The After Party (A Badboys Boxset)

by Karr, Kim

  I never could resist his domineering ways, so I hold on with my heart nearly pounding out of my chest. Hold on tightly while he stands up, looks around, reaches down, and finally fumbles in his wallet. Pulls everything out. Shakes it upside down. And then sighs.

  Sighs.

  Why is he sighing?

  Curious, I watch as he drops his wallet to the floor empty-handed.

  Sighing again, he saunters toward me. All this time I’m watching him in utter fascination. He sits down beside me. I so badly want that body over mine. His eyes are on me. I’m waiting. Wondering what is going on.

  Finally, he laughs and nuzzles my ear. “You’re never going to believe this.”

  “Believe what?”

  He laughs again. “I don’t have any condoms.”

  “Stop joking around. It’s not funny.”

  “I’m totally serious.”

  I sit up so fast the room spins for a second or two, and I have to grab on to one of his shoulders to steady myself.

  He looks at me in question.

  “I don’t have any,” I say in answer to his unspoken question.

  We are sitting side by side now. Naked. Completely naked. “Well, shit,” is all he says.

  “How . . . how do you not—” I stop myself.

  He’s shaking his head. “I wasn’t planning anything that has happened tonight. Wasn’t even thinking this is where we’d end up when I called you earlier. I’m sorry.”

  Giggles bubble out of me. “You don’t have to be sorry.” It’s pretty funny. After so much worry about doing this, now we can’t. I can only laugh about it because otherwise I might just cry. I bite the inside of my cheek to stop from doing either.

  Jasper leans in and kisses me until my mouth opens and I can taste him. Taste me. That energy we seem to have wraps itself around us like a blanket and soon enough he has me pinned on the bed. A breeze blows through the window. The air might be cool, but all I can feel is the heat between us. Our breathing shifts. His goes in while mine goes out. My clit throbs beneath his hard length, and I rock myself against him. Jasper’s mouth moves down my neck, small, light flicks of his tongue that feel like sparks of desire. I run my fingers through his hair, the strands tickling the back of my hand. “What are we going to do?” I ask.

  Jasper lifts himself up on his arms. Stares down at me, his lips glistening. Those intense brown eyes flickering, he licks his lips. “We have two choices,” he says. “I can get dressed and go to the store, or we can stay here and act like horny teenagers who never hit a home run.”

  “Third base?” I question.

  He nods.

  Neither is acceptable. I shake my head no and put my hands on his face to tip it farther down. Gently, I hold him still while I look up into his eyes. Looking for a better solution. Hoping for one. My thumbs reach for the softness of his mouth and trace his lower lip.

  Jasper shivers under my touch and a new level of desire seems to be mounting. He shifts a little and his erection strokes along my inner thigh, tantalizing my flesh with his. I can’t stand it another minute. That’s when I reach between us to stroke him. He groans and I want to swallow the noise, it sounds so good. The inner temptress in me that I had no idea existed emerges, and I insert a thumb inside his mouth in the most flirtatious way.

  After sucking on it for more than a few seconds, his lips purse and he looks down at me with a sly grin. “What are you doing?”

  Answering without really thinking about it I say, “Finishing what we started. I’m on the pill. I’m clean. And I trust you are too.”

  Reservations appear all over his face. Even though he seems hesitant to move forward, he lowers himself down, closer to me. Closer to my mouth. Closer to my body. “I am clean. I get tested twice a year.”

  With my nipples brushing his chest, I have to ask. “But the two women you were with last weekend?”

  “Although this is not the place I want to be discussing this, I didn’t have sex with them both, just Blue, and I used a condom.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He shrugs and shifts to the other end of the bed. “It doesn’t matter. I was still with them both intimately.”

  I sit up to face him, uncertain of what to say to that. He’s right. It shouldn’t matter. Yet for some reason it matters to me that he didn’t sleep with Eve. Knowing this doesn’t change anything, but all the same I feel like a weight has been lifted. Lighter than I’ve felt in a while, I lose myself in his brown eyes, now deep and dark, filled with that heavy layer of desire I’m feeling too. And I find myself ready to stop thinking about him with her. Moving closer to him, I place my hand on his face. “I haven’t been with a man in two years, and I really want you right now, so let’s stop talking about other women.”

