Spring Romance: NINE Happily Ever Afters

by Tessa Bailey

  “I’m positive,” she assured him. “Now go. Josie will get you into the rink and you’ll probably wish you had skates with you when you watch your friends out there on the ice.”

  “Love you,” he whispered before kissing her on the lips and waiting for her to get on the elevator.

  “It’s nice to see you both so happy together,” I told him as we walked to my car.

  “It’s good to be here with her,” he said. “I’m lucky she was willing to move so I could be closer to my family.”

  “Do you just want to ride over with me and then Alec or Jason can give you a ride back later on?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he agreed, and we got in my car and headed out.

  “And you found a job you like?” I asked.

  “Yes, but Aubrey’s still looking for something that’s the right fit for her. I don’t want her to settle for just any job when she could have done whatever she wanted at her father’s bank,” he explained.

  “And I heard that you’re thinking about popping the question,” I said.

  Luka looked down at his hands sheepishly. “It’s good to know he’s telling everyone my news,” he said sarcastically. “But yeah. I know she’s the one for me, and living together without that kind of commitment doesn’t seem right for us. Not for the long term anyway.”

  “Even though you’re both still pretty young?”

  “We might be young,” he agreed. “But when you know you’ve met the right one, what’s the point in wasting time?”

  As I drove the rest of the way to the rink, I thought about what he’d said. Things with Andrew had moved at lightning speed, but I couldn’t help but seeing a parallel with our relationship. I hadn’t wasted any time jumping into this thing with him with both feet.

  I parked in my spot and noticed Andrew’s car nearby. As we walked to the entrance, he came striding through the doors and stormed towards us. He leveled a dark glare at Luka before pulling me close.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked since I hadn’t expected to see him until tonight.

  “Alec texted me and suggested that I stop by,” he replied, looking at me and then Luka with a question in his eyes.

  “Hey, Andrew,” Luka said in greeting with a small smirk on his face, clearly enjoying the awkwardness of the situation after our conversation in the car.

  “Luka,” Andrew growled back. “I’d like to say it’s good to see you again, but that wouldn’t be true since you’re with my Jocelyn.”

  “Settle down,” Luka told Andrew. “I’m not hitting on your woman. I have one of my own back at the apartment waiting on me.”

  “Back at the apartment?” Andrew asked. “Is that where you’re coming from?”

  “I’ll let you two have this conversation privately,” Luka offered. “Thanks for the ride over, Josie I’ll use your name if I have a problem getting inside.”

  I waited until Luka had made it inside the building before turning to Andrew. “What exactly was that all about?”

  “You tell me. Why would my brother think it was so urgent that I talk to you today?”

  “That asshole,” I huffed out. “He seems to think you wouldn’t be happy to learn I found an apartment.”

  “An apartment?” he repeated dumbly.

  “Yeah. I just signed the paperwork for a one-bedroom in the same building that Alec lives in,” I explained.

  “Fucking A,” he hissed. “You’re going to move into bachelor central?”

  “No, I’m going to move into a lovely one-bedroom apartment that has all the amenities I want and is closer to your house and work,” I corrected him.

  “When are you moving in?” he asked.

  “Maybe this weekend if I’m lucky.”

  He sighed deeply and looked down at the ground. “And this is what you want? An apartment of your own?”

  “I don’t want to live with my dad anymore,” I admitted. “Which means I needed to find someplace else to go.”

  Andrew rested his chin on my head. “What about moving in with me?”

  I was stunned by this turn of events. Even though Alec had joked about Andrew being angry that I was moving into an apartment in his building, I never expected him to actually ask me to move in with him.

  “I already signed the paperwork and gave them a check,” I whispered, unsure of what I would have said if we’d had this conversation this morning instead.

  Andrew’s hold on me tightened for a moment before he stepped away. “Then I guess we have lots of stuff to do for you to be ready to move into your new place this weekend.”

  Chapter Ten

  Andrew

  I wasn’t happy about Jocelyn’s new living arrangements. It bothered me that she’d signed a lease without talking to me about it. We were in a relationship. I thought that’s what women expected to happen—you talked about decisions with your significant other. But no, she simply told me that she’d found the perfect apartment and signed a lease for a whole fucking year.

  But I didn’t know how to tell her all that. I felt like it was partially my fault because I hadn’t told her that I wanted her to think about moving in with me. I’d known how unhappy she was with her living arrangements. Things were even more uncomfortable at home with her dad than they had been in the beginning now that she was spending so much time with me. They rarely saw each other, but he still let it be known that he wasn’t happy with her staying out all hours of the night even though she was a grown woman.

  It was my responsibility to take care of things for Jocelyn. I wanted to be the person she came to when she needed help. To fix her problems for her. And I’d missed my chance this time because I’d been too concerned that a couple of months wasn’t long enough for a question like that. Now, I had to worry whether or not her new apartment meant she wouldn’t be staying over with me as often even while I helped her pick out furniture, pots and pans, bedding and towels. All of it was what I considered to be a waste of money because it was stuff I’d hoped like hell she wouldn’t even need in the near enough future if I had my way.

