Love Reconnected (Hollywood Series Book 1)

by Michaels, Avery

“I’m sorry about before,” he said.

  “It’s okay. I understand. I was out of line. Everything’s cool. I’m sorry I put you on the spot like that. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

  “No, I’m glad you did. It forced me to admit what I want.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Are you sure you want to know?” His tone made me certain I did because my body reacted to it. I’d been around plenty of men since George had left, but no one had had this effect on me. I decided I wanted to feel what he wanted.

  I could see he wanted to touch me again, so instead of a simple yes, I said, “Show me”, like he had told me earlier.

  He ran his fingers through my hair then tugged, pulling my head back. I felt his lips spreading kisses down my neck. He pulled my loose shirt down, releasing my breasts in one fluid movement. I fisted his hair, forcing his mouth to my nipple. I let out a moan when I felt his tongue drag over the tingling tip.

  “I want to taste you,” he said right against my ear. “Can I?” I tried to nod, but he held my hair so tight I couldn’t. He took my nipple between his teeth, nibbling gently. “Say it.”

  “Yes…”

  He bit down a little, and I almost yelped. “Yes what?”

  “Yes, you can taste me.” He had my shoes, pants, and underwear off in a flash. All I had left on was my tank, and it was pulled down, my breasts exposed. He got on his knees in front of me.

  I felt his breath on my most private place, a place that hadn’t been kissed in years. If I had a coherent thought, it would be that I was grateful I had shaved this morning. I had only done it for my comfort. I had never expected this. Jake pulled one of my legs over his shoulders, holding my bare ass in his hands. When he hesitated, I whined. I wanted his mouth on me. In one fluid movement he got to his feet and lifted me off the floor so that my legs were wrapped around his neck. He pressed me against the wall, then I felt him lick slowly upward. I leaned back against the wall. In a show of strength, he carried me, wrapped around his face, to the bed and dropped us both before licking me slowly and deliciously again.

  “Jake,” I moaned, “stop teasing me…” I was so turned on by his forcefulness I ached for release. I looked down and caught a glimpse of those blue eyes staring up at me from between my legs.

  “You taste so good.”

  I moaned when he licked the right spot, but he didn’t take my cue. I pushed his head where I wanted it, but he trapped my wrist on the bed. I writhed beneath him, just about to beg when he focused on my nub and suddenly I’m up, up, up…What had happened before could only have been described as a mini-orgasm compared to what I felt building. He reached up, taking my nipple between his fingers, brushing it gently with his fingertip.

  “Don’t stop! Right there!” I screamed, but he did stop.

  “Not yet.” He slowed his movements and slipped a finger inside me, curling it upward. I felt him touch that oh-so-sweet spot inside me that had been neglected for so long.

  “Please,” I begged shamelessly.

  “What’s that?” he taunted, slipping a second finger inside of me.

  “Please, Jake!” I pushed his head back into me, and he brought me to the brink again. I was nearly screaming when he stopped. This time he let his fingers lazily slip in and out of me. “Jake!”

  “I love seeing you like this.” He leisurely licked at me. “I could keep you like this for days…” I thrust into his mouth. He nibbled my thigh, pulling his fingers out of me completely, leaving me empty and needing.

  I pressed my head back against the pillow as he started licking me again. I felt one finger slide into me. The simultaneous stimulation made me scream with pleasure. He concentrated his tongue on the right spot. The sensations of his tongue on me and his finger inside me pushed me over the edge. I shattered against his mouth and quickly squirmed away because the sensation was too much, but he refused to let me escape. He pursued me upward.

  “I love to make you squirm,” he said, still licking me, slower now. “You’re so sexy.” He pulled back enough for me to put my hand between his mouth and myself because the area was too sensitive to be licked again. But I was still clenching around his fingers that were pumping gently to heighten my pleasure. I had never come so hard before. Specks of light clouded my peripheral vision as I came down.

  I managed to escape his grasp and reached for his bulge again, but he pulled away…again.

  “Let me touch you.”

