The Love Campaign (Romantic Revelations Series Book 1)

by Laura Marquez Diamond

  And there she was. Bundled in her coat, thick black hair tousled by the wind and cheeks flushed. Her intelligent mouth and thick brows were set in a worried expression. Sebastian’s gut twisted and he nearly choked on a potent cocktail of anticipation and dread. His very own Kryptonite.

  “Hi,” she uttered, fatigue palpable in her voice.

  “Come in, it’s cold,” he said. Sebastian grabbed her hand to pull her in before she changed her mind.

  He hugged her stiff body. It took a beat, but he could feel the moment she began that slow, sweet melting into him. Nothing felt as good as Jaya soft and snug in his arms.

  “Hey, Jaya! You hungry?” Travis’s voice carried from the kitchen.

  “I bothered your dinner?” she asked, looking up at him with her hands on his chest.

  He placed a peck on her crinkled nose. “Just something to do till you called me,” he claimed.

  She smiled at him and all he could think about was her mouth on him last night. He cleared his parched throat.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back today.”

  “You’re here now,” he said. “You hungry? I’ve got steaks and potatoes. I can toss a salad.”

  “That sounds great. Thanks.”

  He kept their hands entwined as they approached the kitchen table. The guys offered a warm greeting and started to make the customary motions of wrapping up their meal. They all sat around for a bit, keeping her company as she picked on a potato and some salad. But the air thickened with expectation as the minutes wore on.

  “Why don’t you two have some time alone,” Jake said to the couple. “We’ll clean up.”

  Jaya looked embarrassed, but he was happy to remind her that the one benefit of being the cook is that he was never expected to clean up.

  They headed upstairs to his room. After everything that happened last night, Sebastian didn’t understand why he was nervous. All of a sudden, swallowing had to be a conscious and deliberate act.

  Watching Jaya go up the stairs in front of him, Sebastian found himself appreciating the fullness of her bottom and the shapeliness of her calves. He was half-hard the whole time they sat at the dinner table. Now his raging hard-on was throbbing to the beat of her supple, jiggling thighs. She caught him watching her ass when she glanced backward. Jaya seemed to hold back a smile by biting her plump lower lip so hard, he was sure it would be swollen. He wanted to comfort those lips. Taste their swollen goodness.

  They didn’t rush upstairs. At some level, Sebastian realized that every step they took was slow motion towards the beginning or the end of something special. You never knew with Jaya, who carried their future in her hands but didn’t seem quite able to hold it tight like he did.

  And then, inevitably, they were alone. Just as inevitably, they realized at the exact same moment, they needed this. To be alone. To be in each other’s arms.

  An uncertain future and an unlikely past gave way to the present. As soon as the bedroom door closed, they were on each other. In a nearly violent clash of passionate bodies, their hands clutched and hips pressed and mouths met.

  Her wonderful softness pressed against his hardness as he grabbed and kneaded her bottom, inhaled her aroma, and kissed her exquisite mouth like there was no tomorrow. Frantically, they ripped their tops off and that first contact of his chest on her breasts was heaven.

  Jaya matched his desperation, releasing the string of his athletic pants so it fell to reveal muscular thighs and a groin barely restrained by underwear. The crown of his fully engorged penis peeked out of the now-inadequate boxers, drawing her attention. The gasp she gave when she ran her palm against his ridge made him shiver with excitement. His cock leaked liquid. She ran her thumb along his moist crown and then, holy shit, Jaya took that thumb and sucked it. Her cheeks hollowed as she pulled the thumb out, and then she licked her lips and smiled. Sebastian lost his mind.

  He lifted her off her feet and deposited her on the bed. He wanted to cherish her as she lay there and panted. Her words, however, did not abide by those intentions. “I want you now, Sebastian. I’ve wanted you all day. I can’t wait.”

  The order surged blood to his already achingly hard cock. She pulled down her leggings, and underneath was a satin bikini panty that barely covered her mound. There was a frantic element to her actions as if she was battling her nervousness with assertive movements.

  “I’ll give you what you want, Jaya, but you know I’m going to have to taste you first.”

