In the time it takes to walk to them, she’s got her hands back on her own body where they belong. Sloan sees me before she does, and the look of relief on his face says it all. He’s happy I’m back.
“There you are beautiful. Our coffees and muffins will be ready in a minute.” He glances down at the red head and looks back at me. “I hope you don’t mind but I got them to go.”
He reaches out for me and pulls me into his arms, kissing my forehead in an obvious display of affection. The red head stands there watching with a look of irritation on her face, but schools her features before she speaks. “And who might this be?”
I hear the exasperation in his voice when he introduces us, his attention directed towards me first. “Honey, this is Bridgett. Bridgett, this is Elizabeth, my…”
He trails off and I can’t help it. I finish the sentence for him, knowing full well who this is now. “His girlfriend.” She cuts her eyes over to Sloan as if she can’t believe he has a girlfriend, which is absurd since she had a boyfriend before she’d even ended things with him. Regardless, my revelation renders her speechless.
Mercifully, the barista at the counter calls Sloan’s name and he snags our drinks and a to go bag from her. He hands me my cup. “Ready to go?”
“Whenever you are.” I give him a bright smile which he returns and we turn to leave, but she has the nerve to reach out for his arm, stopping him. He turns, irritation in his eyes as he looks first at her hand and then at her. She must see it too because she immediately releases his arm. Smart move. Two more seconds and she would have gotten back a bloody stump.
Oh, hello green-eyed monster. Welcome to the party.
“Think about what I said, okay? Please?” She cuts her eyes over to me before bringing them back to him. Sloan doesn’t answer her, choosing instead to take me by the hand, leading us out of the café and back into the busy street.
We make our way back to his house, the walk quieter than it was on the way to the café. After a few minutes of strolling in silence, I decide to break it. “So…that was her, huh?”
He doesn’t look my way when he answers. “Yep.”
He doesn’t elaborate.
I’m dying to know what she wanted him to think about, but I know it’s none of my business. It still doesn’t stop me from opening my big mouth and asking, “You wanna talk about it?”
“Nope.” He stops mid-stride and takes my hand as I walk by, stopping me in my tracks. He pulls me in close to him, the rugged scent of his cologne washing over me, and sighs. “I want to forget I even saw her today. I don’t want her to ruin this morning for us.” He bends down, placing a soft kiss against my lips. “It’s been perfect.”
His smile melts me and he pulls me along beside him, our steps synchronizing as we walk, only this time, the smile stays on his face and his hand stays in mine. I think the awkwardness of the encounter is behind us, but I couldn’t be more wrong.
“So, you’re my girlfriend now?”
His words catch me off guard and I stop our forward progression again. At this rate, we’re not getting home any time soon. He stands there, watching me, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. Fuck, what do I say? I’ll admit to no one that I said what I did because I was jealous. Well, not only out of jealousy. Maybe because deep down I do want to be his girlfriend. But he doesn’t do the relationship thing and neither do I. I need to get that nonsense out of my head right now.
“Lizzy?” My name, his nickname for me, passing across his lips breaks me out of my thoughts.
“When I came out of the restroom and saw her touching you, you didn’t look happy about it. I didn’t know who she was but when you said her name, all I could think about were the shitty things she did to you. I didn’t want her thinking you hadn’t moved on from the breakup so when you paused, that word was the only thing I could think of. I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have told her I was your girlfriend, but I didn’t know what else to say.” I finally pause to take a breath of much needed air. “Feel free to shut me up any time now.” I didn’t know what to say at first, but fuck if I can’t shut up now.
Sloan only laughs—laughs—at the end of my verbal tirade and kisses me again, this time hard and slightly inappropriate for a public street. He breaks it too soon and pulls me back in step alongside him. He’s quiet for several blocks. When he says nothing else, I ask him, “Aren’t you going to say something?”
