Roommates Box Set #4-6

22. Flynn

22

FLYNN

Now that she’d stopped picking apart every single step of my plan, I hoped that Alyssa could appreciate the night air. Houses were always stuffy, and there was nothing I enjoyed more than the scent of the woods and all the possibilities they offered.

I moved in behind Alyssa and put my hands on her waist. She reached up and grabbed the highest rung of the ladder that she could reach. “Just let your bad leg dangle,” I told her.

She nodded and I lifted her up. She got her good leg on the rung, and then I lifted her to the next one. It got a little more complicated once she got a couple rungs up. By that time, I’d stepped onto the ladder, too, and couldn’t use both hands to lift her. But I solved that by snaking my arm around her waist and pulling her tightly back against me. Yeah, it was more difficult, but there were definitely a few perks to the process. Like enjoying the way her ass smashed against me.

When her head and shoulders were through the trap door, she put her hands on either side of the floorboards and hoisted herself up. Her clunky cast almost made contact with my head, but I was still impressed that she had the strength to do that. She rested for a moment with her sweet ass perched on the edge of the boards and her legs hanging below. Then she scooted back to make room for me.

“There’s a lantern over there in the corner,” I said, jerking my head in the proper direction. A moment later, dim light filled the room. I heard the sound of ice and knew that she’d found the bucket with the cold beer in it, too. Hey, I planned ahead when I lured a woman into the woods, or whatever the phrasing was that she’d used before.

Alyssa had her back to the wall of the treehouse with her long legs stretched out in front of her. When I joined her, she plucked the flashlight from my hands and panned the beam slowly over the interior of the treehouse. The engineer side of her was clearly in inspection mode, and I hoped she approved.

I’d been impressed with the floor plans she’d drawn up for the kids. Yeah, it was for an impossible structure, but even given that, she’d done a very careful, thorough job. It made me see why that tech place had hired her. Hell, it also made me wonder why no architectural firm had scooped her up.

I opened a beer and handed it to her, then another bottle for myself. It was quiet for a while as we drank, but Alyssa’s mind was busy. “We could put pillows in here so Charlotte and Lucas could play house. There’s even room for a hammock in the corner, if we wanted. They love the one on your deck.”

For some reason, I liked how she called it mine. Spencer and Raphael always seemed to think that I’d just donated it to them, and not like it was my claim to a piece of the house they shared.

I considered Alyssa’s hammock idea. It was far more practical than the sundae bar the kids had discussed, but I wasn’t convinced. “What’s to keep them from accidentally rolling out of the hammock and out the trap door?”

She then proceeded to tell me exactly what would prevent that—a series of anchors and safeguards—and I had to admit, I was impressed again. “I might have you design my next home.”

The lighting wasn’t strong, but I could clearly see the way her pink lips broke into a wide smile, and I suspected there was a flush on her cheeks. But then she took a long swallow of beer and her smile disappeared. “Why did you bring me here?”

Shit, no one let you do anything without exhaustively examining your motives these days. “Spence told me you’d been having trouble sleeping, and trouble filling the hours. I figured it was my turn to do something about that.”

Especially since I was the reason she was in that damn cast in the first place. But I kept my tone neutral. “And the clinic didn’t have any puppies at the moment.”

“A basket of kittens would’ve worked.”

I grinned. “They were all out of those, too.” I drained my beer and opened another one. “Why did you want to become an engineer?”

She started talking, but I was only half listening. I hadn’t been completely forthcoming about why I’d brought her here. It was true, of course, that I did think she was bored out of her mind at being stuck inside so much. But I hadn’t exactly sprung her out of the goodness of my heart.

No, this was more about the goodness of her heart. The way my brother, Rafe, and even the kids and Nana talked about her, it was clear they thought this woman was a saint. She seemed like an ordinary, though quite beautiful young woman, but hey, if she was a saint, then I intended to sign up for some salvation.

I needed it, especially with Lauren popping onto my property every few weeks like the personification of temptation. For years, it was a temptation I’d welcomed, but not anymore.

Well, that wasn’t quite true. My mind no longer welcomed her, but the parts south of my belt hadn’t gotten the message yet.

Alyssa was like the polar opposite of Lauren. Blonde where Lauren was a brunette. Wholesome and pure, where Lauren was like a walking advertisement for your darkest fantasies. Not to mention that Alyssa had saved Lucas, whereas Lauren had never given a crap about the kids.

