Love Struck

by McKenna Rogue

  Waiting at baggage claim in Omaha, I could barely stand to glance at Gerard.

  Not one word was exchanged on the plane. I just sat there, pretending to read my book, fighting the urge to say something, to needle him or burst into tears. I couldn’t stand the idea that he might enjoy the quiet, that he might not have wanted to speak to me.

  “Why don’t you take my car back to Jubilee? I’ve got to catch a flight out in the morning, I’ll just stay in a hotel around here.” He pulled out his keys and handed them to me, still not making eye contact.

  “I can’t take your car. If you have to stay, I’ll get a taxi or something.” I couldn’t afford a two-hour cab ride, but I’d figure it out. Anything to keep from being further in his debt.

  “Cora, take the damn car.” He looked up at me, thinly veiled fury in his eyes.

  “Fine.” I took his keys, grabbed my suitcase, and stormed off.

  The grip on my bag’s lead was the only thing I felt like I had a grip on at all. I couldn’t hold onto him, I could barely hold onto Nick. I didn’t even have my own keys to grip.

  His car felt foreign and awkward as I adjusted every setting to try to get comfortable. But there was no getting comfortable with the fact that I betrayed him, that I destroyed us, and no matter how nicely his leather seats heated my ass.

  It took forty-five minutes before traffic backed up to a near standstill. Not even the thumping beat pouring out of the speakers could distract me from the weight sitting in my chest.

  Flashing orange lights warned of a lane closure and construction up ahead.

  I cursed under my breath and pulled to a stop behind the taillights in front of me. The last thing I needed was to be stuck in traffic for hours, stewing. But this was the only way home.

  Fifteen minutes passed.

  Then twenty.

  I’d barely moved a mile, and all I could see in the midst of the taillights was Gerard’s face, looking so upset, so hurt, and so angry.

  I caused that. I caused his pain. I caused our pain.

  My stomach rolled, and I pulled off onto the next exit before I threw up all over Gerard’s steering wheel. Nick dumping me hadn’t affected me so hard. Gerard’s cold demeanor and angry expression hurt down to my bones. I didn’t know how to make it right. Parked in a gas station lot, I threw the door open and leaned over, dry heaving. I wished I could just vomit, get it all out. But not even my stomach wanted to cooperate.

  I sat there, hunched over, staring at the faded yellow stripe painted on the asphalt until dark, wet splotches blossomed on that paint stripe. It started slow, just one at a time, until my shoulders shook, and snot streamed down my face.

  God, what was wrong with me? My best friend, the man who had stood by me through everything, was hurting. I was the one who hurt him. And what was I doing to make it better? Taking his SUV?

  He was my everything. He knew everything about me: my fears, my hopes, my dreams.

  And if it weren’t for the fact that he’d seen me as a gangly teenager with a mouthful of braces and my first training bra, I would’ve been all over that man. I would’ve taken his kiss at face value, his ass grab, his hard cock. I would’ve believed that maybe there could’ve been something more than just friendship there.

  As my tears slowed, I straightened and found my phone in the cupholder.

  I looked up a number in my phone and dialed.

  “Cora? Is everything okay? Are you home?”

  I swallowed hard before I said stoically, “We’re over, Nick. We’ve been over so long, I don’t know how I didn’t see it before now.”

  “Just come over, we’ll talk it out,” he pleaded.

  “No, Nick. I’m not coming over. I’m never coming over again. You treated me like shit. You don’t deserve me.” I hung up before he could say anything else, and then I dried my eyes before I threw the car in gear.

  There was only one man I needed to see, and it sure as hell wasn’t Nick.

  17

  Gerard

  Cora was gone. She drove away, and I let her.

  It should’ve been so easy. She kissed me. And when I kissed her, with both of us sober, she kissed me back. But then she left me. Again and again, she left me.

  But I still loved her. God, did I love her.

  That needed to fucking change. I was asking for nothing but heartache.

