his mouth kicking up into a sexy half grin.

She whipped his belt through the buckle without ever breaking eye contact. “You gotta problem with that?”

“Fuck no.” He watched her flick open the button of his pants and inch his zipper lower with a gleam in his eyes. “Are you going to suck me deep, take me all the way in that pretty mouth of yours?”

Lowering herself to her knees, she shoved his pants and boxers down to the floor. “If you have to ask, then I’m not very good at signaling my intentions.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but she wrapped her fingers around the hot, hard length of him at the same time, and the words went unsaid. She liked the power of being able to make him stop thinking six moves ahead and to drown in the now. Leaning forward, she circled the head of his cock with her tongue, slow and exacting. His hands were on each side of her head, tangled in her hair, and when she opened her mouth and sucked him in, they tightened in time with the deep groan he let out. As she took him in deep, sliding her hands up the back of his thighs to his tight bare ass, she pushed him forward until there was no farther they could go.

“Everly,” he said, gravel in his voice.

“Yes, Tyler?” she asked between long licks along the sensitive underside of his dick, taking time to swirl her tongue around his swollen head.

“Do that again.”

He didn’t have to ask twice. His ass flexed under her touch as she pushed him forward and sucked in the length of him until he hit the back of her throat. There went the tightening of his fingers in her hair, just enough pressure to make her want more. So she took as much of him as she could and retreated again and again while he stood, legs planted shoulder-width apart, his head tossed back. Only his hands on her head sending electric shocks of want through her, his groans of pleasure, and the strain of his muscles acted as her guide to know how much was too much and just how close to going over he was. Their positions were switched from the night in the parking garage. Now he was the one mostly naked while she was mostly dressed, but he didn’t seem powerless; their power seemed to be growing from each other, and it was a huge turn on.

Pulling back, she licked the tip of his cock one last time as she stroked her hand up and down the length of him, her fingers barely touching. “I need to get naked.”

He looked down at her with enough heat to melt her panties if she’d been wearing any. “Hell yes.”

By the time she stood up, walked over to the bedroom door, and had her dress unzipped, he’d flipped off his shoes and shucked off his pants and underwear.

“You’re too slow,” he grumbled, stalking toward her. “Good thing I have the solution for that.”

Grabbing her hips, he spun her around so she was facing the wall. He unzipped her dress with the speed of an Olympic luge team and shoved the material down her arms and over her hips until gravity took it to the floor where it pooled around her spike heels.

“Have I told you lately how much I love your aversion to underwear?” he asked, his breath hot and teasing on the back of her neck.

She would have answered if she could’ve, but as the question came out of his mouth, he slid the back of his knuckles down her spine from the spot between her shoulder blades to her ass, all the speed gone from his movements stealing away her ability to form thoughts.

“Palms on the wall.”

There was no questioning. No asking. It was an order plain and simple, and it made her core clench. Pressing her hands to the wall, she lifted the back of her foot out of her shoe. A quick smack on her ass stopped her.

“They stay on.”

“So demanding,” she managed to get out, barely recognizing the husky tone to her own voice.

&nbs

p; “When I know what I want, you bet your ass.” He rubbed his palm over her ass cheek, removing some of the sting. “Now kick that dress away, spread your legs, and don’t turn around.”

The thrill that went through her body made her nipples pebble into hungry hard peaks. She liked this Tyler. Scratch that. She loved this Tyler, the one who wasn’t concerned with anything but the two of them. So she did what he said. And waited, anticipation making her body thrum. But he didn’t touch her.

“Tyler?” she asked, the temptation to turn around and track what he was doing tugging at her.

“You might be the art expert, but seeing you like this—wet and waiting for me—is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He trailed a finger, and only one finger, across her back, ending the journey at the crack of her ass before closing in so his hard cock pressed against the small of her back. “I’m going to fuck you just like this, up against this wall, and the whole time you’ll know it’s me even if you can’t see me because there’s no one else who can make you feel like I can.”