by Maggie Way
“No.” He shook his head adamantly. “I know I was a jerk in high school. Fuck, I was probably a jerk until around twenty. That’s not who I am anymore. It’s not who I want to be, and it’s absolutely not how I want you to remember me as.” The words came out harsher than he’d intended, but he’d spent a decade running from the younger version of himself.
“Why would it matter how I specifically remember you?” She asked, stopping at the corner of Webster and Patton Street, the warm spring breeze blowing wisps of hair out of the polished wedding styling.
“Didn’t you hear what I said back there?”
She nodded skeptically, looking him over.
“I meant that, Aid. I’ve been dying for a chance to kiss you since you were about seventeen. Granted, I thought you were utterly repulsed by me.”
“It was intentional. You were not someone I should be mixed up with.”
“Because I was a playboy?”
“Because you are my best friend’s brother.”
“You know that is the making of every great romantic comedy out there?” He didn’t quite grin, but he felt some of his seriousness shifting away from with the need to lighten the situation, to defuse it.
“That, Jaxon Donovan, is not the point.”
“I think it’s very much the point.” Leaning forward he grabbed her, tugging her close against him before dipping his mouth to capture hers.
He smiled against her lips the moment they touched, feeling the same jolt of attraction from the chaste kiss. It didn’t matter that they were standing on a street corner in outfits sure to call enough attention to themselves, he wanted to taste her. Running his hand down her back he pressed her against his body, growling deep at the surge of lust that washed over him as he did.
She groaned once before putting her hands on his chest and pushing backward, breaking the connection.
“That merely proves my point,” her voice was husky, tinged with the very desire he felt from the simple kiss.
“I thought it merely proved I was serious.” He trailed a hand down her face, cupping her chin in one hand. “I’ve been attracted to you nearly my entire adult life. I’ve gone into combat zones thinking about what it would be like to have you waiting back home for me. I’ve fallen asleep wondering if you were seeing someone when I had no business doing so. There have been moments when I’ve seen families, even saved families, and thought about you. I won’t lie and say I don’t want to fuck you because I absolutely do. But it’s not just about that.”
She shifted where she stood. “I don’t know whether this is wedding madness or years of waiting for you to say anything remotely like that, but I believe you.” She took a step closer to him. “I believe you, and I think there’s a certain wedding scandal between the best man and maid of honor that I wouldn’t mind living out with you.” She winked, though her voice had been shaky as she spoke.
“It’s not just about that for me, Aid.”
“Then you can prove it after you make my deepest, sexiest fantasy come true.” She put her hand on his chest and used her leg to force him to open his stance a bit. “You might have left out that you had dreams of us fucking, but since you’ve started this conversation I don’t mind finishing it.” She leaned up, nipping at his ear as her hand slid over his growing erection.
His vision blurred as she caressed him through the silk of the suit and he was pretty damn certain it was because his eyes rolled into the back of his. “There is the feisty woman I was talking about. You might be the balance to my sister’s craziness, but you are not meek.”
“I’ve waited fifteen years to have you touch me like this, stop making me wait.”
Nearly falling over his feet, he scooped her up like a groom carrying his bride over the threshold and walking as quickly as could back the two blocks.
She dropped kisses along his neck and jawline as he walked, making it almost painful to move from the force of his erection.
“I must have lost my mind,” she murmured as he shoved open the door and started for the staircase.
“For the love of God, don’t think about it then.” He covered her mouth, devouring it with a scorching kiss as he took the stairs two at a time and slammed the bedroom door.
He set her on his bed as carefully as he could, watching as she tugged at the elastic band until her hair tumbled out, fanning on his bed.
“Sweet Jesus, Adrianna. I’m not going to make it much longer if you keep that up.”
She sat upright on the bed, turning her back to him. “I don’t think I believe that. With your track record, your stamina must be sky high.” She looked at him over her bare shoulder. “Besides, you have years of fantasies for us both apparently, you won’t blow that.”
He felt his dick pulse behind the zipper of his pants as he reached for the zipper on her dress. With a painful slowness, he slid it down, nearly finishing at the odd sound the zipper made before the dress pooled around her waist. He’d known she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath the gown, but having it confirmed made him hungrier. The room spun as he tugged his trousers off, kicking them off his loafers before hastily dropping to the corner of the bed to get his shoes off.
Her fingers moved with an effortlessly precision as she pushed off the tux jacket and undid the buttons of his dress shirt. Her hands were cold against his warm skin, and a shiver raced over his back as she slid her hands down it. She looked up at him, lust emanating from the depths of her eyes and he had a moment of panic.
Women had always looked at him like that – like the next best lay they were about to have. He didn’t want that with Adrianna. Whether this proved to be a long awaited fuck or the start of something, he didn’t want to upset Kailey’s best friend. Dropping a chaste kiss on her lips he pulled back and sat opposite her on the bed.
“Are you certain?” he didn’t recognize the timid tone in his question.
“I know that sometime tomorrow, after the wedding haze and champagne buzz have worn off I’ll be rather mortified about this. For right now,” she let her eyes trail over his body, stopping at the tent in his boxer briefs. “There’s nothing I want more.”
