by Tami Lund
He licked and suckled and stroked, and it seemed like it was only seconds before she was arching and crying out as her climax slammed into her, and, hot damn, she would have liked her body to have held out just a little longer.
And then he was exerting pressure on her legs, and she blinked open her eyes to see him trying to push her down his body. She shuffled on her knees until all those overly sensitive nerve endings were hovering over his bobbing and full-strength erection.
She knelt there while he snagged the condom he’d brought from the bathroom and hastily sheathed himself. Then he glanced up at her, and with their eyes locked, he positioned her and pulled her down onto his lap, pressing into her, filling and stretching her, and she broke eye contact so she could close hers because she needed a moment to simply revel in this sensation.
“So good,” she murmured, rocking her hips, her hands splayed on his chest.
“Better if you kiss me.”
She was pretty sure everything would be better with his kisses. She leaned forward and puckered up.
He wrapped an arm around her back, holding her to him while she controlled the rhythm, taking her time, going slow and steady, because, good Lord, this felt so good she wanted to stay here forever.
He broke the kiss to say, “We each need one more orgasm.”
“Mmm.”
“And I’m pretty sure I’m closer than you, so let’s see if we can catch you up.”
He slipped his hand between them, tickling her abdomen, until his fingers skimmed lower to touch her clit. She let out a gasp, and her hips began rocking faster without her brain giving the dictate.
He gritted his teeth, one arm tightening around her back while his other hand worked her furiously, and she moved faster and faster until she cried out as her body finally came undone.
He let out a gasp as though he’d been holding his breath, and then he flipped her onto her back and began hammering into her like he’d lost all control, until he groaned and his body shuddered as he found his release too.
“Wow,” he said, rolling onto his back next to her. “That was…”
“Yeah. It was.” Her heart was beating a staccato in her chest, her breathing was coming out in pants. He was having the same issue.
He reached over and touched her cheek, and she turned her face toward him. He smiled. “Stay the night?”
“Um…” He’d accused her of treating sex like a business transaction, but the reality was, they hadn’t spelled out the guidelines well enough before jumping into the sack, er, shower. They hadn’t clarified that they were to return to acting like they always had around each other. They hadn’t made it clear that this would not affect their friendship.
And they’d certainly not discussed spending the night.
He reached over her, snagged a couple of tissues from the box on the nightstand, disposed of the condom, and then wrapped his arm around her and snuggled into her side, like she’d already agreed and he was perfectly content with them sleeping together.
She lay on her back, her heartrate not slowing, although that wasn’t because of the energetic sex any longer. His did, though, and so did his breathing, until she was certain he’d fallen asleep.
And then she gently extracted herself from his grip, hurriedly dressed in her scrubs, and slipped out of his bedroom.
At the door, she paused, glancing over her shoulder, although she couldn’t see him asleep in his bed. And then she shook her head and whispered, “This was a mistake.”
Chapter Three
Kyle was waiting near the security line when she arrived at the airport. He wore a dark blue fleece, jeans, and his hair was slightly shaggy, his face unshaven.
God, he’s pretty.
She’d honestly hoped he would have gone through security, giving her a few additional minutes to stress out over seeing him after what they’d done last night.
“Definitely your first time having a one-night stand, huh?” That was how he greeted her. Along with a cheeky smile.
She blew out a gusty breath and brushed her braid over her shoulder. “It’s that obvious?”
“Sneaking out while you thought I was asleep was pretty much the giveaway. Claiming you couldn’t carpool this morning was icing on the cake.”
“I’m sorry. I just—I don’t want it to be weird between us.”
“Should I remind you that it was your idea?”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
He chuckled and tried to drape his arm around her shoulders. She hastily stepped out of reach.
He frowned. “What’s the deal?”
She shook her head and lifted her gaze to the ceiling. “I don’t know. I’m just…I don’t know what to think. How to act.”
“How about we act like we always have around each other?”
He sure was logical, wasn’t he? Although, honestly, it was helping her to relax. Because he was saying exactly what she’d hoped he would say. She blew out a breath. “Okay, I can do that. Thank you.”
He waved at the people queuing up to get through security and she stepped in front of him.
“Let’s go, friend,” he said. “There are a couple of Bloody Marys in there with our names on them.”
Getting through security was a breeze, and their gate wasn’t much of a walk. And the restaurant with the decent Bloody Marys was only a few feet away.
“So,” she said once they were seated with drinks in front of them, “how do you feel about this trip?”
“Well, I’m excited for Tommy and Camila. And happy for my mother, who is hoping that they immediately begin to work on providing her with a hoard of grandchildren.”
Madison was trying really hard to get back to the way she’d felt before she’d propositioned him last night. Based on the tingling between her thighs, her nerve endings, apparently, didn’t want to do that. They wanted to go back to bed. With Kyle. Naked.
