by Sky Corgan
“Bella, I don’t know all of your story yet. I don’t need to. I can tell that you’ve been badly hurt. Probably by guys a lot like me, or like the way I used to be.”
“Is this your selling point?”
“No. My selling point is that I know there’s something here. You’re scared. I get it. I’m scared, too. I choose not to be a coward about it, to see where this thing could go. That’s what I’m hoping for from you. I’m hoping that you’ll choose not to be a coward tonight.”
We were so close, but there was still a chasm between us, and it was one only I had the ability to do something about. It was up to me to either make the distance between us grow into something neither of us would be able to traverse or to close the gap forever. There was a moment of such complete silence that it was like a physical thing, and the tension between us was pure electricity. This was it. It was the moment when I would either stick to my resolution or take the plunge, and both options made me afraid. I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and took the plunge. Chasm closed.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he asked with a childlike hope that made my heart lurch towards him. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean okay. No more being a coward. Let’s really give this a try.”
Although dinner looked lovely from where I stood, smelled lovely, too, it remained uneaten. I gave my answer, and Matt let out a whoop of victory, then wrapped his arms around me tightly. His mouth found mine, his tongue exploring as if he’d never been allowed in there before. In a way, he hadn’t. This time, I was fully present with him, fully open to whatever he wanted to give. I kissed him back with a fervor I’d never expressed before, and when he moaned into my mouth, I smiled against him.
“Bella, I need you. I need you right now.”
“Then take me,” I said, already wet with anticipation. “Can I ask a small favor, though?”
“Of course, you can. Anything.”
“Can we do it in a bed this time? I want to feel like we’re normal people if we’re really going to give this a try.”
Matt laughed heartily and nodded, never loosening his grip on me. He kissed me again and then lifted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, my hands plunging into his hair as he carried me through his home and to his master bedroom.
Matt laid me down on the largest bed I had ever seen, then took my dress gently in his powerful hands and pulled it up over my head. My body trembled as I watched him slowly unbutton his shirt, his eyes never leaving mine in the semi-darkness. Next was his pants, and when his shaft came loose of its prison, it popped up to meet me like it had been waiting for me for much too long. “Bella—”
“I know. I want you, too. Come here, will you? I want to feel you inside of me. I’ve never told anyone that and meant it the way I do now.”
And so, he did. He came to me and stood between my open, shaking legs, his fingers finding the slick folds of my body and moving slowly, almost dreamily. Matt guided himself into me, my legs wrapping around him again, pulling me closer to where he stood at the foot of the bed. He plunged into me repeatedly, and my eyes were full of him standing before me in the dark, his face beautiful with his desire for me.
“Jesus, Bella, not long. I can’t hold off for long!”
“Don’t!” I gasped, my hands flung up over my head and gripping the soft sheets. “Then don’t, Matt. I want you to come. I want you to!”
He let out a strangled cry, his hips thrusting faster and faster now. I shut my eyes and rode the wave crashing into me. The feeling moved up and up, my body filling with a weightless light. I cried out, and from someplace that seemed like it was very far away, I heard Matt yell out his own pleasure. Then my legs were dropping, and he was climbing up onto the bed beside me, pulling the two of us up. He wrapped one arm around me while my head rested on his heart. It was beating wildly as if he’d just run a marathon, and I laughed softly to myself even as I felt the drowsiness begin to take hold of me.
“What’s funny, sugar?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking that our hearts make it seem like we’ve been running for our lives or something.”
“Kind of feels like we have been. Was it okay? I have trouble keeping myself going with you. I swear to God, I’m not always so fast.”
“It wasn’t too fast. It was just right.”
“So, we’re going to do this.” His voice was easy, and the words brought me right back from the brink of sleep where I’d been hovering.
It had been terrifying to make the decision to toss my resolution out the window, but at the moment, I hadn’t had much time to think about it. My mind had been too consumed with the wanting. Now, that wanting was satiated, at least for a while, and I could really think about what he was saying.
When I had made the choice to close the chasm, I had thrown myself all in. I couldn’t help but wonder if Matt was all in, too. Was it possible that I had fallen for the same game that had driven me to my resolution in the first place?
“I...I don’t know. I thought so. Maybe not. It’s cool if you don’t want to. Seriously, I can be gone in five minutes flat.”
“No.” He laughed, his grip tightening reflexively. “No, sugar, don’t you even try it. I’m not letting you go anywhere. We’re going to do this. I want to do this.”
The adrenaline left my body as quickly as it had come, and I settled back into the warmth of Matt’s body. For the first time in a long time, I fell asleep warm, content, and utterly sure.
EPILOGUE
BELLA
Waking up after that first night spent at Matt’s house, I had been sure that he would take it all back. My first thought was that he’d be gone while I was sleeping. That’s why, when I turned to look at Matt’s pillow and found that he wasn’t there, I wasn’t in the least surprised.
