The packet dropped out of my grasp and I stood up, obeying his command without even thinking twice. When I was within grabbing range he pulled me down, flipping me onto my back and forcefully tugging my legs apart at the knees.
My body responded instantly to the semi-rough handling and his obvious desire and I could feel myself getting wet. I squirmed around on the bed, trying to arch my hips up in a tempting manner.
“Ah-ah-ah,” he tutted as he gripped my hips and pinned them down. “Stay still, kitten. I’ve got a promise to keep and you wiggling around like this is going to make it hard.”
“Looks like it’s already hard,” I quipped, raising an eyebrow at his stiff cock. “Don’t you want to put that to good use?”
“Oh, I plan to,” he retorted with a wide, mischievous grin. “Later.”
Then he was lifting my ass partially off the bed and bending down to lick my slit with his broad tongue. We moaned together, my hips bucking in his hands when he located my clitoris and began to tease the ultra-sensitive spot.
I twisted my fingers in the bed sheets and held on for dear life, tossing my head back and forth as he proceeded to bring to me to the edge only to abruptly stop over and over again. I knew exactly what he wanted and after the fourth almost-orgasm, I gave in.
“Please, please, please,” I brokenly begged, my voice hoarse from my cries. “Fuck, Jared! I’ll do anything. Just please let me come.”
He murmured something against my core and slid two fingers into my aching pussy before he resumed twirling that wicked tongue of his around my clit.
Finally—after what felt like hours of torture—he gave me what I needed without stopping. I screamed his name right as my body began to uncontrollably undulate. Jared released his hold and allowed me to writhe, still pumping his fingers in and out even after I flooded them with wetness.
“You look so fucking beautiful when you come, princess,” he whispered, the softness of his voice giving me the strength to crack open my eyes.
He was gazing at me with wide, lust-blown eyes, but there was something like tenderness behind them. I doubted that it would translate into the way he fucked—Jared seemed to be a fan of only rough sex—but it made my heart swell to see it.
He watched me as he fucked me with his fingers, eventually bringing up his other hand to rub my clit and press down hard on the oversensitive nub. I cried out in a combination of pleasure and pain but when he let up the pressure and began to rapidly circle it, the pain melted beneath the bliss of my second orgasm.
He didn’t stop. Not even after I came down from the high and opened my eyes wide to stare at him incredulously.
His grin was wolfish as he cheekily asked, “How many more do you think you can take? My bet’s on four.”
I was fairly certain that my eyes doubled in size. Did he mean four in total… or four more? Both options sounded like they might kill me.
“Stop,” I whined, reaching down to drag his hand away from my center. “Fuck me now.”
Jared laughed. “Oh no. Let’s not forget who’s in charge here.”
“I am,” I defiantly muttered, but the words lost their bite as he began to lower his mouth down to my sex again.
“I disagree, but it’s really not important. I do believe I told you once before that I’d like to do this for hours and I intend to make you come until you can’t fucking take any more.”
He ended his sentence by shoving his tongue into me and my toes curled as I forced myself to choke out, “What about you?”
Jared lifted himself up, my juices glistening on his chin. “What about me?”
“What about—you know. I want you to come, too.”
There was a brief moment of confusion on his face and he cocked his head to the side and simply stared up at me. The look cleared after a few seconds though and he shook his head.
“Don’t worry about me, kitten. I’ll take care of it this time.”
What he meant by that became clear after he shoved me further up the bed and went back to licking my pussy while grinding his hard length against my bed sheets.
Somewhere between the third and fourth orgasm, he sat up on his knees and ran his fingers up and down my slit to gather my juices to use as lubricant to jack himself off with.
When he covered my stomach and chest with his fluid, I thought I might spontaneously combust. His own release was short-lived, though. The moment his body stopped shuddering, he picked right back up where he left off.
I made it to five before I begged for him to stop.
Satisfied that he kept his promise to tire me out, Jared curled up behind me and murmured sweet words into my ear as I drifted into sleep.
24
Jared
Getting April out of my system was proving to be an impossible task. God knows I had fucking tried, but the more times I had her, the deeper into my psyche she got.
The next day, in an effort to detach myself a little from her physically before we inevitably had to split apart, I suggested we spend some more time watching movies. I could see the disappointment written all over that pretty face of hers, but I figured it’d be for the best in the long run.
Fucking hell, I was so wrong. Again.
If anything, it seemed like cuddling with her on the couch and chatting was making it worse. She had insisted on talking to me while I made dinner for the two of us and the more she spoke, the more my stomach fucking clenched at the thought of leaving her.
It was these unavoidable thoughts and incredibly irritating feelings that led me to sitting on the closed toilet in her bathroom—door locked, of course—with my fingers hovering over the keypad of my phone. I had typed up the message quickly enough, but wound up staring at the screen for five minutes without hitting send.
