Every Sweet Regret (Orchid Valley Book 2)

by Lexi Ryan

  I hesitate right inside the gate, suddenly unsure if inviting myself over to heal his loneliness was the best plan.

  Drawing in a deep breath for courage, I wander toward him. I was already in my pajamas when we started messaging, and I didn’t bother changing. My shirt is light pink and says, “Zzzs for Dayz,” and the tiny matching shorts are barely visible beneath it.

  When Kace catches sight of me, his eyes go wide, then a grin slowly stretches across his face. He closes his laptop without taking his eyes off me. “Hey, you.”

  I pull out the chair next to him and plop myself into it. “Hey.”

  “I thought you’d be out tonight,” he says, searching my face. “It’s Saturday.”

  I laugh and fold my legs under me. “I love that you think I’m hitting up the clubs every weekend, but it’s more a rare treat than a regular hobby.” I shrug. “And anyway, I’d rather be here with you. If you don’t mind an uninvited visitor, that is.”

  “Not at all.” He glances at the baby monitor, still humming softly. “Hope’s sleeping, but we could . . .” He waves to the pool, which is open, the underwater lights making the water glow blue. “I don’t get in without Hope very often. It might be nice.”

  “I didn’t bring a suit.”

  His eyes light up before flicking over me. “That’s a shame. I guess you’ll have to swim naked.”

  My stomach flutters. If I get naked in that pool with him tonight, I know exactly what’s going to happen, and nervousness sizzles in my blood. About letting him see me entirely naked. About crossing that final line with him. But I muster all my bravado, stand, and wiggle out of my sleep shorts.

  Kace watches my every move as I drop them into my chair. I reach for the hem of my shirt, and his nostrils flare. His eyes glued to me, I slowly pull it off over my head and drop it with my shorts. My nipples pucker in the cool evening air. Kace stares at me and swallows. I’m frozen in place but melting under the heat of his gaze. “Stella, you’re perfect.”

  He pushes out of his chair, but before he can reach for me, I jog away, tossing him a smile over my shoulder. I climb onto the diving board, run to the end, and swan-dive into the pool.

  The water’s warm after so many hot Georgia days, and when I surface, the night air feels cool on my face.

  Kace stands at the edge of the pool, barefoot, arms folded, smiling down at me.

  I look him over, staring meaningfully at his jeans and T-shirt. “You gonna take those off so you can join me?”

  He licks his lips and shrugs. “I don’t know. The view from here is damn sweet.”

  My cheeks heat, but I splash him.

  With a soft chuckle, he shakes his head, and a second later, he’s removing his shirt with one rough tug then peeling his boxers and jeans from his hips. He steps out of them and right into the pool. When he resurfaces, he treads water and tips his head up to the clear night sky.

  “What are you thinking about?” I ask, treading water and inching closer.

  Sighing, he shakes his head. “I’m just . . . Nothing.”

  “Liar,” I whisper.

  He swallows. “I think too much, honestly. I get so damn busy thinking that I miss out on good stuff that’s within arm’s reach.” His gaze drops to my lips, and my breath catches. “I want you so much that I hardly know what to do.”

  I close the distance between us with two easy strokes and loop my arms behind his neck, pressing my naked breasts to his hard, bare chest. “You could try kissing me and see what happens then.”

  The corner of his mouth hitches into a crooked grin as he slowly lowers his mouth to mine. Every second I wait for our lips to meet, my heart beats faster. Then he’s there, and we both sigh into the kiss, as if we’ve been holding our breath all day and we’re finally able to breathe normally again.

  He spins me and pins me between his body and the wall of the pool, caging me in with his arms. When he breaks the kiss, his eyes peruse my face, my lips, then dip down to my collarbone and the swell of my breasts. “Still thirsty?” His lips quirk into a lopsided smile.

  “Only when you look at me like that.” I wrap my legs around his waist and draw in a sharp breath at the hard length of him against my center. Flesh to flesh. The air crackles between us—a blend of electric pulse and magnetic pull that has me leaning into him, silently urging his lips to connect with mine.

  “How am I looking at you?” he asks, but his hands answer the question, squeezing my butt before his fingers trace the path up my spine.

