Drop Everything Now
Page 21
Just when I decide that I’ll put up with Cheez Whiz, you move out of Philly?
Thanks for turning my life around in more ways than one.
I just hope you don’t have your heart set on roughing it all on your own in DC.
I chose me. What do you say? Do you accept?
Now, tears rolled down my cheeks freely, but this time they were tears of happiness. I didn’t want to believe it meant what I thought it did until I looked at the poor confused delivery kid and said, “I accept.”
“Thanks, man.”
Hearing Bryan’s smooth baritone, live and in person for the first time in ten weeks, made my legs tremble. He traded places with the delivery kid, who ambled off without a sound.
I pressed my hand against the doorframe, trying to stay upright despite my shaking legs. “What are you doing here?” I whispered through what was now a river of tears.
“Well, starting tomorrow, I’ll be the newest real estate agent at Decker and Brown.” He held up a small white business card. “After I got Chris squared away in that rehab program and helped Mom file the restraining order against him, I had to get recertified in Maryland and Virginia, but it was only seventy-five hours of online classes. For each state.”
I let out a short laugh through my tears and reached out to take the card, absolutely stunned. Sure enough, it said, “BRYAN STRONG, Real Estate Agent.”
“I flew out here for an interview and a test run with one of the senior agents at the firm a couple weeks ago. It took everything in me not to tell you, but I wanted you to know I was serious. This was the only way I could think of to show you.”
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I could barely think.
Bryan rambled on. “It’s, uh, it’s commission only, but I have about ten grand saved up from the Kitten. I’m gonna find an apartment as soon as—”
And then I tackled him, full-on flew at him, wrapping my arms around his neck in a death-grip.
He buried his face in my shoulder and sighed. “I love you, Andi. I am 1,000 percent serious. I used to think everything in my life was important until I met you. The day you left, I realized nothing else had ever really mattered. You’re the most real thing that’s ever happened to me, and I didn’t want to let that go.”
I just sobbed into his neck, nodding.
“I’ve wanted to tell you since the second you told me,” his gruff voice said as his hands slid around my waist, kneading my skin, showing me how hungry he’d been for me. “But I know you. I know you stand by every word you say. And I love that about you. I wanted to show you I can be exactly the same. That I am.”
He pulled back from me and made sure I was looking straight into his eyes. He pulled in a breath. “I love you. And I left my entire life in Vegas to show you.”
“You didn’t have to,” I said, smiling.
“Yeah, I did,” he said, tugging me even closer to him. “But not for you. For me. For us.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, biting my lip. “For us. Finally.”
“So can I stay for dinner?”
Every hesitation, every cautionary wall I’d put up around my heart since I’d decided to live for myself only, came crashing down as I said, “You can stay forever.”
He crushed his lips to mine, hoisted me up, and carried me to the bedroom.
I gasped against his mouth, and he took advantage, letting our tongues tangle together in a desperate, haven’t-seen-each-other-in-73-days dance. He growled against my lips, and the noise shot heat through my every vein.
He laid me down on the bed, pulling his shirt off in one smooth motion before easing over me. I moaned at the sight of him, all hard, hot muscle straining to get closer to me. He scooted down, pushing my shirt up over my stomach and bent his head to kiss there. A groan trembled out of his mouth, and I felt him get even harder against my leg.
“Jesus, Andi, I’ve missed you.”
The sensation of his tongue swirling around my navel made me arch my back and whimper. “You have no idea,” I managed between quick breaths.
I was so hungry for him I couldn’t stand it any longer. I tugged him up to me, begging for another kiss by running my tongue along his lower lip, then nipping at it. “Plenty of time for that later,” I murmured. “I need you.”
The sentence had barely left my mouth, and he stood up, stepping out of his jeans and then tearing my shorts and panties off in the next second. I tugged my shirt off at the same time—I almost thought I’d have to tear the damn thing. My bra came off next. I knew I was sweaty and a little dusty from a long day of unpacking, and I just didn’t care, not in the slightest. I knew Bryan loved me no matter what. The fleeting thought ran through my mind that I might be able to get him in the shower after this, and it only pushed me harder.
When he slid against my dripping wet heat, my eyes rolled back in my head. When he nipped and licked at my exposed neck, I almost came right then and there.
“Need you so bad,” I whimpered. He didn’t waste any time obeying. Inch by exquisite inch, he pressed inside me, filling a void I’d thought might stay empty forever.
His words ground out like he was in pain. “Oh, baby, you feel so good.”
“I need you, Bryan,” I whimpered. “Move.” I clutched at his ass, trying to pull him into motion.
“If I do, I don’t think I’ll be able to go slow.”
“Good. I want it fast. I want you to come so hard you can’t remember your own name.”