He takes his key out of his pocket and walks us up towards the front steps. I didn’t even realize we were back yet. “What do you want me to say?” He opens the front door, tossing his keys onto the entryway table sitting flush with the wall, and waits for me to walk inside.
“You’re not mad?” I tentatively walk through the front door, afraid he’ll shove me back out again for my transgression.
“Mad?” He scoffs. “Why would you think I’d be mad?” He heads into the kitchen, putting our bag on the table, and grabbing napkins off the roll. His nonchalance is driving me crazy right now.
“Uh, maybe because I committed you to a relationship in front of your ex-girlfriend even though we’ve already established we’re not relationship people?”
Geez, why can’t I shut the hell up?
I know I’m making it worse but I can’t seem to stop myself.
The room goes silent when I finally stop talking, the only sound being my labored breathing from my minor freak out. I stand there, watching Sloan while he’s watching me. I can’t read his expression, and I don’t know whether I should be worried or relieved by his lack of words. The longer he stands there, not saying anything, the more I panic, convincing myself he’s about to tell me to get my shit and get out of his house.
But in true Sloan fashion, he continues to surprise me.
“Are you done yet?” He looks at me with a raised eyebrow, waiting to see if I’ll launch into another long-winded explanation. I take a deep breath that seems to calm me down, and nod my head at him.
He walks over to me and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling our bodies close together. I tilt my head up to look at him, but I don’t see the anger I’m expecting in his eyes. He studies me, his eyes searching, for what I don’t know.
“I’m not mad at you for telling Bridgett you were my girlfriend, okay?” His voice is gentle, soothing to me. “I’m okay with it, actually. More than I thought I would be.” He pauses again, his gaze searching mine again, but for whatever reason he drops the subject. He gives me a soft, chaste kiss, and pulls away from me. “Come on baby. Let’s go eat.”
What does he mean? He’s okay with the idea of me being his girlfriend? I want to ask, but I’ve pushed my luck enough for one day. Instead, I opt to stuff my mouth full of the most delicious blueberry muffin I think I’ve ever tasted. If my mouth is full, I can’t talk again. It’s the best decision I’ve made all day.
We don’t bring up the subject again. Instead we spend the day hanging out on the beach behind Sloan’s house. It’s private, one of the added amenities of the community he lives in. He hasn’t been here long, telling me he moved in not long before Carson and I moved to Florida. “I’m so jealous of you right now,” I tell him, leaning back onto the beach towel spread out underneath me, and digging my feet into the soft, warm sand. “Living right here on the beach. I looked everywhere for a house like this when we were moving. How did you find this place?”
He turns and points over his shoulder and down the beach. “See the blue house over there? Fourth one down from mine?”
I nod, counting down the shore until I reach a blue beach house like the one Sloan owns. “Cade lives there. I told him I was looking for a new place, and when this one became available, he convinced the realtor to wait before sticking it on the market. I’d been looking for a while, even before Bridgett and I broke up. The minute I saw it I knew this place was perfect. So, I made an offer they couldn’t refuse and snatched it up before the listing went public.”
I don’t want to talk about her again so I smile
and avoid it completely. “I guess Sloan Wesley always gets what he wants, huh?”
He laughs that deep, sexy rumble that I feel all the way to my toes—the one that makes me tingle all over. His sexy smirk is all over his face when he answers, “most of the time. Not always though.” I don’t buy it. I think he gets his way more than he’s willing to admit to me.
My ringing cell phone takes me out of the moment, and I grab it off the towel where it was resting beside me. I smile as I swipe across the screen. “Hey cupcake! You back yet?”
Carson’s laugh booming over the phone makes my smile even wider. “Cupcake? Is that what we’re doing now? Calling each other by ridiculous nicknames?”
“Nah, it just felt like a cupcake kinda moment.” He laughs again at my lame response. “Where are you?”
“Waiting here at the airport. We’ll be taking off in a few minutes. I should touch down in a few hours. Wanted to see if you’d grab dinner for us or if you wanted me to pick something up on the way home.”