  I shiver. “Like you want me in your bed.”

  He lowers his mouth until he’s a breath away, and it takes everything in me not to close that distance. I’m starved for his touch. “I think you’re misreading me.”

  I roll my hips slightly to rub against him. “Really?”

  “I want you right here,” he says. His hands slide around to cup my ass, and he kisses me. He curls his fingers into my flesh and holds me until we’re fully flush. The slightest shift from either of us, and he could slide inside me. His lips tease and part, his teeth nipping and tugging. He sucks on my bottom lip, and I whimper. Slanting his mouth over mine, he kisses me fully, his tongue rubbing against mine. I thread my fingers into his hair and melt into this kiss. This moment.

  I love the feel of his hard chest cradling me, the way the water moves around us as our bodies rock together, the cool night air on my skin, and the crackling fire in the background.

  He kisses his way along my jaw to my neck. “Do you know how fucking sexy you are? Do you have any idea how many times I’ve thought about doing this? How many times we’ve been surrounded by our friends and family, and I couldn’t think about anything but tasting you?”

  I tip my head back as his mouth skims across my collarbone. He lifts me, propping me higher on the wall and exposing my breasts to the cool air. I open my eyes in time to see his go darker. He lowers his head and flicks his tongue across the hardened pearl of my nipple, and I have to bite my lip to keep from crying out. His mouth is hot on my breast. He teases with the tip of his tongue then sucks until it almost hurts and pleasure ignites my blood. He sucks and licks and bites my breasts, and need floods low in my belly, an ache building between my legs. I want deeper and faster, but I also want time to slow down so I can relish each touch.

  “Kace.” I gasp as his teeth sting. “God, I need . . .” I don’t even know how to finish that. I need him, and this, and more, and promises I can’t ask for.

  “Shh,” he whispers, flicking his tongue to soothe the spot he just bit. “I’ll get you there, Freckles. I promise.” He kisses his way back up my neck. “It’s like you read my mind tonight. I was sitting out here thinking about right after I bought this place, and you and the girls came to check it out.”

  He licks the column of my neck, and I tangle my hands in his hair and lean my head to the side to give him better access.

  “Do you remember that night?” He pulls back and studies me.

  “Before you moved in?”

  “Yeah.”

  He’d shown us all around, and then, when everyone was chilling with beers in the empty living room, I’d wandered out to the pool to get some air. The guy of my dreams was divorced and moving on with his life, and it was all I could do to maintain a modicum of dignity and not beg him to see me, to give me a chance. “You found me out here. With my feet in the water.”

  “Yeah. You looked so beautiful in the moonlight, and I had this image of having you in the pool.” His hand skims down my side, then to my ass, where he squeezes. “Like this.”

  He wanted me even then. My heart squeezes with the realization, and I tug on his hair and bring his mouth to mine, kissing him with all the longing I’ve been trapping inside me for years. All the hope I feel at learning he wants this too.

  He wraps his arms around me. We kiss, and he carries me into the shallow end to the steps, holding me tighter as we emerge into the cool air. His kisses are like a drug that make me want more and more until I don’t r
emember where I am or what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m intoxicated and barely aware of anything but his mouth.

  He guides me onto the top step, and when he releases me and steps back, my body is too cold everywhere he’d been pressed before.

  “Do you have a condom?” I whisper. I want him completely, and the building ache between my legs is making me impatient.

  “I don’t need one,” he says. He skims one finger down between my breasts and over my stomach.

  My back arches, and I’m not sure if I’m going to melt or combust or both, so I have to hold myself up, bracing my hands behind me. How can one simple touch make me feel so much? “You’re sure?”

  He sinks to his knees a few steps down, smiling as he places both hands on my knees and spreads my thighs. “I have everything I need right in front of me,” he murmurs, sliding his hands up my inner thighs. Lowering his head, he kisses just below my navel, then lower, just above my aching and exposed sex. “Let me kiss you here?”

  Melting. I’m definitely melting. “Yeah,” I manage, but it sounds like a desperate gasp.

