Breaking Leather: Lone Star Lovers, Book 4 (4 page)

Chrissi unbuttoned her blouse and let it slide off her arms to whisper to the flagstones. She reached up and opened the clasp holding up her hair, and shook her head, enjoying the way the heavy fall trailed across the tops of her shoulders. Then she shimmied out of her trousers. When she stood in only her underwear, she stepped down into the pool, wading toward Ezra, whose hot glance raked her body, eliciting shivers that slid in ripples across her skin.

Standing in front of him, water lapping at her waist, she lifted her chin. “I don’t want to make any decisions,” she whispered. “I don’t want to think at all.”

Ezra nodded and slowly lifted a hand to grasp her arm and turn her. With her back to him, she breathed deeply while he unfastened her bra and drew it off, letting it float away in the water. Then his fingers slid beneath the band of elastic at her hips and pulled down her panties.

He walked around her, staring at everything he’d bared, then slowly lifted his glance to lock with hers. “You’re prettier than I remembered.”

“Was I so homely then?” she quipped, although she felt anything but humorous—her body was too tight, her need too strong.

He gave a harsh shake of his head. “You were perfect. No one’s ever measured up.”

“I don’t want to hear that you’ve been with anyone else. It isn’t any of my business. And I don’t really wanna talk.”

“I’m okay with that.” He cupped her face between his large hands and bent his head to capture her mouth.

She didn’t wait for him to come to her, she rose on her toes to meet him, her mouth slamming into his, her arms sliding around his shoulders to clutch at him, because she was afraid he’d hold back and tease her, and she didn’t think she could take that and not fall apart.

Her heartbeats thudded, the tips of her nipples contracted into hard little beads, and she leaned against him to ease the ache, rubbing her breasts on him as his tongue pushed into her mouth.

He devoured her; her ragged breaths intermingled with his. She scraped her fingertips upward, sinking them in his thick, dark hair and pulling because urgency gripped her, coiling in her belly. Faint tremors radiated, rippling through her channel and tightening her pussy. She hiked up a thigh, and he dropped his hands to cup her ass and lift her against him.

She gave a little jump and slid both legs around him, locking her ankles low on his back as he began to rut, flexing his hips forward and back to rub his cock against her mound, all the while kissing her thoroughly, sweetly.

He broke the kiss and slid his cheek alongside hers. “Do you want it?”

She felt him smile against her skin and bit his earlobe. “Dammit, just do it.”

“How bad do you want it, baby?” he rumbled.

How many times had he teased her like this? Making her beg for him to plunge inside her and ease the fever he built.

“Fuck, I ache for you, Ezra,” she said, gasping. “I hurt.”

He groaned and lifted her higher.

Eagerly, she slipped a hand between them, gripped his shaft and centered the tip between her folds. With their foreheads pressed together and their gazes locked, his fingers dug into her buttocks to move her steadily down his shaft. As he crowded into her, pumping shallowly to work himself inside, her mouth fell open and her head fell back.

She thought she’d remembered how it felt, but this was so much better. His water-cooled dick shocked her, causing sensual convulsions to work their way up and down her hot inner walls. “
Ez-raaaah.
”

Ezra’s teeth nipped her jaw, bringin her back up. Then he rubbed her lips with his.

She gave a throaty groan, and her body vibrated. Her legs stirred, gripping his waist tighter. “Please…fuck me,” she gasped. “I need it hard, baby.
Please.
” And she kissed his chin, his cheek, stroked her tongue over his firm lips.

He growled and his mouth opened over hers, suctioning, drawing on hers while he rocked forward and back, his thrusts gaining strength.

Her short, jagged breaths rattled her chest against his. She was quivering hard and whimpering. She jerked her head back to beg him again, but was caught by his expression.

His gaze was hot. His nostrils flared. His skin pulled taut across the sharp blades of his cheeks, making him look wilder, scarier. His movements were controlled, but she felt the tremors shuddering through him. He held back for her, to make the moment perfect, to stoke her desire when she knew all he wanted to do was slam deep inside and pound her like a wild thing.

“You don’t have to be careful with me,” she whispered.

“Sugar, you’re tight. I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“You won’t. I need you to move. Hard. Fast.
Please
, Ezra.”

