Loose Ends

by Kristen Ashley

  Shit.

  “Luce—”

  She opened the door wider, effectively inviting him in while cutting him off, and did it verbally as well. “I suppose we should talk.”

  She didn’t seem to be fired up about the possibility.

  He was there with her.

  But at her invitation, since this had to get done, he walked in.

  She shut the door behind him, and it wasn’t the first time he found it funny that she’d decorated the common areas pretty much in all white. The thing was, even as clean-lined and stark the place was, it was also gorgeous, and her sofa had super wide seats so it was incredibly comfortable.

  And incredibly advantageous when you were making out hot and heavy on it.

  He avoided teasing her about her couch again, and he definitely avoided thinking about the last time he’d been on that couch, making out hot and heavy with her, as he walked to the edge of said couch and turned to her.

  The sequins at the hems of her pants swished the tiled floor as she moved to him in her graceful way.

  She stopped, not close.

  “I wish you’d given me some warning,” she said.

  Her words made Hap feel like someone dropped a hundred-pound weight on his chest.

  Not because he’d been rude.

  It didn’t appear she had makeup on, but she didn’t need it.

  But she did have a great outfit on, which meant she might be going out.

  Maybe on a date.

  It was not two in the afternoon, but maybe it was a late lunch date.

  Or someone was coming over and this was Luci’s way of being casual and at home, but amazing.

  Fuck.

  “You got plans?” he asked, his voice unsurprisingly tight.

  “No.”

  Thank you, God.

  “So, what’s with the outfit?”

  “I had the trousers altered while I was in New York. They arrived today. I was trying them on for fit.”

  That was a relief.

  “Do you want to start or shall I?” she prompted.

  She wanted this to get done.

  The last time they spoke, he unintentionally gutted her, so he was not surprised.

  Not to mention, he wanted to get this done too.

  “Luce—”

  She interrupted him again.

  “I need more time.” She lifted both hands then dropped them like she wished she hadn’t made the gesture. “I know we must move on and I’m making more out of what happened than I should, but I still need more time, Hap.”

  Making more out of what happened than I should.

  Why did he not like that?

  He needed her to think that.

  So why the hell did he not like it?

  He started carefully. “What I failed to mention the last time we spoke was that it was a great kiss. But—”

  “It was,” she agreed on a sharp movement of her head. “It was a great kiss. It was a great everything. And I don’t just mean your mouth and hands on me on my couch.” She flung her hand out to indicate the couch behind him. “Before that, when we were with Sam and Kia, having fun. And after that, when they left, when it was just you and me doing shots and being stupid and having fun. I like spending time with you. You make me laugh. You treat me like a normal person, not some untouchable goddess or some breakable piece of glass. I have never felt more ‘Just Luci’ than I’ve felt that with you.”

  Him and Gordo.

  “Babe—” he began.

  “And I’ll have that back, we’ll get that back how you want it to be . . . just later.”

  “Kia’s pregnant and—”

  He ceased speaking when her face twisted in a way he hadn’t seen, not ever.

  Not even after they lost Gordo.

  “I know,” she stated flatly.

  He took a step toward her, stopped, and whispered, “Babe. I know you didn’t get there with Gordo, but—”

  She lifted a hand up, palm out his way, and this time kept it up. “Pease, don’t talk about Travis. That isn’t about Travis. It isn’t about what I lost with him.”

  She glanced to the side, drew in breath at the same time she pulled her fingers through her hair at the front, snatching it back, before she looked again to him.

  The hair thing was a magnificent show.

  Hap tried to ignore it.

  “I’m over the moon for Sam and Kia. So happy for them. They’ll make marvelous parents. They’ll create beautiful babies. But it is not lost on me that I’m not getting any younger and I want children. That takes nothing away from Sam and Kia. It’s just that a friend of mine assured me that one day, I will again be happy. This could be in the form of finding someone to love and making a family. Or it could be something quite different and I just find a way to happiness alone. However, I do not fancy finding happiness alone. This is not the statement of weakness many of womankind might judge it to be. I don’t need a man in my life. I want one. And not just one so I can have children. I can do that without a man. I simply want a man to share my life with.”

  It stuck in his throat so he had to push out, “You’ll find him.”

  “I thought I did.”

  Hap went still.

  “But I did not,” Luci kept at him.

  “Luce, honey,” he whispered.

  “And now I have to . . . I have to . . .” she looked side to side, suddenly appearing like she had no idea where the fuck she was. “I have to . . .”

  Her eyes again came to him and the lost expression on her face unraveled him completely.

  “I don’t know what I have to do, Hap,” she said softly.

  He couldn’t have controlled his feet, though he didn’t try.

  He just moved. Got toe to toe with her, dipped his face to hers and framed it with both his hands.

  “You’ll figure it out, baby,” he promised her.

  She lifted her hands to his wrists, not to push him away, but to wrap her long, slender fingers around his wrists.

  “I’m sorry I kissed you,” she told him, her eyes turbulent, her words rough.

  “I’m not, Luce, it was a good kiss.”

  “I messed us up.”

