by Harper James
No, it was sweet torture, to feel the hard length of it, but not have it where I wanted it. “Lay back against me,” he commanded, puling me against him.
He slipped one hand over my thighs, nudging my legs apart, so that my ankles hooked over the outside of his. So that he would have access, his hands wet and slick as they found their way to my core. I laid against him, languid, loving the feeling of the hard planes of his body against mine, as the warm water lapped against my stomach. Loving the way his breath was hot against my ear, the feeling of his lips against the side of my neck.
His finger swirled around my clit, sending heat pooling in my belly. I swiveled my hips, pressing further into his dick, and he groaned. “You’re teasing me,” he said, his finger moving down, slipping inside me.
“What do you call what you’re doing?” I asked, groaning as his finger plunged was joined by another, stretching me out. He used his feet to push my ankles wider, to gain better access. With his free hand, he kneaded my breast.
“Feeling you,” he said, his fingers plunging in and out, “In the place I’m going to taste you later,” he added, biting softly at my shoulder.
I groaned wiggling my ass harder against his lap.
“You drive me crazy,” he said. “I wanted to kill that guy just for the way he looked at you.”
The jealousy threaded through his voice somehow made me want him more. It was like he wanted to possess me, own me in a way that meant no other man could ever have me.
“Tell me you’re mine,” he said, his voice low, gravelly. Seductive in a way I didn’t know I wanted.
“I’m yours,” I said, grinding harder against his cock. “Only yours.”
My pulse roaring with desperation as his fingers pushed inside me, and he added a third, stretching me further. I needed him to fuck me right there in the tub, slam into me hard and fast, but he was taking his time.
“Do you like that?” he asked, using his legs to push my ankles as far apart as they’d go, so that thy touched each side of the enormous tub. He leaned forward, watching as his fingers forced their way inside me.
“Mmmm,” was all I could manage, more a moan than an answer.
“God you’re tight,” he said, his fingers growing rough against me. And then they slipped out of me, and, he grabbed my hips, lifting me off of him, placing me at the edge of the tub. Water dripped in rivulets down my hair, across my breasts and legs. The edge of the tub was cool and hard against my ass, but I only breathed harder as his hands glided up over my legs. At my knees, he nudged them apart, kneeling below me, in the tub.
“I want to taste you,” he said, pushing my thighs apart as he leaned down.
I tangled my fingers in his wet hair, my other hand sliding down his back, wet and hot from the bath. His tongue circled my clit as his fingers slid under my thighs, up around my ass and gripping it, hard. Twisting my flesh in his hands as his tongue slid across my slit.
I leaned back, my head knocking against the window. Above, the moon glowed, warm and yellow. My hair slid over my shoulder, the window sill digging into my shoulders as I spread wider, giving him better access.
As his tongue circled my clit, his fingers plunged into me again, making me gasp, making my breathing come harder, raspier. “God you taste good,” he said, his tongue dating against my flesh. “I’m going to make you come,” he said, nipping against my skin.
I groaned in response, leaning back further, granting him better access. Another finger joined the one plunging into me, and the pressure built. “Let go,” he said, his breath hot against me. My feet still dangled in the tub, and as he moved, the water splashed against the tiles.
Heat built, waves and waves of it, as his fingers got rougher and his tongue got faster, swirling against me as my moans grew louder. I gripped the tub with both hands, trying to hold it together, but his fingers just got deeper, his knuckles hitting me roughly as his fingers plunged in and out.
My cries grew more desperate, a wave of pleasure wracking my body as my hand buried into his hair, desperately shoving his face against me. I rode the crest of heat, my breathing finally slowing as my senses came back. When the pulsing finally stopped, and I let my feet touch the bottom of the tub again, I met his eyes.
He smirked up at me, still kneeling in the water. I wanted to smack his shoulder, because he knew what he’d just done, knew the depths of pleasure he’d just given me.
Instead, I said, “What, like you’re not next?”
I slid into the water, pushing him up. So that he’d be kneeling in the water, the warm bath just touching his balls, his erect cock protruding out. I grabbed it in my hand, pumping up and down as my tongue circled the tip.
He groaned, his hand finding the back of my head, fisting in my hair, pushing me further down, forcing me to take him completely in my mouth. The bath lapped against my chin as I dragged lower, his cock so large it nearly gagged me before I pulled back.
“Your mouth feels so good,” he said, yanking me harder against him. I gripped his hips with my hands, picking up a steady rhythm as he bucked against my mouth. Each time I slid back up to the tip, he forced my head down again, so that I had to take him all at once.
