by Sarah Taylor
I bury myself to the hilt within her, cumming so hard that my vision goes black and then danced with fireworks. I collapse over her, and she clings to me, still wrapped around my body as she trembles.
We lie there for a while on my bed, still intertwined and lazily kissing. Her eyes are hooded with sleep though she fights to stay awake.
“You can stay,” I murmur, fingers stroking through her hair.
The statement slips from me before I even realize what I'm saying, but I don’t regret it. Something about the way she perfectly fits as she curls against me has me longing to feel this a little while longer. Her beauty is the kind that you just want to gaze upon for days.
This is a rare offer, one I can’t remember the last time I made. Usually, I like my overnight guests to leave as soon as the fun is over.
To my utter shock, Olivia doesn’t even have to consider it.
Instead, the gorgeous woman pulls away from me and shakes her dark chestnut curls free. They’re slightly tangled from our romp. I gaze at her, taking in the shine of sweat that gleams over her body. My love marks remain on her shoulders and neck, and I feel a strange surge of possessiveness towards this woman I’ve only just met. I want to press my mouth against every single inch of her to claim it as my own.
I know I don’t deserve her... Yet, I want her.
I don’t know what to make of this shift somewhere inside me. It’s not like I'm about to go down on one knee for the beautiful woman, but all of a sudden, Cooper’s choice to chase Lucy makes a whole lot more sense. It’s not even the sex that has me rethinking things... It was the bewildering emotions that burst inside me when our lips touched for that first time.
Never before had a kiss made me feel anything at all.
“I have to go,” Olivia says quietly. “It’s late.”
She stands up and makes her way out of my bedroom. For a moment, I listen to her pad down the hall and then the rustle of fabric as she pulls her dress over her head.
Craving one last sight of her before she leaves, I stand off the bed and follow her.
I have no idea how long we were in bed together, but the sun has entirely vanished and has been replaced by the moon. A silver glow seeps across the floor and illuminates the curves of her body.
It’s not even fair how amazing that dress makes her look, though she would probably look fantastic in everything — and nothing... Especially nothing. The dress clings to her in all the right places, giving way around her thighs and straining over her breasts. Her nipples are still hard and fight against the fabric for freedom. Lust pulses through me again. I don’t make it a habit of fucking the same girl more than once, but I’d break just about every habit I had for a woman like Olivia.
“Do you really need to leave right now?” I murmur, smirking at her when she glances back toward me. “Or maybe you could go in an hour or so?”
She draws in a quiet breath. Her fingers lift and stroke over her swollen, pink lips as though she’s considering my suggestion, but then she shakes her head.
“We agreed on a no-strings-attached thing, remember?”
I chuckle, amused that Olivia would throw that back at me.
Is she playing hard to get? That only makes me want her more.
I move toward her so that I'm standing directly behind her. Olivia makes no move to put distance between us.
Instead, she leans slightly back against me as though she’s savoring the feeling of my chest against her spine. My fingers glide over her hips, and I lightly, tauntingly, grind against her plump ass. She moans and bends forward so that she can grip the back of the couch. When she does, her dress rides up and I can slide the length of my cock against her drenched, quivering mound.
She bends forward a little more and gives a whimper of desire, grinding back against me so that I'm enveloped again in her tight warmth.
This time, I'm right on the edge the second I'm inside her. She’s perfectly tight around my cock and her muscles are still trembling from her prior orgasm. My head lolls back as I grip her hips, and she bucks back against me with just as much fervent need.
I thrust again and again, cumming hard as she buries her face in the couch cushion to quiet her screams of ecstasy.
I collect her against me, kissing her, but she slowly pulls away.
“I need to go,” she repeats, even though she looks like she wants to stay.
When I release her, I notice something gleaming on the ground near her feet.
Is that a necklace? Wait, is that a ring dangling from the chain?
She’s too busy fixing her dress to notice that she’d dropped it.
Intrigued, I bend down and scoop it up, curiously inspecting the necklace and the ring. The ring has a lone, small diamond on it. On the inner band is etched: To my love, Olivia.
My whole body freezes. I know an engagement ring when I see it.
Olivia gasps when she sees me holding the ring. She snatches it from me, gripping it to her chest.
The room is so dark that I can’t quite make out her expression, but her eyes are wide.
“You don’t understand anything,” she whispers before turning and fleeing from my home as fast as she can.
Chapter 4
Olivia
Every time I blink, I see him against the backs of my eyelids.
Brady leaning closer to smother my mouth with his torrid kiss, Brady pinning me down so that he can ravish me, Brady suckling at my neck and breasts until I'm screaming with pleasure.
For hours, I’ve been reliving every detail of our time together. The sun has again come up by now, and my eyes haven’t closed for more than a few minutes at a time.
I’d been so very tempted to stay with him, to lose every single minute of the day with him in his bed, but that just wasn’t an option. Especially not after he saw the ring...
My phone suddenly rings from my bedside table, the loud sound making me jump in surprise.
I scoop up the phone and press it to my ear.
“Hello?” I murmur sleepily.
Had I managed to get any rest at all after returning home?