  Jasper blinks and falls on an elbow. “Trust me, the only woman I want to talk about is you.”

  I draw in a breath. “So we’re doing this?” I ask.

  He grins. “We are.”

  I lean down to kiss him. Upside down. My forehead right above his chin, I slide my mouth until I find his. Then I kiss him and kiss him and kiss him, not caring what angle we’re at.

  His hand cups the back of my neck, his strong fingers pressing just right at the base of my skull. I shiver and feel his touch in every inch of me.

  Fast, fast as sin, he rolls me onto my back. Even faster, one hand is next to my shoulder and the other is on his cock to guide it inside me. My eyes close as he pushes slowly and starts to fill me. A small noise escapes me and he stops moving. He must think I feel pain. He isn’t wrong, but I want it. Want to feel it. Want to turn it into pleasure. Slowing his pace, he slides a hand beneath the back of my neck. His fingers dive into my hair and he brings my mouth to his. Open-mouthed, he kisses me and then stops, breathing hard.

  I blink him into focus, his face so close I can see every single one of his long, long lashes. Inside me his cock throbs. Still he doesn’t move. I start to tremble, my need for him surging. “Please.”

  His eyes search mine and he smiles half a beat after I beg. “I’m letting you decide on the pace.”

  Understanding what he means, I shift beneath him, and only then does he finally press deeper into me. Then he slowly withdraws an inch or two. It isn’t enough. This is too slow. I lift my hips and clutch his ass to move him.

  With a groan, he sinks into me, and then pulls out.

  Faster he thrusts.

  Faster still.

  Turning it up, our teeth clash in a hard kiss and our grip on each other tightens, but I don’t care about bruises. This feels so good nothing else matters—it all falls away. Everything. It’s just him and me and what we have. This physical insanity. This lust. This desire that is greater than any I’ve ever felt.

  Needing to hold on, I reach back and grab the headboard.

  Jasper pushes up onto his hands to drive his cock deeper, and the pleasure is almost too much. My hands grip the wood. He moves faster and faster. Deeper and deeper. His eyes never leave mine, not even when he slides a hand between us to stroke my clit in time with his hard and fast thrusts.

  “Now,” he grunts between clenched teeth.

  Uncertainty must be evident on my face.

  “Now . . . you can come.”

  The ceiling starts to blur. I close my eyes and tip into the swirling oblivion of orgasm. Warmth floods me and I let it sweep me away. Carry me off to a place where everything in the world is bright and filled with so much light. A place where darkness doesn’t loom around every corner and stars shine bright. It’s a place I’ve never been.

  Jasper groans my name, surprising me, and I find that I, too, like the way he says my name.

  I cry out so loudly when he pumps inside me one last time that I end up letting go of the headboard to hold onto him. Not on purpose, my nails rake his back. When they do, he cries out too, maybe because I’m drawing blood or maybe because it feels that good for him too, and then he collapses on top of me. His lips search for that spot o
n my neck that drives me wild and attach to it.

  A minute passes before he rolls onto his back with a loud sigh. “Wow.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” I stare up at the ceiling still seeing stars, unable to form words, boneless and sated beyond belief.

  His shoulder presses against mine and I like being close to him. Once he catches his breath, he turns to face me.

  I turn too.

  Both propped on elbows, we stare at each other. “Is this what they call friends to lovers?”

  I laugh. “I’m not entirely sure, but if I had to guess I’d say yes.”

  Jasper takes a piece of my hair and twirls it around his finger. “Does it make me sound perverted if I tell you I want to cross that line again?”

  I laugh, this time ruefully. “No, but I’m pretty certain you can only cross it once.”

  The side of his mouth quirks up in the most wicked way. “Did I mention again?”

