Craving Him

3

Ben

I let Emmy sleep in while I prepared coffee, toasted bagels, and sliced some fruit. Perfectly timed, my beautiful girl came strolling out of the bedroom thirty minutes later. Just the sight of her, sleepy and walking toward me barefoot across my space, made my heart pump faster. She meant everything to me and I’d never risk losing her again.

Her hair was mussed, tangled, and sticking up in odd directions and she was dressed in a pair of my boxer briefs, which hung off her hips in a really sexy way, and an old tank top of mine I used for working out. She looked so fuckable. I wanted to tear the boxers down her legs and take her on the kitchen counter.

Fuck.

“Morning.” My voice came out strangled. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she returned, her voice whisper soft.

“Would you like some coffee?”

She nodded.

I poured her a mug of coffee and Emmy grabbed some plates for our breakfast. I liked being side by side with her in my kitchen. It felt very natural. I had my other half back.

“Do you have plans tonight?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I was just planning on looking for more jobs to apply to.”

“I was wondering if you’d come to an industry thing with me tonight.”

“An industry thing?”

“Yeah, it’s like a cocktail mixer for designers, photographers, and models. I should probably go for a little bit and I was hoping you’d be free to come with me.”

Emmy placed some sliced berries on her plate, keeping her eyes down. “Will Fiona be there?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Oh.” She dropped her chin to her chest.

“Hey.” I set the carton of milk on the counter and stepped closer, tipping her chin up to meet my eyes. “We’re not going to hide what we have from her. We have no reason to tiptoe around her.”

She inhaled deeply. “You’re right. It’ll just be hard. I haven’t seen her since . . . you know, everything went down. . . .”

“I know. But I’ll be right by your side the whole night. Braydon will be there, too. We could even invite Ellie, make a night of it. It could be fun.”

She nodded, a little smile curling her mouth. “Yeah, okay. I’ll ask Ellie about it. We usually don’t do much besides catch up on TV shows on Sunday night anyways.”

“Come here.” I opened my arms and Emmy willingly walked into them. Pulling her against my chest, I hated the way her mouth had pressed into a firm line at the mention of Fiona’s name. I wanted to take away all her painful memories and make new ones that made her smile. “You sleep okay?” I wanted to get back to a lighter mood between us. Things had been too tense lately.

She nodded, wrapping her arms around my waist. It was no coincidence that I’d left my shirt off. I wasn’t going to pressure her into sex, but hell, I was still a guy and the idea of tempting her a bit was just too much to pass up. Her little hands skittered up my sides over my ribs. Then her fingers dug in and twisted, tickling me.

“Ah! Hey now . . .” I stepped back out of her reach. The little brat.

She laughed softly. “I wanted to see if you were ticklish.”

“Yeah?” I stepped in closer, narrowing my eyes. “You sure you want to get into a tickle war with me?” I crackled my knuckles. “Because I can be ruthless, baby.”

Emmy lifted an arched brow and took a step back. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh I would.” I stepped closer to her then stopped myself. “I’ll give you a head start.” My eyes flicked to the bedroom then back to her, mischievously. Emmy took off running. Her ass looked so fucking cute, filling out the boxers in a way I never would.

Sprinting to the bedroom, I found her perched on the bed resting on her knees, pillow in hand like she was ready for battle. I liked seeing her playful side. As soon as I got close enough, whump, she hit me square in the chest with the pillow.

“Uh-oh, someone’s being a naughty girl.” I reached out to remove the weapon from her hand. “Let’s just place this over here.” I dropped the pillow to the floor beside the bed and climbed toward her like a cheetah stalking a gazelle. A sexy fucking gazelle. That I wanted to nail. Badly.

Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip again and she watched me approach.

In a single quick maneuver, I had her on her back. I pinned her wrists above her head, my body holding hers hostage with my weight on top of her.

Emmy, now restrained against the bed, only had the use of her legs. She wrapped those around my hips, tugging against me. “You think that’s going to help you get away?” I whispered.

She pulled in a shuddering breath, growing quiet. Her eyes were huge, watching mine, waiting to see what I’d do.

The feel of her body struggling against mine, her soft breath tickling my neck, her hips bucking underneath me . . . shit. I was hard. And the thin athletic shorts provided very little in the way of a barrier. Her body froze midstruggle as awareness hit her. The entire mood of our playful wrestling match changed in an instant.

My erection nudged at her center.

Emmy whimpered.

Fuck, so this little thing liked being restrained. That information was not helping. I needed to keep my mind out of the damn gutter.

Emmy pressed her hips up, grinding against my dick. Fuck, that felt good. I needed to explain to him that he couldn’t go in there. In that warm, tight channel . . . yeah, thinking about it was so not helping. I held my breath, waiting for the sensation to pass. I counted backward from ten. I thought about sports, math equations, world hunger . . . yeah, nothing was going to help this monster of an erection. I wanted her. Bad.

I imagined ripping off her shorts then pushing down my own and sinking into her. Right here, right now. I’d fuck her slowly, holding her wrists in my hands. I’d fuck her until she was moaning out my name. My cock twitched in my shorts. Shit. It was either fuck her senseless or walk away. I couldn’t take this torture.

“I’m going to, um, shower. Then I’ll drive you home.”

She nodded, wordlessly, her breath coming in little gasps.

And I was going to jerk off in the shower, too, but she didn’t need to know that part.