Bridging the Gap Read online

  Drawing his cock out for her to see, Carter stroked himself. “I’m going to take you from behind, sweetheart. The way you’re standing there, there won’t be much you can do to stop me. It’ll be tight between your thighs. Will feel so good with you squeezing me. Then when I’m deep inside you, stroking your channel until you beg for it, I’m going to spank your ass.”

  Ryan’s burst of confidence seemed to slip. He touched a rounded butt cheek with the weeping head of his cock, spreading pre-come over the soft skin. She shivered, and her eyes closed and her teeth came out to bite her lower lip.

  Carter dug in his back pocket for the condom stored in his wallet. He dropped the leather to the ground, tore the packet with his teeth and rolled the rubber over his erection. Teasing the taut ring of her anus with one hand, he pressed the other between her shoulder blades and urged her further over the desk.

  “Grab the other side and don’t let go.” He traced the length of her spine as she complied with what appeared to be nervous fingers. Following the line of her hip around to her belly, Carter wedged his free hand into the space between her thighs and sought the bundle of nerves hidden there. He knew he’d found it when Ryan bucked with a squeak.

  “Shh,” he soothed, lining his cock up with her vagina. By the slickness gathered at her clit, he could tell she was ready to take him.

  Ryan grunted at his initial penetration, contracting her muscles against his length as he tried to push in. The entry was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. He watched his cock disappear into her sheath and for the first time wondered what it would be like not to wear a condom. He wanted to feel the slick, wet heat of her body as he thrust inside her, wanted to spill his seed inside her womb.

  Carter shook his head. A glance up her torso and down her outstretched arms showed white knuckles gripping the edge. She liked the position just as much as he did.

  Her inner walls clutched his dick, threatening to cause him to come with the first lunge as if he were seventeen not thirty-eight. She wiggled her ass, making things worse for him. A drop of sweat trickled off his forehead. Son of a bitch. He had to grit his teeth to keep from going at her. But then the pale skin of her bottom glared up at him, fairly begging for his hand to turn it pink. If she thought to entice him, to get him to move before he was ready, he would just have to punish her. He’d threatened to already, why not make good on it?

  He brought his left hand down on the smooth, creamy pad of flesh with a thwack.

  Ryan took offense, but holy shit the immediate response of her pussy on his dick was more than enough to make up for her initial incense.

  “What the shit? You said I’d be begging for you to spank me.” She glared at him over her shoulder. “There weren’t no beggin’ goin’ on, mister.”

  In response, Carter grinned, sucked his thumb into his mouth and pressed the wet digit into her anus to the first knuckle. Leaving her clit for the moment, he smacked her again.

  Her head hit the desktop with a thunk, and if her butt hadn’t constricted around him, he might have believed her indignation. She liked it.

  Carter withdrew his cock and heard her swift intake of breath.

  She groaned and rolled her head back and forth. “Shit. Anytime you’re ready, bucko.”

  “Is that begging I hear?”

  “Just move, you cocky bastard.”

  “I like cocky.” He swiveled his hips and Ryan’s back arched.

  Her fingers fisted and one hand left the edge to lift in menace. He swatted her behind again, his eyeballs rolling when the action had direct impact on his dick. Perhaps he’d just discovered a way to fuck without ever moving.

  “Put the hand down.”

  She lifted it higher.

  His hand hovered over her butt. “I can stand here all day, my partner’s wife is having a baby so there’s no one to answer to back at the office. You, however, will probably have need of this trailer, especially if your father is coming.”

  “Shit.”

  “I believe you said that already,” he said, mocking her with the words she’d thrown at him last night.

  The hand slowly lowered and curled over the edge once more. He had to move. Not that he had a choice. His balls were drawn up impossibly tight and his eyes were crossed. He was likely to pass out from pleasure sooner rather than later.

  “Jesus. Move.” Her bark had the right affect.

  Carter withdrew his thumb from her hole so he could grab her hip for leverage. The finger at her clit slipped and slid in a circle on the tiny bead.

