The corners of her pretty mouth twitched upwards, humor shining in her eyes instead of pain now. I could feel my body relaxing, like I’d fulfilled my purpose in life by making her smile.
Even if this was the last time that we saw each other, I was so grateful for the opportunity. It was like some semblance of closure to our relationship. I’d finally said what had weighed on my shoulders for what felt like an eternity.
“How long?” she asked abruptly, eyes still locked on her hands, “How long did you love me?”
I sighed, leaving my hand on hers. I gazed at our hands, mine atop hers, neither moving like we were both frozen. Her hands were stiff, clasped so rigidly tight that her knuckles burned white.
Despite the suddenness of the question, it didn’t shock me. Somewhere in my soul, I’d been waiting for her to ask. I knew that after all this time, there would be many things I would have to answer to.
“Since the day I met you, Em. I knew that first day that I’d never be able to get you out of my mind.”
“What did it feel like?” she pressed further, not giving me a second to even breathe, “Explain it to me. I want to know everything.”
I gazed at her, contemplating ending the conversation right then and there. We were breeching dangerous territory, edging closer and closer to something that we both may regret.
But I couldn’t lie to Emily. I’d never been able to. It was part of the reason why I had to run back then.
“Looking at you was like being on fire. I could feel it all through my veins. It hurt in a beautiful, twisted way. It was unbearable.”
“Every time you looked at me?”
“Every single time. When you said my name… God, Em, when you said my name it would send my heart shooting straight out my body. Like a falling star or something.”
She sucked in a breath and then slowly tilted her head back to meet mine.
I waited for her to slap me, to charge from the room, to snarl at me with disgust.
Instead, however, she turned her hand underneath mine so that her trembling fingers curled against my own.
“Does it still feel like that?” she asked quietly, voice so soft I could barely hear her.
Hesitating for just one single second, I gave a slight nod of my chin, my hair falling into my eyes.
“Every single time?” she continued.
Again, I nodded.
Her fingers curled tighter around my own as she slowly turned herself so that she sat on her knees on the bed, gazing just at me.
Slowly, she crept closer and closer until she sat just a hair’s breadth away from me. I could feel the warmth of her body washing over me, I could smell the delicate fragrance of her perfume, I could almost taste her delicious lips.
My heart pounded in my chest as I gazed into her eyes, waiting for her to make a move.
What did she want from me? Didn’t she know how hard it was to sit here with her so beautiful and so close?
“I want you,” she breathed suddenly. “Please. Jaxon. Show me that passion. I want to feel it.”
Chapter 10
Emily
“Are you sure?” Jax asked, his ice blue eyes round with shock.
Usually he was calm and cool, but I could feel the uncertainty radiating from him like the warmth of his embrace. My request had shocked him as well as myself, but it remained true all the same.
He half leaned toward me as though he were drawn sharply toward my body but at the same time afraid to come too close, like he’ was worried I was going to shove him as hard as I can away from my trembling body.
My whole self quivers, like my soul is on fire. I can feel it pulsing low in my veins, a throbbing desire that fills me like nothing else I’d ever experienced.
Everything that he’s said about passion, I want to feel it. Never once have I felt that inner fire lit inside of me… except for the subtle hint I was exposed to in our kiss. I need more of that, I want to drink it in and bathe in it and feel Jaxon’s marbled skin under my hands. I want to know what it’s like to truly feel something for another person, to want to take them inside of you, to carry a piece of them within your heart forever.
Jax holds onto one of my hands, squeezing it with tender comfort. His eyes scrutinize every line of my face, looking for any hint of uncertainty that I know will not be there.
He is so strong and burly and just looking at him makes my heart want to burst. Even sitting, his muscled body dwarfs me. I feel safe at his side, a yearning I’d never known blooming inside of me like a torrid, unstoppable flower.
“I’ve never been sure of anything before,” I whisper, and his eyes grow sad at the thought of my lingering uncertainty. “But today I am more sure than I have ever been. Jax, I want you. All of you. I want to touch you, I want to have you inside of me.”
His beautiful eyes blink once than twice as he gives the faintest hint of a nod.
Hesitantly, he reaches forward to stroke his hand against the curve of my cheek, reveling in the softness of my flesh.
I gasp, a soft moan escaping my lips at the feel of his hand against me. But it isn’t enough.
I want more. I crave more. I have to have him or I fear I will carry this constant craving for his lips and his body with me for an eternity. I want him like I want a cool drink after a workout or breakfast when I wake in the morning. It’s more than just a simple craving. It’s a deep longing. It’s a need.
“Jaxon…” I begin, but he curls his hands around my waist and drags me against him so fiercely that whatever else I was about to say dies instantly on my lips.
He pulls me against him so that my chest is pressed against his naked one, my arms slowly slipping around his thick neck as my thighs rest over top his own hard ones.
I can feel his massive length already swollen and ready underneath the soft fabric of his pants, and it makes my heart leap into my throat.
“Are you okay?” he whispers, pressing his forehead against mine so that our noses touch, “We can stop if you’d like.”
“Never,” I breathe back, curling my fingers tight around his shoulders. “Never stop.”
