“That’s Bob,” she said under him.
His chest expanded, his lust-filled thoughts causing heat to wash through him, as if he wasn’t hot enough already for Hattie. He released a rough exhale as he got a better look at it, finding how to turn it on and doing just that.
He glanced down at her. “Why don’t you show me what you and Bob get up to when you’re by yourself?”
“You want to”—she licked her lips—“watch me?”
“Fuck yes.” He started to shake with how much he wanted that. “Please,” he rasped.
Christ, he was all but begging her to give him what he wanted. He almost took it back, not wanting to pressure her, but so desperate and hungry to watch her use that on herself he couldn’t think straight.
She licked her lips again. “Okay,” she whispered. “You can watch…but you can’t touch.” The look in her eyes said she was fully into this as well. That the idea of Dex watching her play with her toy made her just as hot.
He was close to coming in his jeans. “No touching you?”
She shook her head. “But you can touch yourself.”
He nodded, throat so tight he couldn’t talk. He’d be touching himself all right.
Hattie held out her hand, and he gave her the vibrator and lay beside her, eating up the sight of her. All those soft curves, her insanely beautiful body visible through the sheer scrap of fabric she was wearing.
He groaned when she let her thighs fall open and, turning the cock in her hand onto its lowest setting, held it against her pussy.
Hattie bit her lip instantly.
Fuck. “Good?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Her lips were glossy from her licking them, slightly parted, and Dex fucking moaned when her little pink tongue darted out, gliding along her upper lip again.
“Sometimes I use lube, but I don’t need it tonight,” she whispered.
“No?”
She shook her head.
“You drenched, sweetness?”
She nodded and slid it between her delicate pussy lips, spreading herself with it, running it over her clit, her tight little opening.
“Christ, that’s…” He reached down and squeezed his dick through his jeans.
“How hard are you, Dex?”
“As a fucking rock.”
“Let me see.”
Throbbing and desperate, Dex yanked his shirt off and threw it aside, then he tugged open the button on his jeans and tore down the zipper. He shoved them and his boxers down over his ass, freeing his cock, and groaned in relief.
Hattie made a sexy little whimpering sound when her eyes dropped to his dick.
“It feels so good when you push inside me,” she said, moving the vibrator faster, sliding it quicker over her clit.
Dex curled his fingers around his dick and started tugging, squeezing the base and sliding up, tightening his grip on the head before coming back down. “Not as good as it feels having that pussy squeezing me.” Christ. Had he ever been this turned on? “Slide it inside, Hattie. Show me. Show me how you fuck yourself, sweetness.”
She nodded, panting as she brought her knees up higher, spread wider, and started to push it inside.
“Fuck.” Dex stroked faster, precome leaking from the head, making the glide nice and easy. “Oh fuck, that’s it. You’re so beautiful. Oh God.”
She started working herself with it, pushing it deep, then sliding it back out over and over, her belly quivering, thighs trembling, nipples straining against that fucking naughty little nightie she was wearing.
When she dropped her free hand down between her thighs and started rubbing her clit as well, Dex had to squeeze his dick hard to stop from coming.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her, all of her. Nothing was more beautiful than Hattie getting herself off.
“P-please, I want you, Dex,” she said and gasped, arching. “I want you. Please, I want you inside me.”
Dex moved faster than he ever had in his life, so fucking desperate to get inside her he almost forgot about a condom. He snatched one out of the drawer and quickly rolled it on.
Hattie slid her vibrator free and whimpered. But she didn’t have to wait long, Dex lined up immediately and slammed forward, stuffing her full again, this time with his iron-hard cock.
Hattie wrapped her arms and legs around him and hung on while he bucked into her, pounded her sweet pussy like a man gone mad.
He’d never been so hot for anyone. Never. And by the way Hattie clung to him, digging her nails into his skin and begging him to fuck her harder, neither had she.
He gave it to her. Fucking her like she was begging him to. She was so wet, and he was so insanely hard. The sounds of their down-and-dirty fucking filled the room, and he couldn’t get enough.
He looked down at her, and Christ, she was gorgeous. No one had ever been as stunning as her in that moment.
Hattie threw her head back and screamed, clamping down on his dick over and over, hard and incredibly tight.
“Fuck, sweetness. The way you come for me, the way you squeeze me. Can’t get enough, baby. Never enough of you.” He slammed his hips forward and blew so hard he roared, grinding and fucking into the angel beneath him until he was close to losing consciousness.
He collapsed, somehow still aware enough to wrap his arms around her and roll to his side, taking her with him. They clung to each other, and after they worked at catching their breath, they both drifted off to sleep.
Dex woke a few hours later to Hattie curled into his side, her hand on his chest, and his dick demanding attention again. She was awake. He could tell by the way she was breathing.
“Can’t sleep?”
She shook her head.
“What do you need, Hattie?”
She rose up and straddled his hips. “You,” she whispered in the shadowed room.
“You got me, sweetness.” His voice sounded shaky, already rough with need.
She grabbed a condom, opened it, and rolled it down his cock. “How can I still want you after what we did only a few hours ago?”
