Married by Contract Read online

  “I can still complain.” The words were mumbled, though, and without any real heat. He’d increased the pressure on her head and was now massaging it with all ten of his fingers.

  It felt good. Really good. She closed her eyes and leaned back into his touch.

  “Good,” he murmured. “Just try to relax, sweetheart.” When they’d first gotten married, he’d started calling her that in public, just as part of their act. But then he’d gotten in the habit, and now he called her sweetheart all the time. It felt familiar—no different coming from him than her name. He was kneading the excruciatingly tight muscles that circled her head, and the pressure found and then released the painful tension.

  “Oh God,” Jenn moaned, flattening her hands on the counter. “That feels so good.”

  “Good. So just sit quietly and try to enjoy it.”

  She normally would have had a few things to say about his bossiness, but she was feeling too good to conjure up enough energy. The pain in her head was lessening the longer he massaged her, and the relief was palpable, filled her whole body with delicious sensations.

  Nick worked on her head for a long time, and then he slid his hands down to her neck. She groaned some more as he massaged it skillfully.

  “Where did you learn to do this?” she asked hoarsely, her whole body now limp. She had to lean against the counter to not slide right down to the floor from her stool.

  “Shh. Just relax.” His hands were strong and seemed to know exactly where to touch her, all of the trigger points that were filled with so much tension.

  He massaged her neck and her shoulders and even down her arms, and eventually she was feeling so good she kept gasping, “Oh Nick,” and “God, that’s so good.”

  Nick wasn’t saying anything at all—not even when his hands returned to her head and rubbed her there for a few more minutes.

  She could tell he was finishing up. She didn’t want it to end, but she could hardly be selfish enough to demand that he keep going because he was making her feel better than she had in months. “Why have you never told me you could do this before?”

  He cleared his throat, finally dropping his hands. “I’ll tell you what. Any day you only work between six and six, I’ll do this for you again. But if you work any longer than that, you’ll have to do without.”

  “That’s awfully sneaky,” she mumbled. She’d kind of collapsed forward on the counter, so she didn’t have much fight left in her.

  “Hey, it’s me. Of course it’s sneaky.” He sounded like he might be smiling, but his voice was also a little strange. Much thicker than it normally was. “But that’s the deal. I’ve got some stuff to do, so I’ll talk to you later.”

  “M’oky.” She stayed where she was, slumped against the bar, enjoying the feel of being free of the headache and the way her body felt so good. Relaxed and boneless and good. Really good. Throbbing in a very pleasant way.

  It was several minutes until she realized what had happened.

  She’d gotten turned on.

  Turned on.

  What the hell was wrong with her, anyway?

  She found Nick quite attractive. In fact, when they’d first hooked up back in their hometown, she’d thought he might be fun to have a fling with. She’d had casual sex back then, since it was the only kind of sex she had time for. But marrying him had been a much better decision, and she’d moved him into a different compartment of her mind.

  She hadn’t had sex at all in the last three years. That was the problem with her now. She was just horny.

  They’d both agreed, in the contract negotiations, that they couldn’t date outside their marriage. It would be too embarrassing for the other person if it got out that they were being cheated on, and it would get in the way of the domestic reputation Jenn was trying to cultivate for her business. So they’d agreed sex could only be had through discreet professionals.

  Jenn, however, had been too uncomfortable to ever get an escort to satisfy her unavoidable biological urges, so she’d just taken care of her needs on her own. She was so busy with work that most of the time she didn’t even care.

  But one of the consequences was this kind of urge, hitting her at inconvenient times. She wanted to have sex. Right now. Really badly. And there was a very good-looking, sexy guy in the other room, who’d just been touching her and making her feel incredibly good.

  That was clearly out of bounds, though. So her choices were to live with the urges or go take care of herself. But if she went to her room and got out her vibrator, she’d still be thinking about Nick. And it felt wrong to use him as masturbation material. She liked and respected him too much.

  So, instead, she stood up, went to change clothes, and then headed to the workout room where she got on the elliptical trainer.

  She could work off her urges in another way.

  She’d just been going for ten minutes when Nick appeared in the doorway.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, scowling at her. He must have taken a shower because his hair was slightly damp along his neckline and he wore a T-shirt and another pair of flannel pajama pants.

  “What does it look like?”

  “It looks like you got all stressed out again. I had you good and relaxed. What the hell happened in fifteen minutes?”

  “Nothing happened,” she told him. She wasn’t sweating yet, but she was getting hotter. And seeing him standing there all clean and cute and grumpy wasn’t helping to get rid of her inconvenient urges. “It’s not work stress.”

  “Then what is it?”

  She wasn’t going to tell him. That would just be too embarrassing. “It’s other kinds of stress.”

  He stared at her, clearly confused.

  When he didn’t speak and he didn’t move, she tried to give him a cool glare. “I’m allowed to work off tension if I want, in my own home, and I don’t need an audience for it.”