After pulling my dress on over my head and peering into his bathroom mirror, trying my best to clean up the remnants of last night’s makeup, I had left his room with a dull ache radiating inside of me. If I hadn’t left my purse in the kitchen, I would never have gone back there, just made a beeline through the house to the front door to see myself out. But I had left it there, which is where I found Matt.
He was back in his apron and had almost finished preparing the kind of lavish breakfast one would only expect from a super nice restaurant. His eyebrow raised, and I saw understanding on his face. I didn’t have to say anything. He could tell what I had been thinking. He could see that I had believed he’d left me on my own just the way all of the assholes from my past had done.
When he smiled and told me to come and eat my breakfast, I knew that things were real between us.
Our relationship was definitely not without strife. My emotional baggage aside, Matt had his own problems.
A few weeks later, a woman named Leslie showed up at my work. She told me that I was a homewrecker, that she and Matt belonged together and that I had come between them. Leslie said that she was pregnant with Matt's baby, and I would have to get out of the way, or else I would be responsible for breaking up a legitimate family. She had gotten so loud that my manager had to come over and ask her to leave.
When I'd shown up on Matt's doorstep, I had been in tears. He'd brought me inside and poured me a glass of red wine, then asked if I trusted him. If I trusted him, I would believe that Leslie was a liar. I would believe that he hadn't been with her in a long time and that there had never been anything real between them in the first place.
It had taken me no time at all to make that leap. The question of whether to trust him was hardly a question at all. I loved him. I had loved him from almost the beginning, whether I had wanted to or not, and it was that love that drove me to trust him.
It soon came to light that Leslie had never been pregnant at all. Telling him that had just been a ploy to make him come back to her. Needless to say, it hadn't worked.
“Hey, babe, what are you thinking about, hm?”
I opened my eyes in time to see Matt’s wa
rm arm crossing over my body, encircling me with his strength and comfort. I felt his face nuzzling into my hair and the small amount of stubble on his cheeks tickling the back of my neck. Even though we had been waking up this way together almost every morning for a year, it still floored me that the two of us were really together. I still got butterflies in my stomach, not only when I saw him, but even when I conjured up pictures of him in my mind.
“Nothing much. Did I wake you up?”
“Nope, I’ve been awake. Been listening to you breathing.”
“Creepy much?”
“No.” He laughed, tickling my sides until I could hardly breathe as he rolled me to face him. “Not creepy. I think it’s what we call sweet. I’m very sweet, in case you didn’t know that already.”
“I guess I kind of knew.”
“Good. That’s good. Now seriously, babe, what’s going on?”
“What makes you think something is going on?”
“The look on your face. You’ve been thinking about something, and I don’t think it’s something nice. You look worried. I don’t like seeing you that way.”
“Not worried, just sort of contemplative. I was thinking about all of the things we’ve been through together. A year isn’t all that long in the grand scheme of things, you know?”
“No, I guess it isn’t.”
“I was just thinking that I love you, I guess.”
His face grew serious and very still, still enough that my body was immediately flooded with adrenaline. I hadn’t meant to let that slip, but now that I had, I was terrified. For the first time in a long time, I was worried that maybe I had finally managed to scare Matt Brinks off for good.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know what’s going on with me. I’m just tired, okay? Please, forget I said anything. I’m going to hop in the shower, and then maybe we can get breakfast.”
“No.” His voice was soft, almost too soft to hear.
“No?” The fear inside of me grew, and in the time that it would take to snap your fingers, I had gone from feeling delicious to being right on the verge of utter, blind panic.
“No. I don’t want to just forget it. You’re right. We’ve been through a lot. I’m hoping we’ll be through a lot more together in the future.”
“I’m not sure I’m following you.”
Matt’s smile returned as he leaned over the side of the bed and then popped back up again with one hand closed into a fist. When his fist opened, there was a small violet velvet box lying on his palm.
I gasped, both of my hands coming up to my face, and his grin widened. “Matt! What are you doing?!”
“Sugar, if you have to ask that question, I must not be doing this right. Allow me to make things more clear. You made me chase you, that’s for sure.”
“Sorry about that,” I answered sheepishly, practically buzzing with anticipation and excitement.
“Don’t be. You should have. You deserved to be chased. You still deserve to be chased. I want to be the man to do that. I want to spend the rest of my life chasing you. Bella Marrow, I want to be your husband, if you’ll do me that great honor. Will you, sugar? Will you be my wife?”
I couldn’t answer. My throat was so thick with the tears I was fighting back that I could hardly swallow, so talking was out of the question. Instead, I settled for flinging my arms around his neck, covering his face in kisses and, eventually, those tears. It was a yes, of course, and I didn’t even have to say the word.