“I’ll get it. I can grab something when I leave and I’ll meet you at the house later.”
He doesn’t miss a beat. “Leave? And where might you be?” I hear the teasing tone of his voice. Before I can answer, he adds, “I’m guessing there’s a certain lawyer near you.”
“Guilty. Sloan and I are stretched out on the beach,” I smile at Sloan while telling my brother, “enjoying a perfect lazy Sunday.” Sloan returns my smile, leaning into me, and pressing a kiss to my lips, followed by my cheek, then slowly making his way across my jawline, me doing everything in my power not to moan in my brother’s ear. He doesn’t want to hear that shit.
“Since he’s there with you, can you do me a favor? I need to see him about changing some legal stuff. Can you ask him, when’s the best time to come by his office this week?”
I pull the end of the phone away from my mouth to convey the question. “Carson wants to swing by your office this week to talk to you. When might be a good time?”
Sloan pulls away, the kisses along my jaw ceasing and I feel the loss of his lips immediately. “I have to leave on business tomorrow and I’ll be back Wednesday night. I’ll have my secretary call him and set an appointment for Thursday if he’s free.”
Readjusting the receiver, I ask Carson, “Did you hear that?”
“Yep, tell him that’ll work. Hey, I’ve got to run. We’re boarding. I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?”
“Sounds good. Have a safe trip. Love ya.”
“Love you too sis.”
I disconnect the call, looking over at Sloan who leans back in to resume his kissing. “You’re leaving tomorrow?”
He stops kissing me with a sigh and leans back so he can look me in the face. “Unfortunately, but it’s only for a few days. You gonna miss me?” He adds that last part with a wicked grin. He already knows the answer to that question.
“Of course.” I lean in and kiss his lips. “You gonna miss me?”
“Without a doubt.”
Chapter Seventeen
Sloan
It takes three tries to get the fucking keycard to work so I can open the door to my hotel room and finally relax. A few of the colleagues I spent the day with wanted to get together and have dinner after our meeting. It was nice, but all I could think about how I wanted to get back to this hotel room, take a hot shower, and call Lizzy. She hasn’t left my mind since the night before last, when we spent what she proclaimed as ‘lazy Sunday’ together. Waking up with her in my arms had made it even more special. Yesterday was one of the best fucking days I’ve had in a long time. All the days I’ve spent with her have been spectacular.
It was hard letting her go Sunday. I tried to talk her into staying the night with me again, but she didn’t. I knew before I asked that she wouldn’t, but I took a shot anyway. So, I settled for the next best thing. I took her back into the house after our beach fun and had her naked in my bed in under five minutes. Then I spent the next hour and a half coaxing every bit of pleasure out of her body that I could. There was no way I was letting my girl go home unsatisfied.
My girl.
I’ll admit it now.
I want to keep her around. What started out as casual has become much more for me, but I’m not ready to tell her yet. I think she might know, after that whole debacle with running into Bridgett at the coffee shop and our discussion after. But like I was for a while, I don’t think she’s ready to admit there might be more here than what either of us expected. I know I wasn’t ready to admit it. But the physical ache of having to watch her get out of my car and go back to her own place when I dropped her off had me realizing it quickly.
I’m not the one-and-done guy I thought I could be. I’m not going to lie. It was fun hooking up with a variety of women. I hadn’t been with anyone other than Bridgett since we began our relationship. But I can admit I went overboard letting my dick make all the decisions for me. At the time, my brain was all for letting him run the show. But after meeting Lizzy, random pussy no longer sounds appealing. There’s only one I want to sink into for now and it’s all I’ve been thinking about.
All. Fucking. Day. Long.
