Need You Now

by Ali Parker

  Only, I didn’t really have eyes for his eyes. My gaze was riveted to his cock, thick and long, proudly reaching up to his belly button from hips that were carved as if they’d been done by Aphrodite herself.

  “Haven,” he prompted me with a knowing smirk and a dip of his head. “Your turn.”

  Reaching for my scandalous panties, I rolled them off my hips without flashing too much of my lady bits and held them up to one side before dropping them to the floor.

  Another giggle escaped me, but this one was more self-conscious. “Is it still my turn?”

  He motioned to his gloriously ripped body and lowered his chin. “Uh, I don’t have anything left to take off. Need any help?”

  “No, I’ve got it.” I took a deep breath, fortified myself mentally against being naked in front of a man again, and lifted my dress over my head.

  I flung it to the side much less playfully or teasingly than I had my panties, but I was only in my bra now. Colton descended on me before I could reach around my back to undo the clasps. “Allow me.”

  He propped himself up on one elbow and kissed me again as the other hand snuck around me. The bra came free with one flick of his nimble fingers, and I breathed a sigh of relief to finally be free of the confines of the torture device.

  Both of us moaned when we were finally skin to skin. My pebbled nipples mashed up against his hard chest as his mouth descended to mine. As our tongues made contact again, my hands stroked along the muscled planes of his back and my legs hooked around his knees.

  His hardness wasn’t quite where I wanted it, but considering we were still unprotected, it was better that way. Before I could suggest a condom, he lifted his head away from mine and peppered tantalizing kisses down the length of my neck, my chest, and my abdomen.

  Forgetting what I’d been about to say, I clutched at my sheets and his hair as he continued his treacherously slow descent. By the time his mouth closed over my clit, I was practically on fire for him.

  I writhed beneath his strong grip, my hips bucking as I chased after an orgasm that felt like it was going to be a powerful one. Colton seemed to know what I needed before I did, and he gave it to me without hesitation.

  It took me no time at all before that exquisite heat spread through me, my toes curling as I let the waves of pleasure pull me under. He didn’t let me go when my orgasm subsided, choosing to stay nestled between my legs.

  He kissed me slowly before he started building me up again. Only once another earth-shattering climax left me panting on my bed did he crawl back up my body. He planted featherlight kisses against my sensitive skin, smiling when his face was finally hovering above mine again.

  “You okay?”

  “Perfect.” I reached up to cup his stubbled jaw, then pulled him in for another kiss. This time when we broke apart, the look in his eyes was needy and stormy. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded, letting his forehead just rest against mine while he caught his breath. “Yeah, it’s just been a while. You sure you want to go any further than this?”

  My hand crept down between us, closing around his silky, rock-hard length as I nodded. “Yes. Unless you’d rather just have me return the favor.”

  He smirked. “I’d definitely rather get inside you now. Not that I don’t want your mouth.”

  I arched a brow at him, grinning as I stroked his shaft. “Who said it has to be an either-or situation?”

  I pushed against his chest with my free hand, then worked him over the same way he had done for me once he rolled onto his back. I still really wanted to get a better look at his tattoos, but all I could see was that one side of his chest and arms was decorated much more densely and darker than the other.

  Another time.

  If I had my way, this wouldn’t be our last time together, and judging by the way the muscles in his neck were working and the ones in his abs clenched, the guy was seriously on edge. So I focused on him instead. He hadn’t made me wait. I wouldn’t do it to him.

  When my lips closed around his broad head, he let out a guttural groan and his hands slid into my loose hair. He was thick and hot in my mouth, practically throbbing against my tongue.

  He let me do my thing for as long as he could before he tapped out, lifted me up into his lap, and produced a condom he must’ve taken out of his pocket while I’d been distracted. Wordlessly tearing it open, he rolled it on and lifted his hooded gaze to mine.

  “We can still stop if you want to,” he breathed.

  I leaned over, tucking my hair behind my ears before placing a soft kiss on his lips. “Not on your life.”

  He chuckled softly, dipped his head in agreement, and lowered me onto him. It had been so long that it was mildly painful having him filling me up, but at least I could control the pace since I was still on top.

  I wondered if that was what his plan had been all along, but as I adjusted to having him inside of me, he started moving, and all my thoughts were lost. I clung to his shoulders, my eyes on his hazel ones as I got lost in the sensations of having him inside me.

  I didn’t know how long it was until I felt the familiar pressure building low in my stomach, but I hadn’t been expecting to feel it again. Colton was right there with me, both of us tensing as we reached our respective peaks at the same time. Pleasure wrapped around every inch of my body and curled my toes as I surrendered to another surprisingly intense orgasm.

  Colton collapsed onto the bed, bringing me down with him as we waited for our heartbeats to return to normal.

  As I lay breathing heavily and feeling like jelly from my head to my toes, my eyelids started feeling heavy. “I have to be up early for work in the morning. I’m not kicking you out, but if you don’t want to sleep over, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be awake for.”

  He chuckled. “Wow, that’s harsh. I have to be up early too, though. Guess I better go.”

