Deanna swallowed. “You… you did?”
“Yeah. And Dee, whatever happened,” Kristina said, “I want my sister back.”
Deanna closed her eyes and released a breath. “So do I.” She swallowed. “But, what changed your mind?”
“Just some things Nick and I talked about,” Kristina said. “I probably should have listened to him—both of you—sooner.”
Lingering shame burned in Deanna’s gut. “I can’t really blame you. You had every right to be upset.”
“Still.” Kristina paused. “There’s something I need you to tell me, though. And just, you know, be honest.”
“Okay…”
“You and Nick,” she said, “did any of that start before he called off the wedding?”
“No,” Deanna said without hesitation. “Absolutely not. It was… it was completely out of the blue.”
The line went silent for a while, and about the time Deanna was starting to wonder if Kristina was even there anymore, Kristina said, “I believe you.”
Relief rushed so rapidly over Deanna, it was all she could do not to break down. Finally, she convinced herself to whisper, “You do?”
“Yes,” Kristina said just as quietly. “After talking to him, and hearing it from you… I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before.”
“I’m serious. You have no reason to apologize,” Deanna said. “You had every right not to feel the way you did.”
“I know, but I know you better than that,” she said. “I know you both better than that.”
“All the more reason to be upset with us when you thought we’d gone behind your back.”
“Maybe. But now that I’ve talked to both of you, I feel better about things. And… if you two are happy together, then I want you to be together.”
Deanna almost dropped the phone. She started to speak, but her sister went on.
“We should talk more later,” she said, and a grin worked its way into her voice. “But I think you’re going to have company pretty soon, so…”
“Company?” Deanna’s head turned slowly toward the door. “What do you mean?”
“I’m pretty sure Nick was on his way over there.”
Deanna’s pulse shot up. “You…” She could barely get her breath through her throat. “You’re… okay with this?”
“Yeah, I am.” Her tone playful and mischievous, Kristina added, “Good luck with hm.”
Deanna laughed. “Thanks. I—”
The doorbell rang. Her throat constricted.
“Was that the door?” Kristina asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“I’ll let you go, then. We’ll talk more later, okay?”
“Okay.” Deanna swallowed. As she stood and started down the hall, she said, “And thanks. For understanding.”
“You’re welcome. I love you, sis.”
Deanna smiled. “I love you too.”
“Now go. Have fun.” Kristina giggled. “Call me later?”
“I will.”
After they’d hung up, Deanna slid her phone into her pocket and, hands shaking and heart pounding, she went downstairs. Her heart beat even faster as she made out his broad-shouldered silhouette on the other side of the frosted glass.
She opened the door.
From across the threshold, they made eye contact, and she wondered if he could breathe any more than she could.
She coughed to get the air moving. “So you and Kristina talked?”
His cheeks colored as he nodded. “I know you didn’t want me to, but I had to give it a try. And she’s—”
“I know.” Deanna smiled. “She told me you were on your way here.”
Nick smiled too, and they held each other’s gazes, but neither moved.
He shifted his weight. “I wasn’t sure you were even free or wanted to see me right now, but I had to come over. I need to know…” He paused, holding her gaze. “I need to know what it feels like to be with you with a clear conscience.”
“Then what are you still doing out there?” She reached for his shirt, and he reached for her, and as her hands slid up his chest and around to the back of his neck, he pulled her close and kissed her. At first it was gentle, just their parted lips against each other, moving slowly, with agonizing restraint, each searching the other for resistance. Then she let her tongue graze his upper lip. He shivered and held her tighter as their kiss deepened. His touch unsteady but gentle, he slid his hand up her back and into her hair.
When he broke the kiss, he paused, his lips a breath away from hers, furrowing his brow as if trying to decide whether to pull away or kiss her again. He settled on the latter, and they kissed like there was nothing left to hold them back from each other.
They stumbled all the way into the house, and he must have kicked the door shut, because it slammed behind them even though neither of his hands left her body.
“We should go upstairs,” she murmured. “The… to the…”
“Bedroom?” He didn’t wait for any kind of affirmative. Instead, he kissed her again and nudged her back a step. Then another. They kept going until her back brushed the banister, and only then did they separate.
Without a word, they hurried upstairs, down the hall, and into her bedroom. It was tempting to grab him and kiss him again, to fall into bed fully-clothed, but Deanna went for the buttons on her blouse as Nick pulled his shirt over his head. They kicked off shoes and peeled off clothes, dropping everything haphazardly on the floor at their feet.
Then they both stopped. Looking him up and down, she took in the sight of him inch by uncovered inch, wondering how she’d ever missed how attractive he was. He was gorgeous in clothes, but naked? Oh God. He had a spectacular body, from his perfect arms and shoulders to his narrow waist and sculpted legs.