  “We’re not messed up.”

  “I’ve changed us.”

  “We’re not changed.”

  Her fingers tightened on him and her gaze grew laser focused. “I can’t lose you.”

  “I’m right here.”

  “You are but you want to be anywhere but here.”

  He almost laughed.

  There was nowhere on earth he’d rather be, in a way he knew it would last a lifetime, than standing right in Luciana Gordon’s space with his hands on her, hers on him, and her face all he could see.

  His chin dipped closer and he whispered, “I’ll always want to spend time with you, honey.”

  Her attention dropped to his mouth and the look in her eyes changed again.

  Shit.

  Shit.

  “Baby,” he called.

  Her gaze lifted.

  “You should probably stop touching me,” she warned.

  But she did not step away. She did not take her fingers from his wrists.

  She stayed right there, looking in his eyes, hers openly telling him what she wanted but thought she could not have.

  And serious as shit, he wanted her to have everything she wanted.

  So his chin dipped closer, he cocked his head so he wouldn’t hit her with the bill of his cap, and he kissed her.

  Shit.

  Fuck.

  Christ, she tasted good.

  He broke the kiss and moved to pull away, his mouth still tasting her, his mind all about her, his dick reminding him of its presence, his will trying to find a way in there to get his shit tight and not fuck this up . . . again.

  But she caught him with a hand cupping the back of his head and he froze, looking into her eyes, feeling her breath whisper across his lips, her fingers still at his wrist, holding tight like she simply ref
used to let go.

  “You want me,” she whispered.

  He did.

  Fuck him, he did.

  So damned bad.

  “Luce—”

  “You want this.”

  “Luciana.”

  Her hand at his head slid down to curl tight around the back of his neck and she pushed closer, her eyes changing yet again.

  Determined.

  “Fuck your code, George Cunningham,” she said in a voice that was part purr, part growl.

  Then she was kissing him.

  God dammit.

  He tried to fight it. He did. He tried to latch onto anything that would give him the strength to pull away.

  It was just that his tongue found its way into her mouth and the world dissolved and it was only her, their kiss, and suddenly he was totally all right with that.

  He let go of her face to pull her into his arms so he could feel that long body pressed to his.

  And he felt it because Luci pressed herself tight, burrowing in, like she wanted to meld with him, and through it, she kissed him back.

  The kiss didn’t end, even if they took short breaths, it went on forever, and Hap didn’t know when the groping began, or who started it. He just knew eventually his hand was cupping her breast when her hand cupped his junk.

  He growled into her mouth, nipped her lower lip and ended the kiss staring into her eyes and breathing hard.

  She held his rigid cock through his jeans and her expression held a dare.

  “Luci—”

  She squeezed lightly then dragged the heel of her palm down his length.

  He closed his eyes so he could experience that awesomeness, and only that awesomeness, when she gave him even more awesomeness because her tongue was in his mouth and she was rubbing determined at his dick.

  Hap grasped her hair at the back and pulled her away, warning, “Only so much a man can take.”

  “I hope you’re right,” she returned, her voice now just a purr.

  Yeah.

  And a dare.

  He scrubbed his thumb across her nipple over her shirt.

  It was already hard, but it budded harder at his touch.

  Fuck.

  Nice.

  She sighed, her lids lowered, and she bit her lip.

  Holy Christ.

  Goddamn beautiful.

  Okay.

  Fuck it.

  He yanked his hips from her and her eyes shot wide.

  “Hap—”

  He caught her hand that had been at his cock, ordered, “No talking,” then commenced dragging her across her great room toward the stairs like he was a brooding hero in a gothic novel.

  Even when that entered his head, it didn’t stop him.

  He also didn’t stop when he pulled her into her bedroom.

  Jesus, more white.

  But the room was the shit.

  Best part, the bed sat on a squat, freestanding platform about four feet from and facing the floor to ceiling windows in a way that it would feel like you were hovering right over the ocean.

  He did not figure they’d be paying any attention.

  He stopped at the side of the bed and tugged her toward him.

  Looking down at her as he slid his arms around her, he muttered, “We’re gonna regret this.”

  He barely got out the word “this” when her finger was to his lips.

  “Like you said, caro, no talking.”

  And then she kissed him again.

  He took over the kiss, turned her so her back was to the bed, and leaned into her so they fell in, him on top.

  Christ, he could be all about her mouth for years, fucking decades.

  And then he got her shirt open and the cup of her bra tugged down (both sides) and he discovered he could be all about pulling her nipple into his mouth for centuries, listening to those noises she made while he did and trying hard not to grind his cock into her thigh.

  And then he was pulling those ridiculous, and ridiculously sexy pants down her legs. The material slithered off the side, over the edge of the platform, and made a soft, expensive sound, like a sigh, when it hit the floor.

  But Hap was too busy seeing Luci spread on her bed, her long, dark hair everywhere, her sweet little tits pushed up over her bra, a tiny pair of panties covering her sex.

  He drank her in.

  It was a mistake to give himself that. His inattention to where she was at meant he found himself on his back with Luci on her knees beside his hip, tugging at his belt.

