Enemies With Benefits (Loveless Brothers, #1)

by Roxie Noir

It turns out that kissing Eli has two advantages: one, he’s not talking if we’re kissing, and two, it’s really, really fun.

And now I’m no longer thinking of kissing Eli. Now I’m thinking of that shirt balled up in the corner of my bedroom while he’s on top of me, my legs wrapped around his waist, feeling the muscles in his back ripple beneath my touch…

God, I want to lean forward and touch him, run one hand down his muscled chest, pull up his shirt and lick his abs.

Eli kisses me again, right in front of my open office door. God, it’s nice. It’s needy and ferocious. It’s barely restrained. It’s incendiary, and already I’ve got one hand winding through his already-mussed

mussed hair, the other closing around the front of his shirt as I sit up straighter, leaning into him.

Everything about this is a bad idea, and I couldn’t care less.

“If you’re about to tell me again all the reasons we shouldn’t be doing this I have to admit I’m not terribly interested,”

I’m filled with slow-burning fire, ready to shove him down on my desk and climb on top of him.

“Well, since I live with my mother, my brother, and my niece, I think our options are the back of my Bronco or your place, Violet,” he says. His hands are on my ass again, pulling me in. Desire slices into me like a hot knife. “Your choice,” Eli says, grinning.

He kisses me so hard it nearly lifts me off the floor, the kiss vibrating through my whole body. I manage to swipe at the front door behind him and swing it shut.

“You think anyone would naturally assume that because we left at the same time, we were driving to your place to fuck?” he says, his lips brushing against my ear. “Well, weren’t we?” I say. “Hell yes,” he says, biting my earlobe. “But no one else thinks that.”

“That’s two questions you haven’t answered yet,” he growls, his lips still against mine. “Unless moaning counts as an answer.”

“I’m just impressed you know where the clit is,” I say.

He pinches it between his fingers. This time I definitely moan, and Eli grins. “That?” he asks, and does it again, then again. I’m standing on my tiptoes, pressed against my front door, because we haven’t managed to get any further into my house. “I saw a diagram once,” he teases, his voice still low.

“Be properly prepared just in case Violet Tulane wants to take me home.”

“Seems like it was worthwhile,” he says. “Since you’re wet as fuck and about thirty seconds from coming, and I’ve barely gotten past your front door.” “Forty-five,” I gasp. He raises his eyebrows. “Is that a challenge?” he murmurs.

“What the fuck?” I hiss, but he laughs. “You’re pretty when you’re mad,” he says. “And I always did like pissing you off.”

“The point of this is to see how loud I can make you come,” he says. “Pissing you off a little is just a fun bonus.”

“Violet.” “Eli.” He laughs. My eyes are closed but I can feel it. “Which door is your bedroom?” “Right behind you,” I say. The second the words are out of my mouth I’m in the air, slung over Eli’s shoulder like I’m a bag of flour as he strides into my bedroom, ducking slightly as he goes through the doorway.

I want him. Now. As much as I can’t believe that I’m naked with Eli Loveless, not to mention having a great time, here we are and I. Want. Him. Now.

He tears one open with his teeth, looking me in the eye the whole time. It’s the first time I’ve ever found opening a condom sexy, but right now, I’m mesmerized.

It feels like we were designed to fit together like this, hand in glove, heat coursing through my whole body.

I feel like he’s touching somewhere deep inside me that’s never been touched before, something that touches a live wire, a raw nerve, and I need a minute or else I might simply dissolve.

I’m using his body for pleasure and he’s using mine and nothing in my entire life has ever felt better.

“Don’t stop,” I hear myself say, half whispering, half moaning. “Don’t stop don’t stop don’t⁠—” He kisses me savagely as he buries himself again and I moan into his mouth. “As if I would,” he growls.

“Yeah, that was okay, I guess,” I say between giggles. “If you want to try again there’s one condom left.” Eli looks down at his dick, then up at me. “Five minutes,” he says, and winks.

Shit, she’s beautiful. I’m sure it’s got something to do with the fact that I came so hard I feel like I might never walk again, but she’s beautiful. A man could just about go blind looking at her.

