Chapter Fourteen
Alexei
Now that I know how perfect Ryleigh feels writhing beneath me, how deliciously tight she is, the sounds she makes during sex that drive me insane, I’m having a hard time keeping my hands to myself and my dick in my gym shorts.
It’s entirely inappropriate, yes. I know I promised myself I’d be a gentleman and that I’d help her because it’s the right thing to do, not because I want something from her.
Expecting physical pleasure in exchange for being a nice guy, thinking she’d share her body with me just because I gave her a warm place to sleep?
That would make me no better than the creepy pricks who hassle her at work.
“So, what are you in the mood for?” Ryleigh asks, opening the fridge and peering inside.
Her ass looks so sexy in the yoga pants she’s wearing, that it’s instinct when I step up behind her and take her hips in my hands, tugging her back toward me.
“This,” I murmur, kissing the back of her neck.
She chuckles and arches into me, bringing her curvy ass directly in line with my growing cock.
For once, food isn’t the only thing on my mind, and since Ella is enjoying one of her late-afternoon naps, I figure we can delay dinner for a little while longer.
I bring my lips to the back of Ryleigh’s neck and press a tender kiss there. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you at practice.”
“Mmm,” she murmurs, her soft curves teasing me.
“Have you ever tried running forty yards with an erection?” I whisper against her neck.
Ryleigh chuckles. “Can’t say I have.”
My hands move from her hips to her perky tits, and I groan when I fill my hands with them. When my thumbs run over the firm peaks of her nipples, Ryleigh lets out a soft moan.
“You hungry?” I ask as the fridge door closes on its own.
She rocks her ass against me again, finding the ridge in my pants and grinding against it. “Yes, but not for food.”
I smile. Perfect.
My palms slide from her breasts down over her stomach, and I dip a hand under the elastic band of her yoga pants. Pushing my fingers inside her panties, I apply light, teasing pressure as Ryleigh arches and moans into my touch. She’s already getting wet.
“You get me so hard, baby. You feel that?” I shift my hips and rub my steely erection against her ass.
After one more naughty thrust between her perfect ass cheeks, I spin her in my arms and take her mouth in a hot, searing kiss. Ryleigh matches my enthusiasm, her tongue moving with mine.
I’m about three seconds away from lifting her to the kitchen counter and taking her right here when my intercom system beeps at us.
Ryleigh pulls back, confusion painted all over her lust-filled features. “What’s that?”
Shit. It must be someone in my family. They’re the only people the security staff is instructed to let in.
I pull a deep breath into my lungs and cross the room to the screen mounted on the wall. I tap a button. “Yes?”
“Alexei. It’s Valerie.”
Fuck. I inhale a ragged breath and press the button to let her in, then turn to meet Ryleigh’s confused expression. “It’s my little sister.”
I have just enough time to adjust my cock in my boxers before the door bursts open to a crying seventeen-year-old.
“It’s official,” she chokes out between sobs. “I hate all men.”
I open my arms and Valerie charges me, coming in for a hug and then crying against my chest. Ryleigh’s eyes widen as she watches us.
When I clear my throat, Valerie steps back. “Oh. I didn’t know you had company.”
I nod. “This is my friend Ryleigh. She and Ella are hanging out for a bit. That okay with you?”
“Ella?” Valerie asks, her thin brows rising.
Ryleigh crosses the kitchen and offers Valerie her hand. My sister quickly wipes at her cheeks before shaking Ryleigh’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, and yeah, Ella is a baby I’m, um, babysitting for a little while.”
Smooth. And probably a bit easier than getting into the truth right now.
Valerie seems to buy it, and nods before turning to face me again. “Seriously, though, your species is fucked up, Lex.”
“Language, Val.” I frown. “And men are not a separate species.”
“They might as well be,” she snaps back, gesturing wildly.
I lead her to the couch, and we sink into the cushions side by side. “Come tell me all about it. You hungry?”
She shrugs.
