“C’mon,” he repeated, grabbing my hand and helping me out of the car. My knees gave. I think all of that had turned my muscles into mush because I felt dizzy. I’d had only one drink earlier, but I wobbled like I was drunk. Rhett, with this smug look, bent down and hoisted me over his shoulder.
“Put me down,” I yelped.
“Nope,” he objected. “I did this to you. I’m taking care of you. Don’t argue with me, green eyes.”
I didn’t argue, a part of me was relieved he was helping me, and I stayed still as he carried me up a flight of steps and to his front door. He fumbled with the keys, finally opened the door, and then brought me inside. The air conditioning hit me and it felt heavenly. The lights were off and it took him a moment to find them and flip them on. Once he did, he moved to the kitchen and set me down on the counter. All too aware that I didn’t have my underwear, I crossed my legs tightly together.
“Damn,” he sighed, shaking his head and shooting a grin my way. “You want a beer?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
He moved for the fridge, hanging on the door and dipped his head inside. “We’ve got lots of choices. Um…cherry wheat?” He held up something that looked vaguely girly. “They’re my roommate’s. She won’t mind.”
“That’s fine,” I muttered.
He found a bottle opener in a drawer, cracked mine open, and handed it over. He grabbed some fancy IPA beer for himself and popped the top on his as well.
“Always a bartender,” I commented, clinking the neck of my bottle to his.
“If the shoe fits,” was his response.
I took a sip of the beer and glanced around his house. The beer actually tasted really good. I didn’t even know I liked beer. I’d always thought I was a mixed drink kind of girl, but maybe that was more of my mother’s influence on my taste buds from the time I’d spent with her in New York.
The house was immaculately clean. Nothing out of place, not even a stray shoe or book. The entire kitchen sparkled. I lived with my bachelor brother. Except on Tuesdays, when the maid visited to do damage control, our place was a disaster. How did a guy like Rhett have such a clean house?
“So,” Rhett said, drawing my attention back to him. “What do you say we order a pizza and watch a movie…hell, maybe even snuggle a little? Make a night of this.”
“Snuggle?” I questioned. “Did you just say snuggle?”
“Yes, I did. I am a big snuggler. The biggest. You okay with that?”
For the first time since our little incident in the car, I felt myself relax. “I’m okay with that. But I’m pretty sure I got off in the car and you didn’t. I…um…” Well, so much for relaxing. Why the hell did I just say that? The words just came out. Bringing this up made me shy all over again. I was surprised I’d even had the courage to ask him at all, but I really wanted to know why we’d stopped when we did. “Don’t you need to…um, finish or something?”
He took a long pull of his beer. Those X-rated lips of his formed the perfect, smiley ‘O’ around the opening of his bottle. “Look at you, all worried about my wellbeing,” he joked before taking another drink. “No,” he said after a moment, turning rather serious. “I’m good.”
Taking my hand, he helped me hop down from the counter.
“Come with me. Let me show you my room.”
I followed him through his perfectly clean house, down a long, dark hallway, and into his room. I had no idea where the rest of this night would lead us. But I had a feeling pizza, a movie, and snuggling weren’t exactly the way he treated all his guests.
He was making an exception for me.
CHAPTER 6:
RHETT
Fuck snuggling. I was not a snuggler. Seriously, I would rather die than spend pointless time holding some stranger, while counting the seconds until we could either get to round two or I could just put my clothes on and go home. So when I suggested snuggling to this girl, there wasn’t a person in the room more surprised than myself. Another cardinal sin broken—or at least it would be, if we did actually snuggle later.
In my room, I gave my girl the grand tour. There wasn’t much space for all my junk. There was my bed, my guitars, my movies, some of my old baseball stuff, and a few piles of books, on the occasion that I did read. My room wasn’t God-awful messy, I’d actually straightened it earlier, but it was a disaster compared to the rest of the house. My roommate Noah had OCD and kept the shared spaces in our rental sparkling clean. Just his thing. Only…his thing kind of made me look bad when you compared my room to the rest of the house.