If I had, my dreams had been filled with the handsome firefighter.
“Come get breakfast with me!” Lucy begs across the phone line.
I groan, staring up at my ceiling from where I'm still coiled up in bed. My body aches from last night, though the ache is deep and pleasant.
One of my hands lifts over me, allowing just my fingertips to dance over my body. I trace the hickies and bruises Brady left, making my way down my body so that I can cup the heat between my legs that pools at just the thought of him whispering my name.
I bite back a moan at just the thought of him.
“I didn't sleep well,” I answer honestly. “Maybe you and I can catch up tomorrow?”
Lucy gives a huff and I chuckle softly
“Oh, come on! You left my party early. Can’t I get a few minutes with you now?” she continues to beg.
She does have a point. I left her engagement party to go sleep with her fiancé’s best friend, after all. The least I can do is get breakfast with her. Besides, it might be nice to have a bit of girl time.
“Alright, alright. I’ll meet you at the usual place?” As I speak, I somehow force myself to start getting out of bed.
The cool hardwood of my floor greets my toes as I glance around my bedroom. It’s a simple little home, one that I haven’t quite figured out how to decorate yet. Maybe it’s because I haven’t decided if this is really the place I want to lay down my roots.
I know I’ve opened my flower shop here, but I just can’t bring myself to think of this new town as my home. Not yet, at least.
Lucy squeals with joy. “Yes! I’ll see you in twenty minutes. Don’t be late!” she says before hanging up.
Just twenty minutes? Really? Guess I better get a move on.
While I brush my teeth, I check my phone and realize I’d missed a text from my big brother. Jaxon still lives in our hometown a cou
ple of hours away.
“Liv, don’t think I'm letting you live all the way out there alone. Your big bro is coming to town!” he’d texted at some point last night.
I roll my eyes and laugh, though I don’t know if Jaxon is serious or not. He’d always been a jokester, even after he got a job on the police force back home.
“You don’t think I can take care of myself?” I text back.
Almost immediately, another of his messages flies across the screen.
“Why be alone when you don’t have to be, little sis?”
I brush a fond finger over his text, shaking my head before finishing getting dressed. With only a few moments to spare, I dash down the street towards the cute little café where Lucy and I grab coffee and breakfast on occasion.
When I get close enough, I hear Lucy call, “Liv!” and I head immediately over.
To my surprise, she’s not alone. She’s brought Cooper along with her. It doesn’t bother me though. I suppose they’re a unit now, and Cooper’s always been kind and funny.
I settle down in an empty chair across from Cooper and Lucy and smile at them.
“How was the rest of your party?” I ask before ordering myself a morning mimosa. I need a little drink to help me get over what happened last night.
I sip at the boozy drink when it arrives. Hopefully, it’ll make me forget all about Brady and his fiery touch. I shiver and take a bigger gulp.
“It was great!” Lucy chirps. “It was funny that you and Brady both disappeared at once though.”
“Real funny,” Cooper murmurs teasingly, his clever eyes gleaming as he smirks at me.
I flush bright red and sip at my mimosa just as the chair beside me scrapes and someone sits down at my side. When I look over, I see none other than Brady himself settling in the chair.
My heart shoots instantly up into my throat and then crashes down to my feet at just the sight of him.
I hadn't been naïve enough to think that he and I could sleep together and then avoid one another, but I’d been hoping for more than a few sleepless hours to put what happened safely in a vault in my mind.
Brady freezes when his gaze locks on mine. His face looks tired, like he didn’t get much sleep either. Just the scent of Brady’s cologne and the warmth of his body is enough to make me have to squeeze my legs together to keep the warmth between my thighs from turning into a torrid, torturous throb.
I’d thought sleeping with him would make my lust ebb, but it only seems to have grown stronger.
“Uh, morning,” he stammers, forcing himself to look away from me and at the engaged couple across the table instead.
Is his heart hammering as fast as mine is right now?
Does he want to touch me as badly as I want to touch him?
“We just thought you two might’ve felt left out at the party, so we thought it’d be fun to have breakfast together,” Lucy explains.
She hasn’t seemed to notice the strained tension between Brady and me, though Cooper is watching the two of us with keen interest.
“That was nice of you, Lucy,” I mumble. I try to sound appreciative, but I'm so distracted by Brady that my tone is more distant than grateful.
I fold my hands so tight in my lap that my knuckles blanch bone-white.
Brady looks curiously around and then back at me. His expression is unreadable.
“Are you alone?” he asks quietly. “Or should we get another chair for your fiancé?”
For one whole second, the entire table goes silent. Then his question lands like an atom bomb between us. My heart gives one sharp pang, Cooper’s jaw drops, and Lucy slaps a shocked hand on the table.
“Brady!” hisses Lucy abruptly. My friend’s face drains of all color.
Cooper’s jaw clenches as he looks at me worriedly, uncertain how to respond. Brady just looks bewildered with a tinge of concern.
“It’s okay,” I say, trying to calm Cooper and Lucy.
I’d had a feeling after Brady saw the ring that I wore on a chain around my neck that he would have questions... They just aren’t questions that I find any peace in answering.