  It must be all the answer Kace needs, because he nudges my thighs wider and buries his face between them. He doesn’t even kiss at first. It’s more like a nuzzle—his lips barely brushing that sensitive bundle of nerves, his beard scraping my thighs.

  He draws back just enough to look at me and whispers, “I thought of you like this that night. And I imagined what it’d be like to taste you here.” Then his mouth and tongue and lips are everywhere. Licking and sucking and stoking a fire I didn’t think could burn any hotter. He slides one hand up to palm my breast, and the other goes between my legs, one finger plunging inside me as he latches his lips around my clit.

  I cry out, the sound echoing into the night, and he moves his finger inside me, in and out, before adding a second and—

  I combust. My hips buck up and I’m undone, fucking his hand, writhing against his mouth, and his low grunt of approval is the final push over the edge.

  He stays right where he is, coaxing every last wave of my orgasm over and through me until I’m wrung out. Only then does he crawl up my body, wrap his arms around my waist, and swing us both around so I’m sitting sideways in his lap. He’s hard, and it takes all my self-control not to straddle him and take him inside me.

  He kisses me, and I taste myself on his lips, and when he pulls back there’s heat and something more in his eyes. “I’m so glad you came over,” he whispers, cupping my jaw.

  “Me too.” And I am, but I’m also worried it was a mistake. How can I be so satisfied and happy yet discontent at the same time?

  “I’ll go get you a towel.”

  My eyes widen, and my lips part. “You’re ready for me to leave?” I try not to sound defensive, but the hurt comes out in the sharp edge to my voice.

  “Hell no.” He pulls me tight against him, and his erection presses into my stomach. “I’m ready to take you to my bed.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kace

  I grab a couple of towels from my stash on the patio and wrap one around my waist before taking the other to Stella. Water rolls down her curves in rivulets as she steps from the pool.

  Kace, meet your walking fantasy.

  If she wasn’t shivering, I’d probably take a few minutes just to appreciate how fucking hot she is. Instead, I pretend I’m a gentleman and wrap the oversized pool towel around her shoulders.

  “Thanks,” she whispers, clutching it closed and smiling.

  I drop a kiss on her forehead. “Anytime.” Her lips tremble as she stares up at me, and I rub my hands over her towel-covered arms. “Are you okay? It’s not that cold, is it?”

  “I’m nervous.” She laughs softly. “Go figure.”

  Emotion swells in my chest, and I swallow hard. I’m nervous too. About what we’re about to do, about what happens after, about how I’m ever supposed to keep this casual when I can’t stop thinking about her. “We don’t have to do this if you’re not—”

  She lifts onto her toes and presses her mouth to mine, cutting me off. “I want to,” she says against my lips. “I’m nervous because I want it so much.”

  I nod and take one of her hands to lead her inside. I never intended to have Stella in my room while my daughter was upstairs, but I can’t wait until Wednesday, and Hope’s a good sleeper. She’ll never even know Stella was here. Even so, when we step into the bedroom, I shut the door behind us and lock it just in case. Then I pull Stella against me, her back to my front. She melts into me and releases her grip on the towel. I shift so it falls to the floor then slide my hands down her body, across her belly, and between her legs, where she’s still slick.

  She spins in my arms and runs her palms over my chest. “My turn,” she whispers. She yanks at the knot in my towel, and it falls away, and then she’s wrapping her fingers around my cock and stroking, her gaze locked on my dick as she works me over.

  “Careful,” I murmur. “Do that too much, and this’ll be over before we begin.”

  Her eyes flash up to mine. “Yeah?” She smiles but doesn’t stop stroking.

  “I was already so close in the pool.” I jack up into her fist. Fuck. So good. “The taste of you on my lips and the feel of your body clenching around my fingers when you came against my mouth? So fucking hot, Stella. I was a few seconds away from embarrassing myself.”

  She circles her thumb around the slickness gathering at my tip. “You want to finish like this? I don’t mind.”

  I cup her face in both hands and kiss her hard. “On the bed, woman.”

  She leans toward me, chasing my mouth. “Bossy. I like it.” But she doesn’t move, and her hand doesn’t stop stroking.

  I smack her ass, and she squeaks. “You like that too?”