Green Eyes didn’t comment on the clutter. Nor did she comment on the guitars—which usually were the first thing girls questioned. Could I play? Was I in a band? Would I sing something for them? What was it about women and musicians? Females love that shit. If a guy could sing, that automatically made him more attractive. Yes, I was in a band. Yes, I could sing. It didn’t even matter that my band sucked. For the One-Night Stand Guy, being in a band only made me more mysterious and allusive.
Then there was my baseball stuff. For a split second she almost seemed interested. She ran her fingers over an old wooden bat from way back in the day. My short-lived glory days were long over. These days, I played softball—with old men and lesbians. Not that I didn’t love the softball team Noah, Ellie, and I were part of—but it wasn’t the same thing as playing for the Daredevils. Or, as I’d always dreamed of as a kid, playing for the Majors.
“What movie do you want to watch?” was her only question. She gestured toward my small stand in the corner.
I shrugged. “You pick.”
Her mouth opened like she had something more to say. She said nothing. Then she sat on the carpet, her knees tucked under her body with her beer in hand, as she started inspecting my collection. God, she was beautiful. Certainly too good for me and certainly someone who didn’t belong in my room. Her hair fell in these golden waves down her back, kind of fluffy from our time in the car. Her red dress hugged her hips—hips that I got an up close and personal view of—quite exquisitely. And the way she sipped her beer…she had my cock hard already (yeah, it hadn’t died down in the least) and it was growing painful now.
But the memory of her coming for me, in my car, that was pretty un-fucking-believable. Nothing had ever happened so easily, so fluidly, or felt so…damned…right. I was high off the feeling she’d given me. And, no, I hadn’t ‘finished,’ but that didn’t even matter.
My whole body shivered just thinking about it.
“I’m going to go take a quick shower while you’re deciding. Okay, sweetheart? I smell like the bar. I’ll be fast.”
“You don’t smell,” she muttered, not taking her eyes off the movies.
“Well, it feels that way. It always feels like work is still on me after leaving that place, like it sticks to my skin. So I need to wash it off,” I explained. “I’ll be fast,” I repeated, leaving her alone in my room before she had a chance to respond.
In the bathroom, I turned the water on burning hot and jumped under the stream with my beer still in my hand. I hardly ever drank—it just wasn’t my thing. But I sipped on the cold liquid, such a contrast to the scalding water that beat against my back, as I tried to collect my thoughts.
I liked this girl.
I didn’t know her. I didn’t even know her name. Nor did I know who that tattooed guy was who’d punched me in the face, called me as ‘nasty motherfucker,’ and made her leave the restaurant when he caught us kissing on the first day we met. He kind of worried me. And for all I knew, the only thing she really wanted out of tonight was sex. That was the only thing most girls wanted from me. But this voice inside my head kept screaming at me that she was the real fucking deal. This was the ‘whatever’ in my life that I had been waiting for and the reason everything else had been feeling lackluster lately. I couldn’t ignore that feeling. It kind of freaked me out, but I couldn’t ignore it. So I was going to explore the hell out of whatever this was I was feeling.
/>
After soaping up my body twice and rinsing off, I stepped out of the shower, dried, and then knotted my towel around my waist. I’d forgotten to grab clothes to change into, so going back half naked to my room where I’d left her was my only choice.
I found her in my bed. On top of the covers. Remote in hand, flipping through the TV stations. The moment I entered the room, she sat up as if I’d caught her watching porn. She, obviously, wasn’t watching porn. The Food Network was on.
“Did you pick out a movie?” I asked.
She held up my copy of The Princess Bride. “Is this okay?”
“Works for me. But you’ve got to get out of my bed.”
“Why?”
“Just for a minute, please.”
Shooting me a confused glance, she scooted over to the edge and stood. “Did I do something wrong?” she questioned. “Rhett.” She poked a finger at my bare chest, still a little damp from the shower, and gave me a small smile. It wasn’t a hard jab, but a playful one. She’d taken off her shoes in the time I’d been gone. Before, she’d been closer to my height. Without them, I now had a few inches on her. But her green eyes challenged me like she was twice my size.