  “It’s okay. This is about you. You don’t have to.”

  “I want to.” I looked him in the eye. “I want to, Jake.”

  He stood up at the foot of the bed, still fully clothed, “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.” Now shut up! I wanted to say, but I didn’t. I slid down so that I was sitting in front of him with my legs on either side of his. When I pushed his shirt up, he slipped it over his head in one quick move. I ran my hands over the muscles of his stomach before placing soft kisses across his waistline.

  When he was touching me, he was bossy, a little rough. I liked it, but now he was caressing my hair, brushing my cheek with his thumb. I slipped my hands down his waistline, cupping his firm ass. The move gave me just a peek of the muscular V of his physique, which led to what I was working toward.

  He tilted my chin up so that I was looking at him, but I didn’t see the smolder in his eyes that had been there before. Instead I saw my friend in a new light, kind and caring yet handsome and sexy in a way I had never known him. He looked conflicted, vulnerable, but I aimed to un-conflict him with my touch. I pushed the elastic down a bit farther, bringing my hands around to his hips.

  Our eyes were locked on one another, “Katie…”

  “Shhh.” I kissed each of his hips, about to dive in when my phone rang, shattering our moment. Not the phone he’d bought me but my phone. “I’m so sorry. I have to take that.”

  “Oh…Okay,” he stuttered.

  I jumped up from the bed to grab my phone. I already knew it was Julie. I should’ve called two hours ago. “Hello.” I grabbed my clothes from the floor, suddenly fully aware that I was nude from the waist down. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about the time difference. I know, hang on.”

  Jake leaned against the bedroom doorway, shirtless. Our eyes met as I straightened my clothes, and I knew I needed privacy, so I turned away walking out in the hallway. I sang Ty his goodnight song and flipped the phone closed.

  I leaned back onto the outside of the door wondering what Jake and I were doing. “We’re having fun,” I said aloud to myself. “We’re two consenting adults enjoying each other’s company. It’s not a big deal. I can do this,” I reassured myself. “I can screw around with my best friend without ruining our friendship. I’m surprised we haven’t been doing this the whole time. It’s totally doable; he’s totally doable.”

  “Yeah, he is,” a maid whispered under her breath as she walked by, interrupting my one-sided pep talk.

  I swiped my keycard to re-enter and found Jake sitting on the edge of the sofa with his head in his hands. “Are you okay?” I asked because he looked upset.

  “Who was that?”

  “My aunt, she worries,” I told him to ward off further questions. I walked over to him and knelt in front of him, forcing him to look at me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Wrong?” He let out a humorless laugh. “I don’t know what’s happening here, Katie. This isn’t what I had planned.”

  “I know, me either.”

  “What are we doing?”

  “Enjoying each other’s company.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yes, that’s it. You are giving me something I need, like really need.” I laughed. “And I’m doing the same for you, right?”

  “I don’t need this from you.”

  “That bulge in your britches is telling another tale,” I joked, trying to lighten his mood. “Listen, it’s okay. We messed around. Maybe you regret it, but I don’t.”

  “No, I
don’t regret it. It’s not that. I want to.”

  “What is it then?”

  “I’m afraid if we start again, I won’t have the strength to stop.”

  “Oh. Well, I’ll take care of you,” I assured him. I took his hand and pulled him to his feet.

  “Don’t…” I heard him whisper.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Nothing, it’s nothing.”

  “Jake, if you want to stop, we’ll stop. We can go back downstairs right now or rent a movie or whatever you want.”

  “Are you…ah, satisfied?”

  “Beyond words,” I said truthfully. “You blew me away. I never would’ve imagined you could be so…amazing. Thank you.”

  “Thank you? Really?”

  “It’s been five long years!” I reminded him, and he smirked. “What do you want to do? What do you need, Jake?”

  His expression shifted again, and he pulled me close to him. “I just need you,”

  “I need you, too.” And with that, he swept me off my feet, cradling me in his arms.

