by Claire Adams
I moved back and ran my fingers over the thick curve of his ass, squeezing softly and enjoying watching him much more than I should have. I slipped my panties off and stood back up as my legs shook slightly.
"Turn around. I want to see you." I gripped his shoulder tightly and pulled as he turned around to face me. He was gorgeous, his body strong and lined with subtle muscles. Dark hair ran from the center of his belly down to frame his thick cock.
I moved toward him, reaching out and cupping him with one hand while stroking him with the other.
He took my face in his hands and leaned down, kissing me fully and pressing against my hand as I sucked on his tongue. The musky tones of my pleasure rolled over me, and something spilled open deep inside of me. Where playing it safe with Jackson sounded right and good, this thing with Easton was hot and a little edgy. I wanted it – badly.
After breaking the kiss, he let his lips hover over mine as he panted softly and closed his eyes. "Your hands are so damn soft."
"Yes, and you're gorgeous. I could stare at you all day." I pressed my lips once against his and raked my nails over his sensitive flesh. The sound of his breath catching caused chill bumps to race along my exposed skin.
He unwrapped my fingers from his cock and glanced down, rolling the condom on quickly before reaching for me. "You want this, right?"
I glanced down at him as my nipples budded once more. "Yes. Now."
"Good." He leaned down and pressed his lips to my breast, sucking one of my nipples deep into his mouth over my bra as his fingers dug into the back of my legs. I was shocked by his strength as he picked me up and urged me to wrap my legs around his waist. "Wrap your arms around my neck and hold yourself up, Viv."
I did as I was told and held on tightly to him as he positioned our bodies to join. A long moan left me as he pressed into me.
His eyes moved from our conjoined bodies up to watch my face as I tried to keep myself together.
"No. Enjoy me. Let go," he whispered and walked toward the closest wall, pressing my back to it and thrusting hard as he pressed all the way inside of me.
Warmth spread across me, and I tightened my legs around his waist, lifting up and bouncing a little on his thick offering. Not having been with a man in a couple of months, I'd almost forgotten how incredibly good it felt to be stretched.
"Oh fuck," he grumbled and pressed his chest to mine as his strong fingers dug into my upper thighs. With quick jerks, he lifted me up as he pressed deep inside of me and pulled me down as he pulled out, the pressure delicious, the sensual dance thrilling.
"I'm not going to last long, but I need to hear you cum again for me." He licked at the side of my neck before pinning me to the wall and pressing his lips to my ear.
I nodded, unable to speak as he continued his assault, fucking far better than Jackson ever had. I hadn't been exposed to this side of carnality, but it was heady and demanding.
He moved his arms down to rest under my knees as he forced me open farther and picked up the pace of his thrusts.
I glanced down as the room burst into stars around me. He was beyond sensual as he worked himself toward ecstasy and held me captive in my own.
"Easton," I cried out as my body tightened around his rhythmically.
"I'm gonna join you." He moved to align his face with mine and pressed his lips to mine, kissing and licking at my mouth as he grunted and groaned. His body stiffened and he stopped thrusting as a long cry left him.
I tightened my arms around his neck and used my hold on him to lift up and continue to stroke his body with mine, pulling him through his own orgasm as best I could.
"God," he whispered as his eyes opened. The dark green was breathtaking, but the way he looked at me as if he could so easily be in love with me seared me deep inside my chest. "That was so fucking hot."
"I couldn't agree more." I lifted up as he pulled out of me and sat me back down on my feet.
He walked toward the bathroom, and I rushed around, trying to get dressed. It seemed so weird not to be cuddled up next to each other, but it would be a little too much to expect or ask for. Lovers had sex and cuddled, friends who fucked simply fucked.
I walked to the bathroom as he started the shower and walked out. The look on his face told me that he wasn't too thrilled with the fact that I was dressed.
"Can you zip this, please?" I gave him a tight smile and turned, giving him my back.