And those abs. Perfectly flat—not quite a six-pack, but so close—and smooth, with a dark strip of hair leading down to his very hard cock.
He didn’t seem to mind her stopping to stare. He’d stopped to do the same, and she shivered as she watched his gaze slowly slide up and down her body like she wanted his hands and mouth to do.
Their eyes met.
Deanna’s heart quickened. Again when he swept the tip of his tongue across his lips. Again when he reached for her, and as soon as his palm met the curve of her bare waist, she put her arms around him as much for support as contact. He’d barely touched her, and he’d already melted her, and she wanted more, more, more.
Nick lowered her just as he had that night on the beach, and she landed as softly on sheets and pillows as she had on white sand. She parted her legs for him. His hips settled between her thighs, but he made no move to slide into her. As much as she wanted him inside her, she couldn’t object to this either. They’d get there. Kissing, breathing each other, just touching and holding on, she was as relieved and aroused by this as she was desperate for more. And all the while, as his erection pressed against her hip and his soft lips moved against her mouth, she couldn’t decide if she felt more like a nervous kid going down this road for the first time, or a woman who’d been here countless times and knew she’d finally gotten it right.
He dipped his head to kiss her neck. “I want you so damned bad, Deanna.”
“Fuck me,” she moaned. “Please. Now.”
“Not now.” He kissed his way down her neck. His hand drifted down her side as his lips closed around her nipple. “I’m going to fuck you, I promise you that.” He looked up, giving her a devilish grin. “But first…” He pressed his lips to the center of her chest, and started trailing soft, lingering kisses down her chest and her stomach.
She grasped the headboard, just trying to anchor herself in the present as his lips paused on her hipbone. As he kissed her inner thigh, she moaned with anticipation, silently sending up a prayer of thanks to whatever deity had seen fit to put this man in her bed and a second later, she was aware of nothing but the warmth of his mouth against her pussy.
Deanna was completely at his mercy as he teased
her, explored her, teased her some more. His tongue slipped between her pussy lips, then drew a slow, maddening path back up to her clit, and when he made a few delicious, spine-tingling circles around her clit, she screwed her eyes shut as the world spun around her. As he slid his fingers inside her, she whimpered softly, but it was his delirious groan vibrating against her flesh that almost sent her into the stratosphere. How long had it been since a man not only knew what he was doing, but enjoyed it like he so obviously did?
And oh, God, she enjoyed it too. It didn’t take Nick long at all to bring the first tremors of an orgasm to life, and she was sure mere seconds had passed between the moment he’d gone down on her and the instant everything went white. Her voice stopped somewhere in her throat and only a soft moan, barely more than a sigh, escaped her lips, the faint sound echoing in the silence. It wasn’t nearly enough to do justice to the wildfire of intensity he unleashed inside her, but it was all she could do.
And before she’d come back down to earth, Nick was over her.
“Fuck me,” she tried to whimper, and the words hadn’t even slipped off her lips when his first thrust knocked the air out of her lungs. The second kept her from catching her breath. By the third, she didn’t care, because his cock just felt too damned incredible.
She dug her nails into his shoulders and he groaned. His rhythm faltered briefly, but when he recovered, he fucked her even harder. She’d never experienced sex so violent, a man so desperate, and nothing had ever been so hot. The more she raked her fingernails across his back and shoulders, the more he gave her. She might’ve drawn blood, he might’ve left bruises, but she didn’t care as long as he kept fucking her just. Like. That.
“Don’t stop,” she moaned. “Please don’t stop…” Over and over she begged him to stop, not sure where she found the air to breathe, let alone the words to speak, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t stop. He just kept driving his cock deep inside her, panting and growling against her neck as the bed protested beneath them.
He pushed himself up on his arms and moaned. “Oh God, I’m—” He shuddered. “I don’t—” He gasped, letting his head fall forward. “Not until you—”
Abruptly, he pulled out and, before she could even draw a breath, moved back and went down on her again. The second his tongue touched her clit, a tremor ran up her spine so violently her shoulders lifted right off the bed.
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t see through the tears and the white light creeping into her vision. She wanted him inside her again, but what he did was too good to stop, too much to take, too good to stop, too damned much, too damned good…
He explored her with his tongue, a low growl vibrating against her flesh as he closed his lips around her clit and sucked gently, the tip of his tongue fluttering across it before circling it rapidly. His fingers slipped inside her, beckoning against her G-spot, the subtle, gentle motion creating powerful shockwaves that shook her entire body.