  Then he moved. In and out of the precious woman who’d somehow managed to possess his mind and heart with her smile and wit and now her vulnerability. His balls slapped against her and it was only then he realized that in the fog of lust he hadn’t even taken his own pants off. Talk about a quickie on the boss’s desk.

  The fire built inside him, sizzling a pathway down his spine. Ryan stiffened beneath him, her back undulating. He felt the coil of her climax ready to strike.

  “Don’t stop.”

  As if he could. “Nope.”

  He hammered into her, working toward wringing every ounce of orgasm he could get from both of them. She straightened and Carter caught her with an arm around her waist. Her hand seized his where it met her sex, grinding his fingers into her clit.

  With a shout, Carter slammed his cock deep and held her back to his chest. Wave after wave of come spilled into the condom.

  “No, no.” She shook her head, her words almost a sob. “Not done…”

  Carter pressed on her clit using the friction of her own rotating hips to finish her off.

  She came with a gasp of surrender, her clit throbbing under his fingertips, her body unbendable in his hold, and as he glanced down her torso he saw that her nipples were hard pebbles. He ached to take them in his mouth, to torture her further, but since he was no contortionist he’d have to lavish them with attention later.

  Apart from the constant muted noise of the construction site outside, their heavy breathing was the only thing breaking the silence inside the trailer. Ryan reached for the back of his neck and raked her nails along the skin there.

  Ryan sighed in the afterglow of good sex. Carter made her body sing in a way no other man ever had. He knew how to play, that was for sure.

  He also had the ability to turn her brain to mush with one look. She had a feeling if he said drop to your knees and suck my cock right now, she’d do it. And lap it up like it was her last meal on Earth.

  Carter plucked at a nipple and suddenly Ryan flashed into the present dimension. Surely she’d been in an alternate one for the past fifteen or twenty minutes. A shiver raced over her skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake. She dropped her hands to her sides, dislodging Carter’s where it still played with her quivering clit.

  It was a sad, ugly truth that she missed his touch when he wasn’t around. After two weeks of their being together. What did that make her?

  She looked over the desk she’d been ravished on. The normally pristine surface with its pencils and papers in their proper place was now completely discombobulated. It was a wonder she hadn’t stabbed herself to death on one of the sharpened-to-a-pinpoint pencils.

  “Umm…that was…wow.”

  “Yeah.” His lips teased the side of her throat and down across her collarbone, and his hands smoothed up her abdomen to her breasts.

  The phone rang, scaring the shit out of her. She leapt out of his arms, nearly falling to her face. Thank God she’d gotten her hands beneath her or she would have. Laughing, Carter helped her stand.

  “This would be a whole lot easier if I’d taken the stupid things off, bucko.”

  “Maybe, but not nearly as fun.”

  “So says the man not on his hands and knees.”

  “Yet another position I’m going to take you in.”

  She swiped her bra off the floor before reaching for the phone. Damn thing wouldn’t shut up.

  “Ryan Cooper.” She shot him a
look to make sure he’d heard her name. He had and smiled while shrugging back into his shirt and buttoning the thing. What a shame to cover up such a god-like set of abs. The construction business had done him well.

  “Is he in yet?” the gruff voice on the other end of the line asked.

  “Who?” Ryan searched for her shirt and yanked her jeans over her sore ass. She curled her lip in Carter’s direction. The jerk smirked.

  “Your cousin, Ryan. Is Tad in?”

  “Tad?” Was Tad in? Was her brain in? The alternate dimension had really done a number on her. “Yes. Yes, I saw him a few minutes ago.” Give or take twenty.

  “I’m on my way. Are you okay? You sound a little stressed.”

  “No. Not stressed.” Her ass stung like hell, but stressed? No, she could honestly say she’d had the stress fucked right out of her.

  “Things are running smoothly then?”

  “Tom. It’s only been three hours since I arrived. Did you expect things to fall apart the second I stepped on the lot?”

  “No, I didn’t. I know what you’re capable of. But your mother worries about you. She made me ask.”

