by Anna Paige
“You’re much more observant than the average person.” He leaned down until his mouth was a scant inch from mine. When he spoke next, I could feel his breath skittering across my lips. “Which is why I’m so surprised you didn’t already know how much I want you.”
“I thought you just wanted to be my friend at first, then I thought maybe the flirting was all in fun, but I never thought…I mean, I hoped…but…” I trailed off, fighting hard not to close the distance between us.
“I am your friend, Kaiti-girl, but I want to be so much more than that.” He sealed his mouth over mine and in an instant, I was pressed against him, my arms snaking around his neck even as he pressed into me, forcing my back against the hard counter.
His mouth opened slightly and the tip of his tongue traced my bottom lip, which was the sexiest thing ever…until he groaned a second later like the flavor had completely done him in. The next time his tongue made a pass, I reciprocated, finding it hard to pace myself. He was clearly taking his time, savoring this, and I wanted that too, but I also wanted him to throw me to the floor and take every inch of me as his.
When I was bordering on desperate, needing more, dying for him to delve deeper, he pulled back and reached for the takeout menus on the counter behind me, a playful look on his face.
“So, Chinese?” He flipped through the stack as if completely unaware of how breathless he’d left me or the fact that I was pinning him with my best death stare.
“Really?”
He had the nerve to look all innocent. “What?”
I narrowed my eyes at him and smirked. “Nothing. Why don’t you take those over to the couch and I’ll make a big pitcher of ice water, you know…like last time.”
“Need a little cooling off, do you?” The corners of his mouth turned up. “Because I thought staying warmed up for a while would make it more interesting later on.” He waggled his eyebrows at me and, dammit, I couldn’t bite back my responding smile.
“Tease,” I grumbled unhappily.
“Nah.” He moved back in and retook his grip on my hips. “I just want to give you as much time as possible to come to your senses before it gets past a certain point.”
“And what point is that?”
He kissed the tip of my nose, simultaneously giving my hips a firm squeeze. “The point of no return, Kaiti-girl, the point of no return. Because I have the feeling that once I have you, I’ll never want to let you go.”
Funny, I was thinking the same damn thing.
Gavin
“What does it say?” she asked, staring at the fortune cookie in my hand.
I cracked it open. Straightening the little strip between my fingers, I scanned the writing and smiled.
“Come on, Hollywood, don’t keep me in suspense.”
Instead of answering, I handed her the paper and sat back, feeling full and satisfied and incredibly at peace for the first time in forever. She was the reason why and she wasn’t even aware of it.
She chuckled nervously as she read the fortune aloud. “The one you’ve been waiting for is closer than you think.”
Was she blushing?
As if she wasn’t already adorable enough.
“Your turn.” I nodded to the remaining cookie on the table. “Let’s see what Confucius says about your future.”
She plucked the cookie off the table and I caught a slight tremble in her fingers as she cracked it in half. She read hers and passed it to me without reacting, probably because she was still blushing from reading mine.
“Love is for the lucky and the brave,” I read, nodding. “Sounds accurate enough.”
She blew out a breath. “Now that we’ve waded into awkward territory, how about we put away all this stuff and start drinking? With or without the ice cream.” She didn’t wait for my response, immediately standing and gathering the containers of leftover food.
I joined her in the cleanup efforts and then stood with her in the kitchen as she made us both drinks.
“Opting to leave out the ice cream?” I asked, watching her nervously flit around the narrow kitchen.
“Yeah, at least for now. The buzz is more important than the flavor at this point.”
I reached to stop her as she moved past me with her glass in hand. “Hey, slow down.”
She looked over at me and I thought she might be on the verge of tears she was so anxious. “Sorry, I just…”
“Kaiti.” I waited for her to look up at me. “Nothing has to happen tonight.”
Her shoulders were so tense it looked painful.
I continued on, holding her gaze so she knew I was sincere. “And if this isn’t what you want, we don’t ever have to…”
“No, I do want this,” she cut in, her voice an octave higher than usual. “I’m just worried about how I’ll compare. You know, to the other girls you’ve dated.”
That’s what this was about? She was this tied up in knots because she thought she had to compete somehow?
Shit. I hadn’t even considered how much she probably knew about my past, my dating habits have been tabloid fodder since I was twelve.
I took her glass and set it on the counter before turning so that our bodies faced each other fully. When she tried to look at the floor, I placed one finger under her chin and tilted her head up. “I don’t know how to say this so that you’ll understand how serious I am, so I’m going to tell you straight and hope like hell you take my word for it.”
She quirked a brow. “Tell me what?”
I let go of her chin and ran a hand over my hair, stressing each word. “I would never compare you to anyone in my past because there is no comparison.” I crouched until we were eye to eye. “You’re so much more to me already than any of them ever were. I’ve never had this kind of connection with another woman.”
Her eyes went glossy and she blinked rapidly to clear away the forming tears, her lashes moving so quickly they reminded me of hummingbird wings.
I pointed to the tiny scraps of paper on the counter, the fortunes we’d both chosen to save instead of tossing. “That fortune over there? I laughed when I read it. Want to know why?”
“Why?” Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.