His breathing grew raspy, faster and faster as he thrust into me. And then he stilled.
“I want you in my bed,” he said, picking me up by the elbows.
Water dripped down our bodies as we stepped out of the tub. I followed him across the bathroom, a trail of water left in our wake as we entered his bedroom. It was dark, the draperies blocking out the light. Only a lamp in the corner gave us what we needed to find the bed.
We fell into it together, skin on skin. He dragged me backwards, and I climbed onto his lap. He kissed me, hard and deep, as I rose on my knees and then slid onto him.
He groaned, his hands gripping my hips, picking me back up and making me slide up and down, picking up a rhythm. The bathtub had left me sated only moments earlier, but as I rode him, heat rose again. I wanted more of this man, of this wicked pleasure. I wanted him to fuck me all night, let me ride him like this until I collapsed in exhaustion.
He gripped my hip in one hand as the other slid over my ass. Without warning, he smacked me hard with his palm, making my skin sting. I groaned in response, and he spanked me again as I rose and fell on his lap, driving us both to the edge. He groaned and smacked the other side of my ass, hard, so that I was sure my backside would be red when this was all over.
And it only made me want more. Always, with this man, I wanted more. Nothing he did was ever enough, it only made me desperate for him to go faster, harder, rougher. He sat up a little, his mouth finding my breast. His tongue circled my nipple, and I raked my hands across his back. Wanting more. “That feels good,” I said, leaning forward, letting him suck and pull on my breast. He fell back into the bed, and I braced myself on my hands, his mouth not leaving my skin.
He held me over him, his hands on my hips, and bucked against me, quickening the pace in a way I couldn’t do on my own. I moaned, leaning down and kissing below his ear as he fucked me harder and faster. “I like that,” I whispered into his ear, in a voice I hardly recognized as my own.
His hands slid around to my back side, gripping my ass as he fucked me faster, harder. His breath turned raspy, matching my own throaty moans. His hips ground into my thighs as I rode him, and I knew I’d be sore later from this, but couldn’t bring myself to care.
I twisted my hand into the blanket as I tried to hold it together, but I was unraveling, pushing closer to the edge. Just as I nearly hit my release, he paused, sitting up and twisting me around, pushing me down onto the bed, pinning me on my back under him without pulling out. Without stopping.
He hooked my knees over his shoulders, so I was bent in half, and plunged deeper, harder, the angle making him feel bigger than before. “You look good on your back,” he said. I reached up, pulling him down to kiss me. My legs were nearly above my head now, and I was pinned like this, with him thrusting h
arder, our fucking growing rougher, more frantic. “You’re mine,” he said again, his voice rough and possessive.
I kissed him harder as his groans grew more desperate. As he thrust harder, until we crashed together in a wave of pleasure, and his cock throbbed inside me, hard, insistent.
Eventually he collapsed over me, his sweat mingling with mine, his breathing labored. I brought my legs back down against the sheets, rumpled and twisted beneath our bodies by the almost violent way he’d just fucked me. I couldn’t bring myself to care, could only slide closer.
I wanted to stay there forever, in the languid, relaxed way we lay together. Like nothing else mattered but this moment.
His face was nestled against my neck, his body over mine when I mouthed I love you, knowing he couldn’t see it. It was the closest I could get to telling him.
And it was true. I was falling for this man, for everything he’d meant to me and everything he’d become.
And it scared me to death.
14
Eventually, we got up and finished our wine, and I cleaned up in the bathroom before returning to bed. Landon opened the drapery, exposing floor to ceiling windows. Below, the city glittered, and the stars above shined back. It felt like we were floating above it all, like the real world below didn’t exist anymore.
He came back to bed, sliding in under the covers and up against me. I nestled up against him, feeling calm and relieved for the first time since I’d left town. He was quiet so long that I thought he might’ve fallen asleep, but then he spoke.
“There were so many times I wished I’d never left you,” he said.
His confession threw me off. Landon was a man who didn’t express regrets. He charged forward, not looking back.
“I wish you hadn’t,” I said, my hand gliding up and down his side, trying to memorize the ripple of his muscles.
“I had to. I know you don’t understand, don’t agree, but I had to.”
“I know,” I said, “you wanted to prove yourself.”
“It wasn’t just that. The only people I truly trusted were you and Matt. And that day, I realized Matt didn’t trust me back. Everything he said about me was true, and it killed me.”
“He would trust you with his life,” I said. Matt had said so himself, just a day earlier.