  “Uh-huh.” If it were up to her mother, Ryan would still be in a playpen with only her blankie to keep her company. Overprotective didn’t even begin to describe Carol Dixon.

  “Actually.” She eyed Carter stuffing his parts back into his boxers and pants after discarding the spent condom in some tissue. “Carter Malone is standing in the trailer with me at this precise moment.”

  His head popped up and she stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Carter Malone?”

  “Yep.”

  “As in Carter Malone of Malone and Casey, Carter Malone.”

  “Yes, Tom. The Carter Malone.” Was she in a déjà vu or what? Tom seemed as surprised as she had. Of course, her stepfather hadn’t been sleeping with the architect for the last two weeks.

  “Great. Make him stay there too. I should probably talk to him at the same time.”

  The grim tone in his voice snagged her attention away from where she stared, transfixed, as Carter put his tie back on.

  “Tom?”

  “I’ll explain everything when I get there. Trust me. Ten minutes. Bye.”

  The line disconnected before she could get a word in edgewise. What in the world?

  “Something wrong?” Carter retrieved the phone from her hand and placed it on the table then proceeded to dress her like he would a toddler. Bra on, clasped in front, tugging to make sure her breasts were snuggled correctly, shirt over her head, arms in the holes, jeans zipped and snapped. All while she stood wondering what was going on with Tom. It wasn’t like him to be secretive.

  “I’m not sure. But my stepfather has requested to meet you. He’ll be here in ten.”

  Ten minutes. Or less, more likely. And damn. They’d fucked on her desk. Anyone walking in would know exactly what they’d done. The area screamed, “I got fucked on my desk and lived to tell about it.” Complete with sweaty body imprint across the top.

  “Ten minutes,” she whispered.

  Reading her thoughts, Carter swung into action. He collected the papers and stacked them while Ryan grabbed for the rogue pencils and dumped them back in their holder. One set of blueprints had hit the floor, come unrolled and lay curled at the base of the desk. Carter dealt with it. Ryan snagged the lamp from the floor and set it upright.

  Had they really done that much thrashing around?

  “Is that it?” She turned in an arc, sweeping the room to make sure they’d gotten rid of all the evidence. Everything except the scent of sex that permeated the space. She snapped her fingers. “Bless the last foreman and his bizarre need for air fresheners.” She remembered seeing them in the drawer where she’d stashed her clothes and grabbed one.

  “I think we’ve hidden all the evidence, sweetheart.” Carter leaned a hip against the desk, and knocked over the pencils yet again. With a calm she was glad one of them felt, he reached back and picked them up.

  She could only imagine what Tom would think if he found out she was sleeping with the architect. Damn it, she’d worked too hard to get to this position, no way would she screw things up now. Nor would she let Carter.

  “I’d appreciate you not saying anything to Tom about this.”

  One eyebrow rose. “About this? Or about us?”

  “Both.”

  The other one lifted to meet the first. “Are you ashamed of me, Ryan? I am totally insulted.” He put a hand over his heart and tried to look wounded.

  Ryan snorted.

  “Not right now at least, okay?” She could handle them telling Tom someday. Like maybe five years after the project was finished, but not today.

  “Will he think me not good enough for you?” He clasped her hand in his and entwined their fingers. Probably to keep her from smacking him again.

  “It’s not that.” The man was exasperating.

  “I know, I know. You worked very hard to get here and you don’t want me to ruin it for you. I get it.” He zipped his lips shut. “Not one word.”

  How in the hell had he gotten that from her? She stared at him, not sure what to say.

  “I can read you like an open book.”

  The doorknob rattled behind her and she whipped her head around to look. Why didn’t he come in? The knock on the door clued her in.

  “We forgot to unlock it. Damn it.” She stormed over to the door, her face on fire. If their quick tidy-up job didn’t do the trick, having a locked door sure the hell would.

  Tom’s hand lifted to knock again just as she opened it. His eyes narrowed and she knew she’d been busted.

  “Why is the door locked?” Tom stepped into the trailer.