  He laid me down on the bed, taking off my bottoms first, just like before. He kissed his way from my toes all the way to my hips, careful not to touch where I wanted him to. When he went to lift my shirt, I protested. I didn’t want him to see the scars from all of those surgeries I’d had to correct my improperly functioning uterus. They were small but many, and even though I flaunted a bikini without a second thought, I felt self-conscious under the circumstances.

  “Let me see you,” he moaned.

  Instead of answering him, I sat up, grasping him before he could escape. I took him into my palm. He froze from the shock of my touch. I was just as surprised as he was, but for an entirely different reason. If I had known he was packing this, I would have jumped him the moment he walked in the diner.

  He hissed through his teeth as I moved my hand up and down his length. I may have forgotten a lot since I’d been with a man, but I knew what I liked and how to get it. I wasn’t shy in this area of life.

  I slid his pants off, tossing them to the floor, and got my first peek of all that was Jake. He was a lot more than I expected. I had never expected any of this after all.

  I may’ve had limited bedroom experience, but I was confident that I could please him.

  I leaned over him, teasing him like he did me. I looked up at him, and he was beautiful, his head thrown back, muscles taut with anticipation. When I dove in, his whole body jerked.

  “Mmm hmm.” I hummed around him, eliciting a moan. I worked him slowly at first then picked up the pace. I felt the comforter pull beneath me as he fisted it. He got impossibly harder, and I knew he was about to come, so I moved faster.

  Suddenly he’d escaped me and was lying on top of me. “I need to be inside you.”

  “Wait…what?”

  “I need to be inside you. Hang on.” He reached for the pocket of his pants. He produced a condom from the center of his rubber-banded cash.

  I was confused. I’d thought we were just messing around. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. We hadn’t even kissed. Before I could protest, he ripped the packet and rolled on the latex. A tiny panic arose in me.

  He was poised and ready. “Wait.” I put my hands on his chest.

  “What is it? Are you all right?”

  “I…yeah, it’s just…I’ve only been with two men,” I admitted, embarrassed.

  “Oh.” His eyes widened in surprise.

  “I thought we were just messing around. I don’t know if I’m ready for this. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, okay; it’s okay.” He brushed my hair with his fingertips. “I understand,” he said, placing soft kisses on my ear and cheek.

  I closed my eyes, thinking of all the time I’d spent “playing it safe,” worrying, thinking ahead, planning every emotional detail of every moment and decided to go for it. “I want to.”

  “No, not if there’s a doubt in your mind. I can’t—”

  “There isn’t a doubt in my mind. I want you, but could you do one thing for me first?”

  “Anything,”

  “Kiss me,” I demanded. He deliberated, actually deliberated, on whether or not to kiss me after everything else we’d done. I lay there awkwardly, wondering why this was such a big deal. What if he refused? What would that say about me? What would it say about him? “It’s okay if you don’t want to,” I said to him. “I’m being silly.”

  “Is that what you think?” He took my face in his hands. “I want nothing more than to kiss you.” He brushed his lips against mine softly, timidly. “I’ve seen what happens to the guys you kiss. I don’t want that to be me,” he whispered. I nodded in understanding. He didn’t want me to make out with him and toss him away. I wasn’t that girl anymore, and this wasn’t just a kiss.

  He licked my lower lip, and I opened for him. He caressed my tongue with his so gently I almost melted. I’d like to say it was because I hadn’t been kissed in so long, but that wasn’t it. It was him. It was the way he took care to hold my chin, the way he touched my cheek, the way he tasted.

  It wasn’t just a kiss. It was more. More than I could handle…I pulled back, but he pursued me, his body trembling.

  “Jake, you’re trembling,” I whispered into his mouth. He didn’t respond. He just laid his head on my shoulder, sex forgotten. I held him, wondering what had happened until we fell asleep.

  Chapter 4

  I woke up right at dawn and slipped out from under Jake’s arm. I looked in the mirror over the bathroom sink. What had we done? What had I done? I’d almost slept with my best friend, who just so happened to be one of the most eligible bachelors in the world. I might have ruined our friendship before it even had a chance to heal.