  Her green eyes are dark and full of mischief when she looks up at me. “I like making you come. I’ve thought about it a lot this week.”

  “Not as much as me.” I take her hand from my cock before lowering my head so my mouth is right by her ear. “But the next time either one of us comes, I’m gonna be buried so deeply inside you you’ll have to bite your lip to keep from screaming my name. Got it?”

  She moans and sways toward me. She kisses my shoulder then backs up to the bed, holding my gaze as she lowers herself.

  I walk to the bedside table and grab the box of condoms. She turns to her side and reaches for me, but I dodge with a sidestep, smirking. “Hands on the headboard, naughty girl.”

  She licks her lips and obeys, moving to her back and gripping the rails of the headboard but never taking her eyes off me. I tear open a condom and roll it onto my shaft. When I climb onto the bed and over her, she whispers, “I need you.”

  I hook her knee with my elbow, spreading her wide as I settle between her thighs. “I know. I need you too.” And the words resonate through me in a way I don’t want to analyze right now. So I kiss her softly and slowly slide inside. I tear my mouth from hers because I have to see her face. Her green eyes open and meet mine, and an electric connection snaps between us.

  She gasps, eyes fluttering, and drags her bottom lip between her teeth.

  I smile down at her. “You feel good. So fucking good. Can you hold on there? I need you to come before I do, but I won’t last long if those hands of yours are all over me.”

  She nods, and, fuck, she looks as vulnerable as I feel right now.

  I draw up onto my knees so I can drive deeper and get a better view of this stunning woman beneath me. I shake my head. “So fucking beautiful.”

  And I’m close. Too fast, and this is going to be over way before I want it to be, so I slide a hand between our bodies and circle her clit with my thumb.

  She arches off the bed, knuckles going white as she grips the headboard like it’s the only thing keeping her tethered to Earth. I stroke her faster and pump my hips harder. She’s close too, and with every thrust she makes more and more quiet sounds—moans she’s trapping in her throat and biting back. Then, with
one measured press of my thumb against her clit, she comes, pulsing around me so hard that I lose it. I grip her hips in both hands and watch her tits bounce as I slam into her again and again, chasing my own release. When it hits, it about knocks me over—pleasure so intense it whips like lightning down my spine and obliterates me from the inside out.

  I collapse forward, and she releases the headboard and strokes my back. She wraps her legs around my waist and holds me close. I’m shaking. Because it was that fucking good. Because it means so damn much to me that she’s here and this finally happened with her. And because I don’t want her to leave.

  And that thought scares the hell out of me.

  Stella

  I know I should leave and go back to my mom’s. If this is just sex, just a fling, then this isn’t the time for cuddling. But he’s warm and solid, and I feel so safe curled into him.

  Kace sighs, then rolls to his side and looks me in the eye. “You okay?”

  I have to laugh. “Yes, Mr. Orgasms. I’m more than okay.”

  He grins. “Mr. Orgasms?”

  “Anyone who makes me come so hard twice in one night should get a superhero nickname for it.”

  His eyes dance with amusement, and he runs the back of his hand over my cheek. “I like making you come. It kind of makes me feel superhuman.” It should be a joke, and maybe he meant it that way, but there’s something like grief in his eyes.

  “Why do you seem sad, then?”

  He hesitates a beat. “I haven’t been with anyone since Amy.”

  He’s told me that, and yet being here with this amazing man, knowing I’m the one he decided to change that with—it’s humbling. “You waited because you thought she’d come home.” It’s not a question—I get it—but he shakes his head.

  “I wanted her to come home, but that’s not the real reason I didn’t get involved with anyone physically.” He sighs. “The truth is in the last couple years of my marriage, we had sex twice—once on my birthday and once on an anniversary. Both times were . . .” He rolls to his back and stares at the ceiling. I snuggle closer to his side and put a hand on his chest, listening if he wants to say more, but not pushing for it. “Those two times, I learned sex can be lonely. It was as if she was checking a box—something she felt like she needed to do. And let me tell you, getting pity-fucked by your own wife is a hundred times worse than celibacy. It’s lonely and soul-sucking.”