Fate (Steel Brothers Saga 13)

I wanted to feel his lips slide down the side of my neck and over my bare shoulder.

And that secret part of him… I wanted that too. In fact, I ached for it now. The fluttering between my thighs continued, became more resonant.

Brad would go slow. Brad would make it good for me.

I hardly knew him, but I knew that as well as I knew my own name.

Brad Steel was the one.

“No one’s ever called me beautiful,” he said.

“Then no one’s ever seen you,” I said. “You’re more than handsome.”

“My God, Daphne.” He cupped both my cheeks and brought our faces together. Our lips touched softly, and then he traced my lips with his tongue. “Open for me. Please.”

I hadn’t had the best of luck with French kissing, but already I knew Brad Steel would be different. I parted my lips.

He didn’t plunge his tongue into my mouth. No, he tasted me slowly. First my lips, then the inside of my mouth, my teeth, my gums, until finally his tongue touched mine.

And I was lost forever.

It was soft. It was sweet. It was amazing.

But much better than all that?

It was right.

It was so right.

I parted my lips farther, letting him sweep into my mouth and kiss me with passion. Yeah, it was passion. I felt it. And within a few minutes of the kiss, after stroking my tongue against his, I wanted to explore his mouth too.

So I did.

His teeth, his gums, the velvet of his tongue.

More passion, more need.

More.

More.

More.

Until I was suffocating, suffocating…

The dream… The dream I never recalled but knew only in feelings.

I pushed away. “No!”

“Daphne? Sweetheart? What happened? Are you okay?”

I was far from okay. How could I want something that scared me so much?

I wiped my mouth and nodded.

“I’m sorry. I know you’re young and—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. “I wanted that kiss as much as you did.”

“Then what happened?”

“I got scared, is all.”

He nodded. “You’re what…eighteen?”

“Yeah.”

“Not very experienced.”

“Not exactly. Just not any experience that’s good.”

He stroked my cheek, and I turned into his warm palm.

“We’ll go slowly, then.”

I widened my eyes. “You mean you want to…try again?”

“We already have a date tomorrow,” he said. “You’re not getting out of that. You promised me the world’s best pizza.”

Without thinking, I pressed my lips into his palm. “I never break my promises.”

Chapter Six

Brad

The chaste kiss I gave Daphne when I saw her to her dorm room door was better than third base with Wendy or anyone else.

I smiled as I walked to my car. Smiled as I drove home. Smiled as I parked the car in the garage and unlocked the door.

Murph and I lived in a condo my father owned just off campus. It was a sweet two-bedroom. I had the master, of course, and Murph the second bedroom. We had two sleeper sofas where our friends crashed pretty often.

Yeah, it was kind of a party house. But Murph and I both had 4.0 grade point averages. We got our work done before we partied.

I opened the door from our garage into the kitchen and yelled, “Murph?” before I switched on the light.

“Not home yet,” said a female voice I knew well.

Shit. Not tonight. Not fucking tonight.

I switched the light on and walked toward the voice.

Wendy Madigan sat in the living room in my leather recliner—stark naked.

“For God’s sake, Wendy, Murph could walk in any time.”

“And I’m sure he’d scream if he saw anything he hadn’t seen before.” She stood and walked seductively toward me.

“What are you doing here?”

“Getting laid, I hope.” She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hard kiss on the mouth.

I pushed her away. “You told me to fuck off the last time I saw you.”

“I’ve had a change of heart,” she said. “Right now I definitely want you to fuck on.”

Wendy Madigan had been my kryptonite for six years. She had mesmerizing blue eyes and a killer body, but the real attraction was her mind. She had a ridiculously high IQ with just a touch of cuckoo. A lethal and seductive combination.

I looked at her standing naked, her pussy shaved the way she knew I liked it. Her nipples were hard, and her breasts fell gently against her chest.

If this were any other night, we’d be heating up the sheets by now.

But I wasn’t in the mood.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever be in the mood again. At least not for Wendy. Or any other woman who wasn’t Daphne Wade.

I did have a giant hard-on, though. One kiss from Daphne and I was a fucking rock. Wendy was already wet for me. I could smell her own brand of musk.

“Get on the bed, bitch,” I said through clenched teeth.

Wendy liked it rough. Rough and turbulent. She let me do anything I wanted, and what I wanted right now was to tie her up, put a blindfold over her, and pretend she was Daphne Wade.