Did I really want to open this can of worms? I knew nothing bad would really happen if I shot off this text, except for maybe some mild teasing once practice started back up.
I took a deep, sobering breath and slammed my thumb down to send the text without giving myself a chance to back out.
How did you know you loved Marline?
If Lee gave me shit for this I was going to cut his balls off and—
The phone zinged, the message popping up before the screen had a chance to go dark.
I felt it.
If there was an award for the least-helpful answer in the universe, Lee would have taken it home.
While that’s super helpful and all, any chance you got something a little more specific?
The screen did go black that time while I waited on a response. I turned the ringer down, hoping that April hadn’t heard it when the first text came through. My foot bounced up and down with impatience as I waited for Lee’s reply.
If you’re trying to compare to something that’s going on with you, don’t bother.
I frowned at the phone, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean when the next message came through.
It’s different for everyone. If you seriously felt the need to ask, you probably already know the answer.
This motherfucker. I wanted to call and cuss him out—to tell him to shove his useless responses up his ass—but I refused to do it with April lingering around in the apartment. The last thing I needed her to hear was me shouting a denial of having feelings for her.
Not when there was a chance that she’d be able to hear the lie in my voice.
I powered the phone off to avoid any questions Lee might have fired back at me and buried my hands in my hair. How the hell had this happened? Was it even real or just a product of being in such close proximity with a woman for a longer period of time than I was used to?
Regardless of the answer, it wouldn’t matter soon enough. We had the rest of this evening and one full day together until the results of the DNA test were due to be returned and released, and once that happened, whatever was happening between us would be finished.
Might as well make the most of the limited time we have together... just in case I
never feel this way about a woman again, I thought as I stood up and made my way back to April’s side. She looked up at me while I stood awkwardly by the couch, the corner of her mouth quirking up.
“Hey.”
“Hey, sweetness,” I greeted back, sitting down beside her and offering her the spot against my chest that she seemed to enjoy. “What do you want to do tomorrow?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head back as far as she could to look at me upside-down.
“It’ll be our last day together.”
All right, so maybe asking what she wanted to do when we were trapped in an apartment was a stupid thing to do. I could admit that. And maybe I was only fishing for a reaction to the reminder that our time was almost up.
But I’d keep that one close to the chest.
I’d be damned, but it pained me to wait with bated breath for any sign of sadness, or regret, or anything of that nature… and see absolutely nothing. Only a brief flicker of recognition, like she had forgotten what day it was.
Christ. That stung like a motherfucker.
But I managed to keep my face in a neutral arrangement, praying that she wouldn’t look hard enough to see through it. Thankfully, she turned her head away and softly hummed as she considered our limited options.
“How about we order out and spend all day in bed?”
“Sounds like heaven,” I said, maybe a little too honestly.
April shifted around and looked back at me, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“We could always get an early start on that. If you’re up for it.”
I laughed at the innuendo and tugged her back until her ass was grinding against my semi-hard cock. After only a few moments of friction, it stiffened up to full strength as I murmured, “Always, baby.”
“Then take me to bed.”
“Yes, ma’am. Up.”
She stood up as quickly as she could and beamed at me, letting out a light laugh when I did exactly as she expected and lifted her into my arms bridal-style, much like I had done the first time we slept together.
Only this time, I made sure my steps to the bedroom were incredibly slow, so I had a chance to savor every emotion that warred inside me.
It was then that I realized that Lee had been right. I did already know.
And I was truly fucked.
25
April
“What the hell are you doing?”
I groaned and turned back to Jared as he lazily stretched on the bed. His eyes were open and awake—not to mention tracking my movements like a hawk.
“I know I said we should spend all day in bed, but it’s after noon. I need a break. Especially for food.”
“Doesn’t explain why you’re getting dressed.”
I rolled my eyes. “Should I just answer the door like this?”
Jared’s eyes lingered down to my breasts and stayed locked there for a moment before he shrugged.
“Hey, that’d be a hell of a good tip.”
I laughed as I bent down to pick up his shorts and slung them at him. He pulled them on without protest, still grinning at me even after he got up and grabbed his shirt.
“I suppose we can take an hour off to eat… But then we’re getting right back to it,” he said seriously, arching an eyebrow and begging me to challenge him.
I raised my hands in surrender as I bartered, “Two hours. Give me a two hour break and I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Anything? Really?” he asked, waiting for my nod of confirmation before his brows knit together in deep thought. “All right. I’ll accept your bargain. But you’re in for a rude awakening later.”
With a smack on my ass hard enough to make me yelp with surprise, he left the room, tossing a saucy wink at me over his shoulder.
I had no idea what I was in for, but I was excited to find out.
First things first.
I opened the delivery app on my phone to check the status of my order before I joined Jared in the living room. He was already surfing through Netflix, looking for something we hadn’t already watched to serve as background noise for our meal.
