3 Book Romance Bundle: "Her Last Love Affair" & "Loving Him Peacefully" & "Unwelcome Reunion"

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3 Book Romance Bundle: "Her Last Love Affair" & "Loving Him Peacefully" & "Unwelcome Reunion" Page 17

by Clara James, Lisa Martin, & Gloria Bryant


  Chapter Ten

  Her Last Love Affair

  Everything had happened so quickly. Allie wasn’t sure how they’d ended up on the bed. By then, they were both completely naked. Reece sat cross-legged and she was sitting on his lap, with her legs wrapped around him. As Allie slowly undulated on top of him, they held each other tightly.

  Reece’s face, sticky with sweat, was pressed against her chest. The palms of both hands spread wide on her upper back, helping her remain upright and simultaneously pulling her closer to him.

  Allie’s hands were on Reece’s shoulders, although the slick perspiration kept causing her fingers to slip. She tried to use him as leverage, lifting her body in short rhythmic bounces.

  She did realize that somehow they’d achieved a moment of calm. Things were suddenly much less frenetic than they had been in the kitchen. There, after Reece had made his declaration of love, he’d begun to thrust with powerful strokes that tipped the table back on two legs. Over and over again, he’d pounded hard and fast. Until that moment, Allie had thought she’d seen every color in the spectrum of Reece’s lovemaking, from quick and passionate to slow and tender. Suddenly, however, there’d been a different quality. As the spiraling sensations caused Allie’s limbs to give out and she’d lain back on the table, she was aware that the desperation in Reece was not a drive for her, but a drive to show her something.

  She didn’t have time to work out what that something was, because no sooner had they orgasmed together in an abrupt eruption of masculine groans and feminine screams, than Reece swept her from the messy table and carried her to the bedroom.

  Here, although their movements were more relaxed, there was that same sense of desperation, as they clung fiercely to one another. With the less intense experience of leisurely rocking against Reece, Allie’s brain was able to ponder what was happening between them. Had Reece’s energetic performance in the kitchen been his attempt to show her what she’d be missing if she stopped seeing him. Maybe. But he needn’t have bothered. Long before then, she’d realized what she was about to give up.

  Had he been making sure that the last time was memorable? Perhaps. But then why had he told her he loved her?

  “Allie,” he suddenly grunted, his lips just beneath her collarbone.

  “Yeah?” she hummed absentmindedly, as she once more rolled her hips and ground her clitoris against the hard bone beneath his neat thatch of coarse hair.

  “God,” he blurted, jerking upwards. “I…” he breathed. “I don’t want this to be the last time.”

  Her hands instantly slipped over his shoulders and around his back, tugging him nearer. “I don’t want it to be, either,” she whispered, tearfully. Her thighs no longer strong enough to lift her, she became still except for a slight movement of her hips as she rubbed her mound against him.

  Slackening his own grip on her, Reece shifted back slightly, so he could look up at her face. “But it has to be?” he asked solemnly.

  Allie silently pleaded with him not to make her answer, but he continued to look at her expectantly. “Yes,” she eventually responded her voice soft and on the verge of cracking.

  Reece’s eyes dropped to Allie’s shoulder. Then, with a sigh of defeat he flopped back onto the bed.

  Allie went with him, her legs still straddling his and her upper body pressed against his hard chest. Her arms however, unraveled from around him, her palms landing on the mattress either side of his shoulders.

  Reece continued to hold his loose grasp of her and his right hand rubbed soothingly over her shoulder blades. “Can I ask you something?” he softly wondered.

  His thick, hard manhood still tightly tucked inside her, Allie found it strange that the mood had shifted so profoundly. However, like him, she suddenly had no interest in finding the momentary release of an orgasm. It seemed much more important to savor the feeling of closeness, to commit it to memory, so she’d be able to recall it whenever she needed him. “Yes,” she replied, settling her head on his chest and placing her ear to the strong, reliable beat of his heart.

  “Will there ever come a time when you can tell me? Or am I always going to wonder what the hell happened between you and me?”

  Allie closed her eyes, listening to the soft rumble of his words as they reverberated in his chest. “I don’t know,” she replied honestly. It was something she hadn’t even thought about. Would he one day read her obituary and realize what had been going on? “One day,” she sighed. “You might understand.”

  He made a small humming noise, as though he accepted, but wasn’t entirely satisfied with the answer.

  Allie was blindsided by the image of Reece opening the paper or browsing the Chronicle’s website only to find that she was dead. Knowing him as she did, she realized he would not only be distressed, but he’d feel betrayed. Would the time they’d shared over the past two weeks be tainted? There was no question in her mind that, to him, it would be. Not only that, she sensed he’d be angry with himself for not putting the signs together. She could visualize the deep hurt, rage and frustration in his eyes and it caused her physical pain. How could she do that to him? The only man, with the exception of her father, who had ever really meant anything to her, and she was going to hurt him more deeply than any human being whose life she’d ever touched.