“Christ, it’s the same for me. I always want you.”
She murmured her agreement as she gripped his cock and, without hesitation, positioned him and sank down, taking him to the root. “Shit,” she cried out softly.
“You sore?”
“Not really. Not enough to stop.” She leaned forward, her hair falling around her face and his, and she kissed him, matching the way she stroked his tongue with the way she rolled her hips.
He gripped them and lifted his, meeting hers, taking her even deeper. “That okay?”
She nodded, her hair tickling his chest. “So good. It’s like our bodies were meant to fit together.”
He’d thought the same thing since the first time he sank inside her. It wasn’t just their bodies, though. All of her, inside and out, was made for all of him.
Hattie started to move faster, inner muscles already clenching.
“You gonna come for me already, sweetness?”
“Yes. Oh God.” She fell forward and kissed him again.
Dex wrapped his arms around her, rolled her to her back, and took over. His gaze clashed with hers, and neither of them could look away.
Dex watched as she came for him, her lips parting before she called his name.
The way she clenched around him set Dex off. He went with her, burying his face against the side of her throat, chanting her name over and over as he came hard for the second time that night.
Hattie kept her arms around him, soft hands moving over his back, stroking his skin as he continued to roll into her gently, savoring every last second he got to be inside her.
He slid his mouth up the side of her neck and along her jaw, and sucked on her delicate earlobe, chuckling when she squirmed.
“Fuck, I love you.” The words slipped free all on their own without him thinking, as easy as breathing, like the most natural thing in the world.
And he knew he’d made a h
uge mistake when Hattie stiffened under him.
“No, you don’t,” she whispered. “You can’t.”
Perhaps he should have backpedaled, said he didn’t mean it, that it was just something that he said in the heat of the moment, or pretended he never said it at all.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t lie, not to her. Not about the way he felt about her.
Dex lifted his head and caught her gaze with his own. “I know it seems sudden, I do, but—”
“Sudden?” She started to struggle under him.
Dex quickly moved, climbing off her. “Hattie—”
“It’s been two weeks. People don’t fall in love in two weeks.”
“I have…I did.”
“Dex, no. This is too much, too soon.”
He felt like his heart was being shredded in his chest. “It’s not, not for me. You don’t have to say it back. You don’t have to—”
“This is, it’s…I can’t do this. I came here to break free, to take control of my life…this is, it’s just too much, too complicated. I don’t need complicated in my life. That’s all I’ve ever had and I…I don’t want it.”
“Fuck, Hattie, will you just listen to me—”
“I need you to leave.”
“What?” he rasped.
“Please, Dex. I want you to leave.”
“Hang on a minute. Can’t we talk about this—”
“There’s nothing to talk about. Now, please, just go,” she said with more force.
He was going to be sick. A feeling of wrongness grew and expanded as he climbed out of her bed and got dressed. As she watched him from across the room, like she thought he’d grab her and not let go.
Christ. That’s exactly what he wanted to do.
He shoved his feet in his boots and was about to walk out but stopped and looked back at her standing there, breathing hard, eyes a little wild. “I’m not the only one feeling this. I know I’m not.”
She said nothing.
He forced himself to walk out of her room, through her small apartment overflowing with Christmas decorations and pretty things, and out the door.
How could it be over?
How the hell was he going to let her go when he’d only just found her?
Chapter 10
Dex turned his back to Joe, who was on the other side of the garage, and hit Hattie’s number, trying to call her again. He’d been trying since he got home from her place early that morning—shit, before he’d left her building. She wouldn’t pick up. Wouldn’t reply to any of his texts.
The sound of her sweet voice asking him to leave a message echoed down the line.
“Fuck.”
He was leaving in an hour, heading home for the wedding, but he didn’t want to, not until he’d spoken to her.
He shoved his fingers through his hair. Jesus, he needed to hear her voice. He needed her to tell him it wasn’t over, that she’d just freaked out like last time he’d said more than he should, that he was right—that she felt the same way about him.
Somehow, he forced himself to get back to work and, on autopilot, finished changing the oil filter on the Honda he was working on.
After closing the hood, he wiped the grease off his hands and, unable to help himself, pulled his phone from his pocket and tried to call Hattie for the fucking millionth time.
Again he went to voice mail.
Goddamn it. “Hattie, please. Call me back, sweetness. I pushed, and I said I wouldn’t. I won’t…say what I did again. I’ll do whatever you want. Please, I need you to call me. I need to hear your voice before I leave town.”
Breathing heavily, he ended the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket while he tried to gather his control. The way he felt right then, if he could have, he’d have picked the car up in front of him and hurled it across the room. That’s how angry he was at himself.
No wonder she was running scared. What the hell was wrong with him? She probably thought he was some desperate, obsessive loser.
“Christ, you look like you’re about to Hulk out. What’s going on?” Joe said from beside him.
Dex hadn’t even seen him walk over.
“Nothing,” he bit out.