  Her breath hitched and an involuntary moan escaped her lips. He pushed off his boxers and gave her a full view of his proud erection. Jaya’s eyes glazed with lust as he crept between her legs and trailed kisses from her neck to those perky brown nipples, down, down, down. To tease her, he planted firm lips over her panties and moved his mouth around, circles of the satin brushing her sensitive clit.

  The sounds that came out of Jaya would be the soundtrack of his wet dreams for a long time. They were sounds of surprise and longing and unadulterated carnality. He placed hands underneath her buttocks and tilted her up to give him more access as his firm tongue pushed and prodded over the soaked underwear. He was teasing her, holding back the full contact she begged for. But it was also a promise, this twirling of his tongue and pressure of his lips.

  “Please, Sebastian,” she begged. “Fuck me already!” Jaya ground her hips to his face and ran her desperate hands over his thick hair.

  “Want me rough, sweetheart? Is that it?” he growled while slipping a hand under her panty to pull it off. Once open to him, he rubbed up and down her soaked seam with a knowing thumb. The very opposite of rough.

  She made sounds of frustration and mumbled, “Stop teasing me, you terrible, evil man.” She was panting while cursing his gentle fingers. “Harder,” she grumbled and then swirled her hips.

  He offered a low laugh into her supple core and decided it was time to put her out of her misery. Jaya gasped when he flicked his tongue over her clit and pressed the flat of it hard. He did it again and again, flicking and pressing, each time hearing her moans increase and her breathing strain. Then he placed two fingers at the edge of her apex and moved them in circles so his rough knuckles grazed her swollen vagina, penetrating slowly each time as his tongue urged her higher and higher into ecstasy.

  “Oh, my god. Yes. I’m there, Sebastian. Yes!” Jaya screamed deliriously as he pushed two fingers and sucked hard at her clit. Her orgasm pulsed against his fingers and soaked his hungry mouth. He could feel her vaginal walls vibrating. Sebastian pressed his tongue against her opening and moved his fingers to prolong the sweet bliss of her body falling apart in his hand, against his face. It felt like power and submission, joy and torture.

  But it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough until he could be sure she felt that power and submission, that joy and torture, as acutely as he did. He wanted his mouth and his heat and his embrace and his cock to fill her. He wanted anyone before or after to pale in comparison to him.

  He licked his way up her body, stopping to relish her full breasts with his mouth, his tongue, his teeth. Then he found a spot right under her ear and he sucked hard. Jaya arched her body as if electricity jolted her. Her legs wrapped around him and she moaned her yearning.

  “You ready, Jaya? Because I’m not holding back,” he rasped.

  “I don’t want you to hold back,” she declared softly. He pulled back to hold her gaze because something in her voice was achingly, pleadingly sweet. “I want it all, Sebastian.”

  “All of me?” he asked huskily, aiming for confirmation but instead sounding like a wretched animal. He was crested at her opening and all the sensations muddled his ability to think, to talk.

  She nodded, naked desire piercing through half-lidded eyes. “All of you,” she breathed lustfully, though her lust tinged with something else. Affection. Gratitude. Kryptonite.

  Swiftly sheathing himself with a condom, he positioned over her, arms outstretched so he could leverage himself higher and watch
her beautiful face match the craving he felt. Sebastian swirled his hips, entering her in slow and deliberate circles. Her nether lips wrapped around his thickness, accommodating and clenching around him. Nothing ever felt this good. As Sebastian moved deeper and lowered his face, he felt, heard, inhaled, and tasted Jaya. At the height of that sensory overload, he plunged his penis to the hilt.

  It was a heady sensation, to be inside her. But even more intense was the way she seemed to penetrate all of his senses. As if he would be forever marked by how right she felt holding him between her strong thighs and clenching around his cock with each powerful thrust. They felt so good together. Sebastian knew about pleasure. But bliss that felt this incredible, this inevitable, that was new. Terrifyingly new and unbelievably perfect.

