Coming Undone Part 6

She did, mainly because he told her to and his tone had tightened her nipples. But once she had, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the sight of his c.o.c.k disappearing into her body over and over. His hands looked so large as they lay against her hip bones, his skin tone olive to her pale-the contrast striking.

Her hair had grown a lot over the past two years, and she felt the cool tickle of it against her lower back. She tipped her head back, arching, taking him deeper, knowing too that the tips of her hair brushed against his lower belly.

He made her feel like the s.e.xiest woman in the universe, bold enough to look at herself in the mirror and hold her gaze there. She still liked her body; she looked good for her age, fit, even as parts of her were broken down.

But the way he looked at her made her feel like a movie star.

She straightened and inched forward, experimenting with her range of movement to keep him within her while she moved. His hands on her hips tightened, so she supposed he liked what she was doing with the small swivel of her hips as she slid back, her body taking his c.o.c.k deep each time she moved all the way back.

"Touch my b.a.l.l.s," he groaned, and she did. Experimenting with holding them, still sticky and warm from her own juices as she'd been on top of him. To judge her progress, she listened to his breathing and the sounds he was making. "Yes, that's nice." He groaned when she ran the edge of her nails across the skin of his sac ever so gently.

She wanted to know more. Wanted to know what pleased him. Wanted to know everything, and at the same time felt like such a novice for not knowing everything already.

"Touch yourself for me. Touch your c.l.i.t. Make yourself come while I'm inside you."

She burned, turned on and embarra.s.sed all at once. It wasn't like she'd never made herself come. Just never for another person, not while they were watching!

"It's okay if you don't want to."

She'd be an idiot not to want to. She was naked, bent over him, f.u.c.king him for goodness' sake! It wasn't as if it would be inappropriate for the situation or anything.

Watching herself, she dipped her middle finger to slide around where they were joined, and dragged that lube up to her c.l.i.t. They both hissed at the contact. Ripples of pleasure rolled through her body and she fell into that, shoving her embarra.s.sment away.

"So hot. There's nothing hotter in the world than watching you, with your fingers working your c.l.i.t, your c.u.n.t sucking my c.o.c.k inside, your t.i.ts jiggling just so. d.a.m.n, you're s.e.xy."

Her gaze let go of her hand and moved to meet his eyes in the mirror. They remained that way, even as o.r.g.a.s.m stole over her and took him just moments later. Something pa.s.sed between them, addictive and sweet, sticky and heady, and like an addict, she wanted more.

"I like your hair down," he said, handing her a cup of coffee.

"Thanks. It gets in the way, so I usually have it up. I should just cut it, but old habits die hard." She smiled, settling into the chair across from his.

"Don't. It's beautiful. What do you mean about old habits?"

"Dancing. It's easier to keep out of your face if it's long enough to be up. I've had long hair for as long as I can remember. For a while it was shoulder-length." Her gaze went hooded, wary, and he wondered what that was about. "This is the longest it's been in years though. Rennie likes to brush it at night." She shrugged. "It's sweet mom/daughter time."

"So how long have you been dancing then?" He sipped his coffee and watched the precise way she held her mug, drank, placed the cup down and ran the pad of her finger over the handle before letting go.

"My mother put me in this artsy type preschool program and I took to ballet right away. I was three."

"Artsy family. Your parents and you. Your brother too?"

She took a deep breath. "He sang. Opera. Had a voice-my G.o.d, his voice was something else. My parents were convinced he would be a superstar one day."

"What happened?"

She paused, licking her lips. "He could have been a superstar. He was that amazing. So much talent. He had so much inside. You'd cry to hear him sing because his emotion rang so clearly, or laugh-whatever, he was evocative because he felt everything so much. Which was his problem as well as his gift. He liked drugs. He liked women. He liked fast cars and living on the edge. Being with him was exhausting sometimes. He just sucked everything he could from life, but it made him"-she licked her lips, taking a sip of her coffee, and he pretended not to see the tears she blinked back-"it made him unstable. He had problems and he attracted other people with problems. Went to rehab more than once, began to ruin his voice; you can't smoke heroin and cigarettes and not hurt yourself." She shook her head and sat up. "He overdosed and died alone because he'd estranged himself from everyone. We didn't know for a week. Finally, his landlord called me. I was in the middle of a storm of my own. I didn't see it had gotten that bad. Or maybe I didn't want to see. Coulda, shoulda, woulda."

"I know what it's like to see someone you love fall away from you like that. I know that helplessness." He took her hand. "I'm sorry. How long ago was it?"

"Five years."

"I'm sorry. When we lost Adele-that was my niece's name- when we lost her and nearly lost Erin, Adrian and I at least had each other to rely on while we did our best to keep Erin from sinking."

