by Reagan Shaw
One day before I had to set new goals for myself and figure out a way to attain them. This was a “me” day, not an “obsess about the past and what could never be” day. “Fix your ass up, and get out there, bitch,” I said and poked the mirror once.
I opened my clutch and withdrew a pack of Kleenex and my mascara. It would have to do. I touched myself up, took a deep breath, adjusted my boobs in this unnaturally tight “this is a me day” dress, then made for the exit.
I pushed out and slammed right into a wall. “Ouch. Ow, ow, ouch, oh my god.” I clutched my left boob. “That hurts.”
“Erika, are you OK?” It was him. It was the naughty reminder of my teenage fantasies made flesh. I was thirty-four years old, and I still thought of Noah in those terms.
“Sure,” I said, still gripping my boob. I winced a smile at him. “Sure. I only ever wanted one, anyway. One’s better than none.”
“Jesus,” he said and snorted a laugh. “I mean, sorry. Are you—?”
“In excruciating pain? Totally humiliated? Not at all,” I replied. “This is a normal Saturday night for me.”
This time the snort turned into a full throaty bout of laughter. “Erika.”
“What?”
“I wanted to apologize for earlier. For upsetting you.”
“You didn’t upset me, Cox,” I replied. “You merely reinforced the stereotypes I’ve always held about you.” The tears hadn’t been about him. Not really. They’d been about all I’d lost and the contrast between that and what my brother had gained.
I was happy for Marc, of course, but that small selfish part I’d always had, that everybody had, envied him. I’d never have that. And that was fine. I was more career-focused anyway. Or I would be, now.
“Glad to see you’re not bitter,” he said, with a smile that held all the promises he’d never kept.
Oh good god, why did he have to be this good-looking? This tall. This dark-haired and espresso-eyed. This delectable. He was a walking treat, flavored arrogant, and I’d never allowed myself the thought of unwrapping him.
I released my boob—’cause, yeah, that wasn’t embarrassing at all—and made to step around him, just as he stepped toward me. We collided again, and I careened forward, arms flailing.
He caught me around the waist in one arm and moved his foot to brace against the fall. His shoe caught the hem of my dress. A fantastic riiip sounded, and cold air rushed over my thighs.
“Oh. My. God,” I wheezed, staring at the crimson-patterned carpet. “Tell me what I think just happened didn’t just happen.”
“It’s OK,” Noah said, “you’ve got a fantastic ass. If anything, this is an improvement.” He set me on my feet, and I thwacked him on the arm.
“Noah!”
“I love it when you say my name,” he grunted, still grinning like a loon.
“That’s not funny!” I gathered the tattered back of my dress and tried tugging it closed. “Oh my god. This is a disaster.”
“Is it?” he asked. “Don’t you have a room upstairs? You can get changed.”
“Into what? Sweats? I’m sure that will go down well.”
“Oh come on, you could wear a trash bag and make it haute couture,” he replied.
I blinked and stared at him. Huh? Did Noah Cox just compliment me? That’s a first. “I—what?”
“Come on,” Noah said. “I’ll cover your ass while we head for the elevators. Lead the way.”
He was dead serious. God, I’d envisioned waddling up to the room in total humiliation, all alone, ass out, but he’d do this for me? “Why?” I asked. “You hate me.”
“That’s just what you want to believe,” he replied and gripped my arm, too tight.
I shook him off and made for the end of the hall. Noah tailed me, like the puppy dog I’d never wanted, and we reached the golden buttons in no time. I pressed the up arrow and waited, holding my breath to keep from inhaling his smoky, delicious cologne. “Thanks for doing this,” I managed.
“Trust me when I say it’s a pleasure.”
I glanced back at him, but he didn’t notice. He was too busy checking out my ass. My skin prickled hot, and I forced myself to focus on the silvery doors rather than him. This was a game to him. It had always been a game.
Keep telling yourself that. Seriously. Or you’ll make a total idiot of yourself again.