“Ryleigh and I were just discussing dinner. Stay and eat. And then you can tell me whose ass I need to kick.” I flex my biceps for good measure.
This gets a smirk out of Valerie, followed by a dramatic sigh. “Tempting offer . . .”
“You want to eat with us or what?” I ask again. I’m always hungry, but it is dinnertime. If I send her home hungry, my mother will have something to say about that.
Valerie shakes her head. “I don’t want to impose.”
“You’re not. We were just about to make something,” Ryleigh says.
We were actually just about to squeeze in some sex before dinner too, but my sister doesn’t need to know that. I’m pleased to see that Ryleigh’s not thrown off or annoyed by this unexpected intrusion. Maybe she’s just curious to see me in big-brother mode.
“Actually, let’s order takeout so you don’t have to cook.”
Ryleigh nods. “Whatever you guys want. I don’t mind either way.”
I grab the stack of takeout menus I keep in the kitchen drawer and hand them out to the girls. “Thai. Mediterranean. Japanese. Italian. Mexican.”
“Mexican,” they both say at once.
I call in the order on my phone and settle back down beside Valerie. Even though she’s putting on a brave front, for her to drive over here means something’s really wrong.
“So, tell me what happened,” I say gently.
Valerie looks down, picking at her thumbnail. “What kind of asshat breaks up with someone right before the winter formal? Now I don’t have a date to the dance.”
I rise to my feet. What a punk ass kid. “I’ll go talk to him, set him straight.”
She grabs my arm and gives it a tug. “Oh no, you don’t.”
I look over to Ryleigh, and she’s biting back a grin. I recall then the fact that she’s an only child and has never had someone to play the concerned older brother for her.
Releasing a heavy exhale, I drop back onto the couch beside my youngest sister.
She’s changed so much these last couple of years after discovering makeup and boys.
You’d think that since I already went through this with my other two sisters, I’d be used to the drill.
But when I look at Valerie, I still see the skinny, annoying seven-year-old she was when I moved out of the house ten years ago.
I’m having a hard time adjusting to the fact that she’s nearly a grown woman.
“We’d only been out a couple of times, but I was happy knowing I had someone to go to the dance with. I bought a dress and everything,” Valerie says.
Ryleigh leans forward and places her hand on Valerie’s. “Guys aren’t everything. Trust me. My friends and I used to go to the school dances together, and we always had way more fun than our friends whose brought dates.”
Valerie looks up. “Really, why?”
Ryleigh shrugs, her posture casual. “Their dates didn’t like to dance and so they were stuck there on the sidelines, not sure whether to hang out with the person who brought them or just go have fun with their friends.
If you don’t have a date tethering you to one spot…
you can hang out with friends, dance if there’s a song you like…
it gives you freedom to just actually enjoy the night. ”
“I like that plan,” I say, smirking.
Valerie rolls her eyes. “Of course you do.”
Ryleigh releases Valerie’s hand and sits back. “I promise you’ll still have fun. Probably more fun because you won’t have to worry about if your date is having a good time.”
Valerie thinks it over. “My friend Sara is going alone.”
Ryleigh nods. “There you go.”
Satisfied that the problem is solved, Ryleigh gets up with the intention of checking on Ella, if I had to guess, or maybe just to give us a minute alone.
Valerie shoots me a look, and I sense that she wants to ask more about who Ryleigh is and exactly what she’s doing staying here. It’s rare for me to have a woman here, and I’m sure it’s nothing Valerie’s ever seen before.
But since I’m not ready to answer any questions about that yet, I pull her in for a quick hug. “You okay now?”
She nods. “I’m fine now.” Then she raises her eyebrows dramatically a few times. “So, Ryleigh? Spill it, bro. I need deets.”
“Shut it. Let’s eat, yeah?”
She purses her lips and pouts.
“No more questions, and I’ll take you out for ice cream later.”
“Gelato, and you have a deal,” Valerie says, smiling.
As if I could say no to that. “Deal.”