I instantly had to reevaluate whatever first impression the girl with glasses and freckles by the dumpsters had given me. Yes, she had a shy, sweet side. But, like I’d seen in the car not even a half hour earlier, and like she was showing me now, she also had this spicy, sexy, playful side. I really wanted to get know that side. I think that was the side that was calling out to me.
“You don’t like me in your bed?” she joked, still teasing, baiting.
Too bad my reason for making her get up was a shitty one. Or I would have played along with this. “I don’t really know how to say this without sounding disgusting as fu—” I started and then stopped myself mid-sentence. “Sorry,” I cleared my throat. My mom taught me to never curse around women. That lesson obviously hadn’t stuck because I cursed all the time. With her though, I was trying to be a little different. “Without sounding disgusting,” I corrected. “I need to change the sheets on my bed.”
She chuckled for a moment, probably thinking I was joking. Then she grew serious when she realized I wasn’t. I’d had a girl in this bed a couple nights ago, and I knew it wasn’t clean. Very far from it. I hope that didn’t hurt her feelings, but I couldn’t change what had already happened.
“Oh,” she muttered, realizing my meaning. “Well, go ahead.” She stepped aside.
With her eyes on me, I found my extra set of sheets in the closet and made quick work of removing the dirty set. It was hard to maneuver in a towel, but I managed. “I screw around a lot. It’s no secret,” I told her, wishing to God I didn’t have to say this. “I’m sure you’ve heard.”
“I have.”
Finishing with my bed, I next went for the pillows. “And you’re here now because of that…or despite that?”
I stopped working because this was important.
“Despite that,” she said slowly.
That was the answer I needed to hear, but one more thing still weighed on my mind. “Are you a virgin?”
She made this weird sigh, maybe more like a growl, and rolled her eyes at me. My question had obviously offended her, but it had to be asked. I wasn’t about to be her first.
“It’s a legit question, sweetheart,” I argued, tossing my pillow back on the bed. I grabbed the remote off my nightstand and turned off the TV. I couldn’t have Guy Fieri blabbing in the background about how good some hamburger was while we discussed this. “The truth is, you’re standing there looking pure as snow. While I’m pretty sure I’m fucking yellow snow.” Shit. I cursed in front of her again. I had to stop doing that. “Look. It may not seem like it, but I’m trying very hard to be a gentleman with you. I like you. And that sort of thing just doesn’t happened to me.” I took a breath. I felt like I was talking myself into a hole. “Sorry,” I added. “I’m nervous and that doesn’t happen to me either.”
For several long seconds we both stared at one another. I became very aware that I had on only a towel. There was a little spark of anger between us, but also a spark of lust. One that had my heart hammering and my skin crawling. With such a rush of emotions going through me, I waited for her to say something…anything.
Instead, she let out a small laugh. I didn’t get what was so funny. “Did you just compare yourself to yellow snow?” she giggled.
Oh. Right. That.
“That probably wasn’t the best analogy,” I acknowledged, unable to keep from smiling.
“Probably not.”
She bit her lip and shook her head. “You’re too much. And I like you too,” she admitted. “I’m not a virgin, Rhett. You don’t need to be anything else but yourself around me because I’m not as ‘snow white’ as I might look.”
“You’re not?”
“No.”
“Thank you, Jesus,” I said to the ceiling. Because, dammit, I wasn’t really a gentleman. I was a guy who liked to fuck. And I’d never wanted to fuck someone as much as I wanted to fuck her. “This evening can go one of two ways,” I told her, my confidence back in place and suddenly stronger than ever. “In the first scenario, we watch Princess Bride and we snuggle. And if that’s all you want to do tonight then I’m cool with that. I like you so I’m going to do whatever. Or…in scenario number two…I can drop this towel and we can go from there. It’s your choice, sweetheart.” My hand lingered on the edge of my towel. “What’s it going to be? And I should probably learn your name.”