  He plunged again and again, their groans of satisfaction filling the room. Every nerve heightened to pitch, teetering over an explosion that promised to be stronger and fuller with each grinding friction of their hungry bodies. “You’re so tight, Jaya,” he managed to say as he pulled back and plunged deliberately and slowly, with each thrust deeper, harder, grittier. “So fucking amazing,” he moaned, and she echoed his words. So good. Yes. So fucking good. Words swirled around their moving bodies, from whose lips didn’t matter.

  Sebastian began a thrilling rhythm that she matched with each pistoning entrance and grinding swirl of hips. Both felt the most exquisite tightening. A dance of rocking bodies so primal and instinctive, it felt as if the two merged as one.

  He felt her nails scrape his back and her hips stiffen upward. Then, Jaya went completely undone in his arms, body spasming and clenching under him. He ate her screams with his mouth, licked and sucked her kisses as he pounded into her. She met his roughness at each plunge.

  Just as the clenching of her orgasm started to subside, Sebastian unleashed another gear, pumping her harder and faster. Her breath held and her eyes popped open, looking at him with disbelief and admiration. It almost made him smile, how fucking impressed she looked, but then her eyes rolled to the back of her head and Sebastian felt his explosion gathering towards his lower back, propelling the force and pace of his thrusts.

  Jaya’s next orgasm throbbed against his own climax. Deep, deep inside her, Sebastian let the moment flood over his whole consciousness. With his face deep in her neck and their bodies covered with a sheen of sweat, he held her tight.

  Slowly and together, their hearts went from erratic thumping to a steady beat. Their bodies flopped into a tangled mess. And that sense of recovering from something so incredibly all-consuming went from astonishment to satisfaction with no effort at all.

  Sebastian rolled off. He couldn’t see her eyes because her hand was draped over her lids, as if Jaya was hiding, or thinking, or both. But she didn’t hide her smile. A smile he kissed before he pulled himself away to clean up.

  When he returned from the bathroom, she was already upright on the bed, about to swing legs off the side.

  “Nope,” he said playfully and lunged at the bed. He slipped his arm around her waist to pull her back. Her giggles escaped and he caught them with his mouth. Kissing her hard and pinning her in place. Jaya’s hands crept around his neck and rubbed his hair in a mesmerizing massage.

  When they came up for air, he watched her. Eyes opening and finding his, Jaya smiled. She almost managed to quell a darkening in her expression, but she failed. Sebastian watched too closely and therefore saw swirling uncertainty. Hesitation. No, it was more than that, he realized. Jaya was downright anxious.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your calls today,” she began to say.

  He leaned on one bent arm to face her, his other hand lazily grazing over her body. It lingered over her breast and cupped the gorgeous orb possessively.

  “Are you even listening to my apology?” she asked amusedly.

  “Um-hm,” he started to say. Sebastian was fascinated by his large hand cupping and squeezing her breast, tweaking her nipple and, most surprising of all, the fact that she let him. Jaya might not have even noticed how her own body responded. With every squeeze, her back arched slightly as if eager to push deeper into his large grasp.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, looking into her eyes although his hand never stopped. Might never stop, if left to its own accord.

  “I…I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t know what to say,” she admitted with no guile.

  Sebastian’s hand stopped squeezing and wrapped around her shoulder to bring her close. He lay on his back and pulled tight, so her soft cheek lay on his chest and thick hair spread over his shoulder and face. He buried his face on her head and quelled renewed desire when her leg wrapped over his and an arm reached across his waist. His arousal would have to wait. The grownups needed to talk.

  “I know what to say,” he started. “And I think I have a sense of what I’d hope you’d say.”

  “Yeah?” she responded, gently resting her chin on his broad front. “Tell me, Sebastian. Tell me what you’d hoped.” Her voice had that edge again. Eager but sad, too. As if being this vulnerable was tantamount to peeling at a scab. Hard on the outside but an open wound beneath.

  “First, let me say that when you showed up at the front door tonight, I lost my fucking mind with relief. And I should have a medal.”

  “For what?” she asked, pushing against his chest to lift higher.

  “For not hauling you over my shoulder and locking you in my room that very minute.”