Finally, thankfully, the elevator doors dinged open, and we duck-waddled inside. At least, I did. Noah strode in like he owned the place. He’d always had that kind of vibe. Then again, he came from a rich family. He probably had the opportunity to own whatever he wanted.
Except for me. And I’d keep it that way.
I hit the floor number—three—then backed up against the wall so he couldn’t check out my ass on the ride up. It was super quiet and super awkward.
The doors rolled open again, and I led the way down the hall, fumbling my keys out of my clutch while Noah shadowed me. I didn’t dare look back. Breathing him in was difficult enough as it was.
I halted in front of my door, swiped the keycard against the jamb, then entered, breathing hard. Noah followed me in and nudged the door shut with his heel.
“And safe,” he said. Probably his way of lightening the mood. It didn’t help.
I faced him, hiding my exposed ass from view, and nodded. “Thanks for this,” I said, forcing myself to hide the mortification. Today had been a fuckup from face-hole to asshole. From start to finish. “I appreciate it. And I’m sure you know how hard it is for me to say that, given our history.”
“Our history,” Noah said, and took one step closer.
I stepped back. “Yes. The fact that we hate each other.”
“Is that it?” He tilted that too-sexy head to one side and examined me. I was the ant, he was the guy with the magnifying glass. Well, this ant wasn’t about to get burned. Not again. “Hate? Is that what you think?”
“I’d love to talk about it,” I said, “really discuss this further, but my ass is out, and I’m starting to frost up. So I’m going to go get changed.”
He took another step forward, and this time, I didn’t move away. It was too much, being this close to him. His heat and the expression in his eyes, the sheer need radiating from him. This had to be some kind of joke.
Thirty-four fucking years old, and still he drove me crazy. He still made me feel like I was some dumb kid in high school crushing on her brother’s best friend.
“I’ll keep you warm,” he said, and I couldn’t tell if it was another ill-delivered joke or not.
We’d never joked like this. We’d kept things hostile or aloof. Never jovial. This was out of character for him. For us. Was it pity? Because he’d seen me crying? Way to super overthink things. “You’re full of jokes today,” I said, belatedly, but stood my ground. I lifted my chin. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me. He’d done nothing but since I was a teen, and I wouldn’t allow it now.
“Who’s joking?” he asked, and cupped my cheek. He stroked his thumb over it, and goose bumps rose in its wake.
This was bad, bad, bad. And super fucking confusing. “Noah. What the hell are you doing?”
“What I’ve dreamed of doing since that day I left for med school.” He brought his lips down on mine and paralyzed me with a kiss I’d never believed would happen. Not in a million years. Not in my wildest dreams.
He looped an arm around my back, drove one hand into my hair, and tugged it back. He descended on my neck, covering it in raw, wet kisses, searing my skin with his touch.
“Oh my god,” I groaned, and leaned into him. It was too good. It was too much. “Noah, you asshole. What are you—oh fuck.”
“Tell me to stop, and I will.” He nipped my skin with those perfectly white teeth, and it was like he’d punctured me.
All the pressure that’d built inside me over the past few months, coupled with that unrequited need for a man I’d thought despised me as much as I did him, bubbled over. I tore at his jacket and stripped it off, worked on his
buttons next. My fingers slipped on them, and I moaned my frustration.
“Tear it, Erika, I don’t care. Rip it off.”
I inserted my fingers between the buttons and tugged the plackets apart. The buttons pinged off in every direction, and I caught my first glimpse of his chest. Hard, tight, muscled, and decorated with tattoos. Swirling images, a dragon here, a clock there. A tree of life. It was too much to take in at once. The colors, the need.
Noah dug his fingers into the rip of my dress and tore it open even further. He stripped the straps from my arms and exposed me totally. I didn’t cover myself. I was too lost in him.
He halted, only for a second, and met my gaze. “Come with me,” he said.
For once, and just this once, I did as he asked.
Noah
I lifted her off the floor, wrapped my hands around that supple body, and carried her through the suite and to her bedroom. Fuck, she felt good against my body. So curvy, so tight, so fucking hot and ready for me.
This was everything I needed. Couldn’t handle another second of this. Of not being inside her.