  I stretch my legs out and entwine my feet with his naked ones, then I run my fingers up the inside of his thigh, and I can feel him starting to get hard again. “You did,” I whisper, “and I have the most perfect thing in mind.”

  He raises a brow. “Oh, yeah, what?”

  “Let me show you.” I lean in to kiss him and it seems like the most natural thing in the world.

  He’s so responsive to my touch. His mouth opens under mine. His tongue strokes mine. His hands are in my hair.

  Pushing him onto his back, I straddle him and continue kissing him, but not on the mouth. Instead, I draw a path down his body with my tongue like he did to mine, stopping to suck and nip at his skin along the way.

  The noises he makes are such a turn-on that when I reach his cock I can’t wait, and immediately take him in my mouth. I suck him slowly. He arches. I suck him harder. He surges his hips. I moan. I lose myself in him. In his taste. In his scent. The feel of his cock. In all of him. I want to remember this forever.

  With his fingers in my hair, he comes. “Charlotte, oh fuck, Charlotte,” he calls out.

  And I can’t help but smile as he finds his release with my mouth, my tongue, my teeth, and my name.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES

  Jasper

  LAST WEEKEND TWENTY-TWO people were shot in Detroit, four of them fatally. A month ago the Department of Highway Safety announced they were having a difficult time raising the funds to assemble a task force to tackle the long-standing problem of illegal street racing. Tonight, mobs of angry people came out to express their concern about my innocence.

  What do they all have in common? The city’s lack of a fully staffed police force to handle the violence on the streets.

  It’s the sort of thing that gives Detroit a fearful reputation of being a lawless place.

  I draw in a breath. Let it out. Take another, a slow, easy pattern that nevertheless doesn’t help me relax.

  Up until now, the shit that happened tonight was something I’d only watched on the news or read in the paper. Now it is my life.

  I’m certain damage control is quickly moving to the top of Will’s to-do list. And rightfully so.

  Inhale.

  Exhale.

  Breathe.

  Thunder booms in the distance and lightning lights up the sky. Small pellets of rain start beating down and I look over toward the window. It’s open, but the wind doesn’t seem to be blowing it in.

  Finally, I exhale in shallower bursts. Beneath me Charlotte makes a small snore-like noise. It’s fucking adorable. I look at her and even in the midst of the turmoil I can’t help but grin.

  Our skin is sticky from the July heat. Charlotte shifts to lie beside me and entwines her legs with mine. And that’s all it takes. Soon, too soon, my breathing starts to pick up again for an entirely different reason.

  I can’t stop myself from remembering how good it felt to be inside her. Bare. Never have I gone bareback with a woman before. Fuck, it felt like nothing I’d ever felt before. Like sex was just sex with all the others, but with her it was something more. Something I can’t put a name on. Was it just that I didn’t wear a condom? Because fuck, I shouldn’t do that again. Still, I want to. But really, I always have condoms. Always. Yet, with everything going on, I never restocked my wallet after last weekend. Sex just wasn’t on my radar. When you’re the circus act in town it’s hard to focus on much else. And let’s not forget that I was planning on keeping her out of this mess.

  Fuck!

  I run my hand through my hair. Was it the right decision to change my mind?

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  I just don’t know.

  The summer heat wave is in full force and feeling it more tonight than ever, I carefully throw the covers off and stare at the overhead fan whirling above.

  Risk and danger.

  That’s what I’ve been about my whole life. And as I lie here at three in the morning with her fast asleep on my chest, I can’t help but wonder if that’s what Charlotte Lane is to me too.

  More risk and danger.

  If she is, the outcome might be more detrimental than any before, because this time I’ve allowed the one thing to happen that I haven’t allowed since I was eight years old—for my heart to open. Just a little. Not too much. But enough that she’s somehow seeped inside it.

  Smooth skin is warm beneath my fingertips and although I shouldn’t, I can’t help but caress it.

  The thing about Charlotte is that when I’m with her, I feel like I’m speeding on the highway and slowing down at the same time. I feel like it doesn’t matter if I go left or right. My internal meter can’t get a reading on how fast or slow I’m going, and the strangest thing is that I’m okay with it.