So why had I stuck with Lauren for so long? Fuck, anyone who’d ever seen her could probably answer that. It wasn’t just me, either. She and Rafe had apparently been quite the wild couple in high school. I was sure as hell that she and Rafe had spent some quality time in this treehouse. Or perverted time, or whatever you wanted to call it.

Of course, he wasn’t like that anymore, but that didn’t stop Lauren from trying. Hell, she even thrust her world-class breasts at Spencer every chance she got, but he alone of the three of us had managed to resist. Not because he was a saint himself, but I was pretty sure he’d become a eunuch.

So yeah, everyone thought that Alyssa was an angel. I figured that if I spent more time with her, it might turn my blackened soul a few shades lighter.

Of course, ignoring her explanation about her love of engineering probably wasn’t the best way to begin that process. Dutifully, I pushed all other thoughts from my mind and tried to tune back in. But that plan was spoiled when I looked at how her nearly white hair glowed in the soft light.

Oh shit.

“Duck your head,” I told her.

After all the resistance she’d put up to riding Ember and coming out here, I expected a protest, but to my surprise, she did exactly what I said, leaning forward with her head down. I put my hand out and let the spider that had been dangling just over her head descend into my palm. He was a harmless little guy, not poisonous at all, but I reckoned she might not have seen it that way.

I leaned over and tossed him gently out the open window into the night. Alyssa straightened up and stared at me. “Was that a spider?”

Her voice wasn’t raised, but it wasn’t calm, either. “Yeah, but he’s gone now.”

“Was it—was it in my hair?” She sounded horrified, but again, she kept herself under control. Something told me I could really grow to like this woman.

“Nope, I got it first.”

She glanced up at the ceiling and slid closer to me, her cast dragging along the old wooden boards. “Are there more?”

We were in the middle of the fucking woods, so that was definitely a given, but I dutifully panned the flashlight over the roof of the treehouse. “I don’t see any.”

“No, in my hair,” she said. She scooted so close that her hip pressed against my thigh.

Putting down the flashlight, I ran my fingers through her hair, lifting and shaking it, though I doubted there was anything in there. All that happened was that a pleasant citrus smell reached my nostrils. I smoothed her hair back from her face and then ran my fingers along her scalp, a bit more leisurely this time.

Then she did something I didn’t expect—she moaned. And it wasn’t a thank god there are no more spiders moan, either. It was a moan of pleasure.

I froze—or at least most of me did. My cock twitched in my pants. I always did enjoy a deep, throaty moan from a pretty woman. But if there was ever a time to resist, this was it. My hands on any part of her could lead to danger.

Instead of tossing Alyssa on Ember’s back and getting us the hell out of here, I pressed my thumbs under the occipital bone at the back of her head and slid them upward.

Alyssa moaned again and let her head fall back into my hands. Huh. Hadn’t this woman been deathly afraid of spiders a moment ago? She sure as fuck didn’t seem to be worried about them now.

Her head lolled in my hands as I massaged her scalp, and her moans filled the treehouse. Hell, they probably carried all the way to the lake. Now I knew for sure that my brother and Raphael hadn’t tried anything with her—her moans would’ve alerted the whole house.

“You have no idea how good that feels.” Her voice was breathy and soft, which was ironic because it made my dick hard. I kept massaging her head, both because she’d had a crappy time of it lately and deserved some pleasure, and also because the way her silky hair glided over my fingers was rather hypnotic. But I didn’t have a great angle, since she was off to the side.

“Oh hell,” I muttered, and then I took her by the waist and slid her forward. I swung my leg around her back and then pulled her to me, pressing her fine ass against my cock.

Now that she was between my legs, I could do this the right way. “Lean forward a little.” She knew that this time, those words had nothing to do with spiders. Hell, if I had to guess, I’d say she’d forgotten the existence of arachnids.

A long time ago, a girlfriend had dragged me to some kind of lame couples’ retreat that had included a few lessons in massage. I hadn’t been aware that any of that knowledge had stuck, but clearly it had. It probably didn’t hurt that I was a veterinarian. Though she was far different than my usual clients, I had a better understanding of anatomy than most.

That thought made my stomach give a sickening lurch, and all of a sudden, I could see myself crouching down on the pavement over a bleeding and nearly unconscious woman and putting my hands on her very crooked leg. But I pushed that thought away with a violent mental shove and pressed down harder on Alyssa’s skull. She squirmed slightly, and I eased off. Soon, her moans filled the night again.

