My ankles wrapped around his waist and our bodies moved in sync. I met each thrust with my own, our tongues tangling, my fingers digging into his back.
“Christ, you feel good,” he breathed, his words just air.
I made some sort of noise that showed my agreement, but I had no words. Couldn’t have put a sentence together if I’d tried. I was swirling in the hurricane of sensation, unable to pinpoint exactly what part felt the best. The way he filled me to the fucking brim? The way the base of his cock hit my clit every. Single. Time? The way his hand gripped the back of my thigh, pulling me open wider so he could get as close as humanly possible?
Yes.
Yes was the answer.
It was all my favorite.
He was my favorite.
Of all time.
“Justin,” I managed to cry. “I’m close.”
“Yes,” he rumbled, picking up the speed of his hips, the depth to which he aimed.
The next few minutes would go down in history as the most euphoric of my life until that point, and I rode the pleasure wave like a champ. Or so I assumed. I couldn’t remember most of it except the way it felt as he pistoned into me, how my whole body seemed to concentrate on the act of coming, like it was created for that sole purpose.
I came, crashing down from the highest of highs. In the back of my mind I heard Justin coming too. The loud rumbling growl as he reached his peak sounded far away and almost feral. Animalistic, really.
His mouth returned to my skin, but he wasn’t kissing my lips, he was leaving slow and soft kisses along my neck and collarbone, his hands grazing my sides as they made their way to my waist. He kissed down my sternum, between my breasts, then pulled out as he rolled to the side.
He took a few deep breaths and after some quiet moments he stood and disappeared into the bathroom.
I was completely content to lie there the rest of the night without moving a muscle. In fact, I almost insisted on it. My body was relaxed and sated, my brain fuzzy from the effects of the two mind-bending orgasms.
I heard his footsteps getting closer, but my eyes had drifted closed and they didn’t feel like opening right away.
“Do you need something to sleep in?” he asked quietly.
“No,” I managed.
The bed dipped and the comforter slipped out from under me, only to be draped over me right afterward.
When Justin finally lay down, he wasted no time in pulling me to him. His big hand gripped around my waist and he pulled my back to his front. Apparently, Justin liked to be the big spoon. I was okay with that.
“How was that?”
A laugh burst out of me, but I didn’t have the energy to keep it up for long. I was swiftly drifting away.
“Unforgettable.”
Chapter Ten
Justin
If I was being 100 percent honest, there was a small part of me that expected Hadley to be gone the next morning. I wouldn’t have been surprised had I woken up and found she’d escaped in the night, ran from me even though she swore she wouldn’t. I would have been disappointed, but not surprised.
I was surprised, however, when I came to and felt the weight of her still pressed against me and the soft puffs of her breath on my chest. I was grateful, too.
I opened my eyes to a mass of blond hair. There were golden tresses everywhere and hiding beneath them was Hadley. I stretched my arms up, then brought one down to wrap back around her. She stirred, the blond hair fell away, and her beautiful face appeared. Every apprehension I may have had fell away as she smiled up at me.
“Hey,” I said softly.
“Hi.” Her smile remained in place, but a blush crept over her cheeks as though she were embarrassed or shy.
“I gotta say, Hadley, you look amazing in the morning.”
She laughed. “Shut up. I look ridiculous, I’m sure.”
“You look perfect,” I said immediately. She didn’t respond, just blushed a deeper shade of red and rested her cheek against my chest. “What time do you have to be at work?”
She let out a sigh. “I may just take the morning off. I don’t have any appointments and I need to go take care of the door at Riley and Camden’s house. I can work on her computer until someone comes to fix the door, then go in afterward.” Her hand moved and she started trailing her finger around my chest. It was an innocent touch, absentminded even, but the simplicity of if, the mere fact that Hadley was in my bed and touching me made me happier than I could ever remember being.
“Do you want help with that? I could take the morning off. Head in to work after lunch.”
Her head lifted and her eyes met mine. “You wouldn’t get in trouble for that? I don’t want you to miss work because of me.”
“It’s not a big deal.” I used my hand to push back some of her crazy hair and tuck it behind her ear. “I’d like to spend a little more time with you.”
“Okay,” she whispered, smiling through the words.
I leaned down and captured her mouth in a soft, quick kiss, then relaxed back against the pillow and pulled her closer.
“I gotta say,” she stated a few minutes later. “I’d convinced myself that not remembering most of what happened in Vegas was a plus, but now that I know how good in bed you are, I’m a little sad I don’t remember.”
My hand, which had been running up and down her bare back, stilled.
“You don’t remember?”
She shook her head and looked up at me. “Not really. I mean, I remember bits and pieces here and there, but nothing solid. I drank way too much that night.”
My heart stilled in my chest. “What exactly do you remember?”
She must have picked up on the tension in my voice. That or she saw it in my face, because her smile faded and worry took over. “What’s wrong?”
“Hadley, what do you remember? Tell me everything.”