  Tiny droplets of rain start splashing on the hardwood floor and carefully, very carefully, I untangle myself from Charlotte and cross the room to close her window. Her building is extremely long and through this window I can see the back of the Motor City Brewing Works. Although I hate that she lives here, at least her building backs up to a green alley. I pushed the council to complete this green alley project last year. The space was underutilized and over-vandalized. It was a hive for crime. Gone are the mosquitos, vagrants, thieves, garbage, and puddles of slime and dirt. In their place are wildflowers, a beautiful brick walkway, and a safe entrance to a garage and the brewery.

  Stepping over my clothes, I pull my phone out. Thumbing through text after text, I stop at the one from Alex that reads, “Need to talk to you. Meet me at nine tomorrow morning at the Hudson Cafe, near your building.”

  That can’t be good. I type a quick response, “I’ll be there,” and toss my phone on the dresser. I’ll answer the other messages in the morning.

  Charlotte’s apartment is on the top floor and the patter of rain on the roof sounds louder than it had moments ago. Slowly, I pad back toward the bed. Slipping in, I try not to move too much so I don’t wake her.

  The flash of lightning and almost instantaneous crash of thunder makes Charlotte jerk. The power goes out with a beep of her alarm clock but comes back on moments later. Another rumble follows another flash, and this time the alarm clocks beeps but the power remains off.

  The storm is moving closer. The lightning cracks at pretty regular intervals and the thunder gets louder and louder.

  An ear-piercing scream has me bolting upright. “Charlotte!” I call out, reaching blindly across the bed. My heart starts pounding out of my chest when her head isn’t on the pillow she was just sleeping on moments ago.

  “I’m right here,” she says in a hushed whisper.

  Pushing my way through the sheets, I crawl to the foot of the bed and find her there. If light and shadows could paint the picture, I already know what I would see. A girl curled up tightly with her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth to ease the fear. Coils of anxiety work their way into my muscles until I reach her. Gently but firmly, I wrap myself around her trembling body, not unlike I used to do when we were eight.

  “I’m okay,” sh
e tells me.

  Sometimes darkness reveals as much as it hides. She’s still afraid of the dark. Afraid of the thunder and lightning. The years haven’t eased her fear in the least. “I know you are,” I whisper against her hair.

  Her voice cracks a little when she speaks. “I have a flashlight in the drawer of the night table.”

  “We don’t need that,” I whisper.

  She clings to me like I’m her safety blanket and I wonder if this is what she considers needy.

  I breathe in and breathe out, wondering how she coped all these years alone. Did the flashlight help? Did her aunt comfort her? Is this why the men in her life left her?

  Assholes.

  Questions I want to ask and will, just not now. Right now she needs to know she’s not alone. With a slight shift of our bodies, she’s beneath me, and I rise on my forearms so as not to crush her.

  She lifts on her elbows. “I really am okay.”

  “I know.”

  “I want you,” she whispers into the dark, sitting up.

  “I’m right here,” I tell her and sit up too.

  In the dark she finds me. Finds my cock. Grips my cock and slides right onto my lap.

  I let out a shuddering sigh. “Charlotte.”

  Her moan is one I already feel I can never get enough of.

  We’re chest to chest.

  Mouth to mouth.

  Breath to breath.

  Her arms go around my neck and hold the back of my head. Our mouths meet. We kiss, hard but slow. Our tongues stroke each other’s like we both love the taste of each other. When my hands grip her hips, she wraps her legs around my waist. I fucking love it.

  Slowly my hips thrust upward.

  Charlotte starts rocking into me at a much faster pace.

  “Fuck.”

  Her fingers twist in my hair at the nape. “Please, Jasper,” she begs.

  Because I can’t say no, because I would never say no to her, I give her what she wants. My hands slide down beneath her ass to lift her higher on my cock. She counters with a downward thrust and a roll of her hips that twists her on me in a way that makes me want to explode right now.