  She snorted in that inelegant and adorable way of hers. “You’re such a caveman. The whole time you’re plying me with food and conversation, you’re thinking about bringing me to bed. Is that it?” Jaya accused him but with no heat, no resentment. All he heard was an honest-to-goodness question.

  “Pretty much,” he answered.

  To his surprise, she propped herself off his embrace and straddled him. Her breasts bounced with each erratic motion, her hair fell wildly. With eyes afire, she declared, “Me too.” Would he ever get enough of this woman? Jaya leaned down to offer him a tender, lingering kiss. He had his answer right there.

  Something warm filled Sebastian’s insides, spreading from the point of their touching lips. Warmth wrapped around his chest, tightened his stomach and, yup, there it was, fired up his cock. He groaned as her smooth, moist folds rocked over him with every movement of her straddling body.

  When she pulled away and looked down at him, her hands strayed over his torso. Her fingers found the ridges and planes of his muscles, while he watched her expression in amazement. “Jaya, what are you thinking? That’s all I want to hear. Don’t. Don’t hold back, sweetheart. Just tell me. What are you thinking?”

  The huskiness of his pleas surprised even him. The need to know the stirrings of another person’s mind, that was alien to Sebastian. Sure, he was way over his head with how much he needed from Jaya. Her words, her thoughts, her assurances. And he didn’t care how desperate he sounded, begging for access to her beautiful mind. He just wanted to know what she was thinking, dammit.

  After a deep sigh, Jaya explained, “I’m so happy for you, Sebastian. To be called up to the NHL, I know what this means for your career. When you finished college instead of going straight into the pros, you took a chance. A longer road and, to an extent, a less predictable one. Being drafted is one thing, but having a place in a team is something else altogether. I know this is all you’ve ever wanted.”

  “No,” he interrupted. “This is no longer all I want. You should know that.”

  She nodded, her face serious and kind. “I hear you. I hear that you want us to work out. Somehow, this…this connection we’ve stumbled into. I’m not going to bullshit you. I feel it too. I hear you, Sebastian.”

  He squeezed her hips possessively but held his tongue.

  “I hear you, but you have to understand something about me. My work with the kids, for a long time that’s all I’ve ever wanted. I gave up a lot to be here. My commitment to the center—that’s not just a job. It is
the beginning of something I want to dedicate my life to. Does that make sense?”

  He cradled her delicate, quivering chin in his hands and made sure she registered his sincerity. “Perfect sense. I hear you too, Jaya.”

  She nodded. “So, I guess what I’m saying is…How?”

  The word lingered between them. She slipped off his hips and lay on her back. Their hands clasped as they lay side by side. Looking up at the ceiling, he could almost see the word like a looming cloud over them: How?

  “We see each other when we can,” he started to say. “We talk like we already do. You tell me about the kids, and I’ll still do what I can for the campaign. You watch my games and tell me when I fuck up. And when you beg me for a dick pic, I give you one. With a text warning, of course.”

  He was rewarded with her laugh, so he continued. “Jaya, we do the things we were born to do. I play hockey and you save the world. But that doesn’t mean we give up on each other. It’s possible. I know it is. And after this season, anything can happen. I’ll ask to be traded closer. Or we can figure out a schedule. Something…” He wanted to end on a stronger note, but his throat constricted. As if the more he spoke, the harder the words came.

  “Sebastian, have you ever been in a serious relationship? Like the one you’re describing? Exclusive, long-distance, and…and serious?”

  He knew she didn’t mean to sound harsh, but Sebastian couldn’t help but feel the slap of accusation in her words. A double slap, actually.

  The first one was the fact that he didn’t know a fucking thing about a serious relationship. So who was he to be giving advice and making plans?

  The second slap had a whole other sting. Because what he heard wasn’t just about this connection between them. What he heard in “serious relationship” were the thundering echoes of her past. With Noah fucking Rawlings. Noah would know about a serious relationship with Jaya.

  Though whatever Noah Rawlings did to Jaya made her swear off all hockey players, according to Patrick. And as far as Sebastian knew, that early relationship kept her from committing to anyone all these years.