Page 107 of Grin and Bear It

I was smart enough to know this was a kink born of frustration with waiting. I’d spent my life lusting after, wanting, needing a woman I hadn’t even met, the shape of her a vague form inside my head, right up until I met Ellie. But when I did? I saw this.

My hands sliding up rounded, soft thighs, spreading them for my sleuthmates’ eyes, showing them that hot little slit between her legs. Their eyes watching my hands as I stroked along the soft skin on her inner thigh, wishing they were in my place, as my fingers sank into her flesh, before sliding up to cup my palm over her cunt. She’d gasp and their focus would follow her movements, watching her expression shift from one of trepidation to pleasure, her head thrown back against my shoulder as I teased her clit and… I shook the fantasy off, focusing on the here, now.

“I…” It’d taken a whole lot of beers for me to confess my kinks the last time, the cool darkness of night feeling like it was stretching on forever as I’d spoke the words, but it wasn’t night and I wasn’t drunk either. Just here, with her. I kissed Ellie much more softly now, one I’d steal from her before she knew the truth, just in case this was the thing that sent her running again. “I… I want to touch you.” Another little kiss. “I want to strip you bare, trace every inch of the body that’s been plaguing my fucking dreams and then I want…” I sucked in a breath, ready for this to all come out. “I want Cole to watch as I make you come.”

I breathed her in as I heard her gasp, my eyes closing as I tried to read her scent rather than her expression. Fear, sharp and acrid, that was there, along with the sour stench of shame, but more than that, more than any part of it, was a terrible, terrible sweetness that made my mouth fucking water and my fangs ache. For her, my Ellie, my mate. I savoured that scent for just a second, before forcing my eyes open to stare into hers.

“You…” Her eyes flicked from me to Cole and back again. “You want…?”

“I told you I wanted to paint you, beautiful,” Cole said. “And capturing that, the moment your cheeks flush and your mouth falls open and you’re gasping out your pleasure?” His brows creased then, the snarky fuckboy expression gone now, replaced by something a whole lot more raw. “It’d be as close to a masterpiece as I’m capable of painting.”

“But…” Her eyes darted around, the sensible part of her mind drawing her attention back into the house, seeing the piles of discarded homework there, reminders of the boys. “The twins—”

“Won’t be back for hours. Nash said he was taking the boys out for dinner at the local takeaway to give us some space, if we needed it.”

“But…” Her mind was fighting to find reasons not to do this, but at the same time her scent was deepening, sweetening. I knew then if I slid my hand down the front of her jeans and into her panties, I’d find her drenched. Her body knew what it wanted, even if her head wasn’t so sure. “You can’t have naked paintings of me in the same house my students live in. They can’t—”

Cole held up his keys and shook them.

“My studio is off limits to everyone. Only I’ve got the key. Nothing that happens in there, nothing I make is seen by anyone but those I let in. It’ll just be me and Ty, no kids, no twins, no nothing, just the three of us.” He stepped in closer and, right now, my bear would allow it. The beast was done being held back when it came to Ellie, but right now, he seemed to sense that the man was an asset rather than a liability. “Just us, Ellie.”

I wanted to kiss her senseless, drive her out of her mind in the ways I knew I could, reduce her to a panting mess and then walk her into that studio and do everything I’d been fantasising about, but I couldn’t, not without her permission.

“If this doesn’t work for you,” I said. “I’ll take you up to my room, just me and you, if that’s what you prefer.” Cole let out a growl. “Or this fuckhead as well, if you’re willing to throw him a bone. We don’t have to do anything other than…” I did kiss her then, just a soft thing. “Other than whatever the hellyouwant.”

She kissed me then, one after the other, as if buying her some time, but she needn’t have worried. I’d give her as much as she wanted, even as the bear roared inside me at the idea of waiting. Ellie was mine and I wouldn’t rush her. I wouldn’t.

“And if I want that?”

She said that without looking at me, her head tucked into my shoulder, in a secret admission that had me smiling.

“You know Cole’s gonna be just about to bust in his jeans the whole time?” I told her and she laughed then, the tension leaching out her body. And when it returned, it did for a whole other reason. She looked over my shoulder, meeting Cole’s eyes, a glitter of challenge there.

“Yeah?” Her eyes locked with mine. “Show me.”

Chapter54

Tyson

I was reduced down to a teenage boy every time I was around Ellie, hard, aching and ashamed of the intense reaction, but that had nothing on how I felt as I anticipated this. I scooped her up and carried her down to Cole’s studio, the dickhead already there and holding the door open to usher us in. I made a beeline for the daybed, settling down on it, feeling her knees go either side of my thighs and for a moment there was just her and me.

She stared down at me, running her fingers through my hair until I wanted to purr from the sensation. But when she moved to kiss me, I was ahead of her, ready to take her lips, to taste her, savour her. Then, the moment our lips parted I turned her around, reassured by the weight of her in my arms, the press of her back into my chest. As I nuzzled her neck, sucking in lungfuls of her scent, Cole moved, reminding me that we had an audience.

“Beautiful…” He murmured as his pencil moved across the page of his sketchbook, those eyes of his all the more keen as he stared, the perfect audience. So when my fingers went to the neck of her shirt, when I pushed it to the side as far as it could go, when I pressed kisses to the part of her shoulder I revealed, I caught the moment Cole’s pencil slowed, then stopped.

Because right now he didn’t want to be recording this. He wanted to be me.

I smiled into her neck, kissing the skin there slowly, softly, until she shivered and tried to pull away. My hands clamped down on her and my fangs scored her flesh, forcing her to stay still, to stay right where she was. My tongue slid along her skin, tasting her, almost able to imagine the burst of blood in my mouth when I finally claimed her as mine.

But not now.

“How we doing, beautiful?” I asked her, sliding my hand across her stomach.

“Good,” was all she managed to gasp out.

“Cole’s not doing a real good job of recording this.” I stared pointedly at my sleuthmate until the pencil began to move again.

“I’m starting to wonder what I’ve signed myself up for,” Cole grumbled. “Maybe I can paint you another day, because I really want—”

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