  But, then again, did she really know him as well as she thought she did? After all, he’d just turned nineteen when she went off to college and they called it quits on their relationship. A person can change a lot in that time; she’d certainly changed. And perhaps she didn’t know him at all in the first place. It was possible that the Reece in her head was an adolescent fantasy, rose-tinted by the very fact of him being her first love.

  Everything about the strong man lying beneath her indicated he was exactly what he claimed to be. Could she possible be mistaken? Was he really just another looser who would say and do anything just to get a girl into bed? No, that much she knew wasn’t true.

  “Can I ask you something?” As she parroted his request, Allie braced her weight on her arms and pushed herself from his chest. Once she was in a sitting position, her hair curtaining her face, she peered down at him. Immediately regretting the speed with which she’d straightened, she felt a wave of lightheadedness and closed her eyes momentarily to stop the world spinning.

  “Sure,” he replied, his hands moving to her hips and holding her gently.

  Taking three quick breaths her dizziness gradually abated, and her eyes returned to him. “Did you mean it?”

  His right eyebrow lifted in question. “What?”

  “Earlier,” Allie responded, motioning with her head towards the kitchen. “When you said you love me, did you mean it?”

  He regarded her for a split second, confused by the doubt he noticed in her features. Suddenly, he was moving, carefully cradling her waist as he flipped her to the right. Once her back hit the bed, he rolled atop her. “What do you think?” he answered simply, his deep, earnest eyes burning into her soul.

  Allie let out a muffled “Ahh,” as she felt his stiff shaft edge further, filling her completely. She bucked against him, coaxing him further still, until the head of his manhood was deep inside her. “Reece,” she murmured, almost too breathless to speak.

  “Do you think I’d lie to you about that?” he asked, his voice indicating more control than he was actually in possession of. “Do you think I would have taken you to bed that first time, if I didn’t love you?”

  “I’m not that girl anymore,” she replied shakily, as she jerked beneath him again.

  With a lightly exhaled chuckle, he dipped his head towards her. “I’ve noticed,” he whispered, before kissing her mouth. As his tongue slipped between her parted lips, he drew his hips back slowly. With the same measured pace, he returned to her body releasing a long, low moan into her mouth as he did so. “Christ,” he gasped, ripping his lips from hers. “Allie, honey, I’m close.”

  “Not yet,” she begged. Her eyelids wer
e suddenly far too heavy and they flittered closed. “Just a little longer Reece,” she panted. Pushing her hand between their joined bellies, she blindly groped for the base of his shaft, but he was too deeply held within her. Abandoning the notion of trying to delay his climax, her fingers moved to increase the onset of her own. However, as the pad of her middle finger met the swollen and tender flesh above her entrance, Reece’s own hand swiped her away.

  “Let me,” he murmured urgently. “I want to make you come,” he added, before closing the space between their mouths once more.

  Allie felt herself melt into the mattress, as Reece’s thumb gently rolled tiny circles against her clitoris and his tongue roamed possessively over hers. He continued to thrust, but did so slowly with deliberate pauses between each movement. Wrapping her right leg over left thigh, Allie smoothed her hands down his back, until her fingers met the firm, clenched muscles in his butt. Clasping him hard, but careful to keep her fingernails out of his soft skin, she urged him on.

  The silent communication worked, and Reece stepped up the rhythm of his lower half, increasing the pressure of his thumb on her sensitive nub. “That’s it,” Allie gasped, turning her head to the right and gulping in a lungful of air. She could feel her body tightening in anticipation and began panting in shallower breaths.

  “Ugh,” Reece groaned, as Allie’s hands unconsciously dug into his buttocks. It was pain just the right side of pleasure and he plunged into her with renewed vigor.

  “Yes,” she murmured, as he stirred some new pleasure point. And then it came, like a powerful wave against the rocks, knocking the air from her body and sending trembled jolts of pleasure through every nerve ending. “Oh, Reece,” she breathlessly screeched, as her body began to pulse.

  Quickly removing his hand from between them, Reece pulled back one final time. His last thrust was forceful, deep and accompanied by a masculine cry of pleasure.

  Allie opened her eyes just in time to see his face, contorted in a mixture of agony and ecstasy, as she felt his warmth begin to flood her in strong surges.

  “Ahh,” Reece groaned, his hips still lazily pumping, as he emptied himself. “Oh, God,” he panted. “Allie,” he breathed, his lower half slowly stilling, as his upper body flopped listlessly forwards. “Allie,” he repeated, gasping for breath.