"Yeah, but why are you getting dressed? There's a robe in here you can wear while we eat dinner. Let's take a shower together. I'll wash your body and get you cleaned for later tonight. I'm not done with you." He wrapped his big arms around me and pressed a kiss to the side of my neck. "Please don't tell me that you're leaving right now."
"I have to. I've not heard from Casey yet, and I'm worried." I moved out of his hold, turned and pressed a kiss to his swollen lips as I ran my fingers through his hair. "That was incredible."
"You're incredible." He reached for me, but I pulled back and laughed.
"If we start kissing again, then I'm not likely to leave." I started for the door.
"That's kinda the plan. I was thinking shower, dinner, dessert, more sex, and then snuggling. I wanted to hear all your deepest fantasies. "
I smiled and glanced over my shoulder. "Sounds like an evening I'd want to repeat far more often than either of us would allow. Call me tomorrow. I need to find Case."
"Okay. Night, Viv." He watched me with disappointment on his handsome face as I walked out into the hall and let out a long breath I'd been holding.
Too much was right with the way he touched me, the way he wanted to hear me cry out when I dove into ecstasy. I wanted to cum for him just so he could hear how good he was without ever having to use a word.
My heart was too connected to my willingness to share my body. I wasn't teasing him with the fact that I wasn't a one-night stand sort of girl. Every cell in my body screamed for me to return to him and lay claim to his heart. He'd already taken hold of mine, and it had only been a few days. Love was unfair and lust was no better. It promised to be clean and unconnected for some while dragging others into the murky water of heartbreak and longing.
I pulled my phone from the small pocket at the front of my dress and checked for messages from Casey again, finding nothing.
"Dammit." I dialed her number and opened the door for the stairwell. Taking my time, I walked down the three flights of stairs between my floor and Easton's. Having called Casey twice, I decided to leave another message, this time no different than the last.
I reached my room and walked in, calling out to my best friend and getting no reply. If she wasn't back in the morning, I would call the police and start searching for her. She was known to pull shit like this all the time when we were younger, but over the years she seemed to chill out a little, or enough because she knew what it did to me.
There weren't any guys at the club that I saw that she would even be interested in. She was the kind of girl who went way above her league where men were concerned. If the guy wasn't model or movie star material, she wasn't interested.
After stripping down, I got into a hot shower and let my mind move back to sex with Easton. It wasn't good to leave him the way I did, but I was worried about Case. The idea of her needing me, or stumbling into the room drunk and perhaps sick, and being alone was too much to bear.
I pulled out my phone as it dinged, hoping like hell it was my best friend.
Easton: You make it back to your room okay?
Me: Yeah, but she's still not here. I'm worried.
Easton: Let's go look for her. Get dressed and I'll come get you.
Me: No. She does this all the time. I'm just going to stay here and try to get some sleep. I'm exhausted.
Easton: Being sexy will do that to you.
Me: You should know. You're blistering hot.
Easton: You're making me blush.
Me: This I gotta see.
Easton: Let me come down. We can just
watch TV and order some food. You don't need to be alone after we made love. It just doesn't feel right.
I pressed my fingers to my lips, trying to think through my response. I wanted him to come down, but I knew better. My heart already longed for something that wasn't likely to happen between us. I didn't have to be a bitch like I'd planned to be at the start of the night, but I had to protect myself. No one else was going to do it for me.
Me: I'm really tired, but we can get together tomorrow. I'll call you in the morning. You can snuggle me up with one of your great hugs.
Easton: Alright. Sweet dreams, beautiful. Mine will be filled with you.
Tears burned my eyes as I dropped my phone on the bed and walked to the bathroom, removing the last of my clothes as I did. I didn't have to go to sleep to dream about someone as incredible as Easton Parks. He could quickly become the man of my dreams without any energy or effort.
