May the Best Man Win

by Mira Lyn Kelly

  “Well, we know the room’s empty now.”

  Damn, this woman.

  Chapter 20

  It was after ten when Jase admitted defeat. The reception was still going strong, and from what his buddy had told him, the hall was booked until two. No way was he going to make it that long. Though Femily seemed to have embraced this prolonged torture with open arms. That wicked, wonderful mind of hers was finding new and creative ways to short-circuit his brain every five minutes or so.

  She had a gift.

  The last notes of the pop ballad faded, and Jase caught Emily’s hand. Backing her through the crowd, he led her from the dance floor to the coatroom. Where he did not pull her in, despite Emily’s sly grin as she asked him, “Is it later?”

  So tempting, but what he wanted from Emily tonight, for Emily tonight, was more than that. What he wanted would take time and—if they didn’t want the cops showing up—walls and a locked door too. “Soon.”

  Jase used the last of his restraint on the drive home, keeping his eyes on the road instead of the way Emily was shifting her legs in the seat beside him. And it paid off, because now Emily was unlocking her apartment, her fingers wrapped lightly around the lapel of his coat.

  Like she thought he might make a move to leave if she let go.

  Not likely.

  Her door was open, her apartment lit only by the overhead hall light she’d left on.

  She turned to him, those big brown eyes drifting to his mouth. “Jase,” she murmured.

  “I know.”

  His hand curved around the back of her neck, pulling her toward him as he lowered his mouth to hers, sinking slowly into the kiss he’d been dreaming of. So sweet, and that soft sigh was sweeter still.

  He hadn’t kissed her like this before. Like they had all the time in the world. Like it was about the journey, not the destination. Like he wanted more than her body. And more than anything, he wanted it to last.

  There’d always been too many other things driving them. But not tonight.

  Tonight was about something new. Something pure. Something right.

  Her lips parted as they met in that soft back-and-forth glide.

  He tasted her then, a slow stroke of his tongue against the lush pad of her bottom lip.

  She trembled, her hands fisting against the fabric of his shirt, an urgency rising within them both.

  Angling to deepen the kiss, he groaned as she opened wider beneath him, offering what he needed to take. Pressing closer. Clutching tighter.

  Yes.

  He reached past her, catching the side of the door toward the top, and pushing it closed behind them. And then they were alone. Eyes locked with his, Emily backed down the hall, those killer heels clicking against the hardwood with each step. Mesmerized by the sight of her, he watched as she lifted one beckoning arm to him. Jerking his tie free and yanking his belt loose, he followed, leaving just enough distance to tease them both.

  He started on the buttons next and she stopped where she was, her lips parting on a gasp, her eyes glazing with lust. Christ, her desire was so damned sexy.

  She leaned against the wall halfway to her bedroom, knee cocked so one sexy heel rested flat against the wall behind her, while her hands worked a slow roam over that flowy fabric at her thighs.

  Her eyes flicked to his before returning to where he was half through with his shirt. “Don’t stop on my account. I’ll just hang out here and enjoy the show.”

  “You want to watch, Emily?” he asked, taking his time with the next button.

  She licked her lip and nodded.

  “What about me?” he asked, jutting his chin toward the dress she hadn’t made nearly enough progress in taking off.

  “What about you, Jase?” she replied, a sensual challenge in her tone that flipped every switch he had.

  He swallowed hard, wondering how he’d ever thought she’d be the one to end up ruined for all others. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  He tugged the tails of his shirt from his pants and freed the last few buttons, completely caught up in the way Emily responded to his shrugging out of one shoulder and then the other.

  She was hot as hell, and she wasn’t really doing anything at all. It was just the look on her face. The need.

  His shirt hit the floor, and those perfect white teeth pressed into her soft bottom lip. So pretty.

  “God, you have the best body. Not that your ego needs any more stroking, but from the first time I saw you, you took my breath away.”

  High school. That’s what she was talking about. “Yeah?”

  “I liked how tall you were. But it was more than that. I think even if you’d been an inch shorter than me, I’d have been drooling over those shoulders and how broad your chest was. Is. You’re just so solid, but in a way that’s the perfect mix of genes and athleticism. I had so much trouble concentrating in classes around you.”

  Jase undid the top button of his pants. “Believe me, I was worse off. I dropped a half grade in every class we had together. You nearly cost me my 4.0.”

  “Liar,” she said, skimming her hands up her belly and teasing him by stopping just beneath the swell of her breasts.

  He growled, wanting her to touch them.

  Maybe she read his mind. Because now her palms were cupping her breasts, and his fly was unzipping by the power of his hard-on alone. He wanted her to take that dress off and to see her play with those petal-pink nipples until there wasn’t anything soft about them. And he wanted to watch her do it while she watched him.

  “I thought you were beautiful. You know I did.”

  A shadow passed behind her eyes, but then it was gone.

  Releasing the catch behind her neck, she eased the straps of her dress down her shoulders and arms. “And now?”

  He finished with the zipper and slid his thumbs into the straining waistband of his boxer briefs. Pulled them over the top of his cock and pushed them low so Emily could see him. How much he wanted her. What she did to him.