  Feeling his hot breath in the crook her of her neck and the pound of his heart next to her own racing one, Allie’s left hand slipped from his rounded buttock and grasped the back of his head. Gently, she ran her hands through his hair and stroked the nape of his neck, until his breathing had returned to something resembling normal.

  “Am I crushing you?” he mumbled.

  “No,” she instantly replied.

  “You sure?” he countered. “I’m not too heavy?”

  “No,” she insisted. “You feel good,” she added, wrapping her legs around him to prevent him from leaving her even if he wanted to.

  Reece sighed happily against her skin. “Feels so good,” he muttered.

  Allie could feel his shaft softening within her and sensed it wouldn’t be long before he would get up. Once he did, that would be it, she’d never be with him like this again. “Reece,” she whispered, almost unaware of the fact she’d spoken his name. “The last weeks have been incredible,” she said.

  “For me too,” he responded, his right cheek still nestled on her shoulder.

  “I mean, really incredible,” she continued. “I want you to know that.”

  Forcing his heavy unresponsive body up, Reece held his weight on the palms he rested by Allie’s upper arms. “It’s all right,” he said, his voice thick with post-orgasm exhaustion. “I don’t exactly know what this has been,” he added, hair falling over his forehead in the way Allie found so cute. “But I don’t regret a moment of it.”

  It was then that Allie realized she couldn’t in all honesty say she felt the same. There was something she regretted. Something she would regret, until the cancer ended all regrets. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you,” she softly announced.

  “You don’t have to,” Reece told her, shaking his head, as he slowly pulled his flaccid member from her.

  “No, I do,” she quickly countered, mourning the loss of him, as his body slickly left hers. “Please, Reece,” she begged, grasping his forearms and hurriedly sitting up.

  “Allie,” he sorrowfully sighed. “It doesn’t change anything.”

  “It will for me,” she insisted. “I don’t want you to leave without knowing why. I don’t want to push you away like this.” Allie’s words came quickly and coherently, much more coherently than her brain was functioning. “I…” she stumbled, her words suddenly lodged in her throat by unshed tears. “There’s something…” she attempted again, but halted when her vision blurred and unruly droplets spilled onto her cheeks.

  Easing himself away from her, Reece sat down on the bed by her side. Allie instantly, turned to him and crawled onto his lap. He didn’t fight her, and as she settled, he wrapped his arms around her middle.

  “I’m sick,” Allie sobbed quietly into his chest.

  Reece only just understood her muffled words. “Okay,” he responded, at a loss as to how that fitted into the situation.

  “I’m really sick,” she continued.

  “I don’t…” Reece mumbled, shaking his head in confusion.

  “I wanted to live the life that I’d missed out on,” she cried. “To make sure I had no regrets, so I started seeing men from my past.”

  Reece remained silent and baffled. However, the last part of her sentence was quickly filed away as important to clarify, when she was able to speak with full sentences.

  “It was just meant to be sex,” she sniffed, lifting her face to his.

  Realizing that he probably no longer needed clarification, Reece suddenly felt very uncomfortable with where her confession was heading.

  “I didn’t…I didn’t bargain on the way I feel about you,” she explained. “I want you, Reece,” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks, which were just as quickly replaced with fresh ones. “But I know we can’t be together.” The world began to spin again and Allie was forced to close her eyes. “I can’t do that to you,” she murmured. “I can’t hurt you.”

  “Allie,” Reece soothed, one palm slowly circling her back, while the fingers of his other head massaged her slender thigh. “I’m not sure I understand.”

  Opening her eyes, Allie tried to focus on him. “I’m sick, Reece,” she repeated. “I’ve got leukemia,” she added. “I’m dying.”

  Reece’s mouth fell open, as he felt Allie’s head flop back onto his shoulder. “I don’t…” he whispered. “You can’t…” he fumbled. “Allie.” He spoke her name reverently, as he pulled her tightly against his chest. It was only then that he wondered why she’d gone suddenly quiet. The tears had stopped. “Allie,” he nudged, lifting her face to him and finding her head much heavier than it should be. “Allie,” he repeated, panicked by her closed eyes and listless form. “Allie,” he tried more urgently, as he scooped her off his lap and laid her out on the bed.

  Quickly, Reece placed his ear next to her mouth and was glad to feel soft, shallow breaths. His eyes landing on the jeans he’d abandoned by the edge of the bed, he leapt for them and started to turn each pocket inside out. Eventually, he grasped his cell phone and punched three hurried numbers. “Come on, come on,” he quietly muttered. “Yes,” he sighed with relief when the call was answered. “I need an ambulance.”

  To be continued…

  Thanks for reading!

  Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to view the next books in this series.

  Loving Him Peacefully

  by

  Lisa Martin

 

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