  “Baby,” he murmured, his hand going to still hers, slow this down, give both of them a chance to catch a thought.

  “No talking,” she returned, slightly breathless.

  He aimed differently and did an ab curl to lift his hand to her face. “Babe.”

  She yanked his jeans down his hips and he was momentarily distracted by the sweet relief of his rock-hard, aching cock slapping free and then he was totally not momentarily distracted, but instead completely lost when she swallowed all of him she could take.

  He fell to his back and his fingers instantly slid into her hair as he groaned, “Fucking fuck, you’re good with your mouth.”

  She was.

  Best ever.

  By a long shot.

  She blew him and he lifted his head to watch and honest to God, he wanted to spend a millennium watching Luci with her hollowed out cheeks pulling deep at his dick, her gorgeous head bobbing, but he couldn’t.

  She let out a surprised cry when he pulled her off and yanked her up over his chest.

  “Hap!”

  “Panties off,” he bit out. “Now.”

  Her eyes flared and she scrambled to do what she was told.

  It was fucking cute.

  He didn’t take a minute to reflect on how cute it was because it was also shit hot and he had to get a condom on, like, yesterday.

  He got his wallet out, retrieved the condom, tossed the wallet over the end of the bed and got up on his knees, not even bothering to take off his jeans.

  When he was on his knees, he vaguely saw his cap was sitting on her bed at the bottom edge of her pillow.

  It did not vaguely register he liked that. He liked the fact he hadn’t even noticed she’d tugged it off and tossed it aside. He liked something of his, something he wore all the time, resting like it belonged there on something that was hers, somewhere she went all the time.

  This, his aching dick and hearing Luci’s movements spurred him further to make light work of the condom.

  Once it was on, he twisted to her then caught her around the waist.

  She cried out a different way when he hauled her through the air to him.

  And yet again a different way when he lifted her up, she wrapped her legs around him, and he drove her down on his cock.

  Her head fell back and her nails dug in at either side of his neck.

  Hap gritted his teeth at the sight, the stab of her nails that rocketed right to his dick, but more at the feel of her tight and slick and hot, sheathing him.

  She dug her heels in the backs of his thighs, using them as leverage to fuck him, and he let her have that moment and let himself have that moment of watching her do it, feeling it, before he dropped her to her back in the bed and drilled her.

  “Yes,” she breathed, now digging her heels in to tilt her hips to take more of him.

  Jesus.

  He went at her harder, moving in to kiss her while he took her, but her chin dipped down sharply, she caught his eyes and whimpered, “Hap, luce mia.”

  Holy shit.

  “Baby, are you co—?”

  He didn’t get that out as she spasmed around him, tossing an arm out to clutch at the comforter over her head, her other hand holding tight to his neck, her head pressing back into the mattress, sweet noises panting between her lips.

  Yeah, she was coming.

  He hadn’t even got near her clit.

  He gave her that, and it looked really freaking good, just with his dick.
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  Shit, he felt like he’d conquered a nation and then took her there to cut the ribbon to her new world.

  And then it overwhelmed him and Hap was all about burying himself in her, his cock, his face in her neck, his grunts blasting her skin as he exploded, everything went black, all he could smell was Luci, all he could feel was her pussy clutching him tight.

  He came down, shifting so his forehead was at her shoulder and he was certain he was taking weight in a forearm, but otherwise he didn’t move.

  He was inside Luci.

  On top of her, on her bed, in her room, planted to the root inside Luciana after having the quickest orgasm he’d had since he was about seventeen, this after having the best sex he’d had since . . . ever.

  Okay, right.

  Coming here had not been his most sterling idea.

  Fuck.

  “Hap,” she called.

  He lifted his head and looked down at her.

  She looked like she’d just come, done it hard, and was still feeling the goodness of that.

  But still, she was terrified.

  And again, Hap was unraveled.

  So that was when he put his hand to her face and swept the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone before he drew circles with it at her temple.

  “We’ll figure it out,” his mouth said.

  Yup.

  Coming here had been freaking stupid.

  “We will?”

  Hope had lit her expression, her words, the room around them.

  Damn.

  “Yeah, honey. We will,” he murmured.

  She smiled right into his face, bright and beautiful, and clutched him to her with all four limbs.

  Pure joy.

  So damned sweet.

  Shit.

  Just to See Her Smile

  Luci

  “BABE.”

  Luci pressed her forehead into the bed, her fingers curled into the comforter at the sides of her head, her body rocking with Hap’s thrusts, her mind centered on his cock filling her and retreating again and again and again, the sounds of their flesh connecting, the feel of his fingers digging deep into the swells of her behind.

  No.

  Oh no.

  No, no, no.

  George “Hap” Cunningham did not treat her like an untouchable goddess or breakable glass.

  He fucked like an animal.

  She loved it.

  Loved it.

  A squeeze of her cheek and a growled, “Babe.”

  She tossed her head back and caught his eyes in their reflection in the glass at the foot of the bed, where they we facing, Luci on her knees bent chest to the bed, getting fucked, Hap on his knees behind her, fucking her.