  Once I dropped my luggage in another non-descript hotel room, I caught a cab to the Omaha zoo.

  Cora used to mock my love of the zoo, but she didn’t see the artistry in it. The beauty of a little girl seeing a giraffe for the first time, or a boy who jumped because a frog leapt in front of him.

  As I wandered through the cold, dreary February afternoon, I couldn’t register any of the animals or even the kids. Every woman I passed reminded me of Cora. Reminded me of the pain I caused.

  “Gerard?”

  Great, now I was hearing her voice too. I walked faster, trying to outrun my shame.

  “Gerard Richard Davis! Look at me. Now.”

  I swallowed hard. “Cora?” I closed my eyes, afraid to turn around.

  She touched my lower back, and I nearly crumpled. “What are you doing here?”

  Cora pulled me into nearest building, the aquarium. As soon as the doors closed behind us, Cora wrapped her arms around herself and looked down at her shoes. “I… I couldn’t leave like that. I couldn’t just drive away.” She sunk down onto a bench nearby and looked up at me. “What’s real?”

  I sat next to her and sighed. It was time for the fucking truth because I was tired of all the bullshit. “Honestly? I’ve loved you since the ninth grade. Before I really knew what love was. And all I wanted was to be a part of your life. But it’s not enough anymore. I can’t go back to just being your friend. I can’t keep watching you settle for jackasses who aren’t capable of loving you like the strong, incredible woman you are. I won’t stand up next to you if you marry that fucking banker.”

  Cora reached over and took my hand. She was silent for a long time, and then after a slow exhale she said, “What if it doesn’t work?”

  I blinked a couple times. “If what doesn’t work?”

  She smiled softly and leaned closer. “See, here’s the thing. I just spent five days with a really great guy. A guy who knows me better than I know myself sometimes. And if it weren’t for the fact that you’re Gerard, my Gerard, I wouldn’t have stopped that night in Cancun. I wouldn’t have let some jackass heckler make me feel bad for kissing you. I would’ve let you take me back to the hotel and fuck me six ways from Sunday. I wouldn’t have let a call from God himself interrupt what we almost did. And, the thing is, I want you to. But I’m scared. You’re my best friend, and if our making out and fucking and being together ruins that, I don’t know how I’ll survive.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I was so ready for Cora to turn me down to tell me that she only wanted to be friends, or worse, that she wanted to throw everything out. I grabbed her and scooped her into my lap, pulling her close. “Red, we’ve been together twelve years. I’ve seen the best of you, and the worst. And vice versa. Trust me when I say, the making out and the fucking can only make it better.”

  I reached up and cupped her face. I leaned in and kissed her, starting slow. I didn’t want to stress her out, to make her want to run. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want to taste her mouth. When she kissed me back, my body sang with joy.

  Cora moaned and slid her hand up to cup the back of my head as her tongue slid along my lower lip. I slicked my tongue over hers as my hand moved down over her ass. I pulled her to me, wanting to feel more of her. Wanting all of her right then.

  “There are children here!” A shocked mother’s voice just made me hold onto Cora tighter, afraid she’d pull away again.

  Instead, she murmured against my lips, “You have a hotel room?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then let’s go.” She ran her fingers down my chest. “Unless you think the aquarium in the zoo is a g
ood place to get your cock inside me.”

  “Where is this raunchy language coming from? I swear, Ms. Reynolds, you better not be talking like this in front of the kids you teach!” I grabbed her ass and then set her next to me on the bench. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Cora grinned and grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the exit. Just as we got to the car, she turned and smiled at me. “You better be totally worth this.”

  I laughed and pinned her against the car. “When are you going to realize, Red, that all I want to do is make you happy?” I kissed along her neck, wishing it was still Cancun, that the only thing Cora had on was a bikini, so that I could touch more of her.

  “Then get into the car.” She grabbed my ass and licked her lips. “You know, one morning, before you woke up, I felt you, pressed up against me. I assumed it was just a good dream, or morning wood, but it was hot. And incredibly distracting.”