She cleared her throat and focused on sucking tomato juice and vodka through a straw. “And?” she said after a few moments of silence.
“And I’m glad you are getting away from work and relaxing for a change.”
“Seriously? That’s what you’re looking forward to?”
“Aren’t you?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure how much relaxing I’ll get to do. You know Camila and our dad don’t get along very well. I have a feeling I’ll be playing interference pretty much all day, every day while we’re there. And then there’s my mom, who thinks she needs to be my personal pimp.”
“Uh…I’m not really sure how to respond to that.”
This was probably a weird topic to bring up after last night, but Kyle was so easy to talk to, and she doubted he’d let her get away with simply changing the subject now. “Okay, maybe I’m being a little too harsh about it. But she definitely thinks it’s time for me to find a husband.”
“You’re, what, twenty-four? You just graduated last year. Plus, doesn’t she know your plan to be debt-free before you settle down?”
“No, she doesn’t. I talk to my parents more than Camila does, but we’re still not very close. They’re just…different.”
“Still, you’re only twenty-four. You have plenty of time to do the whole husband-hunting thing. Which, by the way, doesn’t strike me as something you’d do. I think when it happens, it’s going to sort of smack you upside the head. You definitely aren’t going to be expecting it.”
What happened last night had smacked her upside the head, that was for sure. And God help her, she wanted a repeat performance, despite how awkward she’d felt this morning. But that was different. That was lust for a friend. “You think so?”
He nodded, quite succinctly. “I know you think you’re the planner extraordinaire, but that’s exactly why I think it will take you by surprise. The hard part is going to be you admitting it’s true.”
Time to change the subject. She wasn’t in the mood to get into her future plans and why they may or may not work out the way she, well, planned.<
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“Is this because of Tommy’s career as a motocross racer? Is that how you’re so knowledgeable about the best drinks at the local airport?” she asked after she finished her Bloody.
“Pretty much. My whole family has spent a lot of time in airports, following my brother’s racing career.”
“Don’t forget about your own.”
He lifted one shoulder, let it drop. “I only raced competitively for a year.”
“Do you ever regret giving up racing for fixing the bikes?”
He twisted his glass, watching the ring of water he left on the tabletop. “I probably could have held my own, if I’d wanted to go that route. I wasn’t as good as Tommy—hell, I’m not sure anyone will ever be as good as Tommy was—but I was good enough that I could have made a living at it. But I liked tinkering with the bikes better than competing.”
“So you’re happy?” She watched him drink and pressed her fingers to her lips, recalling how much she’d enjoyed his kisses.
“Sure. Aren’t you?”
Nodding, she said, “Yes. I mean, I didn’t think I wanted to be a nurse when I was a kid, like you and Tommy knew you wanted to be involved in dirt bike racing, but I’m happy with the career I chose.”
“When did you decide this is the direction you wanted your life to take?”
She snorted. “It wasn’t some sort of epiphany or me saving a kitten and realizing this was my goal in life if that’s what you’re implying. It was much more basic than that.”
She paused and he arched his dark brows, silently encouraging her to explain.
“My freshman year in high school, I took one of those tests that gives you suggestions as to what you might be good at as a career. It clearly stated that I should consider nursing. I didn’t think it was a terrible idea.” She spread her hands, palms up. “Here I am.”
“And you really are happy?”
“With my career? Sure.”
“But?”
But it was everything else in her life she questioned on a near daily basis.
Before she could figure out how to articulate that, the server stopped to check on them and Kyle ordered another round. When she walked away, Madison said, “What makes you think I want another?”
“Seriously?”
She chuckled. Yeah, he knew her well. Kyle Bryant was like every girl’s best friend, except he came in this superhot, almost too sexy, distinctly male package. And she’d gotten a taste of that package last night. Her body still hummed, and she was still blown away that it had actually happened.
The server dropped off fresh drinks and Madison downed her Bloody Mary far faster than she probably should. But, hey, she was on vacation. If ever there was a time to let loose…
“Another round?” she asked, waving down the server without waiting for his response.
“Wow, I’d better catch up.” He wrapped his lips around that straw, and she imagined them pressed against her lady bits. She squirmed in her seat.
She practically shouted, “More Bloodys,” when the poor server hurried over to check on them.
Kyle shook his head. “You’re two drinks in and you still aren’t relaxed. You’re on vacation, Madison. Enjoy it.”
“I am. I’m trying.” She stirred the dredges in the bottom of her glass and chomped on the pickle. And then she pictured Kyle naked. How would his pickle taste?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked while the server placed fresh drinks in front of them.
She took a few gulps and then said, “Let’s talk about last night.”
He arched his brows. “Forty minutes ago I had the impression you wanted to forget it ever happened.”
She shook her head and fanned herself with her hand. “Definitely don’t want to do that.”
He chuckled. “It was memorable.”
