by Avery Flynn
“We might,” he agreed, his expression bordering on cocky as he tugged her even closer to the ever-changing streams of water pushing up from the softly lit pathway. “But look.” With his free hand, Finn pointed to the row of fountains closest to them, where the water was barely bubbling a few feet high. “Most bathtubs aren’t even that deep, and the water runs off to the drain set into flagstones. I bet we can get a little closer without getting drenched. Come on.” Another pull, and they were so daringly close to the fountains that excitement prickled beneath January’s skin.
“Oh, look. It’s so pretty from here.” This close, the water glittered and danced in the lights shining up from the pavers. Unable to resist the thrilling temptation, January swung around, this time leading Finn toward the next row of fountains. But just as they took the last step, the cadence of the water changed, all of the jets spraying at once.
“Oh my God!” The exclamation burst past a fresh peal of laughter as a light rain fell all around them. Finn’s laughter twined around hers, and after three steps of trying to navigate them back to safety, he gave up, turning to scoop her off her feet as he bolted back through the spray.
“Okay, okay,” he said, setting her heels down and grinning broadly once they’d cleared the reach of the water. “You might’ve been right about us getting soaked.”
In that moment, January became hyper-aware of how close they were, of every place where Finn’s body came in contact with hers. His arms were still wrapped around her shoulders, droplets of water clinging to his dark, decadent eyelashes, his smiling mouth only inches from hers. Want rippled down her spine, pooling low and hot between her thighs, but she didn’t fight it.
“I kissed you seven years ago,” she whispered, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to keep it steady.
Finn slid a hand up to cup her face. “Do it again.”
January exhaled, just a small sound of surprise. “But you said you didn’t look at me that way. That night, you said—”
“I lied.”
“You lied?” Her pulse stuttered, her brain spinning as she tried to process what he’d said, but he slid his opposite hand over her hip to pull their bodies flush.
“I fucking lied. I knew Asher had feelings for you, so I lied about mine. But I’ve wanted you since the minute I laid eyes on you, so please. Either kiss me or I’m kissing you. I’m happy to do the honors.” Finn’s eyes dropped to her mouth, glinting with intention before he lifted his gaze back to hers, pinning her into place. “But I’d be even happier if you’d take what you wanted all those years ago instead.”
January pressed up to fit her lips to his in a rush. For a second, Finn just stood there, as if he was surprised she’d actually kissed him. Then his fingers drifted lower to press against the column of her neck, and she was lost. Arching up against him, her tongue swept out for a brash taste. Finn opened for her with ease, letting her take the lead, and January didn’t think twice. Her arms flew over his shoulders as she anchored herself against his firm, full lips, testing and taking as she deepened the kiss. Somewhere, in the rational part of her brain that felt very far away, she realized that even though the lights were dim and the area had been deserted when they’d arrived, she and Finn were still outside in front of the hotel.
But oh God, she didn’t care. With the way Finn was pushed up against her, hard and hot in the best possible places, all January could think was more.
His tongue slipped against hers, seeking and claiming all at once before he broke contact to trail his mouth in a slow path over the line of her jaw. “Be sure,” he grated, closing his teeth over her earlobe with just enough pressure to make her clit throb with greedy need, and she hooked her arms around the ridge of his shoulders even tighter. Yes, this was crazy, but she’d always been crazy where Finn was concerned. Just like she was one hundred percent certain she wanted him right now.
“I’m sure. Now do that again.”
He made a noise between a laugh and a growl before sending the edge of his teeth over her earlobe in a repeat pass. January’s nipples hardened, aching to be touched and stroked and sucked, and Finn’s hand drifted up from her hip to her rib cage as if he’d read her mind.
“You look so pretty like this, all flushed and ready. I almost want to find some dark corner so I can drop to my knees and make you come right now, just to find out if you sound as pretty as you look.”
Her pulse slammed faster at the suggestion, and the edges of Finn’s mouth kicked into a dark, sexy smile at the want-filled sigh that drifted past her lips.
“Would you like that?” he asked, redirecting the path of his hand from her torso back to her hip. January nearly whimpered in frustration, but the urge met a quick end when his stare grew even darker than his smile. “Do you want me to put my mouth on your sweet little pussy and taste you until you come undone?”
The bold, dirty words should’ve shocked her, she knew. But the way Finn said them, so full of promise and raw honesty, only made her want him to turn them into hard, fast action.
So she pushed up to kiss him, just one firm press of her mouth before she said, “Yes. Now take me upstairs to your room. I’ve spent seven years fucking you in my mind, and it’s time to turn all these fantasies into reality.”
6
To anyone milling around the lobby of the Plaza, Finn and January probably looked like any other couple coming back from a night on the town. But as he politely offered her his arm and led her into the elegantly mirrored elevator that went up to the penthouse suite, it took every last ounce of restraint on the planet for him not to shove her dress up to her hips and fuck her until she screamed.
They rode upstairs in total silence. Although they were both more than a little damp from their run through the fountains, January still looked goddamned exquisite, her face flushed and her hair breaking free from the twist at her nape. Their shoulders barely touched as they stood side by side, but Christ, the sexual tension filled the air around them like an electric charge, making Finn’s heart pound faster with each passing floor. Finally, they made their way from the elevator to the threshold of his suite, and after some quick work with the key card, he ushered January into the shadowy space.
