Crazy Stupid Bromance

by Lyssa Kay Adams

  “So we’re going to do this, right?” she whispered.

  “I sure as shit hope so.”

  “Then take me to bed.”

  A growl emerged from his throat. Then he bent and slid his arm beneath her legs. She laughed as he scooped her up. “Wow,” she breathed. “This is positively swoony.”

  “Swoony?”

  “You make me light-headed.”

  Noah grinned as he carried her across the sitting area and into one of two bedrooms in the suite. He lowered her feet to the floor next to the bed and leaned in for a kiss, but she shook her head and pushed him back. “I want you to see me.”

  He stepped back as if knowing instinctively what she wanted. As he watched, she reached behind her back and unzipped her dress. She slid each strap over her arm and tugged until the dress slipped off her body, leaving her in nothing but her strapless bra and panties and her heels.

  He made a noise, a cross between a whimper and a growl. “Don’t stop,” he begged.

  Heat flushed her skin under his gaze. She reached around again to unlatch her bra and let it fall. Her nipples puckered from the shock of cold air and hot desire. She kicked off her shoes and then tugged her panties from her hips.

  And then she stood before him. Naked. Exposed. Fully. She curled her toes and propped one foot on top of the other. A nervous habit, even when naked.

  He took his time, letting his eyes travel the full length of her and then back up. “You’re—” He cleared his throat. “You’re so beautiful.”

  “Your turn,” she whispered.

  He nodded, and then holding her gaze, he unbuttoned his shirt. It fell to the floor and was quickly followed by his white undershirt. His chest rose and fell with the same trembling quakes as hers as his hands went to his pants. His fingers shook as he undid the button and then lowered the zipper. When he hooked his fingers in the waistband of his pants and briefs, she held her breath.

  Never breaking eye contact, he slipped both garments from his hips and let them pool on the ground. He lifted one leg and then another to free himself from them. And then stood before her, naked.

  His voice was low when he spoke. “I’m not going to touch you until you tell me it’s okay.”

  “Can I . . . can I touch you first?”

  He stood stock-still but for the nearly imperceptible lift of his chin. Even the air locked in his lungs beneath the thick, matted hair of his chest. And that’s where she began her exploration. She reached between them until trembling fingers met the warm flesh of his pecs. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. Alexis splayed her hands wide, felt the rapid beat of his heart beneath her hand. So strong, so full of life and energy.

  Alexis slid her hands wide across each nipple, and when he responded with a sharp intake of breath, she paused there to do it again. Rubbing her palm over the hard, pebbled flesh that poked through the hair. Would he like to be kissed there? Was it the same for men as women? With a sudden thirst for the taste of him, she dipped her head and pressed her lips to one nipple. Noah made a noise, soft but urgent. Emboldened by it, Alexis flicked her tongue across the hard pebble. Noah’s arm shot out to brace himself against the bedpost, leaning into her, urging her on. So she sucked the nipple into her mouth, twirled her tongue around it, as her fingers traced a slow path downward.

  Every inch of him was hot, toned, tight. As if every muscle was engaged in the sheer act of restraint. But when her fingers circled his belly button, he gave up the fight. He growled, slid his hand along her jaw, and tilted her face to his. His lips claimed hers as she slid her fingers lower. His erection bobbed between them, hard and hot.

  “Can I touch you here?” she asked.

  “God, yes,” he rasped.

  Alexis wrapped her fingers around his hard length. Noah went instantly still but for the squeeze of his fingers against her jaw. And when she moved her hand up and down, he groaned and dropped his forehead to hers. He was soft and hard at once. She moaned as she imagined him inside her, sliding in and out of her wet heat. Wetness pooled between her thighs.

  He suddenly gripped her wrist.

  She looked up. “You want me to stop?”

  He gulped. “I want this to last. But if you keep doing that, I’m going to be done for in about five seconds.”

  A surge of pure carnal power filled her with courage, boldness. Alexis slanted her mouth fully against his and brought his hand to her breast. Could she orgasm from sheer anticipation? She was almost there. It was a sweet agony, waiting for his fingers to flick across her throbbing nipples. But he seemed hell-bent on torture, because instead of going to the spot that needed him most, he placed simple caresses atop each plump round of flesh.

  “Touch me,” she begged.

  His fingers brushed the curls at the apex of her thighs. The reverent tenderness in his touch . . . Instinct brought her legs apart to let him in, and he answered with a tender caress down the seam of her, parting her to his gentle probing.

  He teased with featherlight caresses. He taunted with the slightest pressure, slipping just the tip of a finger inside her before retreating.

  “I’ve dreamed of this so many times,” he whispered against her lips. “Dreamed of touching you like this. Dreamed of us together.”

  She would have admitted me too, if she could talk, but she couldn’t. Every sense, every cell, was tuned to the magic he worked between her legs.

  Noah hoisted one of her legs over his hip, never breaking the kiss. His fingers pumped in and out of her, and he pressed the heel of his hand to her swollen, throbbing nub.

  “Oh, God.” Alexis’s head fell back. Her body shook, legs trembled. Noah wrapped one arm around her waist to hold her as she rocked against his hand.