  This weekend had been a lesson in patience. I’d helped her get everything together so she would be ready to move. Supervised the movers and helped her unpacked. I’d been doing so well, too. Until I saw that damn bachelorette party sash from the night I’d first seen her. It reminded me of the weeks I’d lost because I hadn’t known she was only pretending. And now, I felt like she was taking more time away from me as she made a home for herself here. Surrounded by single guys who would get to see her each and every day, even when I might not.

  It was enough to send me over the edge of reason. I was done trying to hold myself back. I’d promised myself before that she’d pay for that wasted time, and tonight was the night. I just needed to wait for the right moment to pounce. Luckily, I didn’t have long before everyone cleared out.

  When I was helping Jocelyn make her bed, I was presented with the perfect opportunity.

  “Go take a shower,” I murmured in a deceptively gentle voice. “I’ve got this.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” she sighed. “I feel so grimy. I think I’ve washed my hands a couple dozen times today. I hate the way working with cardboard boxes makes me feel.”

  “Go on,” I urged her. “I’ll finish in here and then join you in the shower.”

  “Ohhh, we can break it in,” she cooed.

  I simply smiled and let her think what she wanted since I normally would have been all over that idea. But not tonight. Shower sex was going to have to wait for a different time because I had no plans to let her come for several hours.

  Jocelyn began humming to herself as she turned on the shower. I loved that off-tune voice of hers and had grown accustomed to hearing it in my own bathroom several times a week. I hurriedly finished making the bed and grabbed the sash from where she’d shoved it into the closet when she’d seen me glaring at it. Next, I reached into the drawer of her bedside table to get her vibrator and tossed both items onto the mattress, hi
ding them under the pile of pillows.

  Now that I had everything I needed within easy reach, I headed into the bathroom to join Jocelyn. Although it had only been a couple of minutes, fog had already started to gather on the mirror. I quickly stripped my clothes from my body and stepped into the shower behind her.

  “Thank you,” she murmured in appreciation as I ran my fingers through her hair to help rinse the shampoo out of it while lightly massaging her scalp.

  “You’re welcome,” I replied, slowly working my down to her shoulders and back. “You know you can count on me whenever you need anything, Jocelyn.”

  “Even help moving when you aren’t very happy about my decision,” she said, hinting at the topic I’d been avoiding since she’d told me her decision.

  “Yes,” I agreed. “Even then.”

  Jocelyn turned in my arms so she was facing me, the water beating down her back. She looked up at me with worry in her pretty, green eyes. “I really am sorry for not talking to you about the apartment before I signed the lease,” she offered.

  “I don’t think you understand how much I wish you had,” I replied. My hand tightened on her shoulders in frustration.

  “If I hadn’t been worried that someone else would snap this place up before I could sign the paperwork, I wouldn’t have gone off half-cocked and just signed the paperwork on the spot. Instead, I would have talked to you about it before committing to take it.”

  I was relieved to hear that it had just been her sense of urgency that had spurred her into renting the apartment before we could discuss it, but I was still frustrated by the situation. “I have plenty of space at my place,” I growled out.

  “It’s still so early in our relationship, Andrew. People don’t just move in with each other after a couple of months,” she argued.

  “I shouldn’t have to remind you what I told you the night you gave yourself to me, Jocelyn,” I warned, getting angry with her logic that it would have been too soon to take that step. “What’s between us is nobody’s business but our own and we don’t need to live by anyone else’s rules.”

  “I know,” she said, trying to soothe me.

  “But you don’t,” I retorted. “Not really, or you wouldn’t use the timing as an excuse.”

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized.

  “For what?” I demanded as the steam clouded around us.

  “For not talking to you. For being afraid to take a step like that so fast. And for hurting you.”

  I was hurt that she wasn’t ready to move in together. Even though she was the first woman I’d ever gotten serious with, things had fallen into place between us so perfectly that I couldn’t help but see her in my future for a long time. To me, it seemed like the next logical step, but apparently, logic didn’t always have its place in relationships. At least not ours.

  “Make it up to me then,” I growled, exerting some pressure on her shoulders.

  Jocelyn glanced down at my hardened cock, which pulsed between us. Between the thoughts of what I was going to do to her in her bed soon and the sight and feel of her naked body, I was already close to the edge. It wouldn’t take much to set me off.

  She gently tugged me so we switched places and the water was beating against my back as she sank to her knees in front of me. Flicking her tongue out, she licked the drop of pre-come that had leaked from my cock. Then she swept her wet hair away from her face before running her hands up my thighs. I reached out and palmed her cheeks as she sucked me into her moist mouth. The wet heat engulfed me as she drew me farther inside.

  I enjoyed the sight of her before me, her eyes upturned and beseeching as she moved up and down, trying to take as much of my cock into her mouth as she could.

  “So good, sweetheart,” I complimented her. As upset as I was, I knew she needed reassurance. As demanding as I was going to be tonight, I needed to keep that in mind.

  She used one of her hands to brace herself as her fingers from the other teased along my balls. She drew ever-widening circles with them, moving closer and closer to my puckered hole with each swipe. The tempo of her mouth quickly changed and she was sucking me hard and deep, her head moving up and down in a quick rhythm that made me want more.