  Expelling a harsh breath, she sought out his eyes, asking him with a look for what she wanted.

  He stroked a hand up and down his length, doing it again when she slowly peeled the top of her dress down far enough for him to see the tight pink tips of her nipples.

  “Beautiful.”

  “Do it again,” she whispered, nodding to where his hand still held his cock.

  Oh fuck.

  “What, baby, this?” he asked, knowing damn well.

  A slow heat had been burning up her neck and settled into her cheeks, hinting at that shy girl thing she’d had going back when he first met her. The one that pushed all his buttons.

  But add to that this sexy-as-hell bit of kink.

  God, she was perfect.

  He stroked again, slowly. Setting a rhythm that wouldn’t leave him embarrassing himself within the next thirty seconds. If he focused really hard on banking regulations. Maybe.

  But then her hands were on the move again, her fingers playing with her nipples. Rubbing back and forth as he watched. As he stroked. As his breath went ragged and she planted both heels on the floor, her knees looking like they wouldn’t hold her much longer.

  “Jase.” And if the needy quality of his name alone wasn’t enough, the next words she said sure as hell were. “I can’t wait anymore.”

  He closed the distance between them in a flash. His hands gathered all that sexy skirt while Emily wrapped her smooth hand around him, stroking once herself before letting go when he caught her behind the knee and pulled her against his hip.

  Tugging her soaked panties to the side, he groaned, making contact with her wet heat.

  “I’m going to make you come like this, Em,” he told her, sweeping a single finger through all that slippery moisture. Spreading it around her swollen sex. Circling back to that throbbing point that ha
d her eyes locking with his and her breath fracturing across his lips.

  Around and around, slow and soft.

  Her body was tensing, her grip on his shoulder and side tightening.

  “Yes.”

  “And after I make you come with my hands”—he stroked back to her opening and dipped inside, felt her clench around him, as she gasped his name—“I’m going to make you do it again with my mouth.”

  Another shallow thrust of his finger and he took her mouth with his kiss. With his tongue.

  He sank deep, then deeper. Stroking in and out. Kissing her like he was touching her, like she was his.

  Just the thought had his cock pulsing between them.

  He added a second finger and her hips were rocking into his thrusts. Her pleas falling against his lips. “Please…like that… Yes, yes!”

  Enough. He needed his mouth on her.

  “Come for me, baby,” he growled against her ear, pressing his thumb to the spot where she needed him most.

  “Jase!”

  Liquid heat spilled down his fingers as Emily spasmed around him, her inner walls hugging him rhythmically.

  So damn hot.

  And then he had her in his arms as he strode the short distance to her bedroom.

  Emily’s eyes were wide, hazed with the kind of satisfaction that got a guy off just from looking at it. “That was—”

  “Just the beginning, Em.”

  * * *

  He was sucking his fingers.

  Emily had never seen anything sexier in her entire life as the powerhouse of a man in front of her, his shirt hanging open over that hard, sculpted torso, the fly of his suit pants undone—though he must have tucked himself back inside his boxer briefs—as he slowly licked her pleasure from his hand.

  She gulped.

  But then Jase went to his knees in front of her, that urgent, intense look in his eyes, and told her to take off her dress.

  Not asked. Not suggested.

  Told.

  While he was on his knees!

  Legs backed up to her bed, heart racing, she reached behind her and, with trembling hands, eased the partially open zipper down the rest of the way. Then shifting her hips slowly back and forth, she let the dress pool around her feet. Which left her in a pair of itty-bitty, bronze silk panties trimmed with lace, her gold heels, linked bracelet, and the chandelier earrings she’d hoped weren’t too much.

  Jase shook his head, almost like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Her skin was hot, her sex and breasts achy as Jase smoothed his palms over her hips and thighs, and then, hooking his fingers into the string-cut sides of her panties, slid them down her legs.

  “Sit.”

  Another shockingly hot not-suggestion, accompanied by his hands settling firmly at her hips and guiding her to the edge of the bed.

  Just as well. Her knees wouldn’t have lasted another second the way he’d been looking at her.

  “Jesus, Em,” he said, letting his hands coast down the length of her thighs. “I can’t wait.”

  He opened her, spreading her knees with his hands and then the bulk of his shoulders. His mouth working hot, wet kisses from her knee up, up, up…until he was there.

  She cried out at the first brush of his mouth. Even seeing it coming hadn’t been enough to prepare her. And then he was kissing her like he’d kissed her mouth. Softly, gently, thoroughly. The pressure building with her need until he’d found her center…

  “So damned sweet, Em.”

  …and licked.

  Another cry, and she fell back on her elbows as her body clenched with a need Jase was both satisfying and exploiting with every lick, nibble, and swirl.

  She’d come less than five minutes ago, but already that delicious tension was lacing through her center again. Tightening the places that had gone lax.

  Her knees were opened wide, Jase’s hands cupping her bottom as he held her to his mouth. So good.

  Swirling the point of his tongue, he made her pant and grasp at his hair.