“Chrissi…
Damn
, Chrissi…” Ezra worked her up and down his cock, water churning around them. When a splash filled her mouth, he halted and shook his head. He pulled her against his chest and walked toward the steps, his cock still buried deep inside her body. He took the stairs slowly.

“Afraid if you slip you’ll break somethin’?” she teased.

“I’m so damn hard, I’d fuckin’ shatter,” he growled. His body swayed with his steps, working him deeper. He cupped the back of her head and lowered her to a chaise.

With his face and shoulders above her, the blue sky blotted, she lowered her eyelids halfway, watching him begin the movements again, this time with better leverage to power into her. His strokes were strong, hard…getting faster.

Her breaths gusted at the end of each hard thrust, driven from her lungs and coming so fast she grew dizzy and lost in sensation. “Lord, it’s been so damn long, Ezra,” she moaned. “I forgot how good this feels.”

His movements slowed, and his ice-chip gaze narrowed. “What about Kyle?” he asked, his voice dead even.

“Kyle?” she repeated, not understanding, and then she remembered the boy she’d dated after the incident. Kyle had been steady, reliable, but boring as hell as a lover. Far too careful with her body to satisfy her. “We didn’t stay together long. Only until I left for college.”

Ezra’s movements stopped altogether, although his body shook with the need to thrust. “Who else?”

She undulated her hips to tempt him, to make him stop this line of questioning, but to no avail. “Who else what?” she bit out, beginning to get irritated because she’d almost been
there
.

“Who else did you take to your bed?”

Realizing he was serious, she silently fumed. By the tightness of his face, she knew he wouldn’t relent, wouldn’t give her what they both needed, until she told him. And pinned to the chaise by his heavy body, she had no way to escape his interrogation.

“Well, I didn’t exactly take Kyle to my bed,” she said acidly. “I was still livin’ with my mom. It was more like the back seat of his Corolla.”

His jaw clenched, a muscle popping and rolling along the hard edge.

She couldn’t look away from the evidence of his tension. He was angry. Which nonsensically made her even hotter. “Did I ask for the names of all your lovers?”

“Why are you hedgin’?” he bit out. “Have there been so many you can’t remember their names?”

It was almost funny, except the truth made her look pretty pathetic. She bit her lip and turned her face away.

Ezra growled and thrust his arms under her knees. He pulled her butt off the lounger and crammed himself deeper. Then he stopped again. “Names, Chrissi.” The muscles of his forearms and shoulders bunched.

Maybe she’d pushed him too far. “There wasn’t anyone else,” she said, her voice small. “Not that it’s any of your damn business.”

“What?”

The hoarseness of his voice brought her gaze back. His disbelief was there in the deep scowl that forged a line between his heavy, dark brows.

She couldn’t blame him for thinking she lied. She’d been such a horny little thing around him. She inhaled and fought to keep her mouth from trembling and letting him know just how humiliating this was. “It’s been almost seven years since I’ve been with anyone,” she said hoarsely.

Ezra’s expression didn’t change, but his chest rose and fell faster. His cock stirred inside her, and she couldn’t help the little welcoming flush of liquid that seeped around him. Couldn’t he tell how much she needed him to move?
Right. Fucking. Now.

“Kyle wasn’t what I wanted,” she blurted. “And I couldn’t think about bein’ with anyone else because I knew it wasn’t gonna work.”

“Did he satisfy you?”

She glared up at him. “What do you think?”

Ezra grunted. “Was he too nice for you? Did he ask you if he could touch you first? Close his eyes when he fucked you?”

Good Lord, how did he know? “It’s none of your goddamn business.”

“He didn’t do it for you. Guess I won’t have to look him up and beat the shit out of him.” Ezra pulled away, his cock sliding almost all the way out, but then he stroked back inside—easy as silk because she was so wet. “He didn’t do it for you, did he, Chrissi? Not like I could.”

“Never. It was never like this,” she said on a choked sob. “Why does it matter?”

“You were mine. You could have been ours.”

“I walked away. And you took lovers.”

He circled his hips, dragging his cock around and around inside her. “Not many—and only when I couldn’t stand it a day longer. I rubbed my fist raw before I sought any of ’em out.”

Shifting her legs to ride higher on his waist, she tilted her pussy, trying to entice him to stop the teasing swirls. “I don’t believe you. Any ole whore would have done.”