“Because it was around the hundredth time the universe had confirmed what I was already feeling. About you. About us.” I looked to her lips before returning my gaze to hers. “Maybe I went about this all wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so forward about wanting you, because now I’m worried you think that’s all this is for me, and it’s not.”
She swallowed thickly and nodded. “I know.”
“I hope so. And I hope this doesn’t freak you out because that’s the last thing I want to do, but I have to be totally honest here. Yes, I want you, but I don’t just want to take you to bed, Kaiti. I want to take you around the world and to the pizza place around the corner. I want to make you mint cocktails and steal kisses every five seconds because the only way they could ever be appealing to me is if I taste them on your lips.”
She chuckled and placed one hand on my chest as I continued. “I want to make you laugh and roll your eyes and threaten me with ice water baths because those are some of my favorite Kaiti moments. I’m incredibly happy when I’m with you. And, yeah, it’s fast and scary as hell, but that’s exactly how I feel, and for once in my life, I’m with someone I know won’t judge me for being one hundred percent honest.” I cupped her cheek and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “And the honest truth is, you reminded me of who I am and I adore you for it.”
Those hummingbird lashes were still fluttering but they couldn’t hold back the two fat tears that streamed down her sweet, smiling face. In true Kaiti fashion, she replied with, “How many times did you practice that little speech?” She wiped her tears away and laughed, stepping back a little to look up at me. “Because, while captivating, I feel like it was missing something. Maybe you could have thrown in a hand gesture or something.”
I laughed along with her, feeling the tensi
on inside me break. “Oh, I have a hand gesture for you, Kaiti-girl. Here I am pouring my heart out in an only slightly practiced—but still phenomenal—speech, and your first instinct is to give me shit because it wasn’t good enough?”
She shrugged, raising her brows in an expression that indicated I should have expected nothing less.
I didn’t, which was what made her so damn great. “So, you’re saying it lacked some sort of movement, a physical punctuation to give it depth.” The directors had been working with her on subtle physical cues to add to her scenes, and apparently, she’d paid attention.
“Exactly.” She nodded, giving me a crooked smile.
“Then try this punctuation on for size, new girl.” I closed the distance between us, gripped the back of her neck, and pulled her into me as I crashed my mouth onto hers. It wasn’t tender and tentative, not this time. It was rough and desperate. Her arms shot up and locked around my neck as I reached down and cupped the perfect swell of her ass. I pulled her off the floor until her legs wrapped around my waist, pressed her into me, and thrust up, rubbing the hardened length of my cock against her.
She gasped into my mouth and ground herself into me until I was the one gasping. She continued to cling to me as I spun and started toward the living room, foregoing the longer distance to the bedroom in my haste to find a soft place to lay her.
When I reached the couch, I let go of her ass and waited for her to unwind her legs. She didn’t. Instead, she angled them down a bit and locked them tighter as she rose, her head higher than mine as she worked herself against the tip of my erection, which was already sticking partially out of my jeans—not intentionally, it was just how friction worked.
Or was it volume? Too much erection to be contained in my designer boxer briefs.
Yeah, it was definitely a volume issue.
She glanced down between us and her eyes widened when she saw the head of my dick exposed. Instead of blushing, though, she smiled and looked into my eyes. “Now that may be my favorite physical cue ever.”
“Not so subtle, though, is it?” I practically growled the last part of that sentence as she pressed herself into me again.
“Nope. But I like directness, remember?” She leaned down and took my lower lip between her teeth for a moment before letting go.
“In that case, let me be blunt,” I said, one hand coming up to knead her breast. “I’m going to use that physical cue—and several of my other assets—to make you come so hard you’ll see fucking stars.”
“I’m already seeing a star, Hollywood,” she smirked.
I tweaked her nipple through her thin bra and she whimpered, losing all pretense of control as she bucked against me. “You’re going to see a hell of a lot more than one, Kaiti-girl.”
“More than one star or more than one orgasm?”
“Yes to both.” I winked as I bent over the couch and let her warm body drop into the plush cushions.
She looked around as if just noticing where we were. “Not a traditional bedroom kinda guy?”
I smiled down at her, gripping her right ankle and tugging off her shoe. “Oh, we’ll get there. I thought we’d start here just in case.”
“In case what?” Her eyes lingered on my exposed tip.
“In case of wet spots. Better the couch, which we can abandon than the bed where I plan to wrap myself around you for the rest of the night—after I thoroughly wear you out, of course.” The left shoe went flying as I leaned over her, placing one knee between her legs and nuzzling the valley between her breasts through her shirt.
“Gonna hump my leg in your sleep again too?” she teased, breathless.
I ran my tongue over the dip between her neck and collarbone. “Probably. And I doubt I stop there.”
“I don’t want you to stop anywhere, Gavin.” She reached up, gripped my shoulders, and pushed me back so that she could meet my eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you too.”
Eight
Kaiti
Lying there on the couch, looking up at Gavin as he reached back with one hand and tugged his shirt over his head, part of me couldn’t believe it was real. Like maybe I’d imagined this whole thing, one long, vivid hallucination.