I focused my thumbs at the back of her neck, and her head dipped forward, as if she no longer had the strength to hold it up. I moved to her shoulders, rubbing them with a strong touch. She didn’t strike me as the kind of woman you needed to go extra gentle with—except for her leg, of course.

The harder I squeezed and rubbed, the more she moaned.

I wondered if she was wet.

My fingers dug into the knots in her shoulders, and I pushed aside her flimsy dress and bra straps to really work the muscles. Her hands landed on my calves, and she clutched me as if for support as I massaged her shoulders.

Then she straightened up, her hair flying backward in an arc that almost hit my face. Wondering if she was done with this, I used a lighter touch on her neck. She reached up and covered one of my hands with her own, and I figured that meant she was finished.

I was very, very wrong.

She grasped my hand and tugged, sliding it down past her collarbone. Then she dragged my hand over her perky tit and pressed it there.

Holy fucking hell.

Had she really just done that? Yes, obviously, because she was still holding my hand there, right on top of her firm breast. I could even feel her hardened nipple through the fabric.

Shit, she was supposed to be salvation, not temptation. Fuck. I didn’t know what I should do, but that didn’t stop my other hand from sliding around and cupping her on the other side.

“This isn’t a good idea,” I whispered as I kneaded her sweet tits. It probably didn’t help my case that I spoke in a low voice, my lips an inch from her ear.

“Why not?” Her voice was equally quiet.

“Because you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. You wouldn’t like the way I play.”

“Try me.”

All right, that was unexpected. But wasn’t I already trying her, rubbing her tits through her soft dress? “I’m serious. I’m not the right man for this. There are two men back at the house who’d welcome this invitation.” If they even remembered what to do with a woman, that was.

“I want you,” she said, and if there were more flattering words in the English language, I didn’t know what they were. My cock was already rock-hard, trapped in my jeans, but I swore it grew more. She seemed to think so too, because she wiggled her ass back against it.

“Why?”

That stumped her. “I—I just… I’ve been having these dirty dreams, and even when I’m awake, I’ll see one of the guys and for some reason, I just get so turned on. I don't know why; I’ve never been like this before.”

Oh, that was just fantastic. She was doing this because Spencer and Rafe had gotten her hot and bothered. She was horny for them—I was just the one available to scratch her itch.

Except… I wasn’t sure that was true. I hadn’t been around her much, but I’d seen the way she looked at me from time to time. She was nowhere near as blatant as Lauren, but I knew when a woman found me attractive.

Reluctantly, I dropped my hands, letting my wrists rest on her thighs. I curled my fingers up against my palms so I wouldn’t risk touching something that would get me in more trouble. “I think Spencer or Raphael would be more your speed.”

The little minx picked up my hands and put them back on her breasts. Almost of their own accord, my thumbs found her nipples and rubbed circles.

Holy shit. And here I’d thought she was an angel. Of course, this kind of brazen woman was far more my type.

“You’re playing with fire, little girl.”

“Good,” she said resolutely, running her hands up and down my jeans-covered thighs.

“You say that, but do you really mean it?” My voice was husky as I leaned against her. I was pretty sure I heard her audibly gulp. “What if I tell you to open your legs?”

To her credit, she didn’t miss a beat. With my legs on either side of hers, she couldn’t move very much, but she hooked her good leg around mine, spreading herself for me. My hands ached to drop down between her thighs, but I didn’t.

“What if I ordered you to open your mouth?”

I felt her jaw open, and I immediately slid one finger up to touch her soft lips. I trailed my index finger around her lips. There was nothing hotter than a woman with her mouth in the shape of an O.

Shit. All I was doing was turning her on rather than frightening her off. She must really be desperate for some release. Time to up the ante. “Take off your dress.”

I didn’t really think she’d do it, and at first, she didn’t. She just froze, and I could feel her body tremble against mine. Sure, I was being an asshole, but it was for her own good. But then she started to obey.

She was sitting on the edge of the dress, and rather than trying to pull it out from under her, she tugged at the neckline, pulling it off her shoulders. The damn thing was so stretchy that it slid down her arms and then over the swell of her breasts. She slipped her arms out, and the dress pooled at her hips.

Holy shit. I couldn’t help cupping her again. Her bra, from what I could feel of it, was some kind of dark mesh. I bet it would be easy to see her nipples through it with better lighting.