Her lips parted to release a cry, but the sound lodged in her throat as he brought her closer to the edge. Gripping the back of the bed for dear life, she gasped as a violent shudder ran up her spine. For what seemed like forever, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t think of anything except the delicious release that was just out of her reach, just beyond her grasp, so close, so fucking close, so—
“Oh God, Nick…”
Her hips lifted off the bed, pushing herself against his mouth and his hand, begging for more even as it became too much. He flicked his tongue just right across her clit and she came a second time with a soft whimper, the only sound she could muster through the wave upon wave of electricity he sent rushing through her.
When she could finally breathe again, she managed one deep gasp before his mouth enveloped hers, filling her senses with the taste of herself on his tongue. She pulled him close, exploring his mouth just as he had explored her pussy.
“God, I want to fuck you,” he said against her lips, and with that, he was inside her, taking her breath away all over again.
“Faster,” she moaned. “Oh fuck, faster.”
“With pleasure,” he said through his teeth, hooking his hands under her shoulders and exhaling sharply against her neck as he fucked her faster. She raked her nails across his back and he took in a hiss of breath, arching his back and slamming into her even harder.
Holy hell, the things the man could do with his hips. The force behind them, the way he could hit her G-spot perfectly with every thrust, the way he filled her completely and didn’t back down and didn’t even seem to get a little bit tired as he fucked her so hard it hurt, and she was sure she’d come again if he didn’t stop, and if she could have drawn a breath she’d have begged him not to stop.
Then he sat up, and he held her hips as he fucked her even harder. Using the headboard for leverage, she held on and rolled her hips in time with his powerful thrusts, meeting him stroke for stroke and pulling him as deep into her pussy as she could, her throaty cries crescendoing each time he hit every perfect, pulsing spot inside her. She heard his name, was only vaguely aware that it was her own voice she was hearing, and for the third time tonight, she came, every bit of tension within her building even while it broke. An impossible combination, a contradiction: a cable pulling still tighter in the same instant it also frayed, unraveled, snapped.
Her pussy tightened around his cock and he groaned, then cursed, then gasped. He gripped her hips and pulled her against him, driving himself as deep as he could as he groaned and shuddered.
Then the room fell silent except for their uneven gasps. He loosened his grip on her hips but didn’t let go, his hands trembling against her skin. After a moment, he pulled out and sank down to her, meeting her lips in a gentle, breathless kiss, and tangled up in tired, exhausted limbs, they held each other close and kissed lazily.
I need to know what it feels like to be with you with a clear conscience.
His words echoed in her mind as his skin warmed her fingertips and his tongue teased her lips apart. Her conscience wasn’t entirely clear, the guilt hadn’t completely let go of her, but this finally felt as right as she’d hoped it would. Like this was where they both belonged, no matter what path they’d had to take to get here.
Nick broke the kiss and met her eyes. “I love you, Deanna.”
“I love you too,” she murmured.
He kissed her again, and they sank into each other once more.
Maybe they’d started things off on the wrong foot, maybe their beginning had been more painful—for them and Kristina—than it had any right to be, but now everything was on its way to being right. On its way to perfect.
Deanna had no illusions that everything was one hundred percent hunky dory with Kristina yet. There were too many emotions involved to shake it all off overnight, and resentment and jealousy could rear their heads if the three of them didn’t proceed carefully.
But they would proceed carefully. Deanna had come too close to losing that bond she shared with her sister, and she’d come too close to losing the only man who’d ever made her feel this way.
Whatever it took, she wasn’t losing either of them again.
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Nick opened the front door and gestured for Kristina and her boyfriend, Daniel, to come in.
“Deanna’s still getting ready,” he said as they walked past him. “She should be down in a few minutes.”
Kristina shrugged. “No rush.”
“Have we decided whose car we’re taking tonight?” Daniel asked. “I parked in front of your garage, so if we’re taking yours this time, I might need to move it.”
“You drove last time,” Nick said. “So why don’t we take mine?”
“Sure.” Daniel pulled out his keys and backtracked toward the door. “I’ll go move mine. Be right back.”
The door shut behind him, and now that they were alone in the entryway, Nick and Kristina faced each other.
“Yo
u doing okay?” she asked with a knowing grin.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “Just… you know…”
Her grin broadened. “You’re doing it tonight, aren’t you?”
He had no doubt the heat rushing into his face meant some extra red in his cheeks. “I… yes. I am.”
She squealed and threw her arms around him. “Oh my God, I’m so excited for you two!”
“Shh,” he said, trying not to laugh. “I don’t want her to hear anything.”
“Oh please.” Kristina pulled back and smirked at him. “As if
the two of you haven’t been discussing this, like, constantly.”
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