  In a rare moment of post-orgasmic clarity, I realized I didn’t even know what he did for a living. “What do you have to be up for?”

  “Work.” He smirked as he sat up. “I’m an investigative journalist at the Daily News. It won’t be the end of the world if I’m late, but we’ve got a staff meeting first thing.”

  He dropped a kiss on top of my head before hopping out of bed, but my entire body went cold. “What did you say your last name was again?”

  “Stark.” He pulled on his pants and ran his hand through his hair as he reached for his shirt. “Why?”

  “No reason,” I lied. “Let me see you out.”

  I could hardly get my limbs to work with me—for more reasons than just my recent orgasms—but I somehow managed to get up without stumbling. Wrapping a thick robe around myself, I walked him out.

  “This was fun, Haven.” He pressed a final, lingering kiss to my lips. “We should do it again.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” I cleared my throat as I pulled away and gave him a tight smile. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Colton gave me a smile that might’ve melted my panties if I’d been wearing any, and he took off. I was still struggling to come to terms with what I’d just learned.

  He was C Stark, the bane of my existence. The idiotic, insensitive jerk who’d written that inflammatory article.

  And I’d just slept with him—the enemy.

  Fuck.

  What the hell was I supposed to do now?

  Chapter 12

  COLTON

  A loud knock at my office door yanked me out of my thoughts about my date with Haven. I jerked my eyes up from my laptop to see Ross walking into my office.

  He was in another one of his three-piece suits, his blond hair styled and his blue eyes bright but bored. “Want to grab some lunch? There’s nothing going on around here.”

  “It’s a newspaper. There’s always something going on.” I straightened up and took a deep breath, flexing the muscles in my stomach to help with the erection that had come on during my daydreams about the night before. “Don’t you have an important role he
re or something to keep you busy?”

  He huffed out a breath, his lip curling in disgust. “I’ve already done it all. It’s been a slow news day and my star guy is still sitting on his next interesting piece.”

  “So the way to get him writing it is by taking him out of the office?” I leaned back, crossed my arms, and smiled. “Seems counterproductive.”

  “Ah, but I know how to get your juices flowing.” He wagged his eyebrows at me. “Don’t argue. We’re going.”

  “We’re not going to lunch anywhere people take their clothes off for money.” I lifted my brows at him. “You just got in trouble for expensing that to the company account.”

  He chuckled but shrugged and nodded. “Fine. You make a good point. What about that burger place over on Fifth? We can call it a strategic planning session and be done with it.”

  “Deal.” I got up and grabbed my jacket before following Ross to my car. “I’ll meet you there.”

  He grinned at me and held his car keys up. “Loser buys?”

  “Loser buys,” I agreed, waiting until he was at his car to make it fair before getting into mine.

  We raced to the burger joint and ended up arriving at the same time. It didn’t come as a shock, considering that we both knew better than to blow through red lights in the middle of the day.

  Ross still gave an exasperated sigh when we got out of our cars, though. “Fucker. You’re buying anyway.”

  I shrugged. “Fine. You got it the last time, so I would’ve gotten it regardless.”

  “Now you tell me.” He snorted. “Keep it up, and my new tires will be on you.”

  I laughed. “You wish. If your tires need replacing, that’s on you.”

  He grinned at the hostess and asked for a table, ordering lemonade and water while she guided us to it. Once we were seated, he gave me a long look and his brow furrowed.

  “What’s different about you today?” He leaned forward, a smug smile on his lips. “Holy shit. You got laid, didn’t you? Someone seems to have removed that stick that’s been up your ass.”

  “There was no stick up my ass.” I scoffed. “If you must know, I went on a date last night and it went well.”

  “By went well, you mean…” He trailed off, wagging his brows at me as that knowing smile grew. “I’m proud of you, man. I was really worried about your testosterone levels for a while there.”

  “There’s never been anything to worry about. Not all of us have to chase everything in a skirt to feel like a man.”

  He flipped me off again before he started laughing. “Let’s agree to disagree. Who did you go out with?”

  “One of the vet techs from the clinic actually.”

  The waitress brought our drinks and he immediately poured a whole glass of water, downed it in one go, then stared at me like he couldn’t quite believe what I’d just said. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Yeah.” He cocked his head and poured more water, his eyes never leaving mine. “But were you being serious? You went out with a vet tech from the clinic you’re investigating? That’s ballsy, man.”

  “I didn’t go out with her for the story.” In fact, I hadn’t gotten around to asking her any questions about her employer. “Well, not only for the story. She’s actually really cool.”

  Not to mention exceedingly sexy, funny, and smart. As I thought about our dinner, I couldn’t help the smile that appeared on my face.

  Ross choked on the sip of water he’d taken. “Oh no. No no no no.”

  “What?” I frowned, sighing when I suddenly realized what his protests were about. “I had a good night. Am I not allowed to smile about it?”

  The ice blue of his eyes darkened and a line formed between his brows. “You’re allowed to be happy you got laid. You shouldn’t be smiling like that over some chick you’ve just met.”

  “Why not? You’ve been on my ass about getting back out there for years.”