She moaned as I squeezed her. I couldn’t resist pinching her nipples through the thin fabric, and she let out a squeak—and then went right back to moaning. “Is that all you’ve got?”

Clearly, she knew I was testing her. Time to go for broke. “Get on your knees.”

She froze, as that very unsubtle command filled the night air. Then a sob ripped from her throat. Fuck, I’d gone too far. “You don’t have to.”

The sound came again, except this time it dawned on me that maybe it wasn’t a sob. “That’s good to know,” she said, “because I physically can’t get on my knees without taking a saw to my cast.”

Was she actually laughing? What the fuck was wrong with this woman? She was supposed to be scared and shocked, not laughing at my boneheaded mistake.

“Come here.” I scooped her up like I had when I carried her down the stairs. But this time, I positioned her sideways across my lap with her ass on one of my thighs and her legs sticking straight out on the other side

Fisting her hair, I angled her head back and brought my mouth crashing down on hers. I wasn’t gentle, and by this point, I was sure she wasn’t expecting me to be. She moaned deep in her throat as I ravished her mouth, and I brought my free hand up to play with her tit.

This time, I pushed the flimsy cup up and replaced it with my hand. It fit so well in my palm and felt so good when I kneaded it. It was like clockwork—I squeezed her tit, she moaned. I tweaked her nipple, she moaned. Maybe it was time to see what I could do to make her scream.

I pinched her nipple, hard, and there was a loud gasp. Something bothered me about it, but at first I couldn’t figure out why. It took me a second longer to realize that gasp hadn’t been hers.

She pulled her lips away from mine and we both looked up.

Raphael was on the ladder, his head inside the treehouse, his mouth open in shock.

Fuck.

Shit, fuck, fucking hell. I tugged down Alyssa’s bra until it covered her, but she didn’t even appear to notice.

“Raphael?” she whispered.

He stared at her in the dim lighting. “I, uh, brought your sweater. I thought you might be cold or ready to go back inside…” He trailed off and disappeared into the night.

“Wait, please!” Alyssa cried, but he didn’t return. “No, no, no,” she moaned, this time not in a sexy way. She grabbed the neck of my t-shirt. “You have to go after him.”

What the hell? “He’s a grown man.”

Panic made her words come out in a rush. “No, you have to, you have to bring him back.” Holy shit, she actually pulled on my shirt and tried to shake me. She weighed about five pounds, and she was trying to shake me . “Please, you have to go. I can’t run after him, but you can.”

“Alyssa—”

“Please?” I could hear the desperation in her voice, though I didn’t have time to analyze it. “Please, please go get him for me.”

Wordlessly, I nodded, and she let go of my shirt. I lowered myself out of the trapdoor, dropping to the ground without bothering with the ladder. Then I almost crashed into Ember, having completely forgotten about her. I gave her a quick pat and then jogged in the direction of the house.

Raphael wasn’t far ahead.

“Wait up, man.”

He ignored me. I caught up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, half expecting him to take a swing at me. Instead, he shook me off.

“You’ve got to go back,” I said. “She really wants to talk to you.”

“So?” His tone and his posture said he didn’t care—except I thought maybe he did.

“Look, I’m sorry you saw that, but she’d be running after you herself if she could. Since she can’t, she begged me to do it.”

Raphael sighed. “Just tell her it’s okay. It’s not a big deal—she can do whatever she wants.”

“She wants to talk to you. She’s really upset.”

Rafe turned to go, but I grabbed his arm and turned him to face me. “You’re a fucking hypocrite.” Rafe looked more astonished than angry. I never spoke to him like that.

“You and Lauren used to fuck like rabbit in these woods — and hell, probably in that treehouse — all through high school. What right do you have to judge her?”

“Nana told you that?”

“ Lauren told me that.”

Comprehension dawned on his face. I couldn’t believe he didn’t know about me and Lauren. It wasn’t like she was the type to kiss and not tell. But then again, we’d been fairly discreet because of the kids, so maybe he really hadn’t known.

Rafe’s shoulders slumped. “I wasn’t judging her.” After a moment, he added, “Or you. I just didn’t expect to see that.”

“But you did, and nothing’s going to change that. Are you going to come back? She’s probably up there tearing her hair out.”

Rafe sighed again. I figured it could go either way. But then he nodded and headed back toward the treehouse.