  When those words sunk in, his face started to relax, as if he’d finally figured it out. He stepped into the room, giving her a little smile. “Well, why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

  “Tell you what?” She was flushing hotly now, but hopefully he would think it was just from the exercise.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you needed to work off some…tension?”

  He knew. He knew. She had no idea how he did, but he definitely knew.

  “I didn’t have to tell you. It was none of your business.”

  For no good reason, his face changed slightly. He was almost frowning as he said, “You’re allowed to call up an escort, you know.”

  “I know that. I don’t want an escort.”

  And now he was smiling again—and looking at her with an expression that was amused and slightly smug and way too hot. “Well, then I can help you out, if you want.”

  “What? Help me with what?” She’d completely stopped moving on the machine now. She was just staring at him, excitement and anxiety both throbbing in her veins.

  “Help you work off your…tension.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “Why is it crazy?”

  “Because…because we don’t do that.”

  “We could. I have some tension myself, you know.”

  “You do?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “And you don’t want to hire an escort?”

  “That doesn’t really do it for me.” He’d stepped closer to her and now reached a hand out to help her off the machine.

  She took his hand and got off, feeling like she might just melt into the floor. “So you think we should…”

  “Work off tension together. Why not?”

  “I…I don’t know.” She really didn’t know why they shouldn’t. They were both adults, and they’d always gotten along well. Sex didn’t have to be serious. She’d always known that. In fact, she’d never had any sex that wasn’t casual in her life. At least with Nick, she wouldn’t end up with those sick feelings she used to get when she’d fucked someone she wished she hadn�
�t.

  Nick was smiling at her more fully now, like he already knew her answer. “You want to, don’t you?”

  “And you want to?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “You want…to have sex…”

  “With you.”

  Two

  Jenn stared at Nick speechlessly, bewildered and self-conscious and strangely exhilarated.

  “Well?” he demanded after a minute, when she didn’t say anything else.

  “But why?” she finally managed to gasp.

  His forehead wrinkled. “Why wouldn’t I want to have sex?”

  He made it sound so simple, like the only choice was between having sex and not having sex. When put that way, then of course she understood why he might want to do this.

  It was the same reason she wanted to do it too. At the moment, she couldn’t even think of a downside.

  “Okay,” she forced out.

  “Okay what?”

  She frowned. “Okay, let’s have sex. What did you think I meant?”

  “I didn’t think you’d agree so quickly.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I don’t know. I thought you’d want to make pro and con lists and angst about it for a few weeks. Maybe develop a two-year plan for how it should all roll out.”

  She sucked in an indignant breath at the glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Well, I don’t. So are you up for this or not?”

  “Yes, I’m up for it.” He combed his fingers through his hair and glanced down at his bare feet, T-shirt, and ratty flannel pants. “Just give me a minute to get in the mood.”

  She had the strangest desire to laugh, given that her body was already coursing with excitement. Deciding to make good use of the time, she pushed passed him and hurried down the hall.

  “Wait,” Nick called after her. “Don’t run away! I wasn’t serious. I’m in the mood right now.”

  She was giggling helplessly as she told him just before she closed her bathroom door, “I’m taking a shower. Be ready by the time I get out! And we need a condom!”

  After pulling off her clothes, she jumped into the shower, making sure not to get her hair wet as she scrubbed herself down quickly and still having to fight not to laugh. What the hell was happening here? Were she and Nick actually going to have sex?

  And why did it feel like this was the best thing to happen to her in…a really long time?

  She was in and out in five minutes. Then she realized she didn’t have anything but her slightly sweaty workout clothes to change into. She wasn’t going to put those back on, so she just wrapped herself in a towel.

  She should have brought something sexy with her into the bathroom. Nick had never seemed particularly attracted to her before, and it would be nice if she could make herself as sexy as possible.

  Glancing in the mirror, she shook her head in resignation. Her skin was clear and smooth, almost glowing from the heat of the shower and her excitement. Her dark, shoulder length hair was a rumpled mess. Her slim body wasn’t bad, wrapped up in the pale blue towel, but it had never been anything special. She looked pretty good in clothes. Not so great out of them.

  She really hoped Nick wasn’t going to be disappointed.

  He was the one who’d suggested this, however, so he had no one to blame but himself. Taking comfort in this fact, she walked out of the bathroom.

  She gave a little squeak of surprise when she discovered Nick sitting on her bed.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, tucking the towel around her more snugly.

  “Waiting for you.” He eyed her from her bare toes to her messy hair as he stood up. “Did you change your mind in the shower?”

  “No. Did you?”

  “Not a chance.”

  “I was going to put something sexy on.”

  “No need to waste time with that.”

  Her breath hitched as she moved closer and recognized the hot look in his eyes. He couldn’t seem to stop raking his eyes over her body.

  Maybe she didn’t have to worry about Nick finding her attractive after all.

  The realization triggered a wave of heat that washed over her body, starting in her face and spreading all the way down. He was looking at her like he wanted to swallow her whole. She’d never seen that look in his eyes before.

  She’d always been a confident, no-nonsense person—in bed and out of it—so she tried to pull herself together. “So how do you want to do this?”