“Thank you,” she murmured, the same way she might thank him for a cup of coffee or for saying God bless you after she sneezed. But as soon as the door clicked shut, they turned simultaneously, crashing together in a tangle of tongues and limbs and intentions so bad, his cock grew rock-hard in an instant.
“You’re welcome,” Finn said, his voice rough with want. “Now come here and let me make good on my promise.”
Knotting a hand in her hair and wrapping his other arm around her waist, he pulled her against his body in one swift yank, barely stifling a moan as soon as their chests made contact. She was so soft, so full of lush, hot curves yet strong at the same time, that Finn wanted to take his time and taste her everywhere.
Starting with more of her mouth.
Pulling back just enough to gain leverage, he swiped his tongue over the seam of January’s lips. They parted, the needful exhale that accompanied the movement sending a shot of lust deep through Finn’s belly, and the hand in her hair tightened of its own accord. The tiny part of his mind that housed his decency warned him how firmly he’d gripped, how badly he wanted, and he made to loosen his fingers. But then January pressed up to kiss him just as hard, and Finn thrust against her with even more reckless desire.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me when you kiss me like that?” he asked. His lips still touched hers—because hell if he was willing to fully break the connection with her sweet, sinful mouth—and she surprised him with a throaty laugh.
“What? Like this?” January broke off to skate her tongue over his in a movement caught somewhere between teasing and taking. The coyness in her words was completely at odds with the sexiness in her voice as she said them, and both combined to make Finn’s pulse rush in his ears. Keeping his hold on her hip and her sho
ulder, he moved forward until her back reached the flat surface of the wall adjacent to the door.
“Yes.” Forcing himself to slow down at least a little, he trailed a line of kisses from the delicate swoop of her cheekbone to the velvety spot behind her ear. “But we’ve waited a long time for this, and I’ll be goddamned if I rush through it now.”
A needful noise rode out on January’s exhale, signaling her frustration, and Christ, it nearly wrecked his already questionable composure. He shifted back over the carpet, just far enough to pin her with a stare through the shadows and the ambient light being cast in from the city beyond the windows.
“I’m going to make you whisper”—Finn paused to flex the fingers resting over her hip, just enough for her to release another audible breath—“I’m going to make you moan”—a press of his mouth to the soft, rapidly beating pulse point where her neck joined her collarbone did the trick—“and I’m going to make you scream”—lifting his chin, he returned his gaze to hers so she would know exactly how much he meant what he said—“but you’ve been imagining this for seven years, so trust me when I say I will take my sweet fucking time when I give it to you.”
January answered by way of a glittering stare. Slanting his mouth back over hers, Finn slid his tongue past her lips, retreating only far enough to do it again, then again. His fingers traveled down her neck to her shoulders, parting the lapels of the suit jacket he’d loaned her just enough to expose the tops of her arms and the deep V of her neckline. January’s nipples beaded behind the thin gray fabric of her dress, which clung to her curves in its post-fountain state, and fuck, Finn couldn’t help but run his thumb over one tight, sexy peak.
“Ohhhh.” She moaned her approval, making his dick throb harder behind his fly. Slipping his hand past the barrier of her dress, he captured her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, a dark thrill expanding in the pit of his belly as she pressed her shoulder blades into the wall and arched higher into his touch. Without slowing his attention on her breast, Finn reached down with his free hand, cupping his fingers beneath the back of her knee to lift her foot from the floor.
“Finnegan, please,” she whispered, the hem of her dress riding high around her thighs as she tipped her hips against his in a thrust that left no guesswork to her intentions, and Finn’s pulse slammed even faster against his throat.
“Fuck, January.” He rocked back, his suit pants and the damp lace of her pale pink panties the only barriers between his cock and the sweet heat of her sex. “I can’t think when you say my name like that.”
“You said tonight is about whatever I want, right?” she asked, her blue stare glinting in the scant light around them.
Finn didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“Then don’t think. Just make me come.”
The bold command rattled all the way through him, heightening his need to do exactly what she’d told him to. Dropping to his knees in front of her, he slid his hands over the smooth, tight muscles of her calves. January’s dress was still bunched around her hips, giving Finn an unimpeded and sexy-as-hell view of her body. Her lips parted as his fingers rode higher over her bare skin, her sigh deepening to a moan when he pushed her thighs wider with both palms.
“Jesus, baby.” Finn’s breath caught in his throat, covering the words with gravel as he took in the flare of her hips and the glimpse of her pussy from behind the thin scrap of her thong. “Look at you. You’re even prettier than I imagined you’d be.”
Hooking his thumbs beneath the lacy strings slung low over each hip bone, he began to pull. The movement slid the material over her core, and while he’d had every intention of taking her panties off in order to make good on his earlier promise to taste her until she unraveled, the moan collapsing from the back of her throat changed his mind.