Erika suckled on my neck, she squirmed in my arms, fighting to get at me, to taste every inch of skin she could while I walked her through. She was a fucking wildcat. Not what I’d expected from the bookworm I’d known way back when.
“Hurry,” she whispered, hoarse from this moment.
I entered the room and dropped her on the bed. Erika scrambled across it and attacked my pants, stripped off my belt, unzipped me, and drew out my cock. It was in her mouth before I could fucking blink.
“Jesus,” I groaned, and dragged my fingers through her hair. “Jesus, Erika. What the fuck?”
She moaned and sucked on my head, then pulled back and spat in her hand, worked the shaft with it. She practically inhaled me, and my eyes rolled back in my head for a second. “Slow down,” I growled.
But she wouldn’t be slowed. Maybe she thought making me come first would give her power. She couldn’t have been more wrong in that. I wouldn’t allow it either way. I looked down at her, her lips working around my thick head, struggling to take me in, her eyes shut, then open again, peering up at me.
I pulled her hair lightly. “Stop,” I said.
Finally, she popped free. “What’s the matter, Cox? Can’t take the heat?”
“Baby, I am the heat,” I replied, and dragged her upward by her elbow. I stripped off the last of my shirt, kicked off my pants and then my shoes, and climbed up onto the bed with her.
She backpedaled, spider-walking backward, her stare a challenge, even as her tits shook from the impact of her palms on the mattress. Wildcat wasn’t the word. She was a fox. A vixen. She looked ready to bite, fuck, do whatever it took to make an impression on me.
“Where you going?” I asked. “Scared?”
She opened her legs and flashed that pink, wet pussy at me. “Of what?” she asked.
Fuck me. She was fucking dripping. Swollen. So goddamn wet. I swallowed hard and focused on her face again, forcing myself to maintain control of this situation. The minute I lost it, I’d lose everything to her. And that’d always been the threat, hadn’t it? Losing to her when I lost to no one. No man, no woman, fucking no one.
I growled and crawled across the bed, stalking her properly, overpowering her with my stare. “Of what, huh?” I grabbed her ankle and dragged her down the bed toward me. She let out a sweet little squeal and twisted toward me, grabbed one shoulder, then the other. “Fucking come here.”
She was in my arms again, her pussy hot against my dick, so close to taking it. To me taking her. I paused and studied her. “Pill?’
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Clean?”
“Yes.” She raised an eyebrow at me, as if I was the one who might be the problem. “You?”
“No,” I replied, “I’m not on the pill.”
She threw her head back and laughed, raucously. I entered her in one, swift stroke, and the mirth died, replaced by a gasp, and then a low, tight moan.
“Not so funny now?” I asked and pumped into her again, sitting on my knees, while she lay in my lap. I was buried in her, her feet braced on either side of me, her hips up so I could admire that sweet little cunt while I worked it inside her. And man, was it sweet. Tight and wet. My fucking end.
This was exactly what I’d avoided years ago. It was even better than I’d envisioned.
“More,” she demanded. “I want more.”
“More?” I chuckled and pumped into her again. “Better?”
“Uh-huh.” She met me stare for stare, and we devoured each other. I placed one hand on her abdomen, pressed down, and felt my dick scraping against her. “Oh my god.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “Oh my good god.”
“No,” I replied, “Noah.” And then I unleashed glorious fucking hell on her. I shifted and pounded into her so good, so fucking hard, that the only noises she could make were unintelligible squeaks and grunts. She was my animal, and I was hers.
I pressed a finger onto her clit and circled it, pinched, found that pressure that silenced her. She grabbed her tits and pinched her nipples. Her hips rose, and she let out a noise that put a porn star to shame. She vibrated on the spot, trembled, keened, and clenched around my cock.
Christ, she was delicious. She fell apart around me, clawing at the sheets now, pulling them toward her as she came. It went on for so long, I was sure she’d had two instead of one. Finally, her eyes snapped open again, and she glared at me, mad all over again.
“What are you looking at?” I asked, and slowed my pace, teasing her now. “Huh? Speak.”
