Bad Boys Over Easy Read online

  Ashley jerked. “What are you doing down there?”

  “Making my way up.” The cool air from the fan came between her spread legs and hit him in the chest. Lucas licked the back of Ashley’s calf, tracing the curve of the muscle to the back of her knee.

  She sighed, the sound almost lost over the hum of the fan. He kissed the soft skin behind her knee, let his fingers follow along behind his mouth as he edged higher and higher, inch by luscious inch. Lucas let his eyes drift half closed, let himself hold onto her other leg and nudge his nose up to the underside of her ass.

  “Lucas…” she said in that plaintive way she had of drawing out his name. She had always strung his name out, sometimes in humor, sometimes in annoyance, sometimes in affection, but he liked this way the best, the way she sounded so aroused, so shocked at her own reaction, so sure they were being naughty and yet liking it.

  “Hmmm?” He got his head between her legs, urging her legs farther apart. “Hold onto the fan, baby.”

  She did, even as she was saying, “This is crazy, what are you doing?”

  It took a little maneuvering, but he was able to twist and reach her soft inner folds. He spread her, blew on her swollen, slick, secret spot. “Cooling you off.”

  Her voice was strangled. “That’s having the opposite effect.”

  Allowing one quick lick first, he retreated. “Sorry.” But he had ascertained she was still moist, ready for him. Important information since he was about to stand up and enter her.

  “No problem.” Her breasts heaved and her eyes were clamped shut.

  Lucas moved out from between her legs, enjoying the cry of disappointment she gave.

  “That was cruel,” she remarked. “What am I holding on to the fan for if you’re leaving?”

  “Because I’m planning on doing this.” He aligned himself behind her, held her waist, and urged, “Bend over a little more.”

  “Why?” But she did it anyway, and he figured she had to know what it was he wanted.

  Then he was nudging deep inside her, groaning as her vaginal muscles clamped around him and squeezed. “Is this cruel?”

  Ashley clutched the fan and decided these shoes needed to be flung out the window. Lucas kept catching her off guard, and she was going to sprain an ankle with one false move. Since he had her straining and squirming and wiggling, it wouldn’t be hard to take a tumble off the heels.

  “If you start moving, I’ll forgive you.” For anything. Ever. For the rest of their lives. He seemed to know instinctively how to please her. And was doing it in spades.

  “That can be arranged.”

  He was thick inside her, full, and when he moved, her tender swollen body ached with pleasure. “Lucas? Would it be rude if I came, like, right away?”

  It was almost embarrassing how quick he could bring her to the point. She had never thought she was quite this easy. She was never really difficult, exactly, but usually she required more than three strokes.

  Not now.

  “No. That’s what I want. I want you so turned on you can’t help yourself.”

  “I think I can wait a second.” Ashley licked her lips, which were rapidly drying from the fan blowing on her. There was something extra sexy about the cool air rushing over her hot body, teasing her nipples tight, while Lucas pounded into her.

  “Don’t wait too long. I’m about done.”

  “Oh!” Well. That changed everything. Ashley rested her head on her forearm and just felt. Just let her body absorb the thrusts, enjoy the brush of his testicles against her backside, and relax into the rhythm.

  When he paused, then came in a silent orgasm, straining and digging his fingers into her waist, Ashley went right after him.

  Only she didn’t try to keep it quiet. She let out a yell to rival an Olympic shot putter. It encompassed all her excitement, pleasure, satisfaction, and a myriad of other emotions that she wasn’t ready to deal with just yet.

  Lucas’s head dropped onto her back, his breath ragged as he stopped moving inside her. “Holy shit.”

  Her thoughts exactly. Ashley peeled her fingers back from the fan, not surprised to see deep grooves in them from the slats she’d been pressing against. “I’m going to fall down. My legs don’t work anymore.”

  Lucas pulled out of her. “Couch. That’s what we need.” He took her hand and they stumbled the two feet to the sofa.