  “Mmmmm,” she hummed as she twisted her mouth around the tip, her tongue flicking along the slit.

  “Suck me hard,” I demanded before I wrapped her wet hair around my fist and grasped her chin to control her movements.

  Thoughts of what I was going to do her when we moved to the bed raced through my head and drove me even closer to the edge. I fucked into her mouth once, going deep until I bumped against the back of her throat and it convulsed around me. Then I swiftly pulled back to make sure she had enough air and surged back inside with a few quick jabs.

  “I’m going to come,” I warned before jets of my semen coated her mouth, spurting in streams from my cock.

  Jocelyn sucked at me until I gave one last twitch and finished coming. Looking up at me with satisfaction in her gaze, she licked until she got every drop.

  “I love when I make you lose control,” she gloated.

  Little did she know that she would come to regret those words soon since her blow job had just released enough pressure that I was ready torture her for hours.

  “Let’s finish up in here and then see what we can do to make you lose yours,” I suggested as I pulled her to her feet.

  We both washed up quickly, driven by our need for each other. Then I got out first and dried myself off with one of the bath towels I’d bought for her. When she turned off the water and stepped out, I wrapped my towel around my waist and grabbed another so I could dry her off.

  “Grab your lotion,” I ordered before sweeping Jocelyn into my arms and carrying her to the bed.

  I gently laid her down before I opened the bottle to squeeze some lotion into the palm of my hand. Starting with her legs, I rubbed it into her soft skin. I massaged slowly, working my way up and avoiding her pussy before moving to her belly. By the time I was done, she was shaking with need beneath me even though the rubdown hadn’t been overly sexual.

  “Do you trust me?” I whispered into her ear.

  “Of course,” she gasped, arching her back so her nipples grazed against my bare chest.

  “I want you to close your eyes,” I requested.

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I watched as she complied and they drifted shut. Satisfaction surged through me at her display of faith in me. It helped soothe some of the sting I felt about the apartment, but not enough that I wasn’t going to enjoy the next few hours tremendously.

  I retrieved the sash and vibrator from under the pillows and set them beside her sprawled body. Mine to do with it whatever I wished. She was mine and I was going to make damn sure there was no doubt left in her mind before the night was over.

  “Keep them closed,” I ordered as I slid my finger over the dial of the vibrator’s remote and the toy started throbbing. I ran it down her body, rubbing it over her peaked nipples and through the valley between her breasts. “So this is the toy you used to pleasure my pussy while it waited for me,” I purred. I slid the vibrator over her slick folds before inserting it into her channel. “Now close your legs. Tight.”

  “Andrew, please,” she pleaded with me. “If I close my legs, you won’t be able to touch me.”

  “Now, Jocelyn,” I barked out, and she heaved a deep sigh before complying. “I want you to suffer for the torment you put me through,” I growled before I wrapped the bachelorette sash around her legs.

  Her eyes popped open and she gasped when I tied it tight around her thighs so they couldn’t open them. I wanted to drive her closer and closer to the edge.

  “You’re not the one in charge right now, sweetheart,” I reminded her. “I am. You told me you trusted me. That was the truth, wasn’t it?”

  “Of course it was,” she quickly reassured me.

  “Then close your eyes and give me what I want,” I demanded roughly.

&n
bsp; Jocelyn moaned loudly as she lay helpless before me. “I don’t know how long I can hold on,” she whined.

  “You’ll control it. For me,” I ordered. “Concentrate, and no matter what I do to you, don’t come until I say you can.”

  “But, Andrew—” she protested, and I felt her body tremble beneath my hands.

  I laid my fingers over her lips to stop her from talking. “Thoughts of you tormented me for weeks. And you have this goddamned bachelorette party sash sitting here like it’s nothing when it took you from me for more than a month,” I hissed out. “Now that I finally have you underneath me, where we both know you belong, you went and signed a one-year lease on an apartment without even talking to me about it first. Surrounded by men who look at you with lust in their eyes. Who would jump at the chance to take what’s mine.”

  “Andrew, you know I don’t want anyone but you,” she pleaded with me.

  “You better not, because I own this pussy. It’s mine to do what I want with. Nobody else’s,” I growled, driven past reason by the possessiveness that was riding me hard. “And tonight, I’m going to torture you with the very vibrator you used in place of my cock all those weeks I didn’t have you.”

  “But, Andrew—” she groaned, her voice cutting off as I picked up the remote and turned the dial to the next highest setting. I heard the tempo of purring noise kick up a notch as it pulsed inside her.

  “No, Jocelyn. I’m in charge of your pleasure. And I want to draw this out as long as humanly possible.”

  Her skin was flushed that rosy hue I loved so much, the one that told me how aroused she was. A fine sheen of sweat pebbled across her brow as her body arched on the bed.

  “Are you doing okay?” I whispered in her ear. “Or is your body burning for that release yet?”

  “Please, Andrew. I’m beyond burning. I’m in agony for you,” she begged.

  “Good. Then you can almost understand how difficult it was for me as I ached for you and thought I couldn’t have you.”

  “Please,” she sobbed as I turned up the speed on the vibrator.