Instantly he traps my lips against his own, crushing my mouth underneath his as we dive for the passion that we both share. He rolls us over onto the bed so that I’m lying with my back flat on his tangled sheets, his hands roaming down my sides as he bruises my lips with the sheer intensity of his kiss.
My back arches, pressing my chest up against his own as my legs tangle desperately around his hips, our bodies grinding together in one synchronous motion of pleasure though we’re still clothed.
He traps my wrists in one single broad hand of his, pinning me down against the bed as his fingers dive beneath my shirt and stroke up the line of my stomach. I gasp and twitch under him, a moan slipping out my lips to breeze against his own. He seems to inhale my sigh of lust, growling with raw desire of his own.
He breaks from my lips only to take my shirt in my hands, trying to pull it over my head though I can’t help the way my body suddenly stiffens.
Again he stops instantly, gazing down at me with worry in his lustful eyes.
“I just…” I begin, knowing that my cheeks are turning red and my eyes are wide with lust, “I just have only been with one man before…” I start, biting my lip, “And I know I’m not as beautiful as the women you usually-”
He silences me with one long kiss and shakes his head, pressing his forehead back against mine once more.
“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Everyone else pales next to you, outshined by not only the beauty of your body but the beauty of your heart, Em. You’re all that I’ve ever wanted. All I’ve ever dreamed of…”
“Jax…” I whisper back, stunned into silence.
The blush on my face grows ever more crimson as I look away, then shyly back at him.
When he moves to take off my shirt once more, this time I let him.
My clothing falls from my body as his gentle hands strip me unti
l I lay completely bare underneath him.
He gazes down at me, eyes tracing my every curve as though I were a portrait or artwork and he was the one who treasured it. Under his eyes I felt something that I had never once felt. I was beautiful and pure and unblemished.
Before him I’d never even known that feelings like this could exist.
My blood sparked inside my veins, traveling the length of my arms and legs like tiny little lightning bolts that left my skin prickling and my spine trembling. Every place that his palm or rough finger brushed was ignited with powerful flames that made it hard to breathe and think and see. When I closed my eyes, the back of my eyelids burned crimson with lust. I had never seen such a beautiful color before. Or at least that was what I thought until I opened my eyes and gazed into the blue depths of his seafoam eyes.
“I want you.” I whispered again, and even I could hear the raw desire that threaded through my hoarse vocalization, making him growl and nip delightfully at my lower lip.
I gasped and tangled my hands into his hair, pulling him down to me so that I could trail my lips across the coarse flesh of his stubbled jaw. His hands wrapped around my hips, dragging me toward him.
“I want to be inside you,.” he growled, and I couldn’t speak, I could only nod deliriously in agreement.
There was nothing more that I wanted than to feel him inside of me, filling me to the brim more completely than I had ever been filled before.
Sex had never been anything more than an obligation, something that I knew I had to do for Rick to keep him as happy as he ever was. Fortunately, over the last few years that had dwindled to nearly never. I’d been happy with that. I had never felt this raw aching desire building up so strongly that I could barely see. I had never wanted anyone or anything as badly as I wanted to feel Jax’s naked girth thrust against me.
My fingers dug into the loose waistband of his pants, dragging them down his strong legs as he kicked them to the floor. Hen, his body fell against mine, his warm weight holding me down like a security blanket. For a moment we just lay still, my legs twined around his waist, his fingers knotted in my hair.
He buried his face into my neck, inhaling the sweetness of my skin.
“Please,” I whispered, when I could bear it no more and it felt as though my desire was going to make my heart explode, “I need you.”
He lifted his head and captured my mouth victoriously, slipping his burning hands down my arms so that he could grab my wrists and pin them over my head against the soft feathery pillows tossed hastily to the side.
Our fingers interlaced as he pulled ever so slightly back and then, with deliberate care, thrust his swollen, throbbing length inside of me with one long, sweeping motion.
I cried out against his lips, my body straining to fit him. My legs tightened around his waist, my breath coming in short pants against his mouth as we deepened our passionate kiss until I could no longer tell where his body ended and mine began.
We were one creature right now, one being. Our hearts beat rapidly in time with one another. When I inhaled he exhaled and we breathed one another into our very souls.
This more than sex, this was a connection that I could not fight. It was as if my body was made for him.
With every stroke, he pulsed deeper and deeper inside of me, stroking every inch and ravaging every sensitive spot as our tongues wrestled and we held on to one another as tightly as one would hang onto a raft for dear life.
The cries and moans leaving my lips were unlike anything I’d ever heard come from me before. I was like an animal, thrusting and rocking and clawing at Jaxon so ferociously I didn’t even recognize myself.
When I looked into his eyes, I saw all of that reflected back at me, this animalistic lust that drove him further and deeper within me.
Though our mouths traveled, sucking and nipping and grazing over each other’s necks and tingling earlobes and jaws, they always returned.
Kissing him was like breathing or drinking water. It was necessary to survive. I didn’t want to eat or sleep or ever leave this moment, I wanted it to go on forever and ever so that I could be lost in this ecstasy that I shared with Jaxon.
