Shifting Gears Read online

  She picked a pea from her hair while wrinkling her nose, but Sebastian took the opportunity to mock their alpha display from the night before. “Careful there, Marco, or you’ll be going down again.”

  “If I remember correctly, you were the one who went down first, Bastian.”

  “You’d like that wouldn’t you, amico?”

  Lynn and Sloan’s wide-eyed stares met across the table in a flash. Thank God she wasn’t the only one who’d caught the undercurrent. She wondered if the men knew both she and Lynn frequently read books involving male-on-male interaction. Some of the bisexual ménage stories were her all-time favorites. After browsing Lynn’s to-be-read list on the blog, Sloan knew the other woman enjoyed the genre as much as she did.

  “I might like it.” Mark chuckled, breaking the tension. “But not as much as you, fuckwad.”

  With that, the duo flitted off to another topic. Another crazy story. Another adventure.

  Each thing she learned about the trio improved her opinion of them and highlighted the unique bond they shared. By the time Lynn kicked back in the seat, reclining against her fiancé’s broad chest, her eyelids drooping, Sloan could commiserate.

  The emotional roller coaster she’d ridden all day had sapped her energy.

  Mark turned to her and caught her stifling a yawn behind her cupped palm. He smiled then looped his arm over her shoulders as though it were nothing—a gesture he’d made a million times before.

  Physical connection came so naturally around him. She and her ex had been coworkers long before they’d become lovers. Her respect for his aptitude on the job had led to her accepting a business lunch invitation though she’d refused to see him socially. Once she’d left her company, lured away by the racing league, she agreed to take their relationship further.

  They’d become acquaintances during that time and she hadn’t wanted to lose their connection. She should have quickly realized the error of that logic. If he would have drifted away as a friend, clearly nothing more glued them together. Though they’d always had plenty to talk about when it came to PR, intimacy had never come easy.

  Lovemaking had been quick and awkward, pleasant at best.

  Looking back, she realized the dickhead had coveted her success and started lashing out with affairs around the time she really began to climb the corporate ladder. He’d used her guilt over her long hours and time away to justify his behavior. The first time she found out he’d cheated, she made an effort to repair their relationship. The next time, she left—only realizing the magnitude of his philandering when he threw it in her face during the divorce proceedings.

  “What’s that sigh for?” Mark whispered into her hair.

  The nuzzle of his stubbled jaw condensed her nipples and made her eager to cuddle closer.

  “Thinking about how effortless this is.” Sloan admitted the truth to them both. She’d never felt this pure, elemental attraction to another man, certainly not her ex. She went with it, tipping her cheek onto Mark’s shoulder and breathing deep. The scent of his skin mixed with his aftershave went to her head quicker than the alcohol she’d consumed earlier.

  Mark squeezed her thigh beneath the table and she knew he understood.

  A couple minutes later, the waitstaff began stacking chairs—upside down—on the tables around them. When had the restaurant cleared out?

  “Looks like we’re getting the ol’ heave-ho.” Sebastian smiled at her and Mark. “Lynn and I are going to walk down to the river. You’re welcome to join us but I realize neither of you got much sleep last night. Are you heading back to the apartment complex?”

  “Uh, yeah, I’m beat. And I assume we’re leaving early in the morning.” Did going home imply Mark would stay with her or in his apartment instead? Out of her league when it came to dating, especially around these two pros, she stumbled over the next move. “Where should I meet you all?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.” Mark slipped from beneath her and rose to his feet, extending his hand to help her up.

  That sounded promising.

  Now she had to decide if she was ready to expose herself again. After an entire evening of enduring the waves of lust rolling off Mark, battering her senses, she thought she might welcome the relief.

  Chapter Four

  Sloan exited the taxi in front of Mark, treating him to a view worth every penny of the cab fare. Her classy pencil skirt hugged the gentle curve of her hips and snugged to her perfect ass as though the fabric had been custom cut for it. Hell, maybe it had been.