  Ashley collapsed on him, letting her shoes drop off. Her breasts pressed into his chest and her thigh settled between his. With a sigh, she lay her head down on his shoulder, thinking it was much to heavy to keep upright any longer. “Well, this was unexpected. Incredible, but unexpected.”

  She meant the whole twist in their relationship, not just the second sex session so fast after the first, though that was pretty amazing too.

  Lucas idly stroked her back, his mouth rubbing back and forth over the top of her hair.

  “You could sell me anything right now, Ashley. I mean anything. That’s how good I feel.”

  She laughed. Playing with his fawn-colored chest hairs, she let herself think about what Lucas had said. He had said he loved her.

  What did that mean? She loved him too. Like a brother…well, okay, not exactly like a brother. But like a friend.

  Only that wasn’t right either, not when she was intertwined with his naked body. Not when it was very possible that she wanted to repeat this night. But there were so many complications, including her younger brother.

  “What about Jason?” she said, thinking out loud, curious if Lucas had given any thought to what his best friend would think about what they were doing.

  “What about him?” Lucas cupped her butt, squeezed a little.

  “I don’t think he’ll like us doing this.” Ashley had palpitations just thinking about her brother’s reaction. He would be horrified. Furious with her. Of course, it was a little late to be worried about that since she was naked and Lucas had had her over an electric fan.

  “I’m not sure it’s really any of Jason’s business. But why do you think he’ll be upset?”

  Distracted by the sight of his lips moving, so close to her, she ran her finger across the cherry redness of his lower lip.

  He added, “You worried he won’t think I’m good enough for his sister?”

  That got her attention. What a joke. Ashley let her hand drop. “No, I think Jason thinks I’m not good enough for you! His best friend, fellow chemist, being defiled by his shopaholic, blond, brainless sister? I think he knows you can do better.”

  She hadn’t meant to sound so whiny. But it was true. Jason had gotten the brains, and she had gotten the beauty. Her parents had told her that over and over, every time she brought home a “D” in Math on a report card or struggled through reading Moby Dick. She was destined to be in service, they’d said, since she was so good at smiling, being cheerful, making people happy. And what she resented was that they made that sound like it was less worthy than working in a laboratory. It wasn’t, and at twenty-eight she knew that.

  She hadn’t at twenty-two, and getting a job at a computer design firm had been an act of defiance in some ways. Unfortunately the triumph was short-lived since she’d worked there five years and was still an entry-level employee.

  Lucas frowned at her, his hand going still. “You’re kidding me. Is that how you think Jason sees you? Is that how you think I see you?”

  “Well…” Ashley didn’t want to discuss this. She didn’t know why she had sounded so needy. She didn’t know why it mattered in the least what her parents or anyone else thought of her abilities. She knew who she was and she liked herself.

  But the harsh truth was she was not the kind of woman Lucas Manning would want long term, no matter what his hormones thought. She would bore him senseless in under three weeks.

  “Jason doesn’t think you’re brainless. And neither do I. In case you hadn’t noticed, I think you’re amazing. I think you’re the most exciting, fun, beautiful, interesting woman I’ve ever known.
I’ve known you for almost twenty years and I’ve always respected and admired you for who you are.”

  She winced. She hadn’t meant to force him into extolling her virtues. “Thank you. I’ve always felt the same about you.” But that didn’t change the fact that they were intellectually incompatible.

  Chances were good he would bore her too.

  Only she knew that was a lie the minute the thought popped into her head. She had always liked Lucas, enjoyed his curiosity, his humility, so different from her brother, who bragged incessantly.

  “I meant what I said before.” Lucas turned on his side so he was facing her, chocolate eyes searching over her. “I love you.”

  His voice was so tender, so determined, that Ashley felt her resolve wavering. He sounded so damn sincere, and she felt that it would be so, so easy to just relax into her own feelings. It would only be a matter of a second and she could fall straight into love with Lucas.

  It couldn’t be that easy.