  “My fault entirely, sir.” Carter crossed the room and offered his hand to her stepfather who took it immediately and gave it three generous pumps. “I’m afraid it’s become habit since our office was robbed a couple years back. Have no idea why I still lock doors behind me. You’ll have to excuse me.”

  Ryan held her breath at the not-quite-white lie. As explanations went, that one was pretty good. Tom took Carter in, clearly trying to decide whether or not to believe him and then nodded.

  “Had a run-in with burglars a time back myself. I can totally understand.”

  Holy crap. He’d bought it. Ryan was shoved from the back.

  “Move outta the way, cuz.” Tad pushed past them all and headed for one of the two chairs in the trailer then dropped into one. “So what’s up, Uncle Tom?”

  Apparently Ryan wasn’t the only person curious about Tom’s strange attitude.

  Tom sighed and put his hands on his hips. “I’ve just been with Eric, our last foreman,” he said for Carter’s benefit. “He claims what happened to him wasn’t an accident.”

  Chapter Five

  Carter’s entire being went on alert. “What do you mean, it wasn’t an accident?”

  “Eric slipped while walking on a beam ten feet up. The slip was an accident, sure, but the fact that his harness failed to hold him was not. The material had been cut and since I know Eric is fastidious about checking his equipment every day, I know he would never have used a defective lifeline. He’s one of the best foremen I have.”

  Carter nodded. Not many men would. Only those with a death wish and deep-rooted hatred of OSHA.

  “Anyway. Eric said he’d left his harness in the back of his truck when he went to lunch and that it looked the same when he got back. Since he’d already checked it in the morning he didn’t think he needed to a second time.”

  “Seems normal.” Carter leaned back on the desk and rolled his eyes at the clatter of the pencils behind him.

  “Jesus, Malone. How many times you gonna knock that over?” Ryan stomped over and cleaned up the mess, otherwise you could have heard a pin drop in the silence.

  It wasn’t until she finished and looked up that she realized everyone was looking at her. Carter smiled at the way her cheeks reddened.

 
; “What? Damn things have been on the floor this morning more than they’ve been in the holder.”

  “I’m concerned about you working here now, Ryan. As is your mother.” Tom put his hands on her shoulders.

  Carter itched to take his place. Tom wasn’t the only one concerned. If there were accidents on site, he didn’t want Ryan in the crosshairs. Especially if it hadn’t been Eric-the-man who’d been targeted but Eric-the-foreman. A title which Ryan now held.

  “As am I.” Carter crossed his arms over his chest. She had the ability to make him wilt but on this he would stand strong.

  “Oh come on. Maybe someone here hated Eric. You know as well as I do he had his enemies. He could be a dick.”

  “This is true,” interjected Tad, who’d been quiet until then.

  “Okay so someone had it out for him. Let’s not ask for trouble.”

  Carter wanted to grind his teeth at her seemingly nonchalant attitude. Someone had cut the fucking lifeline of the last foreman and she wanted to push it under the rug. To him, cutting a lifeline might as well be called attempted murder.

  He held his tongue and spoke to her stepfather instead. “I’ll have my security team look into this, Tom. I appreciate you including me in this.”

  Tom shrugged. “You would have found out about it sooner or later. I’m sure Eric will be pressing charges when the culprit is found.”

  “As well he should.” Carter threaded his fingers through his hair. “Until then, count on there being at least some kind of security on site to keep an eye on things. Max Jensen is good. I’ll see if he’s available.”

  “Hello, I am the foreman now. Don’t I have any say in the matter?”

  “Stubborn, stubborn girl.” Tom shook his head and hugged her to him. “We all know how hard you worked to get this. No one’s going to take away your shot.”

  That’s what she was afraid of. Someone seeing her weakness and trying to oust her for it. When she was more qualified than most men for the job. But in a man’s world she now had two things against her. Boobs and epilepsy.

  Ryan blew out a breath. “The last thing we need is some bystander getting hurt, Tom.” She was trying her best to win her case but from the sound of things she was going to lose no matter what. Damn men thinking they were always doing what was best for her.