I had no idea what he picked because we spent the next twenty minutes making out on the couch like horny teenagers. My body was too exhausted to move any further than that and I was grateful for it when a series of short raps on my door echoed through the living room.
I tried to get up, but Jared just lifted me by the hips and placed me on the cushion beside him.
“I got it, princess.”
I’d been trying to evenly split the cost of our meals since he first arrived, but Jared seemed hell-bent on being the one to pay more often. I wasn’t sure if it was his version of chivalry or if he was just being considerate because he knew I wasn’t a paid employee.
Regardless of his reasoning, I was grateful. I didn’t want to let him pay every time, but my wallet could only take so much of a beating.
After he closed the door and placed the Chinese cartons on the coffee table, I slid down to the floor while he fetched me a fork from the kitchen.
As amusing as it was for him to watch me struggle with the chopsticks, he knew how agitated it made me. I supposed he wanted me in a good mood for whatever he was planning later on.
Jared sat on the couch behind me and started digging in, the two of us zoning out as we tried to get into the plot of the movie without having watched the beginning.
Shortly after we started eating, there was another sharp knock on my door.
I frowned and looked back at Jared, noting that he had the exact same expression on his face.
“Did you give him enough?” I asked.
“I gave him a fifty,” he said as he stood up and moved toward the door. “I thought that would cover it.”
As he unlatched the deadbolt, everything slid into place so quickly it nearly gave me whiplash.
Fifty was more than double what we owed for the order and very few people ever came by to visit me. The notable exceptions were my parents, but they always called first. Which meant—
Oh god, no.
The door swung open and I slammed my eyes shut the moment my fears were confirmed.
“Lauren,” Jared said, his voice tight. “You’re back early.”
She breezed into my apartment without preamble, smiling when she saw me sitting on the floor.
“Yes and with good news!” she practically shouted, twirling around to face Jared again as she said, “The results came back early and William agreed to catch an early flight so I could begin repairing your image immediately.”
“He’s not the father, then?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“He is not,” Lauren confirmed, turning back to narrow her eyes at me. “Darling, will you grab Jared’s bag for me? We need to move on this ASAP. I want to be the one to release it so we can make a strong statement before the press starts twisting it.”
I nodded dumbly, slowly bringing myself up from the floor and trying not to meet Jared’s eyes. A split second glance his way told me that he was in the same boat as I was—nearly frozen with disbelief and an overwhelming sadness.
Why now? I swallowed hard as I made my way to the bedroom and began to put the stack of clean clothes I had washed for him into his duffel bag.
After it was packed, I numbly walked back toward the living room, only to freeze in the hallway when I realized that Lauren had dragged Jared into the kitchen. The movie wasn’t loud enough to cover their hushed voices.
“Your bag is in her bedroom?” Lauren asked, her voice restrained even though I could hear the heat behind it.
“I complained about the couch so she took it.”
Lauren chuckled. “Why am I not surprised? You’re such a gentleman.”
I couldn’t see him do it, but I imagined him shrugging.
“Well... you know me.”
“Did you fuck her?”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me Jared. Did you?”
“No,” he denied instantly, hesitating for a moment before he added, “Not for lack of trying, though.”
There was a long pause of silence before Lauren let out a heavy, relieved sigh.
“April’s a strong-willed little thing. It’s one of the many reasons why I like her so much.”
“Yeah... I got that impression.”
I was torn between being curious about where their conversation was going to lead and terrified that it would go badly if I let it continue. So I straightened my spine and walked into the room, handing Jared his duffel bag with a slightly stiff smile.
“I think everything’s in there. You might want to double-check, though.”
“Razor?”
I knew I forgot something. I shook my head and watched as he turned to Lauren and said, “Give me a minute.”
He brushed past me, letting his arm subtly brush against mine in a way that made my heart feel like it was being stomped into the ground.
It’s not like I didn’t know this was coming... but I thought I’d have a chance to say a proper good-bye. I wasn’t naive enough to think it’d mean the same thing to him, but I at least wanted the chance to tell him how much I enjoyed our time together after we made the truce and have a chance to hint at how much it had meant to me.
I could always tell him later because I still had his number saved in my phone, but what would be the point? He’d likely forget about me the moment he stepped out into the fresh air.
I was so deeply saddened by the thought that it took all my remaining energy to school my expression into place and face Lauren.
“So how’d it go? No more issues?”
I slowly shook my head. “No. After the bar incident, he agreed to a truce. It actually... Well, it’s been kind of nice.”
Lauren raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “You’re serious?”
I shrugged, wishing I hadn’t said anything. “Yeah. Other than him constantly hitting on me, it’s been kind of fun having the company. It kind of felt like college.”
“Did you sleep on your couch during college while your company took your bed?”
Infamous: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Novel Page 11