“You,” she growled, back. “I want you to come. Inside me.”
Hot damn, she’s a fucking tiger. “Hmm. Lady wants what she wants.” I pulled out and flipped her onto her front. “Lie down. Ass up. Just like that. Give me that little asshole, yeah.” I dipped my finger inside her pussy, collected those juices, and circled her asshole with them. I inserted my pinkie finger, and she went fucking nuts.
“Noah!” She clenched around my finger, and I entered her pussy again, ramming myself deep, taking it all the way.
The angle was perfect. My balls tightened up, and I held onto my orgasm, kept it at bay through heavy fucking breathing and focus. I wanted a second climax from her before I had mine. Erika would never forget tonight. It would ruin her for every other man in existence. No one would do her like I could.
“You’re mine,” I said, the words slipping out before I could stop them. “Don’t you fucking forget that, Erika. You’re mine now.”
“Fuck you,” she replied, and that made me even harder.
“Say that again.” I pounded into her. “Say it again, and see what happens. You’ll get two fingers in your ass instead of one.”
She didn’t say it again, but she did arch into me, begging for more.
“Play with your clit,” I said and slapped a hand down on her full ass cheek. The same ass that had started all of this. So fucking perfect. I spanked it again and left a satisfying red handprint there.
Erika reached between her legs and played with herself, jerking at how sensitive she was from her last orgasm. “Spank me again,” she sighed. “Please.”
I slapped her other ass cheek, grabbed it and shook it. “Say you’re mine,” I grunted. “Say you’re all mine, and I’ll give you more.”
“I want more,” she whined.
“Say it, Erika. Say you’re mine.” I pumped into her, building toward my climax. All it would take was a word from her. Those words and I’d lose myself inside her. “Say it.” My cock thickened inside her again, my head throbbed.
Erika crested her rise and crashed over the edge again. Her hot little pussy clenched around me, and she let out a short screech. “I’m yours,” she breathed. “I’m yours. I’m yours. Noah, I’m yours.” She repeated it over and over again. “I want your cum, Noah.” All of this delivered breathlessly.
I slipped my finger from her and took her ass in both h
ands, pressing down slightly and using the leverage to launch myself into my orgasm. “Fuck!” I pulsed inside her, filling her up with each throb of my dick. “Mine. Erika. Mine.” The words were a jumbled mess. My mind blanked the fuck out, and I was nothing but a throbbing nerve-endings. Pleasure filtered through me from that white-hot center point, that connection between us.
I threw my head back and let the ripples spread through me. Through her. I fucking allowed it.
Finally, I collapsed to one side of her, my legs and arms weak as fucking jelly. The quiet was filled with our breaths, staggered at different paces. “Erika,” I managed, but I couldn’t talk yet. Goddamn, I needed a second here.
A couple minutes passed, and she got up from the bed, walked off, and disappeared into the bathroom. The shower started up, but she didn’t reappear and invite me to join her. The bathroom door snapped shut instead.
Here we go.
Fuck. This was a fuckup. She was still raw from being dumped, if the tears earlier had been any indication, and I’d taken her, regardless. She’d wanted it, though. She’d literally begged me for it, words from her own mouth.
Still, the guilt remained. I got up and pulled on my pants. I’d take a shower back in my room, change into something acceptable, then come back and… What? Talk to her about what we’d done? We were on different life paths. And I definitely wasn’t interested in a relationship, let alone one with my best friend’s little sister. Christ, Marc would lose his mind.
He was smaller than me, not really a physical threat, but he was my best fucking friend. And I’d done exactly what he’d warned me off doing when we’d first met. No sisters or mothers was the bro-code, wasn’t it? No ex-girlfriends?
The thoughts messed with my constitution. I needed a minute to think, by myself. I left my ripped shirt where it was. Call it a fucking souvenir. The shower shut off just as I reached the bedroom door.
I halted, turned back to face her.
Erika wore a bathrobe and a towel around her hair. “Leaving so soon?” she asked. “Can’t say I expected any less.”
“Erika,” I said, “I’m going to go get changed and—”