With a slow, fluid motion, Adrianna lay back on his bed, her blonde hair spread out on his pillow. Her tongue flicked out just enough for the pink tip to lick the center of her lower lip, and it brought him to his knees. Reaching out, he tugged the dress down over her waist as she lifted her hips, thankful there was no ripping sound to be heard as it came off. The back of his hand trailed a whisper-soft touch down her leg as he lowered his body to cover hers.
His mouth found hers with a delicate caress. Allowing his hand to slip between them, he smiled against her lips when Adrianna parted her lips for him at the same moment she did her legs. Though his cock pulsed with hunger, he refused to rush a minute of time with Adrianna and ignored the impulse to stroke his fingers against the curls at the juncture of her thigh.
“I think I’ve sat up thinking about this since we were in high school,” he whispered against her lips before pulling away to place a trail down her neck.
“Jax!” Adriana cried as her body arched off the bed as he nipped at one perfectly pert nipple.
Chuckling, he laved it with his tongue, finally letting his finger dip inside her entrance. “I want to make this last.”
She wriggled against him as he stroked her inner walls, relishing in the way he felt her body quake with his touch. The way she looked at him set his body on fire. Her eyes seemed to see only him, staring at him with an intensity of pleasure and need that he had never found nearly as seductive before. Delicate chorded muscles in her neck told of her tightly wound control as he rubbed the swollen nub between her legs.
“I’m going to regret saying this,” she struggled to speak but managed to snake her hand between them and run a finger over the head of his shaft. “Someone is going to notice we are missing if you ravage me the way I’ve always imagined.” Her hand closed around his dick, squeezing with expert pressure as she slid her ha
nd along his length.
“I don’t know if I’m flattered or terrified that I have to live up to your fantasies.”
Her mouth latched around his neck, suckling the side and sending a jolt of pleasure straight through him.
“Condom,” she rasped as she shifted her position so the back of his hand bumped into hers as they stroked one another.
Without missing a beat, his finger moved effortlessly within her, sliding in and out in a perfect mimic of sex as he leaned over and pulled open his nightstand drawer to grab a condom.
“That had better not be from when you were in high school,” she gave a throaty laugh, taking the foil package from him and tearing it in her teeth.”
“I promise they’re not.” He grinned, finding banter with sex oddly appealing. He’d never been with anyone he’d felt so at ease with, yet so determined make scream. Her fingers released his cock before slowly sliding the condom on from tip to base. Blood seeped slowly into his mouth as he bit his cheek to hard to keep from finishing in her hand. “God damn.”
She grinned mischievously up at him as he guided his throbbing member into her wetness. A groan sounded in the room and it was impossible to tell where his stopped and hers began. Her body could have been made for him and him alone with the tight fit.
They lay there, unmoving and silent until she wrapped her knees around his mid back, causing his dick to shift in deeper.
“Fuck,” he groaned, unable to keep the profane word from slipping out.
Adrianna said nothing. Instead, she rocked her hips up as she leaned her mouth up to his. That was all it took, the small control he held broke as he finally began to sleep with the girl that got away. His hips thrust wildly, a rapid-fire push and pull response to the way she grinded against him. Nails scrapped down his back and he growled into her mouth, dragging a hand down her body and stopping at her clit. His thumb pressed against it once more, and he rotated his hand as best he could manage with ripples of ecstasy floating through him with every thrust of their bodies.
He marveled in the sound of her hitched breathing and the sound of bodies slapping hastily together as they learned a rhythm that would help them both come undone. Every stroke of her body up and down his shaft drew his balls up, as if he would finish that moment, but every time their bodies slid apart, his release slipped way. It was maddening and everything sex should be all at once.
“Adrianna,” he gasped, nipping at her ear as their pace picked up.
“Jaxon,” she replied, her eyes closed tight, her lips pursed together as if she struggled to not fall over the edge.
“I’ll catch you,” he whispered into her ear at the exact moment he clutched her hips, dragging them up his body and sinking to the hilt in her body.
Her cry echoed in his ears as her body quivered around his. He could feel her arms thrashing underneath him as she lost herself in her release. There was something about watching a woman at the height of her passion that always sent him over the edge, and watching Adrianna was no exception.
His body tensed as he watched her eyes flutter with pleasure and all it took was a final slide of his prick into her quaking core and he crested over the edge, a strangled grunt pulling from his lips.
Seconds turned into what seemed to be minutes as his body throbbed, not from desire, but utter satiation. He couldn’t scarcely focus his vision on anything as he came down from the intense ejaculation of his life. Whether the sex had been that good or it was all from living out a fantasy, he didn’t care. All he cared about was the way the women beneath him felt as she stilled an smiled lazily up at him.
“Jaxon?” She said, sounding almost sleepy.
“Yes?” He slipped free from her body, rolling to the side to tug the condom off and drop it in the trashcan next to the be before turning to face her again. The flush in her cheeks made him smirk.
“That was absolutely everything I thought it could be.”