His scowl deepened. “Stop it. Don’t say that again.”

“It’s true. You made me this way. Made it so I’m ruined for anyone else.”

“Because I do it for you?”

“Yes. Because you know exactly how to arouse me. Because you piss me off and walk away, and then I have to follow. I don’t like bein’ weak where you’re concerned, but I am.”

Ezra pulled out then slowly slid inward again, so slow a scream was building in her throat.

“What about my brothers?” he asked, his tone deepening. “What do they do for you?”

She shook her head. Not wanting to go there. “I never would have thought about it,” she said past the lump building at the back of her throat. “Never would have looked twice. But you made me look—skinny-dippin’ at the river. You put the idea in my head. Lettin’ them hear us when we made love. Lettin’ them come into the bedroom when we were done, sweaty and spent and still as naked as the day we were born.”

“It made you hot.”

Chrissi snorted. “Hell, yeah. Made me think that maybe you intended somethin’ to happen.”

“I didn’t intend anything to happen, Chrissi. I wanted you to have fun. To love being with me. I wanted you to feel free with me.”

“But I got scared because I thought you were just playin’ with me. What man lets other men, even his own brothers, see his woman like that? So when you sent Josh or Cade to bring me to you, I didn’t think twice about responding to their flirting. It’s natural, you said. A man being aroused around a pretty woman.” She took a shaky breath. She’d already revealed so much. Why not tell him everything? “Well, I was aroused too, and surrounded by Kinzies. I knew exactly what every one of you looked like naked, and when they got hard in their jeans, I knew what that looked like too. So when they flirted …I gave it right back.”

Ezra’s jaw eased. The cold blue of his gaze melted. “They thought it was just a game. A little competition to get under my skin, but Josh fell in love with you. Then Cade. They beat the crap out of me when you and I had a fight, because they didn’t think I deserved you. They said any man would be glad to have you.”

“Well, I didn’t have them…not until you dared me into takin’ all three of you.”

How come I’m not enough?
Ezra had gritted out all those years ago.

How’s a girl supposed to choose, when one brother’s prettier than the next?
Inside, she’d begged silently,
Tell me you love me
.

Chrissi fell back against the cushions, relieved to have everything off her chest, but just as confused as ever about where she stood with this enigmatic man.

“So much time’s passed,” Ezra said, still braced above her, still sunk deep inside her body. “But I still think about us. Still miss havin’ you around.”

She gave up trying to still the tremor of her lips and chin. “I don’t know what you expect from this weekend,” she said, her voice thick from unshed tears.

He leaned down, forcing her knees higher, tilting her pelvis and delving deeper. With his mouth hovering over hers, he said, “I expect more of what you gave us that night. More of what it should have been.”

She licked her lips. “Why? Is this your ultimate fantasy? The three of you sharin’ a woman?”

“We’ve had that. You really think you were the only one?”

“Bastard.”

“We were just practicin’, sweetheart—makin’ sure it was as good as we remembered. Makin’ sure we remembered how.”

“And was it good?”

“She wasn’t you, but it was sweet. When we had her, there wasn’t any tension between us. We functioned like a team. Like brothers.”

“It’s wrong, Ezra.”

“You ready to choose one of us? To say you don’t still desire all three of us? Can you say truthfully that you aren’t dyin’ to know what we have in store for you?”

Chrissi shook her head, but she was lying to herself. As always, Ezra Kinzie had her number. “I hate you…but I’ll do this. I’ll be with you and your brothers. But come Sunday, I’m out of all your lives for good, and you’ll stop stalkin’ me.”

His dark brow arched. “You think we stalked you?”

“You checked up on me. Drivin’ by the house…”

He grunted. “To make sure you were safe.”

“Givin’ the stink-eye to men when they asked me to dance at Shooters…”

“Because they wanted only one thing from you. You’re better than that.”

Blood suffused her face, heating it, making her head feel ready to explode. “You only want one thing,” she railed, smacking his shoulders with her hands. “I’m a whore. I fucked all of you and gloried in it. Anyone could have seen us, and I’d have been ruined.”

Ezra’s jaw hardened, and he grabbed her wrists to stop her. “We didn’t plan it that way. It just happened. But we were careful to make sure no one knew.”