by Jess Dee
Or maybe it was her strength. Victoria lurched forward, flinging herself at him.
He lost his balance and fell on his ass, forcing him to break the kiss. She didn’t hesitate. She just pushed him backwards, knocking him flat.
“More,” she demanded.
Breathless, stunned and aroused, he lay there as she crawled up him, throwing her leg over his thighs and straddling his waist, dropping her mouth to his and kissing him again—hard and long and deep. All the while she ground her groin against his throbbing cock.
Andrew had been stoned once, a few years back. A joint had taken him on a high where life seemed to pulse in a vibrant world of black and red. No other color had been visible.
That’s what he saw now. The world in a passion-frenzied haze of black and red. Night and desire. And the more she rocked, the redder the world became, dazzling streaks of scarlet painting the black sky.
The low groan that echoed against the ceiling of the gazebo was his, but the softer gasp was hers. As was the next gasp—even less audible than her first.
This time it wasn’t loss of balance that broke the kiss. It was Victoria.
Almost as if their panting and moans had penetrated the fog of desire, she raised her head and stared down at his face as though shocked. Long seconds passed during which only the sound of their harsh breathing filled the air.
Victoria moaned and tugged her leg up, neatly pulling away. She rolled to the right and stretched out beside him, lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling.
Both stunned and aroused, Andrew did nothing but lie beside her, listening to her labored breath. And his. His dick ached, and his chest burned with repressed desire. More than anything he wanted her back in his arms, wanted her straddling his lap, rubbing her pussy against his erection, driving him half fucking mad with need.
It took long moments before his breath evened and the pain in his dick eased enough to allow him to move. When he did, it was to roll to his side, bend his arm and rest his head in his hand as he gazed at her in the shadows.
“You must think I’m completely crazy,” she whispered.
A million replies filled his head, but he went for the most honest one. “Not completely. Just a little bit. But then who wouldn’t be after what you’ve just been through?”
“I wasn’t supposed to go to his room.” She spoke to the ceiling. “We’d agreed not to see each other before the wedding. But I…I cheated. I couldn’t wait. Didn’t want to.”
Andrew couldn’t help himself. He ran a hand over her cheek, pushing back a silky strand of hair that fell across her face.
“I was horny,” she told the ceiling. “And a little tipsy. I wanted Declan. I’d…missed him.”
Jealousy ripped through Andrew’s gut. “No harm in that. He’s your fiancé.”
“Was my fiancé.” Her eyes shimmered again. This time, instead of kissing him, she let a tear escape. It spilled over and trailed down her cheek.
He caught it on his fingertip.
“Have you ever broken a woman’s heart, Andrew?”
“I guess I have.” A few times. But always face-to-face, and never a fiancée’s heart. He’d never met a woman he’d loved enough to imagine spending his life with her.
He wiped the tear on his shirt before returning his hand to her cheek, finding it difficult to break the physical contact. “How about you? Ever broken a man’s heart?”
“I’ve had relationships before. Ended them when I realized they weren’t working. But…but I’ve never agreed to marry a man and then made plans to run hours before the wedding.” She finally swung her gaze to meet his. “I’ve also never broken up with a guy without telling him. He has a right to know, a right to be told—by me.” She gave an empty snort. “I had the right to be told. I should have been told. By Declan.”
“Apparently Declan didn’t play by your rules.” The name tasted sour on his tongue.
She shook her head slowly. “Apparently he didn’t. Or apparently he never knew my rules. I kind of assumed he was going to spend the rest of his life with me. Does assuming all of this make me stupid?”
“Nope. Already told you, he’s the stupid one. You’re the sexy one.”
“Then it must make me naïve. Funny that, I never saw myself as naïve before tonight.”
What the hell?
Had her ex’s actions made this beautiful woman question herself? She should be incensed by his behavior, not perplexed by her own. The urge to punch him had Andrew’s hand curling into a fist. “It makes you trusting. And human.” Both qualities he’d admire and desire in a woman he chose to marry.
“Yeah? Well, trusting and human feel pretty shitty right now.” Another tear spilled from her eye, and he brushed it off her cheek. “You know what I don’t get?”
“What?”
“Why he wouldn’t tell me. Why he discussed it with his friend but never thought to discuss it with me. His fiancée. The woman he was supposed to be closer to than anyone else in the world.” A world of hurt rang through her voice. “Why’d he tell Noah? Why couldn’t he speak to me about it?”
Because he’s a brainless, grade-A prick. “I can’t answer that, sweetheart.” He wasn’t about to justify or explain the dickwad’s behavior.
“Yeah? Me neither. Maybe if I could, I wouldn’t be feeling like a worthless pile of dog poop now.”
Every muscle in Andrew’s body tensed. If the asshole of an ex-fiancé walked past them now, Andrew would rip him a new one. He might not know him, but he hated the man with a rabid intensity.
“Funny, you don’t smell like dog poop.” He leaned in close, inhaling deeply. “You smell like cinnamon and spice.”
“And all things nice?” Another sigh.
“All things delectable.” He inhaled again. “Let’s just say I may never smell cinnamon again without becoming aroused.”