“Did I say something wrong?” Brady asks quietly.
He looks at Cooper, then Lucy, then lastly, he looks at me.
I grip the ring against my palm, trying to find some strength in the feeling of the cool metal against my fingers, but this conversation never gets any easier to have.
“I don’t have a fiancé,” I explain quietly. I wince and clear my throat. “I mean I don’t anymore. He was a police officer.”
“Was?” Brady echoes, sinking slightly in his chair.
I nod. The movement is so slight that I'm not sure anyone actually saw it. “He was a good officer, and he was a good partner. He was taken too soon.”
My heart feels as if it’s turned to concrete. I push back from the table and force myself to smile at Lucy and Cooper, though the last thing I want to do is smile. “I really am tired. I should go.”
Chapter 5
Brady
Absolutely stunned by the last few minutes of conversation, I can only stare at Lucy and Cooper across the table as Lucy stands and walks away after setting down a few bucks to cover her half-consumed mimosa.
My head won't stop spinning.
Rarely have I put my foot in my mouth this horrifically.
I just can’t get over the way Olivia had stared at me when I mentioned her fiancé... No wonder she’d mentioned being miserable at Cooper and Lucy’s party. It must’ve brought up such sore memories for her. The fact that I’d caused her pain is making my heart wrench in my chest in a way I never thought possible.
“What are you doing just sitting here, man?” Cooper mutters, nudging me and jerking his chin in the direction that Olivia left in. “Go after her!”
Cooper’s right.
Olivia probably doesn’t want anything to do with me now, but I need to at least try and apologize for saying something callous, even if it was on accident.
Without another second of hesitation, I shoot up from the table and chase after the dark-haired woman, leaving Cooper and Lucy staring after me while slowly shaking their heads.
“Olivia!” I call when I finally catch up to her.
She doesn’t turn around, still barreling down the sidewalk away from the café. My fingers lace around her wrist to pull her back toward me, electricity instantly surging through me the second my palm brushes her skin. Touching her is like touching an electric wire.
The beautiful woman pulls away from me, clutching her arm to her chest as if she’d felt the same powerful jolt of energy that I had. Her chest heaves, her brow crinkling over her upturned nose.
That expression of hers makes my heart twist even further.
She doesn’t run away, though I can’t tell how long she’s going to remain standing here with me either. I can’t read the whirling emotions in her dark, lovely eyes.
“I'm sorry,” I whisper simply. I'm not the kind of guy who ever apologizes, but with Olivia, I would fall to my knees and grovel if I had to. “I didn't mean to bring up something so painful for you. When I saw that ring last night...” I flounder, chin falling toward my chest.
When she’d left in the dead of night, I’d sat right there on the floor and stared off into the distance for a good forty minutes, just trying to come up with some other reason she’d have an engagement ring. I’d been entirely convinced that she rushed out of my apartment as fast as she did because she had someone else waiting for her to come home.
“You assumed that I was some sort of cheater?” she concludes limply.
Grimly, I purse my lips. There’s no reason to lie to her. “...It was the only thing that made sense at the time.”
Olivia shakes her head and closes her eyes for a moment. When she draws a shallow breath, her nostrils flare. Her lips part so she can continue to speak, but her eyes remain closed for another long moment, and at that moment, I find myself craving the chestnut hue of her irises like a dro
wning man craves air.
“I get it, Brady,” she murmurs. “I do. I would’ve thought the same if you had a wedding ring or whatever, but...” She trails off, lips parting as she tries to arrange her next few words.
“You don’t have to talk about it anymore,” I tell her swiftly, but she shakes her head.
“Maybe it’s time I do. I’ve been bottling up so many things for so long. My brother is always telling me that I shouldn’t be so withdrawn. My brother, Jaxon, knew Carl way before I did. They were cops together. Jax was there when Carl—” She cuts herself off, unable to fully say what happened to her late fiancé.
“Olivia...” I step closer, unable to stay away from her when she looks so unhappy.
My fingers brush her elbows and she melts immediately forward, collapsing into my chest. I embrace her tight, resting my head on the top of hers. A sweet, floral scent fills my nose.
The way she fits in my arms makes my soul feel like it’s soaring. I’ve never experienced a feeling like this. I clutch her tighter to me.
When Olivia sighs, it vibrates against my chest. “My relationship with Carl was a whirlwind. We got engaged after just three months, and as you know we were never intimate... But I thought he was it. My one and only. My forever. Now that he’s gone...it feels wrong to wear the ring and wrong to take it off completely.”
I can’t imagine how that must feel. All I can manage to muster up is another, “I’m sorry.”
To my surprise, Olivia laughs faintly though it’s still tinged with sadness. “It’s been two years now. I’ve grieved and done what I can to put that behind me... Carl will always be special to me, but I'm trying to move on. That’s why I moved here and opened my flower shop.”
“Still, I was an ass. Can I make this up to you?” I ask. “Let me make you dinner or something. Let me apologize right.”
I can hardly believe the words coming out of my mouth. I'm really offering to make someone else dinner? Seriously? I’d never once done anything like that.
