Over the Edge: The Bridge Series: Book Three

by Meredith Wild

  The scent of the coffees in my hand spurred my next steps. I needed more coffee, and I needed this woman.

  I stepped into the hallway that led to her first-floor apartment. I knocked on her door. She didn’t answer, so I knocked again, longer and louder. A few seconds later, she opened it and stood before me. I tensed my jaw to keep it from landing on the floor. Her hair was a tangle, and her eyes were soft and tired, like I’d woken her. She wore only a ribbed navy-blue tank top and matching blue panties.

  “What are you doing here?”

  I collected myself and shot her a grin. “I slept like shit. Figured you might have too. I brought coffee.” I extended the cup to her. “Cappuccino, your favorite.”

  Her brow wrinkled as she accepted it. “How do you do that?”

  I masked a smile, enjoying the thrill that always came with being right.

  She moved to the side so I could enter and closed the door behind me. “You shouldn’t have come here. If Cameron saw you, he’d lose his mind.”

  I laughed a little and watched her perfect ass sway ahead of me into her living room. “Too late for that.”

  She turned abruptly, her eyes wide and alert. “What happened?”

  “Nothing. We just passed each other on my way in.”

  “Did he say something?”

  I shrugged. “It’s fine. Nothing you need to worry about.”

  She sighed heavily and took a seat on the edge of her couch, covering herself with a velvety gray throw. I sat at the other end, taking in the details of the place she called home.

  The apartment wasn’t enormous, but it was well appointed. The cherry hardwood floors were new and covered with a couple of expensive rugs. The furniture was designer I guessed from the quality of the material covering it. Everything was cool, from the white linen curtains to the series of square-cropped ocean photographs that adorned the walls through the room. And Olivia was the centerpiece, warm and beautiful. Though I guessed she’d rolled right out of bed, I didn’t want her any less than I had hours before. Why the hell did I crave her the way I did?

  She blew the steam off the top of the cup and sipped carefully. She met my imploring gaze after a moment. “Thanks for the cappuccino. You were right. I didn’t sleep very well. I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said.”

  “And what are you thinking now?”

  She circled her fingertip over the rim of the cup. “I’m thinking I’m crazy for even talking to you about any of this. Deciding to be with you was already outside of my comfort zone. This thing with Ian…”

  The hesitation in her eyes warned me and heartened me. She was bound to me, enough to question her attraction to Ian and accept what he was going to do to her. That bond wasn’t a figment of her imagination either, a pathetic one-sided longing. It existed. A real thing—taut and tense, strengthening between us. I trusted Ian with her body, but no matter how many hours he spent inside her, I knew she was becoming mine.

  “You have doubts. That’s normal,” I said.

  “Will, I don’t even know where to start. I am attracted to Ian, but I’m not like you. I don’t rove the world sampling all of life’s earthly pleasures, throwing every rule and convention out the window as I go.”

  I laughed at the picture she painted, but maybe she wasn’t completely wrong. I wanted what I wanted. I enjoyed sex, and all the money and privilege in the world couldn’t measure up to losing myself for a few minutes inside a beautiful woman. And right now, all the beautiful women in the world couldn’t measure up to the one beside me at this very moment.

  “Come here.” I reached out to her, palm upturned.

  She hesitated.

  “Please,” I uttered quietly.

  Some tension melted off her shoulders. Her mouth relaxed as she shifted to the middle cushion beside me. I took her coffee with one hand, setting it safely away. Then I caught her thigh and pulled her over so she straddled me. Her hands rested on my shoulders and crept softly around the nape of my neck.

  I stifled a groan, immediately on edge. Through her panties, her pussy was warm against the bulge in my jeans. Her tits were right at eye level too. I ached to uncover them, mold my palms around their perfect softness, and suck each sweet rosy nipple into my mouth until she cried out.

  Instead, I gazed into her eyes, skimming my palms up the sides of her torso until I reached her face. I cupped her cheeks and brought her lips to mine, kissing her tenderly.