Releasing the strings from one hip bone, Finn moved his fingers to the damp triangle of lace tucked between her legs. January widened her stance on the plush carpet, and fucking hell, it was going to take every ounce of his restraint not to skip all the pleasantries, rip off her panties, and just sink his dick in her warm, wet folds.
But he’d said he’d give her everything, which meant taking his time despite all the now now now pumping down from the most primal part of his brain, so that’s exactly what he was going to do.
Starting right. This. Second.
“Oh God,” January moaned, her body tightening as he hooked his forefinger over the lace between her thighs, dragging the material over her clit in a slow glide. She chased the ministration with a tilt of her hips, her knees fluttering wider and her spine bowing from the wall.
“That’s it.” Finn cupped the curve of her ass to hold her closer, splaying his fingers over her hot, bare skin. Working in time with her breathy sighs, he slid the lace up and down over the seam of her body, building his way toward a steady rhythm. The sounds drifting up from her chest shot right to his cock, and God damn, he’d never heard anything so needful or downright sexy in his life. January moved her hips in time with his movements, urging him faster with each glide of the now-soaked lace over her clit. But Finn had promised everything, so instead of giving in and guiding her to his bed to fuck her senseless like his instinct screamed at him to, he closed his mouth over her lace-clad pussy.
“Ah.” January’s entire body went taut for a split second before she lowered her hands to hold him close—which worked out great, because now that he’d tasted her, he sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere. Her hips tilted as if searching for closer contact, and Finn didn’t hesitate to give it. Angling closer, he pressed his tongue to the top of her core and his shoulders between her thighs, wrapping an arm around her waist to steady her as he coaxed one foot from the carpet to gain better access.
“As pretty as these are,” he said, pausing to drop an appreciative gaze at her panties. “They need to go.”
January nodded. Sliding her hands from his shoulders to her hips, she tugged at the little bows on either side until the lace mercifully loosened from her body. Her panties fell away to reveal her slick, smooth skin, and sweet Christ, Finn had never seen anything hotter than this woman laid bare before him. He closed the sliver of space between them without thinking, returning his mouth to the spot where they both wanted it. Testing January’s core with everything from long strokes to quick, feather-light flicks, Finn learned every part of her with his lips and tongue. He catalogued every sigh, each push of her hips, every response to his motions, lingering where she cried out the loudest, until finally, her body quickened beneath his hands and mouth.
“Please. Finn, please,” January rasped. “Don’t stop.”
She reached down, cupping his face with one hand and locking the fingers on the other through his hair. Without slowing his attention to her core, he lifted his stare to take her in as he pleasured her. Her chest rose and fell in rapid bursts, pressing the curve of her breasts dangerously close to the deep V of her dress. Although she still wore his suit jacket, the black fabric had fallen from her shoulders to pool around her arms and hands, nearly covering her fingers even as she clutched him to keep him close. But it was January’s face that did him in, eyes squeezed shut and full lips parted over yet another plea to give her what she’d waited so long to have.
No more waiting.
Finn closed his lips over her clit, pulling the rigid knot into his mouth with a firm suck. The cry that tore from her throat made his heart pound and his cock stiff enough to border on pain, but still, he didn’t stop. Working her with his tongue, Finn licked and sucked and circled until January’s thighs began to tremble.
Yes. Yes. Fucking yes. “Take it,” he urged, swiping his tongue back over her clit in a hard swirl. “Show me what you taste like when you come undone.”
Her tremble grew into a full-on tightening, her body holding steady for just a breath before she came with a keening cry. Finn stilled, letting her take what she wanted, however she wanted it, before slowly scaling back on his touch and finding his feet.
&nb
sp; “You’re pretty incredible,” he said, surprised as hell when January laughed, long and loud in reply.
“You just gave me the best orgasm I’ve ever freaking had, and I’m incredible?”
As much as Finn didn’t want to lose the mood, there was pretty much no way he could let that go. “The best, huh?”
January’s eyes glinted in the shadows. One barely-there shrug sent the suit jacket from her shoulders to the floor, a lightning fast turn of her wrist and hiss of her zipper had her dress following in its path.
“Mmm hmm,” she confirmed, utterly confident despite her nakedness. “Is tonight still about whatever I want?”
His cock jerked. “Yes.”
“Then take me to bed so I can return the favor.”
Finn pulled her closer to slam his mouth over hers in answer. They moved across the suite in a flurry of deep kisses, hastily discarding most of his clothes along the way. He led January to the threshold of his bedroom, lifting her off her feet and placing her in the center of the snowy white duvet. Strains of moonlight and city lights filtered in past the sheer curtains, and both combined to offer just enough visibility in the shadows. Finn took a brief but necessary minute to grab a condom from his bag in the adjacent bathroom, and January reached out to close the space between them as soon as he returned to the bed.
“Come here.” She opened her knees in invitation, leaning back against the lush pillows. Propping as much of his weight as possible on one forearm, he lowered himself against her, bringing their bodies flush from mouths to chests to hips.
“Ah, God,” Finn grated, thrusting his cock into the cradle of her hips even though his boxer briefs were still firmly in place.
January thrust back, the seam of her body hot and wet through the fabric. “Don’t make me wait, Finn. I want you inside me. I want to know what you sound like when you come.”
