Private Practice (Private Pleasures 1)

He kissed her shoulder, her neck. His voice rumbled in her ear, “Slow and steady.”

Slow and steady? She couldn’t afford slow or steady…she’d lose her mind in another thirty seconds if he didn’t do something to assuage the ache building to an unbearably sweet crisis. She pushed backward, trying to take him deeper.

Hands on her hips held her still. “I’m the boss, remember?”

“Tutor,” she panted.

“Whatever.”

She concentrated on breathing while he did his slow and steady thing, using controlled thrusts to ease himself in. Braced on one arm, he swept his hand over her breast, cupping the underside, tormenting her nipple until she moaned. The need building where their bodies joined was so big, so consuming, she couldn’t think beyond it.

“Jesus, you feel good. Hot and tight.” His fingers glided between her thighs. “Wet.”

She couldn’t have held still if her life depended on it. Forehead pressed to the pillow, she moved her hips in a shallow, rocking motion, the best she could do with the backstop of his body pressed so tight to hers.

He wouldn’t be rushed, just wrapped his arm around her waist and continued to move slowly, stretch her slowly, fill her slowly, until she thought she’d die from pleasure. Finally, when he was buried deep and she could feel every hot, pulsing inch of him inside her, he whispered, “You ready, Ellie?”

Her body clenched around him in answer.

With a rough groan, he drove into her, unleashing a series of fast, powerful thrusts that rocketed her right to the gates of heaven. The rhythmic slap of their bodies echoed in her ears while she knelt there, sheets bunched in her fists, face buried in the pillow, control and dignity somewhere far beyond her reach and she didn’t give a damn because ecstasy shimmered so incredibly close. Frantic for release, she bucked and strained, and bit back a sob because try as she might, she couldn’t quite get there.

Tyler made a sympathetic sound and skimmed his fingers down between her legs again. Incoherent with gratitude, she pressed herself into his helping hand. Then he thumbed the unbearably sensitive trigger that shot her headlong into a sweet, sweeping oblivion. She cried out and lost herself in the free fall.

Minutes, or hours, later, she shook herself out of a pleasure-induced stupor and took inventory. She lay naked across blissfully cool sheets in something very close to a boneless puddle. Warm, nimble lips nibbled their way along her shoulder while talented fingertips traced curlicues down her spine. When they moved on to her butt, she forced her eyes open and found herself adrift in Tyler’s clear green gaze.

Why couldn’t all her relationships be this easy? Her situation with Frank was fraught with unresolved, and possibly unresolvable, issues. She hadn’t maintained anything close to a simple employer-employee relationship with Melody. But this thing with Tyler worked perfectly.

Aglow with the foolproof simplicity of their arrangement, she smiled at him.

“Doc, which complete moron from your past convinced you your bedroom skills needed work?”

She blew out a breath and her happy glow dimmed a little because she couldn’t be completely honest with him about her motives. “It’s not like that. I mean, nobody complained. I just felt like I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone, so to speak.” To avoid his inevitable “why,” she rushed on. “Haven’t you ever felt like you needed to change in order to make your dreams come true?”

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, forearm resting across his forehead. “Yeah, just late

ly. I think that was the bank’s message to me, in a nutshell. Want a loan on the Browning place? Start behaving like a responsible, grown-ass man.”

“They’re off base in their assessment.”

One corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “Nah, they’ve got some valid points. I tend to please myself, do things my own way, and I don’t worry overly much about the future. These traits make me a reliability risk in the bank’s eyes. They want to see some investment from me—in my business and my life—before they make one in me.”

Ellie propped her chin in her hand and stared at his entrancing profile. “Well, I still say they’re not looking very hard at what you bring to Bluelick. You operate your business here and provide jobs in this community. That’s an investment. The volunteer work you do also qualifies as an investment.”

Tyler reached over and pulled her across his chest. “You tell ’em, Sparky.”

“I’m serious,” she puffed, shoving her hair out of her face.

“I know you are.” His grin disappeared. He took her hand and placed a soft kiss on her wrist. “I appreciate your opinion. It matters to me.” While her heart tripped and words tangled in her throat, his sly grin reappeared. “Junior and I are re-presenting our case to the lending committee Tuesday. Want to be a character reference? Tell them how reliable I am? How thoroughly I get the job done?”

She tried but failed to hold back a laugh. “I’m not sure I’m qualified, seeing as how I only have a lesson and a half to go by—”

“A half?” He lifted his head and stared at her, green eyes flashing. “Where the hell are you getting a half? That was two full lessons, no matter how you’re counting.”

“Okay, okay, two lessons. And the truth is, they have been incredibly educational. I didn’t have the first clue what I was doing before. Thanks to you I finally understand what all the fuss is about. Who knows? I might actually be able to impress someone next time around.”

He dropped his head back to the pillow and stared at the ceiling. “Glad to help you make a good impression, Doc.”

But he didn’t sound glad. He sounded pissed. She wasn’t sure where she’d gone wrong in her attempt to convey her gratitude, but she rushed to undo the error. The last thing she wanted to do was offend him, especially when she hoped to talk him into fast-tracking their lessons. “I’m sorry. Can I delete what I said and replace it with ‘thank you’?”