  “Noah . . .” His name wrenched from her throat as waves and waves of electric pleasure shot through her. Her fingers dug into his shoulder as she held on, rode it out, soared on a rainbow of emotions she couldn’t identify.

  “I’ve got you,” he murmured, tenderness in his voice as he tightened his arm around her waist. “Just hold on to me.”

  Alexis weakly wrapped both arms around his neck and hung on as he scooped her in his arms again before dipping her backward onto the mattress. Alexis wrapped both legs around his waist and dragged his mouth to hers.

  His erection was cradled between her legs. Their bodies acted together, hips tilting into each other, into the bliss of hard against soft. Noah laced their fingers together and pressed her hands into the mattress above her head. But then he paused and lifted his mouth just enough to speak.

  “Is that okay?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  It had been two years since she’d been with anyone, but she’d never been with someone like this. Open and honest and tender. Someone who cared to stop and check in with her to make sure what he was doing was still okay. Someone who took his time, treating every inch of her skin like a treasure to be cherished. Of all the ways she’d reclaimed herself, this was the one that mattered most. Everything about this moment, this act with Noah, was hers. Willing and honest. Raw and wanted.

  “Do you like this position?” he asked quietly, skimming his lips across her jaw.

  No man had ever asked her that during sex. “Yes. Do you?”

  “Any position with you is perfect.”

  They kissed slowly, languidly, fingers flexing together, bodies molding and melding as if this were all they needed. But it wasn’t. They needed more. She needed more.

  Noah must have felt it the same time she did, because lazy became hurried. Languid became passionate.

  Noah suddenly rose up with a groan and slipped from her embrace.

  “What’s wrong?” she panted, a twinge of alarm turning the fuzzy edges of her desire into sharp focus.

  “I forgot,” he grunted. She watched as he crossed the bedroom naked, unzipped his duffel bag,
and dug around inside. Then he pulled out a long sheath of condoms.

  She couldn’t help it. She giggled.

  He turned around. “What’re you laughing at? My ego is at stake here.”

  She giggled again. “You whipped those condoms out like a magician pulling a scarf from a hat or something.”

  He gave her a sexy grin and jerked his eyebrows suggestively as he crawled back into bed. “Want to see my magic wand?”

  Alexis laughed and groaned at the same time. “I walked right into that one.”

  Noah rose on his knees above her.

  “Do you want me to do it?” she whispered.

  He slipped a foil square into her hands. She opened the condom and rolled it on him, slowly, reveling in his groan of pleasure.

  She laid back again, and he returned to her, covering her body with his.

  Alexis lifted a leg and hooked it over his hip, and as if he couldn’t wait any longer, Noah thrust inside her. Alexis cried out and arched her back. She wrapped her other leg around him and hooked her ankles, sending him farther inside.

  But then they both stopped.

  Stopped moving. Stopped breathing.

  He shuddered on top of her, and she understood, because she felt it too. The power of being joined, finally. The joy of it. The surprise of it. It was too much to take in all at once.

  The perfection of it brought their gazes to a passionate collision.

  His eyes were black with desire but round with an almost stunned expression. “Lexa,” he whispered, his voice laced with wonderment.

  She traced her finger along his jaw. “Make love to me.”

  He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to hers. Then he lowered to his elbows, cradled her head in his hands, and began to move with an aching slowness. Their mouths found each other, tangling in an intimate dance as old as time but brand-new to them.

  Noah’s hips lifted, and he withdrew to the tip. She gasped at the pleasure.

  “Talk to me,” he murmured against her ear.

  “You feel so good.”

  He moved again, slowly withdrawing before thrusting back in. Alexis tilted her head into the mattress with a groan.

  “Like that?” he whispered, voice tight with restraint.

  “Yes,” Alexis moaned.

  Noah did it again, slowly pulling out only to thrust back into her, harder and faster. A cry of pleasure burst from her throat, unbidden and unprompted. She gripped the comforter.

  She whispered hungrily for him to talk to her, to tell her what he was thinking.

  “You,” he groaned against her mouth. “All I ever fucking think about is you.”

  He caught her earlobe with his lips. “You’re the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last thing I think of when I fall asleep. And even then I dream about you.”

  Alexis wove her fingers in his hair and moaned. “What do you dream about?”

  “Holding you. Kissing you. Touching you. Driving you crazy.”

  With every word, he became more frantic. “I dream about making love to you, Lexa. Over and over again.”

  His forehead dropped to her shoulder, his biceps bulging as he poised above her.

  “Lexa,” he moaned. “God, Lexa.” He was panting, hard. Desperate. Out of control. And so was she.

  Hot, surging pleasure flooded her limbs. She was so close. So close. And he seemed to know it, because he ground against her pelvis, and she was gone. Her whole body shook and then stiffened as she cried his name over and over, fingers digging into the mattress, head thrown back, heart exploding.

  In the next instant, Noah let out a shudder and a guttural groan.

  And followed her into the abyss.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Noah couldn’t move.