"My parents are good people. They didn't deserve what we brought to them. They deserve peace."

Oh man, there was a story there. "You wanna tell me about it?"

She exhaled sharply and drained her mug. "I've got to get going, so I'll spare you my sob story. I've got a cla.s.s this morning. These girls are advanced, so they keep me on my toes."

He let it go and hoped she'd unburden herself sometime. Whatever they did in bed, he was still her friend. Or he wanted to be. He liked the widow Sorenson a great deal.

"Let me walk you out then." He took her hand and they walked across the street. She tossed her gear into her backseat and climbed into the front seat. How oddly normal the moment was.

"See you later, Brody. Thanks for this morning. My muscles are nice and warmed up."

"Would that every day started off this good." He kissed her quickly and stepped back to watch her drive away.

8.

Elise looked through her front windows to catch sight of a bunch of cars out in front of Brody's place. c.r.a.p. She didn't want to be out there with Rennie and have him think she was watching him or something suitably creepy or stalkery.

"Let's go, Momma!" Rennie balanced on her inline skates. The day was gorgeous; it was now mid-fall, so there was a chill in the air but the sun was out. Perfect for skating.

She tightened Rennie's helmet and made sure her kneepads were on tight enough. There would be no avoiding it, and if they moved quickly, they could head to the park and he wouldn't even see them.

"Let's go to the park. It looks like there's a lot of traffic out here today."

Rennie squealed her approval of that idea, and they headed out carefully as Elise locked up the house and they descended the steps.

"Hey there! Elise and Rennie, how are you?"

d.a.m.n and double d.a.m.n.

"Hi there, Adrian!" Rennie called out, looking both ways and then skating across the street where Brody's brother stood at the edge of the lawn.

"Good afternoon, Adrian. It's a pretty day, Rennie and I are headed to the park." Let's go before Brody comes out. Let's go before Brody comes out.

"Wait a sec. Before you two go, I know Erin wanted to meet you." He turned and bellowed his sister's name, and Elise managed to get her helmet off, hoping she didn't look too bad.

"Yeah, no one would ever know you can belt it out to the back rows with that yell," a woman shouted as she came through the back gate toward them.

"Wow, your hair looks like cotton candy. That is wicked awesome." Rennie's voice was tinged with awe.

"You must be Rennie and her mom, Elise." The pink-haired woman had to be Erin. Elise recognized her features from the CD covers she'd been on. She also saw the pain, chased by tenderness, in the woman's eyes when she'd looked at Rennie. "I'm Erin. I'm glad to finally meet you two so I could thank you for helping Brody."

Elise shook Erin's hand and smiled. "It wasn't like I could just leave him in the gutter. Really it wasn't a big deal." She tried to edge away, but Rennie was fascinated by that cloud of pink hair and stayed in place, staring up at Erin.

"Momma, I want my hair to look like that. Can I get it pink? Please? Pink is my favorite color and so that would be really cool."

"You can have it pink in the summer when you aren't in school if you still want it pink then." She looked back to Erin and Adrian. "It was nice to meet you, Erin, and to see you again, Adrian."

"Anyone seen Erin?" Brody called from inside the backyard.

"Out here!" Erin called back.

"Well, we really should be going and let you guys get back to your day."

"Elise and Rennie. Just the ladies I wanted to see." Brody walked out the open gate, and Elise saw quite the crowd gathered back there.

She waved, but Rennie hobbled over on her skates to give Brody a hug before starting to chatter. Brody, to his credit, appeared to be listening and nodded in all the appropriate places.

When Rennie finally slowed down, Brody looked up and caught Elise's attention. "You two busy today? We're having a barbecue. Adrian just went triple platinum, so we thought we should celebrate. We've got burgers, dogs, salmon and even veggie burgers if you're so inclined. Cream soda and ice cream for later too."

He was just so, gah gah, she shouldn't let herself be so attracted to him, but that pull, that draw they both clearly felt, zinged between them.

"Ice cream? Momma, can we?"

"I don't want to intrude on your family celebration."

Erin took her hand and squeezed it. "We'd love to have you. There are a few other kiddos back there for Rennie to play with too."

"It's a ragtag group. They'll fall out of their chairs when you come through. So pretty." Adrian winked at her, and Brody moved closer, b.u.mping his brother with his body.

"You wouldn't be intruding. I was headed over to invite you two anyway. I would have come by earlier, but I didn't know I was having a barbecue today until Erin showed up." He shot his sister a look and she simply shrugged.

Erin grinned, appearing totally unrepentant. "Your backyard is big. It's a nice day. Adrian's place doesn't have all the parking yours does. Plus, you know you love it."

He snorted and looked back to Elise. "So?"