  “Don’t give up on me just yet,” I whispered against her lips.

  “I don’t know what I want, Will.”

  Longing and surrender came through with her words, and I knew then what I had to do.

  “Let me show you what you want, Olivia. Trust me with your body and your pleasure. You don’t need to think before you act. Not with me. Give in, and let me take control of a situation you already know I can master.”

  “I want to, but—”

  I pulled her to me again, silencing her doubts. She moaned, kissing me deeper, shifting her hips against mine. Maybe we were done with words. Maybe I needed to show her another way…

  I stood, lifted her with me, and brought her to the bedroom. I dropped her down on the bedspread, enjoying how the morning light cast a warm glow on her body. Her knees were bent and slightly parted. Her arms were high, her fingertips tangled in the mass of dark-brown locks that lay across the blue paisley bedspread.

  I pulled my shirt over my head and threw it to the floor. She bit her lip as her gaze traveled the length of me. I went for my belt, pulling it swiftly from its loops.

  “Sit up.”

  When she moved upright, I lifted her tank top over her head. I caught her hands and looped my belt around them, securing them tightly. She didn’t flinch or question me, which I took as a promising sign.

  “I’m giving you a chance to trust me,” I murmured.

  I finished and tested her bonds. She was secure.

  “Does that feel okay?”

  Her gaze flickered up to mine. “Feels fine. Should I be worried?”

  “The opposite. You should be relieved. I’m in control now, so you don’t have to be. Lie back, and let me blow your mind.”

  A ghost of a smile passed over her lips, and she lay back, resting her hands above her head. I undressed and fished out a condom from my wallet. I rolled it on, noting how the ritual was already starting to piss me off. Something about Olivia made me feel uniquely possessive.

  I fed the fantasy I’d had more than once about coming inside her. I didn’t seem to have much control over my primal instincts when it came to her. As she writhed on the bed in front of me, I fought the urge to spread her and take her hard and rough. Not this time. This time I had to make a point. I had to earn her trust.

  I caught her foot and rested it against my chest. Her toenails were perfectly manicured and painted a pale pink. I pressed a soft kiss to the pad of each toe. Then I went to her ankle and worked my way up to her toned calf, kissing and sucking. The inside of her thigh was like satin. I licked the crease between her thigh and the hem of her panties, shifting the fabric just enough to catch the lip of her pussy with my tongue.

  “Do you like this? The way I touch you and tease you?”

  She sucked in a sharp breath and arched against me. “Yeah.”

  I pressured her hips down to the mattress and nuzzled against the cotton panties that separated me from the object of so many indecent thoughts as of late. Olivia’s delicious pussy.

  I inhaled her, smelling her arousal, catching the hint of moisture through the fabric. My cock was painfully hard, straining to be inside her.

  I was losing control. I’d come here to make a point, and the only one I was making was that my cock was hardwired to respond to her scent, her touch, her everything.

  “Do you trust me to do things to you that no one’s ever done before?”

  She nodded, her breaths coming rapidly now.

  I yanked her panties down, tearing the fabric. I moved up her body, trailing my
lips over her silky skin. I hovered there, barely touching her.

  “And when I’m so deep inside you that you shake and scream. Do you like that too?”

  “Yes,” she whispered breathlessly.

  “I want to give you that. I want to take you over the edge, over and over again. So does Ian. He wants to be the name on your lips right next to mine. Imagine feeling what you feel now, but with both of us. Two people who want to give you more pleasure than you can handle.”

  The heat radiating off her body seemed to multiply. She balled her fingers into tight fists and arched her back off the bed. I closed my eyes and breathed her in, a deep intoxicating breath that was meant to calm me down but only made the beast inside me hungrier.

  “Give in to me, Olivia. Give me what I want. Tell me you will.”

  Neither of us could afford love. But we could have this. We could share this. Once Ian had her, heaven help me, maybe I could disconnect from some of these dangerous feelings. I’d never wanted anything or anyone so damn bad. And even as I questioned if I could truly share her with Ian, I’d deliver on the pleasure I’d promised. I ached to see her come apart under the passion that we’d bring to her in the same bed.