  “We’re complete opposites,” she whispered. “You’re responsible, I’m flighty. You have a master’s degree and a title with a whole bunch of words I can’t even pronounce, and I only graduated from college by a prayer.”

  Lucas didn’t look concerned. He kissed her softly. “You have common sense, I have none. I have trouble remembering left from right and to turn the oven off when I’m done cooking. Don’t you see, Ash? We balance each other.”

  She chewed her lip, wondering, worrying. It wasn’t like her to get this worked up—usually she dove into relationships and thought later. Which was probably why they had all ended disastrously. And this was Lucas. Help her, she did love him, and she didn’t want to hurt him, to mess this up.

  “I know I’m annoying, Ash, I know I ask too many questions and I think too much instead of just doing things. But that’s who I am, and I can’t change that.”

  That got her attention. Ashley touched his cheek, horrified that he would think that about himself. “Oh, Lucas, don’t say that. You’re not annoying at all. I like that about you, I like that you stop and think everything through instead of just throwing yourself into it. I…I…”

  Oh, dear God, she was going to say it. She’d never said this to any man, ever, and she was going to just blurt it out right now, naked on her couch, to Lucas, who was giving her one of those earnest looks she just absolutely adored.

  “Yes?”

  “I…I love you, Lucas. I do.”

  His brow wrinkled as he frowned. “You do?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” She did, she really, really did.

  And she was scared shitless.

  Eight

  Lucas studied Ashley’s face. She loved him. She. Loved. Him.

  He hadn’t seen that one coming.

  He had hoped that someday, maybe, after much persuasive sex, she could be convinced that they could work out something permanent, and he knew that she cared about him…but in love with him?

  That was beyond his greatest expectations.

  “Like you love me like a friend, a brother, someone you’ve known your whole life?” He sought clarity of her statement.

  “No, silly.” She kissed him, moving her mouth over his softly.

  Ashley tasted sweet, warm, and he liked the way she was sliding up against him, hand on his cheek, her touches tender and seeking. She pulled back and smiled.

  “I love you like a woman loves a man. I love you in a way that is almost overwhelming, because it’s so unexpected.”

  He kissed her fingertips resting on his lips, happiness crashing over him.

  “But it’s so strong, it seems to me that maybe somehow it’s always been there, I just didn’t know it.”

  Lucas couldn’t say the same. “I always knew I loved you.”

  “Really?” She smiled, sighed, snuggled into his arms. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  He nearly laughed. “For all the reasons you just outlined. I didn’t think you’d be interested in your little brother’s geeky friend. Not when you were busy dating every high school football coach on the west side. I’ve never been into sports.”

  Ashley squeezed his bicep. “Though you have developed some sexy muscles. Why have you been hiding these from me?”

  “I don’t think I have been.”

  “Then I’ve clearly been an idiot because when I turned tonight and you were standing there with no shirt on, jeans, barefoot, I about had an orgasm just looking at you.”

  Now that was a sexy little image. And it was good information for future seductions.

  “Now just to recap what we’ve established here, Ash. I love you, you love me, we’re sexually compatible, and our personalities are the perfect complement to each other. Right?”

  She nodded.

  “So we can consider ourselves together. Permanently.” He liked to know where he stood.

  Her cheeks lost their color. “But Lucas, don’t forget I’m older than you. When I’m forty, you’ll only be thirty-six.”

  “But I’ll be forty in my heart,” he said, with a perfectly straight face, even though he was being sarcastic. He thought a less than four-year age difference between them meant absolutely nothing. Less than nothing. Negative relevance.

  She smacked his back. “I’m serious. I’ll be all old and haggard at eighty and you’ll only be seventy-six.”

  “I don’t think it matters at that point. We’ll both have plastic parts and wrinkles.” But just the thought of spending his whole life with Ashley made him grin. “Now drop the age thing, Ash. It doesn’t mean a damn thing.”

  “But…”

  He cut her off. “I have a tickle-whip, remember? And I’m not afraid to use it.”