  He dug in his pocket for his wallet, catching the driver stealing a peek in the rearview mirror. Well, it wasn’t as if he could blame the guy. Still, his hackles rose and he stifled the urge to growl at the lucky bastard.

  Enjoy the tip, buddy.

  He exited the cab and reclaimed Sloan’s hand, but neither one of them spoke as they headed for the elaborate entrance to their complex. The easy camaraderie they’d shared throughout the evening started to fracture as they both stood, quiet and keeping their distance, in the shiny brass elevator. He studied their reflection, loving the way they looked.

  Together.

  “Sloan…” he said at the same instant she whispered his name.

  “You go.” She waved her hand, which clutched her purse in a death grip, at him.

  “Right.” A cheery bell dinged their arrival. Mark placed his palm on the small of her back to steer her from the elevator. “Here’s the thing. I planned to drop you off at your door. Beg for one hell of a goodnight kiss. Maybe even fill my palms with your perfect ass and grind my rock-hard cock against your softness while we were at it. But now, I don’t want to let go.”

  He turned her toward him then cupped her cheeks in his palm. “I don’t want tonight to end.”

  Mark explored her parted lips, sipping from them but not ravaging before he resumed their march toward home. He left it to her to make the next move, to tell him if she craved him too.

  Not one single word split the deafening silence as they approached Sloan’s apartment. Twenty feet had never seemed so far. The anticipation almost killed him but he wouldn’t push. If the same urgency driving him didn’t consume her, he wouldn’t pressure her, because everything he’d said last night still held true.

  A meaningless fuck didn’t interest him.

  The difference tonight was his acknowledgement of the fact that sex with Sloan could never be casual or insignificant. Lynn had given him some advice earlier. It’d gone the same way for her. She’d known in the short hours she’d spent with Sebastian while their flights had been delayed he would be special to her. Forever. Even if things didn’t work out long-term.

  Their encounter marked a turning point in his life.

  Hell, Mark would settle for going inside and sleeping. Holding Sloan through the night would be better than tossing and turning alone, dreaming of her until he rushed back to her door the moment his blaring alarm clock proclaimed the morning.

  The jingle of her keys made him grit his teeth as he calculated the odds on whether she intended to let him in or leave him standing in the hallway, staring at the entrance to her apartment. She still hadn’t uttered a single syllable by the time she turned the lock and cracked the door.

  He gulped when she rested her forehead on the polished wood frame for the span of several heartbeats. Her shoulders shook beneath the force of her erratic breaths. The keys rattled softly in her trembling hand.

  Then she pivoted, and the fire in her gorgeous eyes lit something inside him. “Come inside, Marco. I can’t bear for the night to end here either.”

  “Yes.” He couldn’t express his emotions adequately in English. The language he’d spoken since grade school evaporated from his mind. He murmured to her in Italian as he backed her into the room.

  It felt like an erotic do-over as he gathered her into his arms for a drugging kiss. This is how things should have gone this morning. His heart rate raced.

  They went from zero to
sixty in no time flat, not bothering to stop mauling each other long enough to shut the door properly. He kicked it closed then kept their momentum going, banging into the desk, shifting a picture on the wall with his shoulder and knocking over a lamp as they stripped and made out simultaneously.

  He couldn’t bear to sacrifice a single point of contact.

  The moment their bare skin met, chest to chest—or chest to abs more like it—he pressed closer to increase the amount of surface area touching to the max. But part of him mourned missing out on the view.

  Mark forced himself to separate them. He bent his knees then scooped Sloan into his arms. Either she gave him the strength of two men or she was as light and slender as she looked. He could have carried her to the moon. But fortunately, the bed lay much closer than that.

  He deposited her—as gently as he could manage despite the yearning raging inside him—before transferring his weight to the mattress, hovering over her on straight-locked arms. He imagined her, right here, the night before while she talked to him on the phone and played with herself until she came. For him.

  Dio, the thought was spicy enough to give him a fever.