Her scent did crazy things to his insides. It made him want to strip her naked and hold her tight so he could thrust every inch of his erection deep inside her, over and over again. It made him want to bring her breasts to his mouth so he could feast on their soft roundness. And when that feast was over, he’d gorge on her essence, bury his face between her legs and spend hours devouring her.
A hint of a smile ghosted on her lips. “You’re sweet.”
It was his turn to snort. “If you knew what I was thinking right now, sweet would be the last thing you’d think me.”
She poked an accusing finger into his chest. “You’re partly to blame, you know.”
He raised an eyebrow. “For what?”
“My going to Declan’s room in the first place. If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have seen his computer, seen the messages Noah was sending him.”
“Oh, nice. Blame the innocent guy.”
“You flirted with me. Showed me your butt.”
“Excuse me, but you walked around me with the deliberate intention of checking out my ass. And you did it after you told me checking out other men’s asses was off limits. I had nothing to do with it.”
“Of course you did. You looked at my butt first.”
“Ogled it,” he corrected. “And I don’t see what that has to do with you looking at mine.”
“Fair’s fair, mate. You look, I look.”
Andrew tried, but couldn’t argue. “Okay, fair’s fair. Still, I don’t see how that makes this all my fault.”
“Duh. If I hadn’t looked, I wouldn’t have gotten all turned on. And if I hadn’t been turned on, I wouldn’t have gone to Declan’s room. Wouldn’t have gone to my partner to…uh, share my excitement.”
Andrew grinned. “So you’re saying you took one look at my ass and needed to get laid?” The knowledge sent a surge of heat through his stomach. At the same time, the idea of Victoria turning to Declan for pleasure sent an icy chill up his spine.
“Hrrumph.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I’m saying I should never have gone to his room.”
Just like that the gloom was ba
ck in her voice.
“And if you hadn’t, and you’d never discovered the truth?”
She closed her eyes, and her face creased in sorrow. “I would have turned up for a wedding, expecting my fiancé to be there—and been bitterly disappointed.”
“Well, there you have it then, the obvious truth.”
Her eyes popped open again. “What obvious truth?”
“I must have a great ass.” He gave her a smug smile. “It saved you from what could have been the worst moment of your life.”
Chapter Three
Tori couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled from her throat. She knew it verged on hysteria, but mirth felt a whole lot better than what she really wanted to do. Roll up in a ball and let free the great, racking sobs that pounded on her chest, making breathing difficult. “You do have a great ass. But I could have told you that all along.”
“You did tell me that.”
“I did?”
“Yeah. Right after you ran circles around me trying to check it out.”
“I did not.”
“Oh, yeah, sweetheart, you did too.”
She frowned at him. “Don’t remember.”
He chuckled. “I’m not terribly surprised.”
“That I don’t remember or that I said you have a great ass?”
“That you don’t remember. Your exact words were, ‘Great buns, and that’s not the wine talking. Although if wine could talk, I bet it would say the same thing’.”
She blinked at him. “I said that out loud?”
“You said that out loud.”
She closed her eyes with a groan. “Oh, God. I know I thought it, I just never realized I’d vocalized it.”
“You did,” he assured her. “Right before you told me I’d been wrong about the whole sexiest-ass-in-the-Hunter thingy.”
“Thingy?”
“Your word, not mine.”
“Obviously I’m a cheap drunk. A couple sips of wine, and I lose the capacity to make good judgment calls.”
Andrew’s frown was instant. “You think you misjudged my behind?”
“Not at all. You have a great behind. I misjudged my ability to keep my thoughts to myself.” And her ability to choose a man who wanted to spend his life with her, apparently.
“Are you still drunk?”
“Not even a little.” Although she wished she were. That way, at least something would anesthetize the pain currently ripping her chest to shreds.
“Pity.”
“Pity?
“I’d be curious to know what your thoughts were when you kissed me.”
Tori’s face heated instantly. She closed her eyes, unable to look him in his. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Bull. She knew exactly. Knew every thought that had crossed her mind, starting with the name-calling. She’d been labeling herself a fool and idiot, a blind fool and idiot. How could she not have known Declan had doubts?
How could she have been so blissfully unaware that for weeks Declan had questioned his commitment to her? And worse, how was it possible for him to blindside her like this? To know for sure he wasn’t going to marry her, when she’d been able to think about little else other than the wedding and their joint future?
Had there been signs she’d never noticed? Maybe she’d been too involved in wedding plans to discern a change in Declan’s behavior or in his attitude towards her.
But then she didn’t think his behavior or attitude had changed.
“Hello? Earth to Victoria.”
She blinked, and Andrew’s face came back into focus.
“You zoned out on me.”
“I did. I’m sorry. You asked me a question.”
“You answered it.”
“Not really.”
“Should I ask again?”
Tori bit her lower lip as she contemplated her answer. “I’ll try to be more honest if you do.”
“Then I’d be curious to know what you were thinking when you kissed me.”
She took a big breath before doing as she’d promised. “I was thinking how crappy this all is. Being blindsided by the man I love. Completely ignorant of his thoughts and plans.” Her stomach roiled as she spoke, Declan’s silence a hot poker in her belly, making her nauseous again. She swallowed hard against it. “I felt hurt and lonely and betrayed. I…I still do.”