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Sky Corgan is a USA Today bestselling author. She lives in Texas where the sun is hot and the men are hotter. When she's not typing away at her next steamy romance novel, she enjoys hanging out with friends and planning vacations.
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Bonus Excerpt from The Billionaires Club
Never before has my pulse raced so much just from being looked at. My first impulse is to avert my eyes. Is this how I'm supposed to act? Is this how the other girls before me acted?
His eyes are that of a predator, dark and smoldering in the dim light of the club. They're fixed on me as he takes confident strides across the room. I am his prey.
Every warning light programmed into my subconscious mind goes off, the ones that protect you from making mistakes. Fight or flight response kicks in, and it takes everything in me to keep my black heels planted on the floor, to not turn around and pretend I don't see him.
“Hello, gorgeous,” he says as he reaches me, his hand moving forward to wrap around my waist. It's like he's known me for years. But he hasn't known me for years. This is the first time we've met.
“Hi,” I manage to stutter out, knowing that my cheeks are redder than roses. Thankfully, he can't see it in the dim light. Would he care if he could? Guys like him are probably used to having girls blushing at them.
“Shall we go upstairs?” His fingers delicately trace my side, sending a strange electricity straight to my nether region. I want him. There's no question about it. But I'm also scared. What have I gotten myself into?
“Do you come here a lot?” I ask stupidly, stalling.
His face pulls into the most intoxicating smile I've ever seen, and he laughs. Good God does he have a sexy laugh. “I came here tonight for you. Just you. Let's go.”
He takes my hand and leads me to the door of the club. With each step, my heart thumps harder in my chest. This is what I want, right? This is what I came here for. To spend one night with a man whom I'd never have a chance with in a million years in real life. To feel what it's like to be touched by someone with experience. A man, not a boy. Yes, this is what I'm here for, but if that's the case, then why am I so afraid to give in to desire.
He places his hand on the small of my back as we wait for the elevator, leaning into me. I'm too nervous to look at him, but I can smell him, the scent of expensive cologne and everything that makes him worthy of being part of The Billionaires Club.
“I'm going to fuck you like you've never been fucked before,” he whispers into my ear. “And you're going to love every minute of it.”
I don't doubt his words. How can I? My body is wanton for him, so desperately wanton.
In the elevator, he can't keep his hands off of me. He corners me, bearing into me with his intense gaze. In the club, his eyes looked dark, but now I can see that they're a pale shade of blue. Could he have gotten anymore handsome.
I bite my lip, looking up at him nervously. His lips move to meet mine, and the kiss is teasing at best. He brushes his thumb affectionately across my cheek, sending feelings of lust racing through me. His touch is magic, and I can only imagine what the rest of him will feel like.
When the elevator door opens, he leads me out into the hall and pulls a key card from his pocket. This entire floor is his suite. It's almost staggering to think it. Of course, this is a rented room. He doesn't actually live here. It might not even belong exclusively to him. It's just a stage to set a scene, the place that he takes all of his girls. But I don't want to think about that. Tonight, it's all about me.
I stare at the back of his suit as he opens the door for me. Once I step inside that room, there's no going back. Is this really the right thing to do?
I've wanted something like this since the first time I picked up a romance novel, but actually experiencing it is completely different. Besides, this isn't really anything like the novels. This is something else. But it's as close to the novels as I'll ever get, so I should take it.
“My name is Anders,” he offers to me once he opens the door. “That's what you'll be screaming later.”
“Is that your first name or your last name?” I ask, peering into the room like a timid animal fearing a trap. This is not like the novels at all. The heroine never acts this stupid.
“It's my first name.”
“Mine is Tessa.” I take a deep breath and step forward, crossing the threshold into his expansive suite and a night of sex that I'll likely never forget.
Almost the instant both of my feet land inside the door, he's on me, overpowering me, dominating me. “Tessa.” My name sounds so sweet on his lips. “Tonight you are all mine. Tonight you will think of me and only me. I'm going to make you come again and again, and tomorrow you'll likely not be able to walk straight. I hope you don't have any plans.”
He devours any response I might make with his lips, pushing them hungrily on top of mine as he presses me against the entryway. No response is needed. He knows what I'm here for, that this is the pinnacle of my stay at The Billionaires Club. Everything else is just icing on the cake. If I'm laid up in my room tomorrow, it means he did his job right.
I can feel his arousal beneath his slacks, and though my hands want to go for his cock, I wrap them around his broad muscular shoulders instead. He's every bit as solid as I imagined he'd be. Of course, he is. You don't get to be a host at The Billionaires Club unless your body is custom designed for women. He's almost unrealistically perfect. His face, his lips, his hands. Everything about him was built for pleasure. My pleasure.