“Um, well, I remember the arcade and walking down the strip with Jasper, Rachel, and Tripp, and I remember the fountain at the Bellagio. After that it gets fuzzy. I remember being with you in front of the Paris hotel and the Eifel Tower. I remember drinking, dancing, and kissing. I remember little tiny snippets of the hotel room that night,” she added, blushing again. “I remember being with you and wanting that. Oh, God, I don’t want you to think—”
“You don’t remember anything between the dancing and the hotel room?” My heart was going to beat right out of my chest and my voice was panicked.
“Not really. Justin, what is it? You’re scaring me.”
At her words, I threw the sheet off and jumped out of bed, storming to my dresser and opening the top drawer. I pulled out the piece of paper I’d placed there a few days ago and, turning, flung it onto the bed.
“So you don’t remember that at all?”
“What is this?” she asked, picking it up and looking down at it.
I watched as recognition spread across her face, followed by surprise and then astonishment.
“That’s our marriage certificate.”
Her mouth fell open and her eyes dashed around the paper, but she didn’t say anything.
“You don’t remember getting married, do you?”
“Oh my God,” she whispered. The paper fell from her hands and she covered her mouth, clearly still processing her thoughts. “We got married?”
“We sure fucking did.”
“We got married? And you’re just now telling me this?”
“How was I supposed to know you’d blacked it out?”
“What the fuck, Justin?” she practically screamed, holding that damn sheet to her body, her fucking wild and sexy hair flying everywhere.
“No, you don’t get to be mad at me about this. I’ve spent months trying to get you to talk to me and you’ve spent the same amount of time perfecting the act of ignoring me.”
“What about the bar yesterday? You couldn’t casually bring up the fact that we’re fucking married?”
“I thought you knew! I thought you kne
w but that you were still trying to process, that you’d bring it up when you were ready to discuss it. The last thing I wanted was to push you away or force you to talk to me. I thought it was a miracle you agreed to go out with me at all.” I pushed my hand through my hair and realized I was fighting with my fucking wife with no clothes on. I stomped over to the edge of the bed where my sweatpants lay on the floor and pulled them on in a huff.
“Oh my God,” she whispered again, looking down at the paper. “I can’t believe this.”
I stood in my bedroom, staring at the woman I wanted more than anything in the world—my wife—and I’d never felt farther away from her. I thought being with her last night meant the beginning, but now I wasn’t so sure. Both my hands came up and gripped my hair and I let out a frustrated groan, then turned and walked out the door.
Chapter Eleven
Hadley
Holy. Shit.
Justin and I were married?
How in the world did I not remember marrying him? And why in the world hadn’t he told me?
There were no less than one million conflicting thoughts running through my brain and they all confused me. My eyes closed and I flopped back onto the bed, then pulled the blanket over my head and curled into a ball.
Married?
Like, married married? I was the last person on the planet who would choose an impromptu Vegas wedding. I wasn’t even sure I ever wanted to get married, let alone marry someone I wasn’t even dating. Sure, Justin was exactly the kind of guy I would imagine myself marrying, and he was whittling his way into my heart slowly but surely, but married?
I was never drinking again.
Like, ever.
My mind wandered back to that night and I tried to pull up any buried memory I could. I remembered the night in flashes, and sure, a few times I remembered being in the chapel, but I thought I was remembering Riley and Camden’s wedding, not my own.
What a mess.
My memory as the night progressed became blurrier and blurrier, but I couldn’t help but remember how I felt. And I’d felt happy. Excited. Carefree. I remembered dancing with Justin, thinking about how right it felt to be with him, how good he made me feel. And the next morning, when I’d run away, I was embarrassed, but I was also sad. I’d run to try to protect myself, but I’d been sad I couldn’t just snuggle into him and fall back asleep.
Like I had an hour earlier in Justin’s bed.
I groaned again.
Waking up with Justin was different that morning. I didn’t want to run away. I didn’t feel the need to disappear before we both realized we’d made a mistake. No, I’d watched him sleep for a few minutes, then drifted back to sleep myself. And it had been perfect. Everything about last night had been wonderful.
And Justin had known we were married.
Last night, when he’d made love to me, he was making love to his wife. He’d said all those things to me as my husband.
Suddenly, everything shifted.
Justin cared about me. More than cared, even. He’d married me and then let me have my space, hoping I’d come back, hoping I’d let him in. And that was what he thought last night was—me coming back to him.
Suddenly everything weighed more, was heavier, meant more.
I jumped out of the bed and grabbed the first shirt I saw, which was hanging over the arm of a chair. It was one of Justin’s T-shirts and it smelled absolutely incredible. I pushed that thought aside, pulled it on, and went in search of him. As soon as I made it into the hallway, the scent of coffee sent me into the kitchen. I rounded the corner and flew past the formal dining room, but when I made it through the doorway I halted.
He was facing away from me, his head lowered, bent down between his shoulders, and his hands braced against the counter, spread wide. Every single muscle in his back was on display and it was breathtaking. He was the most masculine man I’d ever seen. He was strong and capable, built for strength. And it didn’t go unnoticed that I had the power to break him. Something about the big, strong, powerful, adept man who seemed to want me, well, that was empowering. It made me brave.