He groaned while he slid his hands under my shoulders, pinning me to the bed in the most deliciously possessive display I could have imagined.
Then, finally, thank God, he moved.
His hips slammed into me so hard the room spun with pleasure. There would be time for more later, time in which he’d do unspeakable things to me, things that made my toes curl. But for now, we were a beautiful mess of sweaty limbs and moans and whispers of love and longing finally fulfilled.
He thrust hard and fast, grinding me into the bed as if trying to show me how permanent he really was. I clung to him, panting words I barely understood, things about love and finally and forever. He met every single one with a moan and words just as beautiful.
“Love you so much,” he growled. “Never letting you go.” Sobs of pleasure ripped out of my throat when he changed his angle ever so slightly and ground against that perfect combination of spots, inside and outside at the same time. He picked up speed, driving into me with such delicious ferocity I thought I would melt with the heat and urgency of it all. When the orgasm crashed over me and my muscles clenched around him, stars flew around my head. I could have been one of them for all I knew.
I screamed his name, and he slammed into me one final time, buried his face in my neck and groaned, “I love you so much, baby.” His strong arms wrapped all the way around my waist, holding me close as my body shuddered with long waves of pleasure.
We lay like that for a long time, trying to catch our breath. I savored every second of his weight covering my body.
When he rolled to my side and pulled me to his chest, running his fingers through my hair and over my arm and down to stroke my stomach, I was in heaven. For several delicious minutes, we didn’t speak.
Bryan bent down and kissed my forehead, and I nuzzled in closer. “Your neighbors probably aren’t going to love that the new girl had screaming sex on her first day here.”
I laughed. “They’ll probably hate it even more when I ask them where the laundry is.”
“I’ll do it for you,” he said, hugging me close.
I laughed. “I can take care of myself, you know.”
“Oh, I know that. But you’ll let me help a little bit, won’t you?”
I bit my lip and looked up into his eyes. “Only if you’ll let me do the same.”
“That’s what I’m here for, baby. And I have no plan
s to leave.”
“Me either,” I sighed, tangling my legs up with his. I knew, deep down inside, that it was the absolute truth.
Acknowledgements
It should be no surprise to me by now, but once again, I’m humbled by how many people helped make this book fabulous.
As always, first thanks go to Jamie Grey and Lyla Payne, without whom I would never have done this whole crazy romance-writing thing - or at least not nearly as well. Along with Cait Greer, you read the first draft of this crazy stripper story and made it even better. The three of you are the Kitten’s meow.
Huge thanks go to my copy editor, Becca Weston, for, among other things, staging the Great Ellipsis Intervention of 2013. My readers are grateful and so am I.
Kristen Jett and Jolene Haley, thank you for making up the amazing publicist duo of Pen and Muse Press and agreeing to rep my book. You are phenomenal.
To my darling friends Laurelin Paige and Sophia Bleu, thank you for reading Drop Everything Now even before it was squeaky clean and liking it enough to blurb it. You both are fabulous, and pretty darn famous to boot. I couldn’t do this without your support.
To my rabid fans, Amanda Clark and Nikkie Hardie, for posting teaser excerpts to your blogs sight unseen because you trusted me so much. And to my Twitter-bestie Alli, thanks for being the other half of A-squared. Love you all.
I would say thank you to The Boy, but he refused to use a penis pump in the name of book research, so I’ll just give him a wink and a nod for helping with all that other research.
Last but certainly not least, thank you to all my readers for wanting to lose yourselves in my books. It means more to me than you’ll ever know.
About the Author
Alessandra Thomas is a New Adult writer who swears she was in her twenties yesterday. Since that’s sadly untrue, she spends her time looking back on her college years fondly, and writing sexy stories about guys and girls falling in love and really living life for the first time. When she’s not writing, you can find her with a spoonful of ice cream in one hand and the newest New Adult release in the other.
She is also the author of Picture Perfect and Subject to Change, the first two books in the Picturing Perfect series.
More from Alessandra Thomas
Picture Perfect
After an accident shattered her lower leg, former model Cat gained sixty pounds and lost her self-esteem. Can the new, gorgeous guy Nate help her love her new self without letting his past get in the way?
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BYLQIQE
Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/picture-perfect-alessandra-thomas/1114886163?ean=2940016360911
Subject to Change
Joey’s struggling to keep the promise she made to her dad on his deathbed – to become a doctor just like him. It doesn’t help to have the hot, bartending Hawk insisting she should be free to live however she wants to live – like he does. Little does she know that Hawk’s bad attitude might be the only thing that can save her.
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DKCPW12
Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/subject-to-change-alessandra-thomas/1115804377?ean=2940016597539
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author