But the bliss was becoming almost unbearable, welling up inside of me with every deep thrust that Jaxon rocked through me. We’d scooted across the bed in our wild pleasure. Had it not been for one of his strong hands, I would have banged my head into the headboard.
Suddenly, with one loud cry from both of us as we clung to one another as tightly as we could, simultaneous explosions of sheer, overpowering ecstasy exploded so deeply inside of us that we collapsed into one heavy, damp mess, our lips lazily clinging to one another still.
“God, Em, that was unbelievable,” he breathed into my ear, his head dropping down onto my naked shoulder.
His warm mouth pressed over my jaw and my cheek and the tingling skin of my neck as I turned slightly, keeping him inside of me as I coiled tight around him. I wanted this moment to last forever. I wanted to bask in this tender connection that he and I shared. Never before had I felt so completely intertwined with anyone else, it was like not only had our bodies been making love, but our souls as well. I clung to him, holding his damp body in my arms as his fingers stroked lazily up and down my spine. The simple touch was enough to make goosebumps rise up along the lines of my back.
My heart pounded in my chest like it as trying to rip free and go dancing down the hotel hall but I didn’t care. I was so exhausted and thrilled and content that I could barely manage to keep my mind focused on the handsome body of the man before me.
Right now, it didn’t matter who we were. It didn’t matter that his father married my mother when we were thirteen. Nothing mattered except the faint sounds of pleasure still rumbling in his tired throat.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, his eyes sincere as though he was worried he might’ve hurt me in some way. “Are you all right?”
“It was amazing,” I echoed blurrily, my speech slurring as though I was drunk.
He chuckled, bringing me up against the warmth of his chest with an affectionate kiss at my shoulder. His palms lay flat on my back now, his fingertips pressing just slightly into my supple flesh.
Slowly, his hands stroked over me, memorizing the curves of my body as we burrowed into the blanket.
His arms circled my waist, gently tugging my leg so that it lay strewn over his. Burying his face into my chest, he closed his eyes.
Running my fingers through his silky hair, I stared at the other wall and basked in the pleasure still radiating through me. When I looked at the clock, I was shocked to see that it was nearly noon. Jax and I had spent hours in the tousled sheets of his bed, our bodies writhing and twisting together.
Pressing my face into his hair, I inhaled and reveled in the warm sturdiness of his body against my own. We lay still and interlaced together until I wasn’t sure where I began and he ended.
I wasn’t even sure how much time had passed when I realized that Jaxon had fallen asleep in my arms.
I looked at his sleeping face, reaching out to touch his handsome cheek though I stopped myself.
He seemed so peaceful and content in his slumber that I did not want to wake him. Instead, I slid as carefully as I could out of the bed and padded over to my clothes, slipping them back on.
I could still feel the lingering touch of his hands all over me, I could feel the marks of his love bites on my neck, I could feel the delicious pulsing of my lips swollen from his kiss. On every inch of me, he remained. I didn’t even want to shower, I never wanted to lose what I felt in this moment.
Nothing else in the world would ever compare to the way that I felt right now. It was unlike anything else.
I was more giddy than I’d ever been as a child on Christmas morning. I was more satiated than I had ever been after making love with Rick. Every inch of me was happy. I never wanted to let that go. But there were things that I had to take care of, things that I couldn’t do while laying i
nterlaced in my stepbrother’s arms. For now, I would have to leave, though I would hope with all my soul that I would be able to return to his embrace quickly.
Walking carefully toward the door, I shot a glance over my shoulder at the sleeping man as he shifted slightly on the blanket and stretched his long body out on the sheets.
For a second I wished I had my phone with me so that I could take his picture and have it with me always. He was flawless in every way, the dim light of the hotel room shimmering over his damp skin. It took all my will power not to retreat back to him and curl up against his smooth back and run my fingers over the taut skin of his hard thigs.
Later, I assured myself, I would have another chance. Convincing myself of that was the only way I could convince myself to leave the room.
I could no longer be with Rick. I had to leave him immediately.
I wasn’t a naïve girl. I knew that Jaxon and I probably didn’t have a future. Not between our parents and him returning home and the confusion of our relationship. But that didn’t change that I had to leave Rick.
I had basked in the glow of true adoration and I was no longer willing to sacrifice myself for anything less.
Chapter 11
Jaxon
The room was shrouded in a veil of black when I woke up.
When I moved, a lazy aftershock of pleasure rolled throughout my whole core, making my toes curl against the soft mattress and my arms stretch lazily over my head.
Every inch of my body vibrated, like my blood had turned to an electric current inside of me. It twisted through my arms and curled around my fingers. It was like every inch of my soul had been brought to life, reinvigorated by that woman’s delicious kiss and velvet touch.
It made me almost want to laugh when I thought of how nervous I was of coming back to this town, when I thought about how it would feel to walk familiar streets and breathe in the scent of the harbor's waters.
Now I realized it'd been the best decision of my life.
I wouldn't have taken back that long limo ride for anything.
When I thought back to how much I had considered and reconsidered skipping the trip, it seemed like fate that I had finally made the correct choice.
Stepbrother The Hard Trainer: A Stepbrother Romance Book Collection Page 19