"Okay. Okay. But you can't complain when she gets hopped up on sugar and starts talking a mile a minute."

Brody tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear and she nearly melted on the spot. "All right."

"Can I bring anything? I mean, I can toss something together." Great, her voice went all breathy and his sister totally noticed.

"Just you and Rennie will be fine."

"We just need to take off our skates and stuff. We'll be right back!" Rennie pulled on Elise's arm, so she followed her daughter.

"Just come through the back gate when you're ready," he called as they left.

"She's very pretty." Erin looked at her older brother as they headed into the backyard.

"And nice. Great kid." Adrian was so so helpful. helpful.

"A girl would have to be blind or dead not to see the way you looked at each other. When did that start?" That her brother had never actually looked at a woman that way interested Erin greatly. When he'd tucked her hair back, so gentle and sweet, Erin had seen the chemistry between them written all over their body language.

Brody paused, looked at her and gave up. "About a month. She's got a business to build up, I have a business to keep afloat, she has a kid. We . . . It's very casual. I like her. She's a friend and we have chemistry. Like wicked crazy chemistry. She pushes my b.u.t.tons in a big way. I gotta tell you, it's really good to be me right about now. It's not so much a secret, but we're keeping it mellow around the kid. She's a good kid."

"Reminds me a lot of you." Adrian pulled Erin's hair.

"This is exclusive?" Erin looked to Raven, who sat on the other side of the yard. Raven wasn't Brody's girlfriend, hadn't been for years, but they occasionally slept together, or had in the past, and Erin wondered how strong Brody's feelings still were for their friend. This brewing thing between him and the lovely lady from across the street had a lot of potential. Erin loved Raven like a sister, but Raven left lovesick men and women in her wake, and Erin didn't much like it that Brody had been one.

"We're not dating. Not really. But we agreed to not have s.e.x with anyone else. It's not too much to ask." He shrugged.

"I didn't say it was and I agree. I was just thinking you might want to, you know, keep some s.p.a.ce from Raven if Elise is here. Elise may not be familiar with Raven's type and get the wrong idea."

"There are kids here, Raven'll behave."

Zing. Point went right over Brody's head like the dumb man he was. Brody having women he slept with was one thing. Raven wouldn't care about that. But Erin wondered how Raven would react to seeing her brother totally into another woman emotionally.

She looked to Todd, who sent her a shrug of his own. Men Men.

Rennie bounced ahead of her mother and Elise kept an eye out as she tried not to be nervous. Brody's backyard was filled with people, and true to Erin's claim, there were at least five other kids, all around Rennie's age, running around back there.

"Hi again, come on in," Brody called from his place up on the deck. Several people looked up to take her in. Erin waved and came over, grinning, holding hands with two kids.

"Hi, Nina!" Rennie began to chatter with the other little girl, and the boy bounced off.

"Rennie is in my cla.s.s," Nina looked up to exclaim. "Come on, we're getting ready to play soccer."

"Bye, Momma!" Rennie scampered off, and Elise felt a tug in her chest where the other half of her heart lived. As lovely as it was to see her daughter make friends and like her new life, she was growing up at what seemed to Elise to be an alarming rate. "They're good kids. Brody's yard is secure. Nina and Mase belong to Arvin, he's the manager of Brody's shop. He and his wife live just two blocks over. The others, heck, Rennie probably knows a few more, as many of us live within a mile or so. Wow, you're a ballerina. That's awesome." Erin finally wound down, and Elise couldn't help but be charmed.

"Not as awesome as being a rock star."

An extremely handsome man came up to them, handed Erin a bottle of cream soda, kissed her gently and grinned at Elise. "Hi there, I'm Todd, Erin's husband. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Nice to meet you. I'm Elise. Um, sure. One of those would be good, thanks." She indicated the cream soda and he moved away to grab her one. "He's pretty."

Erin laughed. "He is. I have two of them, so I hope you're not offended."

"Two of what?"

"Todd is my husband, but Ben . . ." She paused, looking around until she smiled again and pointed out another man, this one bigger than Todd but just as ridiculously good-looking. "Ben is ours too. Our husband but without the paperwork."

Was this a test? "Lucky you." Elise shrugged. "That one is pretty too."

Erin seemed to relax a bit. "I am lucky. They're both . . . Well, to find one person to love is special enough, but to find two and to be loved just as much in return, it's pretty amazing."

"h.e.l.lo? Why are you bogarting my guest?" Brody called out, and Elise craned her neck to see him better. He grinned, a very close approximation of the smile his sister had worn just a few minutes before. "What can I get you? A dog? Burger? Salmon?"

Todd returned and handed her a cream soda. She thanked him before heading up the steps to where Brody stood behind a fancyschmancy grill.