Two. The way her eyes devoured me alive told me her answer was scenario two.
“Drop the towel,” she finally uttered.
I dropped the towel.
CHAPTER 7:
SYDNEY
Rhett had a very large penis. Was I allowed to think that? Was I allowed to like that? Holy crap. Kind of intimidating and kind of pretty. And it matched his seemingly photo-shopped abs and mouthwatering thighs perfectly. Jeez, what was it about his thighs that I found so damn attractive? I didn’t know. I just knew I liked them. And now I knew I liked his penis too.
Man, I was such a weirdo.
A weirdo and a virgin.
Closing my mouth, because it was pretty much hanging wide open, I reminded myself to breathe. A moment ago, when he’d asked me if I was a virgin, I’d lied. I’d lied because I feared if I told him the truth he might start treating me differently. Everything had been going well thus far, better even, and I wouldn’t be able to handle it if he’d stopped looking at me like that. Because that was the way he’d been treating me all night—like I was something special, like I hung the freaking moon in the sky. It was the exact way I’d always wished Ben had looked at me. Maybe Rhett wouldn’t look at me any different if he knew the truth, but I wasn’t willing to find out. Besides, he would never know the difference…right? Guys couldn’t actually tell that sort of thing. It was only a myth that they could.
I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure. But I hoped not.
My eyes finished their inspection of his naked body, my gaze returning to his face.
“Like what you see?” he asked.
“Yes,” I breathed.
His ego was through the roof, but I couldn’t even begin to deny my attraction.
“Good.”
Our eyes connected. Then, as if he couldn’t stay still another second, he moved across the room, took my face in his hands, and kissed me. The intensity of our kiss was like no other. When we kissed there was some sort of mutual, automatic, animalistic understanding that passed between us—like we were perfectly in sync on a physical level. Every kiss we’d shared thus far, including this one, seemed to always have that common denominator. It was good. It didn’t make sense…but it was good.
“I want you naked,” he whispered against my mouth. “Now. No more foreplay. No more banter. Just sex.” Before I even had a moment to process his words, he lifted me up into his arms and tossed me onto his freshly made bed.
> Um, wow. Damn. What was that? Maybe I’d let loose some sort of beast by telling him I wasn’t a virgin and giving him the green light. Because the naked guy that stared down at me, with eyes so full of life and fire, didn’t look like he was about to be easy or gentle or hold anything back with me. Which was exactly what I needed and expected from him. This was the Rhett Morgan with the reputation.
He joined me in the bed and his fingers began working immediately, unbuttoning my dress. There were too many buttons, and he could have ripped my dress apart in haste, as he had so indelicately done with my panties in the car, but Rhett carefully unbuttoned each one. He reached the end and pushed the pieces of material apart, exposing me.
“Sit up,” he ordered.
I did as he asked.
He pushed the straps of my dress off my shoulders so the material fell away. Then he reached around my back and unclasped my bra. He tugged it away and then, always one for the dramatic, flung it into some unknown corner of his room.
Topless with a guy. Another first.
The lights in his room weren’t even dim. There was no hum of music or any other sound to distract away from the fact that it was just the two of us, fully and completely naked. And yet…I didn’t feel all that uncomfortable or embarrassed. Actually, all I felt was need. I needed his hands on my body. I needed his lips on my lips. I needed to feel him inside me. Now that this moment had come, I was glad it was about to happen with Rhett. I didn’t feel the same shyness with Rhett that I used to feel around Ben.
Rhett crawled on top of me and his mouth went straight to one of my nipples. He kissed, sucked, and licked in ways I never knew possible. A shot of pure heaven. He had my skin prickling and buzzing. His mouth worked its way from my breasts all the way to my waiting mouth. Those X-rated lips of his pressed against my lips. With one easy probe of his tongue, I opened up and let him in. Our tongues met and danced in a way that was quickly becoming familiar and easy.
Kill Devil Hills: A Complete Beach Romance Series (4-Book Box Set) Page 42