  If he could stay here like this forever, he would. Wrapped in her arms, tangled in her body, his energy spent and his skin slick. Buried inside her forever.

  He was only vaguely aware of the skim of her fingertips up his spine, of her breath against his neck, of the tandem pounding of their hearts. Her body surrounded him, welcomed him, embraced him, enlightened him.

  He pressed his forehead to her neck and choked back the swell of emotion that made his throat thick and his eyes burn. Great. Just what he needed. To fucking cry after making love to her. But he had never experienced this before. He had never made love before. Not until now. Not until her. It had never felt like that for him.

  Giving a woman pleasure had never been so fucking good for him.

  She turned her face and nuzzled him with her cheek. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know,” he murmured.

  “We just had sex.”

  He puffed out a laugh. “Is that what that was?”

  “It’s been a while for me, but I’m pretty sure.”

  “I enjoyed it,” he said, slowly regaining control of senses.

  She mmm’d and burrowed her face into his neck. “So did I.”

  He was probably crushing her beneath his weight, so he forced himself up on his elbows, every muscle protesting.

  “Hey.” She smiled up at him.

  He responded with a kiss. “Don’t move, okay?”

  She nodded.

  Noah padded naked to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. He paused at the sink and splashed several handfuls of cold water on his face. When he stared in the mirror he was shocked to see the same face staring back at him that had been there before. Something should be different, shouldn’t it? When a man experienced the most important sexual experience of his life, shouldn’t it reflect on his face?

  Or maybe that was the point. Nothing had changed, because this was always supposed to happen between them. They didn’t change each other. They were perfect together as they were.

  When he returned to bed, he found her curled on her side, head resting on her arm. She smiled as he crawled in next to her and brushed a wayward curl off her cheek.

  “Now what?” She smiled.

  “We could always do it again.”

  Her laugh was light and airy, and it made his heart turn over in his chest.

  “God, I love that sound,” he breathed.

  “You always make me laugh.”

  “I hope I always do.”

  Her smiled turned coy. “I wasn’t laughing two minutes ago.”

  “I know. Give me twenty, and we can start making that noise again too.”

  She pressed her hand to his stomach. “The noise I’m most concerned about right now is the rumbling coming from here.”

  “I missed dinner. Someone stole my shoes.”

  Alexis barked out a laugh. “Should we order room service?”

  “Either that, or we could go dig around in the Russian’s suitcase.”

  She laughed again and sat up. “Want me to get the menu?”

  Noah tugged her back down. “I’ll do it. You’ve cooked enough meals for me. The least I can do is scrounge up some room service.”

  Alexis sank against her pillows and tucked her arms behind her head as he slid from bed. “I could get used to this,” she called as he walked out of the room.

  “Get used to what?” He found the room service binder on the coffee table in the sitting room. “Me feeding you?”

  “You walking around naked.”

  He returned to the bedroom. “Let’s add that to the list of things we hope change after this.”

  He plopped back down on the bed, and she snuggled against him as he flipped open the binder. “See anything that looks good?”

  “Besides you?”

  He chuckled. “I could get used to that.”

  “What?”

  “You openly lusting after me.”

  Her giggle made his chest swell.

  “Do you think everyone has figured out w
hat we’re doing yet?” she asked, resting her head against his shoulder.

  “Yes. Are you okay with that?”

  “Yeah, are you?”

  He flipped a page in the menu. “Hell yes. I want everyone to know.”

  She laughed. “I guess they need to find out sooner or later. I mean, if we’re going to keep doing, you know . . .”

  He gaped down at her. “Please, God, tell me that’s not even a question at this point.”

  “I didn’t want to make assumptions.”

  He closed the binder and tossed it off the bed. Then he rolled on top of her, lacing their fingers together on either side of her pillow. “I’ve waited a long time for you. You can safely assume that I want to do it as often as possible.”

  They kissed once more. And before too long, she started making that noise again, and he forgot all about room service.

  * * *

  * * *

  “I think you might have killed me that time.”

  Alexis laughed as Noah rolled onto his back, panting. A moment passed, and he awkwardly sat up. Just like before, he ordered her to stay put as he got up to deal with the less sexy part of sex. She watched him pad toward the bathroom, and as soon as the door swung shut, she disobeyed and got out of bed. His shirt was in a ball on the floor. She grabbed it and pulled it on and wandered to the window overlooking Beale Street.

  The bathroom door swung open. “I told you to stay put,” he joked, coming up behind her. His arms circled her waist and tugged her tightly against his chest. They stood like that for a quiet moment, content again to just feel each other. Finally.

  She covered his arms with her own. “I wish we could stay here forever,” she sighed.

  His lips brushed her hair. “Not me. Because I can’t wait to take you home and start doing all those naked things we talked about.”

  She managed a laugh, but it came out thick and watery. He squeezed her. “Hey,” he soothed. “What’s that?”

  “I’m sorry. Emotional after sex and all that. I’ll stop. Just give me a minute.”

  His lips came down on her shoulder. “You don’t have to apologize for being emotional. We’re kind of on a roller coaster right now. I’ve been one step away from losing it since the minute you opened your hotel room door.”