“But not with his sister’s life,” he replied. “I hated everything he said, because I hated that he was right. I wanted to be good to you but I didn’t know how. When I left, I promised myself I wouldn’t come back until I could be worthy of you.”
I wanted to believe him, but wasn’t sure. “I just wish you’d called me. Or wrote me a letter—anything. Just once so I’d known you cared.”
He moved, so that he was lying against the pillow and staring me in the eyes. “I didn’t think I’d be gone so long. I left town with the intention of making something of myself, but thousands of miles later, I realized I didn’t even know where to start. Leaving didn’t give me direction, it just made me feel lost. For months I buried everything in drinking and women.”
I must’ve flinched. I must’ve reacted to the image of him in bed with another woman, his body over hers like it had just been over mine. Because he reached out, his fingers tracing their way along my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Every hookup made me feel worse. Every hookup made me feel less worthy of you. That was when Alexa came along. She was the opposite of everything I hated about myself. She was from a big city. From a successful family. Nothing she did was emotional or reckless. It was all so carefully calculated. I thought partnership with her would mean we would be united. I was so blinded by my own self-loathing I couldn’t see her for what she was.”
“But why would you marry someone if you still cared about me?” I said, confused more than ever.
“I lost myself,” Landon replied. “By the time Alexa came along, I was sure that I’d never be the kind of man you deserved. I was sure you were better off without me around.”
“I’m proud of everything you’ve done to achieve your success,” I told him, meaning it. “But you should’ve talked to me a long time ago, come clean. It’s honesty I want. Not your financial success. I need to trust you. No more secrets.”
“No more secrets,” he agreed. And when his hands slid across my body, and he leaned into kiss me, I didn’t resist.
At some point we drifted off to sleep, though I wasn’t sure when. By the time I woke up, daylight was streaming through the still-open drapes, the Texas sky a wide and vibrant blue.
I slid out from under him, but just as I was about to stand, his arm snaked around my waist.
“Don’t go,” he said. I glanced back at him, my hair tumbling down my shoulders, my body still bare.
“I have to be at the lab at nine,” I said.
“Don’t go,” he repeated, sitting up in bed. The sheet fell to his lap as he sat back against the cushioned headboard, exposing his thick arms and defined pecs. It was almost enough to make me say fuck it, and climb back into bed, climb onto his lap.
“This internship is important to me,” I said.
“There’s a better internship waiting for you in Washington.”
I twisted around, staring at him. I knew my own body was exposed, and I didn’t miss how his eyes dipped to take in my breasts. “It’s not better, Landon, it’s just different. I earned this internship. I proved myself.”
“I know,” he said. “But I want you to come home with me.”
The way he said it, said home, made me think that he wanted me to return to his house. Made me think crazy thoughts about a future where we lived together, went to bed together every night so I could wake up beside him.
But he had a wife. His house was half hers, not mine.
“I committed to this,” I said. “My professor vouched for me. And I have to go back to school anyway. How am I going to do that if I turn my back on this?”
“I don’t know. But the only life I can picture is one with you next to me,” he said.
His words made my heart soar and twist at the same time.
He slid toward the edge of the bed, sitting beside me so our thighs were touching, his rough hand rubbing circles on my back. “Come back with me. Make me a happy man,” he said. “Things don’t seem to matter without you.”
His words sounded so dangerously close to a proposal that my heart thrummed against my chest.
“You’re married,” I whispered.
“I’ll finalize the divorce, give her everything she’s pushing for. I don’t care what she takes. She can have it all, as long as I get you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, reality setting in. And then I stood.
“This doesn’t feel right,” I said, only realizing it was true as I said it. “You can’t just decide you want me one moment and don’t the next. You can’t just make everything okay with one night, one conversation, one promise.”
His face fell, and I hated the way it made my heart twist.
“It won’t just be one promise,” he said. “This is different.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can believe you anymore.”
I started yanking my clothes back on. I didn’t bother to find my bra or tank top, just pulled his shirt on over my jeans.
I scooped my heels up, dangling them from one fingertip as I strode out of the room.
And once again, Landon didn’t follow. He just watched from his place in the bed, a shadow falling over his features.
As I left, I felt my heart breaking all over again. I hadn’t known that I would make this decision. In fact, I was almost certain that if Landon had asked me to do anything, I’d have done it. No matter how wrong or bad of an idea it was.
But maybe I was growing up. Or maybe Landon had just hurt me one two many times.
THE END OF BOOK 3
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