  “Drop the towel.”

  She gulped at the hoarse authority in his tone. “What?”

  “Drop it.”

  She wasn’t in the habit of following orders from anyone, but in this case she didn’t see any logical reason to object. Plus, her whole body had clenched excitedly, for no reason that made any sense.

  Very slowly, she pulled out the corner of the towel she’d tucked in and unwound it from her body, finally letting the towel drop to the floor.

  Nick made a thick sound in his throat as his gaze got even hotter. His face was slightly flushed and damp, and his body was unusually tense.

  He was turned on, she realized. Really turned on. By her.

  “Damn,” he muttered, reaching out for her at last. “You’re gorgeous, sweetheart. I’m going to make you feel so good.”

  She didn’t have time to respond because he hauled her into a kiss. Gasping against his mouth, she clung to his neck, trying to hold on as sensations overwhelmed her. The kiss was hard and urgent and skillful, and she couldn’t believe this hot, hungry man in her arms was her funny, laidback husband.

  When had he gotten like this? Why had she never known?

  She was far too distracted to work through any of these questions. His tongue was in her mouth, claiming her possessively. His hands had slid down her back to her naked bottom, cupping it as he kissed her. Then he lifted her up so she had to wrap her legs around him, and he turned them around so he could lay her down on the bed.

  Her body throbbed in heat and arousal, and she grabbed for him eagerly, clutching at his T-shirt, not wanting even the slightest bit of distance between them. She made a sound of outrage when he pulled out of the kiss, but he was kissing his way down her body, so she decided there was no reason to complain.

  She gasped loudly when he kissed one of her breasts, teasing the nipple with his tongue. And she whimpered when he moved to the other one, giving it even more sustained treatment. She cried out helplessly when his hand slipped between her legs, exploring her hot, wet arousal.

  “Damn, sweetheart,” he muttered, lifting his head to look down at her as he caressed her with one hand. “You’re already ready.”

  Torn between embarrassment and pleasure, she writhed in response to his touch. “I told you I had a lot of tension.”

  His eyes lingered on her flushed, naked body, laid out beneath him on the bottom of the bed. Once again, she was blown away by the deep urgency she sensed in him, a feeling she’d never connected to him before. “Well, we’re going to take care of that for you.”

  She arched up when he penetrated her with two of his fingers. She clutched at the bedding as he started to pump his hand. And she realized that she was going to come at any second, from nothing more than this.

  Nick was smiling as she shamelessly tried to ride his hand, fumbling for purchase on the bed as the sensations built up to a delicious peak. She cried out uninhibitedly as the pressure broke and she came hard around his fingers.

  “Damn,” Nick breathed, as she panted and shook. “Damn, you’re so incredibly hot.”

  She was still gasping and trying to orient herself, but she loved the sound of the words. She loved that he seemed to like her embarrassing eagerness. He seemed to think it was sexy. She grabbed for his shoulders and pulled him down on top of her, and she kissed him just as hard as he’d kissed her.

  She bunched his T-shirt up in her hands as their tongues dueled and played. She wanted to get it off. She wanted to feel his skin.

  Nick must have realized wh
at she was doing because he broke out of the kiss just long enough to grab his shirt and pull it off over his head. She smiled in pleasure at the sight of his bare chest, although he immediately kissed her again, so she couldn’t spend much time appreciating the view.

  His body was firm and strong and hot as an oven beneath her hands. It was like there was some kind of fire inside him—one she’d never been aware of before—and the heat from it was radiating out to consume both of them. She could feel the hair on his chest against her breasts, the bulge of his arousal against her hip. Her previous orgasm didn’t come close to satisfying the deep hunger overwhelming her.

  She reached for his waistband and tried to push down his pants so she could feel all of him. His body was pressed against her, though, so she couldn’t get them down. She tugged and tugged, whimpering in frustration when she only got the pants a few inches down.

  “What are you doing?” Nick murmured thickly. He was smiling as he lifted his head.

  “Trying to get your damned, ugly pants off.”

  He chuckled and lifted his hips, so she could get the waistband past his erection. “They’re not ugly.”

  “They’re ugly and ancient and falling apart. You need to throw the stupid things away.” Despite her words, she was smiling too as she finally pushed down the pants and got a good look at his naked body. He wasn’t waxed and sculpted into some sort of artificial work of art. He was real and natural and damned sexy, with his long limbs, toned muscles, coarse hair, and a nicely sized erection.

  When she glanced back up at his face, his expression had changed. He must have seen her appreciation and really liked it.

  “Did you get a condom?” she asked, her throat feeling overly tight with an emotion she didn’t recognize.

  He reached over to pick up a packet he must have laid on the bed earlier. He tore it open, but then she took it out of his hands so she could roll it on him herself.

  “You ready for this?” he asked, his eyes searching her face closely as he settled himself between her legs.

  “Oh yeah. Please hurry up.” She parted her legs and bent her knees and grabbed for his ass so she could move him into position more quickly.