by Lindsey Hart
His eyes narrowed and she nearly gasped at how they darkened, how he didn’t bother to shield her from the hunger in their depths. And then he winked, and she was just… done. His smile changed and her stomach cramped at the devious intent behind it.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
CHAPTER 19
Jesse
“Get the key in there. Hurry up. God, why isn’t it working?”
Jesse clenched his jaw to stifle a laugh and finally got the stupid plastic card inserted into the lock of the hotel suite so that the green light flashed. Green means go, and they were in.
The cab ride to his hotel lasted for fifteen minutes. Which was fifteen minutes too long for both of them.
He turned the handle and they nearly fell into the room. Sydney twined her arms around his neck and hungrily tugged his face down to hers. His entire body woke up fast when she nearly broke his neck in her haste to drag his face to hers. The door slammed shut behind them and he wrapped his arms around her waist, slamming her up against the wall as he covered her lips in a heated kiss.
No, it wasn’t just a kiss. It felt more like they were consuming each other, devouring each other, and not just the licking and sucking and nipping and stroking that was going on with their mouths.
He bit her bottom lip and she mewled, her hips bucking hard into his. He leaned forward, slamming the hard length of his erection into her belly. She whimpered and he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Hers was ready and willing and eager to dance.
Syd’s fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. They were small, bastardly little things, and when she couldn’t get them to work to her satisfaction, she curled her fingers around the edges of the shirt and tugged hard, sending buttons raining all over the fancy ass carpeting. The suite was nice, too nice. It was expensive. He shouldn’t have booked it, but he thought that maybe… maybe Syd might want to come back with him. Or at least that she’d agree to have dinner with him and then maybe he’d have a shot at bringing her back.
She ate at his mouth hungrily while she shoved his shirt down his arms. She ran her hands along the solid ridges of his muscle, all the way over his forearms, tracing the veiny patterns with her fingertips. God, those fingertips. Her touch rendered him completely useless.
“Why are these so solid,” she panted, as her hands smoothed over his biceps again, then back up to his shoulders. “You are seriously working out. Don’t lie to me.”
“Just wanted to take care of myself,” he responded against her lips. “Don’t worry, I promise I haven’t turned into a gym rat.”
“Do you still run?”
“Yeah. Once a day.”
“You make me feel seriously unfit.”
She had a pink blouse on and a pair of black slacks. Completely professional for the job interview. He leaned in, bent his head and suckled at the base of her glorious neck while he caused the second button explosion of the morning. He tore her shirt away, so that she was stripped down to the pink lace bra she had on underneath- because seriously, of course she would have matched the bra to her shirt- and let out a low whistle.
“I don’t know. You look pretty fit to me.”
“Stop.”
“I didn’t get to see this half the last time we were together. I’m pretty sure that I missed out.”
“Jesse…”
His hands strayed to her back where he unhooked her bra and let it fall away. The lacy garment hit the floor and her glorious breasts, her beautiful, perky breasts with the gorgeous pink nipples- they were all his. His mouth watered to taste one, and when her hands came up to tangle in his hair and guide him there, he wasn’t going to say no.
He latched on to one nipple, suckling her gently into his mouth. He scraped his teeth over the straining bud and she let out a gasp that shot straight to his cock. He released her nipple, blowing on it gently as he did, watching it tighten and pucker even further- and it was straining already.
“Beautiful,” he said huskily. “All of you.”
“Why are you still wearing your pants?” she ground out in response.
“Why are you still wearing yours?”
Her lips quivered into a sly smile. “I thought we could just dry hump each other. You know. Save the rest for marriage.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “That deserves a spanking, I believe.”
Her eyes twinkled. “Spank me and I’ll spank you back.”
“Is that a challenge?”
He stepped back and looked down at her. She waited for a second before she nodded and took off, letting out a shrill scream that the front desk probably heard. He just hoped they didn’t call security. He raced after her, capturing her close to the bed and taking her down. They fell in a heap of tangled limbs. He could barely untangle himself so that he came out on top. He managed to plant a hand firmly on the mattress by her face. He cut off her surprised giggle with a scalding kiss as her hands clenched tight on his shoulders.
“Seriously, these were never this broad,” she panted when he broke away.
“I’m glad you like them.”
“Who said I liked them?”
His hand slid between them, cupping her mound. She was wet right through her slacks, and god, that sent all kinds of aches right to his groin. “You’re soaking wet.” His voice was raw. “That says that you might like it a little.”
“Maybe I’m just enamored with your nipples.” She bent her head and licked at one and his whole body felt like she’d just doused him in gas and lit a match. “Yup. Definitely in love with them.” Her hands explored lower, trailing over the ridges of his abs. “Maybe I like this a little bit too.”
“What else?” he panted, nearly on the verge of losing control completely.
She raked her hand further down, to stop at the button of his pants. She hesitated, but then brought it lower, so that she caressed his hard length testing the endurance of his pants. She gripped him there, and he nearly shot out of his skin.
“Maybe this too,” she admitted.