Dropping a kiss to her lips he wished they had time to just lay together, but she was right earlier, sooner or later they would be missed.
“This wasn’t a one night stand.” His voice was gruff, his eyes landing on hers, looking for any semblance of how she felt about the situation.
A red flush crept up her cheeks and he preened at her reaction. It had been a long time since a woman had been so enamored by him and it sure as shit didn’t hurt that he was pretty enamored right back.
“I think we should talk about it later, but I’d be lying if I acted like I don’t want to learn who you’ve become.” She looked at him, blinking slowly. “You captured my attention when you were nothing more than my best friend’s hotter older brother. I feel like you could steal my heart as the Marine who risks it all for others.”
Chapter Five
Adrianna’s mind whirled out of control with thoughts that were a suitable mix of What the hell did I just do? And Wow, that is going to need to happen about fifty more times. Blowing out a deep breath she felt a shiver of pleasure race through her.
That absolutely just happened, and you antagonized it. Adrianna ran the walk through her head for the third time since Jaxon had rolled off her body and lay panting beside her. There was no doubt, she had encouraged him, in public no doubt. If anyone had been out that had recognized her, well her job would be in the toilet. Adrianna wasn’t just the level-headed one when it came to Kailey, she was just level-headed. Her job prompted her to be slightly detached to deliver unbiased reporting, and she’d found that keeping the same calm she used at work worked well for her daily life. There was a time and place to let loose – and she always tried to be certain it did not happen in New Orleans where someone would blast on social media they saw the night news anchor plastered and grinding on some random guy in the Bourbon Cowboy.
No, instead they can post about how you practically gave a man a handjob in the middle of the afternoon on a relatively busy street corner. A groan slipped out as she realized how embarrassed she should be, how embarrassed she was slowly becoming.
“Jaxon?” her voice was little louder than a whisper.
Turning his head to look at her over his shoulder he quirked a dark eyebrow. “Hmm?”
“We just did that.” She stated, more for herself than him.
The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. “We did.”
“We can’t tell Kailey,” she could practically feel the blood drain from her face as she pictured the altercation that would arise.
Jaxon turned fully, the smirk slipping way as he focused on her. “I know what just happened had a lot to do with years of pent up sexual desire, but I honestly wanted more from you.”
A blank expression crossed her face quickly before she was able to snap her mouth shut and look completely at him. The boy she’d been dreaming about being with nearly her whole life had not only given her what might have been the best sex of her life but was interested in her.
This is a cheesy rom-com, this isn’t real life.
“That was clearly the wrong thing to say.” Jaxon groaned as he pushed off the bed and swooped his hand down to grab his bow tie. “You’re right. We won’t tell Kailey a thing. I think I gave her an aneurysm already today.”
“Wait,” she reached out, but her hand was unable to grab his arm, and she was suddenly too self-conscious to drop the sheet. “You meant what you said on the street then? You weren’t just saying the things you thought I’d like to hear to get me into bed?” She didn’t see the need to tell him words wouldn’t have been necessary in the least.
“I know you have no reason to believe this, but I’m not some jerk out to lay every beautiful woman I see. Not anymore. We’ve barely seen each other since I joined the Marines, but I can promise you,” his eyes turned dark and narrowed into a thin line as did his lips. “You don’t watch people’s life fade out of their eyes while you hold them and not be changed by it.”
The air ripped from her lungs as if someone had landed a strong punch to her gut. She’d heard him as they’d dance
d, and yet, she hadn’t completely believed him, or she wouldn’t have thought him to be so callous.
“I’m sorry, Jaxon. I really am. But you have to remember, the boy that I used to fawn over was a prick. Apparently, I didn’t mind because I still thought you were perfect when you weren’t swimming in your overinflated ego, but you were just the type of person who would spin sweet words for an end game.”
Lips still pressed tightly together he nodded sharply. “You might not like this new version of me then.” A small flicker of amusement flashed in his eyes. “I don’t drink unless it’s special occasion. Practical jokes are off the table, but I know I still make smart alec comments any chance I get. There’s no room in my life for anything that takes away from what little time I have with my family, even if they don’t see that and I don’t sleep with women unless I’m interested in something more.”
The inflection on his final sentence made her wet all over again. It wasn’t the time or the place, but it couldn’t be helped.
“So what you’re telling me is Jaxon Donovan went to war and grew up.” She sat upright, still holding the bed sheet to her chest and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. The whole of their history was tied up in that one, gentle kiss – every playful joke, every unspoken fantasy – right up until the moment she sat before him in his bed when she should be downstairs at a wedding.
“That’s precisely what I’m saying.” He kissed her, an open-mouthed kiss that devoured her as completely as if he’d tangled his tongue with hers.
“Then what comes next?” the words nearly caught in her throat.
That brought a semblance of the arrogance back into his expression. “We get you dressed and head back downstairs before anyone notices we have been gone nearly two hours.”
With a gasp, she jerked her eyes to the digital clock on the nightstand. Sure enough, it was nearly five at night. “She’s going to kill us.” Dropping the sheet, modesty forgotten, she snatched the dress and began to tug it up, zipping it erratically.