“I like that two-orgasm rule.”
His chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh while he leaned back in his seat and looked at her with clear surprise on his face. “I didn’t realize it was a rule.”
“Maybe we should make it a rule.”
“You have high expectations. And are we discussing this because last night wasn’t a one-and-done situation?”
She shrugged while toying with the paper wrapper from her straw.
When he didn’t say anything else, she glanced up. One of his arms was draped over the top of the bench seat, and one corner of his mouth was lifted in a confident smirk.
She tossed the wrapper at him. He snagged it out of the air, let it drop onto the table, and then reached across and covered her hand with one of his own.
“If you ever decide you want a guy who will attempt to provide you with two orgasms every night, I am happy to be that man for you, Madison.”
He sounded so solemn, she burst out laughing. “Stop it.” And then she paused. “But seriously.”
“Yes?”
“If we do repeat it, I think we should establish ground rules.”
“If I didn’t already know how fantastic the end result would be, the way you go about planning for sex would not be terribly arousing.”
“I just want to make sure we’re both on the same page.”
“If we both want to do it again, we’re on the same page, right?”
She flapped her hand, her vodka-soaked mind trying to work out how to say what she was trying to get across. “We need to make sure we don’t get hurt.”
“So no doing it while standing on our heads. Got it.”
Rolling her eyes, she fought the smile she could feel tugging at her lips. “I meant emotionally. I don’t want either of us to get emotionally involved.”
“We’re friends, right? That makes us already emotionally involved.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about other emotions.” She curled her fingers into air quotes.
He didn’t say anything. In fact, he didn’t react at all. He sat there and watched her without moving for so long she dropped her gaze and toyed with a couple of sugar packets.
“It would be a friends with benefits concept,” she finally said, clearly unable to let it go now that the idea had wormed its way into her brain.
At least he wasn’t repeating everything she said, like he had last night. Although this silence wasn’t any better.
“That doesn’t work?” she asked after clearing her throat.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around it,” he finally said.
She nodded. “Yeah, this is pretty weird, isn’t it?”
“Definitely.”
“But I still want to go through with it. I want to have sex with you again already.” She shyly glanced up, caught his widening eyes, his nostrils flaring. Leaning forward, she whispered, “Want to do it again?”
He snorted. “Hell yes.”
She waited a beat.
He arched his brows. “What? Right now? Here?” He glanced around at the busy restaurant. “How?”
She nodded at the vast aisleway next to their booth. “There’s a family restroom right over there.”
His eyes widened. “You want to have sex in an airport bathroom?”
She slapped her hands onto the table. “I have never done anything as crazy as last night. And it was so much fun. Makes me think I need to let loose more often.”
“Yeah, but in a public restroom?”
“Oh, come on, we’ll stand up, we won’t touch anything. Just a quickie.”
“I don’t think I can accomplish two orgasms with a quickie.”
“We’ll save one for later.”
“What’s gotten into you?”
“You.” She laughed. “Literally. But seriously, last night was great, and then I panicked, and clearly I didn’t need to since you are handling this so well. And you make me relax, and also, I really want to have sex with you again.”
“We’ll be in Florida in four hours. You can’t wait that long?”
“We are sharing a house with sixteen other family members. I’m not ev
en sure we’ll have privacy while we’re sleeping.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine while we’re sleeping. Rather, in bed. It’s the sneaking between bedrooms that may be the challenge. And there’s always showering together.”
She nodded. “That was high on my list of best showers ever.”
He laughed. “And I’m the one who got the orgasm out of it.”
She dug around in her purse and pulled out her wallet.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Paying for our drinks.”
He snagged his wallet too. “I got it.”
“No, it’s fine.” She flagged down the server. As soon as the transaction was complete, she stood, grabbed the handle of her rolling bag, and said, “Come on.”
“What’s the hurry? The rest of our family hasn’t even arrived yet.”
“Exactly. And I’d really rather not have them catch us slipping out of the restroom together.”
He groaned. “You really are serious about that?”
“Hell yes. Come on.” She grabbed his arm, tugged him toward the entrance, then barreled straight across the thoroughfare to the other side, where they had to wait behind a woman with a stroller, an infant, a toddler, and all the extra gear that went along with taking two young children anywhere outside of the house. And one of those kids definitely needed a diaper change.
Madison glanced at Kyle, who looked back at her with raised eyebrows, and then they burst out laughing. The frazzled mother scowled and shoved her way into the family restroom.
“I don’t think this is happening,” Kyle said. He sounded disappointed, which was a good sign.
She sighed. “Let’s go order another round then.”
They trudged back to the restaurant. The server had just finished wiping down their table. Madison pointed. “Do you mind if we sit back down?”
She shrugged. Once they were seated across from each other again, Madison leaned forward and whispered, “Okay, let’s brainstorm ways we can sneak away together while we’re on vacation.”
