by Jami Alden
That thought alone kept him from trying for a repeat performance of last night. That and Sean’s jab about Cole’s motivations for staying close to Megan. He wanted her safe, sure, but it was a rush being close to her again. At the heart of it, Sean was right. Cole was a selfish prick, taking advantage of her in her weakest state. He’d take any piece of her he could get, for as long as she’d let him, and so what if they had no future?
Cole would get over that when the time came. He would have no choice.
“Are you doing okay?” He tugged at his collar, overheated even though his house was cold. A sheen of sweat coated skin that felt two sizes too small. “Are you hungry or anything?”
Megan shook her head and leaned against the kitchen counter. Cole looked away, trying not to imagine how she’d looked last night, naked, legs spread as she guided him inside.
She unraveled her braid and ran her fingers through the strands, filling the air with the scent of her shampoo. “I just wish Sean would have a little more faith in me. In us.”
The sadness in her voice ripped him out of the fantasy. He knew it was a bad idea, but with her chewing on her plump lower lip and looking at him with sad green eyes, he couldn’t keep from taking her in his arms. God, it felt so good, the way she melted into him.
“We’re close to something,” Megan said as she leaned into his chest. “I can feel it. All we need is a little more time.”
Cole started to get stuck on that “we” thing, then found himself fully distracted at the feel of hr hand sliding up his back.
He tried to stick his butt out so she wouldn’t feel him hard as a club against her stomach.
Get a goddamn grip. You’re acting like you haven’t gotten laid in months, instead of hours.
And that was the problem, wasn’t it? He’d had sex with Megan less than twenty-four hours ago, and instead of satisfying the craving, scratching the itch, it was like a junkie’s first hit of meth. Now all he could think about was having more. More of her skin under his fingers and tongue. More of her, tight and wet, stretching for the invasion of his cock.
Pull it together. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t try anything tonight.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, but couldn’t stop his hand from stroking the silky length of her hair. He wanted to wrap his fist in it to hold her in place for his kiss, then guide her head slowly down to kiss his chest, his stomach.
He coughed to cover the groan as she hugged him tighter.
“Are you okay?” Her question was muffled against his chest.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just tired.” Just dying to know how it would feel to have your lips around my cock. He wished he could escape, go out for air, a drink, anything to give himself a little space to get himself under control.
He gave her a hard squeeze and forced himself to step away. “You must be exhausted.”
She shook her head and wrinkled her nose in that way he’d always found too damn cute. “I am, but I’m feeling kind of wired.” She stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little… strange.”
“I’m fine.” As fine as he could be with all of the blood in his body pulsing in his groin.
She smiled tiredly up at him. “Thank you again for getting me in to see Sean. For everything you’ve done in the last few days.”
It was all he could do not to jerk her back into his arms and tell her exactly how he’d like to be thanked.
“I’ve been alone with this for so long. You have no idea how good it feels to have someone I can count on.”
Cole’s breath caught in his chest as she slid her hands up his chest and rose on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his chin. He willed himself to accept the gesture for what it was, a kiss of gratitude, not a sign she wanted a repeat performance of last night. He’d seen the look on her face this morning. He didn’t want to put that look of guilty shame back on her face.
The press of her mouth was like a brand against the skin of his jaw. Her hand slid higher and her fingers grazed the bare skin of his neck, sending a jolt of heat straight to his cock.
In the next breath, her lips slid one inch up and to the right until they covered his. Cole groaned and slanted his mouth over hers. His hands slid around her back, pulling her close. The hot slide of her tongue against his, the soft press of her tits against his chest. And, Christ, her hot palms sliding up under the hem of his shirt, scorching the skin of his chest and back. It was nearly enough to make him spontaneously combust right then and there.
“You don’t really want this, Megan.” He tore his mouth from hers and struggled for breath.
“Don’t tell me what I want.” She yanked his shirt up his chest. Her head bent and he felt the hot slide of her tongue against his abs and nearly crumpled to his knees.