A larger part of me was not only aware that this was all actually happening, it was breathing a sigh that said finally.
Didn’t matter which part was right, whether it was fact or fantasy, it was all I wanted; Gavin was all I wanted.
He said my name on a low exhalation as he removed my shirt, with a raw voice and hooded eyes that threatened to eat me alive. I squirmed under his gaze, rubbing myself against his knee. He dropped back down over me, tugged the thin lace cup of my bra down, and locked his lips around my nipple, tugging and swirling his tongue around it until my hips were bucking off the couch.
“Jesus!” I cried out involuntarily.
He pulled back, dragging his teeth lightly across my nipple before he let go. “I prefer Gavin-fucking-Lane, if you don’t mind.”
I shook my head, reaching to tug at the button on his jeans. “Too much for me to remember.”
He reached down and stilled my hands, leaning down to drop a soft kiss on my palm. “Then just Gavin will do. Same number of syllables as Jesus.” He quirked a brow, slid a hand under my back, and popped my bra open with a quick snap of two fingers.
Wonder where he learned that?
I shook my head slightly, trying to chase off the thought and surge of insecurity that would no doubt follow.
Gavin saw the motion and stilled, a faint frown on his face. “You okay?”
I offered a smile and quick nod. “Yep, fine.”
“Bull. What happened just now?” He stopped touching my breast and rested his hand on my rib cage, making no move to remove my unhooked bra.
Instead of waiting for him to continue, I reached up and pulled it off myself before tossing it across the room.
His eyes never left mine. “Talk to me, Kaiti.”
The way he said my name, it was like it was his favorite word in the world. It wasn’t just a combination of letters and the corresponding sounds—not the way he said it. It was an embrace.
When I hesitated to answer, he cupped my cheek. “Do you want me to stop?” His thumb made light passes over my cheekbone. “Because that’s okay.”
“No,” I whispered, feeling stupid. “I just had a moment.”
His brow furrowed as he looked at me. “A moment of what?”
“Self-consciousness.”
He pursed his lips and gave me a knowing look. “It was the bra thing, wasn’t it?”
I nodded.
“It’s not what you think,” he chuckled. “I had to practice that move for one of my early roles. And I used a tailor’s bust, not an actual woman. I’d never even seen a breast when I learned how to do that—at twelve, for a sitcom I was on for a whopping two episodes.”
Ah, I remembered the exact sitcom and episodes he was talking about.
Somehow, picturing him doing that seemed like the funniest thing in the world. He laughed along with me for a minute, and it was during that time that his eyes finally strayed to my exposed breasts.
I let him look his fill before clearing my throat to get his attention back on my face. “Now that we got that cleared up”—I was still giggling a little as I spoke—“Where were we?”
He shook his head. “Nope, not yet.” He leaned over me until our chests brushed together and his eyes bore into mine. “I thought I told you there was no one out there who could compete with you, past or present. Didn’t I?” I nodded and he gave me a quick peck on the lips. “It wasn’t a lie.”
“Okay.” I tipped my head up and rubbed my nose against his, Eskimo style. “I believe you.”
“Thank you.” He leaned his forehead to mine.
“Now I’m curious to see what kind of showmanship is involved in removing a pair of panties.” I flicked his bottom lip with my tongue, goading him.
“There’s not much to improvise on that on
e. Down the legs and tossed across the room is pretty standard,” he mused. “Though I suppose I could rip them off.”
“Ooh, that sounds interesting.” I nodded.
“With my teeth?”
“That would make a great physical punctuation.”
“Oh, I’m going to punctuate a lot.” He kissed me hard, his tongue making one long sweep over my bottom lip. “Starting right now.”
In one swift move, my pants were gone. He moved up to blanket me with his body, kissing his way from my lips to my neck to my breasts—where he lingered a while—and finally to my lower abdomen, where he took the lace of my panties in his mouth. He bit down, ripping them apart with his hands, first one side, then the other. By the time he was done, the panties were easily tugged off—again with his teeth—and dropped to the floor.
“Shit,” he breathed, the exhalation skittering across my exposed skin. “I…you’re…” He shook his head, barely able to tear his eyes away to look at me. “Nice wax job.”
I quirked a brow, smirking at how he’d been thrown off balance by my bare pussy. “Lasered. No waxing required.”
His tongue made a slow pass across his lips. “Time for another physical punctuation.”
I chuckled but it was cut short when he leaned down and sealed his mouth over me in one quick, fluid motion. His tongue immediately began to probe, first lightly tracing the entire seam, then delving deeper until he barely brushed my clit—which made me hiss and wiggle beneath him, wanting more.
He pushed my legs wide and threaded his arms under them, dragging my lower body toward the edge of the couch as he slid to the floor on his knees. I turned completely so that both my feet were on the floor and my upper body was at the perfect angle to look down as he licked me.
Still lapping at me, he positioned my legs so that my feet were on the coffee table behind him, opening me further, exposing all of me to his view. When he was satisfied that my legs were as spread as they could be, he dropped one hand between them and slid two long fingers inside me. He pulled them back slowly before plunging them deep. Over and over he pumped them into me, his tongue swirling around my throbbing clit all the while.