Andrew laid his palm against her cheek. “Can’t say I blame you for feeling any of that.”
She pressed her face into his hand, the warmth from his skin heating the blood that had turned cold while reading Noah’s IMs. The warmth felt good. Comforting. Just like the sweater Andrew’d wrapped around her.
“I…I was angry too. Furious.” Red-hot rage still burned inside her. “I wanted to hurt him. Wanted him to experience the same pain I felt. But…” Her shoulders sagged. “I can’t hurt him. He doesn’t care enough about me to feel pain from anything I do.” He didn’t even care enough to confront her with the truth.
“So perhaps you tried to find a way to make yourself feel better?”
Andrew had to be a therapist of sorts. He understood her too well to be anything else. “Kissing you did make me feel better.”
Much better. For those few moments, lost in his embrace, the pain had lessened as pleasure spread, easing the heaviness in her limbs and heart.
Heat flushed through her cheeks, and again she drew her eyes closed so she wouldn’t have to face him as she confessed the full truth. “I didn’t just want to kiss you,” she whispered. “I wanted to fuck you too.”
She still did. The warmth of his hand sent seductive sparks flaring through her veins, setting her blood on fire. Her breasts tightened even as her pussy muscles clenched reflexively.
His rough intake of breath only made them clench tighter. “I suspect that would make us both feel better.”
Tori shook her head. The desire to fuck him might be a brilliant solution to her predicament, but it was also shameless. A rebound fuck, for lack of a better term. One that left no place for Andrew’s wishes. She was lonely, she was hurt, she’d been rejected, and what better way to instantly feel good about herself than to sleep with a man who openly desired her? “It’s selfish, pure and simple. I’d be taking advantage of a man who’s been nothing but decent, kind, warm and lovely to me.”
His laugh was low, sexy, and wet heat pooled between her legs, reinforcing her selfish desires. “I’m pretty sure I would cope okay.”
She was quick to reassure him. “I wouldn’t do it. Wouldn’t use you so callously, no matter how appealing you might be.”
Yet every instinct told her to do exactly that. Told her to throw caution to the wind and her body at his feet. She wanted him, of that she had no doubt. The man was hot. Smoking, really. And so damned nice. He made her laugh when all she wanted to do was cry, and he lay with her on the floor of the gazebo as though it were a perfectly natural place to lie in the middle of an autumn night.
Even now, her heart beat a little faster, the urge to carry through on her desire tremendous. But he deserved better. Deserved a woman who wasn’t hell-bent on fucking him to make herself feel better.
“Okay.” He nodded, frustratingly amenable to her assurances. “So if you refuse to take advantage of my body—which, by the way, is bloody disappointing—how are you going to deal with your pain and your anger?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Want to punch me?”
Tori stared at him, horrified. “God, no. Why would I want to do that?”
“To vent. It’ll help you work through your anger.”
“It might—if I was hitting Declan. Not you.”
“But he’s not here. So why not hit me and pretend it’s him?”
“I don’t want to hit you.” She wanted to fuck him.
“So what do you want to do?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Dull the pain somehow. Pretend it isn’t there. Pretend this isn’t the most mortifying, horrible night of my
life.”
“Maybe you should give the wine another go?”
“Hmmm…” Maybe.
“It’ll dull the pain,” he said. “’Specially if you drink enough of it.”
When she thought about it, her mouth was dry. Parched. And a sip of wine—okay, a glass of wine, or a bottle—sounded tempting. She sat up. “Would you drink with me?”
He sat up too. “If you’d like me too.”
“I would. But we’d have to share a glass.”
“I can live with that. Unless, of course, you’re a wine hog and snarf it all before I even get a taste.”
She grinned. “I’m not a wine hog.”
“Sure about that?”
“Absolutely sure. Although…”
“Although?”
“Although I’ve never shared a glass with a stranger before.” She smiled at the irony of her words. A few minutes ago she’d almost licked the back of his throat—a memory that warmed her again instantly. And made her pussy pulse.
“There’s a first time for everything. I don’t have man germs. I promise.”
“Huge relief, since man germs were foremost on my mind.” Yep, right up there, just ahead of the memory of Noah’s messages.
“Then there’s nothing left for us to do but drink.” He leaned over to get the bottle.
His chest brushed against her side, hard and muscular, and his masculine scent hit her like a ton of bricks. Lemony, fresh and delicious. Desire, instantaneous and all-consuming, overwhelmed her.
Whatever assurances she’d given him evaporated with her next breath.
Tori jumped him. Again. Just slammed her body into his, knocked him flat on his back and kissed him.
God bless the man, Andrew let her. Allowed her to take complete advantage without muttering one objection.
She couldn’t get enough. He tasted so damned amazing. Like…like chocolate, only better. A decadent dessert: sweet, rich and forbidden.
If his tongue tasted like sugar heaven, his skin was a savory delight. She should know. Her mouth had moved from his, and she dragged it over his cheek, the hair-roughened skin scraping against her lips.