  “You been thinking about my dick, Red?”

  Her cheeks flushed red and she looked down. “Not as much as I will be when I get to see it. When I get to feel you inside me.”

  I kissed her hard and fast. “Then quit talking and get in the car, or I’m going to turn this parking lot into a much more scandalous place.”

  She laughed and ran around the car to the passenger seat.

  I got into the driver’s seat and groaned. “God, you shifted everything. Why aren’t you driving?”

  “I’m too distracted thinking about your cock and getting you naked. And trying not to lean over to slip my tongue back into my mouth or my hand into the front of your jeans.” She winked at me as I pushed my seat back and got resituated in my own car.

  “Jesus, Cora, I’m going to need to be able to drive.” I turned the engine over and pulled out of the spot just as her hand slid over the rapidly hardening bulge in the front of my pants.

  She grinned. “This has been twelve years in the making. I hope your hotel room is close.”

  I broke just about every law possible as Cora rubbed the front of my jeans, trying to get to the hotel room before I pulled over somewhere and fucked her in the backseat.

  At a red light, she leaned over and kissed me, her tongue sliding against mine. I groaned into her mouth, wishing I could do more, wishing I could touch her.

  Honk!

  Cora pulled away, and I cursed under my breath. The light turned green, giving us the chance to get to the hotel, but I was so distracted by the woman next to me, I completely missed it.

  I grabbed Cora’s hand and kissed her knuckles, partly because I wanted to kiss her more, but mostly because I needed her to stop touching me. If she didn’t, I was going to spill into my jeans like a horny teenager.

  “Do you need your suitcase?”

  “Am I going to need to get dressed again in the room or something?” She smirked at me. “I thought this was going to be a completely naked adventure.”

  I shut the car off and kissed her hard. “Thank god. I don’t want to have to carry anything. I want my hands free to grope you in the elevator.” I winked at her and shoved the car door open. “Ready?”

  She swallowed hard and nodded. “You promise this isn’t going to ruin everything between us?”

  I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her neck. “I love you, Red. I have loved you for twelve years. I’m going to keep loving you. I promise you, this won’t ruin us.”

  18

  Cora

  Gerard loved me. Hearing those words spoken out loud broke something loose in me that I hadn’t even realized was there. I barely let him push the elevator button to carry us up to the floor his room was on before I pressed up against him again, kissing him hungrily.

  He spun us around so that I was pressed against the wall, completely surrounded by him, and his hands gripped my ass as his tongue plunged into my mouth.

  I wrapped my leg up around his hip, and he ground his hard cock against my jeans-covered pussy, making us both groan. I was soaking wet and being this close to him just made me want to get him out of his jeans that much faster.

  The elevator chimed and the doors slid open, but he didn’t stop kissing me until we heard someone cough out, “Ahem.”

  He pulled back a little, but not enough to really change our position. “Ma’am.”

  An older woman stepped onto the lift with us, and I could feel the red creeping up into my cheeks again. We were still four floors away from the button Gerard lit up. The woman took her place as far from us as she could get and stared at the doors as the elevator started to move up again.

  I bit back a laugh as I rubbed his lower back, wanting to touch him more, needing the tactile to remind myself that this was real, that we were actually about to go have sex. It all felt so surreal, like a dream, and so much better than I’d ever felt with any of my boyfriends before.

  As soon as we were on our floor, he scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder, practically running down the hall toward his room. He set me down just long enough to get the door open, and I danced out of his reach with a flirty smile.

  “We’re really going to do this? You and me, completely naked?”

  He dropped his coat and then grabbed the back of his collar, pulling off his shirt in one quick move that exposed every inch of his incredibly toned chest. “That is the best way to do it. But I have a feeling this first round’s going to be pretty fast. I’ll take my time on round two.”