“You don’t owe me this.”
“I’m not doing this out of gratitude, Cole.” She straightened and slid her hands down over his ass to pull him close. “I’m doing this because I want you.” She rubbed her stomach against the hard ridge of his cock straining behind his zipper.
“You’re going through an emotional time. You’re not thinking straight.”
She whipped her long-sleeve shirt over her head, slipped off her bra, and stood in front of him, all smooth pale skin and tight pink nipples. “That didn’t stop you last night. Don’t tell me you’re going all noble on me.”
“I was going to try.” For her sake. Shit, for both their sakes, because God knew he was getting sucked in deeper with every second he spent with this woman.
He didn’t know if he grabbed her or if she grabbed him, but suddenly their arms were tangled around each other, their kisses fierce and frantic.
“Don’t,” Megan said in a frantic whisper. “I don’t want to think about anything tonight except how much I want you.” She kissed him again. “I need you, Cole.”
The words sent the final, crushing blow to any noble restraint he might have had. I need you. Christ, he couldn’t imagine anything sweeter coming from her lips. Except…
I love you.
Don’t even go there.
Between the two of them, they got his shirt off and Cole managed to steer them down the hall to his bedroom. But as soon as the backs of her knees hit the mattress, Megan halted him. “Shower,” she said, breathless. “I can’t stand the idea of being with you with the stink of that place on me.”
Sean’s face flashed in Cole’s brain at the reminder, and for a split second the sting of guilt threatened to burst his lust-fueled high. But then Megan kicked off her boots and tugged her jeans down her legs. As he watched, she turned her back to him and hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties. She gave him a naughty look over her shoulder and slid them down, revealing the pale, luscious curve of her ass to his hot gaze.
The scrap of silk and lace slid down her sleekly muscled thighs and slim calves, and then the only thing covering her was the curtain of dark, silky waves tumbling nearly to her waist.
She cocked a dark eyebrow at his hands, frozen on his own waistband as he drank her in. “So, are you going to join me or what?”
Cole snapped into action, kicking off his shoes, shucking his jeans, boxers, and socks in one long tug, and followed her into his bathroom. She stood with her back to him, slightly bent as she adjusted the water temperature, offering a mouthwatering, unimpeded view of her ass and thighs. The little space at the top gave him the sweetest glimpse of her sex, as pink and luscious as her pretty pink mouth. His mouth watered at the thought of kissing her there.
Last night he’d been in such a hurry, desperate to get inside her before he lost control. Tonight he was going to explore every inch, not stop until he knew her body as well as he knew his own.
He pressed himself against her from behind, rubbing his dick against the silky curve of her ass as his hands slid around front to play with her nipples. He nipped at her shoulder, loving the little sounds she made as he pinched and rolled her nipples betwee
n his fingers. Steam billowed around them as Megan swept back the shower curtain and beckoned him inside. Water cascaded down their bodies as he pressed her back against the tiles and grabbed a bar of soap.
She sucked hungrily at his lips and tongue as he covered her skin in rich lather. He kneaded her breasts, loving the look of his tanned hand as it swallowed up her pale curves.
Her nipples were hard, begging to be pinched by his fingers, sucked into his mouth. He bent his head, drew one firmly between his lips, tasting salty-sweet flesh and the remnants of soap. Her cry echoed off the tiles as he sucked hard, first at one breast, then the other. His cock bobbed between them, slipping against the soap-slicked skin of her stomach.
He straightened and grabbed the bar of soap again, working up a fresh lather as he ran his hand up and down her back and lower, over the plump swell of her ass, down her thighs, up in between. At his urging, her legs parted, and he ran his palm up the inside of one inner thigh, almost but not quite touching her sex as he went down the other side. Teasing, stroking, alternating kissing her mouth and sucking her tits until she was breathing hard, her hips rocking with every stroke as she urged his hand farther between her legs.