"Funny how those great dreams quickly morph into nightmares." I grabbed a hand towel and got into the shower, waiting for it to warm up enough to soak the cloth. I pressed it to my face and let the first of several long cries leave me. Lust was fun, but love was something I thought would always be mine. I needed to bleed out the torrent of emotions that were building up behind my calm facade. Otherwise, they would spill out and scare everyone as badly as they sometimes scared me.
Chapter 18
Easton
I was quite disappointed in Vivian running from me the night before, but I understood it all too well. She was working hard to keep her heart separated from her body. I was doing the same, but not nearly as successfully as she was. Her refusal to let me come hang out with her was a slap to the face that I quickly dismissed. I didn't want the heavy emotion sitting on me all throughout the night.
My phone buzzed frantically the next morning, constantly rattling until I crawled out of the warmth of my bed and answered it.
"What?" I barked, not wanting to be an ass, but far too tired to hold back.
"Easton, it's Vivian. Casey didn't come back to the hotel last night and she's still not answering my text. I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm scared." Her voice was strained and laced with exhaustion.
"Have you been up all night?" I ran my hand over my face and tried to work on pulling on a pair of jeans and slipping my feet into the closest shoes to me.
"Yes. I kept thinking she would come back or text." Vivian let out a shaky breath. "I think I need to go file a report and maybe check around the club area or something."
"I'm coming down. Text me your room number and I'll be right there. It's going to be okay. We'll figure it out."
"I hope so," her voice was nothing more than a whisper.
I tucked the phone into my back pocket and rushed around the room, putting myself together as quickly as I was able in the midst of my haze. I took the stairs, trying to save some time and working hard to catch my breath as I approached her door and knocked.
She pulled it open after my first knock and walked out into the hall with me, looking a bit unruly and intensely hot. Her cotton shorts were more for sleeping in than prancing around the city, her t-shirt soft looking, and her hair in a cute little messy bun.
"Hey." I moved up beside her as she stormed toward the elevator. "We're going to find her, okay?"
"Don't be nice to me, please. I'm barely holding it together. She's been my best friend since I could walk." Vivian pressed several buttons accidentally, her hands shaking hard.
I pulled her back and reached around her to press the button for the lobby. Tears welled in her beautiful, albeit tired, eyes, and I pulled her against me, wrapping her in a tight hug and kissing the top of her head. "It's okay, Viv. We're going to find her. We'll take a cab to the station, okay?"
"I hope so," she mumbled as she pulled back from me and pressed her palms to her eyes. "I told her that this was a mistake. This trip was damned from the get-go. We should have just stayed home and planned out graduation or hit our favorite places in New York."
I grabbed her hand as we walked from the elevator and moved toward the front door. "It's going to turn out just fine. Casey seems like a wild child. I bet she went home with some good-looking guy last night and just forgot to call thanks to one too many drinks."
"She could have been taken advantage of. What the fuck was she thinking?" Viv pinned me with an angry stare as if I'd been any part of it.
I stopped by the valet. "We need a cab to the police station please."
"Sure, Mr. Parks. We'll have a driver take you. One minute." He moved away from us, but not before turning back to let his eyes run across Vivian. The girl was oblivious to the multitudes of looks she received, but now wasn't the time to mention it.
"Come here." I pulled her against me again and squeezed her tightly. "Hold it together for a little while longer. We'll find Casey, get something to eat and take a nap, okay?"
"Alright. I guess you're right." She rested against me and released a deep breath.
I brushed her hair back from her face rhythmically and kissed the top of her head again. I was starting to think of her as mine, which wasn't good for either of us, but it wasn't something I could stop doing. She fit too well against me, caused too many foreign emotions inside of me, moaned my name almost too well.
"Here we go, Sir." The valet held the door open to the Lincoln Continental and nodded toward us. "I hope everything is okay."
"It will be. Thank you." I pulled my wallet out of my jeans and handed him a tip before getting into the backseat and reaching for Vivian's hand. "She didn't call or text at all last night? The last time you saw her was at the club?"