I walked up behind him and gently pressed my palms on his back. He tensed at my touch, obviously surprised by it, but then relaxed.
“I’m sorry I don’t remember,” I whispered, my lips not far from him. So close, in fact, I could feel the warmth of his skin against them. “I’m sorry for a lot of things.”
He didn’t reply, but I thought I felt him relax even more.
“Tell me what I can do. How can I make this better?”
“There’s nothing to be done,” he finally answered, but he was still turned away and I could feel the chasm between us only growing larger. I couldn’t have that.
“Worst-case scenario, what does that look like for you?”
He didn’t answer right away, but his head came up, so I knew I had his attention.
“The worst thing that could happen right now, between us, what would it be?”
“That you’d run away again.”
I pressed my forehead against his back and slowly shook my head.
“I’m not going to run.”
“You’ve been running for months. What makes this different?”
“I don’t know, but it is. I came to you last night, didn’t I?”
Finally, he turned around. I didn’t move, though, so we were still very close. I took a chance and let my hands fall back to where they’d been, but now they rested on his chest. I made a point of looking up into his eyes.
“That was before you knew we were married.”
We were married. That phrase made my heart skip and stutter. But not altogether in a bad way. It was daunting, for sure, but it wasn’t scary like I thought it should be. I should have been running, but I didn’t want to.
“I came to you last night because I was done running, done fighting what’s between us. The fact that I don’t remember marrying you doesn’t change the fact that I’m tired of staying away.” I pressed closer and pushed up onto my toes, bringing my face that much closer to his. “I can’t imagine what you’re thinking now. Please, tell me.”
His big warm hands came up to rest on either side of my temple and he pushed all the hair out of my face, his eyes never leaving mine. “I married you on purpose, Hadley. When I woke up the next day I was thrilled you were my wife, but when I rolled over to wake you up, you were gone. I thought my new bride had left me.”
His words may as well have been knives cutting into me, but I knew however bad I felt about it, he was feeling immeasurably worse.
“I hate that you felt that way, that you had to go through that.” I closed the space between us and pressed my lips to his, my heart breaking a little when he didn’t kiss me back. I had known if I kept pushing him away, eventually he’d move on and forget about me. But now that I was face-to-face with a Justin who wasn’t relentlessly pursuing me, the thought of losing him for good made me panic. Was I too late? Had I pushed him too far? “I’m here now and I promise I’m done running,” I whispered, my voice pleading.
His hands, which were still on my head, slid down to cup me on either side of my neck and his thumbs skimmed over my jaw. His eyes were dark, but they were searching mine, and I was sure he could feel my pulse thumping just beneath my skin against his fingers.
Finally, he spoke.
“I want you, Hadley. I’ve wanted you for a while. I thought, even though we were drunk, that marriage meant we were going to try. I vowed to be the best version of myself for you, to give you whatever you needed within my capacity, and I don’t think turning you away at the first bump in the road fits that description. But we have to be on the same page here.”
I nodded quickly. Well, as much as I could with his big hands on me. “Yes, okay.”
“First thing is that we’re clear about you being mine. I don’t share. You’re my wife, and even though I know we aren’t a typical married couple, being that you didn’t know about it, I will still insist on monogamy
. You with me?”
Holy shit.
“Yes, I’m on board.” My words were just a breath, and that was all I could manage because I was about ready to fall apart in front of that man.
“Second thing is, that claim goes both ways. I’m yours.” As he said the words he walked forward, forcing me backward until I was pressed against the counter of the kitchen island.
“Yes,” I breathed again, this time a little moan blending with the agreement. I could feel the heat between my legs, the dampness that was growing with every word he spoke.
“Third thing, for now, is that you have to realize I’m done giving you space.” He tilted my head back farther, angled it just so, and I knew he was about to kiss the fuck out of me.
“Okay,” I managed.
“You ready for me to invade your space, Hadley?”
Before I could give him a proper answer, his mouth was on mine. He kissed me with a ferocity I hadn’t ever experienced before. It was as though the air he needed to breathe was lodged inside of me, and he was doing everything to break me open.
This was not the sweet, gentle lovemaking we’d experienced the night before. No, this was more primal, more base. This was simply the two of us needing a connection to the other on a cellular level; to our very cores.
My hands gripped the back of his neck and slid into his hair, holding him to me, pulling him desperately closer. His hands moved down my body until they found the hem of his T-shirt and then slipped under. A growl tore from him when he realized I was bare underneath.
I felt the wide expanse of his hand grab my ass and with a grunt he gave it a not so gentle squeeze. After he released it, his hands slid over my ass and down my right thigh, gripping my leg behind my knee and pulling it up, hitching it on his hip.
Suddenly, his lips were gone from mine and his dark blue eyes were focused on mine.
“Take off your shirt,” he ordered. My heart pulsed faster at his demand, but I did as he asked and pulled my shirt up over my head, my undoubtedly crazy hair falling around my shoulders. “Good girl,” he praised.
Had Enough Page 10