Cole wasn’t the only one doing the teasing. Megan grabbed the soap from him and ran the bar over his back, chest, ass, thighs. Then it was just her hands, sliding over his skin, her mouth chasing rivulets of water with her tongue as they skated down his stomach. She ran her hands over his butt, down his abs, her fingers tracing the dark line of hair leading down from his navel. Her tongue slid into his mouth as she slid her palm between his legs, grazing, teasing, but not quite touching the heavy sac pulled tight against his body.
One last kiss and she paused, reached for the bottle of shampoo and handed it to him. “Wash my hair,” she ordered. Eyes closed, she tipped her head back under the spray. She was gorgeous, her hair slicked back and throwing her delicate features into stark relief, her eyelashes thick, dark shadows on her cheekbones. He lathered her hair, drinking in every sweet inch of her, savoring the heavy weight of her hair in his hands, her wet skin against his as he pulled her close.
He tipped her head back under theter, and her hands came up to help rinse out the shampoo. With her back arched and her arms raised, her breasts tilted to the ceiling. Drops of water slid down her throat and chest, catching on the dark pink tips of her nipples until he couldn’t stop himself from flicking his tongue out to catch one. She gave a little gasp, and her hands moved from her head to his, her fingers threading through his hair to guide his head up so she could reach his mouth.
He reached behind her and turned off the water, then blindly swept back the curtain. He groped for a towel, his mouth never leaving hers, and clumsily blotted at both their bodies as he guided them out of the tub and into his bedroom. He was drowning in her, her taste, her scent, her feel, and he never wanted to come up for air.
His cock was so hard he felt like he was going to burst out of his skin, but he resisted the primal drive to thrust blindly into her wet heat and finish too soon. He’d gone fast and furious at her the night before, and now he wanted to taste every patch of skin he’d missed.
“Please, Cole,” she said as he bent his head to suck at her nipples. “You’re driving me crazy.”
“Be patient,” he said, and sucked her nipple hard. “I’ve come up with about a hundred different ways to make you come in the past few years, and tonight I’m hoping to try at least a dozen.”
“I could make some suggestions,” she said as he slid his mouth down the smooth, pale skin of her stomach.
“I think I’ve got it covered.” He planted a kiss right above the soft tuft of curls at the top of her mound and sank to his knees beside the bed, shifting her so her knees rested on his shoulders. The scent of her flooded his senses, sending a jolt of heat down his spine.
“Oh, I guess you do,” she said, and gasped as Cole planted an openmouthed kiss on the skin of her inner thigh.
A quiver ran through her as he licked higher, flicking along the crease where her leg met her body. So close, but miles from what he wanted.
What she needed.
With her legs hooked over his shoulders and her hips tilted slightly off the bed, she was open to his gaze. “God, you’re pretty,” he murmured, taking a moment to look his fill. Other than a little modest patch, she was smooth, her bare sex slick with need. Her clit was a shiny little bud, firm and ready and begging to be tasted.
He spread her open with his thumbs and bent his head to feast, licking, sucking, stroking her clit in long slides and tight little circles until she was running hot and wet and rocking against his face. “God, you taste so good,” he groaned, salty sweet and spice all at the same time. She arched off the bed, her heels digging into his back as he sucked her into his mouth, stroked her with his tongue.
He licked lower and slid his tongue inside, fucking her with his tongue as she writhed and moaned. His cock throbbed, insistent in its need to take his tongue’s place. Cole shoved the demands of his own body aside. Right now it felt too good to satisfy Megan’s. Every moan, every sigh, every rush of moisture his lips, tongue, and fingers teased from made him feel like a fucking king.
And when he sucked her clit into his mouth and slid one, then two fingers high inside her and felt the rhythmic tightening of her body as she came on an endless wave, he felt like he had just seen the face of God.
He gave her one last, lingering kiss and let her legs slide down his arms as he rose from the floor. His dick was painfully hard, his balls drawn tight against his body, and every nerve ending sizzled with need. He put one knee on the bed and reached for her, but Megan rolled to her knees and wrapped his cock in her warm, firm grip.