By the time I get out of the shower and towel off, the thought of her has made me hard, my cock solid and standing straight at attention. I don’t even bother putting any clothes on. Flopping back onto the bed naked and grabbing the remote, I flip through the offered channels and settle on a random baseball game. I grab my cell phone off the nightstand where I left it to charge while I showered and pull up the contacts, a smile crossing my lips when I hit the call button. I didn’t get to talk to her yesterday at all because of travel and obligations, and I’ve been craving the sound of her voice. She answers on the second ring.
“Hey you...”
My smile grows even bigger, her sensual hello making my dick twitch. “Hey. Busy?”
“Nope, I’m lying down in bed, reading a book, waiting for you to call me. Did you just get back from dinner?”
When I found out I’d be later than I originally thought, I texted Lizzy, who replied with ‘I’ll be waiting in bed for you.’ Damn if that didn’t give me all kinds of dirty thoughts. “Yeah, took a nice hot shower too, and now I’m lying in bed watching a game.”
I can hear the smile in her voice when she asks me, “What are you wearing?” Her question catches me off guard and makes me laugh into the phone.
“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”
“What can I say? The thought of you fresh out of the shower has me…intrigued. Besides, your voice is turning me on. I’ve missed it.” She pauses. “I’ve missed you.”
My dick twitches again at the direction this call is taking. “I’ve missed you too. And, if you must know, the answer is nothing. I was thinking about you in the shower and ended up with a hard-on.” Honesty is the best policy, right? “I didn’t bother with the clothes, not when I plan on jerking off while thinking of you later.”
She moans—fucking moans—in my ear and I grow harder, which at this point I didn’t even think was possible. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to be touching her right now, to be in her right now. “Wanna know a secret?” Her voice is breathy in my ear.
Fuck yes, I do. I want to know all her secrets. “Absolutely.”
“I’m naked too.”
Now the moan is coming from my end of the line. “Fuck. I wish I was there to touch you right now. Tell me, baby, are your nipples already hard for me? Is your pussy dripping for me yet? Slide your fingers down and tell me how wet you are.”
I hear the rustling of sheets and a few seconds later, Lizzy moans into the phone again. “Mmmm, so fucking wet Sloan. I was from the minute I heard your voice. Hell, I think I have been for the last hour, laying here in bed waiting for you to call. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. It doesn’t help that the book I’m reading is…dirty.”
My girl likes to read naughty books? Interesting. I reach out, taking my cock in my hand, and start slow, steady strokes
up and down. The simple touch feels ten times better with the sensual sounds of my girl in my ear. “A naughty book, huh? Why don’t you rub that pretty clit of yours and tell me all about it? What were they doing in your book?”
She sighs heavily into the phone, and I know she’s rubbing herself like I asked, lust heavy in her voice when she tells me, “Well, the main hero of the story just finished throwing the girl down onto the bed, ripping her panties off, and taking her clit in his mouth.”
Fuck, the thought of doing that to Lizzy has my dick dripping with excitement. “Is that what you want me to do to you?” I ask, stroking my cock harder now. “Do you want me to throw you down and rip your panties off? Take your sweet clit in my mouth and lick it until that pussy is gushing for me?” Her moans in my ear tell me she likes what she’s hearing. “Is that what you want me to do Lizzy?”
Another moan, and then I barely hear her ‘yes’ come through the line. “Keep rubbing yourself. Nice and slow. Pretend it’s me, baby. Pretend it’s my tongue flicking across your clit, running through your wetness. Can you feel it? The way my tongue glides over you, sucking your clit?” I stroke my cock harder, my balls tighten, and the feeling that I’m about to explode is right under the surface. But I won’t come first. Not without her. Whether she’s with me physically or not, Lizzy always comes first. “If I was licking you right now, I guarantee you’d be dripping all over my chin.”
“Oh god…” Lizzy releases a strangled cry from her end of the line and I know in an instant my words, along with her fingers, have pushed her over the edge. My ear is filled with gasps and moans. I can hear it all and holy fuck does it set me off. I grunt into the phone as I finally reach my peak.
Sloan Page 11