  “Yeah, but not just so that I would have to wipe you up off the floor when it goes wrong again. I meant date casually, get to know people, loosen up. I didn’t mean jump right into another relationship.”

  “I’m not jumping into another relationship. I’ve taken her on one date. Where’s the harm in that?”

  He propped his elbows on the table and glared at me. “The harm isn’t in taking her on a date. It’s in the consequences if this blows up in your face when you haven’t even looked at many women since Noelle.”

  The mention of my ex’s name made my back straighten. “I haven’t looked at many women since her because I haven’t been looking for a new relationship.”

  “Again, you don’t have to be in a relationship to enjoy the company of a woman.” He smirked but his expression quickly morphed into a more serious one. “Look, if you want to date this girl, then date her. I just don’t know if your head’s in the right space for that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s been years since Noelle. Pretty sure I’m over her.”

  “Pretty sure you’re not over what happened though. In your head, she’s still the one who got away.”

  “So?” I shrugged. “In case you haven’t noticed, she did get away. I thought I was going to marry her, for God’s sake. We talked about our future. We had names picked out for our children.”

  “That’s exactly my point.” He sighed heavily. “She’s not the one who got away because she was never the love of your life. She was a big ol’ bitch who scarred you for what now seems to be life.”

  “She did not scar me for life. It was just that all throughout college, I thought she was the one, you know?”

  “I know.” He let his head fall forward and dragged both his hands through it. “Shit. It didn’t even happen to me and I’m fucking scarred by it. You dated her for three years, man. We all thought you were going to marry her and have babies with her.”

  “That was the plan.” Back when I still had plans for that kind of thing.

  All my life, I’d been looking forward to having my own family. College, meeting a girl I loved, making her mine, and then making babies with her was as much a part of my plan for my future as my actual career.

  Ross didn’t know exactly how much it was what I’d wanted, but he’d been there for the fallout. He knew how hard I’d taken it.

  “It was your plan,” he corrected. “Not hers. Clearly. She didn’t give two shits about you. If she did, she wouldn’t have cheated on you.”

  “I know.” The memories still stung. Not because I missed her or wanted her back, but I didn’t know if I would ever get over the trust issues I had now. Finding out my long-term girlfriend had been cheating on me for a year had been too painful, too humiliating not to have left a mark.

  Ross lifted his head again, his features drawn and filled with worry. “You always were way too good for her. It was better that it didn’t work out.”

  “Yeah, I agree.” It had taken me a long time to get to the point where I could say it and really mean it, but I was grateful now that things hadn’t gone any further with Noelle. “I’m fine, okay? I’m not jumping into a new relationship and you won’t have to sweep me up off the floor again.”

  He sat back against the vinyl-covered chair, his chest rising and falling on a deep breath. “If you’re sure. Just keep your head on your shoulders and your eyes open. It’ll be good if you found someone to take your thoughts off of what happened.”

  I nodded. For a long time, I’d buried myself in my work and just not thought about relationships. I met women, had some fun, fucked around a little, but then I went back to work.

  Noelle had taken my aspirations of starting a family, of finding a woman to share the rest of my life with, and shit all over them. I wasn’t sure I would ever want that again.

  Since her, I hadn’t met someone who made me feel like I wanted to put what she’d done behind me and look to the future. It had simply been easier to keep things light and easy, not create any expectations or form any of my own.

&nbs
p; Haven was the only woman who’d made me look twice since the clusterfuck that had been my breakup with Noelle. She’d captured my interest intellectually and definitely physically.

  I wasn’t back on the “I want to get married” train, but if there was anyone who could distract me from the issues brought on by my past enough to have some fun, it was Haven.

  She was easy to talk to, laughed a lot, and fucked like a goddess.

  That right there was a combination I could really get into.

  Chapter 13

  HAVEN

  This was why I didn’t have one-night stands. This was why I always got to know a guy before taking him to bed. Sleeping with strangers was something I’d avoided precisely because I didn’t know if I’d be able to take the shame of having had sex with someone truly terrible.

  It seemed safer that way. More controllable. I wasn’t so worried about getting hurt or feeling used by a guy who wouldn’t end up calling me because I never got emotionally involved. Safe. Predictable. Easy.

  Safe, predictable, and easy had never gotten me off three times in one night or made me feel such blinding pleasure, but it had also never had me unable to meet my own eyes in the mirror the next day. How could I have slept with the sick, pessimistic ass who’d smeared my father’s good name?

  Colton hadn’t come across that way in person at all, but there was no doubting that he was C Stark. I’d even gone back onto the newspaper’s website at some point during the night to check that they didn’t have more than one C Stark working for them.

  They didn’t. It was definitely him. Upon some further digging that I hadn’t really thought necessary before, I’d even found a picture of him on the website.

  I could kick myself now for not having played around on the site when I’d first been on it. The fact of the matter was that I hadn’t cared who C Stark was or what they looked like. It hadn’t made a single lick of a difference to me whether they were male or female, hot or ugly. All that had mattered, all that still mattered, was what had been written in that article. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind to check on what the reporter looked like.