  He sampled her swollen lips, devouring the taste of the wine they’d shared along with the flavor he now associated with her alone. The enthusiastic passion she returned would have knocked his socks off if he’d been wearing any. Intense, raw and urgent, her matching desire blew him away.

  Then something occurred to him. If she read the same books as Lynn, she probably masturbated often, lying awake long into the night, filling the dim room with whimpers as she caressed herself to a fantasy. His abdomen clenched, making his cock bob against Sloan’s pale, soft belly. The fluffy tufts of her trimmed pubic hair tickled his balls.

  Could he last long enough to pull off the idea coalescing in his mind?

  He hoped so because the devious plan had him hornier than he could ever remember being before, including the time he and Sebastian had taken home the entire cheerleading squad after one of their early events. Those gymnasts had been young, willing and undeniably limber.

  Still, the memory of all those girls together had nothing on this moment—on the single, sophisticated woman stretching him to his limits. Something in him changed, shifting gears.

  “Sloan?” He nibbled on her collarbone while he waited for his question to penetrate the fog of desire they created together.

  “Hmm?” Her breathless response pumped his cock up more.

  “Read to me.”

  “What?” She stopped scoring his shoulders with the light scratches proclaiming she couldn’t get enough of his body to stare at him as though he’d lost his mind. If the passion inside her burned as hot as it did in him, he understood why. But he had an idea. A dirty, naughty, fabulous idea.

  “What’s your favorite book? Do you have it with you?”

  “Yeah.” She still seemed confused, but she’d catch on quick once he initialized his plan. “It’s in my bag. Don’t laugh, but I take it everywhere.”

  “So it’s in your briefcase?” He hopped from the bed, glad to see his agility hadn’t gone the way of his patience, consumed by the promise of ecstasy to come. This night could surpass his high expectations. Because, for the first time, he shared it with someone who mattered. The closest he’d come to emotional connection before this had been the ménage he’d had with Sebastian and Lynn on the corporate jet, but that hadn’t been about him. Not really.

  He shook his head then asked her again. “The bag by your desk?”

  “Yes.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her and groaned. She propped herself on one elbow to watch as he riffled through the pockets. The pose made her look like something out of the Renaissance paintings he’d studied on class trips growing up. His love of the female form had been born then.

  He wished he had a fraction of the Italian masters’ talent so he could capture Sloan’s magnificence for future generations to marvel over. The most beautiful woman alive deserved to be immortalized.

  “This one?” He held up a well-used book. The cover featured a man and woman locked together beneath a waterfall.

  “Mmm.” Her eyes turned glassy as her imagination carried her to the places contained within the text.

  Oh yeah, a very good idea.

  He flipped through the pages on his return journey to their bed. The creases in the spine and the dog-eared corners clearly marked her favorite passages. But when he rested the book in his palm, it fell open to the same spot every time.

  Bingo.

  Mark stole a glimpse of the chapter, scanning the explicit text. This would work perfectly. He switched the bedside lamp on low then handed her the book.

  “Read it aloud.” He shook the novel in her direction, pages fluttering, until she wrapped her fingers around the paper. “Start from here.”

  He pointed to the paragraph he’d noticed.

  “I-I can’t.” Was Sloan really blushing?

  “Really?” He grinned. “You’ve read this thing more than once—”

  “About a hundred times.”

  “But you can’t say the words? That’s adorable.” He trailed his fingers along the tops of her breasts, up her neck and to her flaming cheeks. “What kind of Cougar are you? Come on, Sloan. Read it to me.”

  “Now?” She whimpered. “Don’t tease me, Marco. Give me what I need. Or let me take it. I’ll show you exactly what kind of Cougar I am.”

  “Tempting. But no. Read.” He straddled her calves then took his plump cock in hand. A groan burst from his chest when she watched him stroke the aching flesh. Nothing meek about her stare. “I’ll take care of you.”