The answer is yes, actually, because I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be right now than post-coitally arguing with Violet. If nothing else, she’s always interesting.

“Because it’s Violet,” I say. “It wasn’t bad at all.” Understatement of the year. “She thinks we should just be fuck buddies,” I say. “Are you buddies?” Daniel asks. I just spread my hands and shrug dramatically. “I don’t know,” I say. “Usually I at least like the people I have sex with. This is new territory.”

“So you and Violet Tulane, the girl whose name I’ve heard come out of your mouth more than anyone else since time immemorial, are just casually having sex and that’s it,” he says. I don’t like the way he says it.

“You had a two-night sex bender and it was no big deal.” “Friday night I really was at work,” I say. “Violet’s order of origami cranes came in low so I helped her fold…” Daniel’s eyebrows shoot upward. “…five hundred more and don’t fucking give me that look,”

“Force of habit. Rusty overhead me tell Seth that someone was being a real dickhead and I got calls from her kindergarten teacher for a week. Apparently that’s what she wanted to name the class iguana.”

“And she convinced half the other kids it was a good idea,” he mutters. “I was not popular at the next PTA meeting.”

“I’m one of the only men who ever goes to those things, and I’m definitely the only single one,” he says. “Yeah, I’m popular.”

“Was the sex a direct result of you asking? Was it like, ‘Hey, did you bang this chick?’ ‘No.’ ‘Take me right now!’” She’s grinning. I’m blushing. “I never said take me right now,” I tell her. “And there were more steps to it than that.”

“If we dated we’d just get attached and hurt each other sooner or later,” I say, still defending myself. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation that didn’t end with one of us angry. You can’t date someone like that, it’s ridiculous.” “And it’s well known that sex rarely leads to attachment,” Adeline says. “Not with Eli,” I say. “We don’t even⁠—” “—Like each other, yeah, I heard,”

“I can’t even take you for barbecue?”

“Why would you take me for barbecue?”

“Because you had a shitty day and I’m trying to be nice for once?” he says. “Because barbecue was my idea so I figured I’d be paying for it?” “This isn’t a date,” I say. Even though I’m about ninety-nine percent sure we’re going to have sex later. “No one said date,” Eli says.

“The last time someone else offered to pay for my dinner I ended up washing dishes until midnight,” I point ...

With sex, everything is even: we both want and we both take until we’re an exhausted heap in my bed. But out here, in the real world where there are manners and clothes, it feels different. It feels like I need to be on my toes.

It’s unfair. He’s sitting here, at a tiny table in a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint, eating off of paper plates, and he’s so sexy that if he wanted to bend me over and do it right here, I’d probably say yes.

Seven billion people in the world, and Eli Fucking Loveless is the one I can’t help myself around.

Tingles rush over my skin because we’re in public, because I like the way everything he does feels, because Eli feels like driving a pickup truck too fast over a narrow bumpy road, like every swerve and jostle might be the one that does me in.

“You should wear this skirt more often,”

“Don’t tell me what to wear,”

“It was just a suggestion,” he says lightly, his eyes sparking. “I know better than to tell you what to do.”

“You can’t say my name in that tone of voice while you’re grabbing my cock,” he says, sounding absolutely wicked. “You know that, don’t you, Violet?” “Think of it as a preview,” I say, squeezing. He shuts his eyes and groans quietly. “For what’ll happen once you drive me home,” I tease. “I’ve got tinted windows.”

Just do it right here, I think. Bend over the passenger seat, hike up your skirt and maybe no one will notice. Apparently, I’m so horny I’ve lost my mind. “Eli,” I growl, taking my hand from his cock. “Say it again.” I clear my throat, pull back. “Eli.” I grab his wrist, pull his hand out from under my skirt. “I like the way my name sounds in your mouth,” he teases.

Violet’s a revelation. Every single time we kiss it feels brand new, like I’ve never been kissed before. Every time we touch, her skin is electric. I want her like I’ve never wanted anyone. I haven’t been a virgin for a long time, but she makes me feel like one.