Chapter 5
FIVE
SOPHIE
Cliff unwraps a candle from butcher paper.
Squinting at the name on the bottom of the jar—English rose—he raises it to his nose. He makes a face and pulls it back.
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. He looks so horrified. Unfortunately, the little snort that slips out gives my amusement at his expense away.
He narrows his dark brown eyes. “Are you laughing at me?”
“Of course not.”
“Really? Because, to me, it sounded like you were laughing.”
A fresh urge to laugh bubbles inside of me, but I tamper it down. It would be rude of me to laugh at his struggle. Especially when he’s the one doing me a favor right now.
Part of me can’t believe he came. That he offered to help.
Winter has always spoken well of her brother. And my first impressions of him have been, well, better than I could have imagined. But that doesn’t mean I expected him to willingly sacrifice an evening of his life in the name of assembling welcome baskets for wedding guests.
It’s… nice. More than nice, actually.
The other part of me… The other part of me is having a hard time concentrating on the task at hand. I keep getting distracted watching the broad-shouldered, bearded man across from me at work.
He’s exactly the kind of man I could see myself—
Nope. I shake my head at myself. I’m not going down that road. I’ve already made my decision. I have a date with a vial of sperm. I don’t need a date with a mountain man.
Especially a mountain man who happens to be my best friend’s brooding big brother.
I catch my bottom lip before it can curve into a grin. “Why would I be laughing?”
“That’s a good question.” He studies me with that unblinking gaze of his. “I notice you haven’t answered it.”
“No.” I bite the inside of my cheek even harder. “Of course, I’m not laughing at you.”
“Right.” He caps the candle and slips it into one of the baskets along with a bundle of wooden matches. “Somehow I find that hard to believe.”
“Now you’re saying you don’t believe me?” I fake a gasp of shock and press a hand to my chest. “That isn’t very gentlemanly of you.”
“It’s a good thing no one has ever accused me of being a gentleman.”
The piercing look he offers with that statement could turn a woman into a puddle on the floor. Luckily, I’m made of sterner stuff.
He catches my stare and grins at me. I drop the candle I was holding.
Okay, so maybe I’m not quite so strong as I thought.
The jar rolls under the motel table and hits his foot. With a smirk, Cliff leans over and picks it up.
“Orange and bergamot,” he reads out loud. “What’s bergamot?”
“Something that might be more your flavor than roses.”
“I don’t have problems with roses,” he says.
“You didn’t look like you enjoyed the other candle.”
“That’s because it smells like baby powder.”
I almost tell him I picked that candle out myself, but keep the argument to myself. He’s not wrong. It does smell like a blend of roses and baby powder. That’s probably why I liked it. I do have babies on my brain.
Cliff opens the new candle and takes a whiff. He nods in approval. “You’re right. It is more my style.”
“Which is why we’re giving people the option between the two.”
“Makes sense.”
He hands the candle to me. Our fingers brush, his work-hardened finger sliding over the backs of mine.
My heart is still pounding as Cliff turns back to the basket in front of him. With a fresh frown, he attempts to wrap a ribbon around the basket handle.
I can’t help but watch as his big fingers struggle with the dainty ribbon.
“If you’ll just keep filling the baskets, I’ll take care of the ribbons,” I say. “They’re kind of tricky.”
“Thanks.” His gaze returns to mine, and it’s impossible to ignore the smolder in his eyes. Or the way said smolder makes my pulse quicken even more. At long last, he takes a deep breath and tears his gaze from mine. “I guess we should see what we have here.”
He reaches for another package. I’m so stupefied by the lingering effect of his stare, it takes me a moment to realize he’s grabbed something from the bachelorette party pile.
“Wait.” I shake my head, forcing myself to snap out of the stupor. “That one isn’t for the welcome baskets. It’s for—”
I cut myself off and wince as Cliff removes a black box with “HER PLEASURE” printed in a bold, hot pink font across it.
“That isn’t mine,” I blurt out.