“Your nostrils are flaring, your teeth are about to shatter from gritting them like you’re in the fucking electric chair, and your fists are clenched tight like you’re ready to punch someone.” Joe winced and took a step back. “Woman trouble?”
Dex planted his hands on his hips. “Listened to you assholes. Now everything is fucked.” They’d made him think he could care for people again, that the risk of pain and rejection would be worth it. It fucking wasn’t.
Joe frowned. “What the hell did we do?”
Hugh walked out of the breakroom, and Dex couldn’t control it or hold it in. “Why the fuck did I listen to you?” Adam was there as well. “I barely know you. The fact we’re related means jack shit.”
“What the hell’s going on?” Hugh said. “Brother, talk to us—”
“Not your brother. My brother’s about to marry my ex, and the other two have made it clear they want nothing to do with me. Don’t want or need more.”
“Jesus, what happened?” Adam asked.
“I told her how I feel, didn’t I? Followed your fucking advice.”
“It didn’t go well?” Joe asked.
Dex growled.
“Okay, okay, as long as you didn’t tell her you love her, it’s totally fixable,” Joe said, looking hopeful.
When Dex said nothing, he groaned.
“Shit. You can’t go telling a woman you love her after two weeks. No wonder she’s running scared.”
“Not fucking helpful, Joe,” Hugh said.
Who was he kidding? Joe was right. There was no fixing things between him and Hattie. There was no going back in time, no swallowing down those three words that had destroyed everything.
Dex sucked in several steadying breaths. He needed to calm the fuck down. When he thought he could talk again without losing his shit, he looked at Hugh. “I appreciate what you tried to do for me here, bringing me into the family, the apartment, the job. But I don’t want more family, and I don’t want…this. I quit.”
He strode out the door and up to his apartment to pack.
Hattie forced a smile when Shay walked into their office carrying a tray with their coffees and two large pieces of cake.
Today was the first day since she’d moved there that she hadn’t wanted to come into work. Somehow she’d eventually managed it, when all she’d wanted to do was stay in bed with the covers over her head and cry.
But the sheets smelled like Dex, and that made her want Dex even more. Made her want to call him and cuddle him, kiss him. Be with him.
Why did he have to complicate everything? Telling her he loved her had made it impossible for her to see him again. If she failed here, if her parents won…
She couldn’t afford to let her emotions get in the way.
He can’t love you. How can you love someone after such a short amount of time?
Her phone beeped again, and her belly tightened, heart racing. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she bit back a sob as a rush of emotion came from nowhere—emotions she’d been trying to keep locked down since last night when he’d told her he loved her, when he refused to take it back.
God, the look on his face when she told him to leave.
“Hattie?”
She glanced up at Shay, trying and failing to smile.
There was sympathy in her friend’s eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…yeah, I’m fine.”
Shay didn’t miss the hitch to her breath, and after putting their drinks and cake down, she rolled her chair over to Hattie’s desk.
“There’s nothing wrong. I promise,” Hattie said unconvincingly.
“I don’t want to pry or stick my nose somewhere it doesn’t belong, but…I thought you should know—” She took Hattie’s hand. “Dex quit this morning. He told Hugh he’s lea
ving and he’s not coming back.”
Hattie stared at Shay for several long seconds, trying to process what she was hearing and feeling. Then the dam broke. A sound she’d never made in her life burst from her, followed by a sob, and the tears threatening to escape did. “Oh God. He…he’s leaving?”
Shay grabbed her and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. “What’s going on, Hattie?”
Her friend sounded alarmed.
“H-he told me he loved me last night,” Hattie managed to get out.
Shay started rubbing her back. “Okay, and what did you say?”
“I kicked him out of my apartment.”
Shay pulled back and wiped away Hattie’s tears. “You love him?”
“How can I?” she all but yelled. “That’s ridiculous. I’m ridiculous. I’ve only known him two weeks. My parents would be mortified, would think I was a fool if they knew I thought I was in love after two weeks!” She sounded hysterical, but there was no controlling it.
Shay shook her head. “This isn’t about your parents. This is about you and how you feel. They have no say in this. What they think is irrelevant. And as for not being able to fall in love in two weeks? That’s bullshit. I fell for Hugh the moment I laid eyes on him. I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s true. And I’ll fight anyone who tries to tell me I’m wrong.”
“You did?” Hattie whispered.
Shay nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind Hattie’s ear. “Yes, and Hugh tried to fight it, like you are now, but it was the same for him. If you love him, don’t let him go.”
“But…this is insane, right? I can’t go after him and tell him I love him, can I?”
“Are you willing to lose him? Live without him?” Shay said.
No, she realized. No, she couldn’t. She didn’t want to. Hattie surged to her feet.
“Go!” Shay called after her as she ran for the door.
Hattie got in her car and headed toward the garage. She couldn’t let him leave. She had to talk to him. When he’d told her he loved her, she’d panicked—like she had the first night she’d gone home with him, the first night they met, and after they babysat together, when he’d told her he wanted to get to know her better, that he’d wanted more of her—because on some level she’d known there was something special between them.
Spark (Boosted Hearts Book 4) Page 9