  I licked my lips as my pussy throbbed at the idea he was already thinking ahead to a second round. “What if I don’t live up to your expectations? I mean, you’ve been with models…”

  He kicked off his shoes and unhooked his pants, leaving his jeans gaping just a little. “A few. Not the hundreds you always think I’ve been with. And none of them could compare with you, Red.”

  Slipping my jacket off, I draped it over the hotel chair and turned to face him. “But—”

  “But nothing, Cora. I know you. I have no doubts about this. But if you do, we can stop. I’ll go into the bathroom, take care of some things, and come back out so we can talk.”

  God, did I not want to talk.

  Instead, I crossed the room and slid my hand into the front of his jeans, getting my first real touch of his cock. Even through his boxer briefs, he was throbbing and so hard, I couldn’t wait any longer. “Do you have condoms?”

  “I wasn’t exactly planning on this, Red. I can go out and get some…” His face fell a little at the prospect.

  I licked my lips and looked up into his dark brown eyes with a grin. “I’ve never done this without a condom before. I’m on the pill. But if you’re worried…”

  “I’m clean, Red. I promise you that. And lord knows, I want to be inside you. I don’t think I could even wait long enough to get down to the lobby to ask the front desk if they have some.”

  I shoved his jeans down over his hips and pushed at his boxer briefs too, more than ready to see all of my best friend. More than ready for him to see all of me.

  “Now, this isn’t fair at all. You’re still completely dressed.”

  I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his length. From everything I’d felt so far, I knew he was big, but in my hand, he looked huge, certainly bigger than anyone I’d been with before. “Then maybe you should work on that. Or maybe I should find out how you taste.”

  Gerard groaned and pulled my hand away from his dick. For a second, I thought maybe I’d done something wrong, but then he kissed me and pulled me in close. “Babe, if you put my cock in your mouth right now, I’m not going to last long.” His hands slid under my shirt, pushing it up until he pulled it all the way off. “And I want you naked with me.”

  I reached back and popped the hook on my bra, letting it slide down my arms. As he stepped back and reached for the front of my jeans, I fought the urge to cover myself up. I felt so exposed, and this was still Gerard, my best friend; what if he didn’t like what he saw? What if I didn’t measure up? Maybe he didn’t get a good look the other night. Or maybe it was too da
rk to really see, and he was too excited to really look…

  But he ran his hands over my sides and up to my breasts, cupping them gently as his thumbs rubbed against my nipples, making them harden under his touch. “Cora, you have no idea how long I’ve imagined this.” He bent and flicked his tongue over my nipple, making me moan and arch forward. “But this is so much better.”

  I felt the red creeping up into my cheeks again, but it wasn’t out of embarrassment. “We should move to the bed.”

  He laughed and skimmed his hands down over my hips again, pushing my jeans and panties down.

  I kicked off my shoes and shimmied out of my pants, until I was standing in front of him naked. I swallowed hard as Gerard stepped back and looked me over.

  “I can’t believe we didn’t do this sooner.” He grinned and took my hand, pulling me to the bed. He kissed me again as he lowered me down onto the comforter.

  I moaned against his mouth and wrapped my legs around his, desperate to feel his cock against me, to get some relief from the aching need in my core.

  He ground against me, his hands sliding over my sides, my hips, back up to cup my breasts, touching me everywhere he could reach like he couldn’t get enough.

  When he broke our kiss, I begged, “Inside me. Please.”

  “You’re soaking wet.” He reached between us and positioned his dick, gently rubbing against me before he slipped just the tip inside. “God, Cora, you’re so fucking hot right now.”

  I rocked my hips, trying to encourage him for more. I reached down and grabbed his ass, trying to pull him in closer.

  Gerard pushed forward slowly, filling me inch by inch. As he took his sweet time, he kissed my neck, my lips, my cheeks, all the way down to my breasts, as if he couldn’t decide where to settle his mouth. As he finally bottomed out inside me, he let out a groan and nipped a little at my breast.

  “Oh, god, you’re big.” I moaned and rocked my hips, adjusting to the feel of him stretching me, filling me so completely. “Huge.”