  Give in to me…

  I demanded without words, without an inch of our flesh touching and tempting her. I wanted her surrender, but the next step was hers to take.

  Her bottom lip trembled as she searched my gaze. Her own was hooded with lust and glimmered with trust. It was the trust that gutted me.

  “Yes.” Her voice was a whisper.

  OLIVIA

  I was up against years of careful upbringing, a lifetime of meticulous plans and decisions made to ensure a future as close to perfection as one could attain.

  And in the space of minutes, Will had stripped me down, physically and in every other way. I was naked and raw, as bare as my desire. Bound yet somehow freer than I’d ever felt before.

  Despite being plagued with doubts most of the night, when I was in his arms, I was ready to let go. I was tired of overthinking and worrying about every potential misstep. Being with Will had been nothing but liberating, stimulating in more ways than one.

  I felt safe, and deep down, I did trust him. The good girl inside me warned me to be careful, screamed “no” when my body screamed “yes.” But the woman he had uncovered wasn’t good anymore. She was a shell of need, and she wanted to be filled—with life and experience and the kind of toe-curling pleasure that only Will had given me.

  He was pushing inside me in seconds, making me his all over again.

  “Fuck,” I gasped at the searing pleasure of our bodies coming together. My thirst for more curled around the incredible sensation of him filling me—completely and so perfectly. I expected him to come at me like he had before, fast and hard, but the way he moved felt deliberate and meaningful. He brought our hips together slowly, joining us inch by inch and pulling back again.

  His lips hovered over mine. “Olivia…say it again. Say yes. I need to hear it. I need to know it’s what you want.”

  I’d already given in, but I’d give in a thousand times for a minute of this kind of bliss.

  I whimpered as he thrust again.

  “Yes…I’m yours.”

  He stilled. I could feel his heart racing against my chest. His eyes were dark with need, shadowed by the messy locks that fell off his forehead. His expression was tight and vulnerable at once.

  He didn’t say a word, only pressed his lips against mine. Soft at first, and then firmer, until I could taste his tongue. I kissed him with everything I had until he broke away.

  “You’re goddamn right you’re mine.”

  In the haze of desire, something in my heart twisted. The last of my resistance melted into pure surrender. His hands were everywhere then, pushing my hands down as he drove hard, rocking into my body. Pulling my hips up to meet his fierce drives, he fucked me straight into oblivion.

  I moaned his name between my cries of ecstasy. Nothing had ever felt so amazing, so complete.

  He wrapped his muscular arms around me, holding me tight and bracing me against his rough movements. “I’m not letting you go. Can’t…won’t…”

  I felt his strength and his passion in every touch, every undulation pulling me deeper into feelings I didn’t want to think about. Our flesh was slick with sweat. I twisted my wrists in the bonds of the belt, and the pinpricks of discomfort only added to the intensity of the moment. Something about giving him this much control had me spiraling out of my mind and into my body, owned so completely by his.

  “Don’t let me go. Oh, God, don’t stop… Will!”

  I shattered. The orgasm seemed to swallow me whole, taking me under, suspending space and time.

  My broken cry echoed off the walls and fed his passion. He sped up and hit a place inside that had me quaking in his arms, crashing into another powerful release before the other had even waned. He shoved into me so hard I didn’t know where he ended and I began. We were one, and I was coming longer and harder than I ever had in my life.

  His abs and every other muscle bunched and tensed. With a curse, he buried himself inside me one last time with a low moan.

  My head buzzed. Only our breathing and the faint sounds of the city outside filled the air. After several minutes, he lifted on his elbow and stared down at me. His skin was flushed and his grin wicked.

  “You came without me, princess.”

  Whoops.

  “Does that mean you’re going to…punish me?” My tone was teasing but held a glimmer of the fear I felt. He’d threatened punishment before, but I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

  He laughed out a breath. “Sure does. As soon as I catch my breath.”