  Her green eyes went wide. “What do you mean?” She licked her lips.

  Hot damn. She was so sexy. He patted her ass. “I mean, if you don’t stop borrowing trouble and looking for excuses, I’ll have to use whatever means necessary to convince you we’re perfect for each other.”

  Breath catching, eyes half closed, she rubbed against him in a way that had him groaning.

  “Could you maybe do your convincing in my bedroom? This couch isn’t really comfortable, Lucas.”

  “I can do that.” He sat up, pulled her into his lap. “And maybe this time we’ll actually make it to a supine position.”

  “What is that? It sounds kinky.” She shivered with delight, the sound hitting his ears at the same time her hot wet center slid against his cock.

  Lucas bit back a groan. “It just means lying down on your back, faceup. Which we won’t get to if you don’t stop doing that.”

  “Doing what?” she said, even as she lifted her hips and rocked on him again.

  “Driving me crazy.” Lucas set Ashley firmly away from him and stood up. He shook out his legs, every muscle sore. “Now where are all my purchases?” he said, to tease her. “Let’s take them into the bedroom with us, and you can show me how they work.”

  Not that he didn’t already have an idea what to do with them, but it might be fun to play dumb. Let her give him step-by-step instructions.

  Ashley’s eyebrows rose. “All of your purchases? At one time?”

  Lucas thought through what he’d bought. Blindfold, handcuffs…sure, why not? Peachy eating powder stuff, definitely he wanted that. Tickle-whip…yes, yes, and fuck, yes.

  She grinned. “Even the cock ring?”

  Damn, he’d forgotten about that thing. “Sure,” he said reluctantly. Maybe he could kick it under the bed and pretend it was lost. It wouldn’t be that difficult to pop it either, he imagined. It was just soft plastic. “And the Ben-Wa balls.”

  Ashley’s grin disappeared, though her breath caught. “We don’t need any of that junk, Lucas. All we need is each other.”

  “True. Very true.” He heartily agreed, except for one thing. He took her hand, started walking toward her bedroom, right past the tables of products. Spotting what he was looking for, he paused, turned to pull her into his arms.

  “Ashley,
I love you.” He kissed the side of her jaw, kissed her bottom lip, kissed her nose, knowing there was nothing logical about his feelings for her, but for once in his life not needing the answers.

  Ashley pressed her body to his, going up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I love you too, Lucas.”

  He reached behind him on the table, his fingers closing around what he wanted. Flicking it open, he slapped one ring of the fur-lined handcuffs on her wrist and clicked it shut.

  “What is that?” Ashley jerked back in shock, but he was already attaching the other end to his own wrist. “Lucas! You handcuffed us together!”

  “That was the plan.” He gave a jerk to test them. Ashley’s arm flew toward him. The leopard print fur was soft and comfortable against his skin. “I’m going to leave these on until you agree that we’re perfect for each other. That we’d be stupid not to go for it.”

  “Are you calling me stupid?” She flashed him a big smile, showing all her straight, white teeth. They were away from the light and half of her face was in shadows.

  Something in his gut told him now was the time. Go for it. Grab for everything he had ever wanted. “I’ll think you are if you don’t say yes.”

  “To what?” She put her hands on her hips, which meant his hand had to rest there too.

  “To getting married.”

  “Married?” Her jaw dropped. “Married?”

  Ashley slapped her hand over her mouth. Oh, God, he was serious. He was completely and totally serious. He was giving her that look—that intense, expectant look.

  “But we just…but we just…” she babbled, not sure what to say. It would be absurdly impulsive to say yes. It would be irresponsible to just leap into something so incredibly important as marriage without thinking it through.

  Too bad she wanted to say yes. She wanted to be with Lucas forever. She wanted to make him laugh, and she wanted to feel his hand steady on her back.

  And Lucas was logical, to the very depths of his soul. If he thought this made sense, then surely it must.

  It was time to trust her own instincts.