He cut off her next words with a punishing kiss. Their mouths went to war as he fumbled with his pants. He finally got the stupid things open and tore them down his hips. He shifted just a little further away, so that he could get the stupid things down his legs then went for his boxers. They hit the floor hard. He stood back for a second, letting her eyes rake over him. He loved the heat in her gaze, how the pupils were completely blown, eating up the irises. He loved the way her lips had to part a fraction, so that she could pant out her desire.
“Okay- maybe I like that too,” she rasped.
“Yeah?” He attacked her pants like they offended him just by existing. They put up almost no resistance to his heated onslaught.
“Definitely,” she gasped.
He covered her with the hard length of his body, melding her soft, sweet curves along his rougher edges, her silky skin along his, their limbs tangled once again. He swallowed anything else she had to say with another kiss that left him seeing stars. He stared down at her after, his cock nestled in her stomach, creating a pool of moisture that they both felt.
“You know, I planned a lot of things,” he rasped. “But I forgot one thing. The most important thing.”
Her eyes went wide. “What’s that?”
“I don’t have a condom.”
Syd let out a low whimper that vibrated through him. “I’m on the pill. Please. God. Jesse. I trust you. I need you. I don’t want to wait another minute. Seriously. If you’re good, I’m good.”
“I’m good,” he assured her, because he trusted her too. The thought of going inside of her bareback though, made his cock kick against her stomach. That pool of wetness got even bigger. “Fuck, Syd,” he groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
“At least it will be a good death.”
“The best,” he groaned, right before she locked her legs around his hips, dug her hands into his shoulders, and pulled him even closer.
CHAPTER 20
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Sydney
After a lifetime of uncertainty, she was sure of three things.
One, that she loved this man beyond any doubt in the world.
Two, that being in his arms was like coming home and she was done running from the one place she’d always belonged.
Three, she was going to die if he didn’t get the hell inside of her.
Sydney wrapped her legs around Jesse’s muscular hips, urging him forward. They’d done this before. She remembered that his cock was huge. She’d seen it in his boxers that night at his house a month ago. She wasn’t fully prepared for just how big he was. It wasn’t dark like that night in college and the lights weren’t dim like at his house. No, it was full frickin’ daylight, sun streaming through the parted blinds in the huge window ten feet from the massive king-sized bed, gauzy white curtains doing nothing to stem the tide of light.
And she loved it.
She loved that he’d grown up, ever since that night in college, and that he was all man. That he was raw and heavily muscled, chiseled, cut- whatever. His shoulders looked like they belonged in the dictionary, under a definition of broad-fucking-tastic. His abs should have been on an infomercial about sculpting tools, because it looked like they’d been carved out by an artist’s hand. She loved his dark nipples, how when she’d kissed them, his whole body shuddered. The crisp smattering of dark hair that dusted his chest and ran lower, past his navel, was perfect. Perfectly man. Perfectly him.
She’d never taken the time to properly admire him before. She still hadn’t, but she would. She promised herself she would.
“Jesse, please,” she panted, because he shifted, seating himself at her entrance. She could feel him throbbing there, right along with her, and she wriggled her hips, trying to take him inside. “Please, get inside of me already.”
“I thought that maybe you were right about the marriage thing…”
Her eyes flew to his face in time to see his teasing grin split across his face. “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath.
“Yeah. I know.”
He flexed his hips then, pushing the tip of his cock inside her teasingly. She let out a gasp, because holy hell, even that part of him was thick and glorious and amazing. Her entire body turned into an inferno, burning so hot that it pretty much cooked her brain, because rational thought was no longer an option.
She rubbed against him, rocking her hips, locking her legs, and grinding her heels into his ass.
“Should I continue?”
“Yes!” She hissed right next to his ear. She dug her fingers into his shoulders for emphasis.
She loved the way his forearms flexed right next to her face and his body trembled as he forced himself to go slow. He pushed inside of her so gloriously slowly, filling her up, stretching her, that she felt the burn to her toes. She mewled and rocked her hips again, taking all of him. He was impossibly long and thick, just like she remembered, and that twinge of pain jumbled up with all those hot shards of pleasure ripping through her, felt so amazing.
God, he didn’t just have a regular cock. He had one of those crazy cocks. Like… like a superhuman cock. That’s what it felt like, at any rate. Yeah. She’d been lying to herself that she didn’t remember what it felt like to have him inside of her, because she did. It was freaking impossible to forget.
She nearly cried at the thought of having this for the rest of her life. Not just good sex, but amazing sex. Amazing sex with an amazing man that she loved so freaking amazingly much.
He pulled out slowly and filled her again, letting her enjoy each glorious inch of him as he slid home. She was so full that she gasped, but it was more than that. She felt… whole. Completed. Because he was her missing piece and he’d been missing for a damn long time.
“God… Syd… feel so good,” Jesse ground out, his breath hot against her neck, where he dipped his face.
“Yeah,” she panted. “Pretty much sums it up.”