  His erection hadn’t flagged, so I silently hoped my punishment involved more pleasure than pain.

  A second later, he rose and disappeared into my little adjoining bathroom. He returned, reached for his jeans, and tossed another condom on the sheets. His weight dipped the bed as he came for me.

  “Let’s see what we else can do with that belt.”

  IAN

  I had a few days off, which meant my time belonged to the side work that Will needed. The renovation was moving at a steady clip, and I had to catch up when I could between shifts at the station.

  I was working on the master bath in the penthouse condo above the new home of Bridge Fitness. The floor was nearly done—a simple design that came around a custom centerpiece that I hadn’t figured out quite yet. Will had given me creative license to come up with something that hopefully he’d like. For being the bossy type, he didn’t seem to have a lot of specific preferences regarding this particular aesthetic, which was fine by me.

  As I laid out materials to start my work for the day, Will came into the room, his boots scuffing along the subfloor. “We need to talk.”

  I halted what I was doing and glanced up. I hadn’t seen much of him for the past few days. I figured he was working extra hours at the site, but whatever it was, he looked more intense than usual.

  “Everything okay?”

  “It’s about Olivia.”

  We hadn’t discussed my rendezvous with Liv in the kitchen after their all-night fuck fest several nights ago, and I hadn’t seen Olivia since. I didn’t figure any of it needed an explanation, but the look in Will’s eyes hinted that something else was at stake.

  “Is there a problem?”

  He glanced away, gnawing at his lip for a second before returning his focus to me. “I want to be careful with her. This isn’t going to be a once-and-done thing for me.”

  I stood and faced him, man to man. We were the same height and of similar build. He was leaner where I was a little stockier, but we were evenly matched. I’d never felt threatened by Will, but something about this conversation was putting me on the defensive.

  “What are you saying? You want me to back off?” I sure as hell didn’t want to. If that’s what he wanted, I had to start looking for a new place to stay as soo
n as possible. I couldn’t have her that close to me. I couldn’t listen to her cries of pleasure night after night and keep my hands off of her. There was just no way.

  “No, I like the arrangement we have. I just don’t want to scare her off because of it. We talked about it, and I think she’ll be fine. But I don’t want to take anything for granted.”

  I lifted my eyebrows and rubbed my chin. I couldn’t imagine how that conversation might have gone. That she might be open to being with us both was as shocking as it was arousing. I was that much closer to having her for myself, and the prospect had taken over my thoughts in an instant.

  “What did she say?”

  “She panicked at first, of course. Getting her into my bed to begin with wasn’t exactly easy. She’s not like the others, Ian. You know I can talk anyone into having us both for one night after a couple martinis. It’s a fantasy, not a commitment. I want her to know what she’s getting into.”

  I thought about his words. We’d never hooked up with the same girl more than once or twice. Negotiations were easy. They started with an indecent proposal and ended with a yes or a no. At the end of the day, we were a hard combination to resist. I hadn’t known anyone to leave unsatisfied, but Will and I weren’t the kind of guys to get tied down. Had I heard him right?

  “You want a commitment?”

  “No.” He bit out a curse under his breath. “Just be careful with her, all right?”

  I winced and took a step toward him. “Have I ever been anything but careful with the women we’ve been with?”

  His expression softened. He ran a hand through his already messy hair. “Sorry, you’re right. She’s got me twisted up. I don’t know what the fuck I’m saying half the time.”

  “You haven’t been around the apartment much. What’s up?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been here trying to push the pace. If we can wrap up and get the gym open early, all the better.”

  “Why the rush?”

  “To be honest, I’m sick of getting death glares from her brother. I’m biting my tongue for now because I respect him, but I’m not going to back down. I’m pretty sure the only reason we haven’t come to blows is because of the business relationship we’re both trying to maintain. Working on this project together is an uncomfortable complication. I want to get past it as quickly as possible.”