  She lunged forward, bending over. Her tongue slipped between her full lips and swiped the bead of moisture from the head of his cock. His eyes rolled in his skull. It took every shred of control he possessed to keep from thrusting into her alluring mouth, exactly as she must have planned.

  Sloan’s shoulders filled his palms as he restrained her then abandoned his post. He collapsed onto his back on the fluffy comforter. “It’s not polite to talk with your mouth full.”

  “Holy shit. Either you are the most stubborn man on earth or I’ve forgotten how to do that right.”

  “I believe you’re capable of a blowjob for the history books, but you can practice later if it makes you happy.”

  “If you’re concerned with what pleases me, then you’ll quit screwing around and start fucking me instead.”

  He grinned when she rose above him, the erotic romance clasped in her shaking fingers.

  “There you go. Say the words and I’ll make them come true. Neither of us has to suffer like this any longer.”

  Sloan shot him a look brimming with gratitude and relief. It almost broke his heart—and his resolve—but, before he could reach for her, she cleared her throat and began to read. If she’d recited the alphabet, her husky rasp still would have inflated his cock, but the sensual content of her speech made his balls tense as they gathered tight to his body in response.

  “Nicholas had frustrated Simone until all rational thought fled. She reacted on instinct, shoving him backward onto the bed then pouncing onto his supine form. ‘If you want to run your mouth, put it to better use than arguing with me.’”

  Sloan surprised Mark. She planted one palm on his sternum then threw her leg over his torso, pinning him to the bed. The heat of her pussy singed his chest, leaving a glistening trail of arousal to mark him as her property when she settled lower.

  Looked as if she took this Cougar business serious.

  Fuck, yes.

  “Nicholas didn’t object. Instead he cupped his hands around her thighs then slid them upward until his long fingers wrapped around the curve of her hips. His diabolical grin proved he’d antagonized her on purpose. He loved to fire her up then cool her down. The tender grasp of his broad hands guaranteed he’d never hurt her, no matter their petty disagreements. He supported her while granting her the freedom to use him as sh
e wished, knowing they’d both reap the rewards.”

  Mark groaned when his fingers encountered the soft skin of Sloan’s perfect form. He mimicked the hero’s actions, caressing her with stokes sure enough to impress but malleable enough to adapt to her direction. A hitch in Sloan’s voice rewarded his effort. His nostrils flared as the scent of her arousal reached him.

  Despite her initial objections, lubrication saturated her pussy as she turned the page. Strands of the viscous fluid spanned the tiny gap between her puffy lips and his heaving abdomen, like threads in an erotic spider web, when her juices overflowed.

  The sight caused him to salivate.

  “‘I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean for things to get out of hand. I shouldn’t have yelled like that. But, Jesus, you’re sexy when you argue.’ The breath forming Nicholas’ apology buffeted her over-sensitized flesh. ‘Let me make it up to you.’

  “His fingertips dug into the crevice between her ass cheeks when he squeezed, pulling her closer to his parted lips. The stiff set of Simone’s anger-flushed shoulders relaxed as he seduced her. She arched her spine, thrusting her breasts forward into her waiting palms. The nipples hardened as she kneaded the soft flesh.”

  “Beautiful.” Mark sighed as he watched Sloan blossom above him. She plucked at one nipple with her free hand. The gentle pinch caused a visible ripple of her svelte stomach muscles, squeezing another drop of honey from her channel and onto his pecs. He reached up to assist but laughed when she slapped his hand away, keeping true to the text, without tearing her gaze from the pages of her book.

  Dio, she turned him on with every move.

  Sloan reached down and covered his lips with two fingers. He kissed them to atone for breaking his character, though he swore the hero of the novel would have said something similar if he’d had the chance.

  Engrossed in the story, Sloan read on. In all the years he’d studied her from afar, he never would have guessed she’d be so kinky in bed. A pleasant surprise. He loved every facet of her adventurousness. He’d have to brainstorm lots of creative ideas to keep her entertained. Later. Much later.