"Yeah. I need to call Jackson to see if maybe he saw her after we left. Remember she texted that she left before we did? Maybe calling him is a waste of time." She picked up her phone as I pressed my hand to the front of it.
"You do whatever you want, but I'm pretty sure Jackson left right after we did." I removed my hand from her phone and shrugged. "Totally up to you of course."
"Maybe you're right. Let's talk to the cops and then we'll go from there." She intertwined her fingers with mine and glanced over at me. "Thank you for coming with me. I'm sure you have a million meetings and such that you need to be at."
"They can come later. I'm good being with you." I leaned over and brushed a kiss by her cheek. "I'm a little upset with you not letting me come down last night."
"I know, but you know why I couldn't." She turned to face the front, her expression locking into unbendable resolve.
"I get it, but you should have called. You pacing the floor all night alone sounds heinous."
"I've been through worse." She shrugged and tugged her hand from mine as her phone buzzed. She let out a sigh and dropped it in the seat next to her. "Just my mother."
"Do you need to get it?" I asked in earnest curiosity. I rarely ignored a call from my mom, but then again, she rarely bothered me.
"I'll call her later. She'll know something is wrong if I answer the phone right now. That'll just lead to questions that I don't feel like answering." She shrugged and sunk back into the seat next to me, closing her eyes and relaxing a little.
I studied her beautiful face, unable to help myself. The dark circles under her eyes were concerning, but a good meal and a great night of sleep would take care of that. It was the first I'd seen her looking so ragged since meeting her. Some part of me liked it because it acknowledged the fact that she could use a man like me to take care of her, to protect and comfort her.
"We're here," the driver called back to us.
"Come on. Let's see if they can help us." I opened my door and helped her out before taking her hand and walking into the busy police station. Someone gave us a number at the front, and we made our way to the large waiting room where only two seats remained open. I asked an elderly couple to scoot down so that I could sit by Viv, and they were more than willing to accommodate us.
I sat down and reached for her, pulling her down beside me and cuddling her against my c
hest as she curled up and closed her eyes again. Within seconds, she was sound asleep.
I watched from above her, memorizing the perfect slope of her eyebrows, her long eyelashes, and regal nose. But it was her lips that captivated me, and I couldn't help but think back on our night together, her body a playground of delights that I wanted to experience over and over again. It would be better to just help her with Casey and disappear. That's what Vivian would want to happen, but I knew I wasn't capable of being so callous.
Our run-in was to be blamed on fate perhaps. But everything after that was all by choice. She might not appreciate it much, but I chose to stay beside her for the rest of the week. The thought of contacting her in New York rolled around in my mind as I pressed my lips to the side of her head. She groaned and lifted her face a little, pressing her nose to my neck and whimpering sensually.
I had to focus on the thugs around us not to get completely turned on by her simple nearness.
"Vivian Hall?" A large Hispanic cop called from the other side of the room while staring down at a clipboard. "Vivian Hall?"
"Viv. Is your last name Hall, baby?" I shook her a little as she came to and sat up.
"Huh?"
"Is your last name Hall?" I stood and pulled her up with me.
"Yeah. Is it our turn?" She got up and looked around in confusion.
"Yes." I moved toward the cop and held on tightly to Viv's hand. I wanted her to know that she wasn't alone, no matter how worried she might feel.
"I'm Vivian Hall." She walked up to the cop and squeezed my hand. "I need to report a missing person. My best friend disappeared from a night club last night, and I haven't seen her or heard from her since."
I released her hand and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she got a little choked up.
"Has it been twenty-four hours?" The cop pulled out a pen and flipped through several pages.
"No, only twelve, I guess." Vivian glanced over at me.
"Then I can take down the information, but you have to wait until your friend has been missing for twenty-four hours to file a report. Lots of people appear to be missing, but have simply gotten drunk and gone home with a lover for the night." She glanced at us. "Give me the info and if she's not back by late tonight, come back up here and ask for me. I'm Officer Milly. Okay?"