Breath hissed between his teeth as she bent her head, and then, oh, Christ, yes, pressed her lips to the swollen head. Cole reached down to brush back her dark curtain of hair so he could see her hot little tongue circle the tip, lick up a drop of precome. He clenched his jaw, willing his orgasm back as she ran her tongue up and down his shaft, licking and squeezing until he was going out of his mind.
“Megan, God, you’re driving me crazy. Jesus, please,” he muttered, not sure what he was begging for, his universe shrinking until all he knew was her mouth and hands on his cock and the arousal heating to a nearly painful pitch.
She sucked him into her mouth, and he let out a shout, feeling the pressure build at the base of his spine as she took him as deep as he could go. Christ, he’d spent hours fantasizing about this, but nothing he could imagine ever came close. His imagination couldn’t possibly touch the reality of Megan taking his cock in her mouth like she was starving for the taste of him, the little sounds she made in her throat as she sucked him off, her silky hair slipping through his fingers, the clean scents of soap and shampoo mixing with the musk of sex.
Another pump of her hand almost sent him over the edge, and he reluctantly pulled her head up. As unbelievably good as it felt, he didn’t want to come this way. He wanted to come inside her, buried deep, feeling her take everything he had.
The need to have her, claim her, rose in his blood, primal and savage. He rolled her to her front and pulled her onto her knees. She was so beautiful, the curve of her spine, the silky smooth skin of her back. Her round ass tilted up, the wet, pink folds of her sex beckoning him in.
He wrapped one hand around her hip and the other around his cock and guided himself to her entrance. He squeezed inside, watching his cock disappear into her heat, the pleasure so keen he thought the top of his head might blow off.
She was wet, but so tight. He forced himself not to shove into her full force. But Megan was watching him over her shoulder, her eyes dark and mysterious, her mouth red and swollen. “Please,” she moaned, rocking her ass back against him, taking him deeper with every stroke. “I need you, need you…”
Her breath exploded on a high sound of pleasure as he shoved into her full length, pulled almost all the way out and pushed all the way back inside. She spr
ead her knees wide and rocked back to meet the surge of his hips, her moans growing louder with every stroke.
He could feel her tight and pulsing around his cock, could see the muscles in her back tighten with She was so close and so was he, his orgasm bearing down on him with the force of a freight train as he struggled to hold out a few seconds longer.
He reached around and found the firm swell of her clit, their moans mingling as her muscles clenched around him. His fingers slipped and slid against her in concert with his thrusts, heightening her pleasure as he strove to hold his at bay.
“That’s it,” he whispered as she stiffened against him, every muscle in her body tensing. “I want to feel you come, Megan. I want to make you feel so good….”
Her cries echoed through the room as she shook with release around him, her sex kneading and squeezing him like a tight, wet fist. He jerked and pulsed inside her, turning inside out, coming with such force his vision darkened and he was afraid he might pass out.
He fell forward on her, barely catching himself before he crushed her. He rolled her to her back and looked into her dazed green eyes, wanting to say something but afraid he’d burst into tears if he opened his mouth. God, he’d never felt anything like he felt right now, the desperation to keep her close, keep her safe, a compulsion no amount of sex could ever take the edge off of.
She cradled his cheek in her hand and pressed her lips to his in a kiss full of lazy satisfaction and pure, unadulterated affection.
Cole felt the impact like a hydrogen bomb going off in his chest.
Jesus, I love her.
He swallowed past the softball-size lump in his throat and pressed his lips harder against Megan’s to mask the slight tremble in his. He pulled her tight against him, skin to skin as he swept his tongue in her mouth, tasting her in lazy strokes. Relishing every detail of lying naked next to the woman he… loved.
He’d tried to hold it at bay, tried to chalk it up to unsatisfied lust, unresolved guilt over how he’d treated her after Sean’s arrest. Told himself what he felt for her couldn’t possibly run that deep.