  No. I shook my head. I wasn’t going to do that…that thing that I used to do with guys. I was a different person now. I could handle this. I wasn’t a teenage girl anymore, and Jake wasn’t just some guy. I didn’t know how to handle guys then, but I was a grown woman now. Jake and I would have a good time; he would leave, and we would keep in touch. Things would go back to the way they had been but better because we would be close again.

  Despite my moment of regret over my actions, I couldn’t help but think, who better to lose my second virginity to than my best friend? I trusted him, despite his lapse in judgment five years ago, and I adored him. I even loved him as a friend. We knew each other better than anyone. So why not enjoy him? Who was I saving it for?

  I reached down, scratching the red spot on my leg for the umpteenth time. The condom. Jake had slept with that stupid latex condom pressed against my leg all night. I wasn’t allergic, but it had always irritated my skin.

  I checked in with Julie, telling her we would be heading home soon. When I opened the door, Jake was sitting there with the covers pulled up enough to cover his lower half, leaving his broad chest and washboard abs exposed.

  “Another super secret phone call, I presume?” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “Top secret.” I smiled.

  “What happened to your leg?” He leaned forward examining it.

  “The condom.”

  “You’re allergic to latex?”

  “No, it just irritates me.”

  “And you were willing to let me put it inside you?”

  “If that’s what it took. A girl has needs, ya know?” I giggled, trying to make light.

  “Get over here.” He pulled me to him. “Are we good?”

  “Of course.”

  “You mean a lot to me, Katiebug. I don’t want to lose you just because we did something stupid in Vegas.”

  “It wasn’t stupid! It was wonderful! Besides, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?”

  “Well, if that’s the rule, then I think I’ll take some more!” He rolled over on top of me and kissed me playfully, morning breath and all. I didn’t care. I loved it. “Why do you get up at the crack of dawn? We’re on vacation,” he said between kisses.

  “I just wanted to
take advantage of you before we head back to the real world.” I giggled. I loved that he made me giggle. I couldn’t remember being so giggly and giddy in quite a while.

  “So take advantage of me,” he said.

  “Is that a challenge?”

  “Absolutely!” He said as he got out of bed, “Just let me go to the bathroom and I’m all yours.”

  “What every woman wants to hear! Is that what they call foreplay in Hollywood?” I yelled over the running water.

  He swung the door open, naked as a jaybird. “Baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” He pounced on me, crawling up my body. I laughed until he looked into my eyes. Then I saw that all the playfulness was gone from his expression.

  He kissed me softly on the lips before going back down, bringing me to the brink.

  His eyes were intense when he came back up to face me. “Do you want me, Katie?” I nodded. “I trust you. Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.” I barely got the word out before he pushed inside me slowly. I gritted my teeth at the feeling of being stretched.

  “You feel so good,” he managed. I couldn’t believe when he pushed in farther. He rocked back and forth slowly, letting me get used to the feel of him.

  I couldn’t believe we were doing this, but it felt so right…so, so right. When I got past the discomfort, I pushed upward into him, wanting more, needing more. He squeezed his eyes tight, and I thought he would come, but he didn’t pull back, so I kept going. I was so close. Then he grabbed my hips firmly, holding me still.

  “Slow down,” he said. He brushed my lips softly then kissed me deeply, intimately, as he moved slowly inside me. I had to break the kiss because it felt too intimate, as if we were making love, and that was not what I wanted. I knew he was probably trying to give me intimacy because he thought that was what I needed, but it wasn’t. I didn’t want to get that close to him. This was my first attempt at a fling. I knew leaving intimacy out of the equation was the only way we could go back to being just friends without any awkwardness.

  I pushed all thoughts to the side, but one, when I felt the familiar build below.

  “Keep going!” My hands clawed at him until I came apart around him. I opened my eyes and saw him. He was sweating, holding back. He was waiting for me. He pushed in twice more and collapsed on top of me.