  Then he was running that firm point back down to where—

  “Jase!”

  —he speared inside. Wet and slick and hard, he thrust in and out of her until she was mindless, her head beginning to thrash.

  “Do you need more, baby?” he asked, again rubbing his mouth against the tender spread of her sex. Making her writhe. Because he knew.

  “Yes,” she panted, tipping her hips into his kiss. “More. Please.”

  And then he was kissing that straining, aching little bud, closing his lips around it as—oh God, yes—he filled her with his fingers. That subtle stretch was just what she needed, the slow pumping motion taking her higher, faster. His fingers flexed inside her, twisting slowly, stroking over that hidden spot.

  She was close…so close…

  Teeth sinking into her bottom lip, she watched as Jase looked up to meet her eyes while he pleasured her.

  That look…that connection…Jase…

  He sucked, drawing hard against her. And the world came apart.

  She screamed, tumbling through sensation like she’d never known, pleasure like she’d never imagined.

  But still it wasn’t enough. Barely reaching the other side of the climax of the century, Emily tugged desperately at Jase’s hair, her legs squirming in an effort to get him where she needed him to be.

  “Please, Jase. All of you.”

  She wanted him inside her, his body hot and hard above hers. The crazy, intense eye contact doing things that made this more than sex.

  She needed it.

  Jase’s hair stood on end in utter disarray, and sweat beaded his forehead as he shucked the last of his clothes and climbed up her waiting body.

  Her knees coasted up the outside of his hips, her gold heels at the backs of his thighs urging him as she met his kiss, tasted herself on his lips and tongue. She was shaking with need, her body begging.

  Jase’s touch had gone rough as he pulled her to him, like he’d spent the last of his restraint. Or maybe not.

  “Condom,” he ground out through gritted teeth, already beginning to reverse his path. “One second, Em.”

  Her heel at Jase’s ass stopped him from retreating any farther.

  “You know I’m on the pill. And I’ve always been safe.” Smoothing her fingertips over the heavily muscled terrain of Jase’s chest, she asked, “Is there any reason we can’t—”

  His mouth crashed down on hers, a savage sort of growl emanating from deep in his chest as one powerful arm wrapped beneath her, pulling her up and into him. Holding her close.

  Then against her lips, he answered, “I always use protection. Always. But with you, Em, Christ. I want to feel you around me. With you”—his brows furrowed as he searched her eyes—“I want everything.”

  She could barely breathe. The weight of that single word resting over the center of her chest was almost too much to bear. With any other man, at any other time, she would have frozen up under a statement like that. Shoved it off her and started backing away. It would have been the end. But now, looking up into the deep blue of Jase’s eyes, that weight was a welcome one. And instead of the end, it felt like the beginning of something she hadn’t let herself think about in ten years.

  Reaching for his face, she kissed him. Slowly. Tenderly.

  She whispered, “Then take it.”

  “Emily.”

  Oh God, he was pushing inside her, sinking in steadily with one velvety soft, steely hard thrust that cost her the air in her lungs. No barriers. Nothing to mute the sensation. Nothing to dull the pleasure’s edge of Jase filling her with as much as she could take.

  “Wait,” she begged, pressing her forehead against his shoulder, as she wound her fingers into his hair. “I can’t… It’s too much…too good…too soon.�
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  It was so right it terrified her.

  But then Jase was smoothing his palm over her cheek, gently tipping her head back.

  “Look at me, Em. That’s right, sweetheart.” He brushed the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip. “I’ve got you.”

  She believed him. Trusted him. And then she gave herself to him.

  Cupping the side of her face, he kissed her, slipped his tongue between her lips softly, slowly. His hips started to move, pulling back, dragging his thick shaft over a million too-sensitive nerves, making her moan and gasp before he sank deep, rocking his hips so for one fleeting second she felt him everywhere.

  “Yes,” she gasped when he did it again, and then again after that, falling into a rhythm where every pass upped the sensation, ramped the pleasure, destroyed the last of her defenses.

  “I missed you, Em,” he admitted on a harsh breath. Her lashes fluttered as she worked to meet his eyes. “I missed the way it feels when we’re together like this. I missed being able to touch you.”

  Still moving inside her, he braced on one arm and pressed his palm to her cheek. “I missed you looking at me like you are right now.”

  She wanted to ask him what he was seeing in her eyes. If he knew the last of her secrets. That she was falling. If he knew how terrifying it was to give in and just let go. But then he canted forward, shifting just enough so on every deep thrust, his groin kissed the open spread of her sex. That spot that made her mindless.

  “Jase!”

  He was driving into her now. Faster. Harder.

  Over and over and—

  “I missed watching you come for me, Em.”

  —over again.

  “Come, baby.”

  Her body seized, clenching hard around him as she cried out his name and moaned into his mouth when he gave her his kiss, pushing her orgasm even further by adding the deep thrust of his tongue.

  And then finally, when she’d ridden the wave as far as it would take her, Jase drove deep once more. His big body tensed above hers. The muscles along his neck and shoulders flexed as he spilled inside her.

  It had never been like this.