Her legs tightened around his waist and she dug her heels into his toned ass a little harder. He flexed his hips, pumping into her harder, thrusting faster because he couldn’t hold back and she couldn’t hold back and neither of them wanted to hold back.
Sydney closed her eyes and savored the sensations that every single one of those long, glorious thrusts created inside of her. She loved the way he hit spots that she didn’t even know existed. That it hurt a little, but that the pain was soooo good. He was delicious, each hard, hot thrust building the heat inside of her, banking the flames until they were roaring, tearing through her, burning her up. He took her to the brink, thrusting harder and harder, wildly, his body flexing and curling above her, all those impressive muscles bunching and flexing.
Having Jesse so close to her, inside of her… it didn’t just drive her mad with lust and want and the crazy pleasure that was spiraling out of control inside of her. Being there with him, wrapped up in his arms, their sweat mingling together as they worked towards their combined climax, his breath heavy in her ear, hers hard little pants… it made her heart so full she felt like it was going to burst.
Sydney’s legs clenched up, the tingles blooming from her toes to her thighs. Her stomach felt like an explosion wanting to detonate. Her limbs were heavy and languid, and still, she managed to thrust her hips up, forward, in time with the punishing rhythm Jesse created. She managed to lash on his ass, dig at his shoulders, grind her heels in… in short, act like a wild animal below him.
He drove her to the edge, his hips thrusting just right, his cock hitting all the right spots. She knew she was close, but she expected there to be some warning between close, and holy shit, yes, my god, yes, but there wasn’t. That coil inside of her exploded, sending wave after crazy wave of pleasure pulsing through her.
Jesse captured her mouth, swallowing her cries of pleasure. He stroked her tongue hotly, echoing what he was doing down there with his cock, right before he thrust hard into her one final time and shuddered above her. She drank down his groans, swallowing them the same way she’d swallowed hers, letting him flood her with heat and pulse inside of her.
They came down from their highs together, the aftershocks ripping through their bodies, echoed in each others.
It was perfect.
That night back in college… it was good. Okay, it was amazing, but it was nothing compared to what she’d just experienced.
She felt… connected. One. At peace. Like everything was actually going to be okay.
And yeah, of course it also felt perfectly amazing.
Jesse licked and nipped at her mouth, drank and sipped from her until their passion was spent and their sweat grew cold in the room’s air conditioning. He rolled off of her, carefully untangling their limbs, so that he hit the bed hard beside her, but he didn’t let her leave his arms. He wrapped them around her and tugged her into his hard side.
He didn’t pull the sheets over them and she was cold, but she wasn’t going to move. Not when her head was tucked up onto Jesse’s chest, her ear pressed above his heartbeat, her fingers splayed out on his abs. She loved the rise and fall of his chest. The warmth of his body flooding hers. She loved the safety she felt being there, all wrapped up in him.
“So…” Jesse panted. “Did I manage to convince you to stay?”
“Stay?” she squeaked. “Like? Here?”
He laughed. “Anywhere you want, just as long as it’s with me.”
“I…”
His cock throbbed between them and she looked down, shocked. How the heck is it possible that he’s still hard? I mean, like, that hard. Like, really hard. Like what we just did didn’t even happen?
“Maybe you need some more convincing,” he said darkly, before swinging her up on top of him, so that her legs straddled his waist, his cock pressed between them.
“I think I do,” she panted, but she grinned down at him and winked.
He stared up at her for a second, in complete and utter, rapt adoration, but then be winked back, and it was the most beau
tiful wink in the world, because that wink…
That wink kind of looked like forever.
EPILOGUE
Jesse
“Do you think it’s weird, packing and flying across the country for your own wedding? I mean, I feel like we didn’t actually plan any of this. Like we slacked off and let everyone else do it for us and we’re just kind of showing up like any other guest.”
“Well, if you count any other guest as your parents and my mom and your super annoying brother and our really close friends…”
Sydney’s hands still on the suitcase that she was trying to zip closed. It looked like it was going to burst. He should have told her to pack two bags, since the airline was going to ding them for that crazy overweight bag as it was.
“I can’t believe we’re getting married tomorrow.” Syd’s eyes danced as she looked up.
Jesse tensed. “Like in a good way, or a bad way?”
His own bag, a suitcase a quarter the size of hers, sat already packed on the edge of their bed. They’d decided to stay in Houston, since, it turned out, Sydney was a complete and utter marketing genius and loved what they were doing. Her mom moved out a month after they’d found a house, into her own condo. In a move that shocked everyone, she started dating a man who was divorced and had two kids, twelve and ten. They’d decided to take the plunge six months later and make it official. Two years after that, they were still going strong.
He and Syd decided to wait a little longer. Three years after he’d walked into her interview with that photo album, they still hadn’t killed each other yet. He’d taken the chance of a lifetime and bought a ring and after a lecture about how they didn’t need to be married to be happy, Syd had broken down into happy tears, thrown her arms around his neck, and said that yes, she’d be honored to be his wife.