He arches an eyebrow. “Then whose is it?”
Something about the way his voice grows husky as he says the last word makes a pulse beat between my thighs. Instinctively, I press my thighs together more tightly and bite back a groan as a jolt of pleasure bursts through me.
“I’m pretty sure these were sent by a personal product program your sister works with.” I wince and can feel my cheeks flush hot. “You… you probably don’t want to hear any more about that.”
“You’re right. I don’t want to talk about my sister having a history of passing out… toys to her friends.” He flips the device over in his hand. “I’d rather talk about why you claim you aren’t interested in them.”
The smoldering gaze he gives nearly knocks the breath clear out of my lungs.
“I didn’t say—” Actually, I did. “I didn’t mean… What I meant to say is…”
“What did you mean to say?”
I open my mouth and nothing comes out. Crap. I swear, the blood has completely left my head, making it impossible for me to draw a clear thought.
Releasing a frustrated breath, I ball my hands into fists on my knees. “I just meant that those are for the bachelorette party bags, and I don’t know much else about them.”
“Right.” He pushes a button and a blue light appears.
“Oh God. I didn’t realize they would be charged already. Usually you have to plug it in for a couple of hours first or change the…” I trail off as my cheeks flush again.
“There goes your story about not knowing anything about these guys.”
I lift my shoulders, because what else can I say or do.
“Of course I know how… those work.” I’m a single woman in her late twenties. “I still don’t know much about this particular device.”
“So you don’t know if it’s any good?”
“Nope.”
If the ground could just open up and swallow me whole, I’d be eternally grateful.
“Hmm.” He holds the button down again, and it buzzes to life. “Hold out your hand.”
My lips part in surprise. “What?”
“Your hand.” He stares into my eyes unblinking. “Hold out your hand.”
My pulse quickens as I do what he’s ordered.
“Good girl.” The corners of his lips twitch.
He lightly rubs the vibrating bulb against the palm of my hand. A shiver runs up my spine, and I gasp.
His smirk grows. “I’d say that’s a good first result.”
He slides it from my palm to the pulse on my wrist. It sends a throb through my veins and straight between my thighs.
I suck in a breath. “Oh.”
“Do you like that?”
I nod as he continues to lightly press it against my wrist, trailing it lightly against the smooth skin
“Good.” He nods toward the bed. “Sit.”
Ordinarily, I’d take exception to someone ordering me around. But at the moment, I’d flap my arms and cluck like a chicken if he asked me.
Seated on the edge of the bed, I take shallow breaths as he settles beside me. He’s still moving the vibrator up and down my forearm, sending more ripples of delight through me.
He lowers his head toward mine. His mouth pauses an inch from my neck. His hot breath tickles the sensitive skin behind my ear.
“What do you think about this?”
Painfully slowly, he trails the device up my arm, pausing briefly at the inside of my elbow, before continuing its upward progress. At my shoulder, he veers to the side and brings it down to my breast.
My nipples tighten, and I gasp out loud.
He chuckles and lowers his lips to my neck. He presses wet, open-mouthed kisses on my skin. Sucking lightly as he presses the vibrator to my puckered nipple sending wave after wave of growing desire through me.
“Oh…” My eyelids flutter. “Oh my.”
“Mmm.” He nibbles my neck. “I think we can aim for a little more than ‘Oh my.’”
Before I can tell him ‘Oh my’ isn’t a bad thing, he suddenly presses the wand between my thighs. I buckle up, my eyes crossing as he pushes it harder and releases, harder and releases. Teasing my clit. Tempting me.
Taking the pleasure already building inside of me to heights I never imagined.
“Oh God. Oh God. Cliff.”
Suddenly, he shuts the vibrator off. I open my eyes as he tosses it aside. “If you liked what that could do, just wait until you see what I can do.”
Then, he drops to the floor, tugging my leggings down my hips. He presses his mouth to my pussy. His tongue slides across my seam and finds my clit.
And then… then, there are no words.